Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
The incident started yesterday as scheduled, with 15 horses captured and no deaths.
Body condition scores ranged from 4.5 to 5, suggesting they’re not starving.
Overpopulation means more horses than allowed by plan, not necessarily more horses than the land can support.
While everyone else was trying to get out, you could have rolled in with a truckload of Muck Boots.
Valley Vet has them for $110 per pair but what would they fetch under conditions of rain and mud in the middle of nowhere?
The playa is now a mudhole, thanks to storms that rolled through starting on Friday.
Normally the problem is dust.
Nevada is the driest state in the nation so three months’ worth of rain in the valley may amount to an inch or less.
Most precipitation occurs in the mountains, with snowmelt feeding creeks and ponds.
Exodus starts today at noon local time, with “Leave No Trace” difficult to achieve.
The event occurs every summer on BLM land northeast of Gerlach.
The reporter in Wadsworth may be standing along State Route 447, the hopping-off point from I-80.
Curiously, the bonfire, if it occurs, will be watched by thousands of climate alarmists as it spews greenhouse gasses and particulates into the air.
Pilots to push the horses into the traps, stitched together with pipe panels, where some break their necks.
Ovary-killing pesticides to reverse population growth.
Public lands managed primarily for permitted grazing.
This is not business as usual, it’s catch-treat-release.
Herd management areas are now herd treatment areas, with stagnant or dwindling populations, thanks to the pioneering work of the wild horse advocates.
RELATED: Catch-Treat-Release, Misuse of GonaCon, Roll Out at Reveille.
In Fernley, NV, northeast corner of the Virginia Range, with Desert Explorer 302.
As the advocates expand their darting program into this area, the horses may feel safer in town than on the range.
The cremello at 0:26 may have been hit.
Five horses were taken on Day 2, followed by 34 on Day 3, bringing the total to 65.
No horses have escaped, none have been shipped and no deaths have been reported.
There were no unaccounted-for animals.
Foals represented 20% of the horses captured.
Of the adults, 56% were male and 44% were female.
With a capture and removal goals of 122, the incident is approximately 53% complete.
The HA is managed principally for livestock, in defiance of the original statute.
RELATED: West Douglas Roundup in Progress.
Like helicopters, the fertility control pesticides are tools for boosting rancher prosperity, a goal of federal agencies charged with wild horse protection.
This is why the helicopter ban is a ruse: It changes the way wild horse removals are carried out but does not stop them.
In a 2012 paper posted by the Billings School of PZP Darting and Public Deception, Jay Kirkpatrick, developer of the Montana Solution, speculated that “the greatest cause for opposition to PZP is the failure of advocacy groups to understand that there are really only two choices for wild horse management – roundups and removal or fertility control. There are no other choices.”
He noted in his opening remarks that “oversight by The Humane Society of the United States assures that the vaccine is used only to slow reproduction and may not be used for the extermination of entire herds. PZP is designed to bring about short-term infertility and is reversible, if not used beyond five consecutive years. It reduces the need for gathers and preserves the original gene pool in each herd.”
All of this turned out to be false.
On Assateague Island, where the pesticide was applied for over twenty years, the herd has been ruined.
On the Salt River and Virginia Range, advocates associated with the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses are using the product to reverse population growth, not slow it.
They don’t follow EPA rules for its use.
A common violation is failure to wear the proper PPE.
In other areas, the advocates use the product to control horses that interfere or could interfere with animal agriculture, a purpose for which it was not approved.
In some cases, the justification is safety hazards to passing motorists, another illicit use.
The product label indicates PZP is intended for use on female wild horses and burros, privately or publicly owned, that are capable of doing environmental damage. That’s it.
There are two other reasons why population suppression is necessary, or not necessary, depending on your point of view:
If you think more land should be taken from the horses and given to the ranchers, along with their food and water, you’ll demand greater use of pesticides and helicopters.
If you believe the trend is unacceptable, and want the land managed principally for the horses as specified in the original statute, you’ll oppose removal by any means.
RELATED: How the Advocates Respond to Habitat Loss.
If the initial population was 450 and the goal in ten years was 250, a six percent death rate and zero percent birth rate would be needed:
450 × (1 – .06) ^ 10 = 242
This is nonstop darting for ten years with 100% efficacy. The mares will be sterile and the herd will be ruined, just like Assateague Island.
On the bright side, the advocates may convince the bureaucrats and ranchers of their tenacity and ruthlessness, and the feasibility of nonmotorized removal, breaking the Cattoor monopoly.
The birth occurred in August but the advocates said nothing out respect for the horses, which they achieve by poisoning the mares with ovary-killing pesticides.
Now, they’re praying for a predator to fix the mistake, as they did for Mirabelle.
The article said his mom has been darted five times but did not say if that was a primer plus four boosters and if the injections had been given in consecutive years.
The threshold for sterility is usually taken as five consecutive years (primer plus five boosters).
Such animals are said to be “self-boosting,” a term in common use among the advocates.
What about the other mares that have been darted five times? A herd of 400 plus should be producing more than two foals per year!
Truth is, the breeding population is nearly zero, thanks to Simone Netherlands and her band of merrymen. Here she is in fine form, showing off her bona fides to other like-minded individuals:
The writer did not dispute that PZP is a restricted-use pesticide.
You only need to look at the herd on Assateague Island to see where this is going.
There is no way these phony voices for wild horses can achieve the population reduction targets given to them by Arizona bureaucrats without sterilizing the mares.
The darting program skews the sex ratio in favor of females, exactly what they don’t want and don’t need.
They know this and they are pushing ahead full speed.
The same thing is happening on the Virginia Range, where their parent organization, the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, leads the effort.
RELATED: If You Repeat a Lie Long Enough, People Will Believe It.
