Exposing the Hypocrisy, Lies and Incompetence of the Wild Horse Advocates
He’ll oversee about 70,000 federal employees according to a story by The Hill, including those responsible for wild horses and burros.
A nominee for Agriculture, which has similar responsibilities, has not been announced.
RELATED: What Are Musk and Ramaswamy Being Told About Wild Horses?
President-elect Donald Trump announced on November 12 that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new task force on government efficiency according to a report by AP News.
The Department of Government Efficiency will work outside the bureaucracy to drive large-scale structural reform and create an entrepreneurial approach to government.
You can be sure the farm bureaus, stock grower’s associations and public lands councils, already circling their wagons, will point to the wild horse and burro program as wasteful government spending, when most of its costs are incurred because of them.
The same is true for wildfire restoration, fuels reduction, cheatgrass mitigation, predator control and pinyon-juniper management on America’s public lands.
Hundreds of millions of dollars spent every year on affluent ranchers who pocket the profits and pay almost nothing for the services, as nearly 70,000 wild animals rot in government holding.
If Musk and Ramaswamy understood the waste and sleaze, and they had the authority, they’d kill this boondoggle Monday morning and put those animals back on the range.
The agency has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible according to today’s news release.
In an effort to trick you into thinking they care about wild horses, the pesticide pushers and ranching sympathizers have pledged $14,000, bringing the total to $19,000.
They know they won’t have to make good on their promises.
RELATED: Onaqui Stallion Found Dead.
The incident started on November 2. Results through November 12:
The figures above are based on the daily reports.
The Day 3 report still shows 122 horses shipped but the breakdown yields 120.
No horses were taken on Day 10. Capture activity may have moved to another area or weather conditions were unfavorable.
A stallion was dispatched on Day 10 because of club feet and another for tooth loss.
The death rate is 1.1%.
The capture total includes 342 stallions, 344 mares and 197 foals.
Youngsters represented 22.3% of the animals gathered, consistent with a herd growth rate of 17% per year.
Of the adults, 49.9% were male and 50.1% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio.
Body condition scores were not given.
The location of the trap site was not disclosed.
The name of the contractor was not provided.
Three HMAs are affected.
Up to 50 mares will be treated with GonaCon Equine and returned to the range with up to 50 stallions.
The number of doses and the interval between treatments were not specified, leaving open the possibility that the Complex becomes the next GonaCon crime scene.
The roundup supports three tenets of rangeland management.
RELATED: Triple B Roundup, Day 9.
A federal judge has dismissed the case seeking their removal from the barrier island off the coast of Georgia, according to a report by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The original article was placed behind a paywall but was reprinted in full by the Union-Bulletin of Walla Walla WA.
The writer said the court ruled against them because the do-gooders in the coalition named them as plaintiffs.
RELATED: Coalition Seeks Removal of Cumberland Island Horses.
Five new public-private partnerships could place an additional 11,000 wild horses and burros into private care over the next five years in exchange for $25 million in funding, according to today’s news release.
That’s on top of the existing adoption program.
Leading the way is Forever Branded, a Texas nonprofit that will receive over $16 million.
Western Horse Watchers believes that these programs will not reduce expenditures for off-range holding but will accelerate turnover so more wild horses can be removed from their lawful homes.
The off-range corrals could be emptied several times over by confining the ranchers to their base properties in a year-round off season.
The agency spends tens of millions of dollars every year stockpiling wild horses so it can collect a few million dollars in grazing fees from the ranchers.
Nobody in the private sector would do that.
He was found in the HMA on November 10 according to a report by KSL News, killed by gunfire.
Your host was unable to find a statement from the BLM at their news site.
The HMA is subject to permitted grazing.
Advocates with the Wild Horses of America Foundation are poisoning the Onaqui mares with PZP and Gonacon Equine.
They should be investigated for unlawful use of pesticides.
Refer to §136j(a)(2)(G) in FIFRA.
If the Gonacon label says a second dose can be given 90 days after the first and you give it after 30 days, you violated federal law.
If the Zonastat label tells you what PPE to wear when applying the product and you don’t, you violated federal law.
