Forest Service Joins Forces with Anti-Horse Club

The agency signed a MOU with the Boone and Crockett Club to improve access to public lands for hunting, angling and wildlife conservation according to a May 27 news release.

The nonprofit will work with 14 other groups to identify opportunities and solutions.

The club issued a statement on April 2 calling for the essential use of roundups and expanded sale opportunities to protect Western rangelands and native wildlife from wild horse and burro overpopulation.

“When on-range populations exceed the land’s carrying capacity, they don’t just compete with native wildlife like elk, mule deer, and pronghorn; they fundamentally alter the landscape.”

That remark reflects a complete misunderstanding of the way federal agencies manage the resources on public lands or a deliberate attempt to mislead the public.

Consider this example from the Warm Springs HMA in Oregon.  Who’s stripping away most of the forage—by design?

The AML tells you almost nothing about resource availability, carrying capacity and management priorities in the HMA.

Wild horse advocates would likely oppose the club’s demands but would see its concerns as an opportunity to sell more pesticides.

The announcement did not indicate if the club had a similar agreement with the BLM.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

County Posts Results from Currituck Wild Horse Advisory Board Special Meeting

The current population is approximately 115 according to the minutes.

Herd demographics were not given.

The status of the fertility control program, and the long-term effects thereof, were not included in the report.

Another meeting was held on May 21 but results have not been published.

RELATED: Currituck Wild Horse Advisory Board to Hold Special Meeting.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Black Mountain Trapping Ends

The incident concluded on May 18 with 495 burros captured, 486 shipped, six released and one dead.

There were two unaccounted-for animals.

495 – 486 – 6 – 1 = 2

The death rate was 0.2%.

Youngsters represented 4.4% of the animals gathered.

Of the adults, 58.4% were male and 41.6% were female.

There were no plans to treat any of the jennies with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.

The roundup supported three tenants of rangeland management.

RELATED: BLM Announces Black Mountain Bait Trap Roundup.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Beckstead Joins CAAWH?

He’s the Government Relations & Policy Director according to the staff directory.

He was with the Wild Horse Refuge but his bio at CAAWH is silent about that.

The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses and its partner organizations lead the nation in mass sterilization, which they peddle as wild horse conservation.

RELATED: Dirty Jobs: Taking CAAWH from Collapse to Strength.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Advocates Issue Memorial Day Warning for Currituck Herd

Approaching the horses can cause dangerous habituation, according to a report by WCTI News, a condition that can ultimately lead to them being removed from the wild.

Apples and carrots are not part of their natural diet and can cause fatal choking or colic.

Not all of their advice is good.

Moving away if they approach you tells them they’re higher, a practice that may lead to more encounters and removal from the wild.

Who’s giving the orders and why are they being overly cautious about the herd?

The rangeland eugenicists, who routinely got as close as they could to the mares to pummel them with pesticide-laced darts.

It’s still not clear if the program was halted soon enough to allow the birth rate to rise above the death rate and stay there, avoiding slow but certain demise.

RELATED: Four New Foals Spotted at Currituck Outer Banks.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Chincoteague Mares Taking a Break?

No new foals have been reported in the past week.

The herd has been producing about one a day, on average.

What’s the probability that you get none when you expect seven?

The herd, known for an abnormal sex ratio and elevated birth rate, operates like a puppy mill for wild horses on land managed by FWS.

PREVIOUS: Chincoteague Foal Crop Growing Steadily.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Forest Service Seeks Bids for Montgomery Pass Roundup

The scope of work, according to the solicitation, is to capture and remove 450 wild horses in and around the Montgomery Pass WHT.

You must sign in to access the attachments.

Proposals are due by May 28.

The BLM was the lead agency for the environmental assessment and the Inyo National Forest is the lead agency coordinating the roundup.

RELATED: BLM Issues Montgomery Pass Final Planning Documents.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

► Search for other posts about Montgomery Pass.

Planning Documents for North Complex Out for Review

The scoping phase was skipped and the process moved directly to the environmental assessment, which was copied to the project folder today.

Comments will be accepted through June 22.

The Complex consists of the Granite Peak, Dogskin Mountains and Flanigan HMAs according to the news release.

