[pct-l] Dogs in National Parks/horses/mules/llamas

[Charles Williams]

As far as your exception to your offended feelings when you have to kick poo aside..that the only exception is a "wild animal scat"
 
Horses evolved in North America.  They used to be a swamp dwelling creature with  pads on their feet.  Ice melted, swamps became grasslands and rangelands, and the horse evolved into existence.  They accessed the rest of the world, probably from the Beiring Land Bridge and then became extinct in North America.  This all happened before the europeans reintroduced them back to North America in the early exploration and colonial period. And once reintroduced, they flourished as this was the climate and grasses they evolved to eat
 
Long story short(er)Horses are part of the natural inhabitants of this region  And while I can't say horses ever did Forester Pass  or whatever, I can imagine a time when a horse made a really bad decision and ending up in alpine meadows and creeks all the way up the west coast.  They were definitly here before we were.  making them a Wild Animal by most peoples definition (though I know the ones you're talking about stepping accross their poop are tame.
 
Sorry, really long winded and I said I wouldn't, so sorry!
 
Charles Williams  Sorry, really long winded and I said I wouldn't, so sorry!
-----Original Message-----From: Chief Cowboy

You just can't step over it on the trail?  And, catching poo in town is obviously more of an aesthetic thing than it would be in the WILDERNESS!. Get real.!

-----Original Message----- From: Hillary Schwirtlich
I think "offensive" is a relative term. I don't really care what's in it,
whether it's horse poo or dog poo or people poo. It's offensive to me to
have to wade through poo on the trail - or worse, kick it aside in the only
good campsite around. (The only exception to this is wild animal scat).

Basically, I just think it would be fair to expect all users to pick up
after their animals on the trail, regardless of size.

Horses that pull carriages in towns have a bag behind them to catch the
waste. Can't trail riders do that too? Then, even if they don't bury it,
which would be time-consuming and probably cause more damage than good,
they can at least deposit it off-trail or something.

Seahorse