Three-Strike wild horses often show up in the slaughter pipeline
RENO, Nev. (May 5, 2017)— Protect Mustangs encourages the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to make it easy on the public to view and buy the 65 three-strikes wild horses, known as the #Fallon65, during the two free public tours of the Indian Lakes Off-Range Wild Horse and Burro Corral in Fallon, Nevada, on Friday, May 12. This is a private facility that is closed most of the year to the public therefore adoptions are limited. Sales appear limited to 4 wild horses per person per year. Title is awarded at the sale.
“We hope the 65 Three-Strike wild horses at the Fallon Facility will be easy to identify in separate pens so the public can find ones to buy and get them out to safety,” says Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “This is a golden opportunity for the public to take these wild horses off the BLM’s hands.”
The public can download the sales forms here: https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/wildhorse_howtoadopt_doc4.pdf and get pre approved before attending the tour. If you have any questions about the form call (775) 475-2222. If you find you need help to get through the application process or if your calls and questions aren’t being answered by BLM, please email Contact@ProtectMustangs.org or call (415) 531-8454. Protect Mustangs has helped many adopters and buyers succeed with their applications.
About a 90-minute drive east of Reno, the holding corrals are located at 5676 Indian Lakes Road, Fallon, and is privately owned and operated. The public tours will begin at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and each will last about one hour and accommodate up to 20 people. Attendees should wear comfortable shoes and clothes; hats and sunscreen are recommended, and photography is welcome. To register for the tour or to get driving directions to the facility, please contact the BLM at (775) 475-2222.
Check back for updates. We will post the ID numbers of the #Fallon65 when we receive them. Some wild horses have been chosen on the recent internet adoption and others have acquired 3-Strike status. Stay tuned for the final count.
Protect Mustangs is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of native and wild horses. www.ProtectMustangs.org
BLM officials stated that operating contrary to implemented legislation by limiting sales and not destroying horses has contributed to an unmanageable number of horses.
From the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Interior:
Report Date:
Friday, October 23, 2015
The Office of Inspector General completed an investigation into Tom Davis, a Colorado rancher and livestock hauler, after receiving allegations that Davis purchased approximately 1,700 horses from the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program (WH&B) between 2008 and 2012 and wrongfully sent the horses to slaughter.
BLM established WH&B to protect, manage, and control the wild horse population. Since establishment of the program, Congress passed several laws that provided for protection and management of these animals, including adoption and sales authority. In 2005, BLM implemented a policy that placed limitations on the amount of horses sold and required buyers to provide good homes and humane care to prevent the horses from being sent to slaughter.
During our investigation, Davis admitted that most of the horses he purchased from BLM went to slaughter, but he denied that he transported the horses directly to slaughter. He explained that prior to purchasing horses from WH&B, he made arrangements with buyers—whose names he would not disclose—who transported the horses to Mexico. Davis said WH&B employees asked him several times if he was selling the horses to slaughter. He reassured WH&B that he was not selling them to slaughter and reported on his applications that the horses were going to good homes. Davis also admitted that he knew he was not supposed to sell the horses to anyone that would take them to a slaughterhouse.
In addition, we found that BLM implemented and followed policy that contradicted legislation, by not destroying horses to maintain an ecological balance, and the 2004 Burns Amendment, by placing limitations on horse sales. BLM officials stated that operating contrary to implemented legislation by limiting sales and not destroying horses has contributed to an unmanageable number of horses.
We referred this investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado as well as the State of Colorado Conejos County District Attorney’s Office, which declined civil and criminal prosecution.
Today The Economist published an article titled America is set to spend billions on taming its growing wild-horse population with fake projected costs in the multi-billions for shock value and pro-kill, pro-slaughter, pro-sterilization undertones. It’s clear the media piece goes beyond yellow journalism and was placed in the economist by a PR firm paid for by public land-grabbers who hate wild horses. Otherwise, how could such an article, filled with outrageous errors and lack of facts, get into the publication?
The $1 billion figure that BLM claims it would cost to care for the wild horses held in captivity has ballooned. Keep in mind that in an article posted in the Rawlins Times, BLM inflated that number to $2.3 billion — 230% times the original number.
In today’sEconomist.com article, the $2.3 billion has swelled to $4.6 billion — 200% times higher still.
This “article” is trying to put pressure on Congress to kill or sterilize America’s beloved wild horses. The motives are clear.
