by Carol Walker, Director of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation
Published on WildHoofBeats
“This herd is not even above AML by the BLM’s own count, only 648 adult horses in the flyover count in April 2016”
Adobe Town mare and foal – by Carol Walker
The BLM is planning to roundup wild horses in the Adobe Town Herd Management Area in 5 separate locations in order to put radio collars on 30-40 wild mares. The study will begin in December 2016 and end in 2020.
All the documents are here: https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=dispatchToPatternPage¤tPageId=80504
This study, which will be conducted by the University of Wyoming’s Department of Ecosystem Science and Management has the following purpose:
“The Proposed Action is to implement a five (5) year research study (Appendix 1) that would document habitat selection, movement between habitats, seasonal use, and migration patterns of wild horses, within and outside of the ATHMA. The research objective is to understand how horses move across the Colorado-Wyoming border, how the removal of horses from the checkerboard portion of the HMA influences the movement of mares from non-checkerboard portions of ATHMA (i.e. creation of a void), how horses select landscape resources relative to their proportional availability, and how site fidelity of horses is influenced by season.”
Originally they were considering using bait trapping to capture the mares which would have much less chance of injuring or killing the horses than a helicopter roundup. They do not even discuss it as an option in the EA despite the response to the public’ comments to the Scoping Document which requested them to use this much less stressful and harmful method. Bait trapping also allows the family bands to be kept together, intact, much more easily.
The BLM dismisses very easily any impact on the wild horses that are rounded up using helicopters. Many will be injured and die, most will lose their families, foals will be separated from their mothers, and they will most likely be disrupted in a very substantial way from their normal areas and routines which DOES impact the outcomes of the study. Helicopter roundups use fear to drive the wild horses which is inhumane and also leads to extreme fear of helicopters.
This herd is not even above AML by the BLM’s own count, only 648 adult horses in the flyover count in April 2016.
My second biggest problem with this study is the use of radio collars which in past studies have led to injury and death when horses become entangled with brush or on fences or get a hoof caught. They say that they have remotely detonated release mechanisms on the collars so they can release the collar if the collar stops moving – but there are a tremendous number of questions that are unanswered:
- Why are they not using breakaway collars that break if the horses re in trouble, which have been used successfully before?
- How close to the collar does the person have to be to trigger the remote release mechanism?
- Does it work from say 70 miles away at the Rawlins BLM office or does the person have to be within view?
- What happens in winter when it is impossible to drive into the area?
- If they cannot drive into the area do they have the funds to charter a helicopter to fly over so they can detonate the remote release? If so, have they considered the stress upon the horses when a helicopter gets near them?
- Will it work when the temperatures get below -10 Fahrenheit? I was at a “gather” in Adobe Town in December 2013 when they released 40 wild mares and it was -19 degrees before I got to the highway.
- Does it hurt the horse when the release remotely “detonates?”
- What if the remote release fails? How can they help the mare that is in trouble?
- How often are they monitoring the collars to see if one has stopped moving? What about weekends?
- What about the reactions of the mare’s family members to this strange device now around her neck? What if she is rejected by the other horses because of it?
(They cite testing the collars at a short term holding facility, Palomino Valley. This is a completely different situation than the horses will face in the wild. Horses are not in families in holding facilities and there are not brush and fencing to get hung up on).
- Why can’t they use a small GPS under the skin? This would be so much safer and less intrusive for the mares. These “collars” are very old and low tech.
For all of these unanswered questions and because wild horses have been injured and died because of radio collars in previous studies: https://www.nap.edu/read/18466/chapter/5 I again suggest that they do NOT use radio collars but instead use Interns to follow, track, observe and photograph horses from specific areas.
This would remove the need for a helicopter roundup, which would provide far less stress and injury on the horses, and if would also provide more accurate data from people on the ground. Ten horses in Adobe Town are very colorful, and easily distinguished, so it would not be impossible to follow specific horses. It does not matter than some horses are less easy to find and see because if they have a few horses from each area, it does not matter which horses are less easily observed. If you round them up by helicopter this will be a complete disruption to the horses’ families and movement patterns. If you observe them without rounding them up you will obtain much more accurate data on where the horses are and move to.
