Wild horse herd decimations

[DianneC]

OK, friends have been sending me stuff about the BLM wiping out the mustang herds. I confess I didn't read it until today. OMG If you haven't read about it you will be amazed.

Less than 25% of the remaining herds have genetically viable numbers. Many of those have received shots to prevent conception. Over 12,000 of our wild horses and burros are to be removed in massive roundups planned by the Bureau of Land Management. Over 35% of our wild horses and burros will be lost this fiscal year alone.

A great photographer, Pam Nikoles, has a blog. nickolesphotography.wordpress.com/

For more information you can go to thecloudfoundation.org

[desperatehorsewife]

There are a couple of things to bear in mind when reading some of these sites.

It says that the Murderer's Creek HMA plans to take 100 horses and return none (or something along those lines.) A lot of people take that to mean that there will be no horses left.

There are other, similar references along those lines in many of the articles that are coming out. One needs to bear in mind that these folks are anti-blm and anti-gather, not to mention anti-cattle/rancher, so sometimes their facts get twisted to show you only what they want you to see.

One of those skews is that the BLM is zoning out the above mentioned Murderer's Creek. MC is in Oregon, and it's not managed by the BLM, but the forest service. The forest service has been requiring gathers in this HMA the past couple of years. The horses are physically gathered by the OR BLM, but they have no say as to when or how often. That's sad, because this most recent gather was in the summer, and the BLM recommended not gathering while there were foals out there (at least according to my sources.) Unfortunately, USFS won out.

However...there are areas that are seriously in trouble of mis-management. According to the BLM website, Antelope Valley in NV is going to be brought down to roughly 2 to 3 dozen horses...with a gather of 400! And this definitely is a genetic catastrophe. Calico Mts is a similar story.

Salazaar is very aggressive, and I do believe we're heading for trouble under his management. People thought it was bad before...this guy is a mustangs worse nightmare.

[barbhorses]

That is true of the Sulphur HMA. The BLM takes the Sulphurs and puts them on different HMAs to get color.... DESTROYING our history of the Spanish CA horse for COLOR! Recent adoptions are sad. They are clearly mixed and with few classic looking Sulphurs. The last great adoption was back in 2001. That was Spanish type after Spanish type horse! I saw pics of the horses that the BLM turned back out this year that were the "best" and they were clearly mixed with long backs and boxy conformation. I wonder if there are anymore Spanish herds left on the HMA? It is amazing seeing the wild Spanish herds in videos from Ron Roubidoux!

[prizmbluekigers]

This bears watching in my humble opinion. We have been following the info on BLM, gathers and future plans to see what we might want to put in the video and even if you discount the alarmists who state the herds are being systematically eliminated, we have cause for concern. Ginger and the Cloud Foundation could not stop the Pryor roundup, perhaps we should be watchful of what is in store for the Kigers in the next few years.
Our herds are already below the viability standard of 100+ horses for a solid gene pool. Hardy Oelke said recently that he has never seen as much white appearing in wild Kigers. For anyone who has witnessed a recent Kiger gather 1999, 2003, or 2007, I invite you to speak about "gate cuts" if you saw them. I am very interested in how a gate cut is decided and who is the decision maker. I saw a number yesterday stating there are not many more than 15,000 free roaming wild horses left, not the approx. 30,000 we have been hearing. I dont know how reliable the figure is and maybe that is a number someone threw out there to alarm us.

For all the wild horses and burros free roaming and already captive animals, we need a solution that works. I have BLM, Sec of the Interior, Congressional Environmental Committees, White House (both Obamas and the VP Biden) and all my elected officials on speed dial, and group e-mail lists and I have made contact numerous times recently. Problem is I don't know how effective it is, but unless I find another way to try to help, I will continue to ask them to pay attention. I'm moving on to contact know mustang owners and animal activisits in Hollywood and trying to raise interest here in Bend among out local news stations. I'm getting down from my soapbox now folks, but seriously, speak out if you are interested, it can't hurt and it might just reach the right ears and do some good.

