Our Mission: To Change BLM Managment Tactics

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“It is incredible that one should have to furnish any argument to bring about any laws to save the Mustang, but if there must be an argument let it be this: that of all the things that have played a part in the development of this country, except for man, the horse has played the most important and beneficial role. He portrays the West as all people like to think of it. He is the symbol of wild freedom to us all.”

-Velma B. Johnston, a.k.a. Wild Horse Annie (1959)



There is a battle going on in the United States of America that many people are unaware of. Perhaps they think it’s unimportant, that it doesn’t affect them. The battle to save America’s wild Mustangs isn’t just between soft-hearted horse-lovers and hard-working ranchers. It’s much more complex than that. And in the end… we could all lose.

First of all, I do not support the idea of ceasing all BLM management of wild Mustang herds because since ranching and urbanization has taken over the ranges, and since humans hunt Mustangs' natural predators, the Mustangs would eventually overpopulate, cause habitat degradation, and starve. I must say that in some places the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) helps to care for the wild Mustangs by rounding up herds in places where there's very little food and/or water, and by rounding up Mustangs that wander onto private land (land owned by people). Some people in the BLM sincerely want to protect the Mustangs. Many roundups go without incident; the Mustangs are herded off the range into the holding pens, vaccinated, freeze-branded, and then adopted by loving owners. The BLM has many different facilities, and many are perfectly fine and do help the Mustangs. In some places the BLM is a good thing.

But in most other areas, the BLM uses its authority to take advantage of the animals and the land in its care. Over the past nine years, 40% of the Mustang population has been removed by the BLM for no other reason than rancher and government greed. Alternative methods for managing Mustang populations are available (savethemustanghorses.blogspot.…), and yet the BLM does not use them to any significant extent. Roundup teams are paid roughly $350 for each horse they bring in (dead or alive), so the pilots often go to drastic measures to capture as many horses as possible during each gather. Entire herds of Mustangs (including newborn foals) are driven at breakneck speeds over land deemed too rough for vehicles. Mustangs and burros (wild donkeys) are injured during the roundups and many beyond recovery and must be euthanized. (savethemustanghorses.blogspot.… , savethemustanghorses.blogspot.…)

The BLM openly admits to holding approximately 50,000 Mustangs in captivity (roughly double than there are in the wild), and their finances are running out. It costs roughly $3,000 tax dollars to process a single wild horse for adoption, and hundreds are removed in a typical roundup. It costs around $100,000 every single day to feed the captive Mustangs. Many Mustangs in BLM corrals are in poorer condition than they were and would be in the wild, and some are starving. Almost no BLM facilities provide shelter for the horses held captive. The panicked herd stallions often fight each other in the small spaces, desperately trying to keep their mares together, therefore hurting themselves and others.
"I'm assured repeatedly [by BLM veterinarians] that these horses are cared for," said wild horse advocate Elyse Gardner. "So why does it seem that it is the public observers that continually need to bring so many overlooked injuries, illness or orphaned foals to the attention of the BLM?" Again, alternative methods for managing Mustang populations on the range (so that they need not be removed and held in captivity) are available (savethemustanghorses.blogspot.…), but the BLM does not use them to any significant extent. This shows extreme shortsightedness on the BLM's account. They are wasting enormous amounts of money and causing animals to suffer when less expensive, more humane methods are available.

While many Mustangs do find good homes with kind people, many are sold to irresponsible owners who want to "break a wild bronco". Such owners don’t know how to handle wild horses, and are often injured. If the Mustangs are not adopted or sold, they are rarely ever returned to the wild. The BLM holds unadopted/unsold Mustangs in taxpayer-funded corrals until they either die of old age, they are euthanized, or the BLM gains the right to slaughter them. I repeat: alternative methods for managing Mustang populations on the range (so that they need not be removed and held in captivity) are available (savethemustanghorses.blogspot.…), but the BLM does not use them to any significant extent. The BLM would rather these animals suffered a slow death rather than use alternative methods to manage them.

