Refer to this guest column in The Hill, published today.  The views expressed in the article are those of its author and not necessarily those of Western Horse Watchers.

RELATED: Best Place to See Oregon Wild Horses Is In the BLM Corrals?

Great.  Best way to do that?  Don’t focus on the horses.

Instead, learn about the policies, programs and organizations that are forcing them off the range and/or driving their numbers downward.

• Grazing programs
• Resource management plans
• Public-lands ranchers, their overlords, cheerleaders and political allies
• Outplacement programs (adoption, sale, training, shows)
• Financial incentives
• Advocacy groups that push contraceptives
• Proponents of sanctuaries
• Signatories to the Path Forward
• Signatories to the PZP manifesto
• Fuels reduction programs
• Vegetation management programs
• Statutes and regulations
• Stock grower’s associations and farm bureaus
• Departments of agriculture and wildlife
• Colleges and universities
• Rangeland resource commissions
• County commissions
• Public lands councils
• Agricultural and hunting interests
• Advisory boards

Where money is concerned, be very careful with your donations.

Allotments are placed into the ‘Improve’ category because of privately owned livestock, not because of wild horses and burros.

How much longer before a new category is created?

RELATED: Allotment Categories Explained.

The agency said in a January 14 statement that it can’t recommend either for or against the use of the drug, known to many in the horse world as a dewormer.

Previously, it was opposed to the idea.

The product is being evaluated as a potential treatment for the virus, according to the announcement.

RELATED: Ivermectin Cures Covid?

Sort of, they usually involve clipboards and darting rifles.

Did the original story make you sick?

If so, are you repulsed by sodomy and abortion?

What standard allows you to condemn one but not the others?

RELATED: What is a Scandal?

The plan is designed to achieve and maintain AMLs.  That is, it will enforce resource allocations and management priorities already on the books—27,000 wild horses and burros on 27 million acres.

Those numbers will go down, and continue to go down, if projects such as the Rock Springs RMP amendments are approved.

In 1971, when America’s wild horse and burro population had dwindled to 20,000, President Nixon referred to them as 99% extinct.

Today, the population is around 95,000.

Do you think that any of the executive orders signed recently by the one-horse pony initiated a review of those allocations and hit ‘pause’ on the roundups?  Do you think that he or his likely successor will do that in the future?

They’re already starting to paint him as unfit for office.

The New York Daily News has the story.

You need to be more welcoming and inclusive.

RELATED: Man Sought for ‘Unnatural Acts’ with Horses.

Choose all that apply.

a. Forage hasn’t been sold to public-lands ranchers.

b. They’re safe from the PZP zealots.

c. No cattle guards to break their legs.

d. Masks required on federal lands.

e. No unsolved shootings.

RELATED: Don’t Feed Pahrump Horses.

The PZP zealots got rid of 80 or more wild horses last year, according to a story by The Fountain Hills Times.  Only 16 foals were born in 2020, down from over 100 in 2019.

Beat that ExxonMobil!

This is great news because the horses are not allowed to outgrow their boundaries.

What’s on the other side of the fence?

In typical fashion, they tell you the ‘vaccine’ is safe and does not change herd behavior, but they never supply any data to allow you to make an assessment for yourself.

• Herd size
• Stocking rate
• Percentage of males and females
• Percentage of foals
• Average lifespan
• Number of deaths
• Changes year over year

Same thing for the Virginia Range.  The darting program is a success but we’re not going to give you any demographics.

Like Assateague Island, the full effect of the programs may not be revealed for another twenty years.

RELATED: Oil and Mining Companies Can’t Match Impact of PZP Zealots.

The fiftieth anniversary page for the WHB Act now has a masthead, promoting the hardiness and versatility of America’s wild horses.

Why would anybody care about the versatility of wild horses?  Because the theme is going to be ‘off the range’ and the concept may correlate with greater interest in adoptions, training and private care.

