by Steven Long, editor of Horseback Magazine
BLM running down and stripping the Pryor Wild Mustang Reserve of horses
HOUSTON , (Horseback) – A prominent wild horse expert says there was considerably more land set aside for wild horses in 1971 than is currently claimed by the Bureau of Land Management. Craig Downer, a wildlife ecologist, calls the agency’s claims a national outrage.
Downer frequently speaks at wild horse conferences and has written numerous papers on the North American Mustang.
“With guidance being the true tenets of the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971, P.L. 92-195, the “where found” provision should be more broadly interpreted and researched according to the year-round occupied habitat of each equid herd extant in 1971,” he told Horseback Online.
Craig Downer
“I have assembled testimony from witnesses supporting a much larger legal area for the wild equid throughout the West,” Downer says. “It appears that a large portion of this was deliberately excluded by officials in order to minimize the presence of these national heritage species. I have encountered more objective assessments of the original legal herd areas far in excess of what is today officially presented.”
The horses roamed on millions more acres than the BLM currently claims, Downer says. The claim is contrary to the areas the agency set aside for the horses in 1971, and then dramatically reduced through leases for cattle grazing.
Currently, Mustang and burro advocates charge that cattle outnumber wild horses and donkeys 100 -1 on habitat set aside in the bill passed after a struggle led by the late Velma Johnson of Nevada, now known as the legendary “Wild Horse Annie.”
Wild Horses free and healthy, before being rounded up by the BLM
“This leads me to believe that originally the wild horses and burros had in excess of 80 million legal acres on BLM and US Forest Service lands, but right off the bat they were cheated out of nearly half of this,” Downer claims.
He says that his assertions are supported by eye witnesses who knew the horse’s range and saw them in 1971 and earlier. The law came to be called the “Wild Horse Annie Law.”
“Many eye witnesses to this sabotage are still alive and attest to these shenanigans in states such as Arizona.”
” Now BLM officials say the number was 53 million original acres of which now well over 20 million acres have no wild horses and burros (have been zeroed out). In spite of this great inequity, the officials’ march continues to further eliminate or marginalize the wild horses and burros in their remaining herd management areas.”
Downer, nationally recognized as one of the nation’s most prominent wild horse experts called BLM claims “a shame and a disgrace to America!”
Categories: Horse News, The Force of the Horse, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
The BKM certainly IS “a shame and a disgrace to America!” at the very least. If I posted my REAL opinion of the BLM and Ken Salazar, it would short out the Internet.
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If that 19 million acres were still there, there would be no need for holding pens. There would be no need for relocation. The land needs to be restored back to the horses and to the people. It is our land and they are our horses. The Government needs to start listening to us or be voted out.
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We need to get an Emergency Moratorium because of the continued roundups which must be stopped ASAP. After Salazar’s “Proposal to Nowhere,” there is no doubt that wild horses and burros are still having their land taken from them by devious means. The animals pay for this in death, injury and separation from lands and families. This needs to be sent to all the authors of articles who did not do any background but wrote, essentially, Public Relations pieces for BLM.
Everyone of them owe our wild equids another article about their unbearable relationship with BLM and DOI. mar
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I can believe it. Can’t help but notice the proposals for new horse preserves and ‘unreproducing herds’ ignores the fact that they have been and still are being taken off land that is supposed to be theirs to start with. And if the horses don’t reproduce, they’ll lose the genes and heritage that make them special.
Whose horrible idea was it to leave the BLM in charge in the first place?
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Kudos as always to Craig Downer!
I’m looking for opinons about these current newsclips, that answer some of my previous questions, unless anyone in this audience thinks these are faulty, if so please speak.
My take on these: the one that mentions gunning them down, if you read the whole article, earlier they actually suggest machine gunning them down, then it gets even more bizarre – not sure of the motive here; another one, would appear to indicate that sterile horses will still act like a family and run and play together; the science – what I have said all along about the Bush era – fixing documents to their own will (EPA, WMD, BLM); how will this save money? Will only start saving by 2019 (Is that the 10 years that keeps cropping up? And how much MORE would be saved by just returning their rightful lands that have been taken away – SOMEONE COULD DO A COMPARISON PERHAPS?); every article that talks about predation repeats the same lie -“there is none” – well, that is only true when you are killing off the predators – stop killing the predators!; Grijalva “praised” the proposal – but really sounds like he praised the fact that BLM is talking, that he still hopes for further communication? I hope so.
