by Lisa LeBlanc ~ Wild Horse Freedom Federation Advisory Board Member
Wild Horse advocates before White House – Photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
This commentary offers no answers; it only offers more questions. If a personal displeasure in the Wild Horse and Burro Program drives outrage in an equine advocate, the purpose of this is perhaps to add a little more fuel to the fire.
However, should the reader find something of use here, as an addition to issues that already exist, please remember this, from equine advocate luminaries Equine Welfare Alliance and ‘Habitat for Horses’ Jerry Finch:
“Please be passionate but professional and persistent, as you may get push – back.”
(Phone numbers provided at the end of this report)
ON-THE-RANGE POPULATION ESTIMATES
Updated on September 9, 2013, the BLM’s ‘Wild Horse and Burro Quick Facts’ page asserts,
“40,605 wild horses and burros (about 33,780 horses and 6,825 burros) are roaming on BLM-managed rangelands in 10 Western states, based on the latest data available, compiled as of February 28, 2013.” (emphasis added)
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/history_and_facts/quick_facts.html
It’s is unclear where ‘the latest data available’ is sourced, but it is likely ‘estimated’, based on reports from field offices or a decades-old, overall reproductive rate of 20% from a previous study conducted by the NAS in the 1980’s. And this estimate is the highest since 2002, perhaps solidifying the current NAS report’s concerns of removals exacerbating birth rates – which would also be based on BLM ‘estimates’.
Since the estimate preceded foaling increases, the population estimate will now be much larger. With holding facilities reportedly nearing capacity, the Bureau is now turning it’s attentions toward not simply rendering mares temporarily incapable of producing offspring through PZP, but permanent surgical sterilization of both mares and stallions – in direct violation of the tenet of “…a thriving (natural) ecological balance.”
The very definition of ‘thriving’ means ‘ growing; developing vigorously; flourishing’ – none of which can be accomplished by sterile, non-reproducing herds. More troubling still is these animals will likely count against AML if free-roaming among those few still allowed to breed.
But these estimates are also to be taken on simple faith: Belief without proof. That time is past. We need more.
Since aerial surveys have been undertaken to assess on-the-range populations, most data collected is what is observed, written and submitted. It should be taken one, logical step further: Video or digital evidence of these vast populations, on a shareable format made available to the public. Court cases routinely brought against the BLM nearly always include visual documentation of range or animal conditions or suspected abuses; without this, little would occur in litigation. The Wild Horse and Burro Program should be held to the same high standards as are expected from the interested public.
We can no longer rely on the rationale of the ‘estimate’.
THE FY2013 WILD HORSE AND BURRO PROGRAM BUDGET
Fiscal Year 2013 is set to close on September 30; FY 2014 begins on October 1st. Among many items requiring a sizeable portion of every Program budget are funding for Short Term Holding facilities and Long Term Pastures – $28,036,179 & $16,534,438 for FY 2013, respectively.
The breakdown for STH’s allocation based on 15,478 animals in holding, according to a May, 2013 facility report, comes out to $1,811 per horse or burro per year, and closely verified at $1,800 by various statements from the BLM.
It can be inferred that the money is allocated to a particular facility based on the number of animals held. In the case of Palomino Valley, a Northern Nevada ‘preparation’ facility and recent subject of Public focus during a heat wave in June of this year, the facility hosted 1,859 animals.
Annually, this works out to approximately $3,366,349 for Palomino Valley. Fluctuations might occur when animals are removed or die, but based on May’s occupancy, this equates to a little over $280,554 per month. The facility, as are most, is a series of fenced-in dirt pastures, absent either edible or decorative greenery or geographical features; there is nothing that can be construed as ‘enrichment’ for the animals – nothing to distract or challenge them. It is essentially a feed-lot. Given that little contributes to the lives of these animals past food, water and the barest minimum of veterinary and farrier care, it was surprising representatives of the facility lobbied hard against the idea of constructing any type of shade structure to protect the horses from temperatures exceeding 100 degrees daily for at least a week, citing, among other issues, an unacceptable increase in insect activity. The Public might wish to inquire – how exactly more than a quarter of a million dollars a month for this facility alone is spent.
In addition, portions of the Program which might be considered essential in providing valid data for Herd Management Areas and mitigation of roundups – Plan for Herd Management ($241,250), Conducting Population Surveys ($772,200) and Monitoring HMAs ($1,138,065) – these three combined account for less than 3% of the entire budget and if applied to each HMA under the Bureau’s purview, would amount to a mere $12,000 spent per HMA per year.
