Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
Opinion
What if the herd was well within the True AML but the government got rid of them to protect the public-lands ranchers?
If “overpopulated” stirs you to a sense of duty, then you need to be in Florence, CO this weekend for the Sand Wash adoption, as described in this BLM news release.
RELATED: Sand Wash Roundup Over.
The wild horse and burro program has been a drag on the grazing program for fifty years.
Nearly half of their land is managed principally for livestock. The remainder is managed primarily for livestock, with few exceptions.
AMLs are low relative to the available resources. Most of the forage has been assigned to privately owned cattle and sheep, with a small amount reserved for wildlife.
Pest control programs, the subjects of numerous environmental assessments, do not allocate resources. They cannot change resource allocations. They enforce resource allocations already on the books, in the land-use plans.
Findings of no significant impact don’t apply to the horses.
Roundups shift resources back to the ranchers in just a few weeks. Darting programs accomplish the same thing over a much longer timeframe but with the added benefit that the herds don’t bounce back.
Most of the advocates are frauds. Next to the federal government, nobody’s getting rid of more wild horses than they are.
At the Salt River and Virginia Range, they operate almost exclusively of the bureaucrats and ranchers, whose approval they seek at all costs. Residents, tourists, motorists, campers, hikers, predators and shooters can’t even come close.
RELATED: Story of ‘American Horses.’
The February edition of Horse Tales has been published.
You can still help the Pine Nut permittees by purchasing a calendar from the advocates, as indicated at the bottom of page 3.
Fifteen fun facts about burros are presented at the top of page 4. Fact #16 might be their disdain of coyotes.
The column written by the real estate agent and PZP darter in the Minden/Gardnerville area follows immediately, continuing on page 18. Listings appear on the back cover.
Some of the properties may be related, directly or indirectly, to a Pine Nut permittee, perhaps on the Buckeye Allotment. Who knows? But it would explain why she’s so eager to get rid of the horses.
An article by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses on page 19 discusses the Onaqui roundup and the rescue of a mom-baby pair. Don’t be fooled by the image, they despise youngsters and are only trying to separate you from your money.
Wednesdays are darting days at the HMA, where volunteers trained in the Montana Solution use Gen 2 projectors to keep the resource scales tipped in favor of the ranchers.
The advocates want the same thing as the bureaucrats and ranchers: Fewer horses on the range. Ever notice that?
RELATED: Nuttiness of Wild Horse World.
Western Horse Watchers agrees: The numbers show that many areas set aside for wild horses are managed primarily, if not principally, for livestock. That’s why the animals are being forced off their home range at a record pace.
Data from the Pancake roundup, discussed in a BLM blog post, indicate five horses lost (0.24%) due to injuries sustained in the incident. Not mentioned are the 21 horses put down (shot dead?) due to physical defects.
The number of horses that would be lost if the roundup didn’t occur? Zero.
Ten horses were lost in the Rock Springs roundup due to injuries sustained in the incident (0.24%), plus 27 put down due to physical defects, compared to zero if the incident didn’t occur.
The number of horses shipped from the Rock Springs HMAs was not provided, so the results cannot be checked for balance and the number of unaccounted-for animals cannot be determined.
Thus, it is true, the figures don’t lie—if you can get them.
On Day 4 of the Jackson Mountains roundup, not considered in the post, a foal was put down because it was an orphan. That was its only shortcoming. The government has since tried to cover it up.
Links to roundups in 2021 have been removed from the Nevada gather page, but the daily reports for Jackson Mountains can be found here. The final death rate was 5.9%!
The writer(s) of the blog post indicated that the Pancake herd boomed as food and water dwindled, suggesting that other factors may be more important for the support of life on western rangelands.
That’s what a Rock Springs resident told Wyoming Public Media in a story posted yesterday. They won’t be starving to death in the winter.
The government, media and advocates have done a fine job covering for the public-lands ranchers, brainwashing the American people about the situation out west.
The Rock Springs HMAs could not be overpopulated with 5,105 wild horses (before the roundup), when the BLM authorizes privately owned livestock equivalent to 15,982 horses in the same area, on top of the 2,145 horses allowed by plan.
The horses displaced from the HMAs by permitted grazing represent almost one third of those in off-range holding.
The advocates won’t tell you the truth about wild horses because the rationale for their darting programs would fall to the ground. They are far more concerned about their standing with the bureaucrats and ranchers.
Refer to the audio segment posted today by KNPR Radio of Las Vegas.
The herds must still be managed (for the benefit of the public-lands ranchers).
There will be fewer injuries (but there will still be roundups).
Management plans (that favor the ranchers) won’t change.
Just use a more humane approach (but keep the gravy train going).
Resource enforcement goal before the ban: 22,000 captured and 19,000 removed.
Resource enforcement goal after the ban: 22,000 captured and 19,000 removed.
RELATED: Anti-Helicopter Chatter Too Far Downstream to Help Wild Horses.
