In the original Act, free-roaming horses and burros were to be protected from capture, branding, harassment and death.

Today we see widespread capture, branding, harassment and death, inflicted mostly by the government and the advocates.

Why?  Because most of the resources in areas set aside for wild horses and burros have been assigned to privately owned cattle and sheep.

The wild horse and burro program is a pest control program designed to minimize its impact on the grazing program.

That’s what you’re supposed to celebrate on December 15.

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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.

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.

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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.

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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 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.

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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.

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.

The loss of two mares on Day 53 is discussed in this article by Cowboy State Daily but that’s not the story.

The writer sourced some of the information from the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, architects of the industrial-scale darting program on the Virginia Range that’s equivalent to a roundup of 500 to 1,000 wild horses every year.

The way to avoid gather-related injuries and deaths is to end wild horse reproduction, not public-lands ranching, which is the cause of the removals.

Many of the advocates concur with that approach.  Some send mixed messages.

Note that the author repeated the government’s figures without checking the math: “As of Sunday, BLM officials have gathered 2,478 horses (1,044 stallions, 1,001 mares and 503 foals), with the goal of rounding up 3,500 by the end of the year, if not sooner.”

Of course they do.  The advocates have filled that role.

And they want you to think that getting rid of them with PZP is better than getting rid of them with helicopters.

Fools!  The ranchers and bureaucrats are laughing at you.

Their motto is “Stay Wild.”  Unfortunately, that only applies to the remnant.

The BLM retiree hired by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses said in a video included with the story last week by KLAS News that they are darting between 1,200 and 1,400 mares every year.

They are targeting every one of them—whether they need it or not—as suspected in the previous post, and the number of horses treated over the past two years is well in excess of the 2,000 stated in the article.

With the birth rate approaching zero, the only thing missing is a strategy to increase the death rate.

The long-term goal is not to eradicate these mustangs but to convince the bureaucrats that the technique is viable in other areas.

Almost certainly they are watching closely, and may be most surprised by the lack of public outcry.

“We can’t be telling the public that the land can only support one wild horse per thousand acres when the Virginia Range is carrying ten.”

“Somebody needs to fix that.”

RELATED: Advocates Lying About Virginia Range Darting Program?

Assertions are best.  Rock your opponents back on their heels.

• The bureaucrats assign most of the resources in areas set aside for wild horses to privately owned livestock.
• AMLs are small relative to the available resources.
• To solve the problem, the advocates want to end wild horse reproduction, not permitted grazing.
• The off-range corrals and long-term pastures could be emptied three to five times over if the resources were shifted back to the horses.
• The government manages HMAs primarily for cattle and sheep, HAs almost exclusively for cattle and sheep.
• The advocates lead you astray, take your money and help the public-lands ranchers.
• The advocates would have you believe that drilling and mining are the greatest threats to wild horses (but can’t produce any figures for the number of animals displaced thereby).
• Next to the federal government, nobody’s getting rid of more wild hoses than the advocates.
• Whenever the advocates get involved, wild horse numbers go down.
• The government insulates public-lands ranchers from the realities of a free market.
• Public-lands ranching is government dependency and redistribution of wealth.
• Livestock belong in feedlots, not wild horses.  Confine the ranchers to their base properties and expect them to pay market rates to feed their animals.
• The forage assigned to livestock would support hundreds or thousands of additional wild horses in each HMA, making roundups and darting programs unnecessary.
• Wild horses are never allowed to seek their level, never allowed to fill their niche, leading to elevated growth rates.
• The forage assigned to livestock on public lands managed by the BLM would support one million wild horses, enough to empty all of the off-range corrals and long-term pastures twenty times over.
• The wild horse and burro program has devolved into a pest control program, with benefits accruing to the public-lands ranchers.
• The WHB Act no longer affords the protections sought by Velma.

If you want to help America’s wild horses, don’t focus on the horses.  The advocates focus on the horses.  Look upstream in the management process.  Change the policies and plans that put ranching interests far above those of the horses.

RELATED: Rift in Wild Horse World, Origin of AMLs?

They, and their army of volunteers, steadfastly cling to their anti-horse agenda, under the tagline ‘Stay Wild.’

A source told Western Horse Watchers that the group was invited to sign the letter to Haaland seeking the removal of livestock from HMAs but declined.

They may want to “change the way the ship is run” (3:32) but the destination remains the same: Protect the policies and plans that assign most of the resources in areas set aside for wild horses and burros to privately owned cattle and sheep.

RELATED: Advocates Show Off Virginia Range Darting Program.

The policy change by the Sierra Club marks a widening gap among those who are trying to protect wild horse and burros.

On one side are the sellouts and charlatans—those who signed the rancher-friendly ‘Path Forward‘ and those who give tacit approval through their darting programs, which includes most of the advocates.

On the other side are the originalists—those who reject the ranching agenda and believe that areas set aside for wild horses and burros should be managed principally for wild horses and burros, as specified in the original statute.

A story by Tri-State Livestock News says the group now wants permitted grazing ended in areas set aside for wild horses.

That they had an alliance with the ranchers, or the appearance of one, casts a long shadow over the organization’s mission and intent.

In 1981, according to the report, the Sierra Club adopted a policy that referred to wild horses and burros as feral, to be eliminated from key wildlife habitat and carefully regulated to minimize conflict with wildlife, livestock and other range values.

But earlier this year, their Board of Directors adopted a new policy that likens wild horses and burros to wildlife, and calls for the elimination of livestock from herd management areas administered by the federal government.

The writer tries to downplay the presence of 3,000 domestic sheep in the Sand Wash Basin HMA two months after most of the horses were removed, noting that they were trailing to their winter range, but does not indicate if it was inside or outside the HMA.

The permittee has not been able use his authorized AUMs for over a decade because of overgrazing by wild horses.

The roundup likely fixed that, and the advocates are now working overtime to maintain the new status quo.

RELATED: Sand Wash Horses Get Short End of Stick.