Ed Abbey's talent for telling it like it is

Just pulled this from the awesome Buffalo Field Campaign's update from the field:

"Almost anywhere and everywhere you go in the American West you find hordes of [cows].... They are a pest and a plague. They pollute our springs and streams and rivers. They infest our canyons, valleys, meadows, and forests. They graze off the native bluestems and grama and bunch grasses, leaving behind jungles of prickly pear. They trample down the native forbs and shrubs and cacti. They spread the exotic cheatgrass, the Russian thistle, and the crested wheat grass. Weeds. Even when the cattle are not physically present, you see the dung and the flies and the mud and the dust and the general destruction. If you don't see it, you'll smell it. The whole American West stinks of cattle."

~ The late Edward Abbey, conservationist and author, in a speech at the University of Montana in 1985

Yeah, why is that? And how is it that, year after year, we accept cattle in place of wildlife? Support BFC if you can. They are- quite literally- on the front lines of the battle for native species.