Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
A necropsy was performed before the horses were buried, according to a brief report posted today by the White Mountain Independent of Show Low, AZ. The $2,500 reward offered by the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office is still available. Officials are unable to comment on the investigation at this time.
RELATED: No Comment by Forest Service on Heber Wild Horse Shooting.
Sterilization of Warm Springs mares could begin as early as 11/05/18, according to a report published today by The Argus Observer of Ontario, OR. Requests to stop the ‘research’ are being reviewed by the Interior Board of Land Appeals. If a stay is not granted, the Mengeles at Hines will have a green light to carry out their work.
RELATED: Consortium Files Lawsuit to Stop BLM Spay Research.
Anti-horse propaganda by Golden Productions, posted 10/31/18.
The footage may be dated. There is no Smith Creek HMA in Nevada (there is a Smith Creek HA but it has no AML). Horses don’t run on allotments, cattle do.
According to the interviewees, the horses are overpopulated, have no natural predators and are not important (refer to the wild horse narrative).
“We don’t have the resources to keep these animals healthy.”
BLM said earlier this year that 82,000 wild horses and burros were present on western rangelands. They graze 24/7, consuming roughly one million AUMs per year (82,000 times 12).
At the WHB Advisory Board meeting last month, one of the presenters indicated that 8.8 million AUMs were consumed by livestock in 2017. They graze six months per year or less, which means there were at least 1.5 million cow/calf pairs on the range (8.8 million divided by 6).
Three million head, privately owned, compared to 82,000 wild horses and burros.
A horse on Chintogeaue Island, VA has died of a fungal infection, despite an attempt to save her via surgery. Refer to this story, which appeared today in The Virginian-Pilot.
The affliction usually produces lesions on the lower limbs. Horses can become infected through a wound if they stand in water containing the pathogen.
At least seven ponies on the island have contracted the illness and seem to be recovering from the surgery, but it’s a slow process according to the volunteers who care for them.
Hot-crazy matrix. Originally appeared on James Yeager’s Tactical Response channel until the do-gooders at Youtube/Google shut it down.
The roundup is complete, according to news reports, but the page with gather stats and daily reports says this:
Ninety three horses were gathered from the WHR, with forty returned and no deaths.
Body condition scores ranged from three to five, not exactly what you’d expect in an area that was overpopulated. The problem was not lack of food. Could it be that the forage loss was more than the public-lands ranchers were willing to tolerate?
The helicopter roundup at Warm Springs HMA ended on 10/23/18 but the BLM has not formally announced it. Refer to the gather stats and daily reports for this blurb:
There’s your news release. Are they ashamed of the things they’re doing to the horses, for the ranchers? Why are they trying to hide the truth?
Here are the results: 846 animals gathered (including 41 burros and 2 mules), one horse returned to the range (by accident), 32 deaths (3.8%). The stated goal, when the gather was announced, was 652 animals.
News reports, such as this one posted yesterday by the rancher-friendly Capital Press, ignore the fatalities and inhumane treatment by the BLM and its contractor(s).
The pre-gather population was estimated to exceed 800 animals. The stud that escaped must be very lonely. The story by CP said only twenty to thirty remained. The next step, of course, is to cut the ovaries out of 100 mares and return them to the HMA along with 100 intact mares and some stallions, under the guise of ‘research.’
On 10/03/18, a two month old filly died from a head injury after being captured and a three month old filly died of ‘gather myopathy’ after she was moved to a holding pen.
On 10/04/18 a three year old mare died of a broken neck after running into a panel while being sorted.
On 10/05/18 eleven horses were ‘humanely euthanized’ for various deformities.
On 10/15/18 a six month old filly died of ‘gather myopathy’ after she was moved to a holding pen.
On 10/16/18 a yearling captured the previous day died at the holding corrals due to pneumonia.
On 10/19/18 a yearling died after capture, also due to pneumonia.
Other deaths were the result of ‘humane euthanization.’ The reports did not indicate if it was carried out by lethal injection or multiple rounds to the abdomen.
Survivors will be available for adoption in January 2019.
On this day we count our blessings….which might include too much food and football!
Wild horses of the Virginia Range, south of Virginia City. H/T Base Camp Chris.
Western Milling of Goshen, CA has settled a lawsuit related to the deaths of 21 horses and injury of 28 others at Black Fence Farms of Clovis, CA in 2015. The contaminant was an antibiotic that kills parasites and promotes weight gain in cattle and poultry but is toxic to horses.
Refer to this story in The Fresno Bee dated 10/29/18. The company was also fined $726,000 by the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Six wild horses that tried repeatedly to cross the North Carolina state line into Virginia have been apprehended and placed at a rescue, according to a story that appeared yesterday in The News & Observer of Raleigh, NC.
They had been returned to their home territory six or seven times, but were determined to reach Virginia. Officials were concerned they would end up in populated areas, so after being declared a nuisance by the Department of the Interior (hard to believe, I know), they were rounded up.
Poor things, they only wanted a better life in Virginia Beach. With a little training, they could have done work that other horses wouldn’t do. What a bunch of equinophobes!
Friends of a Legacy, a group that works with the BLM to manage the wild horses of McCullough Peaks HMA in northern Wyoming, has received a $5000 grant from ASPCA to support a fertility control program started in 2004, according to a story posted today in the Cody Enterprise.