Alternative A, the Proposed Action, features removal of excess animals to low AML and application of fertility control pesticides.

The impact on permitted grazing is discussed in section 3.5.

PREVIOUS: Wild Horse Management Plan for North Complex?

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Foal-Free Friday, Suspension of Disbelief Edition

The Salt River advocates have thrown their support behind SB1199, a bill that would place a moratorium on wild horse removals while researchers conduct a genetic viability study to determine how many animals are needed for a healthy breeding population.

As if the herd was still viable.

To give your assent, you must disavow all knowledge of their actions, especially the fertility control program that has morphed into a mass sterilization program because it has outlived the window of reversibility.

There’s still time to act!

If the legislature formed a truth commission, here’s what they’d find:

  • The herd is toast
  • The advocates have been lying about PZP
  • The only way to restore genetic diversity is to introduce mares from other areas

The advocates want you to think they’re the good guys.

They shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near wild horses.

RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Slow But Certain Demise Edition.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Seven of Ten Iredell Mustangs Captured, Suspects Identified

The owners have been charged for allowing livestock to run at large and for failing to cooperate with recovery efforts according to an update from WSOC News.

Western Horse Watchers was unable to find a statement about the incident at the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office news page.

PREVIOUS: Sale Authority Horses Running at Large in Iredell County.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Would Little Desert Make a Good Wild Horse Preserve?

The parcel doesn’t overlap any areas identified for wild horses but it’s close to the Hill Creek HA and the vacant allotments in Uintah County.

The BLM recently approved the installation of an underground water storage tank and associated trough according to yesterday’s news release.

The CX and DR were copied to the project folder in ePlanning.

The allotment master report puts it in the Improve category, suggesting that your stewards of the public lands are not taking their responsibilities seriously.

On the bright side, approximately 33% of the permitted use has been moved to the suspended column to help the land recover.

The allotment offers 2,003 active AUMs on 43,370 public acres, equivalent to 3.8 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres, and that rangeland health will suffer if the stocking rate exceeds that value.

Yet in Little Desert, the authorized stocking rate is almost four times higher, even after changes were made to reduce grazing pressure.

The double standard for rangeland health.

If all of the AUMs were in the active column, the equivalent stocking rate would be 5.7 wild horses per thousand acres.

RELATED: The Allotments Tell the Story: They’re Lying, All of Them.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

► Search for other posts about wild horse preserves.

SB1199: A Day Late and a Dollar Short

A story by Phoenix New Times says a strike-everything amendment would place a three-year moratorium on wild horse removals from the Lower Salt River while researchers conduct a genetic viability study examining how many animals are needed to maintain a healthy breeding population.

The bill cleared the Arizona Senate in February and has been taken up by the House, where legislators have proposed several amendments.

The House engrossed version states that the population was 273 as of March 28, with a negative growth rate due to a successful fertility control program—which has evolved into a mass sterilization program because it has exceeded the window of reversibility.

Simone Netherlands, instigator of the program, thinks the state is pushing the herd toward long-term genetic collapse.

But it’s a fait accompli—she and her field workers have already done it.

You cannot maintain genetic diversity when the birth rate and breeding population are essentially zero and will stay at zero because the mares have been ruined by fertility control pesticides.

The article noted that the bill, if approved by the House, will have to go back to the Senate for ratification of amendments.

RELATED: Salt River Advocates Hitting Mares in the Back?

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.

Chincoteague Foal Crop Growing Steadily

The total reached 56 on May 17, up from 44 on May 10.

Last year’s record was 103.

There was a four-way tie for top producer, with Hoppy, Prince, Thunderbolt and Twist responsible for six foals each.

Gender was evenly split, with 27 fillies, 27 colts and two undetermined.

Refer to this spreadsheet for a ranking of sires.

The herd, engineered for maximum production and revenues, consisted of 23 males and 126 females last August.

FWS allows a maximum of 150 horses in the refuge.

It’s not clear if the advocates, who hate foals, motherhood and genetic diversity, are taking more anti-depressants to cope.

PREVIOUS: Chincoteague Foal Count Blossoms on Mother’s Day.

► Get the truth about wild horses and the wild horse advocates at westernhorsewatchers.com.