Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
An inconspicuous way of increasing wild horse deaths.
Helicopter roundups shift large amounts of resources back to the ranchers in short periods of time.
Darting programs can accomplish the same thing but over a much longer timeframe, which is why the bureaucrats and ranchers reject them.
To put their programs on par with the roundups and strengthen their relationship with the bureaucrats and ranchers, the advocates need to come up with a strategy that alters birth rates and death rates.
The Animal Industry update was item 11 on the agenda. A summary of their work appears under Partnership Activities at the bottom of page 1 in the Division Overview.
They don’t protect life, they prevent it. Now, they’re worried that the herd they’re trying to eradicate won’t have enough food for the winter, according to a report by Cronkite News, the news division of Arizona PBS.
Maybe they don’t like the competition. Getting rid of the horses is their job.
With the birth rate approaching zero, the herd is shrinking.
The Salt River Horse Exhibit, a product of the local advocacy group in cooperation with the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, contains about 440 adults in the Tonto National Forest, east of Phoenix, AZ.
The darting program is equivalent to a roundup of about 100 horses every year.
When the original Act was signed into law, around 9,500 wild horses and 11,000 wild burros remained on western rangelands.
Today we acknowledge the impact of drilling and mining on these animals, which is small compared to that of the government and the advocates.
Those activities affect anywhere from a few acres to a few thousand acres, while public-lands ranching devours entire HMAs and beyond.
Despite the constant thrashing of the advocates, they cannot produce any figures for the number of horses and burros displaced by exploration and production.
They can tell you exactly how much adjuvant to add to the PZP but couldn’t convert an AML to AUMs if their lives depended on it.
RELATED: Countdown to 50 | 8 Days to Go.
The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses demonstrates once again in this opinion piece that it is an enemy of free-roaming horses and burros.
Sadly, many well-meaning individuals have been duped by its efforts, as it tries to win the support of the bureaucrats and ranchers.
On the bright side, one follower realized his errors and withdrew his support, as noted by the writer of a column in today’s edition of the Pagosa Daily Post.
Western Horse Watchers disagrees with his proposal to move wild horses from areas where they’re not wanted (by public-lands ranchers) to remote wilderness areas not particularly suited to livestock grazing.
The goal is to move livestock from areas where they’re not wanted (by most of the American people) to deeded acres or rented pastures, where their owners can pay market rates to feed them. What do you think happens during the off season?
As for the “highly compromised and shrinking home range of the wild horses on the Virginia Range,” consider the photos in this post.
RELATED: End Wild Horse Reproduction, Not Permitted Grazing?
The incident began on October 7. Gather stats through December 6:
Helicopters did not fly on Day 60.
A stallion was put down on Day 61 due to arthritis. The death rate is 0.5%.
The cumulative total includes 1,228 stallions, 1,258 mares and 635 foals. The gather page shows 1,398 stallions.
1,398 + 1,258 + 635 ≠ 3,121
Foals represented 20.3% of the horses captured. Of the adults, 49.4% were male and 50.6% were female.
Body condition scores were not reported.
Gather activity has concluded at Salt Wells Creek and Adobe Town.
On Day 60, 97 stallions were returned to Adobe Town and 38 mares, treated with an unspecified type of fertility control, were returned to Salt Wells Creek.
Five HMAs are involved in the roundup. Operations will resume in January at White Mountain and Little Colorado.
Day 61 ended with 86 unaccounted-for animals. The total number of horses removed is 3,121 – 181 = 2,940, which includes these animals.
Other statistics:
RELATED: Rock Springs Roundup Day 58.
Approximately 25 wild horses will be removed from the area due to safety concerns along Highway 299, according to yesterday’s news release. A start date was not given.
The horses will be drawn into the traps with bait and the incident will likely not be open to public observation.
The trap site appears on maps in the Categorical Exclusion, which was posted with other NEPA documents. The Decision Record was signed on November 15.
The HMA covers 23,468 acres on the California-Nevada border and has an AML of 35.
The stocking rate allowed by plan is 1.5 wild horses per thousand acres.
The Western Watersheds map shows grazing allotments on the north, west and south sides of the HMA, which lies mostly within the Sand Creek Allotment.
Captured animals will be taken to an unspecified location.
A link to the gather stats and daily reports was not provided.
In the original WHB Act, areas identified for wild horses and burros were to be devoted principally but not necessarily exclusively to their welfare, in keeping with the multiple-use management concept for the public lands. Only four of them are.
Today we recognize the efforts of the bureaucrats, who never have to face the voters.
They steadfastly defend and promote the ranching agenda, write their own rules and bring various stakeholders together.
As a result, most of the HMAs are managed primarily for livestock and the former HMAs, demoted to HAs, are managed almost exclusively for livestock.
RELATED: Countdown to 50 | 9 Days to Go.
