Horse Health

BLM “tests” shade at only one facility

The BLM, with a mandate to protect wild horses and burros for the past 43 years, drags its toes on taking swift action on anything (other than roundups).  This time, it’s by “testing” shade options at ONLY ONE BLM facility.

You might wonder who looked at the plans for the shade structures.  After 10 months of thought, one structure was too low.  (They must not have considered that a horse might rear up or that there would be wranglers on horses inside the corrals.)  The shade structure in the sick pen seems to provide very little shade.  In the video from the news segment, it only looked like it would provide shade to 1/2 a horse at that time of day.

In the latest big PR splash, BLM’s Acting Deputy Division Chief for the Wild Horse & Burro Program, Zachary Reichold, stated “If you look at the environment that they were actually gathered from, they’re exposed to very harsh winter and summer conditions.”

NOTE TO ZACH (and to the rest of the BLM):  The wild horses aren’t in feedlot conditions in the wild.  They have trees and valleys for shelter.  They can move around.  They’re not confined in flat pens. 

Once again BLM tries to put lipstick on a pig.  Once again, we’re not buying it.

And since we’re seeing Zach Reichold in the news, has anyone wondered about his meteoric rise within the BLM’s Wild Horse & Burro Program?  In 2010 Reichold was a Natural & Cultural Resource Manager for the Arizona Army National Guard.  In 2012 he was listed in a BLM Directory as a Natural Resource Specialist, then a couple of weeks later he had the title of Senior Wild Horse & Burro Specialist, and now he’s the Acting Deputy Division Chief.


SOURCE:  ktvn.com

Palomino Valley Wild Horse Facility Tests Shade Structures

Click Image to View Video

Click Image to View Video

Summer temperatures in the Silver State can reach triple digits. So, the Bureau of Land Management is testing shade structures that they say could offer some relief for their mustangs and burros.

The Palomino Valley National Wild Horse and Burro Center holds about 1,000 horses and burros.

Zachary Reichold is the Acting Deputy Division Chief of the Wild Horse and Burro Program. He says the animals have adapted to extreme conditions. “Wild horses are actually a very resilient animal,” Reichold said. “If you look at the environment that they were actually gathered from, they’re exposed to very harsh winter and summer conditions.”

In August of 2013, the BLM started testing three different types of shade structures for the animals’ comfort. Some use the shade, while others stay in the sunshine. “We’re going to conduct studies later on in the summer to look at how, when and why these horses actually use shade,” Reichold said.

Adding these structures is something Reichold says has to be done responsibly, saying the safety of the horses and people is number one. “We’re going to do what we can to increase their quality of life,” Reichold said. “We’re trying to do it in a responsible manner so that we can make sure that as we move the animals within the facility, that we’re not actually harming the animals.”

Shade is also available for horses that have health issues. The BLM provides medical treatment for all of their horses, including vaccinations, deworming, and hoof maintenance. The facility goes through 12 tons of hay per day, with each horse drinking about 10 gallons of water. “The water troughs are spread out so that multiple horses can drink,” Reichold said. “There’s usually not another horse that has to wait long before it can actually get a drink of water.”

The idea is to keep every mustang as healthy as can be until it gets adopted. Something that offers a sense of accomplishment for staff members. “The people that are involved in the program are compassionate individuals that got into the program because they do love these animals,” Reichold said.

The horses are often adopted online, as far away as the east coast. “If we could, we would like everybody in the country to take home a wild horse that’s removed from the range and provide it with quality care and a loving home,” Reichold said.

The horses come here from all over the western United States and this facility, alone, adopts out a couple hundred of them every single year.

Written by Paul Nelson

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

23 replies »

  1. There is ONE Way to increase the Mustangs QUALITY OF LIFE that dosent invade their Space or decrease their QUALITY OF LIFE or cost the TAXPayers PUT THEM BACK ON THEIR LAND and Let them Heal from the Horrors YOU have Created for them BLM ~!!!!!!!!

    Like

  2. Dominant horses jog the water not allowing lesser waker animals near the water. Dominant animals hog the food not allowing lesser weaker animals to eat. Dominant animals will hog the shade chasing out less dominant weaker animals…

    Like

    • Here in Fl. my 5 drink about 30 gal a day of fresh water in the summer and may be 15 gal in the winter time, we are hot like out west, thy need more water tubs ,and they need filled several time a day. n Some thing the BLM does not do ….

      Like

      • I can not stand the BLM, but the water troughs at PVC are self watering with a well that they have drilled….I have seen that the troughs do have water constantly flowing in the troughs, the problem is that the water gets hot in the summer and freezes in the winter and the more dominant horses do not let the other horses get to the troughs to drink, then there is the ongoing problem of the hay being dumped on the ground and there isnt enough, 2 weeks ago when I passed by the horses were eating what hay they could find on the ground, NOT ACCEPTABLE…and the hot weather is coming FAST,,,,,,

        Like

  3. I wish you would post a phone# for everyone to call. I can find it myself, probably already in my black book. But for some, they need a way to express themselves to the BLM, Whitehouse, etc,. Here ya go 🙂 President 202-456-1111 BLM contact # for Zachary Reichold 202-912-7261. Ooopss how funny, no one answers, you have to leave a message. Either way, the President must also be bombarded. HIS agency made a business deal with the Wyoming 41. He is commander in chief? Than be our commander or resign. Seems foreign policy preempts our needs at home!

    Like

    • I give out these numbers too, Our President does not care about the wild horses, in fact he wants them gone …. When they
      get you on the phone , they don’t want a big message , I told the lady I wanted my turn she could give him the message.