My final argument is that this study is in no way, shape or form in the best interests of the horses. The researchers are seeking to prove that wild horses will “move into a void” created by rounding up and removing horses from the Checkerboard, so they can “prove” that it impossible to remove horses from the Checkerboard and keep them out. They are also hoping to “prove” that wild horses degrade riparian areas. There is no attempt to account for livestock grazing. They do not care about wild horse behavior or band fidelity, or they would use human observers. This cruel and dangerous study which is slanted toward proving that wild horses have no place on the HMAs in the Checkerboard should not be allowed to move forward. Since BLM has now formally withdrawn the 2016 Checkerboard Removal Decision Record – which was not the case at the time it issued the Draft EA – BLM should not move forward with the radio collar research because a major underlying premise (that 500+ wild horses would be removed from the Checkerboard before the radio collar research began) has now been eliminated. In other words, the entire purpose behind this roundup was to see how horses move in response to a Checkerboard roundup; since there will be no Checkerboard roundup, there is no legal basis for the radio collar research as currently described in the Draft EA.
Please select alternative 2.2 No Action
This study is poorly conceived and planned and does NOT take the well being and humane treatment of the wild horses involved into proper consideration. This is not managing wild horses in the least invasive way possible, as they are mandated by the 1971 Free-Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act. They should spend the next few months revising the study and if then they do decide to move forward they should use another capture method, which is bait trapping which they said they would discuss in the EA but failed to do. It is far more humane and will result in many less injuries and deaths. They should come up with a new EA including Bait Trapping or no rounding up at all but using direct observation as alternatives. And they should use a newer, safer technology if they do wish to proceed with tracking the horses and eliminate the proposed use of radio collars.
The earliest they could start this roundup is December. They should not do it in December – it can get very cold, the horses are at greater risk of colic and injury when run in extremely cold temperatures. They should wait until next year in late summer or fall and address the questions that I have listed about the study and issue a new EA.
Please send your comments to the BLM here by November 1, 2016 at 4pm Mountain Time:
Wild Horse and Burro Specialist
Bureau of Land Management
Wyoming High Desert District
Rawlins Field Office
1300 North Third Street
P.O. Box 2407
Rawlins, Wyoming 82301
Fax: (307) 324-4224
Electronic comments must be sent to the following email address to be considered:
blm _ wy _ adobetown _ hma@blm.gov
(Please include “Adobe Town EA Comment” in the subject line.)
From the BLM: Public comments are most helpful if they are specific. The regulations (40 CFR 1503.3), state that comments on a proposed action ‘ shall be as specific as possible and may address either the adequacy of the statement or the merits of the alternatives discussed or both.” The most valuable comments are those that cite specific actions or impacts in the document and offer informed analysis of what is presented.
Also, pleased do send personalized comments in your own words. The BLM will count all of the form letter comments as one, which is not helpful for the horses.
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
In the 1980s similar “research” was done on wild horses with devastating results including collars being embedded into the wild horses’ flesh and some ultimate deaths caused by this collaring procedure. In some cases, the horse grew into the collar material, so that the collar became imbedded in the animal’s neck. In other cases, the collar abraded the skin under the neck where the radio unit was attached, causing an open sore that subsequently became infected.
I provide you here with the report link and some highly relevant excerpts from the report.
“1991 WILD HORSE POPULATIONS: FIELD STUDIES IN GENETICS AND FERTILITY Report to the Bureau of Land Management U.S. Department of the Interior Committee on Wild Horse and Burro Research Board on Agriculture National Research Council”
http://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QafT-WVwd7S7fgu9jqcohICyYqYhWjfQaIhsVxxpxWnjLo25UuV7aKBHFA3dO3w_DgBrixfPbA6M6y0tTPX9aX2XIheznCGIpC3O9WWTXVyJQu4leZ9M5JoqFJ2p9r3wp4GRK51yAW2zmAimpqdxJOZ-4ikTeD_UYiXGU1JG5Cs377oz8Xu9sGY1xXY80S2l7D5Ca6bvE6X9iaundjiGXzFkEgJ6u9Jow6g5soUXTGVhA8RyXo49S_vvrPZoTWjkmFeEbzD_We5A1ZnyTEZElvC-Ebug9Q
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At least 31 of our wild burros died in a recent similar collaring “research” project.
