4th Grade Okaloosa Writes, Informational
4th Grade Okaloosa Writes
Many herds of wild horses live in the United States. Write an informative essay explaining why and how the government manages the size of these herds. Use information from both passages in your essay.
Manage your time carefully so that you can
· Read the passages
· Plan your response
· Write your response
· Revise and edit your response
Write your essay on the paper your teacher gives you.
You have 90 minutes to read the passage, and plan, write, revise, and edit your essay.
Wild Horses
Wild horses lived in North America more than 10,000 years ago. Then they were gone. There were no more horses in North America until Christopher Columbus sailed here with a few Spanish horses on board his ships.
Shiploads of other explorers from Spain soon followed Columbus. They brought hundreds of horses with them. Over the years, many of these Spanish horses escaped and formed herds, which were very successful at living on their own. There was plenty of space for them in their new land.
Today, descendants of these wild horses still roam in herds. Many are in western areas of the United States, where they run free and go wherever they like. These horses are wild; they have had little or no contact with humans. They are used to living free with other horses and animals.
Unlike tame horses, the wild horses take care of themselves. Wild horses are not endangered. The herds get bigger every year. Today, the federal government manages these horses to make sure the herds stay healthy.
The United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) maintains the horses on federal land. The BLM keeps track of each herd’s size. If there are too many horses for the space, they eat all the available food. The herd becomes weak, and some horses get sick.
To avoid this problem, the BLM has a wild horse adoption program. When the herd gets too large, some horses are captured and put up for adoption. The other horses in the herd stay in the wild. Through this adoption program, the size of the herds is kept under control, and the horses living in the wild stay healthy.
U.S. Tries to Sell Horses as it Looks for Other Plans
The Federal government will be trying to sell wild horses at an auction this weekend in Texas. It cannot figure out what else to do with them. These animals are part of American history. They are related to the horses used by Spanish explorers, Native Americans and the cavalry. The cavalry were the Army’s horseback-riding soldiers.
The government has taken nearly 50,000 wild horses off their lands in the West. It paid ranchers to take care of them. More of America’s wild horses are now being held instead of running wild. The roundups have made wild horse supporters angry. The government says the roundups are needed. It says there are too many horses to survive on the wild land in the West.
Horses Versus Ranchers
Wild horse supporters say this is not true. They say the government is really taking the side of ranchers. Their cattle and sheep graze upon the public lands. Everyone agrees the situation cannot go on. The government is running out of space in the holding facilities. It cannot find more. The cost also has nearly doubled in the past four years.
“There is no quick fix,” said government spokesman Tom Gorey. There are limited options. The government will not kill healthy horses if nobody wants to adopt them, he said.
The government could find homes for only about 2,600 animals. It found homes for more than twice as many in 2005. Getting somebody to take the animals has become harder. People are not spending much money right now in the country. There are also a lot of cheap, tame horses that people can buy. People will be less likely to buy a wild horse if there is a tame one they can afford.
Too Many Horses
The government pays a group $3.75 million to train some of the wild horses and put them up for auction. People took in 868 of those horses last year. The group is holding an adoption event in Texas this weekend for 300 horses. The average price is less than $500.
The government has a group of people that gives it advice on wild horses. The group said the government is holding more horses than it can handle. This is not healthy for the horses.
The board made some suggestions. It said that female horses could have an operation. This would keep them from having foals. The government is considering doing this. Wild horse supporters say it is hurtful and unfair to the horses. They also say it is not needed.
Horse supporters say the solution is for the government to balance horses and the cattle and sheep. Suzanne Roy is on the side of the horses. She says the real problem is that there are too many sheep and cattle on the land.
Wait For the Report
A report on the wild horse problem is coming out next month. It will play a big part in how the argument is decided. It will discuss ways of controlling the number of horses. The report will also talk about how the government decides how many horses can live on a piece of land.
But government spokesman Gorey said the study will not give easy answers. Herds can double in size every four years. If the bureau cannot find places for the horses, that could lead to some roundups. Also, the land the horses live on can get worse, he said. Nobody who cares about the land wants that.