by Carol J. Walker, Dir. of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation
Please Comment by Saturday, June 30 at 4pm Mountain Time
The Bureau of Land Managements is seeking comments on a proposed plan for the wild horses in the North Lander Complex, which is 4 wild horse herds: Conant Creek, Dishpan Butte, Muskrat Basin and Rock Creek Mountain Herd Management Areas. These 4 herds are on 380,000 acres of our public land, and the BLM only allows 320-536 wild horses on the whole area. They want to remove at least 588 of the 1124 wild horses they counted in those 4 herds in 2017, possibly at least 100 more if they remove the foals without counting them.
Not only does the BLM propose doing a dangerous helicopter roundup to remove “excess” horses, they have decided to conduct deadly and inhumane experiments on the horses in these four herds. They want to create sterilized and/or “limited-reproducing” herds, and the methods are cruel and dangerous. They want to explore using GonaCon, a birth control drug which has been largely untested as far as long term safety and efficacy with wild horses and also gelding the stallions, spaying the mares (which is horribly dangerous on wild horses), and/or segregating the horses into same sex herds. If the horses are segregated into same sex herds, they will not have the same behaviors or interactions as those living in families in the wild. The field spaying of mares will produce infections, suffering and death. Spaying and gelding will destroy the wild nature and behaviors of these wild horses, damaging forever their social structure. Sterilization is permanent, and will lead to the herds no longer being genetically viable, and finally result in no more wild horses in these four Herd Management Areas.
In 2016 Don Moore, a veterinarian in Colorado commented on the plans for sterilizing wild mares in a holding corral ovariectomy via colpotomy:
“This type of trial and error butchery is a violation of the least feasible management clause of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Mass experimental surgeries performed under these conditions outlined in the proposal, amounts to negligence and abuse. I believe experiments such as this proposal are unethical, inhumane and unwarranted. Any veterinarian(s) who would perform these experiments is in violation of the oath taken as a graduating veterinarian, “above all else, do no harm”. If a veterinarian in private practice performed these procedures in the manner described in this document they would most certainly be reported to and disciplined by the regulatory board of that state. Discipline would likely mean suspension of that veterinarian’s license to practice in that state.”
To read his comments in full, go here: http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/DonMooreCommentsOregonSpayProposal.pdf
What kind of person proposes torturing wild horses this way? Someone clearly lacking compassion, kindness, common sense or any caring for living breathing creatures who are supposed to be protected in their care. This plan is aimed at destroying these four herds forever, and I fear that this will be the future blueprint for the BLM’s management of our wild horses. This must be stopped.
In 2016 we stopped the BLM from doing dangerous spaying of wild mares with public outcry and lawsuits. Now the BLM is back at it again.
The other issue is any horses removed right now will possibly be subject to being killed or sent to slaughterhouses while Congress debates whether or not to lift the ban on killing healthy wild horses in holding facilities, those wild horses that have been rounded up and removed from their rightful homes.
First of all, take a look the numbers of wild horses counted using the BLM’s notoriously inaccurate double-count statistical method:
Herd Management Area 2015 2016 2017 2018
Conant Creek 96 115 151 169
Muskrat Basin 281 337 665 700
Dishpan Butte 110 132 192 174
Rock Creek Mountain 71 85 86 91
Look at these numbers. The BLM claims the herds increase by 20% per year, yet the BLM’s own numbers do not match that. Rock Creek Mountain’s population has remained virtually unchanged in the last 3 years, and look at the population doubling in Muscrat Basin between 2016 and 2017 – absolutely impossible unless the stallions are foaling! Dishpan Butte has a 45% increase between 2016 and 2017 and Conant Creek has a 31% increase between 2016 and 2017. The BLM has no idea how many horses are in these areas. They need an independent agency who will do an actual count of the horses before any change in population is considered.
Please comment by June 30 at 4 pm Mountain Time, using your own words, which is the very best and most effective way to send your comments.