More info:
https://rtfitchauthor.com/2016/09/12/i-guess-if-you-are-going-to-murder-them-all-then-killing-a-few-dozen-wild-burros-along-the-way-means-nothing/
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The BLM will not be happy until they get rid of all the horses and burros. I believe this is their ultimate goal. BLM does not care if horses are killed by their various methods, helicopter, spaying, collars etc. This is a travesty!!
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The BLM needs to go…they do NOT have our beloved wild American equines best interest at heart. The BLM needs to be replaced by another organisation that will actually guard and protect our beloved wild American equines.
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I will write. But still can’t understand why they have to be so cruel to these innocent equines.
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Our wild horses and burros are caught in a battle over the use of our federal and State lands and the distribution of the natural resources there. With no one profiting from their freedom, wild horses and burros have been systematically captured and removed from the American West in response to pressure from ranching, hunting, mining and other economically driven special interest groups. The protection and conservation of our natural resources is paramount to restoring balance on America’s vast rangelands, so that true preservation, within a truly wild environment, might one day be possible.
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The BLM needs to be cleaned up, but if the horses go back to the “care” of the states no telling what will happen.
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I thought the Checkerboard roundups were declared illegal and are not happening as planned this month, so if those aren’t happening there won’t be that “void” to pointlessly “research.” Why not investigate how oil and gas development is fragmenting habitat and water resources needed by for all wildlife and livestock in the Checkerboard? WTF?
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oops, meant to say “investigate instead” and “needed by all wildlife and livestock…”
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So the roundups are illegal, right? They wont happen BUT the BLM in all of its infinite “wisdom” (?) will do a roundup anyway & then experiment once again on our wild horses. Was there no consequence for the death of all those burros at Simbad? Only blame the herpes virus? Of course, Icy – there cant be any investigation regarding oil & gas development OR livestock degradation – everything is all laid at the wild horses & burros door!
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What on Earth gives humans the right to “manage” anything?! That’s nature’s job. Research? Collars? I wouldn’t even leave my mare’s rope halter on her in the pasture. The risks for the wild ones far outweigh any benefits of ridiculous research.
Please, just leave them alone to live the way they are meant, and falsely promised to be…free and PROTECTED.
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I agree – after seeing one horse die from catching his foot in his halter & falling thru a fence into a ditch – laying there all night, and another big horse catching his foot & injuring his neck – never turned my horse out with one again. Cannot imagine putting a collar around the neck of a wild horse OR burro – not necessarily from catching their foot – but from all of the previous UNSUCCESSFUL attempts the BLM has made! As always – they keep on doing the same thing over & over & expect different results! True bureaucrats in action.
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I am puzzled about the efforts and costs to produce better collars instead of more realistic, useful, and cost-effective research. Microchips are in wide use in all sorts of animals, rarely cause problems, and don’t degrade the appearance of wild animals in the wild. If I were a wildlife photographer I would not be happy to spend the time and money to get to a remote area only to find, say, a herd of horses with large orange plastic collars around their necks – and up high so there would be no chance to photograph any faces without including the collar. This is perhaps be one way to discourage citizen interest in wild horses since so many are keen photographers. Microchips are invisible and permanent so would also allow anyone with the correct scanner to ID a horse no matter where it was found, even in Mexico for example.
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I second that IcySpots. I also wonder if they’re cheaper than radio collars and if they can somehow be applied by darting, taking away the need to gather horses before injecting them.
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Another option: Leave the animals alone.
To study them, they can be studied by going out and observing them and taking photos and taking notes and simply by watching them without any harassment – as the 1971 law demands and as the wild horses deserve.
