Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
Ten horses have died in the past 24 hours, according to the April 28 update at the Colorado HMA page, bringing the total to 95.
The veterinarian’s report has been posted for public review. The first death related to the illness may have occurred on April 18.
Today’s news release attributes the deaths to an equine influenza virus that has largely affected the horses captured from West Douglas last August.
Last November CBS News in Denver tried to convince us that they were better off in the corrals, but now they’re suggesting they might be better off on the range.
RELATED: More Horses Dead at Cañon City Off-Range Corrals.
How can it be overpopulated with 328 wild burros when the BLM authorizes privately owned livestock equivalent to 922 burros in the same area, on top of the 70 animals allowed by plan?
RELATED: Sinbad Roundup Announced.
A story dated April 27 by Steamboat Pilot & Today said horses removed from the HMA and held at Cañon City will not be delivered to trainers due to the unidentified illness that’s killed 85 over the last five days.
Horses from other areas will arrive at the Rio Blanco County Fairgrounds today.
Western Horse Watchers suspects that all of the animals at the facility are now unadoptable and may be viewed as a health risk no matter where they’re sent.
The annual training event is organized and operated by ranching interests.
RELATED: Sand Wash Exiles Heading to Meeker Mustang Makeover.
The BLM will remove wild burros from public lands in and around the HMA starting on April 30.
Helicopters will push the animals into the traps, according to the news release, and the incident will be open to public observation.
The capture goal is 300 and the removal goal is 260. Jennies returned to the range may be treated with GonaCon.
The roundup was planned and appears on page two of the latest schedule.
The 70 burros allowed by plan, equivalent to 35 wild horses, require 420 AUMs per year. The HMA covers 99,241 total acres, for an equivalent stocking rate of 0.4 wild horses per thousand acres. The target rate across all HMAs is one wild horse per thousand acres.
The current population is thought to be 328.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing. The overlapping allotments offer 14,919 AUMs per year on 266,757 public acres, for an average forage density of 55.9 AUMs per year per thousand acres, 13 times higher than the forage density for burros.
The forage assigned to livestock would support 9.3 wild burros per thousand acres, on top of the 0.4 wild burros per thousand acres allowed by plan.
The True AML would be 9.7 × 99.241 = 962. The current population is well within this range, so there are no excess animals.
The roundup has one goal: To protect the public-lands ranchers.
Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals in Axtell.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.
RELATED: Sinbad Decision Announced.
UPDATE: The stocking rate allowed by plan is 0.7 burros per thousand acres, 0.4 is an equivalent rate for horses. The forage assigned to livestock would support 9.3 wild burros per thousand acres, on top of the 0.7 animals per thousand acres allowed by plan, so the True AML would be (9.3 + 0.7) × 99.241 = 992, not 962.
Eighteen horses have died since yesterday, according to an update at the Colorado HMA page, bringing the total to 85.
The cause of the illness was not disclosed.
One of my favorite photos from the Carson City rally on April 23.
The caption does not say “Get rid of us,” as the advocates would have it.
If the ranchers were confined to their base properties and expected to pay market rates to feed their animals, you could open the gates and set them free. Several times over!
The numbers will likely go higher but the inmates and staff at a horse training facility in Colorado can’t match the damage inflicted on the herd by the advocates in Nevada.
As noted yesterday, the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses and its army of volunteers have pumped nearly 6,000 doses of PZP into the mares over the last three years, with somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 lives denied over the same period.
A member of the CAAWH board told CBS News in a story yesterday that “If there weren’t roundups we wouldn’t have the consignment and we wouldn’t have this contagion so the bigger picture this could have been avoided,” a reference to the Montana Solution and the group’s raison d’être.
No more roundups, no more off-range holding and no more horses.
Move over Cañon City, the advocates will not be outdone.
RELATED: Death Toll Rising at Cañon City Off-Range Corrals.
No, because it’s focused on the wrong things.
Consider this example from the North Lander Complex:
A suite of tools will be needed to make this a reality for the ranchers and the Proposed Action in the new resource enforcement plan promises to do exactly that.
RELATED: Motorized Equipment Hearing Set for Today.
The incident began yesterday, according to the gather page, with 13 burros captured, 13 shipped and no deaths.
The location of the trap site was not specified.
Ten more horses died today, according to a statement at the Colorado HMA page, bringing the total to 67.
RELATED: Veterinarians Trying to Identify Cañon City Illness.
BLM posting updates to this page.
Lab tests in progress. No new deaths reported.
Horses showing signs of illness have been isolated from the population.
Some of the horses captured last August in the West Douglas roundup were tested for equine infectious anemia and were separated from other animals at the corrals until they were cleared of any infections.
The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses posted the numbers to their donations page on EveryAction.
There have been no roundups because the advocates are achieving same results with the Montana Solution. The herd has likely reached the tipping point and is now dying off.
Would you be surprised if they receive support from the bureaucrats and ranchers?
Western Horse Watchers believes they are underreporting (ahem, cough-cough, lying about) the reduction in birth rates, based on trailcam images over the past year.
The mares have received an average of 3.3 treatments each, so they are about two years away from sterilization.
Will the advocates back off, allowing the mares to foal, or will they press on with their anti-horse agenda, ruining the herd but pleasing the bureaucrats and ranchers whom they adore?
RELATED: Virginia Range Darting Program Threatens All Wild Horses.
The meeting, to be livestreamed, begins at 3 PM mountain time.
Helicopter roundups are the fastest way to shift resources back to the public-lands ranchers in areas set aside for wild horses.
The advocates are trying to take market share from the contractors by swaying public opinion in favor of the Montana Solution.
An unidentified but highly contagious and fatal disease has spread through the facility since April 23, according to a BLM news release posted today.
There are currently 2,550 horses at the corrals, including those captured from West Douglas and Sand Wash Basin.
Refer to this audio segment by Steamboat Radio of Steamboat Springs, CO.
The incident concluded on April 14, according to a statement at the gather page, with 17 horses trapped, 17 shipped and no deaths.
Foals represented 12% of the animals captured. Of the adults, 40% were male and 60% were female.
The capture goal was 70 and the removal goal was 39. Mares returned to the area were to be treated with fertility control.
The pre-gather population was around 224, compared to an AML of 253.
The HMA is managed primarily for livestock, with 79% of the authorized forage directed to permitted grazing.
RELATED: Challis Roundup Announced.
Near Steens Mountain with heatherslittlethings.
The incident will begin tomorrow, according to a news release dated April 22, with up to 490 burros gathered from three HAs on the west side of the park. The removal goal was not specified but will likely be identical.
Refer to the maps in Appendix B of the project documents for the arrangement.
Helicopters will push the burros into the traps “at a slow pace” with “care and compassion” and the operation will be open to public observation.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page, which does not appear at the site for gathers and removals in California.
Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals at Ridgecrest.
Roundups in two of the HAs are listed on page 2 of the latest schedule.
The Decision Record authorizing the actions was signed a year ago.
RELATED: NPS Dissatisfied with Peaceful Valley Rescue, Orders Roundup?
Doesn’t matter.
If the bureaucrats and ranchers say they’re overpopulated, the advocates, desperate for a seat at the table, jump to attention asking “How many do you want us to eliminate?”
Photo taken April 21, timestamp is off by about 20 hours.
RELATED: Virginia Range Darting Program Threatens All Wild Horses.
Your host brings a water tank over to the pumphouse for bleaching.
Replaced bulb in UV sterilizer and put system back in service.
Took two years to build, documented in this YouTube video.
RELATED: Weather Cooperates for Carson City Rally.