RELATED: The Horses Are Still a Problem But the Statute Is Not.

They got rid of an estimated six hundred wild horses on the Virginia Range in 2021, putting them in the same class as the helicopter pilots and wranglers.

That’s just one area of 300,000 acres.

Beat that Chevron!

RELATED: Predators Can’t Match Impact of PZP Zealots.

They’re getting rid of more wild horses than these guys ever could.

The management plans assign most of their food to privately owned livestock, forcing them into areas where they’re not welcomed, and their answer is to shoot the mares with contraceptive darts.

Next to the public-lands ranchers, the greatest threat to America’s wild horses is not the drilling companies, not the mining companies, but the so-called advocacy groups.

RELATED: No Natural Predators?

Two hours into the Biden administration.  If you go to the BLM home page and click on the Quick Facts tab, you’ll see four priorities, down from six priorities under Trump.

What changed?

• Safety through Energy Independence – Gone
• Supporting the American Worker – Gone
• Securing America’s Borders – Gone
• Greatness through Shared Conservation – Gone
• Respecting the American Family – Gone
• Preserving America’s Cultural Resources – Still there

New priorities may appear in the coming weeks.  The goal for today was to get rid of anything Trump.

RELATED: Haaland to Head Interior?

This was the headline today in Drudge.  The first link pointed to a story by AP News.

‘Unity’ means everybody come over to the Democrat side, where there’s no room for God, liberty and traditional values.

“It’s not fair to cut out the small rural communities that rely on these places for their livelihoods,” according to a story posted today by KQED.

Nobody’s trying to shut them down.  We just want them confined to their own property, like everybody else.

Get your livestock off the public lands and pay the going rate to feed them.

RELATED: Fixing the Modoc Horse Problem.

BLM Fills WHBAB Vacancies

Western Horse Watchers believes all three appointees are hostile to America’s wild horses and burros.  Nobody from the drilling and mining sectors was selected.

Fence Sought for Fish Springs Mustangs

The Buckeye Allotment is in the ‘Improve’ category, probably because of the horses.

Managing Primarily for Livestock

BLM announced today in a news release that a decision record for the fuels reduction project had been signed but Western Horse Watchers is unable to find it in the project documents.  Eradication of those pinyon pines and juniper trees is inexcusable.

Refer to this opinion piece on BLM’s “Programmatic EIS for Fuels Reduction and Rangeland Restoration in the Great Basin,” NEPA project DOI-BLM-ID-0000-2017-0003-EIS.  It’s not just about areas identified for wild horse and burros.

The views expressed in the article, hosted by CounterPunch, are those of its author and not necessarily those of Western Horse Watchers.

The government spends untold amounts on these projects, confiscated from American wage earners, while the ranchers pocket the benefits.  It’s redistribution of wealth.

RELATED: Sagebrush Restoration Project Inching Ahead.

Good thing somebody else noticed.  Why do the males die young?

The eleven year average lifespan for the herd is not all that great.

RELATED: Contraceptives Extend Life of Wild Mares?

The annual report for the Shackleford herd in 2020 says “Contraception has been linked to increased longevity among treated females.”

One explanation, not invented here, is that treated mares don’t have to go through the stress of pregnancy, birth and caring for a new foal.

Stallions don’t go through any of that, yet they only represent about one third of the Shackleford population.

On the Maryland side of Assateague Island, females outnumber males 2.4 to 1.

Both herds are subject to ‘humane management practices.’

A difference is that the disparity at Shackleford can be attributed to chance, random noise in the process, while the imbalance at Assateague is so large that it must be attributed to an assignable cause, a signal of trouble in the herd.

That may explain why the fertility control program was shut off in 2016.

Are the Shackleford horses heading in the same direction?  Do contraceptives have other effects that would limit their use?  Is the cup half full or half empty?

RELATED: Shackleford Herd Grows In Latest Census.

She wants carrots and apples after her morning workout.