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And $40,000.00 of this dangerous wild horse collar “study” funding is coming directly out of our tax money. https://www.usaspending.gov/
And why oh why oh why can’t the BLM and the University just go out and do some “boots on the ground” observations which would cause no risk to our wild horses?
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GG (can’t resist) maybe because citizens are better at counting sheep?
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GG, Wyoming has some hellacious winters in that area, so boots on the ground would be a tough gig without using snowmobiles etc. (a non-starter for me). IF (and only IF) researchers needed to ID and follow horses year-round for legitimate studies, it makes sense to me to used microchips that can be remotely tracked and which don’t harm the horses or the public interested in them. It’s easy to keep track of distinctly marked animals, but geez, out of dozens of sorrels with a star it could be challenging to accurately monitor them without some sort of assist.
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The fundamental issue in any invasive research is the criticality of the information proposed to be collected and its relevance to the overall conservation of the species. While I understand, there can be many reasons for wildlife tracking, including monitoring endangered populations, these methods should be as unobtrusive as possible. We humans often have so much faith in science that we forget about traditional methods of doing things, assuming we’ve found a better way simply because it’s high-tech and provides hard data.
But do we stop to question whether we need that data? And if so, at what cost to the animals are we willing to weigh our data results and go ahead and proceed at any price tag to the animals being studied? And when can other less obtrusive methods of research give us equal results without the possibility of injury and death to the species we are studying? This requires some sincere and honest thought by the researchers and the BLM who are responsible for the protection of these wild horses.
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GG, great points and I agree with most of them, but a great deal of “research” is not critical or even particularly relevant but is conducted to amass more data towards often vague ends. Questioning the “need” is not often part of the scientific method. I think this blind spot has led civilization down some very dark alleys, but has also produced unexpectedly useful information. No easy answers in the general picture, but I think we can agree we don’t have good population inventories of most of our wild horse herds (as the law requires) and some populations may be almost gone while others may be above estimates, so finding non-invasive, harmless ways to determine numbers and mortality on different ranges would be a good thing. I don’t think collars fit that description, and have many other negatives.
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Frankly, if it were my child who was in college & involved in this “project” – I sure would rather see them get out on the range & actually see the horses & burros in a natural setting – learn the reality of their lives. The picture (from videos & pictures) I have in my mind of one of these roundups & the disruption & stress involved, then to physically attach a device to a WILD animal – as an experiment? Possibly it is helpful in tracking PREDATORS – BUT these are prey animals – feeling something around their neck? Just WRONG>
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“Scientists have an obvious interest in reducing the number of animals killed by their studies, Bekoff said, but they often neglect another option: Leave the animals alone.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jul/07/news/adme-studied7
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Grandma Gregg, you’d think that’s what the BLM would do considering how much they talk about their supposed low funding and the fact that people would gladly volunteer their time to document these animals without asking for a penny.
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I have personally seen the BLM’s wild horse and burro managers and wranglers in action … sitting in the office playing games on the computer. We pay them to do a job … which includes observing and protecting them on their legal lands in their natural habitat … but I guess nobody told that to the BLM employees?
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You should’ve taken photos of them in secret. If you did, I think it would be a good idea to upload them online and share them with the DOI corporate office. They could be fired.
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Starry, I wish I would have taken photos of them playing games but I didn’t but I do have a witness. And, by the way, as they were playing in the office, the hired feed contractors were out in the pens breaking ice in the troughs and dropping hay for the horses and burros – the BLM doesn’t even do that – at least not at BLM’s Litchfield facility.
