Screenshot. Footage provided by The Cloud Foundation
Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.
French report on wild horse crisis (2010)
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Tag Archives: Nevada
Thousands of cows are dumped on the Antelope Complex in 2011 where the GONACON™ EXPERIMENT on the Water Canyon herd left 22 lab animals today
From the fabulous videographer: This video was taken at the BLM Antelope Complex “Gather” south of Wells, NV on 24-Feb-2011. We had just come from observing the BLM Contract capture 6 Wild Horse about 4 miles away. They said that there are too may Wild Horses on this range land. The range can’t support the estimated 2000+ Wild Horses. Yet as we left the capture there are 100s maybe a 1000 pregnant cattle just arriving onto the range. Hmmmm, does that make sense?
The Water Canyon GONACON™ EXPERIMENT is in the Antelope Complex. This is where the 11-13 orphans lived with their families. Where are their mamas?
www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.
Official request to end GonaCon™ Experiment and others
The War on Wild Horses
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Official request to stop experiments on Water Canyon wild
horses and others
From: <X@protectmustangs.org>
Date: Thu, January 28, 2016 6:30 pm
To: nvsoweb@blm.gov, eyfoweb@blm.gov, “Tom Gorey” <TGorey@blm.gov>,
director@blm.gov, mtupper@blm.gov, bnoyes@blm.gov
Dear Sirs,
The public is outraged that the small Water Canyon herd is being harassed and ruined for an experiment with GonaCon™–paid for with tax dollars. American wild horses are an indigenous species aka “returned-native” as well as being a national treasure. The public loves them.
Protections given to America’s free roaming wild horses and burros–according to the law–must be enforced.
The federally protected Water Canyon herd was underpopulated–with less than 60 wild horses of various ages on the herd management area (HMA). The herd is located on the western side of the vast Antelope Complex in northeastern Nevada, north of Ely.
This herd is already threatened with low genetic viability because the population is so small. American wild horses are not overpopulated on public land and are not “pests”. They should never be experimented on with an EPA restricted-use pesticide, or anything else.
PZP, another EPA restricted-use pesticide, was originally proposed by Nevada RAC member Jeanne Nations for a Water Canyon Pilot Program.
Now, according to your website, Ms. Nations is the Project Coordinator (volunteer) of the GonaCon™ Experiment. How did her previous PZP proposal flip into the GonaCon™ Experiment? Was the public allowed to comment on the proposed GonaCon™ Experiment?
Protect Mustangs is against forcibly drugging wild mares with risky pesticides, used for birth control, such as GonaCon™ (sterilant) or PZP (made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries) because they eventually sterilize the mares, ruin natural selection, negatively effect the herd’s immune system, cause abnormal herd behavior, etc.
The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) overpopulation claims are fraudulent and any action taken based on fraudulent information is wrongful. There are no “excess” wild horses on public land today. Read more about that here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8551 There are too many herd management areas that currently have no wild horses on them.
Commercial livestock often outnumbers wild horses on public land at more than 50 to 1. Native wild horses must no longer be the scapegoat for range damage.
53 Water Canyon wild horses were trapped last fall for this controversial experiment. Public observation was discouraged. 15 mares were harassed and forcibly drugged with GonaCon™. Then 15 mares along with 7 studs were returned to the Water Canyon federal herd management area (HMA).
Evidently one Water Canyon wild horse has already died during the experiment. Please provide information and photos/video documenting the Water Canyon wild horse who died as a result of this experiment. Have any other wild horses died since then? Will you be killing wild horses as part of the GonaCon Experiment?
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has broken up family bands, branded, harassed and permanently removed half of the small herd to forcibly drug and experiment on 15 wild mares with GonaCon™. The BLM has also harassed and endangered wild horses with radio collars who were returned to the range for the experiment. This is outrageous and all paid for with American tax dollars.
Ultimately the BLM plans on spending $11.5 million tax dollars on various experiments on wild horses over the next 5 years. The various experiments are listed here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8657
Adoption
The Water Canyon and other wild horses available for adoption are “wanted” but BLM’s adoption publicity, marketing and interface with the public is failing. If adoption rates are falling in the last decade it’s because BLM is removing more wild horses than they can adopt and doing a poor job at customer service with adopters. BLM’s failing adoption program does not justify experiments of any sort on wild horses and burros. Your adoption program needs an overhaul and the first thing you need to do is fix your rotten customer service.
Protect Mustangs and our members are very interested in the Water Canyon wild horses. We have visited the 11 orphans at the Palomino Valley Center (PVC), outside Reno, several times per week since December 18, 2015. Our members are shocked the weanlings and yearlings each have one strike against them after the failed trap-site adoption on December 5th.
