The letter: The park superintendent is the real “nuisance” – InForum

blight

noun

1. a person, thing, or circumstance that causes annoyance or annoyance

Two months ago, a wild horse in Theodore Roosevelt National Park named Alluvium was deemed a nuisance by the park. He was then captured and held in holding pens in the park. He is in an open field where he can most often be found standing by one of the locked gates that are the only barrier between him and the keys to freedom back in the only home he has ever known. More than likely, he is fed last year’s hay along with grazing in the same areas of the pen. A friend offered the metaphor that we humans eat some frozen wheat and then drink nice warm water on a 97 degree day. The park considers this to take care of this wild horse.

The park’s July 10 press release^th claims that “The aggressive behavior of this animal ultimately resulted in the rider being removed from the mount.” But the rider who was disappointed claims that their experience with Alluvium was magical and has repeatedly stated that they did not find it a nuisance at all.

Additionally, #1 under the “safety” tab on the park’s website is this statement: “All animals in the park are wild and unpredictable.” Doesn’t that mean wild animals have the right of way when we humans enter their home?

The park’s news release also did not mention the video taken by the rider who was detached from her horse, showing a bison charging at her horse while it was in the round pen at the horse muster camp. They also fail to mention that the campers considered the bison a nuisance, not alluvium.

Bison is free while Alluvium has lost his freedom.

The park also wants us to believe that this sudden ability to label wild horses as a nuisance has nothing to do with them having to abandon their plans to eliminate the entire horse herd.

The park states that they are part of NPS policy because they have signed a categorical exclusion for this programmatic animal. Under the NEPA process, this is an action that requires no input from the taxing public. A simple wave of the superintendent’s pen and Aluvium’s fate was sealed.

Continued actions that show nothing but disrespect for the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the taxpaying public who love these horses raise the question of who is real the trouble is here—Superintendent Richman or a wild stallion acting naturally in his house.

Perhaps that answer can be found in the growing demands from the public to remove Inspector Richman from this park.

Christine Kman is the president and co-founder of Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates.