A Chat by John W.Cox, M.A. C/M
“Just sitting here in the woods, keeping an eye on the horses grazing. It reminds me of realizing how important the science of observation is for us, as horse advocates. But the observation, as Jane Goodall states clearly, is only as good as the truth, which ultimately benefits the knowledge we have of what we see.
In another words, interpretation is the ultimate desire of science and the data we interpret. Experience tells us what to look for. Knowledge and decades of experience together, tells us how to interpret the actual dynamics of the information. It allows us to acknowledge what we are seeing, or reference it, correctly. The fact is, a wrong interpretation, or, a little askew, and we have false information. We have errors that may become extreme, if we have the inability to resolve an issue that could have been easily resolved, or not even developed to require a resolution, had we had the correct information to begin with.
A good example of this is the repetition we hear so often, the Wild Horses being non-indigenous. The negative side of this is the fact this information is repeated, without qualification, always. Never referenced with evidence.
We now find explanation within science, in the research of something as simple as dirt (I keep the terminology simple here, as we do not need the scientific term of fauna and other micro biology terms). Because we need to understand this, in order to correct this situation.
For Example: Current research in the Yukon, and the DNA involved, tells us during the Ice Age, the Wild Horses, as well as Bison, and other animals, we assumed went extinct, could, and did survive, as they had food sources in areas we all assumed food sources frozen or iced over.
This confirmed also, some territories throughout the Pleistocene were tropical zones. This led to more food sources available for the Wild Horses and other grazing animals, like the Wholly Mammoth, or the Pygmy Mammoth. All grazers, and all survived the Pleistocene.
What we have today, are inexperienced people, who say they have a lot of experience, but, simply do not. This is not a harmless situation. A few lies, combined with a few non-knowledgeable interpretations of science, or lack of experience and bad interpretation of what we see, and we find the science-management that decisions are made “from” to be flawed.
In another words, the decisions, for proper management of Wild Horses for example, faulty from the very start. We can see in the matters of the Wild Horses, this situation can mean death — by slaughter and used as meat products.
The fact is, when we see someone discuss 10 or 16 years of experience, and we know for a fact that is a lie, then state they are observing Wild Horses daily; yet, they are domestics from auctions, or bred domestics from ranchers, we then have to acknowledge bad-reference material will enter the science-management system — or nonfactual information about Wild Horses or wolves — as supposed good reference material, in the future. And it will be used to manage Wild Horses, for example, on the range, or in the mountains. Wild Horses will die.
This is why we need to start discussing more so, these supposed people that call themselves Wild Horse Experts. When indeed, they are making an already bad system, much worse (e.g. the system already filled with misinformation and outright lies), with more faulty and erroneous science (i.e. as explained above). Too much misinformation in this system, already leads to mass-confusion at times. Then debates on who is wrong and who is right follow — then nothing for the Wild Horses happen, within a positive manner and process.
Many of the articles I read, and others who check it also, closely, find misinformation abundant, and reference materials in error. Often we find the reference materials some people use in their articles or white papers, to be flawed, and simply non-qualified as a reference to the papers subject matter. Or, the reference not interpreted correctly — and this happens a lot, we see it many times, in many papers.
This faulty science I speak of here, will eventually turn into reference material used in research and scientific papers, more than likely. The consequences serious, and we will have yet more false interpretation on how Wild Horses should be managed. The results of this — total failure.” — John Cox, M.A. C/M
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