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1. APRIL 25, 2019
   BLM Grazing Decision Will Damage the Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness
   by GEORGE WUERTHNER
   https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/25/blm-grazing-decision-will-damage-the-owyhee-canyonlands-wilderness/

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2. APRIL 25, 2019
   BLM Grazing Decision Will Damage the Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness
   by GEORGE WUERTHNER
   https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/25/blm-grazing-decision-will-damage-the-owyhee-canyonlands-wilderness/

   The BLM grazing permit renewal would authorize extensive “range developments” including 30 miles of new fencing, 12 new troughs, and 9.6 miles of new water pipeline as well as motorized access—all this to accommodate increased livestock numbers.

   Proposing new range “developments” is a typical ploy of the BLM to avoid eliminating or reducing livestock numbers. The BLM has been modifying the natural landscape to accommodate livestock for decades. The proposed new range developments would add to the already existing 24 stock ponds, 32 developed springs, and 494 miles of fence on the allotments.

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3. Owyhee Wild Horses..IN THE WILD..on PUBLIC LAND…Where the American Public can see them ANYTIME..without having to make reservations

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4. It’s all so disgusting! Hmm let me get this straight. We have PUBLIC lands set aside for our Wild Horses and Burros that tax payers support. Then comes the BLM and removes the Wild Horses and Burros because of rising populations. Stallions cannot foal and mare can only produce one foal a year. No accurate scientific studies used! Now let’s take these same horses and put them on PRIVATE ranches where we are again paying friends to house these poor souls at tax payers expense! Now that we have cleared the Wild Horses and Burros off the again PUBLIC land, the BLM will lease millions of acres to the low life Welfare Ranchers at a disgusting rate to make MONEY off their cattle and livestock! Hmm what’s wrong with this picture here! $785,000 for a helicopter AGAIN tax payers pay for to round up and kill foals, mares, stallions and other youngsters! Again, WHAT IN THE HELL is WRONG with this picture! Every single American needs to stand up for our Wild Horses and Burros! These Wild Horses and Burros should be visible all the time! Not just for a PR special!

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   • Gail, there’s a LOT wrong with this picture, but we should all understand that public land wasn’t “set aside” for wild horses and burros in 1971. They were protected and allowed to exist and perpetuate on lands “where then found” and were by law to be allocated “principal” use of resources (forage, water etc.) but this didn’t ever exclude other uses. In 1976 the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) enshrined the construct of “multiple use” which still directs policy today.

     More importantly, wild horses and burros were to be managed as part of the natural ecosystem, not as pariah “feral” animals as the DOI and USFS and vested interests insist. They evolved here, they belong here, and they interact with their native lands in ways non-native invasive livestock (cattle and sheep) cannot.

     Yes there are problems, but one has to look squarely at nearly 50 years now of paid professional “managers” who lead us to crisis after crisis after crisis, at every turn private pockets get lined with public money and horses and burros pay with their lives.

     They work for us and need to be held accountable though Congressional intervention and oversight, which will only happen when millions of people wake up, stand up, and speak up. We know petitions with thousands of names are purposely disregarded, so it will take some huevos in Congress to change course.

     At a minimum, at this time we should all be demanding a moratorium and independent review of the BLM and USFS wild horse programs before any more are removed, sterilized, or killed. We also should and can easily enough remove the competition with livestock by segregating grazing areas between them and wild horses and burros. Even returning geldings from holding pens to legal areas now emptied of wild horses would be better than any this “proposal” provides, and could help mitigate wildfires if strategically released.

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     • 43 CFR § 4710.5 – Closure to livestock grazing.
       CFR

       § 4710.5 Closure to livestock grazing.
       (a) If necessary to provide habitat for wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros from disease, harassment or injury, the authorized officer may close appropriate areas of the public lands to grazing use by all or a particular kind of livestock.

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   • It hard to understand how misguided an individual can become because they think wild Oops —- feral horses should be allowed to destroy an area and then starve to death. These are nothing more than horses that either escaped from their owners years ago or were abandoned. Their numbers have to be controlled. The individual who thinks ranchers are freeloaders must be vegetarian as they have no idea where their food comes from.

