Wild horse news update: 9 horses dead in BLM roundup

Nine wild horses have died in BLM's highly publicized Calico Complex roundup in Nevada.  Perhaps being the most widely scrutinized gather in history, more details  of the roundup are being made available to the public.  Gather activity updates from the BLM web site report:

• Dec. 30 - 20 year old + mare euthanized: poor condition.
• Jan 10 -   Colt dies as it was being brought  in: necropsy shows pre-existing pulmonary condition.
• Jan 7 - 20 year old + mare put down on site: poor body condition.
• Jan 11 - mare found dead at Fallon facility: dietary feed change.
• Jan 13 - 12 year old mare found dead at Fallon Facility: arrived four days prior in poor condition.
• Jan 14 - Observer notified BLM of downed mare in transport truck.  Driver corrected the situation.

                      - Two mares found dead a Fallon Facility: dietary feed change.

• Jan 21 - Mare that was downed in transport truck euthanized at Fallon facility:                                                                                     weak on arrival &  did not recover.

 -  Colt with multiple hoof sloughs from capture euthanized at Fallon facility.

                        - 20-25  horses at Fallon facility have received treatment for various injuries or                     lameness and are recovering.                                                                                                                                                                      

20 yr old mare euthanized at round up     photo/blm

Though one could reasonably accept the deaths of the older mares as an act of mercy ( Lisa Ross, BLM public affairs specialist, understood one to be a 30year+ male with worn out teeth), their advanced age brings other thoughts to those who are watching this roundup closely.  Willis Lamm, Alliance of Wild Horse Advocates, states," BLM says that the range can't 'survive' a roundup moratorium until a more practical horse management strategy is worked out... The presence of elder horses indicates that in fact there is enough forage to go around.  While it still may be arguable that range populations need to be regulated, it doesn't seem to be the dire situation that BLM is portraying."

Of the four found dead at the Fallon facility from the inability to adjust to an oat / grass hay diet, Lamm said,

Finding four horses dead  in a BLM contract facility is an ominous sign.  Clearly the 'observation strategy' for horses making the transition from the range to holding facility conditions warrants improvement.  If a horse starts to colic, it's promptly reported and the veterinarian tries and fails to resolve the problem, the contractor and BLM did try to take the appropriate action.  Yet it seems contradictory for BLM to euthanize horses on the range that they deem to be in mortal condition while a contractor lets horses colic and die in his corrals.  If BLM is going to bring in these horses, the responsibility for mitigating the risks associated with gathering must extend through BLM to its contractors.

The standard format in BLM gather statistic reports classify deaths in two categories: those cause by the gather  and those not caused by the gather.  The higher echelons of BLM management have recently stated that the number of deaths involved in the gathers is less than 1%.  Heather Emmonds, BLM public relations for the Calico gather, confirmed that, of the 9 deaths reported to date, only one will be considered as being due to gather activities.  It has not been confirmed which of the two figures management is quoting in their under 1% tally.  Nor has it been confirmed if 5 of the 6 Fallon facility deaths will be counted in  gather statistics since it is a holding facility.  John Neill, BLM  holding facility manager, confirmed that deaths due to feed change are not considered to be unusual, however the percentage of deaths is very low.

A curiosity in the gather update page is the apparent loss of 82 horses.  Of 1,195 reported gathered, only 1,113 are accounted for.  It is possible this is a simple math error.

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Notes of interest:

•  Emmonds reports a handful of albinos have been captured in addition to some rare "curly" horses.
• George Knapp, channel 8 Las Vegas Now, reports the black nick named "Freedom" who esscaped from BLM corral has been recaptured.  video

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For more info: 

How the west is being lost

Judge orders go ahead - sort of

Crunching Calico

L.A. evacuation news: horses and small animals

L.A. County Department of Animal Care and Control is standing by with emergency evacuation locations for animal owners requiring safe refuge for their pets during round four and the most powerful of the storms currently drenching the area.  Michelle Roache, Deputy Director - Outreach and Enforcement, reports only one dog and about 6 horses have been brought in so far.  "Either people are not evacuating or have made alternate plans."  said Roache.  During the station fire, over 200 horses were evacuated. Emergency plans are firmly in place for these storms.

 

People needing to find safety for their pets  can call 661-940-4191 for information on L.A Count evacuation sites.  Two sites are currently available for horses or other livestock:              

• Pierce College-----  6201 Winnetka Ave----- Woodland Hills
• Antelope Valley Fairgrounds-----  2551 West Avenue H  -----   Lancaster

 Ryan Drabek, Interim Director Orange County Animal Care, reported they are not anticipating any evacuations but are prepared.  Derek would like to remind pet owners to be prepared with their pet's I.D., vaccination records, medical records and medications should the need arise.  For further information in the Orange County area, call 714-935-6848.

