Western Horse Watchers Association
Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
On the range
The remains were discovered November 28 on private property near the Last Chance Mountain Range, according to a BLM news release.
The agency has offered $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible.
The Last Chance Mountains are in the Johnnie HMA, the lawful home of wild burros.
The HMA is not subject to permitted grazing.
Private lands are shown in white in the following map from the National Data Viewer.
Consider one such animal.
If he’s on the range, the government loses 12 AUMs per year × $1.35 = $16.20 per year in grazing fees but saves $5 per day × 365 = $1,825 per year in holding costs.
If he’s off the range, the government collects 12 AUMs per year × $1.35 = $16.20 per year in grazing fees but spends $5 per day × 365 = $1,825 per year in holding costs.
The price of hay has doubled in the last 18 months, so the cost of short-term holding is likely more than $5 per day.
The cost of long-term holding is around $2 per head per day.
There are currently around 62,000 animals in off-range holding, with about one third in short-term holding and two thirds in long-term holding.
For simplicity, let’s assume that the weighted average cost across all facilities is $3 per animal per day and that they’re all horses.
.33 × 5 + .67 × 2 ≅ 3
If they were returned to their lawful homes, the government would forfeit 62,000 × 12 × $1.35 = $1 million per year in grazing fees while saving 62,000 × 3 × 365 = $68 million per year in holding costs.
Who wouldn’t jump on that? The bureaucrats, ranchers and advocates.
We need to beat down the population with helicopters and snuff out new life with PZP so ranchers can access most of the food and water in the lawful homes of wild horses.
The forage assigned to livestock in areas identified for wild horses would support more than 62,000 animals, enough to empty all of the off-range facilities several times over.
How to achieve? Confine the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season and restore the WHB Act to its original form.
At Washoe Lake, southwest corner of Virginia Range, with Jerry Davis.
The 3,335 acres acquired by the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses were placed into a trust, according to an article in the April edition of Horse Tales by the real estate agent and PZP darter involved in the transaction.
She did not indicate if she benefitted financially from the deal.
There are no remarks about base properties, permitted grazing and active AUMs.
Now, CAAWH is searching for ways to raise funds to purchase another 6,000 acres.
Only about half of the land originally identified for the Pine Nut horses has an AML, as explained by the author at the beginning of the column.
Resources in the other half have been assigned to livestock, the driver of the safe, proven and reversible fertility control program.
RELATED: CAAWH Acquires Pine Nut Base Property?
Only Congress can do that, but it won’t stop them from trying.
A new regulation, announced in a March 30 news release, would designate conservation as a use, on par with other uses of the public lands under FLPMA’s multiple-use and sustained-yield framework, but did not indicate what those other uses were.
The proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on April 3, establishes conservation leases to promote protection and restoration of public lands, while providing opportunities for public involvement.
It would also amend the ACEC regulations to ensure that the BLM gives priority to the designation and protection Areas of Critical Environmental Concern.
Comments will be accepted through June 20. For more information, including a section-by-section discussion of the proposed rule, go to the Federal Register’s published document page.
The principal uses of public lands include, and are limited to, domestic livestock grazing, fish and wildlife development and utilization, mineral exploration and production, rights-of-way, outdoor recreation, and timber production, according to §1702(l) of FLPMA.
Conservation leases would be issued for a maximum of ten years, and a permittee would be any person that has a valid permit, right-of-way grant, lease, or other land use authorization from the BLM.
RELATED: New Reg Would Treat All Public Lands Like Grazing Allotments?
Do not be misled by this article that points the finger at GonaCon Equine.
PZP, the safe, proven and reversible fertility control vaccine endorsed by 98.6% of the wild horse advocates achieves the same result over a slightly longer timeframe.
As for the efficacy of GonaCon, Pendley indicated three years ago that it would inhibit the mares with one application.
The incident occurred on April 12, while the animal was sedated, according to a report by WITN News of Greenville, NC.
