Bighorn Sheep vs. Domestic Sheep

Jonathan Ratner

As many of you know, domestic sheep are the primary impediment to bighorn sheep recovery because the domestic sheep transmit disease to the bighorn sheep.

PBS did a decent video on the issue:

What the video fails to mention is that livestock permits on our public lands are a privilege, not a right, and can be canceled at any time. The problem is that federal land managers place the interests of a handful of sheep ranchers above the greater public good. So the problem continues year after year, decade after decade, with the only progress coming from private buyouts such as those paid for by The Sagebrush Habitat Conservation Fund, The National Wildlife Federation and others.

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  1. Jeff Hoffman Avatar
    Jeff Hoffman

    Agriculture is the physical root cause of all ecological problems, and animal agriculture is the worst of it. Domesticating animals is totally unnatural and causes all sorts of harms, destruction, killing. Cattle and sheep ranching is the worst of it, and it destroys more land in the western U.S. than any other human activity.

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  2. Karin Avatar
    Karin

    Thank you for your clear statement. I think most civilians are unaware of the livestock industry problem.

    Reply
  3. Ida Lupine Avatar
    Ida Lupine

    It’s all exacerbated by overpopulation, and that is what gives these people their power and influence. On a smaller scale than ranching is today, it would not be as harmful to the environment. As of 2024, 87.1 million cattle and calves in the US and 5.86 million sheep and lambs.

    Reply
  4. Bruce Bowen Avatar
    Bruce Bowen

    The BLM’s budget report for 2025 indicates that $170.9 million has been requested for the management of feral horses and burros while only $153.4 was requested for wildlife habitat management. There are now 177 herds of feral equines on public (BLM) lands consuming forage that the public tax payer essentially pays for, plus all the cattle and sheep consuming forage at about 1/30 the cost of what it should be. This is one of the largest ecologic and economic blunders that the government continues to support.

    Wildlife does not stand a very good chance with the present odds. The non native cattle, sheep and horses and burros are winning.

    The public range is being turned into a farming operation and what wildlife species are left, survive only by luck.

    Reply
  5. ChicoRey Avatar
    ChicoRey

    The “management” of Wild Horses and Burros consists of round-ups and warehousing, plus all but a couple of HMAs also have cattle & sheep using the forage. The zeroing out of many HMAs and the livestock allotments in the remaining ones not only removes Wild Horses & Burros, but also harms wildlife habitat and the wildlife that could co-exist there without livestock. I do agree, the millions spent on “management” is far more than it should be. Also, the millions WE, as taxpayers, subsidize for the livestock industry is yet another matter! The allotment “program” does not pay for itself – not at $1.35 per cow/calf pair – no matter the “seasonal” grazing.

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Author
Jonathan Ratner
Jonathan@Wild-Sage.org | Website

Jonathan Ratner has been in the trenches of public lands conservation for nearly 25 years. He started out doing forest carnivore work for the Forest Service, BLM, and the Inter-agency Grizzly Bear Study Team, with some Wilderness Rangering on the Pinedale Ranger District. That work lead him directly to deal with the gross corruption within the federal agencies' range program.

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