Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
Except they rob forage from the public-lands ranchers—so we force them out, because cattle and sheep are more amazing. Film posted today by the Forest Service.
RELATED: Devil’s Garden Adoption Starts Next Week, Devil’s Garden Horses Get Short End of Stick.
In keeping with ‘other mandated uses’ of this blog.
RELATED: If This Blog Was Managed Like Western Rangelands…
Horses removed from Pine Nut Mountains HMA will end up here. The roundup was supposed to begin today, according to a statement at this page.
RELATED: Pine Nut Roundup Set for Next Week.
True or false?
___ a. Wild horses and burros are starving to death.
___ b. The land can no longer sustain the basic needs of these animals.
___ c. They are displacing cattle, sheep, elk, mule deer and sage grouse.
___ d. They graze vegetation close to the surface, stunting regrowth.
___ e. If livestock were removed, they would still die.
All are true, according to this opinion piece posted today in HJ News of Logan, UT.
No evidence, no citations, no supporting documentation. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Given that roughly nine million AUMs are allocated to livestock each year on public lands in the western U.S., 750,000 wild horses and burros could be returned to the range if the cattle and sheep were removed.
That’s fifteen times the number of animals currently in long-term holding!
RELATED: Infamous Fence Experiment, Vegetation Control on the Virginia Range, Wild Horses on the Edge (of the Road), Population Densities on Western Rangelands.
A report posted today by The Star of Grand Coulee, WA says the Colville Business Council has awarded a $500,000 contract to Sun J Livestock of Vernal, UT to remove 1,250 horses from tribal lands in northeastern Washington.
Charges against the horses sound like they were drafted by public-lands ranchers.
Captured animals will likely be shipped to slaughter in Canada, a practice that’s opposed by some members of the tribe.
RELATED: DVM Pushes Back Against Colville Gather.
The Forest Service will be holding an online adoption for wild horses removed from the Devil’s Garden Plateau WHT in October and November of 2018, starting 02/11/19, according to a report posted today by the Herald and News of Klamath Falls, OR.
Animals aged ten years and over will be available for sale with limitations.
RELATED: Additional Remarks About the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Sale.
Shots were fired Sunday into a rescue operated by the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, according to a report posted yesterday by FOX-10 in Phoenix.
Personnel with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the incident.
The facility, and the Salt River horses, are west of the Heber WHT, where ten wild horses have been shot in the past three weeks. No arrests have been made in the case.
My friends, you’re not in California. Set the dart guns aside and get reacquainted with gas operated, magazine fed, semiautomatic rifles, such as this one. Note the images at 0:22 and 2:42. In the forest. Hint, hint.
RELATED: Shots Fired at Salt River Wild Horse Rescue Facility.
UPDATE: Added video by ABC-15 in Phoenix.
Fifty wild horses and burros will be available for direct sale February 22 – 23 at the Uvalde County Fairplex. These animals once roamed freely on western rangelands but interfered with ‘other mandated uses’ of those lands, necessitating their removal.
The ‘other rangeland resources’ protected thereby now graze peacefully on land that belongs to the horses, while their owners sip whiskey and dance the night away.
Refer to this shameless news release for details.
They frequently drop out of sight this time of year, bewildering tourists and residents alike. But an aerial survey last week found the herd in a remote fresh water marsh, grazing in knee-deep water.
Refer to this story, posted today in The Charlotte Observer, for details.
A story posted today by the Reno Gazette Journal says a privately owned horse caught in the Pyramid Lake tribal roundup last month is still missing and the number of defendants in the case has become smaller.
Claims against the Paiute Tribe were dropped last week, and now the Nevada Department of Agriculture and Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc. have been absolved.
Claims against two Department of Agriculture employees are still pending.
RELATED: Paiute Lawsuit Dismissed.
‘Excess’ horses at Palomino Valley Corrals, 20 miles north of Sparks, NV. The ranchers have friends in government, you see, these guys don’t.
It’s tough being a government dependent.
You’re convicted of arson in 2012 (to hide the deer you killed, probably because they were robbing forage from your livestock), and when you tried to renew your grazing permit in 2014, the government said no.
In 2016, you returned to prison (because the original sentence was too light), sparking the Malheur Incident that ended with the death of another public-lands rancher.
In 2018, your hero (and wild horse hater) pulled some strings in the Trump Administration to get your sentence commuted.
Then, in early 2019, your grazing permit is restored, at the direction of outgoing DOI Secretary Ryan Zinke, according to a report that appeared Friday in Tri-State Livestock News.
Your cattle can once again enjoy the hills near South Steens HMA. The next wild horse roundup can’t come soon enough.
“The people that are losing their permits from the wild horses, I feel terrible about that. We’ve regained our ground. I don’t see that they are going to get the horse deal understood before those people are totally out of business. What in the world is America thinking about?”
