The meeting will be live-streamed at http://www.blm.gov/live/.
This meeting will be about BLM’s plans for STERILIZATION and CREATING MINIMALLY REPRODUCING HERDS of the already mostly non-viable remaining herds of wild horses & burros.
It has been OVER 3 YEARS since the public became aware that Tom Davis bought over 1,700 wild horses. When are we going to get a report on the BLM’s investigation into this? Tim Harvey is the only member of the Advisory Board who continually asks for the report on the investigation into Tom Davis at these national meetings. Thank you for following up on this, Tim.
Tom Davis (photo: Dave Philipps)
Did you ever wonder why these national advisory board meetings aren’t videotaped by the BLM and put on permanent record for the public on the BLM Wild Horse & Burro website? (The public can’t see the BLM’s presentations on the meeting notes. Since this meeting is held on workdays, many people will not be able to watch the live stream.)
The BLM National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meets Sept. 2-3, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at the the Sheraton Oklahoma City Downtown Hotel.
Sept. 2 from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. CENTRAL TIME
Sept. 3 from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. CENTRAL TIME
The meeting will be live-streamed at http://www.blm.gov/live/.
AGENDA
Wednesday, September 2, 2015 (1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. ,Central Time)
1:00 p.m.—Welcome, Introductions, and Agenda Review
1:50 p.m.—Approval of April 2015 Minutes
2:10 p.m.—BLM Response to Advisory Board Recommendations
2:30 p.m.—Wild Horse and Burro Program Update
5:00 p.m.—Adjourn
Thursday, September 3, 2015 (8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Central Time)
8:00 a.m.—Program Update continued
10:30 a.m.—Public Comment Period Begins
12:00 p.m.—Public Comment Period Ends
12:05 p.m.—Lunch
1:15 p.m.—Working Group Reports
2:45 p.m.—Advisory Board Discussion and Recommendations to the BLM
5:00 p.m.—Adjourn
Public comment is on Sept. 3, 10:30 a.m. – noon CENTRAL TIME.
People who want to comment at Thursday’s meeting should register in person with the BLM by 10:15 a.m. CENTRAL TIME, that day at the meeting site.
People who want to submit a written comment can email the BLM at whbadvisoryboard@blm.gov (include “Advisory Board Comment” in the email’s subject line) or mail a written comment to the National Wild Horse and Burro Program, WO-260, Attention: Ramona DeLorme, 1340 Financial Boulevard, Reno, Nevada, 89502-7147.
Categories: Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Can anyone clarify for me the purpose of public comments (ending at noon) when less than 3 hours later a full set of recommendations is handed over to the BLM? Surely these are already prepared when the meeting begins?
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IcySpots, I’m sure you’re right. Their whole agenda has already been prepared. Imagine all comments for our wild horses just go in the trash. Things just keep getting worse it seems.
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Hmmm. just notice the BLM response to Advisory Board recommendations occurs on WEDS., before the Advisory Board submits recommendations to the BLM??? Is the BLM responding to earlier recommendations received months ago, is this a typo, or have they already been apprised of Advisory Board recommendations, making this entire meeting farcical?
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Why is it that we can’t get a report for the Tom Davis ? We the public have a right to know the out come from this man, who bought 1700 horses and only can tell us where so many of them are or where they went? Will the horses ever be able to have rest on this subject ? So many missing, un- a -counted for ? Did he break the law, if so why has he not be punished for this act?
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I’m still waiting for an “update” on those dead in Scott City KS last year… necropsies were supposedly conducted immediately, a federal vet was on sight within days, a media tour was held, and the official cause of death? Never reported or disclosed. Nor the total dead, nor the total left still living there versus how many were taken off long term holding pastures. So much for “transparency” in Gov’t.
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IMHO
The public will never get a true report on the Davis 1700 missing horses and burros or the Spur livestock horses sold to a KB or any other “missing” issue because these actions were assisted by and made possible by the holding facility managers and wranglers and office staff but were authorized from the BLM decision makers in Washington and Nevada State office etc. That makes all of them responsible and conspirators in these illegal actions. In other words, in reality SOMEONE (actually many) would have to be arrested and then the majority of the BLM would fall like dominoes – as it should.
