Today’s news release says 19 animals were dispatched over three days of operations.
The project area was searched at least four times and no additional cattle were seen.
A news release dated February 16 said the best estimate was 150 head.
The number of animals injured and left to die was not reported.
The closure order covering the area of operations will be lifted tomorrow.
RELATED: Forest Service Acknowledges Source of Gila Livestock.
A story posted today by the Cody Enterprise confirms the resolution failed in a split vote on February 16.
RELATED: HJR3 Stumbles in Senate?
The agency seeks public input regarding historic properties in or near the project area, according to today’s news release.
The preferred method for submitting comments is at the project site on ePlanning, but a Participate Now button has not been added to the documents folder.
The project would gather and remove excess wild horses from in and around the HMA and implement a range of fertility control techniques to maintain the population within AML over a period of ten years.
RELATED: Clan Alpine Scoping Begins.
At the Needle Rock Day Use Area, Tonto National Forest, with Will Ohlund.
Last week’s episode was likely filmed at this location.
In this paid position, you’ll convince unsuspecting donors that you actually care about wild horses, while your colleagues work behind the scenes to displace as many as possible from their lawful homes.
You’ll carry on a fine tradition of not only caving to the ranching agenda, but actively supporting it.
And, like most advocacy groups, you’ll claim that the only way to save wild horses is to destroy their ovaries with a restricted-use pesticide or move them to remote wilderness areas where they’ll welcomed like the Gila livestock.
The site is not going anywhere.
The Follow button has been removed and E-mail distribution has been discontinued.
Thank you for your support.
The issue started when a permittee abandoned cattle on the Redstone Allotment, according to the Decision Memo, copied to the project folder with other documents.
That happened in the 1970s according to remarks at the bottom of page two in the Response to Comments.
Scroll down to the documents section and click on the Decision folder to access these files.
Western Horse Watchers has been unable to find any news reports covering the killings, which were to start on February 23.
The Center for Biological Diversity, instigator of the Apache “Jumping Mouse” horse removal, supports this effort.
RELATED: Gila Cattle Shoot in Progress?
The action was to resume yesterday, according to a notice dated February 16 by the Forest Service, and continue through February 26.
The closure area, effective February 20, is bounded by Turkey Creek to the north, the Gila River to the south, and extends eastward into the vacant Redstone Allotment.
The Gila Wilderness is surrounded by USFS grazing allotments, the likely source of the target animals. Click on image to open in new tab.
RELATED: Forest Service to Resume Aerial Shooting of Gila Livestock.
Today we recognize a remarkable achievement of the advocates.
With an unexpected lull in gather activity and a schedule dominated by fertility control programs, they are now leaders in the wild horse removal industry.
In fact, if they get their way, future schedules will have a limited number of roundups but massive delivery of their favorite pesticide.
This practice, sometimes referred to as keep them wild and free, humane management, or a better way, means few if any youngsters, gradual extermination of the herds and most of their food consumed by livestock, as specified in the land-use plans.
You can learn more about these concepts at the SOWH DC conference.
Pre-conference activity includes a postcard campaign.
Events like this keep their base fired up while accomplishing nothing for wild horses.
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Spending Your Money Wisely Edition.
The 2023 spring training and certification cycle is starting now, according to a report by The Fernley Reporter.
The non-profit serves most of the Virginia Range and surrounding counties.
The article did not indicate if interventions have increased over the last five years as the horses scatter in fear of the advocates.
RELATED: Press Briefing for Virginia Range Horse Program?
With few if any helicopters forcing them off the range, and a schedule that’s dominated by fertility control programs, the advocates have taken the lead in 2023, fulfilling their goal, at least temporarily, of being leaders in the wild horse removal industry.
The ranch covers 3,621 deeded acres along the Humboldt River, according to the agent’s listing, with grazing preference on the Sonoma Allotment.
The Allotment Master Report puts it in the Improve category, with 1,485 active AUMs.
The Authorization Use Report indicates a four-month grazing season.
Where do you suppose the cattle go during the off season?
Most of the public land, representing about 50% of the total, is in the Sonoma Range HA, as shown in the following map from the National Data Viewer. Click on image to open in new tab.
The new owner need not run cattle on Sonoma.