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University of Wyoming
SUBJECT: BLM Wild Horse and Burro Research Committee Approval of the University of Wyoming Adobe Town GPS Collaring
April I, 2016
Paul Griffin – Research Coordinator, BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program
Dear Paul,
Attached you will find our formal application. Please note that prior approval has been given by the University of Wyoming Research Office through our initial proposal to the Wyoming Department of Agriculture. If you have questions, please contact Linda Osterman – VP for Research at osterman@uwyo.edu or 307-766-5320. Also, please note that we arc leveraging the $120,000 from the Wyoming Department of Agriculture’s Wild Horse Research Program to place GPS collars on wild horses to understand how horses move across the public-private land matrix, rangeland habitat use, and interactions with wildlife and livestock. Since the grant was awarded we have met with BLM, USGS, and Wyoming Department of Agriculture staff to determine how we can integrate with existing management to employ our proposal. Although our funded proposal was for Red Desert HMA Complex (i.e., Stewart Creek, Green Mountain, and Crooks Mountain) we have determined through our communication with BLM Wild Horse and Burro Specialists Jay D’Ewart and Ben Smith and Wyoming BLM Horse Project Lead June Wendlandt that deploying collars in Adobe Town HMA is the most feasible option. Therefore, we have verbal permission from Wyoming Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources and Policy Manager Chris Wichmann to move forward with amending our proposal.
Also, we have built into the attached documents the following requests for PhD support and additional collars (that are in priority order). (I) Additional I Year of Ph.D. Student Support: We currently have funds for 1.5 years. We also have the opportunity to pick up I additional year from our Department (Ecosystem Science and Management) if we can find I year as a match (I am copying our Department Head, Dr. Scott Miller, to keep him in the loop). Can BLM provide I year of funding to match the I year of ESM funding for the PhD Student? If so, the cost for I year of support for a PhD student at the University of Wyoming is $31,350 (http://www.uwyo.edu/research/proposal%20development/proposaltoo1- kit/graduate-assistantships.html). Those funds could be spent in 2018 or 2019 for your planning purposes. This would provide 3.5 years of support for the PhD student (the minimum needed is 3 and often additional years of support may be needed; so this is a good level) and would allow us assure Jake (the student interested in the project whom you met today) support from start to finish. Also, we could also expand how Jake might assist your office (and Jay and Ben) with any additional data analysis or GIS work. (2) Additional GPS Collars: We currently have funds for 18 Lotek collars. We would like to increase our total sample size to 36. Based on our estimate of $2, I 00 per collar, the cost for 18 additional Lotek collars would be $37,880. Thanks for your consideration of our proposal. If there are any questions please contact me at any time.
Sincerely,
John Derek Scasta
University of Wyoming
Cell: 307-314-2615 jscasta@uwyo.edu
Click to access Adobe_Town_Habitat_Movements_Research_EA_9-23-2016-3.pdf
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Take a look at these horrid contraptions
“[m]anagement activities affecting wild horses and burros shall be undertaken with the goal of maintaining free-roaming behavior.” 16 U.S.C. §1333, 43 CFR 4700.0-6\ “All management activities shall be at the minimal feasible level”.
Page 39
Click to access Adobe_Town_Habitat_Movements_Research_EA_9-23-2016-3.pdf
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This is a no brainer NO I DO NOT AGREE TO ANY KIND OF COLLAR OR DEVICE ON AMERICAS WILD HORSES!!!!
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Any devious excuse in the book to get rid of these poor defenseless animals who cannot speak for themselves, and that they can dupe the malleable public into believing. After all it’s Science!, and you don’t want to appear to be an ‘uneducated deplorable’, do ya? Lower than low.
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STOP IMMED THESE DELIBERATE INHUMANE ACTS OF CRUELTY! 100% BLM GREED!
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Collars of any kind do not belong on horses. None. However if one wanted to put a small microchip or GPS unit under the skin, that could be acceptable If it were done one at a time, by riders on horses. Photograph & name or number each animal at the time of insertion. If it were done in a humane way, this could be accomplished. Going after horse by helicopter is Never acceptable. The noise alone is enough to scare them and cause them to injure themselves. The BLM needs to have some horse advocates on board who are actually familiar with horses! Stop the cruelty.
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If anyone is having trouble with the email address, it had a couple of extra spaces in there – use this instead: blm_wy_adobetown_hma@blm.gov
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PERMACULTURE..it’s all about managing the RANGE..not the WH&B
Permaculture Principles in Application ‒ Geoff Lawton
This video is a sampler of permaculture principles in application narrated and explained by Geoff, from his farm in New South Wales, Australia (near Byron Bay). Learn about Permaculture principles and how abundant it is, by design.
