Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

CaliBigWill t1_jdfti6i wrote

Reply to comment by NorthSideSoxFan in TIL the US federal government captures and sells excess wild horses to the public by MoistCoyote

Brought by Columbus in the 1490's. Close to 800. There were other explorers here before him. That's a different argument. Cortes was here in the 1500's. 700 some odd years ago.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be eaten Meat is meat.. I'm saying these type of round ups are wrong and the treatment of the horses after they're gathered is wrong. And honestly to me its disgraceful that we have to send them to another country to be slaughtered. Our own government doesn't condone eating them but if there's a profit by damn let's do it!

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Jacollinsver t1_jdfs9rm wrote

Reply to TIL that the Hemlock Water Dropwort is the most poisonous plant in the UK. Its poison constricts the muscles, causing death by asphyxia, which also causes a rictus like death grin. Use of this plant in Phoenician Sardinia for executions is the origin of the term "Sardonic Grin". by AspireAgain

This is what was given to Socrates as a death sentence

>The trial of Socrates has always seemed mysterious ... the charges sound vague and unreal ... because behind the stated charges was Socrates's real crime: preaching a philosophy that produced Alcibiades and Critias ... but of course he couldn't be prosecuted for that under the amnesty [which had been declared after the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants] ... so his accusers made it "not believing the Gods of the city, introducing new gods, and corrupting the youth".

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CaliBigWill t1_jdfq2ht wrote

Reply to comment by BarnabyWoods in TIL the US federal government captures and sells excess wild horses to the public by MoistCoyote

So actually or not - Not Livestock.

The only way these horses cost Taxpayers any money is when the BLM gets involved. They're the ones spending the money to do these roundups, maintain holding facilities, and the large costs of the adoption program (which takes up nearly a third of the annual BLM wild horse budget of $11.6 million), 

Wild horses used to range in the millions. They're down to about 50,000. Is that not thinned enough? BLM arguments in favor of these gathers are kind of weak ranging from maintaining health to protecting them from overgrazing.
So they waste millions, not spend.

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BarnabyWoods t1_jdfn4jh wrote

Reply to comment by CaliBigWill in TIL the US federal government captures and sells excess wild horses to the public by MoistCoyote

Actually, they're feral domesticated animals, which now occupy this weird gray area where they're called "wild", but they're not managed like other large wild animals such as deer and elk. Despite the fact that "wild" horse herds increase in population by 20% per year, there's no hunting season on them, and it's illegal for anyone but BLM to round them up. In most of their range, there are no natural predators to keep their numbers in check.
So they chew up habitat that other native wildlife depend on. So in essence they're national pets, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars per year to maintain.

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Crepuscular_Animal t1_jdfmlz9 wrote

Reply to comment by Roguewolfe in TIL that the Hemlock Water Dropwort is the most poisonous plant in the UK. Its poison constricts the muscles, causing death by asphyxia, which also causes a rictus like death grin. Use of this plant in Phoenician Sardinia for executions is the origin of the term "Sardonic Grin". by AspireAgain

Thank you! I always love it when there's a well-researched comment under a post to learn something new. I've looked up curare and found this neat:

Curare is deadly but it can be used as an antidote to another dangerous poison, strychnine, because their acetylcholine activity cancels each other.

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