Oregon Wild Horses (Photo: Vince Patton/OPB)
by Grandma Gregg
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Lakeview District has announced that it plans to gather approximately 1,500 wild horses associated with the Beatys Butte Herd Management Area (HMA) in Oregon, in early October. BLM will remove all but 60 stallions and 40 PZP mares. This plan is based on a 2009 document – i.e. NO public comments are accepted and they say it is not open for appeal either, so we like it or lump it as far as the BLM is concerned.
What they do not mention is that as made clear by the Wild Horse and Burro Act’s implementing regulations, the BLM “may close appropriate areas of the public lands to grazing use by all or a particular kind of livestock . . . if necessary to provide habitat for wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros from disease, harassment or injury.” 43 C.F.R. § 4710.5(a).
BLM’s handbook requires that an Environmental Assessment (EA) be performed for each proposed gather. Therefore, BLM’s claims that one EA is to cover future capture actions is not acceptable – even to BLM. “BLM’s recently issued ‘Wild Horse and Burro Management Handbook’ and manual section 4720 requires that an environmental assessment (EA) will be performed for each proposed gather. The EA is a site-specific analysis of the potential impacts that could result with the implementation of the Proposed Action or alternatives to the Proposed Action. Preparation of an EA assists the BLM authorized officer to determine whether to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement if significant impacts could result, or a Finding of No Significant Impact if no significant impacts are expected.”
At this time, all outside authorities, including Congress, rely solely on the data the BLM provides, although its accuracy cannot be verified or substantiated. BLM is not in the cattle and sheep business and is not authorized to promote private for-profit ranchers. Until BLM goes beyond using the Wild Horses and Burros as a scapegoat for range overuse and admits it is the destruction and abuse by the private domestic livestock over-use, then the true problem of public land destruction caused by private/corporate domestic livestock will not be corrected.
Recent independent scientific research using BLM data on 5,859 wild horses from four different HMAs shows without a doubt that although a 20% foaling rate is possible, only half of those foals even live to be yearlings and therefore an average wild horse herd population will not exceed 10% – and with additional adult mortality factored, the annual population would be even less. So … as you can see in the above chart, the BLM’s Beatys Butte population increases are IMPOSSIBLE.
So, we ask ourselves why the BLM insists on their scientifically impossible herd increases on the Beatys Butte and other Herd Management Areas. Here are a few facts that show why money is the reason for their deception.
Wild horses and burros are legally DESIGNATED on the Herd Management Area (HMA) and livestock are only PERMITTED. Definition of the word “designated” is to “set aside for” or “assign” or “authorize”. Definition of “permit” is to “allow” or “let” or “tolerate”. The Wild Horse and Burro lands and resources are set aside for, and assigned and authorized for, the use of wild horses and burros whereas the livestock is only allowed and tolerated and let to use the public range resources.
While commercial livestock grazing is permitted on public lands, it is not a requirement under the agency’s multiple use mandate as outlined in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). Public land grazing clearly is a privilege, not a right, while the BLM is mandated by law to protect wild horses and burros. Yet, the BLM clearly embraces the multiple use concept for all lands designated for wild horses and burros and further, to prioritize the private/corporate domestic livestock permittees.
Per BLM’s Rangeland Administration System (RAS), forage allocations for livestock in the Beaty’s Butte HMA are currently 26,121 AUMs of active use and 14,466 of suspended use, equaling a total of 40,587 livestock AUMs. There is one grazing association that grazes in the Common Pasture of Beatys Butte Allotment #600, which is mainly the same area as the HMA. Forage allocation is 500 AUMs for deer, 22 AUMs for pronghorn, 240 AUMs for California bighorn sheep, and 3,000 AUMs for wild horses (compared to the 26,121 active AUMs for livestock).