Marybeth Devlin, Protect Mustangs Advisory Board member and member of the Alliance for Wild Horses and Burros wrote the following in the comment section. Let’s hope people will read the facts:
“The Big Lie of “overpopulation” is the pretext for BLM’s war against the wild horses. It’s BLM’s version of the “Shock Doctrine,” wherein BLM concocted a phony crisis to push through policies antithetical to the Wild Horse Act against the will of The People.
In fact, horses are a slow-growth species when it comes to reproduction. The gestation-period lasts over 11 months, and a mare produces just 1 foal. While an independent study of BLM’s records did confirm a nearly 20% birth rate, that study also found that 50% of foals perish before their first birthday. Thus, the effective increase in population from new foals is just 10%. However, adult mortality must also be taken into consideration. Adult mustangs succumb at a rate of at least 5% a year. So, what is a normal herd-growth rate? Around 5%, probably less. Thus, a herd could not double in 4 or 5 years, debunking another BLM falsehood. But BLM stealthily inserts herd-growth rates far higher than 20% in its reports — biologically-impossible herd-growth rates. For instance, in Wyoming, BLM declared that the Salt Wells Creek herd grew from 29 horses to 616 horses in 6 months (yes, months), a 2,024% increase. BLM’s “data” is chock-full of preposterous growth-estimates. So, when you hear talk of how the wild horses are reproducing “exponentially,” that’s a sure sign that BLM has falsified the data. You should also know that the National Academy of Sciences was required by the terms of its grant to draw conclusions per BLM’s figures — the falsified figures. The NAS was not allowed to collect data independently. Thus, BLM wired the results to confirm its lies.
Wild horses are underpopulated. Per the guidelines of BLM’s own geneticist, more than 80% of the herds suffer from arbitrary management levels (AMLs) set below minimum-viable population (MVP). Low AMLs enable BLM to claim an “excess” in herds whose numbers, even if they were over AML, would still not reach MVP. So being “over AML” is meaningless as well as misleading. But those low AMLs, combined with fraudulent, biologically-impossible herd-growth estimates, give BLM an excuse to scapegoat those few wild horses for the range-damage done by the millions of livestock that overgraze the public lands.
PZP is a potent weapon in BLM’s arsenal — for its biological warfare against the wild horses. PZP is a registered pesticide. Its mechanism-of-action is to cause auto-immune disease — tricking the immune system into producing antibodies that target and attack the ovaries. The antibodies cause ovarian dystrophy, oophoritis (inflammation of the ovaries), ovarian cysts, destruction of oocytes in growing follicles, and depletion of resting follicles. The mare’s estrogen-levels drop markedly as PZP destroys her ovaries. Ultimately, PZP sterilizes her. A recent study — which included the McCullough Peaks herd — found that PZP extends the birthing season to nearly year-round. Out-of-season births put the life of the foals and the mares at risk. Worse yet, radioimmunoassay tests indicated that PZP antibodies are transferred from mother to female offspring via the placenta and milk.
As for the wild horses held in captivity, they are the “legacy” of former Secretary Salazar’s equid cleansing era, during which he had tens of thousands of wild horses removed from the range. However, the mortality rate of captive wild horses is about 8% a year. So, obviously, since they are not reproducing, their numbers will steadily drop, showing that BLM’s billion-dollar figure for their care was bogus — it was just another Lie. But that Lie has ballooned. BLM has taken the $1 billion figure that it originally announced, multiplied it by 230%, and then multiplied that number by another 200%, amplifying the fraud. When BLM lies, it lies Big.
The Wild Horse and Burro program, if administered per the minimum-feasible management-model specified by Law, would not cost much at all. BLM does not lack for resources. There are 22 million acres of legally-designated wild-horse herd areas — which BLM previously took away for political expediency — that can be reopened as habitat. The horses now held captive can be released to those areas, where the cost of their upkeep will be $0.
Contrary to BLM’s disinformation campaign, wild horses do have natural predators — mountain lions, bears, wolves, and coyotes. But those predators are persecuted mercilessly. The government exterminates what the hunters don’t shoot. However, the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros — Wild Horse Annie’s foundation — notes that even without predators, their wild-horse herds self-regulate their numbers, with population-growth in the single digits.
