Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
On the range
The incident concluded today with 122 horses captured, 117 shipped, none released and four dead.
There was one unaccounted-for animal.
122 – 117 – 0 – 4 = 1
More foals were shipped than caught.
Youngsters represented 17.2% of the horses captured.
Of the adults, 56.4% were male and 43.6% were female.
A 17% birth rate corresponds to a 12% growth rate.
The HA is unfit for wild horses, supposedly, but well-suited for livestock.
RELATED: BLM to Remove All Remaining Horses from West Douglas HA.
The agency will not renew its partnership with the Mustang Heritage Foundation for FY 2024, according to a story dated September 8 by Horse Network.
All animals currently in the Trainer Incentive Program must be placed into private care no later than September 30 or be returned to the BLM by October 1.
The decision follows an announcement last month to spend more taxpayer money on fertility control pesticides, to the delight of the wild horse advocates.
If those efforts succeed, there won’t be any more mustangs to adopt.
The FONSI, DR and EA were copied to the project folder yesterday.
The Carson City District Manager selected Alternative 1 in the EA, the Proposed Action, authorizing forcible removal of excess animals to achieve low AML, sex ratio skewing in favor of males and treatment of mares with immunocontraceptive pesticides over a ten-year period.
The decision, effective immediately, does not mean a roundup is imminent.
Refer to Table 3 in the EA for a summary of the alternatives. Section 2.2.2 looks at the Proposed Action in detail.
The new plan aligns with three goals of rangeland management:
Forage allocations and management priorities are determined by the land-use plans, not wild horse gather decisions.
RELATED: Clan Alpine Decision Published?
The group received almost half of the $1 million awarded by the BLM in August to manage and protect wild horses and burros.
The nonprofit is a collaboration between the BLM and ranchers, according to a story dated September 8 by the Malheur Enterprise.
These stewards of the public lands are poisoning mares with GonaCon Equine in four Oregon HMAs, indicated in the first part of the August 28 roundup schedule for nonmotorized removals.
As of today, 122 horses have been captured, 85 have been shipped, none have been released and four have been euthanized.
That leaves 33 unaccounted-for animals.
The gather page says it’s over but that may correspond to aerial operations only.
RELATED: West Douglas Roundup, Day 7.
A BLM news release dated September 7 said the DR and Final EA had been posted to the project folder but, as of this morning, your host can’t find them.
Curiously, an HMAP from the early 1990s was copied to the folder, ratifying livestock use in the HMA and demonstrating compliance with the RMP. Go to page 7 in the pdf.
Some advocates believe HMAPs are the answer to wild horse problems.
RELATED: Clan Alpine Pest Control Plan Out for Public Review.
The incident started on September 1.
Eleven horses were taken on Day 6, followed by 12 on Day 5, bringing the total to 116.
The goal is 122.
A stallion with an infected abscess was put down on Day 6 and another stallion with lameness was euthanized on Day 7, boosting the total number of deaths to four and the death rate to 3.4%.
To date, 85 horses have been shipped and none have escaped, leaving 27 unaccounted-for animals.
Foals represented 18.1% of the horses captured.
Of the adults, 54.7% were male and 45.3% were female.
Operations will likely conclude this week.
RELATED: West Douglas Roundup, Day 5.
A report by KIVI News says operations began today in the Black Mountain HTA* with one foal lost but, as of this evening, results have not been posted to the gather page.
In an effort to protect genetic viability, the BLM will reintroduce 38 mares treated with ovary-killing pesticides, according to the story.
Yep, you heard it here first.
*Herd Treatment Area.
RELATED: Owyhee Roundups Announced.
UPDATE: The gather page indicates 24 horses captured on Day 1, with 23 shipped, none released and one dead due to a broken neck.
The incident started on September 1.
Sixteen horses were taken on Day 4, followed by 12 on Day 5, bringing the total to 93.
The goal is 122.
None have escaped, 40 have been shipped and two were put down for preexisting conditions, leaving 51 unaccounted-for animals.
The death rate is 2.2%.
Foals represented 19.4% of the horses captured.
Of the adults, 53.3% were male and 46.7% were female.
Operations will likely conclude this week.
The HA, unfit for wild horses, supposedly, is managed principally for livestock, in defiance of the original statute.
RELATED: West Douglas Roundup, Day 3.
The incident started yesterday as scheduled, with 15 horses captured and no deaths.
Body condition scores ranged from 4.5 to 5, suggesting they’re not starving.