Email:wy_north_lander_gather@blm.gov
Subject Line: Wild Horse Herd Management Plan and Wild Horse Gathers in North Lander Complex
Here is where all the information on the project is online: https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=dispatchToPatternPage¤tPageId=103846
Tell the BLM you are absolutely opposed to dangerous sterilization experiments being used on our wild horses, no spaying of wild mares or gelding of wild stallions should be considered. You are opposed to same sex and minimally reproducing herds. You are opposed to using untested GonaCon, and the use of PZP birth control should be used to control the population but only if the herd size consists of 150 adults which is the minimum number needed to maintain genetic viability. Instead of reducing the numbers of horses on these 4 Herd Management Areas, change the Appropriate Management Levels to allow higher numbers of wild horses, and reduce the grazing leases on these lands, where wild horses should be managed as the principle species. You also are opposed to using this plan as the template for future management of our wild horses on public lands.
Thank you for caring about our wild horses and their future on our public lands.
To find out more about Wild Horse Freedom Federation and our work to keep wild horses and burros wild and free on our public lands visit: www.WildHorseFreedomFederation.org
Categories: Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
We’ve seen the obscene amounts of taxpayer $ awarded to federal contractor(s) for these roundups.
Do the hired hands get just compensation?
Workers cheated as federal contractors prosper
A Center analysis found that government agencies paid $18 billion over an 18-month period to companies with wage violations
April 6, 2017
In fact, U.S. Department of Labor data show that upwards of 70 percent of all cases lodged against federal contractors and investigated by the department since 2012 yielded substantive violations.
But many of these violators go on to receive more federal contracts. An Obama administration effort to change that practice was derailed in late March by President Donald Trump.
The Center for Public Integrity examined a subset of 1,154 egregious violators — those with the biggest fines, highest number of violations or most employees impacted — included in the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division enforcement database and cross-referenced them with more than 300,000 contract records from the Treasury Department. The Center found that between January 2015 and July 2016:
• Federal agencies modified or granted contracts worth a total of $18 billion to 68 contractors with proven wage violations. Among them: health-care provider Sterling Medical Associates, Cornell University and Corrections Corporation of America
• Of all agencies, the U.S. Department of Defense employed the most wage violators — 49, which collectively owed $4.7 million in back pay to almost 6,200 workers. The department paid those 49 contractors a combined $15 billion.
https://www.publicintegrity.org/2017/04/06/20803/workers-cheated-federal-contractors-prosper
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Following the money trail
From POLITICO
FEC increases scrutiny of Zinke’s former PAC
By BEN LEFEBVRE
04/02/2018
The Federal Election Commission is asking a leadership PAC previously affiliated with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to account for more than $600,000 of previously unreported contributions from the first six months of 2017.
For most of the period in question, the committee, SEAL PAC, was overseen by Vincent DeVito, who is now a top aide to Zinke at the Interior Department, and this is the second time federal regulators have looked into discrepancies during his tenure.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/02/fec-scrutiny-of-ryan-zinkes-seal-pac-495228
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There are roundups and removals on the docket right now and they ALL need to be pre-empted…..Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, California..on and on.
BLM and U.S. Forest Service have been given their “marching orders”…CLEAR OFF the Public Lands.
Instead of trying to “put out fires” on virtually every Herd Management Area, it seems that a major class action lawsuit would be in order.
There’s more than enough documentation and MORE than enough dissatisfied stakeholders.
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We need a huge team of attorneys and buckets of money to fight all of these roundups and experiments and stetilization and zeroing out – the issues are not the same in each case. Unfortunately the BLM is using our money, from we the taxpayers, to fight against every suit we bring.
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I get so many petitions from so many different sectors that I can see the common denominator.
We’re all fighting for the same thing and against the same forces.
Just imagine all of that force, instead of being dispersed, coming together in one mega-lawsuit.
It could happen
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Not to get too far off track, but this is just one example. Sonny Perdue heads USDA/Forest Service
All of what we are seeing is coming from the top and that’s probably where a major-mega lawsuit and/or investigation would have be aimed.
In the meantime, we’ll just keep commenting on Environmental Assessments, contacting Congress and pestering public officials.
