Tag Archives: holding

Sign up for rare public tours of Fallon wild horse and burro corral

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Fish Creek Mares Indian Lakes aka Broken Arrow 2015

From a BLM press release:

RENO, Nev. —The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is offering two public tours of the Indian Lakes Off-Range Wild Horse and Burro Corral in Fallon, Nevada, on Friday, May 20. The corral is one of three in Nevada that provides care to wild horses and burros removed from the range. Tour attendees will be able to observe a new water sprinkler system designed to increase animal comfort and reduce dust at the facility.

The public tours are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and each will last about two hours. Each tour will accommodate up to 20 people. Spaces will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. The public can sign up to attend and get driving directions to the facility by calling the Palomino Valley Center (PVC) at (775) 475-2222.

About a 90-minute drive east of Reno, the Indian Lakes Off-Range Corral is located at 5676 Indian Lakes Road, Fallon, and is privately owned and operated. Tour attendees will be taken around the facility as a group on a wagon to learn about the facility, the animals, and BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. The new water sprinkler system will be in operation during the tour. The system includes 25 high-powered sprinklers that have the ability to provide cooling and dust abatement for most of the facility.  The sprinklers are supplied by a commercial well that has the ability to pump approximately 700 gallons of water per minute.

The Indian Lakes facility can provide care for up to 3,200 wild horses or burros. The facility encompasses 320 acres containing 43 large holding pens, each pen measuring 70,000 square feet that will safely hold about 100 horses. The horses receive an abundance of feed tailored to their needs each day, along with a constant supply of fresh water through automatic watering troughs. Free choice mineral block supplements are also provided to the animals in each pen. A veterinarian routinely inspects the horses and provides necessary medical care as needed.

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




Protect Mustangs officially requests BLM Nevada bring captive wild horses shade to end their suffering

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John Ruhs
Nevada BLM Director
BLM Nevada State Office
1340 Financial Blvd.,
Reno, NV 89502

Front Desk: 775-861-6400
Fax: 775-861-6601
Email: nvsoweb@blm.gov

July 2, 2015

Dear Mr Ruhs,

We officially request BLM Nevada bring emergency shade to the captive wild horses & burros at Palomino Valley Center facility (PVC), the Nevada State Prison in Carson City and other short term holding corrals. Here is our petition which explains the issue and what we would like: https://www.change.org/p/bring-emergency-shelter-and-shade-to-captive-wild-horses-and-burros

In 2013, Protect Mustangs conducted an investigation that uncovered captive wild horses at PVC–with no access to shade–who were dying in the heat wave. You can watch the rough video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdM2NrJcX8o Now it’s 2015, they still do not have access to shade and heat waves are here again.

Aside from concerns to protect them from heat stroke, other underlying health issues can be aggravated by heat waves–resulting in suffering and sometimes death.

We respectfully request you intervene to stop this extreme cruelty towards America’s icons in honor of the celebration of American independence on the 4th of July.

Wild horses embody the American spirit of life, liberty and freedom. It’s time to take responsibility for the captives in BLM’s care and bring them shade.

Shelter is one of the 3 basics in animal husbandry. Adopters are required to provide shelter when adopting wild horses yet the bureau ignores its own basic care guidelines.

In the wild, mustangs seek out shade and cooler zones. In the captive pens, paid for with tax dollars, wild horses are at the BLM’s mercy. Please help them and end this senseless suffering.

I extend my hand to work with you and your office in an effort to bring an end to cruelty towards America’s wild horses who previously roamed free. Please contact me at 415-531-8454 to discuss this urgent matter. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Anne Novak

Anne Novak
Executive Director
Protect Mustangs
Tel./Text: 415.531.8454
Anne@ProtectMustangs.org

Read about native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs
In the news: https://newsle.com/AnneNovak

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

Some shade issue press clippings:

Ann Novak of the advocacy group Protect Mustangs urged Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to step in and ensure protection for the horses.

She said at least three horses could have died as a result of excessive heat at the facility since June 28, but the BLM failed to perform necropsies on two of them to pinpoint the cause of death. A necropsy of the third horse found the cause of death was a respiratory illness, but Novak said hot temperatures could have aggravated the animal’s condition.

