Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
On the range
Today’s news release follows the BLM’s by a few days.
How will the new HMAP function?
The 140 wild horses allowed by plan will be accompanied by livestock equivalent to 647 cow/calf pairs on a twelve-month grazing season, excessive forage consumption will be remedied by removing the horses, and the mares will be poisoned with ovary-killing pesticides.
Comments will be accepted through July 14.
RELATED: Draft EA for Murderer’s Creek HMAP Out for Public Review.
If you attended the 2022 Save Our Wild Horses conference, you probably went home thinking that herd management area plans (HMAPs) were the be-all/end-all for wild horses.
It was a bunch of crap but that’s what the advocates do to separate you from your money.
The Forest Service has crafted one for the Murderer’s Creek JMA and an assessment of the environmental effects is out for public review.
Appendix L, copied to the Analysis folder of the project, indicates at the top of page 13 (page 18 in the pdf) that livestock receive 7,770 head-months of forage in the JMA, roughly equal to 7,770 AUMs per year, compared to 1,680 AUMs per year for horses.
This means that 647 wild horses have been displaced from their lawful home by permitted grazing and livestock receive 82% of the authorized forage, neglecting wildlife.
The JMA is managed primarily for animal agriculture and the new HMAP will ratify and reinforce that, as explained last year.
The horses have been cheated by the bureaucrats in favor of the ranchers with the approval of the advocates.
Welcome to the wild horse world.
RELATED: Draft EA for Murderer’s Creek HMAP Out for Public Review.
Additional meeting materials are expected but as of today, only the agenda is available.
The meeting will be livestreamed starting on June 28.
The herd contained 81 horses in June, according to the Assateague Island Alliance, up from 79 in May.
Seven foals have been born this year.
The number of deaths was not reported.
The list indicates names and bands, but not sex, so the ratio of females to males cannot be determined.
Mares outnumbered stallions 1.7 to 1 in March.
If the herd has organized into fourteen bands and only seven mares gave birth, the breeding population must be around 21, not 81.
Why aren’t the advocates concerned about genetic diversity?
The safe, proven and reversible darting program was shut off in 2016.
RELATED: Assateague Pony Census, May 2023.
Initially, the plan was to develop the HMAP in Phase I and identify enforcement actions in Phase II, but those tasks have been combined into one set of planning documents, based on feedback from unnamed stakeholders.
The BLM news release says the current population exceeds 500 horses, resulting in degradation of natural resources in and around the JMA.
The new management plan will promote the health and vitality of the Murderer’s Creek herd and achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance, alongside other important uses on the landscape (such as animal agriculture).
The Joint Management Area covers 142,740 total acres in central Oregon, including 108,488 public acres.
The 140 horses allowed by plan require 1,680 AUMs per.
The stocking rate allowed by plan is 1.3 wild horses per thousand public acres, slightly more than the target rate across all HMAs of one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).
The JMA is subject to permitted grazing. The National Data Viewer shows the BLM and FS portions but does not show the FS allotments. The BLM allotments are shown with green borders. Click on image to open in new tab.
The Proposed Action, Alternative 2 in the EA, features gathers and removals to achieve AML, sex ratio skewing in favor of males, treatment of mares with fertility control pesticides, use of IUDs and transfer of mares from other areas to boost genetic diversity.
The EA and other supporting documents have been copied to the Analysis folder at the project site.
Comments will be accepted through July 14.
If you can’t access the EA, you can read it here.
RELATED: Comments Invited on Murderer’s Creek Management Plan.
At the southwest corner of the Virginia Range with Damian Czajka.
If you’re up to speed in the wild horse world, you know why there are no foals.
If not, add a bookmark to Western Horse Watchers.
The GoFundMe page says $525,000 has been collected as of June 11.
The goal is $625,000.
Most of the land has already been sold, but the remaining parcel, which includes the home and the area where Misty spent most of her life, is on the market.
The Beebe family hopes the Museum of Chincoteague can acquire the property and maintain it as a ranch.
RELATED: Chincoteague Foal Joins Beebe Ranch Fundraiser.
The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company will donate the proceeds from a Buy-Back filly to the museum’s effort to purchase the ranch, according to an announcement by Sport Horse Auctions, coordinator of the auction that follows the annual swim.
Bidding starts today and runs through June 14.
Buy-Back foals are usually returned to the Virginia side of Assateague Island after the event in late July, but this auction may be occurring now because the museum is in contract with a closing date of June 30.
RELATED: Chincoteague Museum Puts Contract on Beebe Ranch.
The WBR is one of four HMAs, out of 177, where animal agriculture is not allowed.
On May 9, the BLM opened a new project in ePlanning that initiated a land health assessment for the Basalt, Belleville, Little Huntoon and McBride Flat Allotments, to evaluate their potential for livestock grazing and other uses.
A scoping letter was the only document posted for public review.
Basalt and McBride Flat are in the Sierra Front Field Office. The Allotment Master Report shows no permittees and no active AUMs.
Belleville and Little Huntoon are in the Stillwater Field Office. The Allotment Master Report shows no permittees and no active AUMs.
Three are in the Maintain category and one is Custodial (condition unknown).
Belleville intersects the WBR according to the National Data Viewer. Click on image to open in new tab.
If the allotments are found to be suitable for animal agriculture (the answer may already known), additional planning and decisions would be required, including an EA or EIS in a new project, to revise the applicable RMP(s) and reallocate or reauthorize resources.
The Montgomery Pass HMA may also be affected.
It’s possible the allotment boundaries could be shifted to eliminate the overlap, but history suggests the WHB areas will be sacrificed for the benefit of permitted grazing.