About Geoff Lawton:
Geoff Lawton is highly sought after as a passionate and committed educator on the ethical design science called Permaculture that teaches individuals how to design sustainable urban and rural environments and landscapes. From his start in permaculture, under the tutelage of Bill Mollison, he has gained 30 years’ experience in permaculture design in dozens of countries around the world from the most affluent, to the most war torn; from the tropics to frozen cold temperate climate. Each year Geoff teaches hundreds of students in permaculture courses ranging from permaculture design certificates, to permaculture earthworks courses, urban permaculture, creating healthy soils, to managing sustainable projects, and more.
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An Oasis in the American Desert
In a view from space, Google earth photographed unusual micro-oases in remote areas of the New Mexican desert of the US. Famed Permaculturist Geoff Lawton, investigated these areas and traced their origin back 80 years to a government soil reclamation program done in the aftermath of the Great Dust Bowl. Like the date palm which only produces fruit after 80 years, this forgotten bit of soil engineering is now showing us the way to reclaim farms lost to desertification and, in addition, bring sustainable fertility to vast desert areas
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As far as studying the Wild Horses and Burros..just about every Herd has a group of people who have watched over and loved those animals for years. THOSE are the “boots on the ground” researchers. They do it on their own dime and their own time. The problem is…they’re not in it for profit and they don’t get government grants.
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If agriculture can use this technology for crops and cattle – the BLM should be able to do that very same technology for horses
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/03/23/drones-agriculture-growth/6665561
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Leave the horses alone. They have done nothing but try to survive and y’all keep trying to eliminate all of them. I want my tax money used to protect them.
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I totally oppose the BLM’s intention to round up and capture mares and horses for proposed collaring, or any other purpose whatsoever. The now routine roundup methods used by the BLM are cruel and unnecessary and should not be allowed. The BLM needs to maintain our public lands and thwart exploitation by certain individuals and corporations who think they can profit from our public lands for a negligible fee and with total abandon of the beauty and freedom that belongs to our citizens and the wild animals thereon.
Our wild horses and burros are caught in a battle for their lives over the use of our country’s federal and state lands and the distribution of natural resources there.
With no one profiting from their continued Freedom, wild horses and burros have been systematically captured and removed from the American West in response to pressure from ranching, hunting, mining, and other economically-driven special interest groups with high finances at their disposal, and no protection for the care and well-being of these innocent horses and burros.
The protection and conservation of our natural resources and animals living there is paramount to restoring balance on our vast rangelands, so that true preservation within a truly free and natural environment might one day be available for present and future generations without the high price of insensitive and exploitative interlopers.
The BLM needs to reexamine its purpose, i.e., they were created to protect our wild and natural environment, not to desecrate it for profit.
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Lenore, the BLM was formed not to preserve, but conserve and manage public lands and their resources for multiple use, which created inherent conflicts from the start. Their mandate is to manage the public lands mostly as pantries, not as parks. Wild horses and burros are only one fraction of their larger (and often conflicting) legal responsibilities.
This is a good reason we should seek to have all our wild horses and burros managed under a single entity (not the BLM or USFS) which has them as their primary focus. I suspect the BLM/USFS would gladly be relieved of the wild horse and burro program. The National Park Service does manage a few herds with relative success so these could remain under their primary oversight.
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The BLM is to SERVE THE PUBLIC INTEREST!!
It is NOT a private club using its own money!!
This is TAXPAYER MONEY BEING STOLEN to act in its own interest and those that pay them…NOT THE PUBLIC.
Listen up BLM! WE THE PEOPLE, WHO ARE NOT HAPPY WITH YOUR PATHETIC IDEAS FOR THESE WILD HORSES.
AND ARE NOT AT ALL HAPPY WITH YOUR O CALLED “STUDY” USING COLLARS AND PUTTING THESE HORSE IN DANGER VI HELICOPTER HERING! STOP THE CRAP! DO YOUR JOBS ETHICALLY – NOT WHAT PADS YOUR WALLETS AT THE EXPENSE OF THIS NATIONS WILD HORSES.
