Federal Subsidies Are Home on the Range

In Tom Gorman’s Feb. 5 article, “Battle for Room on the Range,” he briefly touched on what the true problem is regarding grazing, wild horses and federal lands. This one sentence is the key to what really worries a few ranchers: “Today, ranchers pay the government about $1.35 a month for each cow that feeds on public land.” Conversely, private lands charge an average of $11.20 per month. This number also does not include drought, fire and predator protection moneys and no requirement to pay property taxes, because the cattle are on federal lands.

Listening to ranchers talk, one would think that all beef in America, nay, the world, is supplied by cattle raised in the West on federal lands. However, the truth is that about 22,000 of the 1.6-million cattle are raised on federal land. In fact, more cattle are raised in Pennsylvania and Louisiana than in Wyoming and Nevada.

So if all cattle were removed from federal lands tomorrow the market probably wouldn’t flinch. This while the federal government loses millions each year subsidizing a few people; some of them are billionaire businessmen and major corporations.

The ranchers using federal lands have a real sweet deal going on with our taxpayer dollars. They sit back, complain about federal intervention and Eastern misunderstanding of a way of life, all while they head to the bank to deposit federal taxpayer dollars collected from all over America.

Horses are not the problem; they are a part of American history, as is farming. Misuse of public lands and grazing rights is not.

Chris Heyde

Policy Analyst, Society for Animal Protective Legislation

Washington

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It is true that mustangs are part of the history and romance of the Old West, but sadly the Old West no longer exists. Erosion throughout the Southwest is a legacy of overgrazing. The result is destruction of habitat for many species of plants and animals. As romantic as the wild horses are, there are far too many of them. The Bureau of Land Management’s stewardship of Western lands, while not perfect, is far better than uncontrolled grazing of horses, cattle and, pardon the expression, sheep.

Michael D. Mauer

Los Angeles