Lies, subterfuge and PZP

PM PZP Dr liu

Forcibly drugging wild mares with PZP at the Carson Prison

By,

Carl Mrozek

Unfortunately, the secret mandate to turn our public lands into vast oil, gas and coal fields–interspersed with millions of cattle under Bush–Cheney has continued unabated under Obama with geothermal fields, plus solar and wind farms being added to the mix of revenue generating initiatives, many on lands reserved by law for primary use by wild horses and burros.

Even as their herds diminish under constant assault by all of these special interests on public lands, wild horses continue to be scapegoats for degradation of public lands due to overpopulation, by the BLM which over-counts then by at least 200% while greatly exaggerating their rate of population  increase–based on optimal conditions and zero mortality.

BLM’s solution to this fabricated overpopulation explosion of wild horses and burros has been massive roundups which are now being replaced by large-scale birth control with PZP (porcine zone pellucida) which results in sterilization after multiple applications. While their tactics have grown more sophisticated, BLM’s overall management program is much the same: Management for Extinction–only slower and less visible than before. Many herds have achieved balanced population levels with little or no management but today all the $$ is on fertility control, short-term and sterilization, long-term–not on natural population control, because this won’t eradicate the herds as ordained by the power brokers in DV. Alas if we don’t wake up, expose and oppose the lies and subterfuge re: the widespread use of PZP soon, our iconic native wild horses may join blue and bowhead whales in the waiting line for extinction–sooner than later.

PM-Carl-Mrozek-NV-Mustang-marked

PM Burros Wild © Carl Mrozek

Carl Mrozek

Carl Mrozek’s nature clips are seen often on CBS Sunday Morning News. He is currently making a documentary on Wild Burros.

Palomino Mustangs on CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/nature-wild-palomino-horses/

Pine Nut Wild Horses on CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/nature-wild-horses/ (BLM tried to roundup and decimate this herd but Protect Mustangs stopped the roundup in court)

Red Rock Wild Horses on CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/wild-horses-of-nevada-50087668/ (BLM removed them)

Cold Creek Wild Horses on CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/wild-horses-of-nevada/ (BLM rounded them up and took them away)

 





BLM Fakes Population Growth to Wipe Out America’s Wild Horses

The feds’ mustang population “data” is a fraud 

By Marybeth Devlin

While pretending to rely on the assumption that herds grow 20% a year, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) posts numbers up to 8 times higher than that to justify roundups, which are pre-scheduled on a rotation-basis, seeming to target particular herds. For instance, the Agency recently claimed that the famous Kiger herd in Oregon grew from 21 horses to 156 horses in just four years — an increase of 643%, which equates to a yearly average increase of 160%, which is 8 times higher than the 20% BLM supposedly uses. [1] Such growth is biologically impossible. Kiger is not an isolated example, although it is the worst found so far. Here are some other phony figures on population-growth recently claimed by BLM to make it appear that gathers were necessary:

Blawn Wash (UT)
297.4 % increase in 3 years, averaging 99.1 % per year

Fish Creek (NV)
80% increase in one year

Green Mountain (WY)
281% increase in four years, averaging 70.3% per year

Stewart Creek (WY)
311% increase in four years, averaging 77.8% per year
But herd-growth is unlikely to reach even 20 percent a year. It is important to understand that the birth-rate is not the same as–and should not be equated to–the population growth-rate. Here’s why: Horses die. An independent study reviewed BLM roundup-records for a representative sample of four herd management areas composed of 5,859 wild horses (Gregg, LeBlanc, and Johnston, 2014). While the researchers found an overall birth-rate of just under 20 percent, they also found that half of foals perish in their first year of life. Thus, the effective foal-to-yearling survival-rate is just 10 percent. Further, adult wild horses also perish. They succumb to illness, injury, and predation. Their death-rate must be taken into consideration as well. But BLM ignores mortality–foal and adult–in its population-estimates. Given the 50% foal mortality-rate, and the 5% or higher average annual death-rate of adult wild horses, herd-growth could not increase 20% a year, and a herd-population could not double in 4 years–refuting yet another BLM myth.

Stealthily inserting bogus birth-rates into the data, wrongly conflating birth-rates with population growth-rates, and failing to factor in mortality-rates–that is how BLM creates the false impression of a population-explosion. But “cooking the books” is not the only way BLM falsifies the population-picture. Another ruse BLM employs is restricting maximum herd-size below minimum-viable population (MVP) size. Then, whenever a herd is made to appear–via fictitious figures–to exceed the arbitrary management level, BLM screams “excess!” and declares an immediate need for mass-removals and sterilizations. It should be noted that more than 70 percent of the herds are “managed” below MVP.

BLM also fails to consider another factor limiting herd-growth–stochastic events–which are random catastrophes such as wildfires or contagious diseases that suddenly wipe out mass-numbers of herd-members. Stochastic events can result in no-growth or even negative growth.

