Controversy Surrounds Feral Horse Capture in Alberta
For years, horses have roamed freely along the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies. Some are thought to be descendants of the original Spanish mustangs brought to Alberta in the 1700s, while others were released by logging operations in the early 1900s. There are also horses believed to have thoroughbred influence from the Dirty '30s, and some have been set loose by farmers and ranchers.
“There have been wild horses around for a long time,” says Claudia Notzke, associate professor in the faculty of management at the University of Lethbridge, who has studied wild horses around the world.
In Alberta, there’s a lot of debate over the horses these days — including whether they are wild or feral — as the province allows a capture season to manage the population. Officials and some ranchers suggest the feral horses are overpopulating the landscape after an aerial count last March found at least 980 horses in Alberta, up from 778 the previous year.
It means three permit holders can capture up to 200 of the animals and either keep them for personal use or send them for slaughter. This year’s roundup, however, has touched a collective nerve, becoming an emotionally charged topic of conversation from small-town cafes in Sundre to social media sites across the country.
Bob Henderson, president of the Wild Horses Society of Alberta, says that’s because the horse is a beloved animal. “They’re beautiful, they’re a symbol of strength and freedom,” he says. “When you look at a lot of the country’s history, the horse played a very important role in the development of the country.”
The horse is considered a key part of Alberta’s history. “When horses galloped across what would become the U.S. border onto Alberta’s rolling prairies in the 1720s, it was a bit of an overdue homecoming,” states a blog post on historic places by a provincial archeologist. “It had been roughly 10,000 years since the province’s expansive grasslands shuddered under hard equestrian hoofs.
“Fossils indicate that North America is the original home of the horse where it first appeared millions of years ago.”
It notes that once groups like the Blackfoot and Assiniboine mastered horseback riding, it changed life on the Plains — providing new hunting strategies and altering the way people moved across the Prairies. The blog adds that it’s difficult to reconstruct when and how the domestic horse spread into Alberta.
Still, Henderson says the post conflicts with the province’s actions in allowing for a horse capture season and suggests there are better ways to manage the horses, including contraception or adoption. Officials with the province suggest it’s not that simple.
“It’s a complicated and complex issue,” says Nikki Booth, a spokeswoman for Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development. “It’s a work in progress. We’re looking at how to best manage this feral horse population in Alberta.”
An advisory committee — made up of representatives from animal welfare groups, outfitters, ranchers, veterinarians, conservation groups, and rangeland experts — recommended this year’s capture season after a series of meetings. Booth says they are ultimately trying to balance the horse population with the health of the grasslands.
“We only allow the captures in areas where there are rangeland health issues,” she says, noting licences are issued in areas they deem overpopulated. “It’s not the whole capture area.”
The whole area where horses roam expands over 2.5 million hectares — a fact some suggest means there’s more than enough room for 1,000 horses without significantly affecting the grasslands. Ranchers who have permits to capture horses say the horses have an impact on the land.
“There needs to be management,” says Bryn Thiessen, who has a permit to capture 28 horses in two of the areas and says he will rehome as many as he can. “Horses need to belong here, but not 1,000 head.
“They say they don’t affect grass but I can show them the grass in the spring.”
Thiessen says the grass, cattle, and wildlife are just as important as the horses. However, Henderson and others suggest the province doesn’t have enough science to back its decision — with the Canadian Wild Horses Association starting a petition to ask the province to stop the cull until they can offer such proof.
It sits at more than 80,000 names and includes author Maureen Enns, who wrote a book called Wild Horses, Wild Wolves, and Calgary singer-songwriter Jann Arden. They agree the capture should be put on hold until all of the science is settled.
“It should immediately be shut down,” says Enns, noting a thorough investigation needs to be conducted into the difference between the wild horses and others that are being released onto the land. Arden adds there are too many problems with the capture and wonders why the province isn’t trying other methods.
“When you add things up, this needs to be done properly,” she says. Others such as rangeland ecologist Edward Bork, who was part of the committee, admits there are some research gaps, but suggests there’s enough information to go forward.
“If you look at the Rocky Mountain forest reserve, this is an area that is primarily forested landscape,” says the University of Alberta professor, noting only five percent is grasslands and research by one of his graduate students has shown its decline.
Bork says there are also studies showing there’s significant habitat overlap between elk, horses, and cattle. “They are all competing head-to-head for the same common resource base and the sacrificial lamb is the condition of those grasslands,” he says. “This almost never comes up in the feral horse discussion at all. It’s incredibly important.”
The grassland is one of the key concerns for the Alberta Wilderness Association, but the environmental group would also like to see more study on how the horses affect the habitat and populations of native wildlife.
“There are still more questions than answers on that,” says conservation specialist Carolyn Campbell. “We’d like to see it managed with that broader perspective.”
Many agree, though, that at least some of the horses have their place in the area. “There are horses out there that are (naturalized) or rewilded ... that form the real backbone of Alberta’s heritage,” says Enns, who studied the horses for six years for her book. “They are, in fact, the horses that have a history and they have been out there for many generations and have taken on characteristics of wild animals.
“Those horses ... show no signs of overgrazing the landscape or interfering with anything and their numbers are kept down by natural predators.”
The U of L’s Notzke agrees, adding she still doesn’t believe they are overpopulating the landscape. “If there is overgrazing, we have tens of thousands of other animals and these 980 wild horses are blamed for all of the damage,” she says.
Originally Posted By The Calgary Herald