Here are Beaty’s Butte livestock grazing allotment permittees and their USDA farm subsidy data:
Dan Cron received farm subsidy payments totaling $56,079 from 1995 through 2012
USDA subsidy information for Beaty Butte Grazing Association:
Myron Steward received payments totaling $136,226 from 1995 through 2012
Conn Fitzgerald received payments totaling $15,759 from 1995 through 2012
James H Gipson received payments totaling $246,840 from 1995 through 2012
George Shine received payments totaling $102,442 from 1995 through 2012
Samuel Farr received payments totaling $401,039 from 1995 through 2012
Edward D Stabb received payments totaling $377,871 from 1995 through 2012
Michael Gravelle received payments totaling $83,128 from 1995 through 2012
Schadler Ranch Inc received payments totaling $138,007 from 1995 through 2012
L X Ranch Inc received payments totaling $572,374 from 1995 through 2012
Cahill Ranches Inc received payments totaling $172,283 from 1995 through 2012
Kiely Brothers Ranch received payments totaling $116,858 from 1995 through 2012
Glenn E Way received payments totaling $28,183 from 1995 through 2012
Richard E Bradbury received payments totaling $28,205 from 1995 through 2012
Misc. Oregon Welfare Rancher whining:
2013 News Article: [Beatys Butte livestock rancher] “Kiely said he fears that cows may have to be pulled from the area”. “The weight gains of the livestock would decrease, especially in the late summer and early fall, as the quality and quantity of available water and forage decreases. The level of livestock use would need to be or reduced to compensate for the excess number of horses. This, in turn, would affect the financial income of these operations.” Last December, the Lake County, Oregon Board of Commissioners Meeting recommended “a joint County letter be forwarded to Secretary Jewell requesting (demanding) the BLM work with the Cooperative Group on resolving the concerns that were established.” “Mr Davies requested this letter to include two important points: 1) the immediate need for AUMs for impacted ranchers and 2) for the BLM to actively pursue any and all solutions for the massive over population of wild horses.”
So it becomes obvious that these big dollar ranchers “demanded” removal of wild horses and obviously they knew whose buttons to push because now the BLM has agreed to capture and remove a massive amount of the Beatys Butte HMA wild horses. It sure makes me wonder what those “buttons” were and just exactly who the ranchers applied this pressure to? Is there something politically fishy going on here? Absolutely.
And again it is the wild horses living on their congressionally designated land that will suffer and die.
More information:
http://www.blm.gov/or/districts/lakeview/plans/files/BeatyButte_Gather_DNA_Monitor_Report_082015.pdf
https://rtfitchauthor.com/2014/04/28/report-wild-horse-population-growth/
http://www.blm.gov/or/districts/lakeview/plans/files/Beatys_Butte_EA_FONSI_DR.pdf
http://www.lakecountyor.org/government/county_commissioners/docs/Meeting_Minutes_12_17_14.pdf
http://onda.org/publications/newsletter/archived-newsletters-pre-2009/Summer2006.pdf
http://lakecountyexam.com/excess-wild-horse-numbers-a-concern-for-beaty-butte-grazing-assoc-ranchers/
http://farm.ewg.org/persondetail.php?custnumber=A11716051&summlevel=whois
http://farm.ewg.org/persondetail.php?custnumber=A10421636
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Even MORE wild horses rounded up….it just doesn’t stop?? It’s so frustrating! The damn ranchers are always given their way and little by little, our wild horses are disappearing. They are over capacity in holding now already…where do they think they’ll put even more horses?? I am afraid that many of them are disappearing out the back door, shipped to slaughter, in the dark of the night.
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It is likely that all of these 1,400 wild horses that they will be capturing from Beatys Butte in the next week or so, will go to one of two BLM holding facilities for “processing”. One is the Burns, Oregon facility and one is the Litchfield, CA facility. Per previously collected information, these two facility managers shipped hundreds of our wild horses to Tom Davis a few years ago where they then “disappeared”.
Burns, Oregon, Rob Sharp, BLM facility manager.
“In January [2012], the manager of the agency’s corral in Burns, Ore. [Rob Sharp], emailed superiors in Washington, D.C., to ask what to do with 29 mares, almost all of which were pregnant. Spencer replied that Davis would take them.”
Litchfield California, Doug Satica.
“In March, a corral manager [Doug Satica] emailed [Sally] Spencer to say he had 92 “nice horses” just rounded up in High Rock, Calif., and to ask if [Tom] Davis could take some of the geldings.”
A day later Spencer replied, “Davis told me that if the geldings are in good shape he will be able to place them into good homes.”
“How many would Mr. Davis want to buy?” the corral manager asked Spencer. “And are there any specifics that he is looking for?”
“He said he’d be interested in all of them, no specifics,” Spencer replied.”
