Good grief, the news release says the plan will alleviate wild horse suffering from overpopulation, but nothing about rancher angst as they try to reclaim their food from the government dependents.
The person who wrote the announcement should be fired for misleading the public.
The Decision Record authorizes Alternative A, outlined in section 2.1 of the Final EA.
Implement the revised HMAP
Achieve low AML as soon a s possible
Apply fertility control strategies as detailed in HMAP
The documents were uploaded to the project folder in ePlanning.
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.
No animals were taken on Day 8.
The death rate is 0.7%.
The capture total includes 104 stallions, 119 mares and 59 foals.
Youngsters represented 20.9% of the animals gathered, large enough to support a herd growth rate of 16% per year.
Of the adults, 46.6% were male and 53.4% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio.
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.
Two stallions were put down on Day 8 for preexisting conditions. No details were given.
The death rate is 0.6%.
The capture total includes 194 stallions, 211 mares and 97 foals.
Youngsters represented 19.3% of the animals gathered, large enough to support a herd growth rate of 14% per year.
Of the adults, 47.9% were male and 52.1% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio.
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.
A foal was found dead in temporary holding on Day 6.
The death rate is 0.9%.
The capture total includes 79 stallions, 98 mares and 46 foals.
Youngsters represented 20.6% of the animals gathered, large enough to support a herd growth rate of 15% per year.
Of the adults, 44.6% were male and 55.4% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio.
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.
The death rate is 0.3%.
The capture total includes 149 stallions, 167 mares and 81 foals.
Youngsters represented 20.4% of the animals gathered, large enough to support a herd growth rate of 15% per year.
Of the adults, 47.2% were male and 52.8% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio in the population.
The statute declared that the horses are not stray livestock, according to an opinion piece in the Arizona Capitol Times, and it prohibited anyone from harassing, capturing or euthanizing them without written authorization, and only for humane purposes.
But it didn’t protect them from mass sterilization and those who would sacrifice the herd to prove their nutty ideas and win the approval of its detractors.
The debate about removal should include humane management, a codeword for long-term use of PZP, with the inevitable result of permanent infertility and herd collapse.
Three new documents have been copied to the project folder.
The Decision Record authorizes Alternative A, the Proposed Action, discussed in section 2.0 of the Final Environmental Assessment.
Implement new HMAP
No changes to AML
Forcible removal to low AML
Application of fertility control pesticides
Return of sterilized males and females to range
Sex ratio adjustments favoring males
The EA analyzed the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of implementing the HMAP on the lands, resources and wild horses within the HMA according to the news release.
The Finding of No Significant Impact asserts that no further analysis is needed.
Item 17, submitted by the same person, concerns fertility control:
BLM Handbook H-4700-1 says in section 4.4.6.3 that a minimum population size of 50 effective breeding animals (i.e., a total population size of about 150-200 animals) is recommended to maintain an acceptable level of genetic diversity.
The guideline applies to reproducing populations.
Apparently, the advocates think that genetic health can be achieved and maintained by reducing or eliminating genetic mixing.
It is they, not the BLM, that have some explaining to do.
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.
A mare was found dead in temporary holding on Day 4.
The death rate is 0.7%.
The capture total includes 52 stallions, 61 mares and 33 foals.
Youngsters represented 22.6% of the animals gathered, large enough to support a herd growth rate of 17% per year.
Of the adults, 46.0% were male and 54.0% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio.
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.
A mare died on Day 5 during trailer transport.
The death rate is 0.3%.
The capture total includes 117 stallions, 134 mares and 63 foals.
Youngsters represented 20.1% of the animals gathered, large enough to support a herd growth rate of 15% per year.
Of the adults, 46.6% were male and 53.4% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio.
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.
The capture total includes 20 stallions, 18 mares and 12 foals.
Youngsters represented 24% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 52.6% were male and 47.4% were female.
Body condition scores were not given.
The location of the trap site is not known.
The name of the contractor was not specified.
The contract amount was not disclosed.
There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.
The HMAs are subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
Forage: 600 AUMs per year
Water: 500 gallons per day
The Blawn Wash HA is unfit for wild horses, supposedly, and has no AML.
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.
The capture total includes 81 stallions, 105 mares and 46 foals.
Youngsters represented 19.8% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 43.5% were male and 56.5% were female.
Body condition scores on Days 2 and 3 ranged from 3 to 4.
The location of the trap site is not known.
The name of the contractor was not specified.
The contract amount was not disclosed.
The area is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
Forage: 2,784 AUMs per year
Water: 2,320 gallons per day
The West Douglas HA is unfit for wild horses, supposedly, and has no AML.
One document has been uploaded to the project folder with comments due by September 3.
The Proposed Action is to remove up to 500 wild horses from the Cedar Mountain HMA.
The news release said the current population is nearly twice the number the range can sustain, which might be true if the land was managed principally for wild horses.
A new project has been started in ePlanning and three documents have been uploaded.
The management evaluation report contains two incompatible goals:
You cannot achieve genetic diversity by ending genetic mixing.
The workaround, to keep the population small and minimize impacts to livestock, would be to bring in horses from other areas, altering the genetic identity of the herd.
The current population is thought to be around 300 according to the news release.
The HMA lies mostly within the Green River allotment.
The allotment master report puts it in the Improve category with 38% of the permitted use in the suspended column, suggesting that your stewards of the public lands are not taking their responsibilities seriously.
Western Horse Watchers Association 