At the Ozark National Scenic Riverways with Tim Layton.
Searching for Motives in Alpine Wild Horse Shootings
The story by FOX10 News in Phoenix indicated that the dead animals were found near Forest Road 25 in the Alpine and Springerville Ranger Districts.
The Western Watersheds map shows Road #25 in the PS Allotment, about 15 miles southwest of Alpine and near the area where the Jumping Mouse horses were trapped earlier this year.
The area is not just known for its grazing potential, but is home to some of the best elk and mule deer habitat in Arizona.
The Annual Operating Instructions for PS indicate two pastures, with grazing seasons ending in just a few days.
Pokegama Legal Action to Be Tossed Out?
The case, brought by the Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic on behalf of Wild Horse Fire Brigade, seeks to halt the removal of wild horses from private property within and adjacent to the HMA in southern Oregon, according to a news release dated October 8.
Plaintiffs allege that the BLM has violated the WHB Act and/or NEPA and have asked the Court to issue a temporary restraining order stopping the roundup.
The incident started on September 26. To date, three horses have been captured.
If free-roaming horses or burros stray from public lands onto privately owned land, the owners of such land may inform the nearest Federal marshall or agent of the Secretary, who shall arrange to have the animals removed, per §1334 of 16 USC 30.
The BLM issued a CX and DR for the action two years ago. The map on page 5 of the pdf shows much of the land inside the HMA is privately owned.
Is Oregon a fence-out state?
The CX was the only document posted to the project folder in ePlanning.
The aim of the Wild Horse Fire Brigade is to move wild horses from areas where they’re not wanted (by public-lands ranchers) to remote wilderness areas not particularly suited to livestock grazing.
“Horses are significantly more ecologically appropriate in wilderness areas over ruminant livestock like cattle, sheep, and goats,” according to its founder.
Achievement of that end would constitute victory for the ranchers in their long-held goal of purging wild horses from western rangelands.
Advocates Outraged by Alpine Wild Horse Shootings?
Fourteen horses have been found dead so far, according to a story posted this evening by KPHO News of Phoenix.
Simone Netherlands, ringleader of the Salt River Wild Horse Darting Group, told the reporter that the “atrocity shows … just how much hate there is for these horses.”
Speaking of hate, Western Horse Watchers estimates that the group, an affiliate of the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, gets rid of about 80 wild horses every year at the Salt River.
Their colleagues on the Virginia Range are getting rid of an estimated 400 to 600 wild horses every year with the Montana Solution.
Who’s the greater threat to America’s wild horses? Shooters or the advocates?
RELATED: Forest Service Acknowledges Alpine Wild Horse Shooting?
How to Tell if an Idea Is Good for America’s Wild Horses
If the advocates endorse it, it’s bad.
For example, the Animal Welfare Institute, in cooperation with the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, claims that HR 9154, which would amend the WHB Act, represents a long overdue upgrade to the law so that wild equines can be managed humanely in their natural habitats for Americans to enjoy.
This, of course, means “get rid of them with the Montana Solution” so ranchers can be the primary consumers of resources in their lawful homes.
- Barren mares
- Confused stallions
- Shrinking herds
- Injuries and infections
- Abnormal sex ratios
- Massive human involvement
- Subordination to livestock
The advocates were defeated a long time ago.
Today, they carry water for the bureaucrats and ranchers.
They treat their cherished horses and burros—sorry, they may be switching to beloved, as seen in the article by the Las Vegas Review-Journal—the way you treat your beloved ants and roaches.
RELATED: Lawmakers Draft Another Stupid Bill for Wild Horses.
Forest Service Acknowledges Alpine Wild Horse Shooting?
A brief report by Fox10 News in Phoenix suggests they are aware of the incident.
Western Horse Watchers still can’t find a statement at the ASNF home page.
The Forest Service argues that the horses migrated into the area after the 2011 Wallow Fire and are therefore not entitled to protection under the WHB Act.
RELATED: Wild Horses Shot Near Alpine.
Lawmakers Draft Another Stupid Bill for Wild Horses
This article by the Las Vegas Review-Journal does not provide a link to the measure but Western Horse Watchers suspects it’s HR 9154, introduced yesterday in the House and referred to the Committee on Natural Resources.
The text is not available as of today.
The bill would provide more federal funds and resources to protect wild horses and burros from slaughter, or killed for management goals, implement fertility control and eliminate cash for adoptions that have led to slaughter in Mexico and other countries, according to the report.
