Source: Return to Freedom

BLM intends to remove about 652 wild horses from the 475,460-acre Warm Springs Herd Management Area…

courtesy of Return to Freedom

The Bureau of Land Management has captured 226 wild horses and six burros and eight animals have died during the first three days of a helicopter roundup preceding a planned sterilization study of about 100 wild mares.

BLM intends to remove about 652 wild horses from the 475,460-acre Warm Springs Herd Management Area, located about 25 miles west of Burns, Ore., because the agency says it cannot support the estimated population of more than 800 wild horses. “Water availability is currently inadequate to support part of the herd and BLM has been hauling water to sustain approximately 236 animals until they are able to be gathered,” the agency said in a press release.

Three wild horses, including two foals, have died of injuries suffered during the roundup:

• A 3-year-old black mare suffered a broken neck after running into a panel while captured wild horses were being sorted;
• A 2-month-old pinto filly died of a head injury after being captured;
• A 3-month-old pinto filly died of capture myopathy:  muscle damage resulting from extreme exertion, struggle or stress.

Another five have been put down because of what BLM says were pre-exisiting injuries: two because of spine injuries resulting in severe lameness, a vaginal / rectal tear from foaling, shoulder injury and a head injury causing blindness in both eyes.

In conjunction with the roundup, BLM plans to sterilize about 100 wild mares, including pregnant mares. The procedure to be performed on the mares, known as ovariectomy via colpotomy, by a private veterinarian is seldom used even in sterile environments with domestic horses. It involves removing the ovaries by crushing and pulling them out with a looped-chain medical instrument called an ecraseur.

From BLM’s planning documents:

This dangerous, costly and unproven procedure opens the mares up to: serious risk from infection; evisceration (should intestines come through the incision); and hemorrhaging. There is a high frequency of post-operative complications affiliated with ovariectomy via colpotomy, some of which can be life-threatening.

The BLM-set “Appropriate Management Level” for Warm Springs is 96-178 wild horses, or as low as one wild horse for every 4,953 acres.

By comparison, BLM allocates 19,392 Animal Unit Months for privately owned livestock that graze on the herd management area. One AUM is a month’s forage for one horse, one cow / calf pair or five sheep. Actual use varied from 55-73% from 2008-2017, according to BLM planning documents.

Wild horses captured during the roundup will be transported to BLM’s Wild Horse Corral Facility in Hines, Ore., where they will be subjected to the spay study or to be offered for adoption.

Those passed over three times for adoption or that are ages 10-over face an increased risk of going to slaughter because BLM has altered its sale policy to allow one buyer to purchase up to 24 wild horses per day with no waiting period, no oversight and no questions aked.

To read BLM’s planning documents, click here.

Viewing the roundup / surgeries

BLM has not released full details, yet, but some have been posted here.

To read more about why RTF strongly opposes spay surgeries, click here.

To read RTF’s op-ed about the Oregon roundup and spay study, click here.

Take Action

Call your members of Congress at (202) 225-3121 (to find direct numbers, go to https://www.callmycongress.com).

Urge your senators to:

* Stand strong in Conference committee on the Senate’s language protecting wild horses and burros and on defunding horse slaughter, if the senator sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee (click for a list of members: https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/about/members).

For senators *not* on the Senate Appropriations Committee: Ask them to tell members of the Conference committee that constituents do not want them to waiver either on protecting wild horses or defunding horse slaughter.

* Oppose a new, quietly implemented BLM policy increasing the number of wild horses that can be sold to individuals and the frequency of those sales. This move will only lead to the slaughter of wild horses, something Congress has strongly rejected;

* Support the SAFE Act (S. 1706) to ban slaughter and the transportation of horses for slaughter.

Urge your congressional representative to:

* Oppose a new, quietly implemented BLM increasing the number of wild horses that can be sold to individuals and the frequency of those sales. This move will only lead to the slaughter of wild horses, something Congress has strongly rejected.

Read the rest of this article HERE.