“It’s as if they (BLM) don’t want the public to know the truth,” Novak said Saturday as the mercury reached 103 degrees in Reno. “These captive wild horses need emergency shade. Exposing them to another heat wave without shade is cruel.”

Associated Press (viral coast to coast & abroad) BLM seeks ideas on how to protect wild horses from heat deaths http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/wild-horses-nevada/blm-seeks-ideas-how-protect-wild-horses-heat-deaths

BLM Seeks Ways To Protect Wild Horses From Heat After Pressure From Bay Area Advocate http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/07/20/blm-seeks-to-protect-wild-horses-from-heat-after-pressure-from-bay-area-advocate/

Novak comments: “If the government can send people into space then they can figure out how to shade the captive wild horses or just return them to the range. In the wild they can migrate to shady areas. In captivity it’s cruel to deny them shade.”

Captive wild horses need shade, advocates say http://horsetalk.co.nz/2013/07/02/captive-wild-horses-need-shade-advocates-say/#axzz3emSmcimj
Captive wild horses need relief from heat, says HSUS
http://horsetalk.co.nz/2013/07/18/captive-wild-horses-need-relief-heat-says-hsus/#axzz3emSmcimj

BLM seeks ideas on how to protect wild horses (NBC reports) http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/BLM-seeks-ideas-on-how-to-protect-wild-horses/HpPHeFaft0-vH0JbKVfLIA.cspx?rss=3298

and more…

Please visit this area of our website for information on the ongoing crisis: http://protectmustangs.org/?tag=shade

How many foals are dying after roundups?: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4246

BLM’s email revealing they are not counting the unbranded dead amongst the 37 dead mustangs at the Nevada facility http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4220

BLM avoids necropsy to avoid proof of heat distress http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4808

 

PM Shade Cruelty

BLM ignores stakeholders and schedules tour of 102 forcibly drugged mares at Fallon facility with short notice

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PM PZP Syringe FB

Mostly insiders knew about the tour in advance of the general public

RENO, Nev. —The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is offering a rare public tour of the Indian Lakes Off-Range Corral in Fallon, Nevada, March 7 without adequate public notice for all stakeholders. This is one of three facilities in Nevada that keep and process wild horses and burros removed from the range, including horses recently rounded up from the Fish Creek Herd Management Area in Eastern Nevada.

The tour is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time and last approximately two hours. The tour will accommodate only 20 people. Space will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. The public can sign up to attend and get driving directions to the facility by calling the BLM at 775-475-2222. You may also call Jason Lutterman, 775-861-6614 to get a spot or email him at jlutterman@blm.gov or Brenda Beasley Cell: 775-315-5391
bbeasley@blm.gov

About a 90-minute drive east of Reno, the Indian Lakes Corral is located at 5676 Indian Lakes Road, Fallon, and is privately owned and operated. Tour attendees will be corralled in a wagon and taken around the facility hear BLM’s spin on the failing Wild Horse and Burro Program and the wild horses at Indian Lakes.

The few attendees will have the opportunity to observe 102 wild mares from the recent Fish Creek roundup. The native mares have been forcibly drugged with an EPA restricted-use pesticide made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries called PZP for Porcine Zona Pellucida. Their release was stopped by an Interior Board of Land Appeal filed by a disgruntled rancher and the Eureka Country commissioners. Now drugged with the pesticide that sterilizes after multiple use, the Fish Creek mares wait in limbo.

The public is becoming aware that PZP is part of the BLM’s final solution to manage wild horses to extinction.  Roundups will increase with PZP programs and evidently puts more wild horses at risk of never being “released”.

“The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is holding off on plans to return 186 wild horses to the range in central Nevada pending the review of an appeal filed by a rancher and rural county opposed to the move. . . Rancher Kevin Borba and Eureka County commissioners, who filed the appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals on Friday, oppose the return of any of the 424 horses to the range,” according to the Associated Press article from February 22nd.

With outrageously short notice, the Nevada BLM is hosting a public tour where only insiders have more than a few days notice.

The Indian Lakes Corral can hold up to 3,200 wild horses or burros who have been chased by helicopters, ripped from their families and removed from their native lands. The facility contains 43 large holding pens. Touted as a feedlot setting to fatten up wild horses “as fat as butterballs” the BLM proclaims they “don’t sell wild horses to slaughter”. Despite the public dis-information campaign, BLM has sold truckloads to slaughter middlemen such as the infamous Tom Davis who received more than 1,700 American wild horses–delivered at tax-payer expense.