Overpopulation is the analog of climate change in the wild horse world.
Both are lies.
Suzanne Roy, feckless leader of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, beats the fertility control drum in today’s edition of The Colorado Sun, claiming that the best way to protect wild horses is through fertility control.
If you still think she’s playing with a full deck, watch her May 16 testimony before the Nevada State Assembly regarding SB90.
The piece was probably drafted by her subordinates.
Poisoning mares with ovary-killing pesticides protects other users of public lands, such as hunters and ranchers, not wild horses.
Roy and her followers are getting rid of them! The latest assault is on the Cedar Mountain herd in Utah, with the blessing and financial support of the Bureau of Livestock Multiplication.
At the Virginia Range, site of their flagship darting program, which Roy describes as the world’s largest, these zealots are running the herd into the ground. Go to the Year 4 Report submitted to the NDA. If you can’t access the document, click here.
You know about herd management areas but are you aware of herd treatment areas?
That’s their glorious vision for America’s wild horses: To convert HMAs to HTAs!
Thumbs down for helicopters, thumbs up for pesticides.
As for the other users of public lands, the same report indicates Roy sent her henchmen to the 2022 FREES conference to sell the idea of nonmotorized removal to the ranchers and ranching sympathizers.
The Nevada State Director is Tracy “You need to manage the numbers to fit what’s available for the horses” Wilson, champion of habitat loss and livestock encroachment.
These people, who claim to be voices for the horses, are frauds, no getting around it.
RELATED: Choosing Your Words Carefully.
The incident started today as scheduled, with 26 horses captured, none shipped, none released and no deaths.
RELATED: On the Eve of the West Douglas Roundup.
Traffic from Facebook and Twitter accounted for 2.1% of the total in August, continuing the shift that started in June.
July was the dead cat bounce.
RELATED: Socialist Media Update for July 2023.
A new project was opened in ePlanning yesterday but no documents were posted.
Three HMAs are affected.
The National Data Viewer shows habitat loss and livestock encroachment.
Tracy Wilson, defeatist, pesticide pusher and ranching sympathizer with the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in nonmotorized removal, said of a similar problem on the Virginia Range “As you start reducing the amount of available space and forage, then you need to manage the numbers to fit what’s available for the horses.”
The statement, and its underlying beliefs, easily translate to wild burros.
A goal for August in the July report for the Virginia Range darting program is to continue to maximize booster treatments to mares to prevent pregnancies, allowing for continued population reduction. Click here if you can’t access the document.
You need not know how to convert an AML to AUMs or how to compute a forage allocation for livestock in an area set aside for wild horses.
You need to know how much adjuvant to add to the PZP! (Remember, you’re not pushing back against the ranchers, you’re trying to help them.)
Got that?
The advocates believe wild horse and burro populations should be reduced with ovary-killing pesticides, not motorized equipment.
They’ve allowed themselves to be manipulated by the bureaucrats and ranchers, earning them the title of Useful Idiots.
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, “Stay Barren” Edition.
How can the HA be overpopulated with 122 wild horses when the BLM authorizes privately owned livestock equivalent to 832 wild horses in the same area?
Why not confine the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season and shift the resources back to the horses?
Or would it be better to get rid of them with ovary-killing pesticides as the advocates recommend?
RELATED: What’s Wrong in this Picture?
The incident started on August 24.
As of August 26, 38 burros have been captured and 38 have been shipped, with none released and no deaths.
The location of the trap site was not given.
Two areas on the California side of the Colorado River are targeted.
RELATED: BLM Approves Another Nuisance Removal Near Cibola-Trigo HMA.
The incident will begin on September 6 according to yesterday’s news release.
Three HMAs in western Idaho are affected.
The capture goal is 220 and the removal goal is 142.
Up to 38 mares will be treated with GonaCon Equine, a fertility control pesticide, and be returned to the area with up to 40 stallions.
Helicopters will push the horses into the traps and operations will be open to limited public observation. (For a discussion of observation difficulties, watch this video.)
Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals in Boise.
Gather stats and daily reports should be posted to the Idaho gather page but as of this morning a link has not been added.
The Owyhee HMAs are managed primarily for animal agriculture, denoted by green in the following map, the #1 driver of wild horse removals.
Drilling and mining affect anywhere from a few acres to a few thousand acres while permitted grazing devours entire HMAs and beyond.
RELATED: Owyhee Decision Published.
Dates and locations are given in this BLM news release.
Online attendance was not offered.
The project anticipates, but does not control or evaluate, changes to HMAs affected by the RSGA consent decree.
The West Douglas HA was zeroed out because it doesn’t have enough food for wild horses yet the Twin Buttes Allotment, which overlaps most of the HA, offers 11,550 AUMs per year to livestock!
The 122 horses currently in their lawful home consume 1,464 AUMs per year.
RELATED: BLM to Remove All Remaining Horses from West Douglas HA.
It’s not managed for wild horses due to limited food and water, according to a news release dated August 28, but it’s overlapped by an allotment that offers 82.2 AUMs per year per thousand public acres, equivalent to 6.8 wild horses per thousand public acres.
The HA, listed as West Douglas Creek in the 2023 HA/HMA Report, covers 127,649 total acres, including 122,909 public acres in western Colorado.
The AML is zero.
Most of the horses were removed in a 2021 roundup.
Roughly one out of three died the following year in off-range holding.
Now, they’re coming for the remnant.
The incident, set to begin on September 1, will be carried out with helicopters and will be open to public observation.
It is on the July 13 schedule.
The current population is thought to be 122 according to the gather page.
Captured animals will be taken to the Cañon City off-range corrals, site of the 2022 virus outbreak that proved fatal only to West Douglas horses.
RELATED: How Many Wild Horses Can the West Douglas HA Support?
Western Horse Watchers Association 