GET YOUR ACT TOGERHER.
WE ARE WATCHING AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO PUT PRESSURE ON YOU AND SHARE WITH THE NATION YOUR DEPLORABLE ACTS AND DECISIONS FOR THESE BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS.
WE ARE THE PEOPLE FOR THE HORSES OF THIS NATION.
Perhaps we need to check your I.D’s and birth certficates to find out who you REALLY represent and WHO has you on their payroll.
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Have you people gone MAD?!?!?! You go from STUPID to STUPIDER! You need to just LEAVE THESE HORSES ALONE! PERIOD! Simple as that and if you can’t understand that then GET OUT OF IT!
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KillerBuyer Dennis Rotz has Yet Another Accident/wreck killing horses heading to slaughter. Then they have him drive to Another location with piled up dead horses in the same trailer with the living. Please Read. He needs to lose his License to haul livestock. Masses of horses have died in his trailers. http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2016/10/23/kpd-investigating-40-semi-crash/92661168/
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There r so many horses packed into these trailers they cannot remove the living nor dead in this situation which is why horse slaughter requires termination. Its a useless cruel and abusive industry unprepared to handle anything Including wrecks like these. They couldnt separate the horses so they stood pver the deceased horses while injured. If this were a typical trailer a quick unload would be possible but these trailers are cram packed with animals with no alternate plan for emergencies. The stress pain and horrified feelings these horses must have endured. This man is A Repeat offender of death via slaughter transporter. When will this agonizing degrading and disruptive industry be put down and euthanized permanently?
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Is there a way to file a complaint against him? How cruel and inhumane of him and those who allow this to continue.
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The BLM is rounding up 1,100 wild horses from the Owyhee Complex in Nevada starting November 1?
http://elkodaily.com/news/local/blm-to-remove-horses-from-owyhee-complex/article_884c12a0-8b41-5f06-b74c-19f2e24edb59.html
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Todays ? Is this verified truth? Interesting story. http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/27/feds-caught-illegally-using-prisoners-to-train-wild-horses/
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Lock and load R.T. Time to do a “in my most OUTRAGED opinion” piece on this: http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/media/equus-film-festival-now-sponsored-anti-mustang-pro-slaughter-industry-group
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VERY revealing, Louie!
As was suspected, this is a conspiracy to rid the checkerboard area of WY from all wild horses. The RSGA lost the law suit but they have not given up and have now acquired the assistance and money of the Dept of Ag (RSGA and Dept of Ag are tied at the hip – or I should say “tied at the pocketbook”) and this EA is just giving the Dept of Interior (BLM) a chance to throw in a little more monetary support plus give the University BLM’s approval to harass and chase with the helicopter and physically restrain and apply the foreign-object collar and break up the family bands and likely injure and kill some of the horses as was done on Nevada wild horses by the University of California in the 1980s when similar “research” was done on wild horses with devastating results – including collars being embedded into the wild horses’ flesh and some ultimate deaths caused by this collaring procedure.
Oh yeah … and $2,100 per collar!
And I assume that we tax-payers will pay for the helicopter capture at about $1000 per horse?
What a political farce! And again a true sign of BLM being a regulatory captured agency. “Regulatory Capture” is a form of political corruption that occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure; it creates an opening for firms to behave in ways injurious to the public. The agencies are called “captured agencies”.
And as always … it is the innocent wild horses that suffer.
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Please remember to comment by tomorrow November 1 in your own words, and please use this email address: blm_wy_adobetown_hma@blm.gov
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Haven’t forgotten … been working on it for days. I hope everyone else that is aware of this will take some time to review the EA and write a few (or a lot) of words to the BLM and to the University of Wyoming, and let them know that this planned study project, as currently written, is poorly conceived and does NOT take the well-being and humane treatment of the wild equine and the law that says it is illegal to harass the wild horses.