      Like

  4. I was at both Palomino Valley and Litchfield wild horse and burro holding facilities this weekend. They look the same as in past years. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of our wild horses were standing in the hot sun in feed-lot type pens with no shade and only a single water trough in each pen. If you have a heart, it will make you angry and it will make you cry.

    There were a few places where the water had leaked onto the ground and horses were lying in these moist indentations – just trying to cool down their overheated bodies. A few very small shade structures could be seen in the middle of the P/V facility (“hospital” pens?) and all the rest of the horses were suffering in the stifling heat and direct sun. Same at Litchfield – the only shade is for the hay.

    I challenge Zach Reichold and Joan Guilfoyle and the other “decision-makers” to spend one afternoon standing in one of those pens. Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the human infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense or survival.

    Then … as usual, we found very very few wild horses and wild burros on their legally designated HMA land.

    Like

      • That is the only # I see for Reichold but here are a few more:

        http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/directory/wo-270_dir.print.html

        BLM Nevada State Office
        Front Desk: 775-861-6400
        Fax: 775-861-6601
        Email: nvsoweb@blm.gov
        Information Access Center (IAC): 775-861-6500
        Fax: 775-861-6606
        Email: nviac@blm.gov
        National BLM Wild Horse & Burro (WH&B) Program
        (located in the Nevada State Office)
        775-861-6583
        Palomino Valley Center: 775-475-2222
        BLM Director: Neil Kornze
        Deputy Director (Operations): Steven A. Ellis
        Deputy Director (Policy): Linda Lance
        Chief of Staff: Janet Lin
        For all of the above, please use:
        BLM Washington Office
        Phone: 202-208-3801
        Fax: 202-208-5242
        director@blm.gov
        Joan Guilfoyle, Division Chief
        Washington, DC 20003
        Main Contact Number: 202-912-7260
        Edwin Roberson
        Assistant Director, Resources and Planning
        1849 C Street NW, Rm. 5644
        Phone: 202-208-4896
        Fax: 202-208-5010
        E-mail: eroberso@blm.gov
        Palomino Valley holding facility
        James (Jeb) Beck, j1beck@blm.gov
        Marketing and PR
        Deborah Collins, dacollin@blm.gov
        Wild Horse and Burro Senior Advisor
        Dean Bolstad, dbolstad@blm.gov
        Tom Gorey 202-912-7420

        Like

    • granma greg that is EXACTLY what I saw NOTHING….this is all a big publicity ploy for the BLM and so freakin political its pathetic and yet these poor beautiful animals are baking in the hot sun…..the smae stuff that has been there for years are still there…nothing on the outer pens….I want Pen #s on where they put these structures because I saw NONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Like

  5. i would like to vote all these sob’s out of office why can vote these people out like we do in the senate and congress . all these talking head and not one full fledged single mind in the the whole bunch . this is the senate’s messed up crap with dirty harry reid at the head of it ,since he appointed all these crap heads . he’s the one doing all the talking . so we need to bombard him with all these calls and we need to send all our rep’s this piece on what needs to be done. keep up the good fight . i hate that our wild ones have become a political tool to this adminastration arss’ss!!!!!

    Like

    • U said it too political….they dont give a crap about these animals…and by the way on Sunday June 8th there was no hay for the horses…they were trying to get whatever little bit they could off the ground…

      Like

  6. If there was ever the last straw to break the camels back this would be it , wouldnt it????? here are others that apply , if you want something done right do it yourself, there is no time like the present ,……………….. Action speaks louder than words !!!!!

    Like

    • arlene
      I have been at this for over a year….I was interviwed by KTVN Reno, I was the one who got the crap rolling….and NOTHING…..I havent seen anyone go out there as many times as myself…and the BLM look at some of these “groups” as a bunch of crazy people….one thing I will not do is get involved in the political side of this crap,,,,

      Like

      • Dear Nancy, in no way was i referencing you , or anyone here !!!! I was referring as a whole !!! I also have been at this for many many years and also have done everything I can to no AVAIL , it is frustration speaking , we all want to make the difference for these magnificent Horses, and just nothing does ???????? i am sure we all lay awake nights trying to think of something , something we could do to change the BLM !!!!!!!

        Like

    • To see these poor animals digging at the dirt because they are bored,instinct tells them they need to run and be free, they are wild and humans want to domesticate something that is wild,thier spirits are broken, you can see it in their eyes. They want so much to be free to go back to their home and man (the BLM) is keeping them penned up in a prison,in the sweltering heat of summer and the cold of winter. They have no way to protect themselves and their offspring. The life they have there at Palomino Valley is horrendous. I see them there and I just want to let each one go and go up in the hills and be wild and free like nature wants them to be. This is not nature….this is torture….”oh they adapt” the BLM says… oh horse manure. They are not adapting. They are exisiting. This is not their life. Maybe the BLM should go stand in that hot field. Get the millionaire ranchers and tell them to buy their own feed for their cattle and graze them in their fields. This is public land and those horses belong to everyone of us….. Arlene. I am doing something right. I am doing all in my power to help them and I believe they know that each and everyone of us are doing all that we can….but in the meantime, their spirits are broken and they are being beaten down….

      Like

      • As you said, “you can see it in their eyes” and you can see it in their body language – heads hanging down and almost all spark of being a wild animal is gone – they are mere shells of what was a beautiful wild creature. It is 100% wrong for them to be there and 100% wrong for them to be suffering like this and you realize it is 100% wrong when you go to their legal land and see that there are very few left in the wild as mother nature intended.

        Like

  7. Yes I lay awake and really try and think of some thing new to say , I get so angry at the people who just what to kill them in a horrible way, for all the foals who are taken to slaughter or die because Mom was taken, only one place to test the shade, these jerks need to go so badly. BLM all of them out.

    Like

Care to make a comment?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.