Mark Cromika I was in a huge hurry to meet with my farrier when I saw your post yesterday (We have 140 donkeys, mules and horses) and could not respond appropriately to your post at that time. Mark, the fact is that we have been asking for the numbers and finances of the TPWD management of burros through FOIA for some time. We are being presently stonewalled. There is a reason for their desire to keep financials secret, I am sure. We have uncovered past wrong doing and misappropriation of funds from TPWD, and fully expect to discover the same concerning the bighorn releases.http://www.peer.org/news/clips.php  1) We do not know how many wild burros are managed in the park. The Chihuahua region is the only place wild burros are still found, but since no studies have been conducted, there are no numbers. We fear that the numbers are extremely low, thus cutting out this very important member of the ecosystem from doing its part in rebuilding the soils and increasing fauna, thus playing a part in staving off desertification due to catastrophic climate change. They fill a much needed niche, and hopefully we will stop the slaughter and/or removal of these important members of this globally recognized ecosystem before it is too late. 2) Again, it is hard to answer this question because none of it is directed toward burros. Although again on the Circle ranch site numbers are discussed in the millions for gunning down aoudad. The burros are NEVER mentioned specifically in management plans. There was a roundup attempt made which is actually mentioned in this article that cost 80 man hours. They stated that they did not capture any, but our FOIA docs showed that in fact, they did capture a jenny and her foal. Rather than offer them up for adoption they shot them both and paid $5 each to put them in the Presideo dump. Again, FOIA requests have been made and are not forthcoming. We have an attorney looking into that now. 3.) We have not put forth money to managing burros in the park, as we have not been allowed to do so. We offered to fund studies, mitigate discovered problems etc etc, but were denied that opportunity by TPWD. We still stand by this offer, and have some very well recognized organizations standing behind us. As for Wild Burro Protection League, we are all volunteers who care about our environment, and who feel the burro is being cast unfairly in a negative light based on bias by trophy hunters who don't want them alerting the sheep to their presence.

P.S.  I might add to all of you hunters, the TPWD has slated for complete eradication, the elk, auodad, hog, and burro.  They also intend to snare and shoot all bobcat and cougar within reach of the bighorn habitat.  All of this without conducting a single study.  The fact is this is the recipe for ecosystem collapse, yet you state your love of the outdoors.  Soon, the desertification will accelerate and the system will collapse, meaning even the bighorn will not make it.  

Painting my responses to you as emotional was quite disengenuous Mark, so I felt I needed to respond.  Hopefully, you all care about the environment and the other species enough to investigate my claims.  We have not asked any of you to sacrifice one single thing, yet you are asking hundreds of thousands of people who recognize the burro as an icon of our pioneering spirit to just allow them to be destroyed based on opinion.  Remember, not one study has been conducted.  Not one.  Enjoy the elk before they are gone.  Perhaps then you will see the light.