The audacity of men (and sometimes women) never fails to amaze me. The capture of 216 horses in the West Country and most likely the slaughter of these horses, I find very distressing. When we lived on our ranch in the '50s, my husband captured some of these horses; chose to keep some and let the rest go. These horses were amazing ranch horses. They knew the lay of the land and where it was safe to go.If they can be captured to be slaughtered because there are too many of them, why can they not be captured to be gelded (hopefully by veterinarians) and released or adopted?Some things horses don't do in the West Country:• Leave their garbage so that the beauty of the backcountry is turned into one large garbage dump (Gazette, April 3, 2012).• Take their ATVs in there and destroy sensitive ecosystems.• Clear cut our forests so that there is nothing left to hold the soil.The cruelty to horses and the cruelty of man towards his environment should be stopped. Are we the greater threat to the environment? Look in the mirror.Lois A. CarlyleSundre