If persons using these products don’t have the labels in their possession when applying them to equines, they’re violating federal law.
These requirements are easy to check during field audits.
RELATED: There’s a Cancer on the Wild Horse and Burro Program.
The incident started on November 2. Results through November 10:
The figures above are based on the daily reports.
The Day 3 report still shows 122 horses shipped but the breakdown yields 120.
Eighteen horses were released on Day 9. No details were given.
A stallion died suddenly on Day 9 after breaking his leg and a mare died suddenly after breaking her neck. Two mares were dispatched because of leg injuries, boosting the death rate to 1.1%.
The capture total includes 270 stallions, 295 mares and 158 foals.
Youngsters represented 21.9% of the animals gathered, consistent with a herd growth rate of 17% per year.
Of the adults, 47.8% were male and 52.2% were female, no indication of an abnormal sex ratio.
Body condition scores were not given.
The location of the trap site was not disclosed.
The name of the contractor was not provided.
Three HMAs are affected.
Up to 50 mares will be treated with GonaCon Equine and returned to the range with up to 50 stallions.
The number of doses and the interval between treatments were not specified, leaving open the possibility that the Complex becomes the next GonaCon crime scene.
The roundup supports three tenets of rangeland management.
RELATED: Triple B Roundup, Day 7.
In the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest with AZplaces.
ALLEGATION: The federal agencies responsible for wild horses and burros knew about the 2017 labeling amendment for GonaCon Equine but ignored the parts they didn’t like, referring instead to specifications of the 2013 and 2015 registrations which better served their anti-horse agenda.
In the 2017 edition, persons injecting the pesticide need not be certified applicators, which they liked, but the minimum interval between treatments was 90 days, which they didn’t like.
In the previous editions, persons injecting the pesticide had to be certified applicators, which they didn’t like, but the interval between treatments was 30 days, which they could tolerate.
So they invented a hybrid registration, without the consent of the EPA, consisting of certification-free application with 30 days between treatments and fed it to the public through the planning process.
Let the denials and coverups begin.
RELATED: Gonacongate: What Did They Know and When Did They Know It?
The case centers around the unlawful use of pesticides and falsification of government documents.
If BLM staff knew about the 2017 registration amendment, and recent EAs for wild horse roundups suggest they did, but referred to the 2013 and 2015 registrations because they better served their anti-horse agenda, that would constitute falsification of official government records.
The Kiger-Riddle management plan, published in July, is one example.
Initiated in early 2020, the project took over four years to complete.
The EA refers to the 2013 registration, according to which the product was a restricted-use pesticide requiring applicator certification, and the minimum interval between doses was 30 days.
But, unlike the discussion of PZP, the EA is silent about the certification requirement, which is consistent with the 2017 update.
The Pancake EA provides the same evidence.
In addition to dropping the RUP designation, the 2017 update increased the minimum interval between doses from 30 days to 90 days.
Yet the agency typically waits only 30 days to administer the booster, which constitutes unlawful use of the pesticide.
The driver may be cost avoidance—the goal is to spend more of your budget on wild horse removals, not temporary holding of mares that will go back on the range and rob the poor ranchers of their birthright.
How many of the GonaCon darters at Piceance Mustangs and High Desert Strategies are certified applicators? More evidence that our faithful public servants knew about the 2017 amendment but ignored the parts they didn’t like.
This is a matter for law enforcement.
The response to a comment in the Buffalo Hills DNA indicates they’re aware of the 2017 update but want to shrink the treatment window to 7 days.
Unfortunately for them, asking the EPA to change the registration does not absolve prior wrongdoing.
RELATED: Another Amendment to Gonacon Registration in the Works?
The incident started on November 2. Results through November 8:
The figures above are based on the daily reports.
The Day 3 report still shows 122 horses shipped but the breakdown yields 120.
A stallion was dispatched on Day 6 due to severe swayback.
The death rate is 0.7%.
The capture total includes 240 stallions, 250 mares and 124 foals.
Youngsters represented 20.2% of the animals gathered, consistent with a herd growth rate of 15% per year.
Of the adults, 49.0% were male and 51.0% were female, within the expected range of variation from a random process centered at 50% males / 50% females.
