Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
On the range
The case has been closed by the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office but a witness to the event says the report does not match her experience. Refer to this story, posted yesterday by AZ Family, the CBS affiliate in Phoenix. Includes video.
RELATED: Photographer Claims Man Was Shooting at Heber Wild Horses.
UPDATE: Added video.
Near the town of Cloudcroft, NM with Rocky Mountain Hobo. Not a WHT.
The Park Superintendent said news coverage would not be allowed, consistent with the wishes of personnel doing the work, according to a report dated 04/30/19 by the Pine River Times of Durango, CO.
Public observation is often refused when bait-traps are used to gather the horses, but critics say access to government activities such as wild horse roundups is protected under the First Amendment.
RELATED: Wild Horses to Be Removed from Mesa Verde National Park.
A woman says she saw a man shooting directly at the horses on 05/02/19, according to a report posted today by the White Mountain Independent of Show Low, AZ. The incident was reported to the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office and a deputy arrived on scene. The man said he was only shooting at a tree stump and was allowed to leave.
On Sand Wash Basin HMA with Steve Hostetler.
On the Onaqui Mountain HMA with Greg Norrell.
JT Humphrey watches a mom and foal on the Pine Nut Mountains Herd Area.
The public-lands ranchers and their allies in government want them gone.
The deceased animal brings the total to 19 since October, 2018, with eleven of the horses showing signs of gun shots. Three shell casings were collected at the scene, according to a report posted today by the White Mountain Independent of Show Low, AZ.
The news release featured in the story does not appear on the Heber WHT home page as of this evening.
Filmed 04/19/19 by Chris Tingom. He says the best places to see them are
All are east of Phoenix, near the Tonto National Forest.
On Sand Wash Basin HMA with Mike Mack.
The Forest Service asks anyone who discovers a dead horse at the Heber WHT to report it to the Black Mesa Ranger District, according to a report posted today by the Eastern Arizona Courier, but do not disturb the scene in any way. A news release dated 04/16/19 said evidence collected by the public may be unusable in the investigation.
RELATED: Another Horse Found Dead at Heber WHT.
Tim Layton tells their story. Now part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in southern Missouri.
RELATED: Echo Bluff Horses Featured in Kid’s Section of Washington Post.
More foals on the Pine Nut Herd Area (south of the HMA), courtesy of JT Humphrey.
RELATED: 2019 Foaling Season Underway in Western Nevada.
The cause of death has not been established, according to a report posted yesterday by KJZZ-FM of Tempe, AZ, which brings the total to 17 since October.
The WHT and surrounding lands are subject to—wait for it—permitted livestock grazing (see map on page seven of this document).
The Forest Service omits it from the list of WHTs, as though it doesn’t even exist.
The snow has retreated at Sand Wash Basin HMA. Filmed 04/16/19 by Debra Mack.
Advice for viewing the free-roaming horses, courtesy of Worcester County, Maryland’s Beach and Beyond.
A story that appeared today in the Reno Gazette Journal said that PZP, a pesticide that will be fired by dart guns into Virginia Range mares to prevent conception, requires a primer and booster in the first year and annual boosters in subsequent years, but after three to five years mares can become self-boosting and no longer require additional injections.
Does that mean their ovaries are now producing a hormone that blocks ovulation or interferes with conception? Or have they become sterile?
Last year there was uproar when the BLM tried to move ahead with sterilization research on wild horses.
But nobody raises an eyebrow if the same result is achieved by fertility control ‘drugs.’
RELATED: Governor Praised for Resuming Fertility Control Program.
Refer to comments by this reader and this reader in today’s edition of High Country News of Paonia, CO. Remarks were prompted by this article.
“Overpopulation, however, is a real problem. In March 2018, the BLM estimated nearly 82,000 wild horses and burros were living on BLM-managed lands, an increase of 13 percent from the previous year, and a number that exceeds what the land can sustain by more than 55,000.”
There is no wild horse overpopulation, only deceit and greed of the public-lands ranchers, their overlords, cheerleaders and political allies.
On the beach near Currituck National Wildlife Refuge with Michael Babyak.
FWS mentions the horses on this page: “The ‘Corolla Wild Horses,’ feral mammals that are not a natural component of the barrier island, are occasionally seen and must only be viewed from a distance. It is unlawful to harm, approach, feed or kill any wild horse on the Refuge.”
Nevada legislators commended the governor for reinstating ‘humane management practices’ on the Virginia Range, according to a story posted yesterday by Nevada Appeal of Carson City.
The wild horse preservation movement began in these hills, east of Reno, with the efforts of Velma Johnston in the 1950s.
Today, you have many advocacy groups, some big, some small, arguing there are too many horses on the range. Their habitat is threatened by development. Therefore, we have to destroy them to save them. Roundups are cruel, darting is not. Never mind the side effects.
The Virginia Range, with a population density exceeding ten horses per thousand acres, defies the narrative pushed by the public-lands ranchers and their allies in government, namely, that western rangelands can only support one horse per thousand acres.
It’s an outlier that needs to be brought in line with the HMAs and WHTs (federal lands).
And who’s gonna make that happen? The PZP zealots.
RELATED: NDA Allows PZP Zealots Back On Virginia Range.