To most people, protection means stop the losses, prevent extinction and change whatever needs to be changed to help the species recover.
Not so in the wild horse world. Protection means get rid of them with the Montana Solution, with benefits accruing to the public-lands ranchers.
Earlier this year, lawmakers proposed the ridiculous helicopter ban nicknamed “Save a Horse, Hire a Cowboy.” Wild horses would be removed from their lawful home by wranglers, not helicopters, in favor of the ranchers.
Prompted by video from the Pancake roundup showing a foal running on a broken leg, a subsequent video from the Buffalo Hills roundup showed how it would work. “Abuse a foal, pardon a cowboy.”
A few months later, lawmakers came up with another brilliant idea: Train combat veterans to dart wild horses with PZP, the “Veterans Against Mustangs Act.”
These bills do not address the problems of resource management and multiple use and are therefore of no benefit to America’s wild horses.
Wild Horses Shot Near Alpine
The incident occurred in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in eastern Arizona, according to a news release on EIN by Advocates for Wild Equines.
Western Horse Watchers has been unable to find a statement by ASNF.
ISPMB tried unsuccessfully earlier this year to stop the removal of wild horses from an area southwest of Alpine designated for the New Mexico Jumping Mouse.
Forest Service lands around Alpine, denoted by green in the Western Watersheds map, are subject to permitted grazing.
The Forest Service views the horses as trespass livestock. The herd is not protected by the WHB Act, which no longer functions as Velma attended.
Foal-Free Friday, Safe, Proven and Reversible Edition
The Montana Solution inhibits fertilization by creating anti-zona pellucida antibodies which bind to the zona pellucida of the oocyte, alter their conformation, and block sperm attachment to the zona pellucida receptors, according to the pesticide fact sheet provided by the EPA.
If this is true, why don’t mares bear fruit when the injections are stopped, after four to five successive years of treatment?
The herd on the Maryland side of Assateague Island should have doubled in the six years since the darting program was shut off. The population at the time was around 80, according to the chart provided by the Park Service.
As of yesterday, the population was 78.
Mares that don’t return to normal function are labeled “self-boosting” by the advocates, suggesting they produce their own antibodies, when in reality their ovaries have been destroyed, or nearly so.
This is not a defect, it is part of the plan.
The advocates treat their cherished horses and burros the way you treat your cherished ants and roaches.
Don’t give them a penny.
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, We’re Not Who We Say We Are Edition.
City of Reno to Host Meeting #3 on Virginia Range Mustangs
The meeting begins October 10 at 5:30 PM Pacific time, according to an announcement dated October 5.
The advocates announced three weeks ago that they have a better way to get rid of wild horses and they’re using the Virginia Range to prove it.
RELATED: Meeting #2 Regarding Virginia Range Mustangs Set for Monday.
Escaped Trail Horse Captured in Cedar Mountain Roundup?
He ran off with a band of wild horses eight years ago and his owner gave up the search three years later.
But the two have been reunited according to a story by KUTV News of Salt Lake City.
The article said he was picked up “when BLM managers rounded up a herd of mustangs near military property in Tooele County in the last week of September.”
That was probably Cedar Mountain.
The gather page does not mention the capture or release of a branded/claimed horse.
WHBAB Meeting Almost Over
The lunacy continues for the third and final day at 0800 Pacific time.
Here’s a preview of what you haven’t seen, and won’t see, at the meeting. Data from the North Lander Complex in Wyoming.
The government collects 49,311 × 1.35 = $66,570 per year in grazing fees from ranchers occupying the lawful home of wild horses, while it spends 4,108 × 5 × 365 = $7,497,100 per year to care for the animals forced into feedlots on their behalf.
This is a scam on American taxpayers.
The Board has been co-opted by ranchers and ranching sympathizers.
RELATED: WHBAB Meeting Materials Omit Key Data.
Assateague Herd Struggling in Latest Census
The Assateague Island Alliance reports 78 wild horses living on the Maryland side of the island as of today, compared to 78 horses a year and a half ago.
Seven foals were born this year.
The herd could only generate a nine percent birth rate, and a zero percent growth rate, six years after the darting program was shut off.
Could this explain why the Park Service stopped publishing census results?
The advocates no longer point to the island as a paragon of wild horse management.
They are now trying to ruin the Virginia Range and Salt River herds.
RELATED: Park Service Goes Underground with Assateague Horse Census?