Finally, adoptions have not declined. It’s just that BLM used to count sales-for-slaughter as “adoptions.” Now, only “forever-family” placements qualify. However, mustangs are not homeless horses. They are wild horses whose home is on the range.”
Protect Mustangs is an organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.
By U.S. Government [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
BLM Press Release
RENO, Nev. – Due to extreme drought conditions and lack of forage, the Bureau of Land Management will continue to gather and provide emergency care for wild horses in the Cold Creek area of southern Nevada – about 30 miles west of Las Vegas. Using hay and water, the BLM gathered 201 horses last week.
“We have identified more horses that are in danger of starving,” said BLM Acting State Director John Ruhs. “These animals are in the same very poor condition as the horses we gathered last week.”
The BLM had originally identified up to 200 horses in declining body conditions, but more malnourished horses were observed during last week’s gather. Based on a veterinarian’s assessment, 28 of the 201 horses gathered last week had to be euthanized due to “poor or extremely emaciated body condition” and were determined to have a “poor prognosis for recovery or improvement.” The horses were in a severe state of starvation.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) veterinarian made the animal body condition assessments on-site.
Many of the horses have responded well to the emergency care that is being provided at BLM’s Oliver Ranch, where a temporary holding facility has been established. Once the horses were strong enough to travel, they were transported to the BLM’s off-range corrals and will be made available for adoption, sale, or moved to off-range holding pastures.
A Gather Information Hotline has been established at 775-861-6700. A recorded message will provide updated gather activities. Depending on the animals’ adjustment, public viewing through an escorted tour of the temporary holding facility may be arranged at some point during the gather and will be announced on the gather Hotline. Gather reports are posted on BLM’s Southern Nevada District website at http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/lvfo.html
The wild horse herd is from the BLM’s Wheeler Pass Herd Management Area (HMA).
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. The BLM’s mission is to manage and conserve the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations under our mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2014, the BLM generated $5.2 billion in receipts from public lands.
–BLM–
Remember the Australian film THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER? STOP the KILLERS from chasing the brumbies with choppers and KILLING the wild horses from the Snowies
Share the Australian petition to Stop the Slaughter of the Brumbies: http://chn.ge/1y1HgQq
Stop the slaughter and eradication of the Snowy Mountains Brumby and reinstate access for horse riders to all areas of the Kosciuszko National Park
Petition by
Richard Roberts
Australia
“Sickening footage of this event can be located easily on the internet, showing horses with their teeth blown out, mares shot dead while foaling and other horses with bullet riddle bodies, it was nothing less than a massacre and an event of international embarrassment and disgrace at the time when Australia had just again immortalised the Man From Snowy River and the Brumbies to an international audience at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.”
Read the petition and sign it here . Then share it with everyone you know!
They didn’t learn their lesson. Now they want to SHOOT AND KILL the Brumbies again! Leaving them to DIE a HORRIBLE DEATH like they did before! Some were shot dead while giving birth! Watch the video below and share widely!
Note: the images provided are from previous “culls” as we will all stand with Australian Brumby advocates to stop the killing!
Send your written comments asking for an immediate moratorium to end all roundups to the BLM and copies to your senators and your representative here.
Submit Written Comments to:
National Wild Horse and Burro Program
WO-260, Attention: Ramona DeLorme
1340 Financial Boulevard
Reno, Nevada, 89502-7147
Comments may be e-mailed to the BLM wildhorse@blm.gov Please include “Advisory Board Comment” in the subject line of the e-mail.
Citizen Sacrifices Self to Draw Attention to, and Stop Wild Bison Slaughter
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, GARDINER BASIN, MT: This morning, Comfrey Jacobs, a twenty-year old citizen concerned for wild bison, placed life, limb and freedom on the line by blocking the access road to Yellowstone National Park’s Stephens Creek bison trap in hopes of preventing more of America’s last wild, migratory bison — the most important bison populations in the world — from being shipped to slaughter.
To date, approximately 450 wild buffalo have been captured in Yellowstone National Park’s Stephens Creek bison trap, located in the Gardiner Basin. Most of the buffalo have been and will be shipped to slaughter, while some are going to government research facilities. To date, more than 200 bison have been shipped to slaughter and 250 more have been killed by hunters.
Mr. Jacobs spent a number of week’s in the Gardiner Basin, where bison capture and slaughter operations and intense hunting have been taking place.
