At the southwest corner of the Virginia Range with Jennifer Fairbairn.
Month: April 2024
Colorado’s Wild Horse Refuge Seeks Ranch Hands
Two full-time openings exist according to the job posting at AgHires:
- General care of property, repairing fences, field/hay work, building gates/pens
- Monitoring herds, leading tours, cleaning rental house after visitors, photography
A husband-wife team would be ideal.
The facility, formerly Rio Ro Mo Ranch, covers approximately 22,500 acres near Craig.
Caliente Roundup in Progress?
Sort of. The incident started on April 2 but no horses have been captured.
They are currently adapting to the presence of the traps.
RELATED: Caliente Roundup Announced.
How to Find the 2024 Census Report for Assateague Island
It’s not at the wild horse page, which, as of today, still shows the report for 2023.
It does not appear on the Assateague news page.
It was buried among thousands of articles by NPS.
Go to the search page, type in Assateague and hit “Go.”
Then set the “Sort by” field to “Recently Updated.”
The report says the population is close to the goal range of 80-100 individuals, which is not true.
The herd has passed through the target range and continues to decline because too many mares have been ruined by the ovary-killing pesticide PZP, which the advocates peddle as a safe, proven and reversible vaccine.
They are the old guard, leaders of the blind, irrelevant.
RELATED: Latest Census Shows Assateague Herd Imploding.
Rhyolite Ridge Mine to Affect Silver Peak Burros, Livestock?
Today the BLM announced the start of a 45-day public comment period on a draft EIS for a proposed lithium mine in Nevada’s Silver Peak Range.
As of this evening, no new documents have been copied to the project folder.
The 2022 scoping overview puts the mine in the Silver Peak HMA, which overlaps the Silver Peak Allotment.
The HMA allows six wild burros on 239,801 public acres.
The allotment offers 1,530 active AUMs on 281,489 public acres, equivalent to 255 wild burros, on 281,489 public acres.
The land is not very useful from an agricultural viewpoint.
Lithium is used in batteries for electric vehicles, utilities, computers and mobile phones.
The advocates complain about habitat loss attributable to mining even though they, as believers in man-made climate change, vote for it.
Return of Caisson Platoon Delayed Indefinitely?
The commander of the Military District of Washington hesitated to use the term but would not commit to a specific timeframe, according to a story dated April 12 by AP News, saying only that the Army has every intention to resume operations of the horse-drawn carts during burial services at Arlington National Cemetery.
RELATED: Caisson Platoon Going on Hiatus.
Foal-Free Friday, More Bang for Your Buck Edition
A report distributed by ISPMB indicates that administration of the first dose of PZP before sexual maturity may cause infertility, according to a study by Knight & Rubenstein discussed on page 35. If you can’t access the file, click here.
Can you think of an easier way to make your darting resources go farther?
Females who have not yet reached puberty, which occurs 12 to 15 months after birth, could be sterilized with one injection.
You don’t have to stalk them for five years to finish them off.
This idea helps you to do more with less and will certainly get you noticed by the bureaucrats and ranchers.
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Shooting the Messenger Edition.
Litmus Test for Wild Horse Advocacy Groups
If they cover the report by the Park Service about the condition of the herd on Assateague Island, they’re legit.
If they ignore it, they’re frauds.
Lake Pleasant Roundup, Day 63
The incident started on February 5. Results through April 7:
- Scope: Lake Pleasant HMA
- Target: Burros
- Type: Planned
- Method: Bait
- Goals: Gather 400, remove 400
- Captured: 247, up from 183 on Day 51
- Shipped: 180, no change from Day 51
- Released: None
- Deaths: 4, up from 3 on Day 51
- Average daily take: 3.9
- Unaccounted-for animals: 63
The figures above are based on the daily reports.
A jenny died on Day 55 after colliding with the trap.
The death rate is 1.6%.
The capture total includes 95 jacks, 124 jennies and 28 foals.
A freeze-marked horse was caught on Day 61 and returned to its owner.