We are is committed to ensuring the 11 Water Canyon orphans (#WC11) will not receive a 2nd or 3rd strike. The 3rd strike would strip away their federal protections according to the Burns Amendment of the Free Roaming Wild Horse & Burro Protection Act (1971). Legally this would allow the BLM to euthanize the youngsters or engage in unlimited sales to kill buyers for slaughter.
We have been regularly evaluating the youngsters, documenting their situation, publicizing the need for them to find good homes in pairs–to get them out of the pen at PVC with no shade or shelter while helping adopters navigate the BLM red tape and BLM’s slow adoption communications.
Did you realize the public wants to adopt the Water Canyon wild horses because they know about them now and like them? As of this writing, all but 2 orphans at PVC have been adopted.
According to an August 2015 BLM news release, “The BLM plans to remove 30-40 excess wild horses and offer them to the public for adoption through its Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program.” Where are all the other Water Canyon wild horses who have been permanently removed from their home? How many have been adopted as of today?
Are the other Water Canyon pregnant mares, studs and colts at the Broken Arrow facility in Fallon, Nevada–which is closed to the public? If so we officially request you immediately open the facility for public observation and to promote adoption.
Members of Protect Mustangs would like to view the Water Canyon wild horses, take photographs and video of the wild horses to promote them for adoption. One of our videos had more than 24,000 views in a few days which sparked a huge interest in adopting the Water Canyon wild horses.
The American public wants to adopt and/or purchase the remaining Water Canyon wild horses removed from public land–including the pregnant mares. Those over 10 can be purchased outright through the BLM’s sale program.
The public is outraged the BLM is experimenting on America’s icons of freedom and symbols pioneering spirit of the West.
Protect Mustangs wants to ensure no other wild horses will be used for any kind of experimentation. America’s wild horses are naturally fertile for the species to survive through natural selection. Using federally protected wild horses as lab animals for population control experiments is cruel and unusual treatment and must stop now.
We officially request you cease the Water Canyon GonaCon™ Experiment and all the other experiments listed here http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8657 now.
Federally protected wild horses and burros are to be protected from harassment according to the law. You can read the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_and_Free-Roaming_Horses_and_Burros_Act_of_1971
Anne Novak
Executive Director
Protect Mustangs
Tel./Text: 415.531.8454
X@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.
Background:
Water Canyon Wild Horse Growth Suppression Pilot Program
Public observation of gather, etc was discouraged:
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/ely_field_office/blm_programs/wild_horses_and_burros/Water_Canyon_Growth_Suppression_Pilot_Program/publicviewing.html
12/16/15 Adopt a Water Canyon Foal Press Release
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/info/newsroom/2015/december/ely__blm_offers_public.html
Release Date: 12/16/15
Contacts: Chris Hanefeld , 775-289-1842 , chanefel@blm.gov
News Release No. ELY 2016-006
BLM Offers Public Unique Opportunity to Adopt Water Canyon Wild Horses
ELY – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is offering the public the opportunity to adopt a foal gathered from the Water Canyon portion of the Antelope Herd Management Area in eastern Nevada. Nine weanlings and two yearlings are being held together at the National Wild Horse and Burro Center at Palomino Valley, north of Reno, Nev.
The horses are available for walk-up adoption from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturdays. All of the horses have received vaccinations and their bloodwork is completed. Brand inspections will be performed and health certificates issued on all adopted horses.
Pictures of the horses are available online on the BLM’s Flickr album “Water Canyon Foals Available for Adoption” at http://bit.ly/1N85QV1. Applications are available for download (.pdf) at http://on.doi.gov/1A0eAfw.
For more information, contact Jeremy Wilhelm, BLM public contact person, at (775) 475-2222.
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–
Ely District Office 702 North Industrial Way Ely, NV 89301
Water Canyon Wild Horse Growth Suppression Pilot Program: https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/nepa/47287/57875/62666/Final_Water_Cyn_Preliminary_EA_508.pdf
USDA-Developed Vaccine for Wild Horses and Burros Gains EPA Registration (Feb 13, 2013): https://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/2013/02/pdf/horse_vaccine_approval.pdf
GonaCon™ the EPA restricted use pesticide information sheet: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/registration/content/Speciman%20Labels/speciman%20label56228-41%20GonaCon%20Equine%2001-13.pdf
GonaCon™, PZP and SpayVac® have all previously been used in experiments and should not be used because America’s wild horses are underpopulated–especially the Water Canyon herd. Here is some scientific data. The experiments were called for based on an overpopulation myth: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/publications/10pubs/miller103.pdf
Abstract
Context. Contraception is increasingly used as a management technique to reduce fertility in wildlife populations; however, the feasibility of contraceptive formulations has been limited until recently because they have required multiple treatments to achieve prolonged infertility.