There is nothing admirable in the story. It’s not about rugged individualism and self reliance, it’s about victimhood and dependency. Long-term access to cheap feed and periodic removal of other animals that get in your way. Courtesy of the federal government and the American taxpayer.
The occupation of Malheur was in protest to the Obama administration, nothing more.
The ringleaders were public-lands ranchers from Bunkerville, NV.
Meanwhile, a few miles to the north in Elko County, NV, Madeleine Pickens waits patiently for the BLM to fulfill its end of the deal reached ten years ago to graze former wild horses on 600,000 acres of public land, access to which she obtained legally and with their blessing.
Moreover, the individual(s) who shot several wild horses there last August still haven’t been brought to justice.
Trailcam images of some Virginia Range mustangs coming in for a drink, before the stock tanks were put on automatic refill.
RELATED: Visitors from the East.
In keeping with ‘other mandated uses’ of this blog.
RELATED: If This Blog Was Managed Like Western Rangelands…
The Hayden Kids visited Hidden Valley Regional Park to find some wild horses but the horses had other plans!
A story that appeared yesterday in the Bradenton Herald said that U.S. Representatives Vern Buchanan and Jan Schakowsky have submitted a bipartisan bill, known as SAFE Act, that would prohibit the export of American horses for slaughter.
A similar bill will be announced in the U.S. Senate, according to the report.
Figures from the USDA indicate that more than 100,000 horses are shipped to Canadian and Mexican slaughterhouses each year from the U.S.
What does that tell you about the breeders, the barn witches, the horse racing industry and the Indian tribes?
In 2018, a banner year for the wild horse haters, roughly 12,000 animals were removed from western rangelands by the BLM and USFS, and none of these (supposedly) went to slaughter.
How will the SAFE Act stop the roundups and keep wild horses on the range? It won’t.
It can’t, because it’s focused on the outcomes…too late, too far downstream in the process to be of any help to the horses.
You can sit up and take notice when Congress acknowledges the problem of public-lands ranching and tries to do something about it.
That will probably happen right after they stop the slaughter of pre-born kids in the U.S.
Nine horses have been killed since the middle of January, plus one that had to be put down due to injuries. Thanks to ABC15 Arizona for the video.
RELATED: Heber Wild Horse Shooting Still in the News.
BLM announced today that 575 ‘excess’ wild horses would be removed by helicopter from the Pine Nut Mountains HMA beginning on or about February 6. The gather will be open to public observation and captured animals will be taken to the Palomino Valley Off-Range Corrals north of Sparks, NV, where they will be prepared for adoption.
Gather stats and daily reports will be posted to this page.
The HMA covers 104,316 acres in western Nevada and has an AML of 179, for an aimed-at population density of 1.7 animals per thousand acres. Forage consumption would amount to 2,200 AUMs annually.
The estimated population in early 2018 was 775 horses. A 20% growth rate would put the herd at roughly 900 horses today, for a population density of 8.6 animals per thousand acres.
Forage consumption would be 10,800 AUMs per year. Resource loading attributable to horses would be 0.1 AUM per acre per year.
Wild horses that interfere with ‘other mandated uses’ of the land are said to be ‘excess.’
Would those uses be recreation, mineral extraction and timber harvesting? No, they don’t require forage. What could the other uses be?
Livestock grazing. The Pine Nut HMA is subject to multiple grazing allotments.
To decide which species is consuming more than its fair share of the available resources, you’d need to know
These figures never appear in the news releases.
Therefore, it must be the horses. Livestock are blameless, always.
RELATED: Livestock Grazing in Nevada.
ABC-15 in Phoenix filed this report yesterday.
RELATED: Heber Death Toll Now at Seven.
UPDATE: See also this story by the White Mountain Independent, published today.
BLM announced today a plan to bring the wild horse population of Fifteenmile HMA in line with the capacity of the land to support them and ‘other mandated uses.’ The news release did not indicate what those other uses might be.
The HMA covers 81,000 acres in northern Wyoming and has an AML of 160, for an aimed-at population density of two animals per thousand acres. The current population, said to be approaching 500 horses, yields a density of six animals per thousand acres and puts the herd at 3X AML.
The horses would consume about 1,900 AUMs annually at AML and nearly 6,000 AUMs annually at current population levels.
The announcement did not mention that livestock grazing occurs on the HMA.
The number of livestock allowed on the HMA was not given in the announcement.
The aimed-at population density for livestock was not given in the announcement.
The forage allocated to livestock in the HMA was not given in the announcement.
Until these values are known there is no way of deciding which species needs to go.
But in a state where the BLM allocates 1.9 million AUMs to livestock every year, compared to 45,000 AUMs for horses, you can rest assured it ain’t the horses.
RELATED: Livestock Grazing in Wyoming.
