BETSY BLANEY reporting for the ASSOCIATED PRESS writes:
The Texas wildlife agency said Tuesday it is suspending a policy that allows the killing of burros in a state park along the Mexican border after the Humane Society of the United States offered to devise a nonlethal plan to remove the destructive animals.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will contribute up to $10,000 toward a humane society aerial survey of the wild donkeys at Big Bend Ranch State Park this spring to establish baseline data, agency executive director Carter Smith said.
“We believe this could be valuable information to assess the problem with burros around the park,” Smith said. “We still have a long way to go to see if a viable, long-term plan can be developed.” Continue reading >>
In a post written by Tawnee Preisner, Vice President of Horse Plus Humane Society, Smith says he is “cautiously optimistic” a resolution can be found, but if not, they will return to their lethal control policy, in other words, gunning down wild burros to make way for Big Horn Sheep.
We will see if this turns out to be good news for any of the sheep or the burros.
If both are killed, it will benefit man by way of big revenues gained from the deaths these animals. Hunting licenses for Big Horn Sheep can reach as high as $100,000 per license.
Tuesday's Horse 
( I hope this comment is relevant and accurate; it’s based on research I’ve done myself by internet. Is that a disclaimer??)
I’ve been perusing the web cams on the Texas Bighorn Society web site for a few months – not with alarming regularity but often enough. The web cams are set on 15 second delays and honestly, it’s a lot of data to run through unless you’re slightly crazed, as I myself may be.
I’ve seen many deer and the occasional Big Horn but not once have I seen the massive hordes of burros TPAW keep harping on. Maybe these web cams are set up in places where burros wouldn’t go but you’d think at least once or twice, one would wander through.
I think perhaps Big Bend’s Burro Eradication Program, like so many wild equine abatement protocols, may be based more on perceptions, traditions and rhetoric than any actual data. But I offer the link:
http://www.texasbighornsociety.org/index.php/texas-bighorn-society-photo-video/texas-bighorn-sheep-webcam.html
Maybe there are others with equal interest in and passion for the belief that there is a balance that should be respected for all things wild. (if so, please, watch the web cams. I don’t wanna be the only nut job on duty!) Texas is huge; Big Bend Park is vast. It’s difficult to believe there isn’t room for all.
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You are not a ‘nut’! Someone has to be monitoring these things. There are not that many Burros and they cannot be compared to Wild Hogs!
Elle
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I will never comprehend why they put the Burros in the same class as those wild Hogs. Wild hogs procreate at a very quick rate but Burros do not.
This sickens me.
Elle
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