PZP Zealotry on a Global Scale

Video by the Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility Control, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation of the animal kingdom, the Population Bombers of the wild horse world, spreading the serpent’s venom across the land.

They don’t allow comments on their YouTube channel.  Are they worried that someone might disagree with them?

The video provides a ‘who’s who’ of contraceptive advocacy on western rangelands.

Illinois Sanctuary Finds Homes for ‘Excess’ Wild Horses

Refer to this story, published today by St. Louis Public Radio, an NPR affiliate (and probable conduit of Marxist propaganda).  Includes audio.

While the efforts of the owners are commendable, they are too late, too far downstream in the process.  They guarantee more horses will be removed from western rangelands, because they focus on symptoms, not on causes.

This is also true for the PZP zealots, who think shooting wild mares in the ass with contraceptives is the answer.  It is not.  It is capitulation to the anti-horse agenda, assent to the wild horse narrative.

Advocacy must be aimed at keeping these animals on the range.

That means pushing back against the public-lands ranchers and those at the BLM and Forest Service who coddle them.  Same for land managers at the state level.

Founder of South Dakota Wild Horse Sanctuary Remembered

Dayton O. Hyde, founder of the 11,000 acre Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, died 12/22/18 at the family ranch in Oregon.  He was 93.  Refer to this story posted 12/30/18 by the Herald and News of Klamath Falls.

The sanctuary was in the news recently because of a conservation easement that affects over 70% its land.  It will continue operations under the leadership of Susan Watt.

UPDATE: Added video by Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary.

Palomino Valley Corrals, Day Ten of Government Shutdown

Monday, December 31, 2018, a cold and windy day in northern Nevada.  It’s day ten of the federal government shutdown.  Nobody to be seen at BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Center, about twenty miles north of Sparks on Highway 445.

IMG_7842

The visitor gate was shut.

IMG_7844

A temporary sign told the story.

IMG_7847

The office was idle.

IMG_7856

You’ll have to read the signs to find out what goes on there.  The display is on the south side of the facility, along Ironwood Road.  See this video.

IMG_7867

This one tells the story of wild horses and burros on public lands in the western U.S.

IMG_7865

There’s also some information on how to gitcha one.

IMG_7864

Although nobody was there to identify the horses and show you around, someone has been stopping by to feed them.

IMG_7903

These guys looked okay, despite the harsh conditions and lack of shelter.

‘Lunatic Farmer’ Longs for Horsemeat Dinner

Refer to his blog post dated 12/26/18 about the wild horse ‘problem’ on western rangelands.  Opposing comments are not allowed so they are presented here:

Sir, the symptoms you describe are the result of a strong connection to agriculture and the rural lifestyle.

Many of the wild horses and burros now wasting away in long-term holding got there because of livestock and public-lands ranching.

The agency charged with the care of those animals has steadily given more and more of their land (set aside for them by the WHB Act of 1971) to the ranchers and other commercial interests, while gradually reducing the number of horses and burros allowed to live in the remaining areas.

The figures you cited are correct.  BLM says the land, 27 million acres in ten western states, can only support 27,000 wild horses and burros.  That works out to one animal per thousand acres, almost nothing.

The same agency allows ten to twenty times as many cow/calf pairs on western rangelands, depending on the area.  In some cases it’s the same territory set aside for the horses!

You may wish to view this aerial footage from SE Oregon: https://youtu.be/zFofShEuZJk.  What do you see at 3:06?  At 3:36?  Which species is in the majority?

Twenty seven thousand has nothing to do with the carrying capacity of the land.  It only represents the forage loss the ranchers, and their allies at the BLM, are willing to tolerate.

By the way, the fossil record shows that horses are a native species in North America.  They died off around 12,000 years ago and were reintroduced by Spanish explorers, as you noted.

Keep in mind that many of the horses and burros roam on the harsh landscape of the Great Basin.  They have not destroyed their habitat, that’s what the high desert looks like.  Here’s an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOzB6ltmZ20.

‘Swamp Cancer’ Claims More Chincoteague Ponies

Four horses infected with the disease, formally known as pythiosis, did not respond to treatment and were put down last week, according to a syndicated report that appeared yesterday in the Winston-Salem Journal.

A veterinarian interviewed for the piece suggested that the ailment was spreading northward (from southern states) because of a ‘changing climate.’  Good grief.

RELATED: Another Chincoteague Pony Dies of ‘Swamp Cancer’.

Fence Post Replaced, Finally

Four by six treated post failed in May, 2018, probably because one of the horses put his butt to the fence to scratch it.  Installed October 2103, replaced 12/28/18.

Step 1: Gather tools and materials.  Best way to carry eighty pound sacks of cement to the job site?  Your tractor.

IMG_7791

Step 2: Dig the hole.  The fence tells you where.

IMG_7794

Step 3: Check depth of hole.  Top of post should be at top of fence, in this case about 64″ above grade.  Hole should be deep enough to place a few inches of gravel at the bottom so the post does not rest on soil.  Don’t cut the post, dig the hole deeper.

IMG_7799

Step 4: Use a level to plumb the post.  Mix the cement and place in hole.  In this photo, a wood block braces the new post against the old concrete.

IMG_7803

Step 5: If your pipe panels have loop legs, be sure to press them into the concrete before it hardens.  Make sure the depression can drain into the surrounding soil.  Top of concrete should be slightly higher than grade, so rainwater runs away from the post.

IMG_7808

Step 6: Secure the fence to the new post.  A U-shaped metal strap with two 1/4″ lag bolts should work.  You can see one near the top of the first post in this photo.  The new post is next in line.

IMG_7819

In this corral, the pipe panels are supported at every other junction.  Steel rods were pounded into the ground where not supported to keep the horses from pushing those sections out (the pinned joints act like hinges).  You can make the rods from #4 rebar or larger.  Drive them in on the outside of the leg until flush with the top of the loop.

IMG_7823

Technical note: The 4×6 posts in this corral were oriented with the broad side facing the pipe panels, to accommodate the U-shaped straps.  The posts would do a better job of resisting the horses if their narrow side was put toward the fence.  But you’d have to find another way to secure the panels to them, such as drilling holes through the vertical members and lagging them directly to the posts.  Straps have more ‘give,’ which is nice when horses lean against the fence or ground conditions change from wet to dry.  The face-to-face spacing between 6×6 posts on a 12′ gate can change 1/4″ or more between summer and winter in this area.