Youngsters represented 11.3% of the animals gathered.
Of the adults, 43.4% were male and 56.6% were female.
The HA and HMA are the same size. The area is subject to permitted grazing.
- Forage liberated to date: 1,482 AUMs per year
- Water liberated to date: 1,235 gallons per day
There are no plans to treat any of the jennies with fertility control pesticides and return them to the range.
The roundup targets animals that are damaging private property and creating a public safety hazard, purposes for which PZP was not authorized.
The incident supports three tenets of rangeland management.
RELATED: Lake Pleasant Roundup, Day 51.
Assateague Island Prefigures Salt River, Virginia Range
The Save Our Wild Horses conference starts next week in Reno against a backdrop of the largest wild horse sterilization effort in the nation.
Volunteers with the Campaign Against America’s Wild horses are driving the breeding population into the single digits, with 11 foals born this year to a herd of almost 3,500.
Many of the mares are at risk of sterility.
The same is true at the Salt River in Arizona, where CAAWH facilitates another wild horse eradication program.
Both herds will reach the tipping point this year, a threshold passed by the Assateague herd over ten years ago.
With too many nonviable mares, the herd is imploding and the only way to save it is to bring in horses from other areas.
RELATED: If PZP Is Reversible, Why Hasn’t Assateague Herd Rebounded?
Latest Census Shows Assateague Herd Imploding
An undated report by the Park Service indicates the population in March was 73, including 30 stallions and 43 mares, down from 75 in March of last year and 76 in March 2022.
Ten deaths and eight births were recorded since the last report.
For years the advocates pointed to the herd as a model of wild horse management.
Now they’ve swept it under the rug because it contradicts their lies about PZP.
The herd exhibits characteristics for which the pesticide is famous:
- Sterile mares
- Abnormal sex ratio
- Tiny breeding population
- Increasing death rate
- Irreversible decline
This is what the advocates want for all wild horse herds.
RELATED: No Growth for Assateague Herd in Latest Census.
Why Are There So Many Wild Horses in Off-Range Holding?
Because most of their food has been assigned to the public-lands ranchers, not because the advocates haven’t implemented enough darting programs.
WITHOUT DARTING PROGRAMS
- Goal: Ranching superiority in the lawful homes of wild horses
- Forage allocations: 20% to horses, 80% to livestock
- Result: For every wild horse allowed on public lands, four have been consigned to off-range holding
- Who foots the bill: Taxpayers
WITH DARTING PROGRAMS
- Goal: Ranching superiority in the lawful homes of wild horses
- Forage allocations: 20% to horses, 80% to livestock
- Result: For every wild horse allowed on public lands, four have been consigned to off-range holding
- Who foots the bill: Taxpayers
Darting programs change the method of removal, with the added benefit that the herds don’t bounce back.
Thus, the advocates do a better job of achieving the long-term goal than the helicopter pilots and wranglers.
Advocates Anxious to Renew VR Darting Agreement?
Absolutely! This is the year they push the herd over the cliff.
The Campaign Against America’s Wild horses said in its March update that a goal for April is to renew the cooperative agreement with NDA to continue reducing the wild horse population on the Virginia Range.
As the effort moves into its sixth year, many of the mares are at risk of sterility.
This is the point of no return, the time when the herd begins to shrink, irreversibly.
Mustang Monday
Horses have the day off. At the Lake Pleasant HMA with Randy Donahoo.
Challenge to SOWH Conferees
Get out of the classroom and see how many barren mares you can find on the Virginia Range.
Should be easy.
Last week the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in nonmotorized removal, reported that only eleven foals have been born this year to a population of nearly 3,500, thanks to them.
The herd is reaching the tipping point.
Although publicly CAAWH denies that PZP is a sterilant (refer to following video), its own literature states otherwise.
Refer to the Advocatespeak Decoder for the meaning of “self-boost.”
The conference provides an opportunity for organizers and attendees to denounce the sterilization effort, which will spread to other areas once the bureaucrats and ranchers realize its finality.