Recent discoveries made by the National Academy of Sciences (www8.nationalacademies.org/onp… , www.nap.edu/catalog/13511/usin…) has found that by removing so many wild horses in roundups, the BLM is actually causing population growth instead of reducing it. By lowering the population to such an unnaturally small number, the herds become smaller than the carrying limit of the lands (the limit of how many animals can graze on the land before food begins to run out).With so much extra space, the species springs back as it would after a natural disaster or plague. NAS studies show that Mustang populations have been increasing by around 10% to 15% each year. For the BLM to continue their current operation, they will have to remove more and more Mustangs each year, therefore causing increasing population growth, and so on. The answer is clearly not to step up roundups yet again, but to find alternative means by which to control the population and to prevent Mustangs from becoming problems on privately-owned land.

Studies show that nearly 85% of the Mustangs are below genetic viability, meaning that they are inbreeding. By removing Mustangs and their genetic information from the wild, the BLM is forcing the Mustangs to inbreed even more.

Even with the rapid population growth (and therefore rising cost of roundups) if things continue in this manner, in about 50 years there will be no free-roaming Mustangs left. Wildlife biologists estimate that the Mustang will be extinct in the wild before the end of the century. Time is running out for the American Mustang. Will we let them become like the Quagga and the Tarpan, pale ghosts of memory? Your air won’t be any cleaner, your water won’t be any clearer, and your food won’t be any more abundant with Mustangs extinct.

In 1900, over a million Mustangs ran free (lipizzaner-kgirl.deviantart.co…, www.horse-breeds.net/mustangs.… , academickids.com/encyclopedia/… , www.masterliness.com/a/Mustang…).) Now, less than 25,000 of them are left, and that number is steadily falling. Turning our backs is not the answer. We cannot leave Mustangs to their own devices, but we also cannot ignore the damage that the BLM is doing.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Herd Removed and Slaughtered - 4 Foals Saved

From Ginger Katherens of the Cloud Foundation:

Dear Friends of Wild Horses;

The journey from my office in Colorado Springs to Lovell, Wyoming near Cloud’s home in the Pryor Mountains, is a long drive—about nine and a half hours. Spotting wildlife along the way makes the time pass. I enjoy seeing herds of elegant pronghorn antelope and the occasional golden eagle.

The rare sighting of a coyote or a wintering bald eagle is exciting, but nothing I spotted in the past year surprised me as much as seeing a band of wild horses!

Past the town of Greybull, Wyoming and about 20 miles from Lovell, I saw them for the first time. It was June 22, 2013. I pulled off to the side of the road, grabbed my binoculars and began glassing.


They were grazing peacefully in front of the only trees I could see for miles. I counted 12 including two foals and assumed that the larger black horse with a blaze was the band stallion. He looked like quite a handsome fellow.

There had once been wild horses in the area, but I thought the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency charged with preserving our wild horses, had removed them long ago. Over 150 times BLM has chosen to “zero out” herds for various reasons, even though the horses were designated for management under the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act.

In the shadows of the stunted cottonwoods I noticed a shimmer of light. There was at least one small pond back in there. I snapped a picture of the tranquil scene and looked through my binoculars again. In the distance there was movement.


It was another, smaller band trailing across a rise with Sheep Mountain in the background. The bright sorrel coats of the smaller band shone in the late afternoon light. The lead mare had a small foal at her side. What a stark and beautiful landscape.

Beyond were the flat-topped Bighorn Mountains still sporting patches of snow.
How exciting, I thought—a secret herd of lost mustangs. In my mind, I imagined bringing Trace up from Colorado and riding him in search of the herd. We’d have to take lots of water, but what an adventure it would be. I noted several roads that led from the paved highway toward Sheep Mountain where I would take the trailer and park. In retrospect I wish I had done this sooner rather than later.