Aims. We tested the efficacy and evaluated potential side effects of two contraceptive formulations, a porcine zona pellucida (PZP) formulation, SpayVac® and a gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) formulation GonaCon-B!, in a population of free-roaming feral horses (Equus caballus). Both formulations were developed to provide several years of infertility with one injection.
GonaCon™ experiment is already going on at Theodore Rossevelt National Park so no need for a Water Canyon experiment: http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/park-s-wild-horses-an-experiment-in-birth-control/article_a13a157e-816a-11e4-a261-ffd6de663204.html
Donate to save wild horses with the law on their side!
We are grateful our sucessful legal actions have stopped roundups and saved thousands of lives in the Pine Nut and Fort McDemitt areas. Protect Mustangs is creating a legal team to continue the fight for wild horse freedom in the courts. We almost didn’t find lawyers in time to help save the Pine Nut herd. We need to hire a staff lawyer
The team at Protect Mustangs feels legal action is a very important area of focus with a huge impact to save many lives.
Please make your donation to the Wild Horse Legal Fund today because the Pine Nut, Nevada, California, Wyoming, and other wild horses need legal protection again. The palm greasers going to BLM want them gone and we will take action. Click here to donate: https://www.gofundme.com/MustangLaw2016
Did you know that Academy Award-winner Michael Blake (Dances with Wolves), RIP, joined our Fort McDermitt lawsuit in 2013 to help stop two years of horrible roundups that were sending wild horses to slaughter?
Michael Blake wins Oscar for writing Dances with Wolves
This is what Michael Blake wrote on August 21, 2013:
I, Michael Lennox Blake, declare and state as follows:
1. I am an author as well as a screenwriter. I have written several books and screenplays including Dances with Wolves, which was released to international acclaim in 1990. In 1991, I won every major award for my screenplay for Dances with Wolves, including an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Writer’s Guild Award, and the Silver Spur. I have also received public service awards including the Eleanor Roosevelt Award and the Americanism Award, in addition to many other awards during my life.
2. I reside in Sonoita, Arizona. I am a member of Protect Mustangs, and also am on the Advisory Board for Protect Mustangs. In a professional capacity I am an author and screenwriter. I support the work that Protect Mustangs does to protect wild horses and advocate for effective wild horse conservation on public lands.
3. I have visited Nevada for decades to see the wild horses, study them, and be inspired by them for my work. I have explored the lands of Nevada where the wild horses roam in freedom for inspiration and research for my work. I intend to return to these areas so I may continue to be inspired and do research for my work.
4. In 1992, I helped commission the first comprehensive aerial census of wild horses in Nevada. In almost every herd area, the horses were far less numerous than the BLM estimated. The final count in our survey was 8,324.
5. Protect Mustangs’ members are interested in wild horses, and I support their work to protect wild horses’ freedom and safety from cruel and harmful practices including but not limited to illegal roundups. Their mission is to educate the public about indigenous wild horses, protect and research American wild horses on the range, and help those who have lost their freedom. Protect Mustangs works to educate the public about the decisions and activities of the government that impact wild horses, and find solutions for wild horse conservation that does not include roundups and auctioning off wild horses for slaughter. Members of the public and horse advocates across the United States are interested in and support Protect Mustangs’ work to protect wild horses due to their recreational, scientific, spiritual, ecological, cultural, artistic, historical, iconic, and aesthetic values.
6. I wrote in my book Twelve the King:
“But he and hundreds of thousand like him are gone now from this beautiful land, and for that reason alone I could not stop as I traveled over four hundred miles of Nevada roads. Something evil is still afoot in this land, and it has left its imprint everywhere. In all those miles of open, free country, the mark of evil is present in what is absent. The wild horses are missing from the land.”
7. I have written extensively about the American West and find inspiration seeing and studying wild horses. If these unbranded, wild horses are rounded up and removed by the USDA Forest Service and/or the BLM on tribal land, or elsewhere by the Forest Service and/or the BLM, I will be harmed because I will no longer have the ability to study them or be inspired for my books, stories and other works.
8. Wild horses and their connection with the land in the American West inspire me to write. I have plans to spend time in the future using and enjoying these lands and studying free-roaming wild horses on public lands in the Owyhee HMAs and where the wild horses roam in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, as well as on tribal lands. The proposed gather on USDA Forest Service and tribal lands will forever remove wild and free-roaming horses that I rely upon in my professional and personal capabilities.
9. I derive significant satisfaction and happiness from the existence of native wild, free- roaming horses. Ensuring the continued existence and distribution of wildlife including wild horses in the West is of the utmost importance to me and has directly influenced my life a great deal. The West is far different than the East because the West still has wildlife—including wild horses that inspire me to write fiction and non-fiction.