Every time a wild horse is offered for adoption but is not picked they acquire a strike against them. With 3-Strikes they lose their federal protection and can legally be sold by the truckload according to the Burns Amendment to the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act.

The BLM claims to the press and to congressional aides that they want to place wild horses into good, private homes yet they are notorious for making it hard to adopt wild horses. The Indian Lakes Corral is a prime example. It’s a private facility that is “closed to the public” with maybe two or three public access days a year open to only a small amount of people even though the contractor is paid with public tax dollars. The captives are funneled out to off-site adoptions where their chances of adoption are slim due to BLM’s poor marketing and rotten customer service. Every time wild horses aren’t picked at an adoption event they get another strike towards becoming wild horse sashimi abroad.

 

 

 

Links of interest™

BLM holds off on plan to return 186 mustangs to range in NV http://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/state/blm-holds-off-on-plan-to-return-mustangs-to-range/article_5eaf59ac-008c-5977-8f3a-491f9e9dad06.html

Tour announcement published March 5th in the Nevada Appeal: http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/lahontanvalley/15305301-113/blm-schedules-tour-of-off-range-horse-corral

 

Associated Press reports: Feds seek extra holding space for western mustangs

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Wild War Horse (Photo © Cynthia Smalley, all rights reserved.)

Wild War Horse (Photo © Cynthia Smalley, all rights reserved.)

by Martin Griffith Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Federal land managers are under fire from animal welfare activists for seeking extra holding space for wild horses removed from western rangelands.

With current facilities nearing capacity, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is accepting bids until Aug. 29 from contractors interested in either operating short-term corrals in 31 states in the Midwest and East or long-term pastures.

After removing horses from the range, the bureau places them in short-term facilities until they are either adopted or shipped to pastures in the Midwest where they spend the rest of their lives. The agency routinely thins what it calls overpopulated herds on public land.

BLM officials, in a statement Thursday, said they plan to open “multiple” short-term corrals that can handle at least 150 horses each in various states along and east of the Mississippi River. They also seek one or more long-term pastures that can accommodate from 100 to 5,000 mustangs each.

The bureau has not yet awarded contracts for bids it received earlier this year from contactors interested in running short-term corrals in 17 states in the West and Midwest.

Bureau spokesman Tom Gorey said the total number of new holding facilities and their cost would depend on the number and quality of bids submitted. About two-thirds of the agency’s budget covers holding costs.

“We want to get out of the holding business, but at the moment that’s not possible,” Gorey told The Associated Press. “The bottom line is we have to make sure we have enough off-range holding for horses that are removed.”

Budget constraints are prompting the bureau to remove just 2,400 wild horses and burros from the range during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, down from 4,176 in 2013 and 8,255 in 2012. The vast majority of animals targeted for removal are horses.

But horse advocates criticized the agency’s plans for more holding space, saying it continues to “stockpile” horses at a growing cost to taxpayers with about as many mustangs now living in holding facilities as on the range.

“The BLM continues to refuse to reform its broken wild horse program,” said Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign. “The agency is intent on sticking American taxpayers with the bill for rounding up and warehousing captured mustangs instead of listening to the scientists and the American public, and humanely managing wild horses and burros on the range.”

Gorey said activists’ demands to halt the removal of horses from the range are unrealistic because herds grow at an average rate of 20 percent a year and can double in size every four years.

According to the latest figures provided by the BLM, a total of 49,209 horses and burros freely roamed 10 Western states as of March 1, the vast majority of them mustangs. That estimate exceeds by more than 22,500 the number the BLM has determined can exist in balance with other public rangeland resources and uses.

Off the range, there were 47,272 wild horses and burros in short-term corrals and long-term pastures as of July 30, the agency said.

Anne Novak of the California-based group Protect Mustangs accused the bureau of inflating horse numbers to justify their removal from the range to accommodate ranching, mining and oil and gas interests.

“The truth is we never see an overpopulation of wild horses on public land,” she said. “Overpopulation is a farce made to milk Congress for more money to clear public land for industrialization.”

Cross-posted from the Denver Post for educational purposes: http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_26264815/feds-seek-extra-holding-space-western-mustangs This article has gone viral.