Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
It’s headed to the governor’s desk according to a story by The Sandoval Signpost.
The bill targets free-roaming herds in Placitas and Ruidoso.
A similar measure passed in the Senate two years ago but did not advance.
Curiously, Placitas is surrounded by BLM grazing allotments.
RELATED: New Mexico Lawmakers Tackle Wild Horse Problem?
UPDATE: Placitas in Sandoval County is not surrounded by allotments although there are a few to the north and east.
The puppet show will take place on March 29 at the Chandler Museum with Suzanne Roy pulling the strings.
The event is open to the public and there is no charge for admission. according to an undated announcement.
RELATED: Advocates, Not Forest Service, Destroying Salt River Herd.
At or near the Liggett Table HMA with Double T Rancher.
This commentary in High Country News was written 30 years ago.
Remarks pertain mostly to allotments in Arizona, including Sunflower, from which the Salt River horses were removed.
If the figures were updated, the memo could be sent to DOGE.
RELATED: Repurposing Sunflower.
A new project has been opened in ePlanning but no documents have been posted for public review.
The former cattle ranch would have a capacity of 500 wild horses according to the description.
RELATED: BLM Seeks More ORPs?
As you read this article about the fertility control program, think of Simone Netherlands as a marionette with Suzanne Roy pulling the strings.
The events leading to the current situation are discussed in a 2019 report to the Arizona Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service.
In a nutshell, the Forest Service announced that it would be removing wild horses from the Tonto National Forest and the advocates stepped in and said “Let us do that.”
Recalling the early days, Netherlands said “At that time, we narrowly escaped removal of the Salt River Wild Horses and offered our way of management to both the state and the federal government.”
What she meant was their way of removal.
One of her most outrageous statements involves birth rates and breeding patterns: “If we do want the mare to have a baby, we just don’t dart her that year,” as if conception can be switched on and off like a light bulb—a reference to the sperm-blocking theory.
The longer a mare has been treated with PZP, the longer she takes to regain fertility, about a year per year.
After five years of treatment, she won’t recover. She’s said to be self-boosting, a codeword for sterile.
Clearly, the horses are not in control of their future.
The management plan allowed ten years for birth control and natural attrition to reduce the herd to 100-200 head, from an initial size of around 400.
Do you think after a decade of nonstop darting the herd will come in for a soft landing, finally in balance with its surroundings?
That’s what they tried at Assateague Island and the herd was still shrinking eight years after the darting program was shut off.
Don’t be fooled by the advocates.
If it’s done with pesticides, they fully support it.
If the BLM announced it will zero-out the Rock Springs HMAs with PZP, the advocates would drop their lawsuits and offer to do it at no cost to the government.
They are phonies, allies of the ranchers, leaders of the blind.
RELATED: Court Hears Arguments in Rock Springs Grazing Appeal.
An aerial count was carried out December 9 – 11 according to the Animal Industry Report for the March 19 Board of Agriculture meeting,
A BLM statistician is analyzing the data to provide a population estimate.
A 2020 post by the advocates explains habitat loss at the Salt River.
The prescribed course of action, which they were happy to fulfill, was to beat the numbers down with PZP until the population reached an acceptable size—even if it means sterilizing the mares.
How can that be good for the herd?
Why not start a war chest that could be used to buy a base property tied to one of the neighboring allotments and give the horses more space?
Appendix 5 in a 2018 report on forage availability said the Goldfield, Bartlett, St. Clair and Sunflower allotments were most similar in vegetation, soil and topography to the Salt River horse zone.
The horse zone is mostly in Goldfield, which has been closed to livestock grazing.
Sunflower contains Butcher Jones, one of areas where the horses roamed.
It is active while Bartlett and St. Clair are vacant.
Why don’t the advocates have their eyes on these parcels instead of the scopes of their darting rifles?
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Minimally Invasive Edition.
The resolution survived a roll call vote 11-1-2 in today’s hearing.
RELATED: SCR 4006 Hearing Next Week.
Would you attend a lecture based on lies and propaganda?
Consider this statement, taken from the undated announcement:
Wild horse populations grow at a rate of 15-20% per year and compete with cattle, deer, elk, and bighorn sheep for valuable forage and water resources, which threaten fragile riparian ecosystems through soil compaction and overgrazing. While most U.S. policies advocate for the removal of these “non-native” horses, horse advocates continue to push for more territory and rights.
Cattle are the nonnative species and on public lands they outnumber wild horses by a huge margin.
Growth rates of 15-20% per year require birth rates of at least 20-25% per year and this is rarely seen in roundup data.
In discussions of wild horses, conservation is a codeword for eradication, make sure ranchers get most of the resources.
BLM allotments in Arizona support livestock equivalent to 53,662 wild horses on 10,090,546 public acres, or 5.3 wild horses per thousand public acres.
The current population, as of March 1, is thought to be 53,797 wild horses and 19,333 wild burros, compared to AMLs of 22,637 and 2,919, according to the new report.
The total number of HMAs has dropped to 175 from 177, as a result of the Rock Springs RMP Amendments, now under appeal.
Western Horse Watchers was unable to find an announcement at the BLM news site.
The report was posted to the Program Data page.
The facility report has not been updated since September but, as of today, there are probably more wild horses in off-range holding than on the range.
AMLs represent the number of animals allowed by plan, not the number of animals the land can support.
The first foal of the year has arrived according to a report by WTKR News.
The size of the herd and the number of mares ruined by the advocates are not known.
The bill was approved today by a vote of 56-8-1.
It has not been considered by the Senate.
RELATED: HB25-1283 Third Reading Set for Tomorrow.
The action was laid over from today.
The bill has picked up additional sponsors.
As of this evening, all responses for the March 20 hearing are “In Favor.”
RELATED: SCR 4006 Hearing Next Week.
Attorneys for the advocacy groups presented their claims to a panel of the Tenth Circuit this morning according to a report by Courthouse News Service.
Although three appeals were filed, the court consolidated them into one.
The panel did not indicate when it would rule.
The case centers around keeping wild horses off private lands, which, in this writer’s opinion, is not the government’s job in a fence-out state.
Appendix 5 in the 2018 report on forage availability said the Goldfield, Bartlett, St. Clair and Sunflower allotments are most similar in vegetation, soil and topography to the Salt River horse zone.
Bartlett and St. Clair are vacant according to the ArcGIS Viewer.
Together, they could support 617 wild horses.
Why aren’t the advocates in talks with the Forest Service to access those parcels?
The status of the base properties is unknown.
The protected habitat, described in the 2020 post, lies mostly in the Goldfield allotment but the northern end is in Sunflower.
RELATED: Repurposing Sunflower.
A new project created today has been marked Paused.
A similar project from November says In Progress but has no documents.
TRELATED; New Management Plan in the Works for Adobe Town HMA?
Western Horse Watchers Association 