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These horses r being used as guinea
Pigs for sterilization trials ..: let’s try it on the BLM first…
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Good! This is a scab that I hope horse advocates continue to pick away at until we get an answer or find out why the coverup. That POS Tim Slappington too – although I’m sure he’s small potatoes.
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Ask Tom Davis’s neighbor & business associate, Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior at that time, for the answer. You know, Salazar was probably being “neighborly,” & probably offered some of his horses to Davis too ~
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BLM Advisory Board Handout on shade for WH&B in Palomino Valley states, “Recommendation: Based on the results of this evaluation, the horses and burros do NOT appear to require shade in this environment to cope with high temperatures and solar radiation ….”
Click to access BLM%20Mustang%20%20Thermal%20Study%20final.pdf
So … years later and lots of money spent for research grants they have found people to risk their names and credentials to bend over for BLM to say that no shade is needed for our wild ones in 100plus degree heat in Reno’s BLM Palomino Valley feed-lot. Instead of wasting all that money and time, all they had to do was have Dean go stand in the middle of one of those corrals for a day.
Many people including myself have seen these horses SUFFERING at this BLM feed-lot and it will bring tears to your eyes if you have half as heart.
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GG, guess this means they will remove the shade requirement for adopted horses now, too?
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That was mentioned and it will take time to change the manual etc but sounds like eventually no shade will be required for adopted horses and burros.
BTW – The shade study was done in late June of 2014. I was there a few weeks before that and there were horses lying in small indentations of moist soil where some water had trickled from a water trough and the horses WERE SUFFERING and the temperature was “only” 92 degrees on that day from the intense sun and heat with no possible shade.
But, interesting to note that about a week after the BLM study was done the temperature (Reno) was …
July 1st 102 degrees
July 6th 101 degrees
July 13th 103 degrees
July 14th 105 degrees
July 15th 102 degrees
If a drop of common sense was used anyone would know that day after day after day of VERY hot days would cause heat stress in almost any animal … but not according to BLM! So disgusting!
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GG, I experienced this past July 4th no AC in my trailer because of electrical surges in power ignored by my landlord that fried my AC unit. It rose to 104 in the shade outside and 101 inside. I have two elderly cats and by 5:45 PM they were both in distress. My male cat was non-responsive. I kenneled them and put them in my pick-up truck running w/ AC until 10:15 (passed “quiet time”). Even at that time it was still 91 inside the trailer, and by 2:00 AM it was 81, so I could close & lock my door to go to sleep. Animals need protection from all types of weather. They are not immuned to the harshness of the elements. I only had to endure that heat for one day before a cold-front came through as I got my AC unit fixed. I can’t imagine enduring the heat you mentioned day-in-and-day-out. It’s inhumane.
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7 Questions About Wild Horses for Interior Secretary Nominee Sally Jewell
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/03/7-questions-about-wild-horses-for-interior-secretary-nominee-sally-jewell/273706/
ANDREW COHEN
MAR 6, 2013
Her predecessor presided over roundups and the sale of horses for slaughter. Without equine or ranching experience, what will this former executive do to right the wrongs?
The slaughter of wild horses. Under the direction of Secretary Salazar, and at the behest of the powerful ranching, livestock, oil and gas lobbies, the Bureau of Land Management in the past few years has rounded up approximately 37,000 of the nation’s wild horses from public lands. These roundups are cruel, often deadly, and always hazardous to the health and safety of the animals. Madame Secretary-designate, please take a few minutes to watch this video:
Anatomy of a Roundup Swasey Wild Horse Herd/Utah/ 2013
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Anatomy of a Roundup Swasey Wild Horse Herd/Utah/ 2013
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Very Strange…the link from my computer shows the Swasey Roundup, but when posted here, it brings up a different video.
