The goal is to see if SpayVac®, a novel formulation of a glycoprotein called porcine zona pellucida (PZP), will provide a longer-term effect than other PZP vaccines currently used by the BLM. If the vaccine is found to reduce foaling in this controlled setting, it will be considered for use with free-roaming horses to help control population growth rates on the range.
As the primary agency responsible for management of wild horses on U.S. public lands, the BLM has a need for a long-lasting contraceptive agent to control herd growth rates. Given the protection afforded by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 and a general lack of natural predators, wild horse populations increase at an average rate of 20 percent a year and can quickly exceed the carrying capacity of their ranges.
The BLM, as part of its development of a new wild horse and burro management strategy, has been stepping up its efforts to reduce population growth rates in wild horse herds using contraceptive agents. A main limitation of the agents currently available is that they are of relatively short duration or need to be administered annually. Maximizing the duration of contraceptive effectiveness is especially important in wild horses, which in most cases must be captured in order for the treatment to be successfully administered.
In the BLM-USGS study, 90 mares have been treated with either one of two formulations of the vaccine or a placebo. The mares will be followed for five years to measure anti-PZP antibody levels and compare the foaling rates between treated horses and controls. Although breeding is not usually allowed to occur in BLM facilities, a clinical trial in this controlled environment will provide critical information on how well SpayVac® works as a contraceptive.
The mares and stallions enrolled in the study were selected from horses already in BLM holding facilities. They are being housed in three 30-acre pastures and will be together during the next five breeding seasons. Foals that are born during the study will be offered for adoption each fall after they have been weaned. At the conclusion of the study, all adult horses will be returned to the BLM’s Adopt-A-Horse Program or placed in long-term pasture facilities.
The BLM has an interagency agreement with the USGS for research and scientific support, and this study is a collaborative effort with scientists from the USGS, veterinarians with the Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and TerraMar Environmental Research LLC.
BLM Releases Preliminary EA for North Lander Complex Wild Horse Gather
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Lander Field Office announces that a preliminary environmental assessment (EA) analyzing a proposed wild horse gather in the North Lander Wild Horse Herd Management Area Complex is now available for review.The North Lander Complex is located east of Riverton within Fremont County, Wyo. The proposed gather is expected to take place in fall, 2012.The preliminary EA analyzes four alternatives and is available by visiting the BLM website at: www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/NEPA/documents/lfo/N-Lander-gather.html.The 30 day comment period runs from July 9 through August 7, 2012. Comments may be emailed to: BLM_WY_North_Lander_Gather@blm.gov(please include “North Lander Gather EA Comments” in the subject line). Comments may also be mailed to BLM Lander Field Office, Attn: Scott Fluer, 1335 Main Street, Lander, WY, 82520.For more information, visit: www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/NEPA/documents/lfo/N-Lander-gather.html, or contact BLM Wild Horse Specialist Scott Fluer at 307-332-8400.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM’s multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
–BLM–Lander Field Office 1335 Main Street Lander, WY 82520
Here is a video message about the American wild horse crisis in February 2010. The numbers are bigger now with 53K wild horses in holding and perhaps 15K left on the range.
Thank you Arlene Gawne and team for bringing this YouTube message to the public.
In 2009, 2010 and 2011 we all tried to help The President understand the need to save the mustangs. Sadly he appears to want The New Energy Frontier above and beyond anything else.
If you don’t like what’s going on then contact your representatives and senators because they are your voice in government. Congress funds the rotten Wild Horse and Burro Program under the Bureau of Land Management.
Request a Congressional investigation, forensic accounting and a moratorium on roundups as well as fertility control until the truth comes out that there are hardly any wild horses left out on America’s public land.
This year the EPA passed a fertility control pesticide for use on America’s wild horses and burros. Our indigenous horse has been formally labelled a “pest” by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. We want the erroneous classification reversed. Pests and invasive species are weeded out and disposed of . . . Why did the EPA sell out?
“I applaud the folks at Bella Vista II,” says Carrol Abel, past president of Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund. “They recognized a need to provide protections for wild horses in the area thus providing protection for future residents of their development. Our city needs to step up to the plate and require the same for future developments.”
The Bureau of Land Management is claiming an emergency drought and plans to capture 12 horses near the Summit Springs on the Surprise Valley High Rock Complex – 615,946 acres of federally protected herd management area (HMA) in N.W. Nevada.