Over the next nine months, each time I traveled to and from the Pryors I looked for them. Two bachelor stallions were easy to spot in November as I traveled toward Greybull from Lovell. These two would be the closest I ever got to the lost herd. What a flashy pair.

The sorrel had a bald face. I was sure he had a blue eye on the side of his head that was white. He had tall stockings. The black had two back shorter stockings and a pretty star and snip.

(Sorrel stallion, right, may be a brother to one of the rescued foals)

I saw the big band, led by the blaze-faced black stallion in February and in March. On March 8th when Paula King, our Communications Director, her husband, Ron, and I traveled back from the Pryors, we spotted them. There were two new foals in the band, one black and one sorrel. I never dreamed that the next time I would see these foals I would be loading them into my trailer.


On March 25th, our Facebook Manager and Board Member, Linda Hanick, called me. She has a message on our Cloud the Stallion FB page. A person wishing to remain anonymous said that a crowed truckload of mustangs had crossed over the Wyoming border into Montana. The informant said the truck driver was bound for Shelby, MT. When Linda said the word Shelby, my heart dropped.

Shelby is the place where horses are held before being transported over the border to Canada and the Alberta slaughterhouse. The informant said the horses were healthy and fat and “fresh,” meaning they had just been caught. They had come from the Worland Livestock Auction and were going to quarantine in Shelby for 30 days.

Our investigation began. Linda called the State Director of the BLM in Cheyenne who said that 31 horses had been “gathered” with a helicopter near Greybull, but they were not wild. They were domestic horses that got loose or were turned out 40 years ago. They could only be the secret herd!


I got the number for the Bar S Feedlot in Shelby and called. A woman answered the phone. "I'd like to buy the 37 wild horses that were captured in Wyoming on March 18th and 19th," I said. “That’s not possible,” she responded curtly. “We don’t sell horses to individuals.” I told her I represented an organization and that I would pay much more than the going slaughter rate. She was abrupt. “These horses were rounded up and removed for slaughter, and that’s where they’re going.” The finality of her words was chilling. “Can you at least tell me if they reached you safely?” I asked. “I won’t tell you anything,” she answered and hung up.


For the first time I was staring horse slaughter squarely in the face. Suddenly the anonymous thousands that go to slaughter across our borders had faces. Friends went to Shelby and photographed the pens and I tried unsuccessfully to match up the pictures of the pathetic horses (some mares with newborn foals) with those I had grown to love in the wild.

Paula called the Brand Inspector, the BLM in Cody, the Worland Office of BLM, and the Bighorn County Sheriff’s Department. BLM said they captured 41 “estray” horses and turned them over to the Wyoming Livestock Board who hauled them to the Worland Livestock Auction. They in turn sold them to a kill buyer for a Canadian slaughterhouse.

The Brand Inspector confirmed that 37 were shipped. Four small foals were left behind because the manager of the Worland Livestock Auction. where the horses had been taken, demanded that they not put the foals on the truck. For this act of kindness, we will all be eternally grateful.

The BLM Public Information Officer (PIO) echoed the State BLM Director. The horses were not wild, she insisted, and claimed they were removed because they were a hazard and there had been complaints. She said a horse had been hit by a Bentonite Truck and damaged the truck. The Sheriff checked his records and could not find the incident. Next she said a horse had been hit by a train. The Sheriff had no record of that either and was upset that a helicopter had been flying in his county, rounding up horses without his knowledge. (below, black stallion band)

Further digging by Paula found that there were, in fact, two incidences—one five years ago and the other 8 years ago. Why would accidents that happened so long ago precipitate an action like this at the very time the horses are most vulnerable, when there are tiny foals and heavily pregnant mares? Later we got our answer.


When in doubt, follow the Money. A BLM budget existed for a helicopter removal. That money would not be available to BLM after the end of March. It would have to be used or turned back into the government coffers according to a BLM employee in Cody. (left, foals captured on March 18th)

As for the complaints received by BLM? They would not confirm that any had been in writing. According to the PIO, the complaints came from people who dropped by the BLM office, or those who spoke with her while shopping at the grocery store.

