Written by Steven Long – acclaimed Author and Editor/Publisher of Horseback Magazine
The following is from Dr. Don Hoglund, MS, DVM. He has asked that we print his letter using full paragraphs if we quote him.
Hoglund is writing in response to my recent article in Horseback Online quoting Dr. Nena Winand of Cornell University regarding what she claims is BLM’s incompetence in caring for the wild horses in captivity.. While we firmly believe she can defend herself and her words with erudition, we believe her detractor clearly missed her point by taking umbrage at her characterization of the gather of wild horses in Nevada and their later treatment as an “outrage” as quoted in Horseback Online. She is speaking of wild horses developing metabolic disorder in captivity saying:
“How does the BLM propose to manage upwards of 30,000 horses out East, and presumably rely on private individuals to supervise them?” she asks. “Not all Mustangs would be predisposed to develop this problem, but certainly some will if not managed with insight and oversight. Who pays for that?”
Winand says there are also genetic issues she has raised with other vets.
In short, she sums up her feelings regarding BLM’s veterinary treatment of wild horses in four words.
“It is an outrage,” she says.”
Hoglund charges Winand is out of line in expressing her First Amendment right to free speech in describing her feelings toward what she perceives professionally to be incompetence on the part of BLM veterinary practices. In fact, we wish more courageous veterinarians would speak up when they see callous disregard for the wellbeing of horses, or outright professional incompetence on the part of veterinarians who are charged with their care.
We strongly disagree with Hoglund and fully support Winand’s courageous stand.
Finally, Hoglund criticizes Horseback Online for our use of the term “Mustang” in describing the wild horses of the West. Perhaps he should also include the BLM itself which sponsors “Extreme Mustang Makeover” events in partnership with the respected Mustang Heritage Foundation from coast to coast to encourage adoption of some of the horses it takes from their native habitat. Horseback Magazine has enthusiastically supported this program since its inception and continues to do so. And yes, we’ll continue to call them Mustangs like the rest of America.
We happily print Hoglund’s letter to us in full. We also welcome reader comments. Send your thoughts to texasmagazine@hotmail.com.
Steven Long, Editor
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Dear Mr. Long,
If you plan to harvest my statements for publication, I presume you will print in full paragraphs, all of my e-mails.
With reference to your article Jan 3, 2010 “Cornell Vet Raises Concerns…”:
Let’s begin here, and do check with Dr. Winand on my first remark, below;
“In short, she sums up her feelings regarding BLM’s veterinary treatment of wild horses in four words. ““It is an outrage,” she says.”
When you state [“In short,…]” I am assuming you are paraphrasing Dr.Winand. Since I conducted 7 annual federal competitive bid contracts for veterinary care with the BLM/prison Inmate horse training programs and was, as a result, nominated by Bill Richardson (D) New Mexico as Congressional Veterinarian of the Year for 1988, I hope you are not also referring to my veterinary treatment then – as an outrage. In defense of the current veterinarians on BLM/USDA staff, it is highly unlikely that Dr. Winand is referring to the veterinary treatment partof the captures as an outrage. However, if she stands by that statement in your article then we can contact the dean of her college, the dean of the biomedical college at Cornell, and the state of New York veterinary medical board and find out if she actually meant “Veterinary treatment,” or actually she was referring to the “means and manner of capture” as outrageous. I will look into this quote because veterinarians use their states’ board of veterinary medical examiners to conduct review of performance and do not rebuke colleagues in professional or lay-market articles. I’d check into this if I were you, Mr. Long.
I have no problem with the “metabolic syndrome,” argument that Dr. Winand described. Once adopted into the domestic population I’ve seen more potential metabolic syndrome cases in the pony and northern European breeds and in the outer banks horses of the east coast than in formerly free-roaming horses. Over-feeding is a problem in all horses, just as is the polar-opposite – starvation.
I disagree with the use of the term Mustang. If we agree that mustang derives from mustaño, meaning – loosely – owner-less, then owner-less is not really a term that describes the horses that Dr. Winand mentions. Tribal horses are Native American horses and horses on military reservations are military horses. The other free-roaming horses are state or federal public horses, even if crossing onto or through private land. None are really owner-less. They are free-roaming and not all are protected by the federal “Wild Free-roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, as amended.” Feral is a construct used by stategovernments meaning estray, usually falling under estray laws, to describe a once domesticated, gone-loose animal.
With respect to the humanitarian Pickens initiative; per your article – “Winand has high praise for Madeleine Pickens plan to house wild horses captured by the BLM on a million acre facility in the West.