ONE standard size water truck could supply these 12 horses with enough water for 21 days. They could remain in their home range “where found” as Congressional law requires. A horse drinks about 15 gallons of water a day so for the 12 horses near the Summit Springs area of the BLM Surprise Valley that would equal only about 1,260 gal. per week. BLM states they are taking three water truck loads a week to the area (see link) so obviously it is livestock and wildlife that are drinking the other 10,740 gallons each week and the horses get the blame … as usual. Does something smell fishy to you?
Sheep on HMA
As it happens, in this same area there are two large livestock grazing permits one of which is authorized to graze 1,340 cattle this time of year. Have the livestock been removed to protect the range and the dwindling water supply? Another example is the Bright Holland Corporation who controls very large water rights in this same Surprise Valley area – the company’s president is the Nevada water baron Sam Jaksick who is also tightly connected to Sempra energy – Sempra is reported to be the largest global energy company next to BP. So who DOES own and control our water on our public land?
I’ll admit the area is dry this year but I also know (and BLM would never admit this because it would cause too much pressure from the large ranching corporations) that most of the immediate problem is caused by cattle and sheep overgrazing. I have witnessed and documented this. Two weeks ago and very near to this same Surprise Valley area – about 500 sheep were standing in an area that had been a lake but is now only a dry barren shallow pit stripped of all forage (see photos taken 6/30/12 Pilgrim Lake, Twin Peaks HMA, CA-NV boarder) and in another nearby dry riparian area there was no sign of any wild horse manure but there were cow patties every six feet within the lake bed … and that is no exaggeration.
Our wild horses have been adversely affected by BLM MIS-management of our public land. Last winter’s big wild horse capture in this area displaced the few horses that were released and those that had been forced to run from the helicopter and hide. Now BLM is stating that they will be trapping 12 wild horses and moving them. This will disrupt their family bands and cause extreme stress and some may be injured and die from this unnecessary plan. And this is becoming a trend; just this week BLM has announced a very similar scenario for other wild horses in the west.
I say leave them alone on their legal land, remove all livestock from these areas and spend a few dollars taking them out some water for the next few months – after all this is their water and their land and our water and our land. The BLM made $112 billion from our public lands in 2010 … and they are saying that they can’t even take a water truck out to the legal horses every three weeks? Not likely! – Does that seem right? – Hogwash!
The Nevada Department of Agriculture is requesting the public’s help identifying two men who collected about 10 wild horses Thursday morning in the Damonte Ranch subdivision.
The state received a call from a concerned citizen who saw two men loading the horses into trailers, department spokesman Ed Foster said.
Although the department is planning a collection of the area’s horses in the next week, Foster said it had no knowledge of a scheduled pickup Thursday.
“The concern is that the horses may been have picked for slaughter or illegal rodeo activities,” he said.
The department asks that anyone with information about the pickup to call 775-353-3601.
Write a hand written letter to your senators and representative asking them to stop funding cruel helicopter roundups. Let them know you want viable herds on the range and for the BLM to stop skewing the male-female ratios, allow predators to manage the herds as nature intended so risky fertility control drugs aren’t needed.
Your letters will make a big impact. Politicians realize one hand written letter voices the opinion of one thousand people.
Send us a copy of your hand written letters so we can take them with us to Washington. Please mail them to: Protect Mustangs, P.O. Box 5661, Berkeley, Ca. 94705
Thank you for doing what you can do to help the wild horses and burros!
When outgoing Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced last month that he was pushing to reduce America’s national deficit by reducing “welfare ranching” in America’s heartland, so quiet was the political response in Washington that you could practically hear the crickets chirping along the Potomac. Undaunted, Sen. Nelson last Wednesday went one step further, announcing that he has introduced an eminently level-headed “Fair Grazing Fee” bill, designed to require the various agencies of the executive branch to charge market-level grazing fees for private ranchers who are running livestock on public land.
More crickets in Washington. But not on the ranches and farms of the nation’s vast ranch lands. And certainly not in Nebraska. There, Sen. Nelson’s new initiative is a very big deal for many different reasons. After all, it’s not every day when an elected official, in the selfless pursuit of a common good, bucks up against the power of entrenched special interests and … wait, wait, what’s that? Sen. Nelson pitched his plan not just out of pure deficit-minded selflessness but because Republican nominee Deb Fischer, running this fall for the seat he is vacating, is herself a current beneficiary of “welfare ranching?”