Trump Administration Falsely Blames Environmental Lawsuits for Forest Fires
by MIKE GARRITY
It is clear that the Trump administration is leading on one thing: making stuff up. Ryan Zinke, Sonny Perdue, Steve Daines and Greg Gianforte followed Donald Trump’s lead in using alternative facts in their recent press conference near the Lolo Peak Fire. The Trump administration apparently believes that it is because of lawsuits that we have forest fires during this exceptionally hot, dry and windy summer.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies is a powerful group and we fight hard to preserve forests, but we certainly don’t control the weather or the warming climate. Moreover, there is no lawsuit in the Lolo Peak area, and the Lolo Peak area has already undergone extensive logging.
The Trump administration calls it “frivolous” when citizens prevail in lawsuits forcing the government to comply with its own laws. To the contrary, it is the basis of our democracy and civil justice system that citizens have the power to force the government to follow its own laws. So despite the barrage of lies, insults, fear-mongering and scapegoating directed at us, we will not back down. We will continue to fight to protect and conserve our priceless public lands and the fish and wildlife that depend on them for survival. Join us.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/30/trump-administration-falsely-blames-environmental-lawsuits-for-forest-fires/
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How about a combined effort at achieving a restraining order against any further fatal actions by the BLM/USFS unless and until an accurate accounting and sustainable, science-based plan is approved for ALL our remaining wild horses and burros. This piecemeal bloodletting must be one of the circles of hell.
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Please send your comments to the BLM by June 30: Email:wy_north_lander_gather@blm.gov
Subject Line: Wild Horse Herd Management Plan and Wild Horse Gathers in North Lander Complex
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Former Army Contractor Indicted For “No Show” Job Involving Contract At Aberdeen Proving Ground
February 27, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact ELIZABETH MORSE
http://www.justice.gov/usao/md at (410) 209-4885
Baltimore, Maryland –A federal grand jury has indicted Eric D. Price, age 58, of Fayetteville, North Carolina for conspiracy to defraud the United States and wire fraud charges related to payments to him for a “no show” job on a sub-contract under contracts awarded by the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), in Harford County, Maryland.
The indictment was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Stephen M. Schenning; Special Agent in Charge Robert E. Craig, Jr. of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service – Mid-Atlantic Field Office; Special Agent in Charge L. Scott Moreland, Mid-Atlantic Fraud Field Office, Major Procurement Fraud Unit, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command; and Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.
According to the seven-count indictment, in March 2006, the U.S. Army Contracting Command at APG awarded a 10-year, $19.2 billion contract to seven prime contractors to provide technology services to support the integrated engineering, business operations, and logistics needs for the Army. Task Orders 11, 77 and 115 were placed against this contract. John Kays had a leadership position as a civilian employee of the Army related to these task orders.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/former-army-contractor-indicted-no-show-job-involving-contract-aberdeen-proving-ground
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These deadly , Roundups are not scientifically proven to be necessary .
And are cruel and inhumane . The HMAs are not accurate numbers and are set to suit the Cattlemen . These horses are supposed to be protected under the 1971 Horse& Burro Act and there are herds of Cattle allowed to take their place
Many mares abort , horses die of heart attacks as they run for their lives in fear . If they happen to survive the roundup they are trapped and warehoused in holding pens unable to exercise , separated from their families ..
Why can’t the BLM bring water and food to the wild horses in,the wild ? It would b much more cost effective than warehousing them .
80 percent of the population are against these horrible , cruel roundups . Why can’t you listen to us for a change ? .
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The Senate voted NO on Wild Horse sterilizations
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There are many things that are horrifically wrong with abusing wild horses. Tax payers are paying more and more every year to wipe out all wildlife! The government wants to make more money by selling them to be slaughtered.
Horses are the number one animal that has worked for man and mankind could not have evolved without these amazing creatures. The assumption that the horse population is expanding is not true because their ability to survive (water and greens) with our climate change has gone way down!
Humans have overpopulated and keep trying to control the planet.
I wish our soldiers could see this as murder and protect all horses because horses were soldiers for mankind for a century!!!
Our Government abusing these animals is creating severe depression.