THESE SAME BLM EMPLOYEES ARE STILL IN CHARGE OF OUR WILD HORSES AND BURROS TODAY!
Quotes are from: http://www.propublica.org/article/missing-what-happened-to-wild-horses-tom-davis-bought-from-the-govt
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This Year’s Public Land Grazing Fee a Bargain, Continuing a 30-Year Trend
by Chris Clarke
February 10, 2014
http://www.kcet.org/news/redefine/rewild/commentary/2014-public-land-grazing-fee-the-same-as-2013-and-2012-and-2011.html
A dollar thirty five doesn’t buy a whole lot of grub these days. You can get a small fast food meal if you order from the place’s dollar menu, and you might be able to find a gas station sandwich if you shop around. Feeding your domesticated animals isn’t a whole lot cheaper: Two cans of cat or dog food will come in under $1.35, three cans if you buy in bulk.
But if you’re trying to feed livestock on public lands, maintained and administered at taxpayer expense, there’s good news: $1.35 will still buy you a month’s worth of food for your critters. Quite a bargain.
That’s the price the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service have announced for their grazing fees in 2014, and it hasn’t risen in the past eight years. In fact, it’s been largely unchanged since 1978.
In addition to California, the 2014 grazing fee applies to animals grazed on BLM and USFS land in 15 other states, most in The West. Cattle grazed on public land in these states accounts for less than five percent of American beef production.
USFS and BLM implement the fee differently. On lands administered by the former, that $1.35 is assessed per head. On the latter’s lands, the $1.35 grazing fee is charged for an “animal unit month (AUM),” defined as one month’s worth of chow for a cow and her calf, or five sheep or goats.
It also doesn’t count the cost of running Wildlife Services, the controversial federal agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In western states with lots of public land, the bulk of Wildlife Services’ activities involve killing predators deemed to pose an economic threat to ranchers.
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Sound as though they’re getting a pretty good deal…compliments of the American taxpayers….so WHY so much complaining about our Wild Horses and Burros?
WHY?
Instead of pushing for Wild Horse and Burro roundups and removals from their Legal Herd Management Areas
…a THANK YOU would be in order
Grazing fees on private land range from $9.00 to $33.50 per AUM
2015 Public Land grazing fee $1.69 per cow and calf
Page 27 Comparable fees for grazing on private land
Click to access CostsAndConsequences_01-2015.pdf
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This is utterly outrageous! Such a blatant thumbing-their-noses at the wild horses and their rights as well as those of us still morally alive who appreciate them and know the immense good these wild horses do for all life on Earth when simply allowed to fill their place in Nature here in this shared home — our world!
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Outrageous is absolutely correct and in my mind what they are going to do is illegal and immoral and yet under the protection of our government, they are going to capture and remove ~1400 of our wild horses who will never be seen again … and they will get away with it. These people are beyond cruel, callous, uncaring and malicious … they are despicable.
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Come on theres got to be something we can do.this is dead wrong.cant we help these precious horses.omg.this is an outrage
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Wasn’t the BLM in the past year trying to use an EA that was out of date for another roundup, and the court reprimanded them? I don’t recall the precise case but the situation was similar, and the BLM had to backtrack and do their job correctly before taking any further removal actions.
In this case, a 2009 document had to be based on earlier field work, at least to 2008 and perhaps earlier, making the information at least seven years old now and presumably insufficient legally. It is likely the recent massive fires in WA and OR have increased pressure for grazing livestock wherever possible.
Is there anyone legally challenging this action?
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Please try to find the information that you refer to regarding an out-of-date roundup where the court reprimanded them.
The BLM docs that I have read on this upcoming Beatys Butte capture/removal is that there is no recourse or public comment allowed. I am afraid that this will become the new “norm”. If you have not already noticed it, I have read many EAs that state that their removal/contraception decisions today will continue for the next ten years without further public notification.
If this continues, and it looks like it is, then how many wild horses and burros do you think will even be out there in ten years?
Along with the upcoming non-reproducing herds and the use of DNA and CX documents, there will be NO more wild horses or burros in the wild in our own lifetimes.
If you wish to see them wild … go see them soon. Otherwise, plan on taking your kids and grandkids to the zoo to see a “wild horse” or “wild burro”.
Sorry to say this … very very sorry … but I am afraid it is very true.