Western Horse Watchers was unable to find an acknowledgment at the Cape Lookout news page.
The transfer would support the genetic viability and health at Rachel Carson.
Similar moves are carried out on rangelands in the American west, to boost genetic viability while keeping herd sizes small, a nod to the public-lands ranchers.
Genetic diversity can also be improved by allowing herd sizes to grow, exactly what the ranchers don’t want.
RELATED: Shackleford Herd Grew Slightly in 2022.
UPDATE: Park Service has acknowledged the loss.
The total received, consisting of GoFundMe, checks mailed and donations through the museum’s website, is $316,000 as of today.
The goal is $625,000 and the deadline is April 30 to match the developer’s bid.
RELATED: Beebe Ranch Fundraiser, Day 23.
The history of the horses at Theodore Roosevelt National Park is presented by Partick Springer in a podcast dated April 11 by INFORUM, along with a discussion of their proposed removal by the Park Service.
Springer appears in “Nokota Heart,” a 2011 documentary about the original wild horses of TRNP and how they came to the Kuntz ranch.
RELATED: Story of the Nokota Horses.
With massive die-offs expected among antelope and deer, the fate of the state’s wild horses remains uncertain, according to a story dated April 11 by Cowboy State Daily.
So far, deep, hard-crusted snow has kept BLM field personnel from getting a clear idea of how the mustangs are doing, or how many may have killed by harsh conditions.
The Decision Record, signed April 10, authorizes two of the three studies proposed last year, a three-year trial of the oocyte growth factor and a five-year test of a new form of porcine zona pellucida known as SpayVac, subject to a 30-day appeal period.
Both products were described as vaccines.
The option to conduct a four-year study of an intrauterine device known as the iUPOD was deferred to a later date, to be approved through a separate decision.
The research will take place at the Northern Nevada Correctional Facility in Carson City, according to today’s news release.
The Final EA and other supporting documents have been copied to the project folder.
RELATED: Draft EA for Fertility Control Research Out for Review.
Although there has been much angst over the last few months about the possible removal of wild horses from Theodore Roosevelt National Park, they have little historical significance.
The original wild horses of TRNP, thought to be descendants of Sitting Bull’s ponies, were removed by the Park Service over 20 years ago.
The herd you see today is only an exhibit.
Some of the horses were rescued by Frank and Leo Kuntz. They called them Nokotas.
Their story was told in the 2011 film “Nokota Heart.”
Now, Frank, suffering from cancer as a result of serving in Vietnam, wonders who will care for his herd when he is gone.
One of the biggest problems is paying for hay, according to a story by INFORUM.
A GoFundMe has been started to help with expenses.
RELATED: Who Will Look After the Nokotas When Frank Is Gone?
The announcement, posted on the propaganda page hosted by Lucky Three Ranch, celebrates the fourth anniversary of the effort to snuff out new life on the Virginia Range, allowing the herd to die off at an increasing rate.
With a shrinking number of foals hitting the ground, the average age of the herd is increasing, along with the death rate.
Why are they doing this?
Nonsense! Some land has been lost to development at TRIC, but not enough to justify a reduction in herd size from 3,000 to 600 or less, the whisper target mentioned in the March 7 SB90 hearing.
At a stocking rate of ten wild horses per thousand acres, the Virginia Range defies the carrying capacity narrative peddled by the bureaucrats and ranchers.
They want it erased and the advocates—their allies—are eager to comply.
How are they doing this?
They’re poisoning the mares with a restricted-use pesticide.
It’s not a vaccine. It causes illness instead of preventing it.
It destroys the ovaries, usually within five years, resulting in sterility. The damage begins with the first injection.
Effect on hormonal system? Huge.
They are not keeping the horses wild and free.
They are not protecting them from removal.
They’re exterminating the herd with little if any fanfare, hoping you won’t notice.
What have they accomplished?
With the program moving into its fifth year, many of the mares are at risk of sterility.
They’ve enriched those in the PZP supply chain.