Estimate the herd growth rate based on the number of foals in the video. Assume a 5% death rate.
Extra Credit: Explain how getting rid of wild horses, with PZP or helicopters, qualifies as protection or preservation.
It’s a naturally occurring process that is not affected by human activity, despite claims to the contrary by the writers of this column in the Sierra Nevada Ally.
We don’t want livestock off the public lands because they emit carbon, we want them removed because they displace wild horses and burros.
Confine the ranchers to their base properties and let them pay market rates to feed their animals. Impact on carbon emissions? None.
Stick with rangeland degradation, which is a repeated and repeatable pattern, but avoid carbon-induced climate change, which is unproven.
The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses continues to peddle its fertility control programs as the solution to wild horse mismanagement by the federal government, as noted in this report by The National Desk, a news service of Sinclair Broadcast Group.
The story has already been picked up by other news outlets.
RELATED: AWHC Compromised?
The natural ecological balance of the original WHB Act referred to wildlife that inhabit public lands, particularly endangered species. There was no provision for livestock.
Today we recognize the legislative achievements of the cattlemen.
Their desire for unfettered access to cheap feed on America’s public lands drove many of the changes to the statute, including the introduction of AMLs, which shifted most of the resources in areas identified for wild horses to privately owned livestock.
RELATED: Countdown to 50 | 10 Days to Go.
On the Salt River with Drew Hastings.
The incident will begin on or about December 10, according to a news release dated December 3.
Helicopters will push the horses into the traps and the operation will be open to public observation.
The capture goal is 88 and the removal goal is 20. Mares returned to the range will be treated GonaCon, a contraceptive that may actually function as a sterilant.
The current population is thought to be around 154.
The HMA, part of the Smoke Creek Complex, covers 177,724 public and private acres in northwestern Nevada and has an AML of 204, as shown in Table 1 of the 2017 Final EA for resource enforcement actions therein.
The stocking rate allowed by plan is 1.1 wild horses per thousand acres, in line with the target rate of one wild horse per thousand acres across all HMAs.
Like Challis, the herd has not reached AML, yet a roundup is needed to prevent “undue or unnecessary degradation of the public lands.” Removing wild horses, not privately owned livestock, will help achieve standards for rangeland health.
The HMA lies within the Rodeo Creek and Pole Canyon allotments, according to the Western Watersheds map. The allotment map furnished with other NEPA documents shows the Complex boundary but not the HMA boundaries.
Refer to Section 3.9 in the EA for a discussion of livestock grazing in the Complex.
The land-use plan assigned zero AUMs per year to wild horses and 540 AUMs per year to livestock in Pole Canyon, with 2,448 AUMs per year assigned to wild horses and 5,540 AUMs per year to livestock in Rodeo Creek.
The AUMs available for grazing may have changed since the EA was published but the current values can be accessed at RAS. Roughly 10% of the Rodeo Creek AUMs are outside the HMA.
Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals at Palomino Valley.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.
The current statute bears little resemblance to the original and no longer affords the protections sought by Velma.
Today we recognize the important work of the advocates.
Next to the federal government, nobody’s getting rid of more wild horses than they are.
Like the helicopter pilots and wranglers, the advocates stop the horses from reclaiming their food, ensuring that ranchers receive most of the resources in areas set aside for wild horses, as specified by the bureaucrats in the land-use plans.
Learn all about it in this lecture by Eric Thacker of Utah State University.
RELATED: AWHC Seeks Reversal of WHBAB Appointment.
The incident began on October 7. Gather stats through December 3:
The death rate is 0.5%.
The cumulative total includes 1,149 stallions, 1,193 mares and 598 foals. The gather page shows 1,319 stallions.
1,319 + 1,193 + 598 = 3,110
Foals represented 20.3% of the horses captured. Of the adults, 49.1% were male and 50.9% were female.
Body condition scores were not reported.
Gather activity continued at Salt Wells Creek and Adobe Town. Five HMAs are involved in the roundup.
Day 58 ended with 171 unaccounted-for animals. The total number of horses removed is 2,940 – 46 = 2,894, which includes these animals.
Other statistics:
RELATED: Rock Springs Roundup Day 56.
A report by Nevada Current notes that the anniversary will occur as the BLM carries out the largest taxpayer-funded roundup in its history, aided by a year-long PR campaign promoting roundups as beneficial to wild horses, wildlife and public lands.
Sure looks like it. If a darting program prevents 600 births per year, it’s equivalent to a roundup of 600 horses every year, with benefits accruing to the public-lands ranchers.
The advocates are of no use to America’s wild horses and burros.
RELATED: ‘Giving Tuesday’ Comes and Goes.
The official date was November 30 but more time is needed in the wild horse world, as it’s almost impossible to find an advocacy group that’s not trying to get rid of them.
Western Horse Watchers Association 