Protests continue over wild horse policies

Protesters in Reno, Nevada and New York City voiced their opposition over the holiday against what many are calling the "mismanagement" of wild horses by the U.S.  Bureau of Land Management.  Los Angeles, Denver, Boise, Sacramento, San Francisco, Chicago, Las Vegas, Switzerland, Toronto, and London are some of the cities that have seen similar protests this month.  More are scheduled.

Despite the triple threat of snow storms rolling into the area, around 40 protesters donned heavy coats for cold wet and windy protest.  Many trekked across the Sierras, a trip made dangerous by the winter storms, in order to attend.  "They have no voice" said Dana Semeit, a local advocate   "and the BLM has been lying and misleading the public and taking the land away from the horses."

Bonnie Matton, President of the Wild Horse Preservation League, summarized protesters thoughts by saying," We believe in, definitely management, but we want to work in management with all factors who are using public lands, to work together.  We have never been able to do that."

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Motorists passing through the busiest intersection in Reno appeared to support the protesters efforts. "About every third car or more honked or called out to us." said Matton.

The international protests are calling for a moratorium on the roundups and some want an investigation into the BLM management practices involved with the wild horse and burro program.  The claim that the horses are not headed for starvation as the agency contends and that estimated population numbers are exaggerated.  Media coverage showing wild horses being chased by helicopter into BLM holding pens seem to support the protesters argument.  A Los Angeles feature documentary film crew, Humanion Films, recently reported seeing only 9 horses in the Calico Complex of Nevada where BLM officials quote a population of over 3,000.

Protesters also argue that a large portion of the herds allowed to remain free-roaming are too small in number to maintain the genetic viability needed for long term survival.  With massive roundups, birth controlling mares and plans for showcasing non-reproducing herds, they fear the animals are being managed for extinction.

BLM officials deny the accusations,  calling them myths, and say that culling the herds will improve herd health and restore damaged rangelands.

 

For more info: 

Cut to the chase in wild horse management

Public relations nightmare

Humanion films

New York advocates protest the Ruby Pipeline

The following is a press release from The Cloud Foundation  (click post title for link)

Wild Horse Protests Follow the Money to New York City

Advocates protest BLM’s wild horse removals on the Ruby Pipeline path

New York City, NY (January 14, 2010)—Wild horse and burro advocates demand immediate investigations of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro program as well as a moratorium on roundups, until sustainable management practices are implemented to protect the American wild horses in the West. Protesters will gather on Sunday, January 17 from 1 P.M. to 3 P.M. at Columbus Circle (59th St at Central Park S). The press conference will be held at 2 P.M. The public objects to BLM’s removal of wild horses for fast tracked energy deals on public land in the West, such as the Ruby Pipeline, and objects to schemes to subsidize corporate welfare ranchers.

“The Roundups must stop. The destruction of public land must stop. Government agencies and private corporations must be held accountable and must safeguard wildlife—not eliminate it,” says Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director, The Cloud Foundation (named for the famous wild horse Kathrens has documented for the PBS/Nature series)

Members of the public are furious that the BLM continues roundups despite Federal D.C. District Court Judge Paul Friedman’s recommendation that BLM postpone Calico until the issue of out of state transport and long term holding can be decided.

The ROAM (Restore Our American Mustangs Act, §1579 ) is in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee, awaiting urgently needed hearings. The House passed the bill in July 2009.

The Cloud Foundation (TCF) broke the Ruby Pipeline story on January 7. The Foundation asks the BLM to reveal the truth behind the removals of healthy wild horses from the Nevada Calico Complex that BLM claims will starve if left in their natural sagebrush ecosystem.

Outraged at the BLM for clearing wild horses from the Ruby Pipeline path, advocates and the public from across the country are joining together in NYC to demand President Obama call a moratorium on all roundups, including Calico, and demand that the FERC delay the approval of the Ruby Pipeline until Congress investigates the BLM.

“The roundups in the Ruby Pipeline zone are questionable,” states Katie Fite, biologist and biodiversity specialist for Western Watersheds. “The public is not being told the truth. There needs to be an investigation within all levels of BLM considering the unavoidable damage to our public lands. There is no mitigation provided for to restore this biologically wild, remote, and untrammeled landscape in northwestern Nevada and southeastern Oregon.”

According to a Western Watersheds report this is the largest project of its type across significant public lands in the American West in recent memory. Ruby has seized upon a sliver of ecologically critical unprotected public wild land to punch a new corridor through, and bisect this irreplaceable landscape,including many of the last viable herds of wild horses in the West.