WHBAB Meeting Resumes Today
Join the ranching lovefest, starting at 0800 Pacific time.
RELATED: WHBAB Meeting Materials Omit Key Data.
Advocate Calls for Mercy in Wake of Wild Horse Roundups?
Stop giving them what they deserve!
The title of this news release by IDA speaks volumes about the advocate mindset.
Your contact is Ginger Fedak, a trained PZP darter and author of the recent op-ed about horses and livestock in CounterPunch.
Mercy has no place in the wild horse debate, not when your enemies want you wiped off the map. Defeat comes first.
WHBAB Meeting in Progress
Devil’s Garden Roundup, Day 22, Ecological Imbalance Edition
The incident began on September 12. Results through October 3:
Body condition scores indicate more horses than allowed by plan, not more horses than the land can support. If the horses were starving the scores would be lower.
More information may be available in the land of make-believe on socialist media.
- Target: Horses
- Type: Planned
- Method: Unknown
- Captured: 311
- Average daily take: 14.1
- Capture goal: Unknown
- Removal goal: Unknown
- Returned: Unknown
- Deaths: Unknown
- Shipped: Unknown
- Unaccounted-for: Unknown
- Location of trap: Unknown
- Destination of captured animals: Unknown
- Horses allowed by plan (AML): 402
- Forage assigned to horses: 4,824 AUMs per year
- Pre-gather population: Unknown
- Forage assigned to livestock inside WHT: 15,711 AUMs per year (estimated)
- Horses displaced from WHT by permitted grazing: 1,309
- True AML: 1,711
- Stocking rate at new AML: 6.6 horses per thousand acres
The government collects $21,210 per year in grazing fees from ranching activity inside the WHT while it spends $2,388,925 per year to care for the horses displaced thereby.
Would you say that permitted grazing is a wise use of the public lands?
All of this could be avoided—foals, adults, all of them—with patience and an aggressive darting program.
RELATED: Devil’s Garden Roundup, Day 15, Managing for Livestock Edition.
Story of Sulphur Wild Horses?
They were stolen from Spanish colonizers and in the attempt to recover them, some were lost in the fray near today’s Nevada-Utah border, according to a report by KZMU Community Radio of Moab, UT.
The BLM thinned the herd by roughly 60% earlier this year, not to protect rangeland health as indicated in the article, but to protect the public-lands ranchers.
Not mentioned in the story:
- Livestock receive 3.4 times more forage than the horses
- About 850 horses have been displaced from the HMA by permitted grazing
- No foals were captured in the roundup
- The herd is shrinking without the aid of helicopters
- The HMA has an HMAP
RELATED: Lots to Celebrate at Sulphur HMA, If You’re an Advocate.
Jakes Valley Reward Doubles
A pledge from the National Mustang Association increased the payout from $10,000 to $20,000.
It’s not clear from the BLM news release if it’s the group in Colorado, Utah or somewhere else.
The advocates in Colorado are helping NPS remove wild horses from Mesa Verde National Park.
Those in Utah run cattle on a BLM grazing allotment that overlaps the Tilly Creek and Bible Spring HMAs.
The IRS Form 990 suggests it’s the group in Utah.
WHBAB Meeting Materials Omit Key Data
None of the reports show the forage assigned to livestock inside the HAs and HMAs.
The HA/HMA Report provides acreage, AMLs and current populations, but does not tell the American people how the resources in those areas have been allocated.
Western Horse Watchers believes those numbers would show that HAs are managed principally for livestock, while most of the HMAs, a subset of the HAs, are managed primarily for livestock.
If you neglect wildlife, the HAs—the lawful home of wild horses and burros—would be managed exclusively for livestock.
The report should include (1) the AUMs assigned to horses/burros and livestock, (2) percentages of forage assigned to horses/burros and livestock, (3) horses/burros displaced from each area by permitted grazing, (4) the costs of holding those animals in off-range corrals compared to the fees paid by ranchers occupying those areas, and (5) the True AMLs, to be achieved by confining the ranchers to their base properties.
Don’t look to the advocates for leadership in this regard. They’re down with the ranching agenda, indicated by their near-unanimous support of the Montana Solution.
The meeting starts tomorrow.
The Board is dominated by ranchers and ranching sympathizers.
The wild horse and burro program has been a drag on the grazing program for 50 years.
RELATED: WHBAB Meeting Materials Out for Review.