Once more…
7 Questions About Wild Horses for Interior Secretary Nominee Sally Jewell
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/03/7-questions-about-wild-horses-for-interior-secretary-nominee-sally-jewell/273706/
ANDREW COHEN
MAR 6, 2013
Anatomy of a Roundup Swasey Wild Horse Herd/Utah 2013
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The speaker at the meeting (BLM Steve Tyron) just pointed out on a chart that back in 2002 they had a large number of “adoptions” of WH&B but he failed to mention that in 2002 sales of our wild ones were counted as adoptions and that horse slaughter was still legal in the US and that the WH&B lead at that time admitted that most captured horses were sent to slaughter.
“Tom Pogacnik, director of the BLM’s $16-million-a-year Wild Horse and Burro Program, conceded that about 90% of the horses rounded up go to slaughter.”
http://www.igha.org/blm11.html
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As the Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board meets this week in
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA…hard questions still need to be answered
7 Questions About Wild Horses for Interior Secretary Nominee Sally Jewell (continued)
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/03/7-questions-about-wild-horses-for-interior-secretary-nominee-sally-jewell/273706/
ANDREW COHEN
MAR 6, 2013
Many say that if the current situation continues, and if the BLM cannot find habitats where most of these horses can be repatriated, thousands of them will inevitably be euthanized or sold for slaughter. (Indeed, in OKLAHOMA, where the BLM held a public meeting earlier this week, state officials again want to legalize horse slaughter.)
Personal outreach. A lifelong Colorado rancher, your would-be predecessor was singularly unresponsive to public requests from wild horse advocates. He repeatedly refused to meet with them as he authorized the round ups of tens of thousands of horses.
Salazar refused even to respond to a petition signed by 25,000 citizens and by 20 members of Congress seeking information about the BLM’s sale of approximately 1,700 wild horses to a known horse slaughter advocate. And last fall he THREATENED TO PUNCH OUT A REPORTER who asked him to comment on the sale of these horses.
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Our tax money goes where?
$11,000,000.00 for sterilization of our wild horses and burros!
BLM Advisory Board handout (BLM online).
[Board] Recommendation
BLM should increase dedicated funding for developing new methods of population growth suppression, and for methods currently available. All forms of population control should be considered for utilization.
BLM Response
The BLM accepts this recommendation. The BLM is investing in eight university-led research projects that will receive up to $4 million in total funding to develop new tools and improve current methods to humanely control the population growth of wild horse and burro herds, including permanent contraception and more effective temporary contraceptive vaccines. Additionally, through its partnership with the USGS, the BLM has initiated four studies and is soliciting proposals for nine new projects that will deliver better methods and tools for managing wild horse and burro herds. Eight of these studies are aimed at evaluating temporary and permanent contraception. These projects will receive up to $7 million in funding.
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Watched about 10 minutes of Wednesday’s meeting – managed to see the shade project explanation! I wonder how much that long drawn out boring research actually did prove anything! Seems simple to me – horses (domestic or wild) obviously find a sheltered place to get away from the sun or the wind! PERIOD>
Couldn’t watch it long enough to see their conclusion – But I’m sure that oneway or another =- they concluded the horses didn’t need shade!!!!!!!!!! Idiots.
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Bottom line – no shade.
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So watched the last few comments made – I hope the first ones did a better job. I wasn’t impressed with the FOA commenters at all. Bad mouthing The Cloud Foundation doesn’t go over so well with me. And it certainly puts various wild horse advocates at odds with each other when we should all be on the same page. Honestly, the gal who continued to “comment” when her 3 minutes were up might have done more damage than good – at least from the Board’s view. (although Im sure their response was already figured out). Of course the various county representatives did the usual thing – one of them even brought up a “disposable” solution! I hope its possible for me to see the rest of the comments at some point – obviously it wont be from the BLM!! If someone has recorded them – would appreciate a link.
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Hopefully, someone videotaped this and will make it available to the public.
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In case you were “lucky” enough to NOT listen to the BLM Advisory Board BS today, you will want to know that as far as the Davis “missing” horses and burros investigation and the Scott City dead horses investigation go – they say they are still investigating and they have no answer for the public as of today. No worries, Dean. The public already KNOWS what you did with them.