Here’s how the Omaha World-Herald Leader put it last month: “The family of Republican Senate nominee Deb Fischer leases 11,724 acres of federal land in north-central Nebraska for about $4,700 for seven months — by some estimates about $110,000 less than the market rate for leasing private land in Cherry County.” Combine such a sweetheart deal with a GOP candidate whose campaign so far has focused upon deficit reduction and wasteful Washington spending and, presto! The Democrats have themselves a campaign theme with some measure of traction.
Sen. Nelson puts it another way. It’s not a story about Washington picking on the ranching industry, you see; it’s about inequality within that industry itself. Sen. Nelson says he isn’t just sticking up for the hundreds of millions of Americans who would like to see their public land leased at market rates. He says he is also sticking up for the vast majority of ranchers who for one reason or another do not receive the benefit of federally subsidized ranching fees. Last week, the senator explained it this way to local journalists:
I have offered an Amendment to help pay for the Jobs Bill, an Amendment that will bring fairness to America’s ranchers and all taxpayers. My Amendment will require the US Forest Service and the Federal Bureau of Land Management to charge market value to those who graze livestock on public lands. As you probably know, an elite group of ranchers, I call them the ‘two-percenters,’ they currently receive about $140 million a year in federal subsidies to graze livestock on publicly-owned land. In these hard economic times, taxpayers shouldn’t be padding the pocketbooks of the elite two-percent who get a special deal that 98% of ranchers don’t.
And here’s more from his website:
… The State of Nebraska charges over $20 dollars a head of calf to graze on state land. Why should the federal government charge $1.35?… Let’s go through some numbers. All the grazing fees on federal lands add up to about $21 million dollars. But it costs the federal government $140-some million dollars to take care of those lands. In other words, there is a shortfall of $120 million dollars coming from two percent of ranchers. If I’m one of the 98 percent, I’m going to say ‘that’s not fair.” That’s why this is a matter of tax fairness.
In this day and age, who could be against “tax fairness”? Certainly not Bob Kerrey, the former Nebraska senator and governor who is running (against Fischer) for Nelson’s soon-to-be-empty seat. “I believe the free market should set the prices for grazing on federal land,” Kerrey said last month in a press release after Nelson first announced his pitch. “Giving generous subsidies to a small number of ranchers isn’t fair to the vast majority of ranchers who don’t have this grazing privilege. Further, it isn’t fair to the taxpayers who are subsidizing this form of welfare.
What do Fischer and her fellow Republicans think of Sen. Nelson’s bright idea? I’ll let the Lincoln Journal Starpick up the story from here:
The Nebraska Democratic Party launched a new TV ad campaign Monday accusing Republican Senate nominee Deb Fischer of accepting millions of dollars in “taxpayer subsidies”;at the same time, she calls for reduced federal spending. “Think you know Deb Fischer?” the attack ad asks. “Well, behind her rhetoric is a lot of bull. Tell welfare rancher Deb Fischer to cut wasteful spending, not profit from it.”
Democrats clearly have decided Fischer’s participation in a federal livestock grazing rights program that benefits her own family ranch may be a chink in her conservative, cost-cutting armor they might be able to exploit. Sen. Ben Nelson and Bob Kerrey, her Democratic Senate opponent, already have questioned Fischer’s acceptance of what they describe as federal subsidies that result from charging below-market fees for cattle grazing rights on U.S. Forest Service land.
“Ranchers are required to pay for additional maintenance costs and abide by strict federal regulations in exchange for leasing the land,” Fischer campaign spokesman Daniel Keylin said. Republican Sen. Mike Johanns, a former U.S. secretary of agriculture, already has said it was misleading to describe the program as a subsidy, Keylin pointed out. Johanns said the lease requires substantial activity by a rancher in return for limited use of the land. Republican state Chairman Mark Fahleson branded the ads an act of desperation.
An act of desperation, perhaps. But that doesn’t make Sen. Nelson’s plan bad national policy. Indeed, regardless of its local-political overtones, and regardless of the senator’s motives in promoting it, making federal grazing fees at least match the market rate is sound and equitable policy that deserves serious consideration on Capitol Hill. The fact is, for the past 75 years, “welfare ranching” has eroded public resources for the benefit of an industry that gladly accepts the federal dole at the same time it is blasting Washington for its largesse.