As if right on cue, the executive director of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses told FOX 5 News of Las Vegas in a report posted yesterday that her group supports the ill-advised plan to end helicopter roundups and the use of fertility control vaccines to eradicate wild horses.
Ranchers in the Pancake Complex receive over five times more forage than the horses, yet this woman, and other like her, want to target the horses.
RELATED: Anti-Helicopter Chatter Too Far Downstream to Help Wild Horses.
No youngsters have been captured eight days into the roundup.
Apparently, the Pancake herd didn’t get the memo. Twelve percent of the captured animals were foals, in a roundup that ended yesterday.
If you’re an advocate, there is much to cheer about at the HMA, as noted previously.
The group, which represents the interests of farmers and ranchers in the state, said in news release posted today by the Elko Daily Free Press that HR 6635, legislation that would ban the use of helicopters in wild horse and burro roundups, would seriously thwart the efforts of the BLM to achieve AMLs as well as restore the condition of rangelands that provide habitat for wildlife and multiple-use stakeholders.
Helicopter roundups are the only cost-effective method available for gathering the necessary number of animals over vast and difficult terrain, according to the writers, who did not explain that AMLs are usually small relative to the available resources.
Western Horse Watchers has not seen any critiques of the proposal by groups representing drilling and mining interests.
RELATED: Anti-Helicopter Chatter Too Far Downstream to Help Wild Horses.
The Sulphur HMA features everything they demand, yet it is a disaster for the horses.
RELATED: Lots to Celebrate at Sulphur HMA, If You’re an Advocate.
Here are some of the highlights:
The advocates are pleased with these results. The herd is well on its way to extinction, with benefits accruing to the public-lands ranchers.
This is what you’re supporting when you give them money.
RELATED: Youngsters Hard to Find at Sulphur HMA.
Figures for Day 4 of the roundup show zero foals captured to date.
With no new blood hitting the ground, the herd will shrink without the aid of helicopters and the ranchers will be able to enjoy everything their allotments have to offer.
How much longer before the advocates point to the HMA as a paragon of wild horse management? It even has a herd management area plan (HMAP)!
RELATED: Sulphur Roundup Day 3.
A report posted yesterday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal says lawmakers want the BLM to replace helicopters with wranglers and spend more money on fertility control to manage (i.e., inhibit) population growth.
The proposal does not address the cause of roundups: Resource management plans that put ranching interests far above those of the horses.
It’s a stupid idea, prompted, at least in part, by the advocates.
If legislators want to help America’s wild horses, let them unwind all of the changes to the WHB Act and restore it to its original form.
RELATED: End Helicopter Roundups?
The advocates are trying to convince you that they care about wild horses, by protesting the BLM’s resource enforcement goals for FY 2022, while they’re getting rid of as many as possible with PZP.
The Virginia Range darting program, sponsored by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, is equivalent to five Desatoya roundups every year.
Similar programs are taking root in other areas.
In most cases, helicopters effect large changes in herd sizes over a few days or a few weeks, with the advocates protecting the ranchers after the fact in a mopping up role.
But on the Virginia Range, the advocates have been given authority for the entire operation, with goals to be achieved over a much longer timeframe, mostly by attrition.
What about accountability to the public? Western Horse Watchers has not seen any reports on deaths or injuries attributable to the field work, changes in herd behavior due to the increased presence of humans in their habitat, or trends in the sex ratios and death rates of the bands.
We don’t even know the final population target.
RELATED: Can Darting Programs Compete with Helicopter Roundups?
Up until a few days ago, if you searched Google for “wild horse” or “wild horses,” Wild Horse Education would appear at or near the top of page 1.
Now, following the Pancake lawsuit, the site has disappeared from those results.
Interesting how that works.
The column begins on page 8 of the January edition.
In typical fashion, the executive director of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses feigns outrage at the government’s FY 2022 resource enforcement goals, which will take 19,000 wild horses and burros off the range, while praising the fertility control programs in Colorado and Utah that make sure the herds never bounce back.
The ranchers couldn’t have asked for a better stooge.
RELATED: Criticize Livestock, Dart Horses.
With six more week of winter on the way, livestock operators, eager to access the AUMs on your public lands, especially in areas set aside for wild horses and burros, may have to wait a bit longer until conditions improve.
One thing they won’t have to face this year is the rising cost of feed.
The advocates, allies of the bureaucrats and ranchers, look to the new year with guarded optimism, knowing that Congress has provided funding for the Montana Solution, which protects livestock, not the horses and burros.
Only in the wild horse world can you say that privately owned livestock far outnumber wild horses on America’s public lands, and that substandard conditions are due mostly to livestock, but we need to get rid of the horses.
RELATED: Criticize Livestock, Dart Horses.
The price of hay has climbed 32% in this area since July and equestrians are now paying around $125 per AUM to feed their horses, but the public-lands ranchers will continue to pay $1.35 per AUM, according to today’s news release.
The grazing program insulates the ranchers on the cost side from the realities of a free market, as noted previously.
By moving horses into feedlots and livestock onto the range, taxpayers bear the burden of rising feed prices, not the ranchers.