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From AMERICAN HERDS
2010
Calico: Past, Present & Future VI (excerpts)
This is the sixth in a series of articles that attempts to disclose some of the known issues playing behind the scenes in the Calico Complex and beyond….
http://americanherds.blogspot.com/2010/06/calico-past-present-future-vi.html
THE BEATY BUTTE HMA
The Beaty Butte HMA is located at the southern tip of Oregon and is in the vicinity of the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge.
The wild horse AML has been set at a high of 250 horses or another way of saying it is, wild horse populations cannot exceed more than one horse per 1,752 acres. This AML was established in 1983 in the High Desert Management Framework Plan and has obviously been rubber-stamped every since….
In September 2009, BLM conducted a roundup of the Beaty Butte wild horses. In the Post-Gather Report, BLM reported a pre-removal population estimate of 485 wild horses of which they gathered 423, removed 379 – including four reported deaths – and treated 30 mares with PZP who were returned to the range with an estimated 102 wild horses remaining.
THE MALE COMPONENT
In September 2009, when BLM signed off on the environmental assessment to remove wild horses from the Beaty Butte HMA (and Paisley Desert HMA), they also slid in a ten-year plan authorizing “adjusting the ratio of males to females to approximately 60/40 and returning geldings to the HMA as part of the male component, in combination with treatment of all breeding age mares released back to the range with PZP to further slow population growth”.
HORSES: COMING AND GOING
The 2009 Beaty Butte EA also stated that, “A long history of horses drifting into and out of the Beatys Butte HMA exists. There is movement between Sheldon and Hart National Wildlife Refuge, private land and the Burns District HMAs including Warm Springs and South Steens.”
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
Despite BLM removing 260 horses in 2007 and potentially 150-190 horses also moving across many miles to relocate in the South Steens HMA, BLM continues to report there were still 534 wild horses in the Beatys Butte HMA by September 2009!
So where are all these horses coming from?
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(can’t reply directly to Louie’s post but will try here)
Louie, my understanding is all the horses are gone from both Sheldon and Hart National Wildlife Refuges. Sheldon for sure, not so sure about Hart, so horses are not coming from there.
So either the numbers are wrong or horses are being dumped. Finding photos is harder than finding any of Bigfoot. Could it be horses rounded up elsewhere who can’t fit into holding are not branded but perhaps hauled and released into other HMAs to create a population spike that supports even more roundups? A cynical view but perhaps not unlikely, given the trail of obfuscation we are all too familiar with, and one which would keep the paychecks (and paybacks, as in the Tom Davis mess) coming.
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That American Herds article that Louie posted is a must read. Here is one sentence that I saw: “All totaled, it would appear that somewhere between February 2007 and February 2008, the wild horse population shot up from 151 wild horses to 734 wild horses instead, which is now a 388% increase. (474 remaining plus 260 removed in July/August).”
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IcySpots, the Beaty’s Butte article from AMERICAN HERDS is from a few years back. It’s important, I think, to review the history in order to understand what is being done in the present.
Here are some excerpts from the rest of the article:
http://americanherds.blogspot.com/2010/06/calico-past-present-future-vi.html
BACK TO SHELDON (continued)
Could the source of all the Beatys Butte wild horses be part of the mysterious disappearance of 700 Sheldon horses right after Refuge managers were threatened with a lawsuit about removing them in the summer of 2007?
Is it possible the Sheldon horses were deliberately run into the Beaty Butte HMA and surrounding areas to account for all these “population explosions” now being found by BLM?
With respect to BLM reporting that, “189 wild horses, 157 adults and 39 foals, were counted on the Hart Mountain portion of Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge”, here we find another place now reporting unprecedented wild horse populations and presence; the Hart Mountain portion of the Sheldon-Hart National Wildlife Refuge.
According to Dr. Steven G. Herman, who began teaching on Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in 1976 as a Member of the Faculty at The Evergreen State College and who has visited Hart Mt. every year since then, wild horses have never been observed in the Hart Mountain portion of the Refuge in over thirty years of annual tours. Well, not until 2008, which is the first time Dr. Herman ever noted wild horse presence at Hart Mountain…
So why, after over thirty years, did almost two hundred horses show up at Hart Mountain?