Just ask the folks at the Center for Biological Diversity, a group dedicated (among other things) to the conservation of public lands. The Center’s Public Land Campaigns Director, Taylor McKinnon, quickly praised the Nelson plan. “The grazing subsidy is America’s upside-down public-lands policy,” McKinnon told me last Friday. “Each year it costs the public hundreds of millions of dollars while enabling public-lands grazing that erodes soil and destroys wildlife habitat. Reform makes perfect economic and environmental sense. It’s long overdue.”
Overdue — and clearly not a priority so far for the Obama Administration, which has stubbornly refused to expend any political capital on this issue. Here’s what McKinnon had to say about the executive branch’s contemporary approach to the problem of “welfare ranching” and its insidious subsidization:
We’ve both petitioned and sued the Obama Administration seeking a significantly fairer fee, but they resist change. So after years of their skulking and cowering, it’s refreshing to see someone with guts enough to tell the truth and demand a discussion about real reform.
“Real reform” can come from many different places and for many different reasons. Maybe Sen Nelson is, as McKinnon suggests, just being gutsy for pitching his plan now. Maybe he is, as Nebraska’s Republicans contend, just being ballsy on his way out. Either way, and whomever wins or loses the Senate race for his seat in Nebraska, fair grazing fees and the end of “welfare ranching” is a good idea whose time, finally, has come. As the senator himself put it, “$1.35 per cow is too darn low.” Darn right it is.
Robin Warren leads youth campaign for Protect Mustangs
For immediate release:
SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (July 16, 2012)–Since joining Protect Mustangs in June as their new youth campaign director, Robin Warren, age 11, has met with a Nevada State Senator, documented wild horses on the range, was a featured speaker at the Stop the Roundups rally in California’s capital and gave oral comments at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) helicopter hearing also in the golden state. At the hearing, Warren presented the BLM representative with her Petition to Save Wild Mustangs asking the BLM to stop helicopter roundups.
“It’s not fair that the Bureau of Land Management has an exemption to the law that protects wild horses and burros,” states Robin Warren, youth campaign director for Protect Mustangs. “We want cruel helicopter roundups to stop and we want to make sure they always have access to clean water.”
The petition reads:
“We, the undersigned, do respectfully request that the Bureau of Land Management adhere to the same rules and regulations as the general public in regards to the humane treatment of wild horses and burros. We find it unreasonable that the Secretary of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, or any person or organization, is found to be exempt from our collective responsibility as humans to treat animals humanely. We further find it unreasonable that the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture are permitted to define “humane” as it pertains to their own areas of command. We respectfully request that the Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 be restored to its original intent, that no person or organization would be permitted to capture wild horses and burros by means of motorized vehicles, or by polluting or closing off watering holes, as these methods have been proven inhumane.”
Warren started the petition 3 years ago under her pen name Wild Mustang Robin–to stop the wild horse roundups. She was inspired to co-author the petition after reading “Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West” by Marguerite Henry.
She has been active in her hometown, Las Vegas, and over the internet to get signatures. After posting the petition online at Change.org she received signatures from 50 States, DC, Puerto Rico & and more than 30 countries.
At last week’s helicopter use hearing in Sacramento, Warren presented 2770 signatures from her petition to Amy Dumas, the BLM representative.”Kids don’t want to see wild horses in zoos,” states Warren. “We want to observe them roaming on the open range with their families.”
Warren’s speech at the BLM helicopter use hearing received a standing ovation from the audience.
“Robin speaks for the youth of America and touches people’s hearts across the nation,” says Anne Novak, executive director for Protect Mustangs. “She wants the wild horses to be protected–not harassed and torn from their families forever.”
