Guest OpEd by Bonnie Kohleriter

“I just work on wild horse and burro stuff”

This past week the nation got a glimpse of the leadership for the Wild Horse and Burro Program within the Department of Interior (DOI).   NBC aired a Today program, “ Wild, but not Free,” in which Joan Guilfoyle, the Chief, responded to questions presented by journalist, Lisa Myers of NBC.

In discussion Joan Guilfoyle lauded the Bureau of Land Management within the DOI for its “balanced multiple use approach” which includes recreation, livestock, mining, wildlife, and wild horses and burros.   She failed to tell the nation up to 2.9 M livestock are on BLM public lands compared to 32,000 wild horses.  She failed to tell the nation 70,000 bighorn (a species of concern), 700,000 pronghorn, 1 M elk, and 20 M deer, all wildlife, are on the BLM public lands compared to 32,000 wild…

Source: Letter to Editor of The Berkshire Eagle from Barbara Kellogg

“horses are administered not only antibiotics, but a pharmacy of drugs banned from the food chain…”

Monday April 22, 2013

The April 5 op-ed by Peter Albertson, “Why the fuss about horse meat?” missed the key reasons why there is indeed a ruckus: primarily that horse meat is profoundly toxic and inhumanely produced.

Horses — particularly racehorses, an estimated 60 percent of whom end up at slaughter — are walking pharmacies. “Eating them is about as healthful as eating food contaminated with DDT,” says Dr. Nicholas Dodman, professor of clinical sciences at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Antibiotics used in cattle have been approved for use in food animals. By contrast, horses are administered not only antibiotics, but a pharmacy of drugs banned from the food chain, including hormones, steroids, coagulants, sedatives, parasiticides and…