FROM Missoula Independent Free Thinking, October 8, 2009 by Erika Fredrickson “Alone on the Range”
About Flathead Lake’s Wild Horse Island:
…According to documents Stillman acquired, two scientists in the Department of the Interior resigned in 2005 after claiming that they were pressured by the Bush administration to fix the findings of a grazing study by saying wild horses had the most negative impact regarding range degradation.
……”From a historic standpoint it’s kind of exciting to see them there (Flathead lake Island),” he says. “The setting is really dramatic. What I’ve noticed in the past when we’ve had four or five horses there at a time is they tend to become a little more active. You’re more likely to see those scenes that you envision when you hear the name Wild Horse Island. Occasionally, on a chilly morning, you’ll see them running across the plain together.”…
FROM Washington Daily Post, 10-08-09
Salazar Presents Ambitious Plan to Manage Wild Horses
Preserves in Midwest and East, Sterilizations Proposed as Population Grows Beyond Control in West,
By Lyndsey Layton and Juliet Eilperin:
…The government intends to partner with nonprofit organizations and other private groups to create five more preserves, so that 25,000 animals would be living on preserves by 2014. All the animals would be sterilized or segregated by sex to prevent procreation.
At the same time, the government would seek to sterilize or control the reproduction of enough animals on the range so that the birthrate is 3,500 foals a year. That would equal the adoption rate of the wild horses and burros, resulting in no net growth of the wild herd. Under the proposal, the costs for the wild horse and burro program would start decreasing by 2019…
FROM Arizona Daily Star 10-09-09 (sorry didn’t copy credits)
Grijalva lauds Obama plan on preserves for wild horses
Conservationist, however, calls it ‘the easy way out’:
A Tucson Democratic congressman who has led the fight to save wild horses had high praise this week for a new Obama administration plan to move thousands of the horses and burros to new preserves in the Midwest and East…
…U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Tucson praised the proposal, although it didn’t go as far as the bill he has proposed that would free up 19 million acres across the West for horses to roam. That bill has passed the House and is pending in the Senate.
“It’s a step forward in the right direction, even though it’s not everything we want,” said Natalia Luna Rose, Grijalva’s press secretary. “The administration is listening. The congressman is happy to see this in motion.” …
…Grijalva called Salazar’s plan a significant improvement from those of previous Republican administrations, and said he looks forward to continuing to forge common ground among various advocates.
A Tucson environmentalist who comes down in the middle on this question is state Rep. Daniel Patterson, a Democrat who is also Southwest director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “There are big problems that wild horses and burros can do to native wildlife, but the big question is how do you deal with them? On one side some people say gun them down, others say do nothing. I believe they should be humanely managed.”
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My admiration to Craig Downer & R.T. Fitch.
I have got to get that book by Deanna Stillman.
The corruption in high places is so deep & ugly. One can hardly stand to take in all the facts when researching. It may seem like we are only talking about mustangs, burros and domestic horses. Upon investigation the root of the issue is a spider web of massive lies to the American people, government abuses, constitutional corruption, moral decay and illegal profits so the rich get richer.
I don’t know what it is going to take to bring this country around. I had wondered if someone deeply embedded with the BLM would be given a reason to take revenge, the whole house of cards would come down. We see that a lot with cases of deep corruption. Someone involved gets wronged or used as a scapegoat.
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When all the FBI agents went over to the Homeland Security Department, the rats all came out of their holes.
We need to hire more FBI Agents. Young men, looking for work? Check it out! This country needs you! Needs you to investigate the very innards of the workings of our top government levels where they are NOT looking out for the American people! There are 5% fewer FBI Agents now assigned to protecting America’s financial well being than there were during the S&L debacle. Our spineless top elected officials are not willing to stand up to these bullys and take the heat.
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