He could petition the BLM for a change in livestock type and season of use, as American Prairie did in Montana, allowing horses to return to a small part of their lawful home.
The following maps from the National Data Viewer show land designations along the I-80 corridor from Lovelock to Elko. Click on image to open in new tab.
BLM land is tan, private property is white.
First, areas of critical environmental concern, in gray.
Next, herd areas, in black, where wild horses were found in 1971.
In orange, herd management areas, with non-zero AMLs, a subset of the herd areas.
Finally, in green, the grazing allotments.
What’s the predominant use of public lands in this area?
The price for 2023 is $1.35 per AUM, same as last year, according to a BLM news release dated January 31.
Western Horse Watchers believes it was posted more recently but was backdated to bury it in the archives.
The announcement means the fee has been at rock bottom for three years in a row.
The price of hay in this area has gone from around $95 per AUM in 2021 to $180 per AUM in 2023.
The new fee goes into effect on March 1.
The bill status indicates that it did not pass an initial vote among the senators in the Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources Committee.
The resolution would ask Congress to enact legislation and make other necessary policy changes to allow the slaughter wild horses and burros for processing and shipment to markets within or outside the United States.
Western Horse Watchers is not aware of any legislature in any state calling for an end to public-lands ranching.
The advocates want to poison their treasured mares and jennies with a restricted-use pesticide.
Such animals would be unfit for human consumption?
RELATED: HJR3 Clears Wyoming House.
Somewhere in Arizona with Patrick Patterson.
The exact location was not given but the absence of youngsters suggests one possibility.
The company secured a $2 billion loan from the Department of Energy for a battery recycling and manufacturing plant east of Reno, according to a story dated February 9 by the Reno Gazette Journal.
The 173-acre facility, south of Tesla’s Gigafactory, will be able to process two-and-a-half Gigafactories worth of materials, enough to supply one million electric vehicles per year.
Why is this important?
The advocates will point to the project as further justification for their Virginia Range darting program.
As noted yesterday, their goal is to convince the bureaucrats, politicians and ranchers that they have a better way to get rid of wild horses.
As for you, they couldn’t care less.
Climate change, a fake problem invented by liberals, and the green energy movement, are designed to enrich the communists and punish the capitalists, while imposing totalitarian control on the American people.
Ever wonder what the propagandists at the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses are pushing out to their followers?
You don’t have to subscribe to their feed.
Meredith Hodges of Lucky Three Ranch runs an echo chamber for their news releases.
You’ll find all the buzzwords and all the lies, punctuated by their shameless attempts to separate you from your money.
What you won’t find is a sincere effort to help America’s wild horses and burros.
We are realists—we work with the bureaucrats and ranchers.
“Our own PZP fertility control program on Nevada’s Virginia Range has reduced foaling rates by 62%. And hard-hitting data like this has helped us demonstrate to the public, Congress, and the BLM that there is a better way to manage our wild herds.”
You are defeatists, turncoats and sellouts.
You say you’re protecting wild horses but your actions prove otherwise.
Two amendments were proposed yesterday in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, L.007 and L.008.
They will not be incorporated into the bill unless adopted by the full Senate.
The changes would turn the measure into a livestock transportation bill, according to a report posted this morning by The Colorado Sun.
Slaughtering horses and burros for human consumption would become a crime under the original bill but with the amendments it would only establish tighter regulations when transporting twenty or more horses for slaughter.
Dan Waldvogle, director of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, which represents 17,000 farmers and ranchers in the state, said “Numerous cultures embrace horse consumption and we support their access to culturally relevant products and increasing their food sovereignty.”
You can monitor the status of SB23-038 at this page.
RELATED: Colorado Legislature Considers Bill to Prohibit Slaughter.
Letters to the editors of newspapers and online news services should focus on two issues, resource management and predation by the advocates.
This example from the Craig Press addresses the former but not the latter.
Mismanagement of resources, indicated by the prevalence of livestock, is largely responsible for the removal and stockpiling of wild horses, but attempts to eradicate the herds with a restricted-use pesticide, favored by most advocates, are far more insidious.
Therefore, one of the best ways to protect wild horses is to put the advocacy groups out of business.
RELATED: Undeniable Truths of the Wild Horse World.
Western Horse Watchers Association 