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     • I doubt if you will be able to influence any of the readers here. Readers that have studied wild horses in all possible ways for decades and have shared their research and personal experiences with each other. Readers that come from every possible life style, / / / such as vets, naturalists, range management, biologists, law, historians, ranchers, farmers, sales, service and all other occupations and all levels of education. So, maybe instead of spouting inaccurate memes, maybe learn something, as the rest of us do.

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5. ” J.R. Simplot, the nation’s largest public lands grazer…”

   THE OWYHEE INITIATIVE: A COLLABORATIVE ASSAULT ON PUBLIC LANDS AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS

   Click to access Owyhee_Initiative_Analysis_March_04.pdf

   The Bruneau wild horse feed-lot is owned by the Simplot corporation and there is no doubt that they only care about getting the money and don’t care at all about the wild horses. The BLM has paid Simplot over $11 million dollars to imprison our wild horses from 2015-2018.

   In addition, being the largest public lands grazer, nothing would make them happier than to have all our wild horses and burros off of our
   public lands.

   The Bruneau wild horse facility was previously used by Simplot as a cattle feed lot. I imagine most of us have seen cattle feed-lots and if not then use google earth to see how the animals are packed in… which of course means disease will run wild (regardless of abundance of disease fighting chemicals used on cattle) and would subsequently infest the soil with these bacteria for years to come which would point to an explanation of the high death rate of our wild horses at this facility.

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6. THE TRUTH #28 – Many wild horse foals died at the BLM’s Bruneau off-range facility in Idaho, and the BLM tried to cover it up

   The Bureau of Land Management’s off-range facility in Bruneau, Idaho, is a feedlot. The contractor for this facility is the J.R. Simplot Company, one of the largest public lands welfare ranching operations in the U.S.
   593 wild mares from the Wyoming “Checkerboard” roundup were sent to the BLM’s Bruneau off-range facility.
   FOIA records indicate that 101 stillborn fetuses + 34 foal deaths = 135 wild horse foals died at this facility in Bruneau. (If these were all foals from the 593 Wyoming mares, this would mean that over 22% of the foals were lost.) On top of this, 48 mares died in the Bruneau from 9/26/17 – 9/26/18. Many of these were noted as “found dead in pen” from “Undiagnosed/Unknown” reasons.
   Based on these FOIA records:

   Besides the reported deaths of 34 foals, there are reports for the STILLBORN FETUSES:
   there were 42 stillborn fetuses 10/19/17 – 11/8/17 (21 days)
   there were 26 stillborn fetuses 11/9/17 – 11/29/17 (21 days)
   there were 19 stillborn fetuses 11/30/17 – 1/9/18 (41 days)
   2 stillborn fetuses – one n 1/11/18 and one on 2/5/18
   1 stillborn fetus 3/8/18
   5 stillborn fetuses 3/25/18 – 4/8/18 (15 days)
   6 stillborn fetuses 4/11/18 – 5/9/18 (29 days)
   Emails also revealed that instead of reporting these numbers to the public, even when asked directly, BLM employees told the public that they’d need to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out the information.
   1) The BLM’s FOIAs are “backlogged” so it takes a very long time to get the requested records.
   2) The BLM was deliberately making it difficult for the public to find out the facts,
   3) A BLM employee can just pick up the phone and call (or email) another BLM employee to the get information.
   4) BLM employees can likely access much information themselves from the BLM’s Wild Horse & Burro System (WHBPS) database (referred to as PS in one of the emails). All of the records/data from the Wild Horse & Burro Program are in the WHBPS database.
   5) Why should the public have to file a FOIA to get a question answered?
   6) It is burdensome for most members of the public to file a FOIA request, so this is a way that the BLM discourages them from obtaining information.
   See FOIA documents below (Click on each page to enlarge):

   https://rtfitchauthor.com/2018/12/02/the-truth-28-many-wild-horse-foals-died-at-the-blms-bruneau-off-range-facility-in-idaho-and-the-blm-tried-to-cover-it-up/

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   • Since 2015 we, the American citizens have paid Simplot over TEN MILLION DOLLARS ($10,364,134) to house OUR wild horses in their filthy, disease ridden Bruneau Idaho FEED LOT.
     https://www.usaspending.gov/#/search/8e7d1214a0bfddc148d9be21a76440b8

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