The project may have been instigated by ranching interests, but this was not specified in the description.
Comments will be accepted through June 16.
Of the two leading fertility control pesticides, both on the same EPA list as toxic chemicals, the advocates have a clear preference, Zonastat-H, indicated by comments on the proposed livestock management plan for Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
As for injection site reactions, these photos show injuries inflicted by volunteers with the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses on the Virginia Range. Click on images to open in new tabs.
Previous photos show injuries that persist for weeks and get worse with time. They were caused by Zonastat-laced darts, fired by the same nitwits for the same group.
When the product is used for herd reduction, as it is on the Salt River and Virginia Range, the inevitable result is sterility, as the advocates, desperate to convince the bureaucrats and ranchers that they have a better way, pummel the mares for an extended period to achieve their population goals.
This is what happened on the Maryland side of Assateague Island, where the pesticide was applied with reckless abandon for over twenty years.
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Snubbing the Advocates Edition.
Public opinion regarding the new livestock management plan tilted 63 to 1 in opposition to their removal, according to a story dated June 6 by INFORUM.
A keyword search of the comment report yielded nine occurrences of “PZP” and eight occurrences of “birth control.”
The report provides summaries of comments, so the frequency of such ideas in the original comment pool is likely much higher.
The following snippets reveal a misinformed public, an indication of how far the advocates have propagated their lies.
From Section 3.8:
Safe, proven and reversible? Nonsense!
Also from Section 3.8:
Yep, abnormal sex ratios peddled as mares living longer.
In the seven years since the Assateague darting program was shut off, the herd has not bounced back, proving that the safe, proven and reversible fertility control pesticide is anything but.
Pay no attention to the advocates!
Their top priority is to keep their base fired up and the donations rolling in, while achieving nothing useful for America’s wild horses.
RELATED: TRNP Mares Sterile?
Q. What do you call a woman who couldn’t convert an AML to AUMs if her life depended on it, much less compute a forage allocation for livestock in an area set aside for wild horses, but graduated with honors from the Billings School of PZP Darting?
A. An advocate.
Q. What do you call a ranching advocacy group that recruits dozens of such women every year to poison wild mares with restricted-use pesticides?
A. The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses.
Q. Who should you call if you see said women applying said pesticides in areas used for animal agriculture, a purpose for which they were not registered?
A. Law enforcement.
RELATED: More Wild Horse FAQs.
A new project was created in ePlanning yesterday, covering bait trap removal of 150 wild burros from private lands inside the HMA.
Operations run from June through September. Click on image to open in new tab.
Refer to the CX for details.
The incident does not appear in the latest schedule.
There were no opportunities for public involvement.
The project was not announced at the BLM news site.
The HMA is subject to animal agriculture, with allotments shown in green.
The effort was announced in a news release dated June 5.
How do you know HR 3656 is bad for wild horses? The advocates support it.
They see it as an opportunity to expand their fertility control businesses.
As for the new site, sign the petition if it means areas identified for wild horses will be managed principally for them, as specified in the original statute, but say no to any measure that calls for the poisoning of mares with ovary-killing pesticides.
RELATED: It’s Back: Helicopter Ban for 2023.
Q. What do you call a wild horse removal contractor masquerading as an advocacy group?
A. The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses.
Q. What do you call an EPA-registered pesticide that can only be used on female horses and burros that are capable of doing environmental damage?
A. Zonastat-H.
Q. What do you call the application of said pesticide by said group on herds that pose a safety hazard or are thought to be overpopulated?
A. Illegal.
RELATED: Wild Horse FAQs.
In the eastern Sierra with Jim Brumfield.
A story dated June 2 by Courthouse News takes a closer look at the debate, but two issues deserve further attention.
Hypocrisy of the advocates—
Simone Netherlands, president of the Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group, said removing horses from public land is “ungrateful” behavior given their significant role in American history.
What is she doing with the aid of her volunteers? Getting rid of wild horses on public lands with an ovary-killing pesticide.
Silence about permitted grazing—
Wherever you find wild horses you’ll find permitted garzing, with few exceptions.
Horses appear in the North American fossil record but cattle and sheep do not, yet horses are cited as the nonnative/invasive species.
RELATED: Salt River Advocates Accuse Forest Service of Harming Foals!
The June meeting in Reno of the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board offered two opportunities to observe the poisoning of mares with fertility control pesticides, but the BLM opted to visit the Blue Wing Complex instead.
Why didn’t they choose the Virginia Range or Pine Nut Mountains, where advocates affiliated with the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses are suppressing the herds for the benefit of animal agriculture, a purpose for which PZP was not registered?
Desperate for acceptance and approval, the advocates could explain their philosophy of managing the numbers to fit what’s available for the horses: As the bureaucrats shift more acreage and food to the public-lands ranchers, wild horse numbers must go down, and they have a better way.
On the other hand, Board members accompanied by plain-clothes law enforcement agents could gather information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved.
If done amicably, they might even go home with “Stay Wild” caps worn by participants and supporters of the programs.
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Reinforcing the Status Quo Edition.
The debt ceiling bill cleared the House last night by a vote of 314-117.
A keyword search of the pdf yielded these results:
Looks like it won’t have a big effect on the wild horse world, at least not directly.
The privately owned off-range pasture west of Laramie, WY will open its doors to the public on June 10, according to a story dated May 30 by This Is Laramie.
The ranch, listed as “Centennial” in the Off-Range Facilities Report, has a capacity of 350 excess animals, horses displaced from their lawful homes by permitted grazing.
It was threatened but not damaged by the Mullen Fire in 2020.