Body condition scores were not given.
The location of the trap site was not disclosed.
The name of the contractor was not provided.
Three HMAs are affected.
Up to 50 mares will be treated with GonaCon Equine and returned to the range with up to 50 stallions.
The number of doses and the interval between treatments were not specified, leaving open the possibility that the Complex becomes the next GonaCon crime scene.
The roundup supports three tenets of rangeland management.
RELATED: Triple B Roundup, Day 5.
The project is now in the protest stage.
Only those who participated in the planning process are eligible to comment according to the news release.
The planning area includes the Paisley Desert and Beatys Butte HMAs, according to the HMA-1 map.
Of interest in Section 3.10.1.1 of Appendix 12 (page 201 in the pdf) are these figures:
The Lakeview allotments support livestock equivalent to 13,706 wild horses, or 4.6 wild horses per thousand public acres.
Our faithful public servants tell us that public lands in the western U.S. can only support one wild horse per thousand acres (27,000 animals on 27 million acres).
The advocates bolster the narrative with their darting programs.
Thay want the ranchers to win.
The incident, billed as catch-treat-release in the October 31 schedule, will begin on or about November 15 according to today’s news release.
The capture goals are 235 wild horses and 33 wild burros.
The removal goals are 32 wild horses and 33 wild burros.
Up to 100 mares with be treated with GonaCon Equine before being returned to the HMA with up to 103 stallions.
The announcement did not indicate if they would receive two doses and if they’d be given 90 days apart as specified on the label.
The BLM typically gives two doses 30 days apart, which constitutes unlawful use of the pesticide.
A helicopter will push the animals into the trap and operations will be open to public observation.
The pre-gather population is thought to be 314 wild horses and 33 wild burros.
The management plan allows 314 horses and no burros.
Animals identified for removal will be taken to the off-range corrals at Palomino Valley.
The HMA, on the east side of Twin Peaks, lies within the Buffalo Hills Allotment.
RELATED: Buffalo Hills Decision Issued.
The Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses tries to market itself as a leader in wild horse conservation, evident in Google search results.
In reality, its leaders are obsessed with PZP, a restricted-use pesticide that tricks the immune system into attacking the ovaries.
They protect ranchers, not wild horses.
They oppose principal use and management at the minimum feasible level.
They want to replace motorized removal with mass sterilization.
None of this would be possible without a cadre of nefarious leaders and an army of ill-informed donors and volunteers.
RELATED: Foal-Free Friday, Strange But True Edition.
A new project has been opened in ePlanning and the Draft DNA was copied to the documents folder for public review.
Comments will be accepted through December 7 according to today’s news release.
A 2015 Decision Record authorized the Proposed Action discussed in Section 2.2.1 of a 2015 Final EA.
A roundup at the Fish Creek HMA appears on the October 31 schedule with a start date of January 6. The incident was billed as catch-treat-release and the pesticide of choice is GonaCon Equine.
The DNA asserts that the 2015 analysis fully covers the 2025 roundup and satisfies the requirements of NEPA.
A search of the 2015 EA for “gona” yielded no results, while searches for “zona” and “pzp” yielded numerous results.
Thus, the plan to apply GonaCon in January was not addressed in the original analysis and the assertion in the DNA is not correct.
The HMA, a few miles west of Eureka, NV, is subject to permitted grazing.
The emergency/nuisance section has expanded from one incident in the October 7 schedule to five incidents in the October 31 schedule.
RELATED: FY25 Roundup Schedule Issued.
Some headlines said he died, such as this one by WITN News, but he was killed by the advocates.
Seems like there’s a steady stream of negative results coming from areas where the advocates are involved.
The winner for 2024 will likely be the loss of 24 Virginia Range mustangs in a botched attempt to rescue them from a construction area in south Reno.
How do you know an idea is bad for wild horses? The advocates support it.
Two examples in the legislative arena are the Wild Horse and Burro Sterilization Act and the Veterans for Pesticides Act, which should expire when the 118th Congress terms out at the end of the year.
RELATED: HR 3656: Windfall for Advocates, Bad for Wild Horses.