Instead of the truth, the BLM tells the public wild horses are being removed because they are starving or destroying the ecosystem. Independent video footage and photographs tell a very different story. Following public outcry over the starving comments, the BLM is now switching gears—saying they want to “prevent the horses from starving” and therefore they are removing 80-90% of the horses. Today their spin attempts to sway the public with a trendy ‘sustainable’ pitch and tell the public the wild horses have no predators—not true.

“Wild horses have predators,” states Ginger Kathrens. “But, the government kills them on public lands to protect welfare cattle.”

The NYC event is a collaborative effort started by local organizer and mustang-adopter, Jo De George, with support from The Cloud Foundation, Equine Welfare Alliance, Friends of Animals, Return to Freedom, In Defense of Animals and 40 more coalition members of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign.

"America's public lands are owned by the public, whether they live in New York City or elsewhere. We like to know that outside this city, way out West, herds of wild horses are roaming free. These horses symbolize the essence of our country," explained Jo De George, NYC Protest Organizer and volunteer with The Cloud Foundation and Equine Welfare Alliance.

BLM has already reported four horse deaths (adults and babies) from the current Calico roundup on the Ruby Pipeline route. The public and media have only been allowed to observe the roundup to a limited degree—concerns are circulating regarding unreported deaths and abuses.

Wild horse backers are organizing nationwide to stop taxpayer-funded mismanagement of America’s wild herds. BLM’s hidden agenda is unraveling with the Ruby Pipeline and other public land heists in the West. Their lack of respect towards legendary ecosystems outweighs their double talk about ‘balance’.

“If BLM cares so much about the ecological balance, it would not be enabling the Ruby gas pipeline to rip the public wild lands and watersheds here apart,” says Fite adding, “The horses, sage-grouse, antelope and everything else are caught in the crosshairs of BLM selling out the public lands that belong to all Americans—to ranchers and big energy interests.”

The BLM currently spends half its $69 million budget removing wild horses from their designated public lands and the other half feeding and warehousing the over 34,000 mustangs already removed from the wild, primarily during the last Bush administration. Their program is currently non-sustainable with 12,000 wild horses and burros being removed in fiscal year 2010 and as few as 15,000 remaining in the wild. Likely only 3000 mustangs will be adopted as more herds are reduced to non-viable levels, which are then often zeroed out completely despite excellent rangeland and horse health.

"Yes, there is climate change – but do we destroy the West to ‘save’ the planet? NO – because then you just make the problem worse," states Katie Fite, Biodiversity Specialist, Western Watersheds Project

# # #

Interior Department reaches out for public support of wild horse and burro program

This article was originally published January 15, 2010

Secretary Ken Salazar, U.S. Department of the interior, reached out for public support in the L.A. Times yesterday.  His opinion article, At Home on the Range, laid out his thoughts on the history of wild horses in America then continued with a message intended to defend current wild horse and burro policy against a growing outcry from animal rights organizations.

As Secretary of the Interior, Salazar oversees eight major federal bureaus including the often maligned Bureau of Land Management, the agency mandated by Congress to preserve and protect the wild herds.  Within months of his appointment by President Obama early last year, Salazar announced a plan to create non-producing herds on lands in the east and mid-west, stocking those from the over 30,000 wild horses currently in BLM holding facilities.  Gelded herds are to be created on their existing ranges  along with an escalation of birth control procedures for mares and the accelerated removal of horses currently living on western rangelands.

We must elevate the stature and care of wild horse herds that will sustainably live on Western ranges for generations to come.  As Interior secretary, I am examining ways we can better showcase special herds in signature areas of the West to provide eco-tourism opportunities and provide them greater protection." says Salazar

Animal rights organizations view the current policy in a different light.  Thousands of wild horse supporters are taking to the streets in protest, flooding the White House with phone calls and signing petitions demanding a moratorium on all wild horse roundups until Congress can craft a better plan.

The Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA), an umbrella organization with over 90 member organizations, issued a press release in response to the L.A. Times Article which states in part,

Today, it is the DOI on Salazar's watch that is entrusted to protect the wild herds but instead, is now the driving force managing the wild herds to the verge of extinction.  Why? Because Salazar's rancher friends need more land to graze their 7.5 million cattle which now have to compete with only 30,000  wild horses."

EWA's response also speaks of concerns recently raised over the Ruby Pipeline, a natural gas transmission line scheduled to run through wild horse ranges.  The California Heliostat Project will do the same.  BLM and DOI officials have yet to publicly address either of these projects and their impact on wild horses.

To date, the Salazar article has received 61 comments - all negative.  He does make one statement on which both sides can agree:

"The current situation is unsustainable."

For more info: 

Ruby Pipeline poses threat

Salazar plan

Humane Society - stop the roundups