Their enmity toward the horses has caught the eye of the bureaucrats and ranchers.
With the current lull in gather activity, they’re leaders in the wild horse removal industry.
Nobody’s getting rid of more wild horses than CAAWH.
Not motorists, not tourists, not shooters, not helicopter pilots and wranglers, not drillers, miners and loggers. Nobody.
Horses have the day off. At the Lake Pleasant HMA with Never2Late2Wander.
The Assateague Island Alliance counted 77 horses on the Maryland side of the island in April, including one new foal, down from 78 in February.
The Park Service reported 75 ponies in March.
The herd size has gone down since the safe, proven and reversible darting program was shut off in 2016.
RELATED: AIA Going Dark on Assateague Pony Census?
The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses is now one of the major grazing rights holders in Douglas County, according to a story posted today by The Record-Courier of Minden, NV.
Christopher and Camille Bently and Bently Family LLC donated 757 acres.
Funding from others enabled the purchase 15 additional parcels amounting to 2,578 acres, for a total of 3,335 acres in the Pine Nut Mountains.
The article did not name the allotment to which the acreage is tied but Western Horse Watchers suspects it’s Buckeye.
It did not indicate if the group, a leader in the wild horse removal industry, would lease out the grazing preference to local ranchers, whose approval it seeks above all else.
Petitioning the BLM for a change in livestock type and season of use, to accommodate wild horses, is not compatible with its mission, which is to eradicate as many herds as possible with a restricted-use pesticide.
The following map from the National Data Viewer shows the Pine Nut Mountains HMA in orange, the HA in black and the Buckeye Allotment in green.
Contrary to what you read in the report, CAAWH has been working closely with the Pine Nut advocates for years, providing support for their safe, proven and reversible darting program, targeting the beloved mares of the Fish Springs herd.
The article did not say if Mary Cioffi, president of the group, real estate agent and PZP darter in the Fish Springs area, whose writings frequently appear in Horse Tales, brokered some or all of the deal.
Bently is the only son and heir of Don Bently, founder of Bently Nevada, manufacturer of sensors that monitor the condition of rotating equipment, among other things.
The Mount Lewis Field Office authorized the Proposed Action, according to a Decision Record dated April 7, clearing the way for an initial roundup of approximately 1,000 wild horses, followed by removal of 954.
Mares returned to the Complex would be treated with pesticides and/or IUDs.
Stallions would be released in numbers that skew the sex ratio in favor of males.
The Complex consists of three HMAs northwest of Eureka, NV and is subject to permitted grazing.
Curiously, one of the ranchers who testified against SB90 runs cattle in the area.
The Final EA and other related documents have been copied to the project folder.
The BLM’s response to comments begins in Section 17.0 of the Supplemental Information Report.
Approximately 3,600 form letters were received from followers of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, demanding the use of PZP, among other things, an indication of the malice of its leadership and brainwashing of its supporters.
Note that they didn’t refer to it as reversible.
Concerns about forage allocations, although valid, were outside the scope of the project, which was a resource enforcement decision, not an RMP amendment.
RELATED: Roberts Mountain Pest Control Plan Goes Public.
Near the Quik Stop in Fernley, NV, northeast corner of the Virginia Range.
The advocates rely on predators to take out any foals that slip through their darting programs, but the risk of encounter may be lower in populated areas.
The numbers are changing minute by minute. What are the advocates up to now?
The comment period has been extended for two weeks.
The project will deliver a new HMAP for wild horse management, not wild horse preservation, effective for ten years.
RELATED: Specialized Approach Dropped from Pryor Management Plan?
The reference to the Virginia Range darting program was dropped from the preamble in yesterday’s work session.
The definition of wild mustang was also removed, suggesting that the state would continue to view the Virginia Range herd as estray livestock, with few if any protections.
The amended bill was posted to NELIS for public review.
The bill overview does not indicate the next step in the legislative process.
RELATED: SB90 Work Session Tomorrow.
Western Horse Watchers Association 