THE OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
The validity of ‘internal investigations’ regarding the Bureau of Land Management and the Wild Horse and Burro Program is the fact that, as of this writing, the Department of Interior, the command branch of the Bureau of Land Management, continues to operate without a permanent Inspector General – since 2009. The interim IG is Mary Kendal. Many investigations into agencies under Interior have been undertaken, and the results made available to Congress on a semi-annual basis.
The reports feature criminal investigations including embezzlement, credit-card abuses and child pornography, among others. Each report illustrates the detailed steps in the investigations, naming those caught, and the punitive measures administered.
Except for a single inquiry into the Wild Horse and Burro Program included in an April, 2011 report to Congress.
http://www.doi.gov/oig/reports/upload/SemiannualApril2011Public.pdf (page 7)
The report contains seven paragraphs that essentially parrot everything equine advocates have come to expect from the Interior Department and BLM, but perhaps most telling about how little interest the OIG demonstrated in an actual investigation of the Program is this:
“ In its review, OIG determined that wild horse and burro gathers, or the herding and corralling of the animals, are necessary and justified as an essential means to control the population.”
And:
Controversy also surrounds the program because of concern over alleged mistreatment of the animals. We determined that the animals are not treated inhumanely, and BLM does not send excess wild horses or burros to slaughter.”
No indications, other than ‘review’, as to how the OIG came to these conclusions. No investigative steps outlined, no summary of either field study or field office investigation. But the report to Congress is nearly word for word what is regurgitated to the Public on every aspect of the Program.
Perhaps Secretary Jewell is unaware of the contentious nature of the Wild Horse and Burro Program; perhaps these issues wild equine advocates oppose on a daily basis have yet to make it up the chain of this particular command. The previous Secretary of the Interior had made it abundantly clear in editorials and public forums shortly after his appointment that he would reform the Program, saving the cherished and making permanent exiles of those who wouldn’t qualify. With more wild equines in tenuous captivity than on the range, despite this year’s high estimate, the quality of wild equine-related data must be accurate, it’s adherence to the purpose of the Wild Horse and Burro Act above reproach – which it most decidedly is not.
Add your voice. And never lose hope.
These are the numbers to Secretary Jewell’s three offices:
Main line: 1-202-208-3100
The Office of Communications: 1-202-208-6416
Appointments office: 1-202-208-7551
Branch office: 1-202-208-3181
Related Articles
- Would BLM Sell Horses to Slaughter? (ppjg.me)
- National Academy of Science tells BLM to use Delphi (manipulate) you (ppjg.me)
- Part 2: BLM and Fish & Wildlife Service Experimenting on Wild Horses (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Exclusive: Wild Horse and Wild Burro Good News and Bad News from Twin Peaks HMA (ppjg.me)
- BLM’s trend: manipulation of public (ppjg.me)
- New Interior Chief Let Down the Wild Horses (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Advocate R.T. Fitch nominated for wild horse board (horsetalk.co.nz)
- As Wild Horses Swelter, Interior Secretary Must Act (Op-Ed) (livescience.com)
Categories: Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
“….and BLM does not send EXCESS wild horses or burros to slaughter…” – how does the BLM define “excess” – &which OIG office “investigated” & how long ago? – Needs an independent OIG office. Seems the BLM holding facilities are addicted to their huge budgets & show no evidence of changing as long as they can manipulate or pay-off those above & below their chain of commands – Ridiculous that they can’t build even a little shade with such huge money changing hands – Can the public have access to their budget lists & check to make sure its really being used for each “need” & how much is really being used at each facility? Also, what do the contractors such as the helicopter companies & pilots, as well as the landowners make off this travesty? Lots of personal interests being served & not the horses & burros.
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What day is the national call-in?
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Be sure to read the responses at the end… 🙂
http://www.habitatforhorses.org/national-blm-call-in-campaign/?fb_source=pubv1
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Some of your questions about how much you and I pay the contractors to capture and to hold our wild horses and burros is available on usaspending.gov
Examples:
Cattoor Livestock Total Dollars $27,606,484
Broken Arrow holding facility Total Dollars $15,571,696
Drummond Cattle holding facility Total Dollars $17,772,376
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I’m really disgusted with this government from the top to the bottom. They take your calls. They are professional, polite and they take your name, they take your number and them they hang up and forget about you. How many calls have been made? I know I’ve made a several. These people don’t care. They’re more concerned by the kids who were killed over in Syria..blah, blah, blah. At the risk of sounding uncaring, the world is overpopulated by humans and i don’t give a rats arse if they ALL kill each other over in the middle east. They have been killing each other since the beginning of time. If the president and Congress wasn’t to go fight it themselves, let them go. This Congress (republicans) said that they would block anything that the president tried to do and dammit they have succeeded so far in doing just that! Wake up people and smell the coffee. Nothing good will get done during this congressional year or until Obama is out of office. Nothing will get done and Obama looks bad thanks to them. Because of their guerrilla tactics, our horses are dying ALL OF THEM! Call if you will and i will to tomorrow as well as share this out but it seems to me that it is falling in deaf ears. Nothing is or has happened! Our food is unsafe, our lives are in limbo, the economy is still tanked. What the hell do you expect? Thanks RT fir posting this.