Thus far, the billionaire wife of philanthropist T. Boone Pickens hasbeen rebuffed by the BLM.” There are at least two problems with this paragraph. All of us, with you included I presume, thought that the Pickens initiative was to be self-funded from their personal treasury.
We were all very impressed by that humanitarian effort. 1) When the Pickens platform suddenly asked for a federal stipend, they left out the federal bid legal requirements. If the federal government had paid the $500 per horse per year fee requested and the Pickens’s took all 33,000 captured, formerly-free-roaming horses, that would be a (33,000 times $500 per year =~ $45,000 per day) stipend. Now, I ask you, what ranch owner from North Carolina to California would refuse that contract? It would be better located in the grasslands states since the horse is a grasslands animal. So, just as the law requires of the BLM, the BLM requested bids and smartly limited the number of horses per bid. 2) The BLM did not rebuff the Pickens effort. It was not legal to have the taxpayer dollars pay for horse maintenance unless a competitive bid was called for, posted, and legally executed. You forgot to mention that fact in your article.
Since the horse is a grasslands animal, decades ago I advised the BLM to set the sanctuaries in grasslands states. They didn’t need my advice, they chose smartly and placed them in Oklahoma and Kansas.
I agree, cold weather is not a great time to capture any horse. How many cold-weather captures have you attended?
In my estimation, the free-roaming horses should me managed in the
wild, using fertility control and other non-lethal measures for population control, studied by taxpayer funded research through the 10 state universities where free-roaming horses live, managed by the
Natural Resource departments, and if a free-roaming horse is captured it should be trained by one of the active four remaining prison inmate horstraining programs. The free-roaming horse population should never drop below 26,000 in the ten western states, where they currently exist.
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Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Seems the good ol’ doctor is making a threat against Dr. Winand.
Seems the good ol’ doctor is living in the 19th century with a ton of “know-it-all”.
Seems the good ol’ doctor likes to play word games.
Seems the good ol’ doctor doesn’t know about the “mid-West to East” planned and contracted “sanctuaries” steaming down the contract process by DOI as I type; Pickens’s plan is more competent than BLM/DOI’s…can anyone say ” 3 Strikes Ranch”????
Seems the good ol’ doctor doesn’t know that birth control IS being used.
Seems the good ol’ doctor isn’t good, just ol’.
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I applaud Dr. Don Hoglund, MS, DVM for doing his research and stating the facts 100% acurately!
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have you seen the film “Disappointment Valley yet? when you do; you will understand
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Um, the 3 Strikes Ranch was not a BLM facility….just had some privately owned horses that once belonged to BLM. It was a tragedy for those horses, mustangs and otherwise.
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true but the BLM is mandated by law to oversee the facility for example; the law states the BLM pays for the care and hay for the Mustangs; @ about $1.32 c a day per Equine: so the BLM did not oversee the Ranch; so they violated Federal Law…aw
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Realist, not totally accurate. Dr. Hogund failed to mention the reason Pickens’ plan was turned down was because the horses would be on land “not presently found”. And yet, they are supposed to manage horses on the land “where presently found” but they don’t manage, they remove. Also, why are millions of privately owned livestock allowed on land “not presently found?” Why aren’t EAs or EISs done when adding or renewing livestock leases? Why were livestock increased in an area in Calico by 300% last year and horses are now being removed?
The wild Mustangs belong on their ranges in the west, not in zoos in the east and midwest. It is time for the BLM to start following the law.
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The comment about 3 Strikes was that there seemed to be some “business” arrangement between BLM/Meduna. Yes, he had private horses there, BUT (and this is a big but) there seems to be a very vague and nontransparent process with regard to BLM horses, title transfer, the nuiassance of adoption, etc. And reread, please…I didn’t say 3 Strikes was a BLM facility…knee jerk, whack ’em moron.
Maybe BLM came because they were asked to help identify. That’s interesting because they wouldn’t have to come to the crime scene or remove an equine(s?) just to make an identification. Freeze brands can be read and numbers relayed via phone…why show up? Why remove a horse? Maybe they were just being helpful? Doesn’t seem like the BLM I am familar with.
Realist and Anonymous: Applaud all you want…his letter is poorly written and hardly factual. Why play around with mustang v. wild v. feral terminology? Because it’s suits a particular mindset? Hmmm…YEP!