A MATH GAME
So, let’s play a little math game here…
In the spring of 2007, Sheldon managers reported there were approximately 1,500 wild horses living in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. Then USFWS were threatened with a lawsuit in August 2007 and lo and behold, they reported in September 2007 that “a new census” conducted in June by Nevada Department of Wildlife counted only 800 horses were actually on the Refuge, not 1,500.
Now if we add up all the population reports for those HMAs who had unexplained population explosions between February 2007 and February 2008 that are in the vicinity of Sheldon, which include the Beatys Butte, High Rock, Calico Mountains, and Black Rock Range East and West HMA’s, here’s what we find.
In February 2007, the total wild horse population for all the HMA’s listed above was 828. Add a 20% reproduction rate to this (an increase of approximately 165 foals) and by July 2007, the population should be about 993.
Yet, by February 2008, these same HMAs are now reporting a population of 2,600 horses (but this doesn’t include the 260 that BLM removed during the August 2007 Beatys Butte round up or the South Steens population explosion going from 329 to 584 between 2008 and 2009 or the 189 reported on Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, as some of these population reports occurred after the 2007 reporting dates).
So for the first time ever, according in both BLM’s and USFWS’s wild horse population reports as shown above, some of the HMAs surrounding Sheldon shot up by approximately 1,600 to 1,800 wild horses – right about the same amount Sheldon was trying to get rid of back in 2007.
Meanwhile, Sheldon’s current manager, Paul Steblien, refuses to release any population reports on the number of wild horses USFWS has removed since 2008, the results of any aerial or ground surveys or what the current population on Sheldon is now estimated to be.
ON A FINAL NOTE
For those discerning readers, here’s some additional food for thought….
According to BLM’s Team Conference Call Report, Sheldon managers began castrating stallions and returning them to the range in 2008. A year later, BLM approves of the same plan for an HMA that is very close to Sheldon and tries to get it rammed through immediately – but BLMs lawyers kicked it back with a few tweaks.
So, if one were to entertain the outrageous idea that managers from different agency’s (who both answer to Secretary of the Interior) are conspiring to push wild horses around like livestock to avoid lawsuits, artificially increase populations to justify budgets, round ups and/or herding them from place to place for discrete “disposal”, wouldn’t it be easier to hide a castrated Sheldon horse on a BLM HMA if BLM approved of castrating a few stallions of their own?
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As I was reading this article, it seems as though this could be why there is such a rush to round up horses “now” and why the numbers are so exaggerated “the use it or lose it mentality.”
http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/30/rand-paul-seeks-scope-of-waste-in-agencies-year-en/?page=all
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Its not only Washington – the same thing is true for many county/city bureaucracies! After reading the article – dont agree with giving employees a “cut” if they point out wasteful practices. The wasteful practices are already right out there – in your face! Just think – if the money “left over” could be used for good! (our wild horses & burros?)
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“Yep”
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With drought and wildfires the whiny welfare ranchers are going to have a whole lot more to whine about in the coming years. The loss of foraging habitat isnt the result of wild horses, but it will be too late at that point.
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Why hasnt anyone had a Formal Animal cruelty investigation launched into the BLM? Why hasnt the BLM been sued for hiring people Directly linked to horse Slaughter knowingly? We have to stop this.
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The LAW of the United States
CONGRESS FINDS AND DECLARES THAT WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS ARE LIVING SYMBOLS OF THE HISTORIC AND PIONEER SPIRIT OF THE WEST; THAT THEY CONTRIBUTE TO THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE FORMS WITHIN THE NATION AND ENRICH THE LIVES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE; AND THAT THESE HORSES AND BURROS ARE FAST DISAPPEARING FROM THE AMERICAN SCENE. IT IS THE POLICY OF CONGRESS THAT WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS SHALL BE PROTECTED FROM CAPTURE, BRANDING, HARASSMENT, OR DEATH; AND TO ACCOMPLISH THIS THEY ARE TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE AREA WHERE PRESENTLY FOUND, AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE NATURAL SYSTEM OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.
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WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW QUARTERLY
QUI TAM and FEDERAL GRAZING PERMITS
http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1759&context=law_lawreview
The False Claims Act empowers both the Justice Department and private citizens to bring actions against persons who assert fraudulent claims against the government. It provides for the recovery of civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and treble damages arising from such claims. Private citizens who bring these quitam actions can collect ten to thirty percent of the damages recovered from the violator, as well as attorney fees. Therefore, if the False Claims Act were applicable in the federal rangeland context, it would provide incentive for citizens to aid the government in the prevention of illegal overgrazing by privately enforcing grazing limits in rangeland permits and leases.
