The Alberta government recorded a wild herd as large as 1,000 horses this year, prompting it to offer 200 permits to allow farmers, hunters and ranchers to capture the creatures, which have no natural predators. Once caught, they can do what they will with the animals — advocates claim the majority are sent to slaughter.
Shannon Mann, a horse advocate from Calgary, said the province’s numbers are wrong, and suggests the population would be better managed by relocation or contraception. She and other advocates insist the horses aren’t a real problem to anyone but local ranchers.
Ms. Mann states that “It’s the cattle and the ranchers who have a lot of power and they don’t want the horses competing with the cattle for the grazing.’’