“The program has lowered birth rates in the herd management area and the reduced population has benefitted habitat for the wild horses, wildlife and domestic cattle that share the public land.”
The AML for the area is 140 animals, which has nothing to do with the carrying capacity of the land. Rather, it represents an acceptable forage loss. By keeping the wild horse population in check, more food is available for livestock.
Welcome to the new reality of western rangelands. Areas set aside in 1971 for horses and burros are now managed primarily for cattle and sheep.
Anything for the public-lands ranchers.
Wild horses rounded up in 2016 were released on 10/27/18 into the area they previously inhabited, according to a report posted today by the Ruidoso News.
A district court judge ruled earlier this month that the New Mexico Livestock Board had no jurisdiction in the case, allowing their return to the range.
RELATED: Judge Rules in Favor of Alto Wild Horses.
On the Verde and Salt Rivers. H/T Laurel Strohmeyer.
Came across this video in a FB post dated 10/22/18 by Mustang Meg. You can watch it below or go to Vimeo. I agree that the filmmakers did a great job of documenting the issues on western rangelands.
Regarding the caption at 00:45, are 17 HMAs controlled by the BLM in Oregon, plus two WHTs, one of which is jointly managed by the BLM and USFS.
The film presents a range of characters, from Andi Harmon, who reprises the role of Slaughterhouse Sue beginning at 1:05, to Gayle Hunt, a former USFS employee and founder of the Central Oregon Wild Horse Coalition, first appearing at 04:22.
Harmon’s remark at 03:36, ‘Our [not My] biggest issue is not being able to manage them right,’ suggests an allegiance to the livestock industry.
Hunt is a wild horse advocate, for the most part, although it was not apparent to this reviewer until the end of the film.
Keep in mind that all horse behaviors in the video are normal/natural, even when idiots are involved.
The segment at 6:03 shows the essence of their legacy, which must be protected from the PZP zealots, who not only accept the anti-horse agenda but are happy to participate in it. How many of them aborting/contracepting/sterilizing in their own lives?
Remarks by BLM manager Rob Sharp are predictable.
The trailer at 20:42 probably belongs to the Cattoor Livestock Roundup Company, a favored contractor of the BLM. Public-lands ranchers are not the only beneficiaries of declining wild horse populations.
Speaking of livestock, you have to wait until 21:27 to learn about the greatest threat to wild horses and burros on western rangelands. The concept of ‘multiple use’ mentioned by Harmon at 21:45 was not formally sanctioned until 1976, when FLPMA was signed into law. It is one of several amendments to the WHB Act that need to be walked back.
Grazing permit buyouts, mentioned by Hunt at 23:00, deserve further attention.
Next up, starting at 34:26, is the innovative Beaty Butte Wild Horse Training Facility near Adel, OR, founded by the BLM and local ranchers.
It is hard to watch. Horses locked in stalls, separated from others, running continually in the round pen with no release of pressure. Eventually they settle down, not because of trainer skill but because they give up (his words, 37:46).
No patience, no understanding, no relationship. The goal is to cashier as many of them through the program as possible, so more horses can be driven from their homelands, to be replaced with cattle and sheep. Look at them. Bits shoved in their mouths, paraded around like spoils of war, while livestock graze peacefully on land that belongs to them.
The following segment features more horses locked in stalls, standing in their own poop, tripping over lead ropes that should not be there (ditto for the halters).
The film concludes with a piece on the Trainer Incentive Program then transitions back to the forest with a question about wild horse preservation.
How much are we going to regret their loss when it’s too late?
RELATED: BLM Plans Another 100% Gather at Beatys Butte HMA.
UPDATE: Video owner no longer allows embedding. Watch at Vimeo.
Advocates from Wild Horse Warriors are no longer hauling water to the herd, as rains have refilled their ponds. Tanks seen in this video will be removed.
RELATED: Volunteers Keep Sand Wash Horses on the Range.
UPDATE: Post edited per WHW FB page.
They actually mentioned livestock and public-lands ranching. The remarks at 1:32 and 1:39 contradict information at the Devil’s Garden web site. Closed for use by cattle ranchers? These areas don’t have cattle in them now? Since when, yesterday?
Has the WHB Act been inverted? With over 10,000 animals gathered so far this year, you might be thinking that lands set aside for wild horses and burros are now being managed primarily for cattle and sheep.
RELATED: Lies of Omission at Devil’s Garden WHT.
Here’s what was going on at the Winterland Ballroom 45 years ago tonight. Country Joe McDonald and the All Star Band.
A fine example of virility and potency. Filmed 10/19/18 just after sunset.
Piceance Mustangs, an advocacy group for the wild horses at the Piceance-East Douglas HMA in northwestern Colorado, has scheduled a work day for 10/27/18, according to a story posted today in the Rio Blanco Herald Times.
Volunteers work with the BLM to promote healthy horses and rangelands.
Who defines ‘healthy horses and rangelands?’ The BLM, of course. That means—wait for it—a fertility control program starting next year.
Sure would be nice if the wild horse world could move toward ‘What can we do for the horses?’ instead of ‘What can we do to the horses?’ Keeping them on the range would be a good place to start.
The HMA has an aimed-at population density of 1.25 animals per thousand acres.
Western Horse Watchers Association 