Now BLM is distributing grant-money to universities and researchers to study more ways of dealing with the phantom overpopulation. All manner of sicko experiments are being carried out on the wild horses, such as treating them with endocrine disruptors and sterilizing them surgically. Why? Because BLM is a corrupt agency. It invented this counterfeit crisis to create a sense of urgency, which will pressure Congress to give the Agency extra money to “solve” a non-existent problem.

TAKE ACTION: Sign and share by email the Petition to Stop the Wild Horse and Burro Roundups and Slaughter here: https://www.change.org/p/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-amp-burro-roundups

Contact your elected officials to make them aware of BLM’s fraudulent population claims to get funding for wild horse roundups and warehousing at great taxpayer expense: http://www.contactingthecongress.org

Click “Like” https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs for updates and alerts

Visit www.ProtectMustangs.org for more information and click on the donate button help fight the injustice! You can make a difference.

Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.

(Photo by BLM. Roundup paid for with your tax dollars.)
Addendum:

[1] Using simple division to calculate the average increase is how most people would “do the math”–dividing the percentage increase (643%) by the number of years (4). Expressing the average that way is readily understandable. However, another way of calculating it is what is called the “compound annual growth rate” (CAGR). Per that method, herd-growth can be likened to compound interest that you earn on a savings account; except of course that horses do die, which complicates the computations. But for now, let’s assume that horses never die, because that’s the assumption that BLM makes.

Using the free, online CAGR tool linked below, you would enter Kiger’s beginning population–21–and its alleged ending population–156–and the number of years that had passed–4. Then press the “Calculate CAGR” button, and the tool will compute the compound annual growth rate. For the Kiger herd, the CAGR is 65%, which is “only” 3.25 times higher–instead of 8 times higher–than 20%.

Here is the tool to compute CAGR:

http://www.miniwebtool.com/cagr-calculator/?present_value=100&future_value=200&num=4

Here are the other herds cited and their CAGRs. Fish Creek stays the same because its growth is just for one year.

Blawn Wash (UT)
38 = Population-estimate 2012
151 = Population-estimate 2014, including new foals

297.4 % = Percentage increase in three years
99.1 % = Simple average annual growth-rate
58.4 % = Compound annual growth-rate (CAGR)

Fish Creek (NV)
256 = Population-estimate 2013
461 = Population-estimate 2014, before foaling season (January)
80.1% = Percentage increase in one year

Green Mountain (WY)
258 = Population-estimate post-gather at the end of 2011
982 = Population-estimate in 2015 — including that year’s foals*

281.0 % = Percentage increase in four years
70.3 % = Simple average annual growth-rate
39.7 % = Compound annual growth-rate (CAGR)

Stewart Creek
124 = Population-estimate post-gather at the end of 2011
509 = Population-estimate in 2015 — including that year’s foals*

311.0 % = Percentage increase in four years
77.8 % = Simple average annual growth-rate
42.3 % = Compound annual growth-rate (CAGR)
* BLM’s population-modeling criteria said foals were not included in the AML. Evidently, they were.

Further Insight into Calculating Population-Growth

At the link below, you will find a discussion posted by the University of Oregon, providing a comparison between the simple average and the compound annual growth-rate methodologies for calculating annual percentage population-growth.

As will be readily apparent, the simple average approach is “straight-line” and … simple. Forgive yet another pun, but the average person can easily understand it and “do the math.”

The compound annual method, on the other hand, is extraordinarily complicated to compute, which is why the online tool is almost a necessity.

What is important is that both are legitimate ways of describing the data.

http://pages.uoregon.edu/rgp/PPPM613/class8a.htm

It should be kept in mind that population-growth estimates must consider births and deaths, not just births. That’s one reason why the Gregg et al. study was so important — it established, per BLM’s own documentation, a slightly-less than 20-percent birth-rate and a 50-percent foal mortality-rate. So, a wild-horse herd growth-rate of, for example, 65%, would have to mean a birth-rate that was much higher than 65% to offset foal deaths (50%) and adult deaths (5%).

 





Stop the war on wild horses

The War on Wild Horses

The War on Wild Horses

Icons of freedom are under attack

Take action against the war on wild horses by contacting your congressional representative today. Request an immediate moratorium on roundups before the herds are wiped out and symbols of the American spirit are trafficked to slaughter.

The evidence is in they are being sold to slaughter violating the public trust and the news story is going viral.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been selling America’s protected wild horses by the truckload to kill buyers like Tom Davis, as revealed in the Inspector General’s report released October 23rd

Please sign and share the petition to increase the fine for trafficking a wild horse to slaughter to $50,000. Since kill buyers are motivated by profit, the fines need to increase to make buying wild horses and selling them to slaughter a risky and unprofitable business.

