Joe Camp wrote, produced and directed the five family films about a dog called Benji. He has written several books and speaks on behalf of children, pets, and domestic and wild horses.

I was astonished that Joe originally thought that mustangs and domestic horses were different breeds, genetically distinct though time and habitat; that horses were not native to America; and that domestic horses had naturally brittle hooves. All the books I have read about horses since the age of four impressed the opposite view on me, and I recommend The Mustangs by J Frank Dobie and The Horse of the Americas by Robert Denhardt. My Friend Flicka shows Thoroughbred racehorses and polo horses running on the Wyoming mountains. Having had to shake off his misapprehensions, Joe and his wife Kathleen progressed from owning three horses to eight during this short book.

The moments spent with the couple's own mustang mares and foals are gorgeous to read and to see documented in the colourful photos. Contrasting harshly is the explanation of why and how these horses were taken off their grazing land.

Joe claims that the Bureau of Land Management wilfully and repeatedly breaks the law as enacted in 1971, The Wild Free Roaming Horse And Burro Act passed by both houses which states that "wild horses and burros shall be protected from capture, harassment or death and the land they roam shall be devoted principally but not exclusively to their welfare in a thriving natural ecological balance". The BLM instead leases land to ranches so that mustangs are outnumbered on these lands by 150 head of cattle and sheep to one horse. The ranchers complain that predators kill their stock, so bears, cougars and wolves are shot, which would have kept a horse population in check and healthy. Then ranchers complain that the land is overgrazed and water overused, so the horses must go. The BLM does not cavil at selling horses for meat if they are not adopted. Joe names one cattle haulier in Colorado who has purchased 1700 horses for ten dollars a head from the BLM, in less than three years. They are not on his land and he refuses to say where they are. Rounding up horses and keeping them in pens costs the taxpayer many millions of dollars each year. Citing campaigners like Laura Leigh and investigative journalism site Pro Publica, Joe aims to get an investigation and protest under way as to the destruction of the nation's heritage. I can only wish him well. BORN WILD includes many links to impartial reference sites and to short films about Joe's own mustangs.

Book Summary