Memo to BLM: Get Rid of the Horses with PZP

Family bands torn apart by helicopters.

Adopted horses dumped at kill pens.

Unwanted animals languishing in off-range corrals.

These problems could be avoided with contraceptives, according to the writer of an opinion piece in this evening’s online edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Why not end permitted grazing and shift the resources back to the horses?

That would be bad for the ranchers and those in the PZP supply chain.

HMAs Freed from Grazing 05-23-21

Caving In to Ranching Agenda at Onaqui Mountain HMA?

Last month, you bought a five bedroom home but just found out that four of the bedrooms have been reserved for illegal aliens.

Therefore, your wife needs to go on birth control to make sure your family does not outgrow its allocated share of the dwelling, previously referred to as ‘your house.’

Are you going to accept that?

The writer of a guest column in today’s edition of The Salt Lake Tribune does, only he’s talking about lands set aside for wild horses, not five bedroom homes.

RELATED: Saving the Onaqui Horses by Getting Rid of Them.

Centennial Roundup Day 7

The incident began on May 28.  Gather stats through June 3:

  • Burros captured: 300
  • Goal: 300
  • Returned: 0
  • Deaths: 0
  • Shipped: Unknown

The cumulative total on the gather page is 230, compared to 300 from the daily reports.

Although the goal has been reached, the operation has not been marked complete.

The number of burros shipped each day has not been reported, putting all of the animals in the unaccounted-for category.

RELATED: Centennial Roundup Day 5

Authority for New Pest Control Program at Surprise Complex?

Look at the citations under Authority on pages 7 and 8 of the Decision Record.  Most of them refer to federal regulations—rules invented by the unelected bureaucracy, not the people’s representatives.

The bureaucrats never have to face the voters.  Are they accessible to special interests?

This may explain why public policy—at least in the wild horse world—doesn’t reflect the will of the American people.

RELATED: Decision Reached in Surprise Complex Gather Plan.

BLM Seeks Off-Range Pastures for Wild Horses and Burros

Facilities must be located in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington or Wyoming and must have a capacity of 200 to 10,000 animals, according to a story posted today by KMVT News of Twin Falls, ID.

The initial contract period is one year, with renewal options of four and nine years.

Proposals must be submitted by July 19.

Western Horse Watchers was unable to find an announcement of the solicitation at the agency’s news site.

Horse History and Trivia

What is the historical name for the horse and where did this animal originate?

Why were thousands of free-roaming horses rounded up in the early 1900s?

Those are two of the Trivia Questions on page eight in the current edition of Horse Tales.  Answers on page 19.

By the 1950s, their numbers had dropped to around 25,000.  Who was hunting them from airplanes and poisoning their water holes?

You’ll have to go elsewhere for that answer.

Centennial Roundup Day 5

The incident began on May 28.  Gather stats through June 1:

  • Burros captured: 208
  • Goal: 300
  • Returned: 0
  • Deaths: 0
  • Shipped: Unknown

The daily reports included a breakdown of jacks, jennies and foals through May 30 but only the totals after that.

Foals accounted for 13.9% of the animals caught though May 30.

The cumulative total on the gather page is 138, compared to 208 from the daily reports.

The number of burros shipped each day was not reported, putting all animals in the unaccounted-for category.

RELATED: SoCal Burro Removal Underway?

Decision Reached in Surprise Complex Gather Plan

Alternative 1, the Proposed Action, has been approved for implementation, subject to a 30-day appeal period, according to a Decision Record signed on May 27.

The event was not announced on BLM’s news site.

Over the next ten years, the new resource enforcement plan will

  • Remove horses and burros as expeditiously as feasible to reach low AML
  • Treat any mares returned to the Complex with fertility control
  • Adjust sex ratios to 60 percent males and 40 percent females
  • Conduct maintenance gathers if the population exceeds AML

Six HMAs are affected, as described in Section 1.2 of the Final EA.

RELATED: Management Priorities at Surprise Complex.

Sheep Herded Through Dayton

A story submitted yesterday by a reader of Carson Now describes the migration down Main Street and across the Carson River Bridge.  The article does not give their destination or what other animals they might encounter at the end of the journey.

Perhaps they were coming off an allotment on the north side of Highway 50, heading for another on the south side.  Just a guess.  The highway generally runs east-west despite the north-south jog in the following image.

The Operator Information report in RAS shows four authorizations associated with Borda Land and Sheep, 2700069, 2700348, 2702960 and 2703505.

The Allotment Information report ties those authorizations to the Bagley Valley, Buckeye, Carson Plains and Pine Nut allotments.

The Authorization Use report for Carson Plains shows the last grazing season ending today, May 31 and another, on the Pine Nut allotment, starting tomorrow, June 1.

Borda holds all of the active AUMs in Pine Nut.  So maybe they were migrating from Carson Plains to Pine Nut.

The Pine Nut Mountains HMA is also on the south side of the highway.  Although grazing allotments and wild horse areas sometimes have similar names, Western Horse Watchers does not know if the two overlap.  Would you be surprised if they did?

The Allotment Master report shows Pine Nut in the Improve category.

The Virginia Range, on the north side of 50, includes some BLM land.

UPDATE: Table 1 in a 2018 EA for wild horse management actions shows nine allotments intersecting the HMA but Pine Nut is not one of them.

Borba Sheep Migration 05-30-21