BLM Gives More Land to Wild Horses, Cuts Forage to Ranchers

It’s not true but it’s an indication of what the headlines might look like if a proposed wild horse management plan, announced yesterday, can be defeated in the court of public opinion. Details of the plan can be found in this policy statement by the ASPCA.

The proposal was endorsed by organizations that represent public-lands ranchers, so you know it’s bad for the horses. The Public Lands Council, one of its supporters, makes its anti-horse agenda clear:

Public Lands Council Anti Horse Agenda-1

Note how well it aligns with the ASPCA recommendations, almost as if it was copied and pasted into their proposal.

ASPCA Proposal-1

The goal of this cabal, this newly formed alliance between ranching interests and animal protection groups, is to reduce wild horse and burro populations on public lands in the western U.S. by 70%.

Are you going to join them or will you push back?

Range-fed beef is not good for you and it’s not good for the environment if it’s produced at the expense of America’s wild horses and burros.

If the ranchers won’t back down, don’t buy their product.

Searching for the Salt River Horses by Air

Filmed 04/19/19 by Chris Tingom. He says the best places to see them are

Phon D. Sutton Recreation Area, Fort McDowell, AZ
Coon Bluff Campground, Coon Bluff Rd, Mesa, AZ
Butcher Jones Recreation Site, Fort McDowell, AZ

All are east of Phoenix, near the Tonto National Forest.

Cheerleader Groups Endorse New WHB Management Plan

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Public Lands Council and Society for Range Management expressed their support today for a proposal to reduce wild horse and burro populations on public lands in the western U.S, according to a news release from the American Farm Bureau Federation.

A report by YubaNet of Nevada City, CA said the management plan was drafted by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation, the Humane Society of the United States, and the Humane Society Legislative Fund, with input from other rangeland management stakeholders.

It employs four management techniques, all currently in use:

Contraceptives
Roundups
Rehoming
Adoptions

A link to the plan document was not provided.

As usual, the proposal puts the crosshairs on horses and burros, while privately owned livestock are omitted from the analysis.

It is capitulation to the ranching agenda, assent to the overpopulation narrative and a failure in wild horse preservation.

The problem is not free-roaming horses and burros, it is public-lands ranching.

Mustang Monday

On Sand Wash Basin HMA with Mike Mack.

Easter Sunday

He is not here, but is risen.

Three Crosses-1

Forest Service Says ‘Hands Off’ at Heber WHT

The Forest Service asks anyone who discovers a dead horse at the Heber WHT to report it to the Black Mesa Ranger District, according to a report posted today by the Eastern Arizona Courier, but do not disturb the scene in any way. A news release dated 04/16/19 said evidence collected by the public may be unusable in the investigation.

A Place for Excess Horses Off the Beaty Butte Allotment

You jackals! How many of them did you reject because they wouldn’t comply with your thirty day timeframe?

The only thing these horses did ‘wrong’ was to rob too much forage from your livestock.

Note the reference at 0:12 to the ‘Beaty Butte Allotment,’ not the Beatys Butte HMA.

These people have never accepted the WHB Act and never will.

No Reciprocity in ‘Multiple Use’

Thought for the day: Lands set aside for wild horses and burros must accommodate privately owned cattle and sheep, but lands set aside for privately owned cattle and sheep need not accept wild horses and burros.

Multiple Use Minute

Lest you get the impression that this blog is managed principally but not necessarily exclusively for wild horses and burros.

Good Friday

Today we share in our Lord’s suffering through fasting and abstinence from meat.

Wild Horses of Shannon County

Tim Layton tells their story. Now part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in southern Missouri.

2019 Foaling Season Continues

More foals on the Pine Nut Herd Area (south of the HMA), courtesy of JT Humphrey.

Another Horse Found Dead at Heber WHT

The cause of death has not been established, according to a report posted yesterday by KJZZ-FM of Tempe, AZ, which brings the total to 17 since October.

The WHT and surrounding lands are subject to—wait for it—permitted livestock grazing (see map on page seven of this document).

The Forest Service omits it from the list of WHTs, as though it doesn’t even exist.

Throwing Their Weight Around

The snow has retreated at Sand Wash Basin HMA. Filmed 04/16/19 by Debra Mack.

Artist Returns to Unfinished Sculpture Thirty Years Later

Known by many as ‘Wild Horse Monument,’ it sits on a ridge above the Columbia River near Vantage, WA. Fifteen life-sized horses made from steel were installed before the money ran out in 1990. Fundraising has resumed and the designer visited the job site recently with the goal of completing the project as originally intended.

Assateague Island: It’s Not a Petting Zoo

Advice for viewing the free-roaming horses, courtesy of Worcester County, Maryland’s Beach and Beyond.

Horses at Double Devil Corrals Now ‘Three Strikers’

A report posted today by the Herald and News of Klamath Falls, OR says that 219 former wild horses aged ten years or more have been placed into private hands, with 83% exiting the facility via ‘sale with limitations.’

They were forced off their home range last fall so their food could be sold to public-lands ranchers. Another roundup is set for later this year.

Horses younger than ten that haven’t been adopted are now considered ‘three strikers,’ meaning they can be sold with limitations, starting at $25 each, then dropping to $1 each on May 13, according to the report.

Goal of New Darting Program Is Sterilization?

A story that appeared today in the Reno Gazette Journal said that PZP, a pesticide that will be fired by dart guns into Virginia Range mares to prevent conception, requires a primer and booster in the first year and annual boosters in subsequent years, but after three to five years mares can become self-boosting and no longer require additional injections.

Does that mean their ovaries are now producing a hormone that blocks ovulation or interferes with conception? Or have they become sterile?

Last year there was uproar when the BLM tried to move ahead with sterilization research on wild horses.

But nobody raises an eyebrow if the same result is achieved by fertility control ‘drugs.’

Letters to Editor Counter Wild Horse Narrative

Refer to comments by this reader and this reader in today’s edition of High Country News of Paonia, CO. Remarks were prompted by this article.

“Overpopulation, however, is a real problem. In March 2018, the BLM estimated nearly 82,000 wild horses and burros were living on BLM-managed lands, an increase of 13 percent from the previous year, and a number that exceeds what the land can sustain by more than 55,000.”

There is no wild horse overpopulation, only deceit and greed of the public-lands ranchers, their overlords, cheerleaders and political allies.

Mustang Monday

On the beach near Currituck National Wildlife Refuge with Michael Babyak.

FWS mentions the horses on this page: “The ‘Corolla Wild Horses,’ feral mammals that are not a natural component of the barrier island, are occasionally seen and must only be viewed from a distance. It is unlawful to harm, approach, feed or kill any wild horse on the Refuge.”