“Legal” Murder Of Our Wild Burros

“Peek-a-Burro” by Rita Kirkman

“…Freedom, liberty, and justice for all.”

I wonder if those “rights” extend to our loyal companions and living legacies, wild horses and burros, as well as us humans.

It’s a disturbing time for horses now, since the firing of three Polish Arabian Horse executive experts, the ongoing fight for the freedom of our nation’s wild horses, horse slaughter and horse meat consumption. One doesn’t have to look any farther then a google search, Twitter or Facebook to find some new outrage going on that threatens our national treasures once again.

Burro And Bouganvillia by Marion Rose

One of the new outrages concerning our wild horses and burros is that it is now legal to shoot and hunt burros–like deer, bears, coyotes and wolves. Really? Last I checked, it wan’t the “old days” when we had to hunt animals in order to survive in that time. Now, all you need to do is go to a supermarket and you can buy all types of food from around the world. Come on, America. You can do better then that. If it wasn’t for horses and burros, where would we be today? Can’t there be at least one species (especially one that is our living legacy for future generations) that is truly protected and not hunted?

Colorful Burro Painting by Theresa Paden

If the Government and BLM get their way, no, there won’t be. Most of the wild animals in the western states –not just horses and burros– will be put on the extinct list so that rancher’s cattle can get the land so that everyone can go to Burger King and get their burgers. But at what cost?

“Boy Leading Water Burro” Clark Hulings

The Story

Mohave County Arizona’s Supervisor Steven Moss is encouraging hunters to shoot wild burros. Moss even ran the cartoon below with the comment “I’m linking as the article has embedded stories of the Burro BBQ from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1980s, which is kind of cool. As a reminder, the next Burro BBQ is this April 2 at Rotary Park…”

Arizona State government is not just allowing hunters to shoot and kill live, healthy burros, but it promoting it. In 1971, congress passed the Free Roaming Wild Horses and Burros act. This act provides protections to the burros and horses as our living legacies of our historical past. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is tasked with oversight of this act. Unfortunately, since 1971, the agencies that oversee wildlife, and our BLM which is supposed to protect wild horses and burros, have been using this to “manage” our wild herds to extinction.

“Head Rest” by Rita Kirkman

One of the things that the BLM is responsible for is the “multi-use” component of our federal lands. Obviously, our wild horses and burros are not backed by wealthy stakeholders like the big game hunting industries, Big Agriculture, and mining interests, so the small percentage of federal lands designated for the wild horses and burros principal use is not fairly allocated.

Burro Study II by Marion Rose

So now, they have brought back a new horrendous way to get rid of the 4,800 wild burros that are “free” in the “protected” areas of all states managed by the BLM: Wild Burro Hunting, AKA the “Burro BBQ”.

Can You Keep A Secret by Kathy Sigle

There are only five states in the USA to have wild burros on public lands. Arizona is one of them. This state has herds of wild burros, who have called Black Mountain Herd Management Area in AZ as their ancestral homes for hundreds of years. The Black Mountain HMA is made up of one million acres and is best known for the town of Oatman where burros are a main tourism draw. Though, even the Oatman burros are not safe from the greed of stakeholders like the Arizona Mining Association, Arizona Bighorn Sheep Society, and Arizona off roaders who have 750 miles of trail cut throughout these habitats set aside for the burros. The Arizona Game and Fish Department has stated that the burros are a “waste of resources” and blame them for just about everything. When they fence the burros in and block the underpasses under roads, the burros have no other choice then to cross roads, which leads to their deaths and car accidents. Who is to blame for that? The Burros, of course.

Burro Painting by Veryl Goodnight

Please help us stand up against the government to protect our national treasure. Tell Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake that you will not tolerate removals of our wild burros. Tell Arizona Game and Fish, Steve Moss, and Senators McCain and Flake to stop promoting hunting them and barbecuing them. They are ignoring the desires of the American people who don’t want to see their heritage destroyed by greedy, rich and selfish people who are only it for themselves and don’t care about who or what gets killed, as long as they keep getting what they want.

Burro Donkey by Diane Whitehead

I read an interesting article today about high school students in Boston that are standing up for themselves by protesting about their school budgets getting cut. One of the commenters said, “We hold all the power, if we want it bad enough. But we are lazy. So many people support hot topic issues, yet very few of us do more than just whine about it on social media.” She is right. We do hold the power to change ourselves and our country. So, stand up. This is the world we live in, these are the hands we are given–use them to make this a better place for all of us.

To sign the petition to save our burros, go HERE.

To read more about this situation, go HERE.

Thank you for reading and supporting our burros!!