Over and over the BLM said the horses were not wild and had no protections under the Wild Horse and Burro Act. They were rodeo stock let go on the range 40 years ago and the former owner had died. I recognized the name. His family reputedly stole horses off the wild horses ranges to supply their bucking horse business. How ironic, I thought. Horses stolen from the wild, turned into bucking stock, and released back to the wild weren’t wild according to the BLM.

On March 19th, just hours after the last five were captured the BLM turned all 41 horses over to the Wyoming State Livestock Board who sold them to a kill buyer for a Canadian slaughterhouse. Within hours the horses were on their way to Shelby.

On Sunday I flew back to Colorado from a conference in Massachusetts while my dear friend and TCF Board Member, Ann Evans, drove my trailer from Westcliffe, Colorado to Dr. Lisa Jacobson’s home and vet facility in Berthoud, Colorado. We met at Lisa’s that evening. Lisa had excitedly agreed to care for the four little foals.

Early the next morning Ann and I started driving north to Worland, Wyoming, a seven hour trip. Wind gusts 50 mph and even stiffer eventually combined with ice-packed roads and we nearly turned back at Douglas, Wyoming, but kept going when we sensed the worst weather was behind us.


We arrived at the Worland Livestock Yard in the early afternoon. Kim Michels, our friend from Red Lodge, Montana was already there. Kim had negotiated the purchase of the foals before we even knew that “Dr. Lisa” would take them in. In short order, a quiet cowboy helped us load the tiny foals.

The oldest foal, the one we eventually named Allegro sniffed the back of the trailer. Then she jumped in with the tiniest, the one we named Piccolo, glured to her side. Allegro immediately went to the back of the trailer and started biting on the padded wall. Ann and Kim prepared some formula for them which they divided into two buckets that we secured in the back. Within an hour we were on our way with our precious cargo. (right, Allegro sniffs)


Seven hours later we arrived and unloaded at Dr. Lisa’s place. The foals calmly hopped out and eventually found their stall piled high with soft shavings and buckets of milk replacer hanging on the wall.

The next morning I got up and walked to the barn. A meadowlark, perched on a fence post, was singing. The air was crisp but the sun was warm. I found the four foals outside in the sunshine and looking around. Lisa’s old mare, Dusty, greeted them. The foals had lost their mothers and gravitated to the old mare, as if searching for their families.

While there might not have been any illegal with the capture and sale of these lovely, wild animals, the act was unthinkably cruel, immoral, and completely unnecessary. Advocates would have purchased the entire herd had we only known.



So here they are, our four, sweet leftovers.( three pictures above courtesy Carol Walker) They are flourishing under the care of the remarkable “Dr. Lisa” who gives them their freedom in the arena they call the “big running place.” They have lots to eat and domestic mares who try to keep them in line and teach them what their parents would have reinforced each and every day.

I wonder if they will always remember where they came from, and the life they lost forever in one fleeting moment when the monster in the sky came and drove them into a trap and took their families away. We have named them the Dry Creek Quartet for their herd area that had been zeroed out 27 years ago.


They are Maestro, the only male, who is a handsome blaze-faced sorrel colt (left). His half sister is, Allegro (right), the oldest who functions as lead mare for our Quartet. Then there is feisty Coronet, a darling little bay. And Piccolo, who Dr. Lisa believes was only a few days old when captured. (below right)



The blue-eyed filly is a flashy little paint who reminds me of the handsome sorrel bachelor I photographed last year. I wonder if he was her big brother? Piccolo’s resilience, her ability to survive this holocaust at such a tender age, is extraordinary. They are our band of orphans—the Dry Creek Quartet.


We are working very hard to make sure this tragedy never repeats itself. And we smile everyday as “Dr. Lisa” relates the progress the foals are making. Sadness fades, over shadowed by joy and love.

Happy Trails!
Ginger

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad that at least those foals were saved! This is horrible :(

    ReplyDelete