[spanishsagegrullas]

South Steens Gather EA

For those of you who want to give some input, the comment period ends tomorrow.

Burns BLM District EA and proposed finding of no significant impact for the upcoming Gather of 80 mares and 79 stallions with almost half of the mares to receive the PZP fertility control treatment and returned to the range.

Comments must be received by the Burns office at close of business November 4.

To see the docs,

www.blm.gov/or/districts/burns/plans/files/SSteensGatherALLFinal.pdf

If that link does not let you get there directly, try

www.blm.gov/or/districts/burns/plans/index.php and you can hyperlink to it.

As your Southeastern Oregon Resources Advisory Council wild horse and burro rep, I can tell you tales of how little BLM employees charged with the appropriate management of the wild horse actually care about them. What has been characterized here as anti-government propaganda is actually true. BLM does not miss any opportunity to present, in bold lettering, that they have too many horses in holding pens and the only option is to kill them. Why are they gathering more, then, while the ROAM legislation is pending, and they have this dire circumstance?

BTW if anyone does not know what the ROAM legislation is, you need to find out. It will probably take a big fight to pass the Senate, and if it does, you can bet the BLM will be screaming even louder.

It seems to me that many times, the wild horse advocacy groups get snagged on who is going to run the show, and who is going to get credit for any solutions that could be implemented. I have seem unilateral changes made on a recent petition that a local group had, changing it from raising funds to help pay for the horses in the long term holding, to funds to "improve" existing HMAs by adding wells. This change was made without consultation or approval of the group it was supposed to be presented by. IMHO, since BLM seems to be screaming loudest about the expense and drain that these horses in holding are costing the agency, and sometimes to the detriment of other, more favored programs of the BLM, such as here, Sage Grouse programs, it makes sense to first get that expense covered, then work on a better way to manage the wild horses.

But yes, everyone should more contact their governmental reps. It seems useless to try to reach the BLM directly, and think they will ever see the error of their ways.

Diane P.

[DianneC]

What does not make any fiscal sense, especially in these times, is that the planned gather of 12,000 would cost an estimated $30 million (from the Cloud Foundation). That seems too high a number, but regardless, its a huge expense. Then they have to go to holding, no way to adopt that many. Holding is mega expensive. And the goal seems to me to be to put more cattle out, which the taxpayers subsidize, so more expense again. Do we need more cattle???

What really got my attention was part of Pam's photography blog (great photos):
Tom and I were at Dishpan Butte for almost 2 full days. We counted just over 30 horses. I began to wonder about the timing of the roundup. Had it already taken place? It would sure explain the low count and just how uneasy the horses were. When we got home, I e-mailed the Lander BLM office and got my answer. The gather had taken place in July.

“We gathered 1053 horses and removed 804 from the 4 (four) different HMA’s. We returned 245 horses to the various HMA’s in which they were rounded up. We returned 50 horses to the Dishpan Butte HMA and missed 10-20 horses in the roundup..so there is probably 60 – 70 horses in the Dishpan Butte HMA.”
Pam continues...The North Lander Complex is approximately 375,000 acres for the small number of wild horses that are left. Heartbreaking. "

[kigermustang1]

Okay, I am a bit confused here. As a newcomer, perhaps someone can clearify this for me. When I first discovered and fell in love with the Kigers, I contacted the Harney County BLM office about adopting some wild Kigers already in holding facilities.

The answer I got was a flat and resounding NO!! The reason being is that they loose control of the animal once it crosses the boarder. Also they are concerned about our horse slaughter laws. I can appreciate that but if they want to lower the cost levels of the holding facilities and find at least some decent homes for these horses then why cant they allow Canadian (or for that matter) non USA adoptions???

It would cost me just as much to truck domestic bred Kigers to Canada as it would wild caught in holding facilities. They are crying for solutions but give them one and if they dont like it, they say no. I guess it all boils down to me being upset that I could not adopt a few wildies myself but hey, it would definately give them another viable option.