2010 BLM Handbook: 4700 – WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS MANAGEMENT (PUBLIC) BLM Manual Rel. 4-111 Supersedes Rel. 4-89 2 07/07/2010 .01
Purpose. This Manual Section describes the authorities, objectives and policies that guide the protection, management, control and disposition of wild free-roaming horses and burros.
Objectives. The objectives of the BLM are:
A. To protect wild horses and burros from capture, branding, harassment or death.
B. To consider wild horses and burros in the areas where they were found in 1971 (Herd Areas or HAs) as an integral part of the national system of public lands.
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A bit more about the Adobe wild horse collaring “research”:
If BLM rounds up the wild horses by helicopter this will be a complete disruption to the horses’ family bands and the relationships of the stallions with the mares and the mares with the foals in addition to the relationship of the bachelor bands with the other herd members. Because of unnatural disruption, any data accumulated will be unsound and therefore the entire research study will be invalid.
If the wild horses are observed and studied without rounding them up, the students and researchers will obtain much more accurate data on where the horses are and where they move to and from areas and many other valid pieces of the wild horse puzzle needed for the research. In other words, the round up and collars are not only inhumane but will undermine and discredit any data and the eventual results of the so-called “research” study.
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Exactly.
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Pretty much what I wrote in my comment plus a few more things! Did get a reply from the copy I sent to the University – very brief – but a reply! Of course, nothing from the BLM – as usual.
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Same for me – receipt from U of WY but nothing from BLM and I always ask for a receipt. Excuse me for repeating but BLM is without a doubt a regulatory captured agency. Definition: “Regulatory Capture” is a form of political CORRUPTION that occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure; it creates an opening for firms to behave in ways injurious to the public. The agencies are called “captured agencies”.
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People sending in comments today, November 1 are getting a message back that comments are closed, this is incorrect – please keep sending comments in.
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Hmm. I sent my comments around 3:30 Mountain Time and got a response indicating the comment period was closed Nov. 1.Should I resend or did they receive them? Not clear from their terse reply.
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THANK YOU Carol. Also send your comments to the following people
Cc: BLM Wyoming State Director Don Simpson, dsimpson@blm.gov
BLM Senior Advisor, Division of WH&B Dean Bolstad, dbolstad@blm.gov
BLM Assistant Director, Resources and Planning, Ed Roberson eroberso@blm.gov
BLM WY Acting State Director, Mary Jo Rugwell mrugwell@blm.gov
BLM WY Acting Associate State Director, Larry Claypool lclaypoo@blm.gov
BLM Rawlins WY Field Manager, Dennis Carpenter d75carpe@blm.gov
BLM Lander WY Field Manager, Rick VanderVoet rvandervoet@blm.gov
BLM Rock Springs FO, Wild Horse and Burro Specialist, Jay D’Ewart jdewart@blm.gov
BLM Wyoming Horse Project Lead, June Wendlandt jwendlan@blm.gov
Dr. Scasta, University of WY Ecosystem Science and Management jscasta@uwyo.edu
Professor Scott Milller, University of WY Ecosystem Science and Management snmiller@uwyo.edu
University of WY VP for Research, Linda Osterman osterman@uwyo.edu
Other Interested Parties
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We are currently in the process of reviewing all of the comments we received on the Adobe Town Wild Horse Herd Movements & Habitat EA. We received a large number of comments regarding this EA and it takes time to go through all of them. The public comment period was scheduled to end at 4 pm on November 1. It has come to my attention that an autoreply was set up incorrectly at midnight on Nov 1 instead of at 4 pm on November 1 when the comment period should have closed. This does not mean we did not receive those comment emails. The BLM will accept any comments received on Nov 1, regardless of time, as part of the record. A response to those comments will be prepared by the BLM as part of our NEPA process. We do not send our responses back directly to the commentor. Our response to comments received are incorporated into a comment response table in the final NEPA document so that anyone interested in the project can read the comments we received and the BLM’s response to those comments.
Tim Novotny
Assistant Field Manager, Resources
BLM, Rawlins Field Office
307-328-4311
(Nov 4, 2016)
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