Protect Mustangs asks CNN to correct glaring error about the indigenous American wild horse

Wild War Horse (Photo © Cynthia Smalley, all rights reserved.)

We were surprised to see CNN publish the error about American wild horses in  Polish pony that survived the Nazis uniting Europe’s nature reserves. The author states that zoologists claim the American mustang is not a wild horse so we sent them comments and are asking for them to correct their article.  Here are our comments:

RE: Shocking Error Published by CNN

American wild horses, aka mustangs, are an indigenous species. The horse originated in North America.

The author of this article appears to make erroneous claims about American mustangs, “zoologists say that strictly speaking these are really feral domesticated horses.” That is incorrect. Recent science proves mustangs are not only a wildlife species but most importantly indigenous.

Which zoologists are claiming the American mustang is not a wild horse but a “feral” back alley horse? Why didn’t the author cite the names of the alleged zoologists?

Most zoologists are familiar with the work of PhD.s J.F. Kirkpatrick and P.M. Fazio and the revised January 2010 paper Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife. The Science and Conservation Center, ZooMontana, Billings. 8 pages seen here: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

Their scientific paper states, “Thus, based on a great deal of paleontological data, the origin of E. caballus is thought to be about two million years ago, and it originated in North America.”

Also the paper cites, “The fact that horses were domesticated before they were reintroduced matters little from a biological viewpoint. They are the same species that originated here, and whether or not they were domesticated is quite irrelevant. Domestication altered little biology, and we can see that in the phenomenon called “going wild,” where wild horses revert to ancient behavioral patterns. Feist and McCullough (1976) dubbed this “social conservation” in his paper on behavior patterns and communication in the Pryor Mountain wild horses. The reemergence of primitive behaviors, resembling those of the plains zebra, indicated to him the shallowness of domestication in horses.”

We kindly request CNN correct this error immediately.

Sincerely,

Anne Novak

Executive Director of Protect Mustangs

 

Taking action to inform, protect and help America’s wild horses

http://www.ProtectMustangs.org

CNN Article: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/21/world/europe/poland-pony-nazi/