I take umbrage on several points with your editorial on wild cows and horses.

For starters, both cattle and horses were brought to the New World by Columbus’ 17 ships in his second voyage in 1493. They landed on the Island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. Both horses and cows were moved to the mainland in the early 1500s. The semi-feral cows went through 80 to possibly 200 generations of natural selection moving northward to become the Texas Longhorn when they arrived in Texas at the end of the 17th century. The Angus and Herefords you pictured contain about 85% Longhorn genes, according to the National Academy of Science.

Because of their utility, the horses moved northward more quickly. This probably accounts for the myth that the “wild horses” came from this Spanish introduction. The present day feral horses roaming the West have about 3-5% Spanish horse genes. Most of them have Arabian or Turkoman horse genes of the Ottoman Empire. The amazing thing to me is these animals can be traced back to just a few Arabian or Turkoman studs. These were the animals of choice of the Europeans and subsequently they were brought to this country.

As farming became mechanized, those people who didn’t want to eat “Nellie” turned her loose on the range. During the Second World War we ate them and continued to do so after the war until we developed a taste for and could afford fat beef.

As a biologist, I look forward in my travels to the Southwest of Oregon to seeing the free roaming feral horses. Unfortunately, your explanation of how the government deals with the overpopulation of horses is misleading. What I see is massive winter time damage being done to the range and watering holes. The government admits to there being 82,000 animals where the appropriate management level is 27,000 animals. The government does move some of the animals to off-range holding facilities at a cost of over $50 million annually. The cost for a single animal can reach $50,000 if it spends its entire life in a corral. Unfortunately the herd continues to multiply at 15-20% a year.

In your editorial, rounding up the wild cattle and sending them to slaughter seems to me to be the best solution. I contend it is the only solution for the horse problem. Many health food aficionados in other countries find horse meat free of medicines to their liking. I believe the poor would welcome the protein source in their diet. So the animal would not be wasted.

The Harvard faculty club had horse meat on its menu until 1985 when the new French chef refused to cook frozen food.

Carlisle Harrison

Hermiston, Ore.