Month: May 2020

Adoptions Are the Answer?

They’re not, but if you’re a shill for the public-lands ranchers, anything that gets wild horses and burros off the range is good.

Being a wild horse on western rangelands is like moving into a five bedroom home and then being told that you can only use one bedroom.  The four remaining bedrooms are reserved for other authorized users, which you’re not allowed to talk about, just like the writer of this opinion piece appearing today in The Salt Lake Tribune.

Fertility Control Study Begins

BLM said today that testing of a new fertility control vaccine began last week at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, NV.  Researchers believe that a single dose may prevent pregnancy for three years or more.

The current wild horse and burro population in the western U.S. is thought to be around 95,000 according to the news release.

The number of privately owned cattle and sheep trying to graze the same land was not given in the announcement.

RELATED: Fertility Control Study Approved.

No!

Yesterday I was asked by one of the Virginia Range darters if they could ply their trade on my property.  No unfair advantage or anything.

When the project was announced a year ago, it was to occur on land owned by Blockchains LLC in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.

But apparently it has morphed into mass targeting of all wild horses across the Virginia Range, which is held up as a model of success.  Trailcam photo taken 05-15-20.

No! 05-15-20

Lies of Omission in New WHB Management Strategy

The introductory material in the new WHB management plan, beginning on page 2, is not complete.  You might get the impression that wild horses are the problem.

Mustangers were not ordered to harvest them for commercial purposes, such as the production of dog food.  That’s how they got rid of the carcasses.  They were hired by ranchers to clear the range of anything that robbed forage from their livestock.

Yes, the WHB Act has been amended by Congress on four different occasions—at the behest of ranching interests.  That part was not stated.  The original Act protected the horses from ranchers, not drillers, loggers and miners.

Velma understood the issues.  Today, most wild horse ‘advocates’ do not.  In their zeal for contraceptives, they’ve sided with the ranchers.

Yes, the number of wild horses on western rangelands has grown, while the amount of land reserved for them has gone down.  That part was carefully omitted.  When the Rock Springs RMP amendments are implemented, the loss will be roughly 50% (of the land inhabited by these animals in 1971).

Lands no longer managed for wild horses and burros don’t have enough resources to support them, but somehow, privately owned livestock seem to do just fine.

If nothing is done to reduce growth rates, the on-range population of wild horses and burros could reach 2.8 million by 2040.  OK, why is that a problem?  Because it will lead to catastrophic harm to the land and to other species—meaning it will put the livestock operators out of business.

This plan is nothing but a shameless defense of the public-lands ranchers, who hide in the shadows while the government does their dirty work.  It’s one of the best examples of crony capitalism you’d ever want to investigate.

RELATED: WHB Strategy in the News.