The BLM has plans to sterilize herds to manage them to extinction. This is a gross violation of the Wild Horse & Burro Protection Act and must be stopped. How? We need to start rallying to raise public awareness, write letters and meet with elected officials to demand the BLM stop managing wild horses to extinction. The clock is ticking . . .

Some mustang groups have bought into a belief that fertility control drugs like PZP made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries and others are needed to “control” population when the truth is there aren’t enough wild horses left on public land that has been ravaged by livestock overgrazing. Before you agree to PZP ask yourself, “Are there really too many wild horses left on public land?”

America’s wild horses are an indigenous species that must be protected to fill their niche in the ecosystem and inspire future generations with their beauty and spirit. Take action today!

 

Links of interest™

Viral news story on wild horses sold to slaughter: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/10/24/investigation-says-buyer-shipped-horses-killed-meat-mexico/74547060/

Inspector General’s report: https://www.doioig.gov/reports/investigative-report-bureau-land-management-wild-horse-buyer

Forum on PZP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ForumPZPWildHorsesBurros

Petition for a Moratorium on Roundups: https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-studies

Petition to Stop Wild Horse Trafficking: https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-u-s-senate-u-s-house-of-representatives-increase-fines-to-50-000-per-mustang-for-selling-american-wild-horses-to-slaughter

Protect Mustangs on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

Protect Mustangs: http://protectmustangs.org

Sign up for Intro to Environmental Law (free)

(Photo © Grandma Gregg)

(Photo © Grandma Gregg)

What:  Introduction to Environmental Law and Policy Course
 
 
When:  Starts Monday, January 13, 2014  (This is not a cutoff date.)
 
Where:  Anywhere, anytime, on-line.
 
Length:  Six weeks
 
Professor:  Don Hornstein, J.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
 
Cost:  FREE — including all materials that you’ll need
 
Register:  FREE — It’s a very simple procedure too.
 
Earn:  A Statement of Accomplishment, but no college credit.
 
Prerequisites:  None.  Designed for the under-grad.
 
Format:  Videos (15 to 20 minutes each) and short readings per topic.
 
Repeat:  Rewatch the videos and reread the readings as often as you like.
 
Quizzes:  Typically 8 questions, multiple choice.  Take when you’re ready.
 
Retake:  To improve your score on any test, you can retake it … twice!
 
Participation:  There are opportunities to take part in a forum if you’d like.
 
Professor Hornstein teaches what is known as “positive law” (what the law actually is) as opposed to “normative law” (what the law ought to be).  He is an outstanding teacher.  
 
The course imparts insight into how lawyers and judges think and reason with regard to environmental law.  It does not specifically address wild horse and burro issues.  But the information is still relevant for our purposes.  For instance, one of the first topics covered is “nuisance law.”  On the surface, it might not seem applicable to our advocacy.  But wait — don’t the wild horses and burros get blamed for being nuisances when they step outside the invisible boundaries of their herd management area?  So, understanding “nuisance” as a legal concept — determining what is and what is not deemed a nuisance according to the courts — can make us better-able to defend our clients.  Advocates who have reviewed and responded to BLM environmental assessments will already be familiar with many of the terms, concepts, and laws that are discussed.  
 
Dr. Hornstein has many teaching assistants that help him.  They are eager to answer questions.  Also, you will find that students from all over the world, not just America, take the course.  Last term, there were reportedly about 20,000!  Yes, twenty thousand!  
 

 A special thanks to Marybeth Devlin for bringing this class to our attention.

 
 

Saved from government holding, 2 long yearlings get a second chance

“Follow your heart. Adopt a pair of mustangs. Gentle them with love.” ~Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs

Both wild yearlings, Blondie and Tibet, had 2-Strikes from failed Bureau of Land Management (BLM) adoptions. Protect Mustangs stepped in to prevent a 3rd Strike and save them from sale ($10 each by the truckload) and probable slaughter.

Blondie is the soon to be 2 year old palomino filly from California’s Fox Hog herd.

Tibet is the 18 months old gelding with a blaze from the Continental Divide in Wyoming.

Blondie arrived untamed from the Litchfield BLM Holding Corral in December 2012 and Tibet arrived from the Wyoming Corral in February 2013 thanks to our village of supporters.

Now both wild horses are gentled. They have been exposed to cars, trucks, helicopters, people riding horses, kids, dogs, cats, kids on scooters, tarps and more. They can be haltered, pick up their feet and be lead. This is their second turnout in the main arena at the training facility. Anne Novak has donated their training.

Protect Mustangs is an all volunteer organization and are very grateful for your help. Please donate towards board and care for the wild horse Ambassadors. Protect Mustangs is also raising money for a used truck and trailer to facilitate adoptions by bringing wild horses down from the BLM corrals near Reno and Susanville, once the mustangs have been adopted. The organization will use the truck and trailer for community outreach and education work as well. Please help by donating here: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=701

No treats were used during this training session.

All images © Anne Novak for Protect Mustangs.org, all rights reserved.