..”Since the horse is a grasslands animal, decades ago I advised the BLM to set the sanctuaries in grasslands states. They didn’t need my advice, they chose smartly and placed them in Oklahoma and Kansas…” Interesting science there with a ton of ain’t I uber smart. Tell me Dr. H and cheering section, if you’re so damn smart why are equines doing just fine where they are and moving them (which violates the 1971 Act) to an entirely different eco system not problematic, not to mention expensive? And the research for this “smart” move is exactly where? Published, researcher, date and paid for by whom?
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What is with these people who have similar agendas?? How dense can they be? About the thickness of adobe… mar
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I noticed a couple of things that bothered me in this article from Dr. Hoglund.
Regarding Mrs. Pickens offer to help with the wild horses-
“All of us, with you included I presume, thought that the Pickens initiative was to be self-funded from their personal treasury.”
I DID NOT PRESUME to think Mrs. Pickens was going to fund the whole effort, and his use of the words “personal treasury” seems to trivialize his whole statement.
“The BLM did not rebuff the Pickens effort. It was not legal to have the taxpayer dollars pay for horse maintenance unless a competitive bid was called for, posted, and legally executed.”
I have read in more than one post/blog that contracts awarded to the Cattoor Livestock Company are “NO Bid”. Please correct me if I am mistaken.
Dr. Hoglund says: “I disagree with the use of the term Mustang. If we agree that mustang derives from mustaño, meaning – loosely – owner-less, then owner-less is not really a term that describes the horses that Dr. Winand mentions”
Criticizing Dr. Winand’s terminology referring to wild/free/loose/roaming horses seems petty to me- We use the politically correct term “African-American”, the truth is people of color come from EVERYWHERE, but this is the (current) acceptable term.
“…and if a free-roaming horse is captured it should be trained by one of the active four remaining prison inmate horse training programs.”
I have seen (on a TV show)the training methods in the prison programs. The “training” done by the people in these programs is (in my opinion) in short ‘better than nothing’. I agree not just anybody can train a wild horse, but the inmates should use natural horsemanship or similar methods, given what these animals have been through up to that point.
Me thinks he doth protest over much.
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I think realist and anonymous are hit and run “experts” without the expert and a burning desire to support Dr. H (if it isn’t Dr. H., himself), no matter how flawed his behavior, science or connections.
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Just because BLM allows “no bid” contracts, doesn’t make it right, even if it is true. They talk out of both sides of their mouths, even regarding reasons for specific roundups, esp. the reasons given for the timing on the Pryor roundups — see Sparks affidavit at the website http://www.thecloudfoundation.org, then read other comments given by BLM for that roundup. They are very inconsistent.
I speculate that one of the reasons BLM may have used that excuse (not allowing “no-bid” contracts) to turn down Pickens is that it is so HIGH PROFILE THEY COULD NEVER HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT. Anything “under the radar” is fair game, apparently.
BLM attempts/allows a lot of stuff that isn’t right or legal, and this has been shown in a court of law more than once. These cases will spotlight BLM’s shortcomings and hopefully over time will to pick away at their house of straw.
The free-roaming horses and burros have suffered and will continue to suffer the consequences of our nation’s inability, for whatever reasons, to sort all this out.
I will continue to read any source of suggestions and ideas that are “out there,” and welcome all journalists and blogmeisters who provide a forum for these ideas.
Thank you, Mr. Long (Horseback Magazine) and R.T. for bringing the thoughts and ideas of these two veterinarians to your public forum and allowing them both to state their beliefs, suggestions, and thoughts.
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Honestly, there are some very good reasons for “no bid” contracts. Having said that, once these are determined it becomes incumbent on the contracting agengy to throughly justify and execute for that no bid contract.
Sometimes within the Federal Acquisition process there are sound reasons for “no bid”. But it can be abused. No bid contracts usually result in some form of determination that no other contractor is qualified to provide the service or product(paperwork required). Other times it has to do with time constraints and lack of bid. This of course depends on how the RFP is worded…it’s a very complicated process that the DOI/BLM may be taking advantage of considering they had these round-ups planned reasonably well in advance if they were using their EAs/HMLs etc properly. And I think therein lies the rub.
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Sorry for the spelling errors.
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Thanks for the bid explanation. I hope there are NOT many people out there with choppers ready to round’em up!
So Dr. H’s statement: “The BLM did not rebuff the Pickens effort. It was not legal to have the taxpayer dollars pay for horse maintenance unless a competitive bid was called for, posted, and legally executed.” may not apply to Mrs. Pickens? There are not many people out there who can do or want to do what she proposes for the horses.
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