Side note – Dean did say that they have to have the BLM WH&B leaders in Washington DC in case another problem comes up like the Martha Mendoza exposure of BLM’s mismanagement. (not a quote)
More info:
This is not the first time that the Department of Justice has “hushed up” BLM’s illegal activities. See: Martha Mendoza published in 1997,Trail’s End for Horses: Slaughter, over 200 BLM employees were cited as adopting wild horses and burros with most unaccounted for and some employees acknowledging they were sent to slaughter while Pascal Derde, the proprietor of Cavel West Slaughterhouse in Redmond, OR, reportedly “displayed a sheaf of BLM certificates for horses he recently butchered”. Mendoza got some eye-popping quotes, too. “Asked about the AP’s findings,” she wrote, “Tom Pogacnik, director of the BLM’s $16-million-a-year Wild Horse and Burro Program, conceded that about 90% of the horses rounded up go to slaughter.”
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GG, supposedly a federal Veterinarian was on site in days at Scott City KS, and put down more horses because he/she determined they were beyond recovery. Is there a way to FOIA the veterinarian’s report since they are presumably not BLM employees but contractors? It is beyond cynical to believe the public can accept that the reports were done immediately but more than a year later we still have not seen even the basics of the total numbers dead, or the actual causes of death. I used to imagine governmental actors in China were corrupt and incoherent but now doubt they have anything worse than ours. Honestly, since our country was founded on entirely different notions, what we are experiencing is far worse. Transparent, indeed.
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Yes, please try to FOIA whatever you can get. They will likely say that since the investigation is not competed that they cannot give you the information but give it a try. IMO, one reason they won’t give out information (except maybe some sugar-coated vague dribble) on active investigations is not because they are not done with the investigation but because as long as they “say” the investigation is not complete then nobody is “guilty”. So they string it out as long as possible. Example, the Davis investigation has been going on for 3 years so that nobody is charged with illegal activities. Why? Because the whole BLM would fall like dominoes.
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Thinking out loud …
The watergate presidential investigation ultimately resulting in the resignation of president Richard Nixon took only TWO years from start to finish (actually about 25 months) and yet BLM has supposedly not yet finished their investigation into the Tom Davis 1,700 “missing” wild horses and burros after this became public in September of 2012 – THREE YEARS.
What a BIG BIG BIG cover up by BLM!
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I hope Tom Davis never gets to enjoy his blood money !
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I listened to the BLM meeting this morning and the USFS Barry Imler Rangeland Program Manager. All bad.
Don’t quote me, but this is a quick review of what he said.
Refer to the USFS flow chart handout on the meeting handouts.
#1 He said that the USFS total AML is about 2,200 WH but that all the AMLs have not been decided yet.
#2 He said that at this time they are about 7,000 over AML.
#3 He explained the flow chart and pointed out that ALL WH captured over the age of ten will be sold with NO restriction.
#4 He explained VERY clearly that they will consider all offers from buyers – regardless of price offered (free?) or who the buyer is or where the horses go or how many they want to buy. I think we know where they will all go.
#5 They are interested in capturing WH that may be on the border of reservations and USFS and then give those WH to the reservations (i.e. slaughter).
#6 He hopes that the Cloud Foundation (and others) would help to find homes for the WH.
#7 He said the decisions re: wild horses can quickly be done in the USFS territory plans but slower and more complicated when done in the forest management plans. [I don’t understand this because I am not aware of the USFS and the types of plans they use but this needs to be checked out because he seemed to think that by making changes in the territory plans he can quickly rid them of the WH. I think I got that right but am NOT sure?]
#8 As it says in the flow chart, all WH considered old or lame will immediately be euthanized when captured. Also all 3-strikes WH will be sold or euthanized immediately after the third strike – NO short or long term holding.
Click to access USFS%20Presentation%209%202015.pdf
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How can USFS do this ? Aren’t the wild horses in national forests under the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act ? Wonder what old would be ? Horses in their 20’s or what? This plan is beyond horrible. How can it be stopped? Was the rest of the meeting this bad? Did sterilization get discussed? I didn’t get to listen.
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