Condemnation forthcoming? Don’t bet on it.
RELATED: Backdrop for Saving Wild Horses Conference: Mass Sterilization.
Codewords for Ranching Superiority (on Public Lands)
Like the advocates, the bureaucrats use deceptive language to mislead the public about their true intentions and loyalties.
In 1971, Congress declared that wild horses and burros were to be protected from capture, branding, harassment and death.
Areas where they were found were to be managed principally for them.
Today, the wild horse and burro program operates as a grazing program ancillary, supporting three tenets of rangeland management.
This process is sold to the American people as
- Achieving and maintaining AMLs,
- Healthy horses on healthy rangelands, and
- Restoring a thriving ecological balance and multiple-use relationship,
Meaning that livestock operators receive most of the authorized forage in the lawful homes of wild horses.
But inverting the priorities is not enough.
Congress is unlikely to repeal in the statute so the bureaucrats have opted for long-term nullification through the planning process, one HMA at a time.
The Caliente Complex is a perfect example.
The advocates condone the effort through their darting programs.
RELATED: Codewords for Nonmotorized Removal (of Wild Horses).
Foal-Free Friday, Shooting the Messenger Edition
Your host is not a villain, he tells you about the villains.
- Western Horse Watchers is not pursuing a hidden agenda, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not poisoning the mares with ovary-killing pesticides, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not selling eradication as conservation, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not driving the breeding populations into the single digits, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not skewing the sex ratios in favor of females, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not inflicting injuries and infections, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not praying for the older horses to die, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not blowing smoke up your butt about HMAPs, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not telling you that PZP is reversible, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not promoting the overpopulation narrative, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not trying to hide the mismanagement of resources in areas identified for wild horses, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not desperate for a seat at the table, the advocates are
- Western Horse Watchers is not fighting for ranching superiority in the lawful homes of wild horses, sometimes referred to as achieving and maintaining AMLs, the advocates are
Why don’t you hear about this? It’s illegal for the government to stifle free speech so today’s messengers are silenced by its big-tech minions.
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Arithmetic for Advocates Edition.
Virginia Range Darting Update for March 2024
The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in nonsurgical sterilization, reported today that 165 mares received 165 doses of PZP during the month, 31 given as a primer and 134 as a booster.
Over the life of the program, which began in 2019, the advocates have pumped 8,927 doses of the pesticide into 2,007 mares.
Eleven foals have been born year-to-date. One died of unspecified causes.
The current population is thought to be 3,480 with 353 horses listed as missing, compared to 3,444 with 338 horses listed as missing in February.
The population was 3,465 with 342 horses listed as missing in January and 3,471 with 336 listed as missing in December.
The goal for April: “Continue to maximize booster treatments to mares across the Virginia Range as we move through spring breeding season to prevent pregnancies, and continuing to allow for humane population decrease.”
Not discussed in the report:
- Long-term population goal
- Number of viable mares
- Size of breeding population
- Loss of genetic diversity
- Changes in death rate and sex ratio
- Unlawful use of pesticides
PZP tricks the immune system into attacking the ovaries, resulting in sterility after five years of treatment.
The report will be submitted to the Nevada Department of Agriculture.
RELATED: Virginia Range Darting Update for February 2024.
Any Wild Horses to See 2024 Total Solar Eclipse?
Not on the east coast and not out west but horses in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways will.
An article by the Park Service puts the town of Eminence in the zone of totality and with it most of the park.
The Pulltite Campground is on the western edge. Click on image to open in new tab.
An interactive map by NASA shows the track across the U.S. The event occurs April 8.
Purpose of Virginia Range Darting Program?
It’s a demonstration project intended to convince the bureaucrats and ranchers that the advocates can be as ruthless as the helicopter pilots and wranglers, with the added advantage that the herd won’t bounce back.
Problem solved.
RELATED: Backdrop for Saving Wild Horses Conference: Mass Sterilization.
Western Horse Watchers Association 