This Note argues that ranchers assert fraudulent claims against the government, and thus violate the False Claims Act, whenever: (1) they renew their permits or leases while in violation of their current permit restrictions; or (2) they receive or renew leases or permits for federal rangeland with the intent to violate the lease restrictions. Part II of this Note provides an overview of the administration of federal rangeland and summarizes the problems of overgrazing. Part III discusses the requirements of quitam actions under the False Claims Act. Part IV applies the False Claims Act to the problem of unlawful overgrazing.
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All of this information needs to go to an organization such as Friends of Animals so that there can be a lawsuit against BLM to stop this”managing for extinction”. It seems this is even against our freedom of speech . The BLM is determined to wipe out all of our wild horses NOW. Clearly the 1971 WFRH&B Act is being broken.
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Click to access BeatyButte_Gather_DNA_Monitor_Report_082015.pdf
BLM’s documents (above link) regarding this soon to be massive removal of ~1400 of our wild horses while they leave about 1333 head of livestock (figured from authorized livestock AUMs) despite the fact that, unlike the wild horses, the livestock are not required to be “protected” as an “integral part of the natural system of the public lands.” 16 U.S.C. § 1331. And as made clear by the Wild Horse and Burro Act’s implementing regulations, the BLM “may close appropriate areas of the public lands to grazing use by all or a particular kind of livestock . . . if necessary to provide habitat for wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros from disease, harassment or injury.” 43 C.F.R. § 4710.5(a)
“What can be done to address the problems associated with public lands livestock grazing? There is a simple answer: end it. Get the cows and sheep off, let the wild creatures reclaim their native habitat, and send the ranchers a bill for the cost of restoration”.
– “Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of the American West”
http://www.publiclandsranching.org/book.htm
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Please protect horses
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From WESTERN JOURNALISM
BLM: Epic Mismanagement, Waste, And Corruption
http://www.westernjournalism.com/blm-epic-mismanagement-waste-and-corruption/
The United States government and its agencies are in no position to be wasting hard-earned taxpayer dollars. As it stands, many taxpayers are severely over-taxed as a result of reckless spending by bureaucrats without any regard for the fiduciary duty that the Government and its many agencies are bound to observe.
The Bureau of Land Management (‘BLM’) is just one example of an autocratic government agency that seems to operate as if it answers to no one and regularly wastes money and resources as it seems to concurrently violate U.S. laws and the rights of American taxpayers (talk about biting the hand that feeds). And as a result of this pervasive attitude combined with the growing number of government agencies that act as if they were fiefdoms, America is languishing under a wave of epic waste of resources and taxpayer dollars
According to Hope Yen at the Associated Press: “Significant amounts of natural gas on federal lands are being wasted, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year and adding to harmful greenhouse gas emissions, a congressional investigation has found. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office also said the Bureau of Land Management failed to conduct production inspections for hundreds of high-priority oil and gas wells – roughly 1 out of 5 – to ensure full payment of royalties to the U.S.” The article goes on to say that: “The GAO report said it had been urging BLM, an agency of the Interior Department, to update guidelines for the burning or venting of natural gas since at least 2010, when it found 40 percent of it could be captured economically and sold. BLM has yet to do so, although agency officials now say they are in the process of putting together various orders and a proposed rule for comment later this year. Until then, government investigators called BLM’s management of oil and gas “high-risk” for waste and fraud.”
Concurrently, with the forgoing malfeasance and waste of millions of tax dollars, we have the BLM mismanaging the federally-protected wild horses; they are spending millions more tax dollars to hold wild horses in captivity, horses that should be running free on the public range-land, according to the Federal ‘Wild Burro and Horse Protection Act’. On top of this, the BLM is not providing transparency into their operations, including and with respect to over 1,700 federally-protected wild horses that seem to have been illegally sold for slaughter!
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Louie, thanks for your elaboration on the Sheldon/Hart Mtn. herd numbers. I would only add that it would perhaps be useful to examine how many horses already in holding are unaccounted for during those same time frames. I agree it is only human nature to push horses around to make someone else responsible for them, especially since accurate numbers are evidently so difficult for our Gov’t. to document, and the areas are so vast.