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Don’t do it! Leave these beautiful horses alone! They represent this land as free and brave! They are our heritage and history! Please leave them be! This land is our land the American people’s not yours! Let cattlemen use their own land! This land is the home of our wild horses, our national treasure! ❤️🐴🇺🇸
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Mountain States Legal Foundataion v Hodel 799 F.2d 1423 (1986)
Any person who ‘maliciously causes the death or harassment of any wild free-roaming horse or burro” is subject to criminal penalties. Id. § 1338(a)(3). The Department of the Interior has defined “malicious harassment” as
any intentional act which demonstrates a deliberate disregard for the well-being of wild free-roaming horses and burros and which creates the likelihood of injury, or is detrimental to normal behavior patterns of wild free-roaming horses and burros including feeding, watering, resting, and breeding. Such acts include, but are not limited to, unauthorized chasing, pursuing, herding, roping, or attempting to gather or catch wild free-roaming horses and burros.
https://www.leagle.com/decision/19862222799f2d142312002
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[more from Mountain States v Hodel]
At the outset, it is important to note that wild horses and burros are no less “wild” animals than are the grizzly bears that roam our national parks and forests. Indeed, in the definitional section of the Act, Congress has explicitly declared “all unbranded and unclaimed horses and burros on public lands” to be “wild horses and burros.” 16 U.S.C. § 1332(b) (1982) (emphasis added).
It is well settled that wild animals are not the private property of those whose land they occupy, but are instead a sort of common property whose control and regulation are to be exercised “as a trust for the benefit of the people.” Geer v. Connecticut, 161 U.S. 519, 528-29, 16 S.Ct. 600, 604, 40 L.Ed. 793 (1896), overruled on other grounds, Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U.S. 322, 99 S.Ct. 1727, 60 L.Ed.2d 250 (1979).5 The governmental trust responsibility for wildlife is lodged initially in the states, but only “in so far as its exercise may not be incompatible with, or restrained by, the rights conveyed to the Federal government by the Constitution.” Id. at 528; see also Martin v. Lessee of Waddell, 41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 367, 410, 10 L.Ed. 997 (1842). Neither state nor federal authority over wildlife is premised upon any technical “ownership” of wildlife by the government. Although older decisions sometimes referred to government “ownership” of wildlife, that language has been deemed “a fiction expressive in legal shorthand of the importance to its people that a State have power to preserve and regulate the exploitation of an important resource.” Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U.S. 385, 402, 68 S.Ct. 1156, 1165, 92 L.Ed. 1460 (1948). As the Supreme Court declared, “[I]t is pure fantasy to talk of `owning’ wild fish, birds, or animals. Neither the States nor the Federal Government … has title to these creatures until they are reduced to possession by skillful capture.”
https://www.leagle.com/decision/19862222799f2d142312002
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PROTECT THE HARVEST HAS A LETTER TO THEIR HORSE HATING FOLLOWERS ASKONG THEM TO COMMENT TO DEMAND THEY BE STERILIZED. IN OTHER WORDS WE NEED TO RALLY THE TROOPS. PROTECT THE HARVEST WANTS THE ORGANS HARVESTED AS I PRIOR STATED THEY WILL RESELL THE REMOVED PARTS. PLEASE PLEASE LET’S KEEP FIRM ON STOPPING THEM. PROTECT THE HARVEST NEEDS OUTED AS AN ORGANIZATION THAT HAS NO ADVOCACY BACKGROUND IN WILD HORSEZ. THEY THEMSELVES ARE NOT VETERINARIANS AND HAVE NO ECPIRIENCE WITH THE PROCESS OF SPAYING HORSES. PLEASE MA
OR SURE THEIR SHORT LENGTH IN THE HORSE ARGUMENTS IS EXPOSED. THE ENTIRE HORSE INDUSTRY WANTS THIS STOPPED AND JUST TO MAKE YOUR DAY….HERES WHAT UNFORTUNATELY HAD REARED ITS UGLY HEAD AND ANGERZ ME FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME……..MORE COUNTRIES FALL VICTIM TO https://www.occrp.org/en/28-ccwatch/cc-watch-indepth/8284-bad-romanian-horse-meat-stampedes-across-europe
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