Callaghan Roundup, Day 3

The incident started on July 10.  Results through July 12:

  • Scope: Callaghan, South Shoshone, Bald Mountain, Hickison HMAs
  • Target: Horses
  • AML: 552
  • Pre-gather population: Over 4,500
  • Type: Planned
  • Method: Helicopter
  • Category: Costly and inhumane (according to advocates)
  • Better way: Snuff out new life with PZP (according to advocates)
  • Capture goal: 2,000
  • Removal goal: 2,000
  • Captured: 542, up from 329 on Day 1
  • Shipped: 325, up from zero on Day 1
  • Released: None
  • Deaths: 3, up from 1 on Day 1
  • Average daily take: 180.7
  • Unaccounted-for animals: 214
  • Snippet from statute: It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death
  • Snippet from manual: To protect wild horses and burros from unauthorized capture, branding, harassment or death

The figures above are based on the daily reports.

Helicopters did not fly on Day 2.

Two horses died unintentionally the same day.

The death rate is 0.6%.

The capture total includes 228 stallions, 229 mares and 85 foals.

Youngsters represented 15.7% of the animals gathered.

Of the adults, 49.9% were male and 50.1% were female.

Body condition scores were not given on Day 3.

The location of the trap site is not known.

The name of the contractor was not specified.

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

The Complex is subject to permitted grazing.  Resources liberated to date:

  • Forage: 6,504 AUMs per year
  • Water: 5,420 gallons per day

The project area covers 1,145,515 acres.

RELATED: Callaghan Roundup in Progress.

Last Day to Comment on Changes to Grazing Rules

Ranchers, with the cooperation of your faithful public servants, want to control how grazing allotments are used.

Permits would be limited to animals they like, such as cattle and sheep.

Grazing would no longer be authorized for undesirable species such as bison and horses, precluding the use of public lands for wild animal preserves.

It’s anti-competitive, a barrier to those who would lawfully acquire base properties and petition the government for changes in livestock types and seasons of use.

It’s also the middle finger to those who bear the costs of off-range holding.

You can comment against the proposal at the Federal Register.

PREVIOUS: Allotment Conversion Not Illegal.

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

► Search for other posts about grazing rule changes.

Montgomery Pass Q&A

Q. Did the helicopters sterilize any mares?

A. No, fertility control programs do that.

Q. Was genetic diversity compromised?

A. No, fertility control programs do that.

Q. Did the incident reduce the breeding population to an unsustainable level?

A. No, fertility control programs do that.

Q. Did the roundup attract women?

A. No, fertility control programs do that.

Q. Will the herd collapse?

A. No, fertility control programs do that.

Q. Are you surprised that the advocates push for the greater of two evils?

A. No, they want the ranchers to win.

PREVIOUS: Montgomery Pass Roundup Almost Over.

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

Roundup Season: Boon to Pesticide Salesmen

In the following video one of the founding members of the Pesticide Caucus complains about motorized removal at the Callaghan Complex, which she describes as costly and inhumane, and the benefits of immunocontraceptives.

The capture and removal goals are 2,000 according to the gather page, not 5,000, and there are no plans to treat any of the mares with such pesticides and return them to the range, much to her chagrin.

Remember, “humane management,” “protecting them from removal” and “a better way” are codewords for long-term use of PZP, with the inevitable result of permanent infertility and herd collapse.

Refer to the AdvocateSpeak decoder for more examples.

RELATED: Callaghan Roundup Not a Rescue?

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

Callaghan Roundup Not a Rescue?

Of course it is!  It’s the government throwing a lifeline to high-net-worth individuals whose livelihood is threatened by pests that are robbing forage from the most noble and deserving nonnative species on Nevada’s public lands.

The Day 1 results at the gather page give body condition scores of 3 to 5, discrediting the starvation hypothesis, at least for now.

Animals removed from their lawful homes will be placed in off-range holding at a cost of $6 per head per day, while the government collects about five cents per head per day for livestock grazing in their stead.

Makes perfect sense.

Pay no attention to the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses and its army of nitwits, they are public enemy #1 of America’s wild horses.

PREVIOUS: Callaghan Roundup in Progress.

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

Montgomery Pass Roundup Almost Over

The final day (for aerial operations) was July 10 according to the Inyo horse page, with 461 horses captured and three dead.

All deaths were intentional.

Some horses may still be on site awaiting shipment.

Foals represented 18% of the animals captured, too small to support a herd growth rate of 20% per year.

Of the adults, 50% were male and 50% were female.

The incident liberated 5,532 AUMs per year for other mandated uses of public lands.

PREVIOUS: Montgomery Pass Roundup in Progress.

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

Slater Base Property Available for $27.5 Million

The ranch covers 44,311 total acres, including 9,006 deeded acres, according to the listing.

The nearest towns are Slater, Craig and Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Most of the public acreage is in the Roaring Fork and Stewardship allotments of the Routt National Forest.

One is in Colorado and the other is in Wyoming.

The ranch also has preference on three BLM allotments.

Overall, the land ratio is good, 3.8 public acres per deeded acre.

The ranch does not overlap areas identified for wild horses.

Management as a wild horse preserve might be difficult because the allotments are not contiguous and multiple government agencies are involved.

Allotment conversion is not illegal, but your faithful public servants are trying to make it so—at least on BLM lands— by changing the Part 4100 grazing regulations.

You can comment against the proposal through July 13.

RELATED: Key Indicators for New Wild Horse Preserves.

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

► Search for other posts about base properties.