Copy of Robin’s speech to BLM delivered as a letter at the hearing:
Robin Warren Director of the Youth Program Protect Mustangs P.O. Box 5661 Berkley, CA 94705
Mike Pool
Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management
1849 C Street NW, Rm. 5665
Washington DC 20240
James G. Kenna & Amy Dumas
BLM Wild Horse and Burro State Director, and Program
California State Office
2800 Cottage Way, Suite W1834
Sacramento, CA 95825
July 10th, 2012
Re: Helicopter Roundups
Dear Messrs. Mike Pool and James Kenna and Ms. Amy Dumas;
Hi I am Wild Mustang Robin, Director of the Youth Campaign at Protect Mustangs; I came here today to talk about the mustangs. I am happy see there are many people here who could come today to say no to the roundups. First of all I would like to say the roundups are inhumane. There is a law made by Wild Horse Annie saying you cannot use motorized vehicles to round up the wild horses. If I – or even the President – was to round them up I would get arrested. Now there is one interesting thing: the BLM gets an exemption even though it is a law not to use motorized vehicles.
Helicopters are like monsters to the mustangs; children do not want America’s animals to be scared or hurt in anyway. This makes kids feel unsafe because they don’t want to have monsters in their life and children are like animals (they don’t have a voice really). The helicopters are so scary that the mustangs remember the noise for the rest of their lives. I went to the BLM holding facility in Sparks, NV and when we were walking a slow pace the horses got scared and ran away. They were scared of people walking – how do you think they feel about helicopters?
Another reason the roundups are inhumane is because they separate the families apart – the foals from the mothers and the mothers from the fathers. They might spend the rest of their lives behind gates and never see each other again. Their ability to have families is a gift because many creatures have to let their babies live on their own after a few weeks of them taking care of them. I know how it feels because I lost my whole family. I have found a new home and happiness but the mustangs may never get to be in a herd again – and they long for family. It is not humane to separate families from each other. How would you feel if you lost your family?
A much more humane idea is to keep the family bands whole and send them all together to sanctuaries. It is an idea that would save money and make money as a tourist attraction – a business like a hotel near where the mustangs and burros live. This is a great idea and it can cost less than feeding, watering, and taking care of them when they can take care of themselves. It could make money for all the states where mustangs still live – both yours and mine.
The mustangs and burros deserve to be treated right. I know that and a numerous amount of others do too. Many people care about the wild horses and burros and do not want any of them rounded up or eaten. There are the big names you know, that spoke before me, and then there are the “little names” you don’t know yet, like mine. I represent the voices of many children.
Please do not use helicopters or motorized vehicles for roundups or management. Please reconsider your roundup plans and let them live in freedom.
This week we are excited to announce the broadcast premiere of THE SKY IS PINK and the launch of ARTISTS AGAINST FRACKING.
THE SKY IS PINK BROADCAST PREMIERE!
On Monday at 6pm Regional News Network (RNN) will present the broadcast premiere of THE SKY IS PINK on The Richard French Live show, followed by an interview with me.
SEAN LENNON AND YOKO ONO LAUNCH ARTISTS AGAINST FRACKING ON JIMMY FALLON!
On last Friday’s Jimmy Fallon Show the world was introduced to ARTISTS AGAINST FRACKING, by Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono in an amazing performance which you can see here:
ARTISTS AGAINST FRACKING is an extraordinary new website and initiative pioneered by Sean Lennon, energizing the support in the fight against fracking of more than 100 of the most compelling artists in the world including Leonardo DiCaprio, Lada Gaga, David Geffen, Deepak Chopra, and many more. The list of artists against fracking is growing daily and signifies a huge boost to the movement at a moment where every source of support and influence is needed. I am heartened by the efforts and good will of these folks who are joining us in this fight and I know you will share my gratitude in counting these remarkable artists amongst our numbers.
Please take a moment to visit the new website and lend your voice to this amazing effort.
NATIONAL MARCH AND RALLY IN JULY and NEW YORK RALLY IN AUGUST TO BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY NIGHT.
Read more:
CRISIS IN NEW YORK!
New York has reached a state of emergency. Governor Cuomo is expected to announce his administration’s decision on fracking shortly and if the advance word on the street is any indication, then we have plenty to be worried about. The idea that five downstate counties will be sacrificed is untenable and we are prepared to do everything necessary to ensure that the communities in Broome, Chemungo, Chenango, Steuben and Tioga counties will not be exploited and that the natural gas industry is not provided with easily challenged regulations that invite an eventual onslaught on New York State.
Please sign on and send a letter to Governor Cuomo at Artists Against Fracking, please keep forwarding and posting THE SKY IS PINK everywhere you can and help keep New York safe.