The Sheldon Shell Game. Has the makings of an expose if there are any honest journalists reading this.
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http://www.blm.gov/or/rac/jdrac.php
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The next John Day – Snake RAC meeting will be held in Prineville, Oregon on October 26-27, 2015. This will be a joint meeting with the Southeast Oregon RAC.
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I strongly oppose the helicopter round ups of America’s wild horses! I strongly oppose removing any wild horses from public lands in order to accommodate welfare ranchers and their livestock! I demand a moratorium on further horse round up until the BLM can adopt out the 55,000 that are in captivity!!! These public lands are not to be used as money makers for the ranchers. Americas Wild Horses are supposed to be federally protected animals and are native to these US public lands and should absolutely not be removed!! This is more than animal abuse this is animal torture and murder and it is illegal and I refused to sit back and watch the BLM spend $77 million in tax payer dollars a year on torturing America’s wild horses 🐴 Keep our wild horses free on US public lands that is where they belong! 🐴
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http://www.blm.gov/or/resources/whb/beaty_gather.php
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/blmoregon/albums/72157658529219424/page1
So so wrong.
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Who made this video and where did all those kids come from ?? In one photo they are laughing. Who is the man with the white beard also/?Wonder what BS the BLM guy was telling them.
It is heartbreaking.
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BEATY BUTTE HERD MANAGEMENT AREA: TOTAL GATHER STATS
Total horses gathered: 888
Foals 206
Mares 359
Studs 323
Total Deaths: 9
11/5/15: One albino weanling filly, blind in both eyes, and one 12 year old stallion with old break on right hind leg, severely lame with poor prognosis for recovery and Body Condition Score 3 were euthanized.
11/7/15: One severely club foot stallion, one old, blind stallion, and one 12+ year old mare with Body Condition Score 2 and poor prognosis for recovery were euthanized.
11/11/2015: One 13 year old stallion with severe club foot and lame on front left foot was euthanized.
11/13/2015: One 2 year old mare, one 3 year old mare, and one 4 month old colt—all albino and blind—were euthanized (captured 11/12/15).
Total horses shipped to holding facilities: 840
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I wonder how many of these Beatys Butte wild horses will actually even make it to a BLM holding facility since Oregon has been known to “loose” some of our wild ones between the capture site and the holding facility (per FOIA data).
And then even if those that do make it to the holding facilities (assuming nearby Burns, Oregon and Litchfield, NE California) those two facility managers are known to have helped sell our wild ones to Davis.
NOTES on BLM’s Sally Spencer selling wild horses and burros to Tom Davis with the assistance of two BLM short term holding facility managers: Doug Satica, BLM’s Litchfield holding NE California and Rob Sharp, BLM’s Burns holding facility, Oregon.
“In March, a corral manager emailed Spencer to say he had 92 “nice horses” just rounded up in High Rock, Calif., and to ask if Davis could take some of the geldings.”
A day later Spencer replied, “Davis told me that if the geldings are in good shape he will be able to place them into good homes.”
“How many would Mr. Davis want to buy?” the corral manager asked Spencer. “And are there any specifics that he is looking for?”
“He said he’d be interested in all of them, no specifics,” Spencer replied.”
In January [2012], the manager of the agency’s corral in Burns, Ore. emailed superiors in Washington, D.C., to ask what to do with 29 mares, almost all of which were pregnant. Spencer replied that Davis would take them.
THESE SAME BLM EMPLOYEES ARE STILL IN CHARGE OF OUR WILD HORSES AND BURROS TODAY!
http://www.propublica.org/article/missing-what-happened-to-wild-horses-tom-davis-bought-from-the-govt
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Is a FOIA required to find out how much in subsidies Davies collected for 2015?
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USDA county office from which subsidies were paid: Subsidy Payments
1995-2012 Most recent address on file in USDA county office
Conejos County, Colorado $11,161 Tom A Davis
La Jara, CO 81140
Total $11,161
http://farm.ewg.org/persondetail.php?custnumber=A08479991
and more info:
http://farm.ewg.org/media.php
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Can someone tell me if they are replacing the horses with cows for animal agriculture? Thanks
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