Hypocrite Alert: Salt River Advocates Feign Compassion

Exhibit A:

They’re obsessed with pesticides.

They’re as ruthless as the helicopter pilots and wranglers.

All in a day’s work: Misplaced shot goes unnoticed by public.

They hate foals.

They hate families.

They hate nature’s way.

The Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group is a forward base of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses in Arizona.

RELATED: Salt River Advocates Hitting Mares in the Back?

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

Advocates, Pesticide Caucus, Decry Callaghan Roundup

A July 10 press release by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses says the incident is expected to become the largest wild horse removal effort in Nevada history, which is not true.

The mass sterilization program on the Virginia Range, targeting over 3,000 wild horses, is the largest removal effort in the state, and it’s inflicted by the writers of the news release.

As usual, the charlatans call for effective management strategies grounded in science, transparency and humane stewardship, codewords for long-term use of PZP, with the inevitable result of permanent infertility and herd collapse.

One of their dupes, who stars in the Yellowstone spinoff Marshals, said “This isn’t about population control.”

Yes it is.

They are pesticide salesmen, not conservationists, and don’t deserve a penny of your support.

PREVIOUS: Callaghan Roundup Closed to Public Observation?

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

Colorado Wild Horse Advisory Committee Meets July 28

The successor to the Wild Horse Working Group, disbanded in 2025, will meet online according to the news release.

No agenda was provided.

Creation of a wild horse preserve, suggested by the original group, will be impossible on public lands if the grazing rule update goes through.

Why aren’t the advocates talking about that?

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

Foal-Free Friday, Putting Your Trust in Princes Edition

Princesses might be more accurate.

Princess of the range rides her chariot into battle.

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

If you’re a hunter or rancher, they are the good guys.

The rest of us know them as phonies, enemies of the horses, not worthy of our support.

Beware of the wild horse advocates.  They’re not who they say they are.

PREVIOUS: Foal-Free Friday, Ending the Lull Edition.

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

Court Agrees with ISPMB in ASNF Wild Horse Removal

Today a U.S. District Judge granted a preliminary injunction barring federal agencies from classifying the horses as unauthorized livestock and preventing them from capturing and removing them according to a report by Courthouse News Service.

The order applies to all horses in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests not just the Heber WHT.

Last month ASNF solicited input on low-stress removal of up to 2,000 wild horses.

RELATED: Would Mass Sterilization Qualify as Low-Stress Removal?

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

Crocodile Tears for Montgomery Pass Horses

Families were roaming the sage, foals were discovering the world and mares were carrying the next generation.

Oh the humanity!

Do you know who wrote this crap?

The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in nonmotorized removal and instigator of the largest attempted eradication of wild horses in Nevada.

They hate foals.

They’re sterilizing the mares with PZP.

The only problem they have with Montgomery Pass is that the horses are being removed with helicopters not ovary-killing pesticides.

RELATED: Montgomery Pass Roundup in Progress.

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

Courts Say Montgomery Pass Roundup Can Proceed

Yesterday judges in Sacramento denied two requests to halt the incident according to a report by Courthouse News Service.

Another judge granted a request to halt the removal of wild horses at Carter Reservoir, Buckhorn and Coppersmith, scheduled to begin on September 1.

PREVIOUS: Tribe Attempts to Block Montgomery Pass Roundup.

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

Lahontan Roundup Announced

The incident will begin on or about July 20 according to the news release.

The capture and removal goals are 700 each.

The current population is thought to be 809.

A helicopter will push the horses into the traps.

Operations will not be open to public observation with the exception of those escorted by BLM staff.

Animals not put down in the field will be taken to the off-range corrals in Palomino Valley.

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

The roundup supports three tenets of rangeland management.

RELATED: BLM Curtailing Access to Lahontan Roundup.

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

BLM Curtailing Access to Lahontan Roundup

Another project has been created in ePlanning and two documents have been uploaded.

The Decision Record says the agency is closing public lands within five miles of active trapping locations and temporary holding facilities to all public entry for the duration of the incident.

Only operations personnel and any public observers who are escorted by BLM staff will be allowed in the closure area.

A map on the last page shows the project area but does not indicate trap locations.

PREVIOUS: BLM to Ban Public from Lahontan Roundup?

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

Muddy Creek EA Out for Review

A preliminary environmental assessment was copied to the project folder yesterday, with comments due by August 5 according to the news release.

A scoping report was included for reference.

Alternative B, the Proposed Action, calls for

  • Adoption of a new HMAP
  • Forcible removal to low AML
  • Application of fertility control pesticides
  • Maintenance of a normal sex ratio
  • Introduction of horses from other areas to boost genetic diversity

The HMAP is discussed in Appendix C.

The HMA overlaps ten allotments, with percentages given in Table 3-2 of the EA.

Map 3 shows the arrangement.

The allotment master report at RAS provides acreage, management status and active AUMs (Price FO | Richfield FO).

Approximately 64% of the public acres are in the Improve category.

Livestock receive an estimated 9,031 AUMs per year inside the HMA, compared to 1,500 AUMs per year for the horses.

The HMA supports livestock equivalent to 753 wild horses, accounting for 1.3% of the animals in off-range holding.

The current population is thought to be 255, well within the estimated carrying capacity of 125 + 753 = 878.

If all horses were removed the HMA would still be at 6X AML.

Your faithful public servants claim that rangeland health will suffer if the population exceeds 1X AML.

Reducing livestock was one of the options eliminated from detailed analysis in the EA.

PREVIOUS: Scoping Begins for Muddy Creek HMAP?

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