“During my time in Gardiner,” said Jacobs, “I was feeling helpless as I watched wild buffalo lured and trapped, fed hay like livestock, tortured with sorting and testing, and eventually crammed into livestock trailers headed for slaughter facilities, while simultaneously bison were being hunted just outside the Park boundary.”
Jacobs blocked the road to prevent livestock trailers from accessing the trap before more wild bison could be loaded onto trailers destined for slaughter facilities. He handcuffed himself to a hunter orange 55-gallon barrel filled with concrete, and wire-mesh webbing spanning the entrance to the roadway, which is closed to public access.
“My goal is to stop these trailers from getting to the trap so they cannot load more bison and transport them to slaughter,” Jacobs said. “My intent is to not unduly cause these buffalo any more stress or harm than they are currently being subjected to in the trap, and to ultimately get Yellowstone to set them free.”
This is the first time a citizen has exercised civil disobedience at Yellowstone’s Stephens Creek bison trap. Yellowstone National Park initiates a 7-mile public access closure surrounding their Stephens Creek bison trap while highly controversial bison management activities are underway.
Jacobs state that, “Yellowstone National Park’s public access closure around the Stephens Creek facility is an obscene and blatantly unconstitutional limitation of public oversight and accountability of our government agencies during bison management actions.”
Mr. Jacobs, Buffalo Field Campaign, other organizations and media outlets have requested numerous times that Yellowstone conduct media tours of the facility, but these requests have been ignored. Thousands of people have written and called Yellowstone urging them to cease capture and slaughter operations. Yellowstone National Park has also been extremely secretive: Superintendent Dan Wenk is the first Yellowstone superintendent to prevent his staff from disclosing information to the public. Yellowstone has not issued a single press release during this year’s capture and slaughter operations, and they are refusing to tell the public how many wild bison they have captured so far, and are only giving delayed information on the number, age and sex of bison that have already been transported to slaughter.
Jacobs said he is aware of the repercussions of his actions, bur felt strongly that he needed to draw attention to what Yellowstone National Park is doing so that they are held accountable for their direct participation in bison mismanagement, which has lead to the decimation of America’s last wild bison populations.
“I have taken these drastic actions because I feel it is my civil duty as an American citizen to protect this national treasure,” Jacobs said. “The National Park Service has neglected their duty as stewards, to respect public interests and preserve and protect the entirety of the Yellowstone ecosystem. I’m giving up some of my freedoms in hopes of re-establishing a free-roaming heard of bufflo in their traditional habitat.”
Comfrey Jacobs’s blockade included banners with the messages “Hunters for Bison Habitat,” and “Road Closed.” Jacobs also included a list of demands for Yellowstone National Park:
1. The immediate halt to all current and future capture and slaughter management actions and the release of all currently captive buffalo.
2. Yellowstone National Park’s withdrawal from the Interagency Bison Management Plan, due to its ineffectiveness in maintaining a wild, free-roaming bison population and not meeting the public’s, or the buffalo’s best interests.
3. So long as the Stephens Creek facility continues to be used to capture, torture and ship wild bison to slaughter and research facilities, there needs to be public oversight and media access at all times, to keep the Park Service accountable for its actions.
Wild bison are currently managed under the highly controversial state, federal and tribal Interagency Bison Management Plan, which is heavily influenced by Montana’s livestock industry. The IBMP allows for hazing (chasing) of bison out for their native Montana, a lengthy late-season harvest, and capture for slaughter and research. American citizens and others world-wide have have largely opposed all the actions carried out under the IBMP. IBMP-affiliated tribal partners, including the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), the InterTribal Buffalo Council (ITBC), and the Nez Perce tribe have signed slaughter agreements with Yellowstone. The CKST and ITBC have been actively shipping wild bison from Yellowstone to tribal slaughter facilities. USDA-Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service is taking wild bison from Yellowstone’s trap to research facilities to use them in experiments with the chemical pesticide birth control GonaCon. Under the IBMP, more than 4,650 wild bison have been senselessly killed or otherwise eliminated from these last wild populations.
The wild bison of Yellowstone are the most significant bison populations in the world, the last continuously wild bison to exist in their native habitat since prehistoric times. They are the direct descendants to the tens of millions that once thundered across North America. Currently, wild, migratory bison are ecologically extinct throughout their historic range with fewer than 4,200 existing in and around Yellowstone and, temporarily, in Montana. They are free of cattle genes and the only bison to hold their identity as a wildlife species. North America’s largest land mammal, wild bison are a keystone species critical to the health and integrity of grasslands and prairie ecosystems.
