Bison, horses, sage grouse, now elk are too much for welfare ranchers

Apparently, the Bureau of Land Management isn't doing enough to anger welfare ranchers in the Mountain West by offering leases for conservation because now Republicans are mad at the State of Wyoming for not killing off wild critters.

Bison producers are often asked about brucellosis, a disease that induces abortions in bison, elk and cattle and does not have a cure. The National Park Service cites that roughly 60% of females in Yellowstone National Park's wild bison herd test positive for exposure to the disease. The Park Service also notes there have been no known cases of bison directly transmitting brucellosis to cattle. Elk migrating from Yellowstone to private ranch lands have been considered the biggest potential risk for spreading the disease. [The Western Draw of American Bison]

The BLM is being sued for its plans to conduct additional, often-dangerous gathers to reduce the horse population in Wyoming's Red Desert with hopes to avoid violence from rabid Republican ranchers. Because they have no natural predators wild and feral horse herds double in size every four to five years. “You don’t have wild horses anymore. You have their bodies, but they are … domesticated,” said one researcher. Ironic that in a country that exports more weapons of mass destruction than all others combined and relentlessly hunts nearly anything that moves Equus ferus is still seen as a pet.

Hundreds of horses that nobody claims are running loose in southwest Wyoming, and their fate seems uncertain. Nobody even seems to know how many there are, but estimates for this rogue herd run as high as 800. And the state of Wyoming is probably ultimately responsible for them. [Hundreds Of ‘Stray’ Horses Rile Up Ranchers In Southwest Wyoming]

But, today in an era when western states are scrambling to preserve habitat for bison, wapiti, bighorn sheep, pronghorns, deer, the threatened Greater sage grouse and all the other wildlife at risk to the Republican Party how is running nurseries for introduced species like wild horses and burros either conservative or sustainable? 

Ordinary hunting will never reduce elk numbers to their target levels, Rep. John Winter (R-Thermopolis) opined to fellow members of the Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee. As an alternative, he suggested commissioning a helicopter crew to remove overpopulated herds that are eating grass, busting fences and generally giving Wyoming ranchers headaches. Rep. John Eklund (R-Cheyenne), a committee co-chair, questioned whether elk killed from within inflated herds need to be processed: “Can they just be gunned,” he asked, “and let the coyotes take care of the carcasses?” Wheatland-area rancher Juan Reyes charged that Game and Fish was “depriving landowners the opportunity of profitability.” “That’s a taking,” the Cuban-born Reyes said. “And I came to this country because of socialism.” [Elk wars: Inflated herds spur committee duel, radical proposals]

Whether it's American Prairie's bison grazing on BLM ground in Montana, the US Department of Agriculture killing cattle on the Gila or feds shooting goats in the Tetons socialized grazing just isn't enough to keep some Republicans happy.

Tension is high in the Mountain West and in parts of the Southwest where local BLM and US Forest Service offices and employees are on alert for militant zealots bent on violent disruptions or worse.