Author: Western Horse Watchers

Washoe Lake Allotments

This photo, taken on May 2, helps you understand why the Virginia Range advocates are eager to beat the horse numbers down with ovary-killing pesticides.

The view is from the west side of the lake, looking east across the marsh to the Virginia Range.

The Jumbo Allotment is on the far side and Duck Hill borders it on the south.

The advocates want the ranchers to win but motorized removal is cruel and costly and somebody has to take care of the captured animals.

A better approach is to not have any horses at all, and mass sterilization is an effective way to achieve that.

The advocates can sterilize a mare for about $200 (six to seven doses of PZP).

The Allotment Master Report puts Duck Hill in the Improve category, does not meet one or more standards for rangeland heath, and Jumbo in Custodial, condition unknown.

RELATED: NDA Installing Fence Around Washoe Lake?

If Wild Horses Had Principal Use of Horse Creek

The allotment, site of a spring exclosure project north of Winnemucca, NV, offers 3,600 active AUMs on 38,859 public acres according to the Allotment Master Report.

It’s in the Improve category, one or more standards for rangeland health not met.

The management plan assigns no forage to wild horses.

How many could live there?

The forage assigned to livestock is equivalent to 300 wild horses, or 7.7 per thousand public acres.

Why is this important?

Your faithful public servants claim that rangelands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (25,500 animals on 25.6 million acres).

The advocates, defeated a long time ago, prop up the fairy tale with their darting programs.

If the allotment was an HMA, the AML would be 39 and 261 wild horses would be consigned to off-range holding because of permitted grazing.

BLM allotments in Nevada support livestock equivalent to 173,144 wild horses on 40,194,360 public acres, or 4.3 wild horses per thousand public acres.

Wild horses can be placed on public lands not identified for their use by acquiring base properties associated with grazing allotments and flipping the preference to horses.

RELATED: The Allotments Tell the Story: They’re Lying, All of Them.

Open Letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum

Dear Secretary Burgum,

Pay no attention to those who write letters about cost-effective, humane solutions to the Wild Horse and Burro Program.

They don’t know what they’re talking about.

They have been misled by groups that claim to represent the horses and burros but are actually allies of their enemies.

The problem is an unelected bureaucracy that ignores the intent of the original statute and puts ranching interests far above those of the horses and burros.

Not only are you responsible for that, but you can do something about it.

Acolyte Praises Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group

They have been doing a great job of managing the horses according to the writer of a letter to Tuscon dot com.

They administer birth control and provide water troughs and feeding programs at no cost to the government.

Much to her dismay, the Forest Service wants to reduce the herd to 100 or 150 horses, which is the next stop on the tour.

Environmental groups that want it cut to 50 or less will get their wish.

Those who want it wiped out altogether will be gratified.

There is no need to continue the charade.  Most of the mares have been ruined by the advocates, which the writer ignores.

Other characteristics omitted from the letter:

  • Injuries and infections
  • Elevated death rate
  • Abnormal sex ratio
  • Loss of genetic diversity
  • Selection for faulty immune systems

The writer wants you to send letters to the governor and other officials to keep the herd in the Tonto National Forest even though her buddies are doing the opposite.

RELATED: Salt River Advocates Achieve Nine Percent Death Rate.

Salt River Advocates Achieve Nine Percent Death Rate

The death rate in wild horse herds typically ranges from five to six percent per year.

But the Salt River advocates have exceeded that by 50%!

Data from report by KPHO News:

  • Initial population: 460
  • Current population: 260
  • Duration of darting program: 6 years

460(1 – .09)6 = 261

The average age of the herd is increasing because few if any new foals are hitting the ground, which should increase the death rate, but not by this much.

Are they spiking the PZP with some other toxin?

RELATED: Remember This Roundup?

Remember This Roundup?

Here are the numbers:

  • Target – Wild horses
  • Initial population – 460
  • Final population – 260
  • Overall reduction – 43.5%
  • Type – Planned

It wasn’t carried out by the BLM.

It did not involve helicopters.

No animals were consigned to off-range holding.

The herd will continue to shrink when the contract expires.

The persons responsible will not face charges.

Still can’t place it?

There was no roundup.

You can’t call it removal because the advocates did it.

It’s a fine example of wild horse conservation, carried out by the Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group with support from the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses.

Data provided by KPHO News in an April 28 report.

RELATED: State Not Happy with Salt River Sterilization Program?

State Not Happy with Salt River Sterilization Program?

The contract with the Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group expires in May and the new agreement states that for every horse born, three other horses must be removed or adopted out according to a report by KPHO News.

SRWHDG ringleader Simone Netherlands said “We want every horse born on the Salt River to be able to live out their lives on the river” but that doesn’t happen very often thanks to her and her band of merrymen.

Mares that do bear fruit probably have faulty immune systems and the advocates rely on predators to fix those uh-ohs.

Other benefits of PZP darting programs, besides shrinking herds, include abnormal sex ratios, injuries and infections, tiny breeding populations and loss of genetic diversity.

But the crème de la crème, which the advocates deny, is mass sterilization and the Arizona Department of Agriculture apparently doesn’t understand that.

The herd has likely reached the tipping point and will continue to decline, contract or no contract.

A better option would be to acquire land that meets the requirements of a base property, attach it to one or more vacant allotments in the Tonto National Forest, such as Bartlett or St. Clair, and move the horses from the contested area into a much larger home.

RELATED: Leadership Needed at Salt River.

Fundraiser to Condemn Virginia Range Sterilization Program?

The odds are slim to none based on the interview in this report by KOLO News.

Beat the numbers down with ovary-killing pesticides, sell mass sterilization as wild horse conservation.

The story says you should not be feeding wild horses yet the beneficiary of the fundraiser is a group that feeds the horses!

The group is also responsible for the botched rescue last August that landed 24 Virginia Range horses in the Carson City prison.

Rawlins Base Property Available for $15 Million

Here’s your chance to place wild horses in the Wyoming checkerboard!

Haystack River Ranch covers over 92,000 acres, including 25,000 deeded acres, 41,000 BLM acres, a private lease of 23,500 acres and a state lease according to the listing.

The land produces over 9,000 AUMs (per year), equivalent to 750 wild horses.

The overall stocking rate would be 8.1 wild horses per thousand acres.

Your faithful public servants claim that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (25,500 animals on 25.6 million acres).

The agent’s map puts the deeded acreage, shown in white, on the east side of the ranch and the private lease on the west.

BLM parcels of approximately 640 acres each, shown in yellow, appear on both sides.

The property description says the leased acreage, also shown in white, belongs to Anadarko, which may correspond to Orion Mine Finance today.

The ranch meets three out of four requirements for a wild horse refuge.

Following successful negotiations with the parties involved, wild horses would be able to roam freely on public and private lands as cattle do today.

The ArcGIS Viewer identifies the overlapping allotments as Haystack and Haystack River Pasture.

The Allotment Master Report puts Haystack in the Maintain category and Haystack River in Custodial, condition unknown.

Wild horses can be placed on public lands not identified for their use by acquiring base properties tied to grazing allotments and flipping the preference to horses.

RELATED: Key Indicators for New Wild Horse Preserves.

Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste

A story about the Axtell burro deaths should focus on principal use and the importance of keeping the animals in their lawful homes.

Unless you’re in cahoots with the bureaucrats and ranchers or wanted to give a voice to those who are.

Such is the case in this article by Deseret News.

The incident provides an opportunity to sell mass sterilization as a humane alternative to motorized removal.

Burros can’t die in off-range holding if there are none to capture.

RELATED: Canyonlands Burros Dying at Axtell Corrals.