The zero-tolerance bison politics of Montana’s livestock industry are driving the policies that are pushing these significant herds back to the brink of extinction.
Yellowstone and its IBMP partners have set an arbitrary population target of 3,000-3,500 bison, yet a Yellowstone bison carrying capacity study has determined that the Park can sustain upwards of 6,200 wild bison. Additionally, there are tens of thousands of acres of public lands surrounding Yellowstone that could sustain thousands more.
“I belive year-round habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Montana is the solution for wild bison population management, not genetically damaging and limiting the herds through slaughter or constant harassment and abuse through hazing operations,” Jacobs said.
“We would like to thank Comfrey Jacobs for taking an action that our organization cannot,” said Stephany Seay, a spokesperson for Buffalo Field Campaign. “We have always strongly opposed the slaughter and abuse of wild buffalo and applaud non-violent civil disobedience when other means of public participation have been exhausted and ignored. BFC shares Mr. Jacobs’ goals for wild, migratory buffalo populations that are respected and valued as native wildlife and free to roam and flourish beyond Yellowstone’s borders, in Montana, and beyond. We hope his courageous actions inspire other patriotic Americans to stand up tor this iconic and important National Treasure.”
Video and still footage available upon request.
Buffalo Field Campaign is a non-profit public interest organization founded in 1997 to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone’s wild bison, protect the natural habitat of wild free-roaming bison and other native wildlife, and to work with people of all Nations to honor the sacredness of wild bison. BFC has its headquarters in West Yellowstone, Montana, and is supported by volunteers and participants around the world who value America’s native wildlife and the ecosystems upon which they depend.
Let Congress know they must prevent wild horses from being killed to make room for more in holding. http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ Be sure to tell them the overpopulation scare is a farce! According to the National Academy of Sciences there is NO EVIDENCE of alleged overpopulation. Email and Call your senators and representative today!
Background news to send to senators and representatives:
More info on the plan that makes sense– the Moratorium on Roundups for scientific studies on population, migration and holistic land management: www.ProtectMustangs.org
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Two Nevada organizations have sued the federal government, alleging mismanagement of wild horses led to excessive damage to rangelands and the animals themselves.
BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington declined to comment on Sunday. “It’s under review,” she said.
The groups accuse the government of failing to comply with the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which requires the BLM to protect the “natural ecological balance of all wildlife species” on public lands and to remove “excess” horses and burros from the range.
They argue the BLM should “destroy” horses that are deemed unadoptable, the Elko Daily Free Press reported (http://bit.ly/1eNObmf ). The BLM has opposed the sale of horses for slaughter.
The agency has removed nearly 100,000 horses from the Western range over the last decade, citing the requirements of the 1971 federal law. Horses passed over for adoption are sent to long-term facilities in the Midwest.
But the number of horses gathered last year declined as the BLM deals with budget constraints and a lack of capacity at short- and long-term holding facilities.
In addition to damaging public land and threatening private water rights, the government’s wild horse program is “first and foremost” detrimental to horses, according to the lawsuit.
“Free-roaming horse and burro herds in Nevada are frequently observed to be in malnourished condition, with the ribs and skeletal features of individual animals woefully on view and other signs of ill-health readily observable,” the complaint states.
Anne Novak, executive director of the horse advocacy group Protect Mustangs, said most wild herds are “healthy and fit,” and the groups’ claim that they are in poor condition appears to be a “skewed effort” to justify killing them because they don’t want to share water.
Some 1.75 million head of livestock grazing on public land outnumber wild horses by more than 50-to-1 and cause most of the range damage, she added.
“The plaintiffs have an arrogant sense of entitlement,” Novak told The Associated Press. “I’m grateful the American public will see how the plaintiffs allegedly intend on denying native wild horses the right to water and are requesting BLM destroy the majority of the roundup survivors. Their lawsuit will rally more voters to fight for wild horses to remain wild and free for future generations.”
Representatives of the two groups did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment Sunday.
![By U.S. Government [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i0.wp.com/protectmustangs.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/300px-US-DeptOfTheInterior-Seal.svg_.png)