Overpopulation means more horses than allowed by plan, not necessarily more horses than the land can support.
While everyone else was trying to get out, you could have rolled in with a truckload of Muck Boots.
Valley Vet has them for $110 per pair but what would they fetch under conditions of rain and mud in the middle of nowhere?
The playa is now a mudhole, thanks to storms that rolled through starting on Friday.
Normally the problem is dust.
Nevada is the driest state in the nation so three months’ worth of rain in the valley may amount to an inch or less.
Most precipitation occurs in the mountains, with snowmelt feeding creeks and ponds.
Exodus starts today at noon local time, with “Leave No Trace” difficult to achieve.
The event occurs every summer on BLM land northeast of Gerlach.
The reporter in Wadsworth may be standing along State Route 447, the hopping-off point from I-80.
Curiously, the bonfire, if it occurs, will be watched by thousands of climate alarmists as it spews greenhouse gasses and particulates into the air.
In Fernley, NV, northeast corner of the Virginia Range, with Desert Explorer 302.
As the advocates expand their darting program into this area, the horses may feel safer in town than on the range.
The cremello at 0:26 may have been hit.
Five horses were taken on Day 2, followed by 34 on Day 3, bringing the total to 65.
No horses have escaped, none have been shipped and no deaths have been reported.
There were no unaccounted-for animals.
Foals represented 20% of the horses captured.
Of the adults, 56% were male and 44% were female.
With a capture and removal goals of 122, the incident is approximately 53% complete.
The HA is managed principally for livestock, in defiance of the original statute.
RELATED: West Douglas Roundup in Progress.
The incident started today as scheduled, with 26 horses captured, none shipped, none released and no deaths.
RELATED: On the Eve of the West Douglas Roundup.
A new project was opened in ePlanning yesterday but no documents were posted.
Three HMAs are affected.
The National Data Viewer shows habitat loss and livestock encroachment.
Tracy Wilson, defeatist, pesticide pusher and ranching sympathizer with the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, a leader in nonmotorized removal, said of a similar problem on the Virginia Range “As you start reducing the amount of available space and forage, then you need to manage the numbers to fit what’s available for the horses.”
The statement, and its underlying beliefs, easily translate to wild burros.
The incident started on August 24.
As of August 26, 38 burros have been captured and 38 have been shipped, with none released and no deaths.
The location of the trap site was not given.
Two areas on the California side of the Colorado River are targeted.
RELATED: BLM Approves Another Nuisance Removal Near Cibola-Trigo HMA.
The incident will begin on September 6 according to yesterday’s news release.
Three HMAs in western Idaho are affected.
The capture goal is 220 and the removal goal is 142.
Up to 38 mares will be treated with GonaCon Equine, a fertility control pesticide, and be returned to the area with up to 40 stallions.
Helicopters will push the horses into the traps and operations will be open to limited public observation. (For a discussion of observation difficulties, watch this video.)
Captured animals will be taken to the off-range corrals in Boise.
Gather stats and daily reports should be posted to the Idaho gather page but as of this morning a link has not been added.
The Owyhee HMAs are managed primarily for animal agriculture, denoted by green in the following map, the #1 driver of wild horse removals.
Drilling and mining affect anywhere from a few acres to a few thousand acres while permitted grazing devours entire HMAs and beyond.
RELATED: Owyhee Decision Published.
Dates and locations are given in this BLM news release.
Online attendance was not offered.
The project anticipates, but does not control or evaluate, changes to HMAs affected by the RSGA consent decree.
It’s not managed for wild horses due to limited food and water, according to a news release dated August 28, but it’s overlapped by an allotment that offers 82.2 AUMs per year per thousand public acres, equivalent to 6.8 wild horses per thousand public acres.
The HA, listed as West Douglas Creek in the 2023 HA/HMA Report, covers 127,649 total acres, including 122,909 public acres in western Colorado.
The AML is zero.
Most of the horses were removed in a 2021 roundup.
Roughly one out of three died the following year in off-range holding.
Now, they’re coming for the remnant.
The incident, set to begin on September 1, will be carried out with helicopters and will be open to public observation.
It is on the July 13 schedule.
The current population is thought to be 122 according to the gather page.
Captured animals will be taken to the Cañon City off-range corrals, site of the 2022 virus outbreak that proved fatal only to West Douglas horses.
RELATED: How Many Wild Horses Can the West Douglas HA Support?
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