Breaking: 2 wild horses killed at roundup–7 year old mare and yearling filly

Dear Friends of Wild Horses, This is hard news to announce. . . The BLM has rounded up 101 wild horses in Blawn Wash, Utah. Today thirty-one wild horses were rounded up–10 studs, 15 mares and 6 foals. 2 American wild horses were killed. Here is the death report according to BLM:

  • 7-year-old sorrel mare came in with a super enlarged right hock. The vet evaluated the injury and said that the hock had been broken for some time and had healed. Her leg was deformed, irregular hoof wear and hip protruding.
  • 1-year-old grey filly ran into a corral panel at the temporary holding facility dying on impact.

Here are the text messages between me and the BLM’s PR agent:      

I never received any photos of the 2 wild horses and we know BLM documents the wild horses at the roundups.

The BLM’s roundup report is here: http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/blwn/CedarReports.html

Politicians who want to get public land transferred to their state pushed for this roundup. They went all the way to Washington to convince elected officials that wild horses were starving and ruining the range despite the fact that cattle outnumber them more than 50 to 1 and the wild horses are healthy and fat. . .

These are the same politicians who are pushing for the Wild Horse Oversight Act, H.R. 5058 to let the states manage them and be able to ‘dispose of’ federally protected wild horses as they choose.

They want American wild horses ripped off public land in what seems to be retaliation for the Bundy Ranch incident and because local politicians have a deep conflict of interest favoring livestock grazing. They are trying to scapegoat range damage on wild horses when livestock is the culprit.

Elected officials in Utah have threatened to take the matter into their own rogue hands, round up native wild horses, kill them or sell them to slaughter! They don’t realize wild horses have a right to live on public land and grazing livestock is only a privilege. Their sense of entitlement to federal lands has warped their perspective.

Despite public outcry against the proposed roundup, BLM buckled under pressure and started chasing wild horses with helicopters on Monday. . . On day three, legendary wild horses are killed because of the roundup.

Roundups are cruel.

In March 2014, 37 Wyoming wild horses were sold to a Canadian slaughterhouse–after the BLM’s Dry Creek roundup–to be killed for human consumption. We saved 14  youngsters we call the WY14 but sadly 23 herd members were slaughtered before we got involved.

In August 2013, many wild horses were sold to kill-buyers after the brutal Fort McDermitt roundup . . .

Then there is Tom Davis who wasn’t able to account for the more than 1,700 wild horses the BLM sold and delivered to him for only $10 a head after the roundups.

The public wants an immediate moratorium on roundups for recovery and management studies. BLM’s roundups and removals have increased the birthrate because native horses fear extinction when their population drops too low. Wild horses are not overpopulated on public land. If anything they are so underpopulated their genetic variability is at risk.

Please share this post with your friends and family so they can learn the truth about how the feds are spending their tax dollars to harass American wild horses with helicopters and scare them to their death or kill them after they have been trapped.

Pray for America’s wild horses. We need a miracle for them to survive corrupt politics surrounding public land. May the mare and yearling filly who died today rest in peace . . . forever running free.

In sadness,
Anne

Anne Novak
Executive Director
www.ProtectMustangs.org
Anne Novak on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak
Protect Mustangs on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

Links of interest™:

Help feed the special needs wild horses Protect Mustangs has rescued from roundups: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=701 and read about the WY14 here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=7064

Princeton University Wildlife and cows can be partners, not enemies, in search for food: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/93/41K10/index.xml?section=featured

Bundy Ranch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundy_standoff

Wild Horse Oversight Act: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr5058/text

Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs/photos/a.240625045996522.58710.233633560029004/732085626850459/?type=1&theater