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Terri, you are so right. The fact that also we take too money people coming all over the world to populated the USA to live. The USA should not bomb Syria and just leave the mideast alone. If the US alternative fuel methods to run vehicles we would not need the mideast. Why destroy the wild horses and burros that have been living off the land for centuries. I Wish the US Government would just listen to the people, we are not a bunch of sleeping sheep we are intelligent humans beings that have been born here and educated. Something needs to be done to protect the wild horses.
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Sorry for the typo I meant “many” not “money” but foreigners do come to our land for the $$$$.
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Thank you for this excellent report, Lisa. After listening to the BLM Advisory Board yesterday it seems all they are concerned about is more “managing for extinction ” with the exception of Tim Harvey who had the courage to speak up in defense of our wild horses. Several advocates did also like Dr. Lester Frelander , Ginger Kathrens, Neda DeMayo, Robin Warren and her mom, Suzanne Roy and others. However a Farm Bureau rep., a Safari Club International member, a Wildlife Society member and others all gave comments against wild horses with what IMO were lies such as how wild horses damage the range and harm wildlife. Of course wild horses always get the blame even though they are symbiotic to ecosystems . The 1990-91 GAO study proved the millions of cattle damage the range and riparian areas and not the few thousand wild horses but that is never mentioned. NAS didn’t consider livestock either . Why are some so against our wild horses and burros when so few are left ?
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Also noted were the comments by the young man who conducts helicopters roundups – and his belief that PZP is destroying the herds. That was a huge surprise.
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This is possible if the BLM is not following protocols and keeping records on which foals have been born to which parents. PZP will destroy the herds if it is not managed.
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I tuned in late yesterday to see the BLM Advisory Board meeting via web cam. But I did not miss anything new. The same old lip service to the advocates, along with brazen disregard for the wild horses. How much time was spent interpreting what was meant in the wording of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses & Burros Act regarding land the wild horses are entitled to? This was laughable, if not so serious & sad for the horses. Thankfully, Timothy Harvey again spoke up for the wild horses deserving land. He always speaks up for the wild ones. He is the humane advocacy appointee. But does his input ever mount to anything beneficial attained FOR the wild horses? I wondered if he was a BLM plant, playing “good cop- bad cop.” I remember last year, 10/12, with minimal information, he was all for surgical removal of mare’s ovaries>> in the field. Dr. Boyd Spratling had done some. How much true research & reading scientific papers is actually done by the Board? If done, they twist & turn the results. The BLM & BLM Advisory Board continues to be corrupt. The comment period. The predictable pop-ins by those with vested $$$ interests. Farm Bureau, Safari Club… I call them the “men in (shiny) suits.” Cut from the same cloth. I have seen & heard them here, back East. Monopolize. Given credence, entitled, titled. Always, my immediate thought, reminds me of the entitled title: MAFIA.
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Please join us on the Mustang Matters show on Renegade Radio on Wednesday Sept. 11, 2013 at 11am PDT 2pm EDT, hosted by Country Western Singer Lacy J Dalton, with special guest Dr. Lester Friedlander! The number to call in during the show for questions or comments is 855.790.8255. There is a “Listen Live” button on their website page!
http://renegaderadio.org/
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I called the listed phone numbers above. First, phone number 202-208-3100 referred me to 866-468-7826 which was a comment line for the Wild Horses and Burros. The next phone number 202-208-7551 tranferred me 3 times and the receptionist made a mistake and transferred to someone that was on hold. Talk about incompetence this makes me sick to know that these people working for the Government do not really care about the people but only their paychecks.
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Miss Robin was NOT allowed to present her petition to the BLM Advisory Board. It was on those flats on wheels (like the ones at Costco). She was told to leave it in the back but she couldnt bring it to the front.
Please make noise about this. This young lady worked and worked on her two petitions and gathered 250,000 signatures. One of them called for a stop to the roundups–saying that helicopters were monsters. And the other was about shelter.
This board snubbed the work of a teen. They either suddenly wrote a new rule to cover their butts or suddenly started enforcing a policy that too date has not been enforced. They even had it in writing so they obviously knew Robin was coming.
I think we should a White House petition DEMANDING Pres Obama call upon Robin and chatting with her and apologizing.
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I doubt we’d get past the phone maze. Here is a thought and it really happened: over in some tiny foreign country with a dictator someone from the neighboring country flew overhead and dropped teddy bears in parachutes with leaflets about freedom . Then in his own he set them up in a ‘protest’ since people protests weren’t aloud. (Yes, there was an arrest.)
Maybe we should collect a massive amount of stuffed horses, strap on all this data about the BLM abuses and parachute them smack onto the BLM and Dept of Interior offices. Don’t forget to have someone catch it on video and tip reporters. We’ve tried everything else. If that didn’t get the media attention and go viral, nothing would.
No, I’m not kidding. Nothing short of a media frenzy bombarding the PR – not just the usual horse crowd in the know, is going to blast past all the other demands for peoples attention to make them realize: HEY, THAT’S MY TAX PAYER MONEY THEY ARE USING! We need something drastic without being illegal or violent. Something totally unexpected.
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I read about the Teddy bears and I am all for the stuffed animal horse drop. I think we need much more publicity in this matter. This bombardment of letters,emails and phone calls doesn’t seem to get their attention. I get form letters in response to emails and now I just file them in the “circular.” Would be happy to contribute to the stuffed animal air drop.
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I called the Main Line and was given this number- 202-208-7351. Of course I could not speak to her but the woman I spoke with did take my message and said she would relay it to the Sec.
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Thank you Lisa for sharing your insight. As you say, “Since aerial surveys have been undertaken to assess on-the-range populations, most data collected is what is observed, written and submitted. It should be taken one, logical step further: Video or digital evidence of these vast populations, on a shareable format made available to the public.” BLM will not offer this (or any other honest proof) to the public because it would show that what they say is not truthful.
Aerial survey data and photos and lists of current locations of all captured WH&B from individual HMAs can be accessed via FOIA (for free) and I wish everyone would consider doing this. I have documentation via FOIA that proves the BLM “exceeds the truth” in their aerial survey population counts. More on that at a later date…
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http://prophoto7journal.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/hunting-is-not-what-it-was-in-the-past-hunters-are-not-conservationists/
The Safari Club
The Safari Club, one of many hunters for animal-trophy’s clubs, has a distasteful history at best, especially when dealing with wildlife and Extinct Species. In 1978, for example, the Safari Club International applied to have 1,120 endangered animals shipped to the United States — putting them in pins and shooting them for trophy’s to hang on their walls. When the general Public found out about this situation, the outcry tremendous, and the application pulled.
The Safari Club done the same thing in 1982, kept it quiet, and were successful in acquiring importation of Leopard trophies — yes, pinned and shot from a safe distance, the head stuffed and hung on their walls. The particular species of Leopard they imported is now Extinct, none exist on the face of this planet any longer what so ever. It is gone forever!
Today they want to do similar activity! Other legislation that is critical to sportsmen includes: H.R. 1818 (Young-AK) and S. 847 (Crapo-ID) allowing the importation of a small number of already harvested polar bears; H.R. 1819 (Young-AK) reinstating sustainable use importation of polar bears by U.S. citizens; and H.R. 322 (Miller-FL) protecting traditional hunting and fishing equipment and other policy issues important to all hunters.”
Traditional activity must be questioned here, as their traditional activity has led to many wildlife Extinctions, as outlined on the Extinct Species Lists — Once again, history is quite clear about this.
Jim Hastings described these hunts the best. “They take a hunter, normally a pot-bellied slob with a high-powered hunting rifle and scope, roll him in the dirt a little bit, then point him toward the hay or grain pile at the other side of the pin. They had fed the trophy animal from this pile the past few days, so it will wander over to feed. The hunter in the dirt not more than 40 yards or 50 yards away. He then scopes the animal, then shoots it. The animal is then sent to be stuffed, and the hunter receives the head, or whole animal at home, stuffed, within two or three weeks.” This is not hunting!!!!!
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At the risk of being redundant…..
http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562
Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife
Kirkpatrick, J.F., and P.M. Fazio. Revised January 2010. Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife. The Science and Conservation Center, ZooMontana, Billings. 8 pages
by Jay F. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. and Patricia M. Fazio, Ph.D.
Reclassifications are now taking place, based on the power and objectivity of molecular biology. If one considers primate evolution, for example, the molecular biologists have provided us with a completely different evolutionary pathway for humans, and they have described entirely different relationships with other primates. None of this would have been possible prior to the methodologies now available through mitochondrial‐DNA analysis.
The non‐native, feral, and exotic designations given by agencies are not merely reflections of their failure to understand modern science but also a reflection of their desire to preserve old ways of thinking to keep alive the conflict between a species (wild horses), with no economic value anymore (by law), and the economic value of commercial livestock.
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There is BLM research that says horses do not harm sage grouse but cattle do!
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I am gonna guesstimate just like BLM; Colorado has less than 1000 wild horses in 5 small HMAs. Utah has less than 2000 wild horses in 6? HMAs, NM has maybe way less than 700 wild horses in 2 HMAs, Arizona has less than 500 wild horses in 2 HMAs?, Wyoming has less than 5000 for a few more months in 7 HMAs, Montana has one herd in the Pryors now under 200 wild horses, Idaho may have fewer than 2000 altho I have heard they may have more in 5 HMAs? , Oregon has less than 1500 wild horses- could be more in 5 HMas?, California has less than 1700, Nevada is the hardest to figure but I am saying less than 5000, maybe way less on more than 15 HMAs?. That comes to 19,600 wild horses.
A little over a year ago BLM said there were maybe less than 1500 wild burros but this year they doubled that.
If we do not have a wild horse bill in DC and we do not have a lawsuit that addresses the entirety of this overwhelming catastrophe, then how can we stop this? Research undermines BLM but does not get into the mainstream press and is not analyzed as a part of the degradation of our public lands rather the horses are still blamed.
Even if we had more of their lands in use and less stress on the herds and 100,000 on the HMAs this is not a big number in the wildlife world. And the acres that were once all for wild horses was plenty of room. That 170,000 have been removed over the years says this is avery successful harvesting plan. Let’s consider this to be a very low number. And then there are those who are shot and those who are hauled in the night. A very deep old mustanging element still clings to the presence of our wild ones feeding off them.
The way to change their fate is through science. A 10 Year Moratorium would be time to breathe, time to stop aggressive PZP on little herds, time to return to the wild those strong and still spry from the long term holding pastures. Time for real science and teams to do census work and begin a data bank for all of our herds and bands. Time to do the first ongoing behavioral studies on horses in the wild and through their recovery and how the lands are doing. And most important, this information gathered will tell us how to manage the wild ones where they live in accordance with the 1971 Act to do independent study in to base management decisions upon in order to avoid conflict of interest. Read it. And look around at the huge overlapping conflicts of interest BLM is involved in on wild horse HMAs and HAs in the name of multiple use.
Please back a 10 Year Moratorium and help us build momentum and support for it. Pull people together to save our wild ones carefully and respectfully with the science they have been denied by BLM from the onset of the 1971 Act. Independent science is what BLM does not want. A Moratorium is what BLM does not want. WHY? Because they would no longer be free to do as they please with their contrary policies and their land grabs and give-aways of resources on the wild ones lands. Our HMAs/HAs can be wildlife havens and restored over grazed lands. Think about it.
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Miss Ken Salazar yet?
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Keep sharing this, not just for 9-11 remembrance, but every day!
Read all about the Plight of Our Wild Horses and the BLM’s feedlots for potential “disposal” of our wild horses to slaughter kill buyers… Call every day, and any day to let Secretary Sally Jewell know that all Sally’s (Mustang Sally wild horses and burros) need to be set free. She needs to be FREE from political bad guys that have dominated the Dept of Interior for decades to make the RIGHT decisions to release our wild horses & burros, stop the Bloody BLM Roundups, kick off the welfare cattle ranchers and private/public corporate interests that are destroying our wild PUBLIC lands with their mineral mining, oil drilling and daman gas fracking that destroys habitat set aside for wild life not to line the pockets of the greedy all supported by our federal taxes when our budget is in huge deficit spending (trillions in the red). BLM just awarded $6 million tax paid dollars to the wild horse helicopter companies. You and I both know what that means?? Death to our wild horses. Twitter, email and write to Sally Jewell to let her know she can whip those bad boys asses into shape (one BLM head guy offered to be her armed right hand man to show her the ropes – crooked ropes I imagine, to ensure that she would tow their corrupt brand of politics at her opening speech). Sally’s not dumb, nor is she blind or deaf. Let’s show her we will support her all the way, but she must step up to STOP BLM EXTERMINATION/GENOCIDE of our wild ones!
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