In Christianity, the term “scapegoat” has significant meaning. Leviticus 16 describes a Jewish ceremony where two goats are set before the Lord.
One was slaughtered for the Lord while the other was “sent away into the wilderness to Azazel,” which translates to “scapegoat,” according to the King James Version of the Bible.
Aaron, the high priest of the ceremony, placed both his hands on the “head of the live goat and confessed over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins,” Leviticus 16:21.
The ceremony achieved atonement for the people by placing their sins on the scapegoat, who then escaped into the wild carrying their burden.
One could argue that our province’s wild horses, labelled as feral under Alberta legislation, are the very definition of a scapegoat. These animals are accused of destroying, overpopulating, and spreading disease across our landscape.
At the same time, wild horses are revered as symbols of Alberta’s pride, freedom, and heritage. Which is it? Do we love our wild horses or hate them?
This question is relevant now more than ever after the Alberta government announced it is considering “taking action” to manage wild horse numbers in some parts of the province.
“To be clear, there is no cull of Alberta feral horses planned, and minimum counts conducted across the years have shown horse populations more than doubled in the last decade – from just barely over 700 in 2015 to nearly 1,500 today,” said Alexandru Cioban, an Alberta Forestry and Parks spokesperson.
In place of a cull, adoption and contraception methods are being considered with input and support from advocacy and wildlife groups, grazing organizations, and academics through the Feral Horse Advisory Committee (FHAC).
The government has received pushback from some groups, including the Help Alberta Wildies Society (HAWS). The society has disputed the government’s minimum counts, and for good reason.
Last year, the government inflated its horse count in the Sundre Equine Management Zone by over 50 percent. The government has yet to correct this publicly available information.
Villain or Victim?
One of the biggest arguments for culling wild horses is that they cause localized damage in Alberta. Wayne McCrory, a wildlife biologist from British Columbia, says this belief is bogus.
McCrory came to Alberta in 2015 to research the supposed overgrazing caused by wild horses, but he came up empty-handed.
“The ministry at the time in 2015 finally admitted that they couldn’t point me to any areas with significant range damage that I could go and look at and document. They should be focusing on restoring the health from the cumulative effects and not just scapegoating the wild horses,” he told CTV News.
McCrory’s study found that industry and recreational activities like clear-cut logging, oil and gas development, cattle, and off-road vehicles caused the most damage.
“Wild horses are wrongfully attributed with a percentage of range damage despite the government’s own range health reports showing that the damage is caused primarily by industry and recreational activities,” writes McCrory in his report.
“Targeting the Foothills wild horses with intervention population control measures is unwarranted and will do little, if anything, to protect and restore rangeland health since there is no management planned for the industries which are the major source of range damage,” he continues.
That’s not to say wild horses don’t cause ecological damage. Just look at the American West. Since the 1970s, the wild horse population has been mismanaged, causing their numbers to reach unsustainable levels.
In addition to drought conditions, native plant and wildlife species are forced to compete with wild horses, which are considered invasive in North America, although you could argue that they are native.
“Horses need five to 10 gallons of water a day at a medium range, just to survive. If you’ve got 250 horses, they’re going to drink water faster than a spring can produce it. They’re going to go for it faster, too. It’s detrimental to everything else out there,” Jess Oldman with the Wind River Wild Horse Sanctuary in Wyoming, USA, told Atmos’ Liana Demasi.
Fact or Fiction?
Is the situation in Alberta as dire as it is in the American West? Darrell Glover, the President of the HAWS, doesn’t think so.
Glover is part of the FHAC and has spent the last 10 years observing, studying, and preserving our province’s wild horse populations.
The Alberta government counted 1,478 wild horses in Alberta this year. Glover thinks this number is much lower.
“We don’t want to see them gone. We spend a lot of time out in the bush looking for these horses, and they’re basically getting harder to find at certain times of the year,” Glover told CTV News.
“When we started, they said wild horses had no natural predators. That was a reason to cull. We proved that wrong. Then they said that they were all full of equine infectious anemia. We proved that wrong. Then they said the numbers were skyrocketing. We proved that wrong. Then they went and said the horses were damaging the landscape. We’ve proved that wrong,” explained Glover.
Looking at the American West makes it painfully clear that proper wild horse population management is better sooner than later. However, proper management becomes difficult when our government is unreliable. Miscounting by more than 50 percent isn’t a small whoopsie.
Ethics is also an issue worth discussing. The contraception and adoption methods being considered by the government are intended to be a humane alternative to culling.
While there are arguments to be made against contraceptive methods like birth control, it is generally seen as the most humane solution. Adoption is a lot less innocent.
In 2015, 48 wild horses were captured, 39 of which went to the Wild Horses of Alberta Society (WHOAS) and the remaining nine to private buyers. A wild horse sold to private buyers often ends up in a slaughterhouse to be sold as meat overseas.
Other wild horses aren’t as lucky. Some endure travelling thousands of kilometres to meet the demand of eastern countries like Japan, where fresh raw horse meat is a delicacy.
Blurred Lines
Wild horses are an important part of Albertan identity. Many idolize these animals as symbols of freedom, yet they are anything but free.
Instead, they are scapegoated to cover up the fact that industry and recreational activity cause much of the ecological damage observed in our province today.
So, do we love our wild horses or hate them? On the one hand, we want to protect these animals without acknowledging the risk of overpopulation.
On the other hand, we are willing to cull our wild horses based on shaky accusations. Some people believe we have too many wild horses; others think we have too few.
A middle ground needs to be achieved, which is far easier said than done. Groups like the WHOAS don’t have the resources to adopt all of our province’s wild horses.
A combination of adoption and contraception methods is the closest we have to a “middle ground.”
Between 2015 and 2017, a total of 87 female horses, called mares, were vaccinated with an initial dose of contraception Zona-Stat Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP).
PZP is used to prevent fertilization in mares without disrupting their hormone production. The vaccine lasts for about one to two years and requires annual booster shots to remain effective.
The vaccine is reversible, although repeated treatment can have negative long-term effects on fertility.
Of the 17 mares that received booster shots, five received a third dose. The Alberta government hasn’t taken management action since 2015 but is now considering it in some areas.
The question is whether action is necessary. The government has proven unreliable more than once, so who should we believe?
Trust your judgement. Go see our province’s wild horses and decide for yourself whether or not these animals are the ecologically destructive invasive species they are painted to be.
