A BLM representative told Western Horse Watchers in an email message that the roundtable was a one-time, closed listening session to gather diverse perspectives on humane, sustainable wild horse management.
It’s not clear if the big tent included any opponents to fertility control or permitted grazing.
Recall the comments by Celeste Carlisle of Return to Freedom, one of the nonprofits participating in the roundtable, about who to invite to such meetings:
“You definitely have fringe groups that do have valid concerns and bring a lot to the table but by them being at the table there’s no advancement in the discussion.”
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 stallion was euthanized on Day 2 for poor body condition.
Two mares were dispatched on Day 3 for the same reason and a third for blindness.
To date, all deaths are intentional.
The death rate is already high, 3.2%.
The capture total includes 80 stallions, 93 mares and 45 foals.
Youngsters represented 20.6% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 46.2% were male and 53.8% were female.
Body condition scores on Days 2 and 3 ranged from 1 to 4.
The location of the trap site was not disclosed.
There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control and return them to the range, a move that would prolong the genetic bottleneck created by the roundup.
Recovery is expected.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
Forage: 2,616 AUMs per year
Water: 2,180 gallons per day
Public lands within five miles of active trapping locations and temporary holding facilities are closed to the public for the duration of the roundup, with the exception of observers escorted by BLM staff.
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 2.
The capture total includes 44 stallions, 37 mares and 12 foals.
Youngsters represented 12.9% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 54.3% were male and 45.7% were female.
Body condition scores on Day 3 ranged from 4 to 5.
The location of the trap site was not disclosed.
Up to 55 hand-picked horses will be returned to the area, including 22 mares treated with fertility control.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
Forage: 1,116 AUMs per year
Water: 930 gallons per day
Public lands within two miles of active trapping locations and temporary holding facilities are closed to the public for the duration of the roundup.
Protection and humane management are codewords for continual application of fertility control pesticides, with the inevitable result of permanent infertility and herd collapse.
Today’s meeting included pesticide pushers and ranching sympathizers from Humane World for Animals, American Wild Horse Conservation, Return to Freedom, Beaver County, the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the Wild Horse and Burro Working Group according to a BLM news release.
Your faithful public servants announced a $30 million earmark from the Department of Agriculture to expand and accelerate fertility control efforts nationwide.
The expenditure will allow the BLM to increase field capacity, train and deploy more fertility control applicators and expand pesticide delivery across remote herd areas.
The announcement said that fertility control is most effective once gathers reduce herds to sustainable sizes.
In other words, use helicopters to create genetic bottlenecks then transition to chemical sterilization to make sure there is no possibility of recovery.
The pre-gather population is thought to be around 700.
The management plan allows 217.
A helicopter will push the horses into the traps.
The contractor is Warner and the contract amount is $303,630.
Public lands within five miles of active trapping locations and temporary holding facilities will be closed to public access except for observers escorted by BLM staff.
Captured animals will be taken to the privately owned corrals near Winnemucca.
There are no plans to beat the numbers down permanently and declare victory for the ranchers, sometimes referred to as sustained fertility control, a huge disappointment to the advocates.
The incident concluded on September 18 with 356 horses captured, 235 shipped, 109 released and 12 dead.
There were no unaccounted-for animals.
The death rate was 3.4%. All deaths were intentional.
The capture total included 131 stallions, 157 mares and 68 foals.
Of the animals released, 56% were stallions, 41% were mares and 3% were foals, an attempt to skew the sex ratio in favor of males and prolong the genetic bottleneck created by the roundup.
The average daily take was 89.
The roundup liberated 2,964 AUMs per year for other mandated uses of public lands.
The capture goal is 300 and the removal goal is 245.
The target is horses.
A helicopter will push them into the traps.
The contractor is Cattoor and the contract amount is $222,590.
Public lands within two miles of active trapping locations and temporary holding facilities are closed to public entry except for observers escorted by BLM staff.
A new project has been opened in ePlanning and three documents have been uploaded.
The Decision Record says that public lands within five miles of active trapping locations and temporary holding facilities will be closed to all public entry for the duration of the incident.
Only contractor personnel and observers escorted by BLM staff will be admitted.
The event is on the schedule with a start date of September 20.
Genetic diversity comes from genetic mixing and genetic mixing comes from breeding.
Anything that interferes with breeding puts long-term viability at risk.
Methods, which fall under the general heading of population growth suppression, include fertility control, sex ratio skewing and surgical sterilization.
Are you surprised that the advocates prefer methods that are more harmful to wild horses than motorized removal?
Helicopters don’t sterilize mares. They don’t destroy breeding populations and they don’t stop genetic mixing.
They do create genetic bottlenecks but recovery is possible.
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.
Seven horses were euthanized on Day 3 for pre-existing conditions.
The death rate is 2.0%.
The capture total includes 131 stallions, 157 mares and 68 foals.
Youngsters represented 19.1% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 45.5% were male and 54.5% were female.
Body condition scores were not given.
The location of the trap site was not disclosed.
There are no plans to treat any of the mares with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
They were distributed yesterday at the annual meeting of the Public Lands Council.
The winner in the Stewardship Permittee category grazes the Yellowjacket Canyon Allotment in the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument according to the BLM news release.
The equivalent stocking rate is 3.3 wild horses per thousand public acres, a bit higher than the target rate across all HMAs of one wild horse per thousand acres.
The meeting included a breakout session on virtual fencing, a topic of growing interest among ranchers.
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 0.5%.
The capture total includes 70 stallions, 7 geldings, 92 mares and 37 foals.
Youngsters represented 18.0% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 45.6% were male and 54.4 % were female.
Body condition scores were not given.
The location of the trap site was not disclosed.
Up to 54 mares will be treated with fertility control and returned to the range.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing. Resources liberated to date:
