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Action Alert: BLM Pryor Mustang Removal Plan

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Source: The Cloud Foundation

Speak Up to Keep Young Pryor Wild Horses on the Range!

Comments on the BLM Pryor Wild Horse removal are due April 24.
The BLM proposes to remove 30 Pryor Mountain wild horses aged 1, 2 and 3 using bait trapping this year.

Cloud's youngsters are at risk. Photo by R.T. Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Cloud’s youngsters are at risk. Photo by R.T. Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Background:
The BLM is to be commended for its excellent PZP program, however, the current plan has not been in place long enough to achieve the desired result of balancing reproduction with natural mortality, thereby making removals unnecessary.

If 30 horses ages 1-3 are targeted, most of Cloud’s young offspring (Encore, Mato Ska and Ohanzee) could be removed from the mountain as well as many other unique, irreplaceable young horses, including Navigator, the only living offspring of the long- time band stallion, Custer who is 19 this year. We encourage you to politely speak out, urging the BLM to analyze alternatives to such a large removal.

Recommended areas of analysis for BLM to include in their forthcoming Environmental Assessment:

  • Analyze incrementally removing 6-10 young horses in the 1-2 year old age groups for the next three years. (Removing only a limited number of young horses yearly will give them a greater chance of being adopted to quality homes.)
  • Analyze whether darting all mares with two offspring on the mountain would balance reproduction and mortality in a more timely manner.

Pursue ALL alternatives to mitigate genetic damage resulting from the removal of horses:

  • Removal of 30 horses exceeds the number that could be removed per the current PZP decision record which requires at least one offspring per mare, one year or older will be left on the range. There are not 30 young horses that could be removed without violating this requirement.
  • Removal of 30 horses further threatens genetic viability.
  • Analyze bait trapping in winter months when genetically over-represented bands are more easily accessible.

Re-examine Rangeland Expansion/Improvements to ensure adequate forage for a genetically viable herd:

  • Negotiate for rangeland expansion with sister agencies, USFS and National Park Service (Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area).
  • Immediately open Administrative Pastures and take down fences using adaptive management as justification. Use volunteers as needed.
  • Remove all exclosures not being used for range monitoring to maximize forage available for herd. Use volunteers as needed.
  • Carry out aerial re-seeding per the 2009 HMAP.

Request that the forthcoming EA include:

  • All current range monitoring data.
  • All PZP darting records.
  • An updated census that includes all horses that have died since the fall 2014.
  • All yearly death rate data since 2009 to substantiate the average loss of 6-12 horses year.

Evaluate Natural Management Alternatives:

  • Coordinate with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to reduce mountain lion hunting in the PMWHR.

Please submit your written comments to:

Jim Sparks
Field Manager BLM-Billings Field Office
5001 Southgate Drive
Billings, MT 59101
Email: BLM_MT_Billings_FO@blm.gov

Jim Sparks Email: jsparks@blm.gov
(406) 896-5241
Jared Bybee Email: jbybee@blm.gov
(406) 896-5223

LINKS:

SCOPING NOTICE for Capturing and Removal of Excess Wild Horses in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range

Genetic Analysis of Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Herd, August 2013

Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range Planning & Information

Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs

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42 replies »

  4. Just a thought on my part—but just one year ago April 2014 – Clive Bundy before the country literally rubbed the BLM ‘s nose in perverbial “cowsh_t” Could our groups and our horses be paying the price for their embarrassing Bundy debacle? To save some sort of face?

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    • If the BLM cared about saving face, they wouldn’t be doing these roundups. They only cater to special interests.

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      • PLEASE PLEASE stop this madness. These roundups need to stop as well as the harm being done to our country’s horses. We urge you to use PZP on some of these horses just not on all. They is no need to kill off these beautiful horses.

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  8. I thought our Montana herd was safe for a few years. I’m so surprised and it breaks my heart. I guess all we can do is everyone write comments and send them in. If driving 4 hours to the BLM office for a meeting would help, I would do it. I have no idea what I would say, but, I can certainly be coached by the experts. I emailed Senator John Tester (Montana) last night and asked for his help. When I signed a petition for the Nevada horses and commented on some NV legislation, an automatic letter went to him. His office’s thank you email said that if I ever needed anything to contact his office. Well, I need his help this time. It’s our own Pryor Mountain Wild Horses on the roundup list. I will be doing a lot of reading and intense writing this weekend. I believe there are at least 3 very important deadlines for comments in the next week. I’m used to do intense litigation work, well this is all a very close second.

    We were on a “high” with the release of Sarge and the Fish Creek Horses only to be brought down to the “lowest low” with a roundup of our Pryor Mountain Wild Horses ~~ Cloud’s immediate & extended families!

    I’m going to email our local news channel tonight and see if we can get a broadcast story here in Helena. Our legislature is still in session. Maybe some will catch the news broadcasts. I’m wondering if PBS can preempt their programing this weekend and play the documentaries of Cloud’s life & legacy. It’s worth a try!

    I’m trying to think outside of the box to bring this some publicity. If anyone has any ideas, I’m here in Montana.

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  9. I don’t live in the West, but I do feel that for those of us who supposedly the public lands belong to also are never represented, and that many people areeither apathetic or just do not know. Getting the information out to people is of utmost important – social media, letter writing, broadcast news, anything and everything. These special interests can not dominate us. This herd is well known and I thought had a lot of visibility.

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  10. No more taking of the wild horses off their lands which are public lands. More sterilization of mares must continue, not more gathers, pushing horses into unprotected overly crowded pens to live lives of misery, or sent to slaughter in Mexico where methods to kill are brutal beyond comprehension. Stop all the killing, the public lands belong to our wild ones.

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    • Nina, we believe there should NOT be any more sterilization of wild mares. Most herds are now non-viable. What needs to be done is to have the BLM reduce or retire livestock grazing allotments on HMAs, and for the BLM to amend all RMPs to allow for the “appropriate management level” (AML) to be numbers needed for viable herds. Sterilization is PERMANENT, and this makes no sense for non-viable herds.

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      • Birth control acquiesces to the lie that Wild Horses and Burros are overpopulated when in reality the opposite is true. The Free Roaming Act was passed because the herds had dwindled to 25,000 from two million. Today, free, we only have about 15,000. The public lands were designated to WH&Bs not cattle, sheep, hunters, drilling, FRACKING, or mining. What is wrong with this picture?

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  12. I do not support PZP. Is this verification? The Kirpartrick report has three contributors – Linda Coates-Markle who has been rounding up since the ’90s and involved with Ginger all that while, Kirpartrick who depends on PZP to survive, and an HSUS registrant representative – what happened to no more roundups if PZP is used? Even if you believe in PZP, can you possibly trust the BLM?

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  15. Is there a petition we can sign?? I do not want to see this herd lost. BLM you are wrecking tourism for Wyoming a well as the rest of the west. Please reconsider, and let the PZP plan work! Thank you.

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  17. The video of Echo is dated 2010, so Echo would be about 3 years old now.
    That puts him at great risk of being trapped, captured and removed.

    “If 30 horses ages 1-3 are targeted, most of Cloud’s young offspring (Encore, Mato Ska and Ohanzee) could be removed from the mountain as well as many other unique, irreplaceable young horses, including Navigator, the only living offspring of the long- time band stallion, Custer who is 19 this year. We encourage you to politely speak out, urging the BLM to analyze alternatives to such a large removal.”

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  19. Please leave this herd alone.Let them be free,before to ling you will have kilked all the wild mustangs.Stop this horrific act of cruelty.

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  23. NO, NO, NO! There is absoutely NO justification to use any form of birth control on a wild horse population that, at fewer than15,000 in number, is teetering on the edge of extinction already. The only place any overpopulation of wild horses exists is in the holding facilities. Wild horses aren’t overpopulated, they are only in the way of greedy special interest groups and corporate, big energy projects. PZP is just one more tool in the BLM’s, “Manage to Extinction” toolbox!

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  24. Please you can not do this. There are not enough of them left as it is. You have over 50,000 in holding pens as it is. You don’t want to feed, water,and shelter them so you sell them to kill buyers and they are shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. They were here first. This is their land. You are breaking up families. If you were being separated from your family, you would be devastated. So are they. This is cruelty, plain and simple. Please stop now.

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  26. leave all the herds alone, they have taken care of themselves without any help for years. Farmers need to stay off the lands that they are on. they were there first. let them be.

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