10. If the Fort McDermitt Horse Gather proceeds as planned, it will prevent me and other members of Protect Mustangs from recreating, enjoying, studying, being inspired from, and writing about the wild horses in the area in the future. I am very unlikely to continue deriving benefit and inspiration concerning the wild horses in an area where they have been removed and herd numbers drastically reduced as is proposed by the Fort McDermitt Horse Gather and the 2013 Agreement between the Forest Service and Fort McDermitt Tribal Council. Our members share these views as well.
11. I have been studying and gaining inspiration from seeing wild horses in Nevada throughout my life. I have certain plans to continue visiting these wild areas of Nevada authorized for roundup, including the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, throughout my lifetime. For the aforementioned reasons I would be directly harmed should the unbranded, wild horses at issue in the Fort McDermitt Horse Gather be removed and the horses rounded up and be allowed to go to holding, auction, sale, or slaughter.
[End of Michael Lennox Blake’s declaration]
HELP build the legal fund today so Protect Mustangs can continue to fight for wild horses in court. We are a unique group dedicated purely to the protection and preservation of America’s wild horses. We need to act quickly and independently to HELP SAVE wild horses with legal action. Please make a donation today and share this fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/MustangLaw2016 or donate via PayPal to Contact@ProtectMustangs.org
Thank you for taking action today to help save the wild horses!
Many blessings,
Anne
Anne Novak
Volunteer Executive Director
www.ProtectMustangs.org
Non-profit mission: Protect and preserve native and wild horses
PROTECT MUSTANGS
PO Box 5661
Berkeley, CA. 94705
Lies, subterfuge and PZP
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.
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)
Conversation about fertility control with Brett Hass, retired biologist previously with NSA (part 1)
Don’t let pesticides like Gonacon™, PZP or SpayVac® manage native wild horses to extinction. The Spin Dr.’s and some ignorant horse advocates are pushing fertility control on underpopulated wild horses. Know the truth and expose those spewing the spin.
Read the entire Gonacon™ Pesticide Fact Sheet
Interview
John Cox: Brett, you’re a retired biologist, previously with the NSA for how many years?
Brett Hass: 46 long years John. We met in Vietnam, when we a lot younger my friend (smiles). We were doing wildlife and vegetation studies in your AO (area of operations). That was my first assignment with the NSA, as a matter of fact.
John Cox: Let’s cut through all of that. What do you think of Gonacon™ and some of the other fertility controls BLM is using?
Brett Hass: As usual, and as government agencies do and BLM and DOI are extremely guilty, they pretend that science guides its wild horse and burro management strategies. So the agencies involved go forth and resolve issues, supposedly, with experimental drugs–in this case GonaCon™. The question is, in reality, does it resolve anything at all, or is it simply to further experimentations with this drug and the wild horses the most expendable of situations currently?
The problem is very obvious, with the first-time use of an experimental drug, they act like children with a new toy–but this toy is extremely dangerous, to not only the horses and actually lead them to extinction, but the environmental consequences are apparently neglected entirely? (shakes his head negatively). . .
But let’s get real, the very absence of science contradicts any time of sound reasoning for its use whatsoever. So once again we have a government agency, using a Nazi-Type experimental fertility drug on horses and other wildlife–without knowing, or even acknowledging for that matter, what the long-term consequences are–or in perception–the problems that will arise in its actual use.
There is no resolution, as I reviewed the population situation and see first hand there is no over-population if wild horses just within the BLM numbers alone; but livestock, that is a completely different matter, in reality.
John Cox: In your appraisal of the information you’ve read, would you, as a tenured Wildlife Biologist for over 50 years, use this drug?
Brett Hass: Absolutely not! There is no pertinent reasoning to use it right now and especially on wild horses or much of anything else for that matter. Our wildlife and environment is simply too important to be so frivolous with such activity, especially an unknown situation, as fertility drugs used in our natural environment. But as you say, ignorance is quite something, and our government seems to portray ignorance quite well, and frankly the only situation they seem to be competent to accomplish.
Much more on this discussion with Brett Hass later . . .
Below is the original PZP Pesticide Fact Sheet before HSUS seems to have lobbied the EPA to make changes to the chemical class. It’s still only approved as a pesticide to manage pests. PZP is made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries mixed with modified freund’s complete adjuvant.
(American wild horses used in fertility control experiments)
© John Cox, printed with permission
John Cox is a Vietnam Vet, living in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest who writes about the environment. He’s passionate about saving America’s wild horse herds and wolves.
Read John Cox’s blog at: https://prophoto7journal.wordpress.com
Have you read about the Gonacon™ Experiment on the Water Canyon herd and the UNLUCKY 11 orphans? It all started as a PZP proposal and went down the slippery slope. . . Read about it here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8488
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%).
Red Alert: America’s wild horses are disappearing! Staff lawyer needed ASAP
It’s URGENT to hire a staff lawyer quickly so we can get the most out of the legal genius and save America’s wild horses in court before they are killed! Click here to make a tax-deductible donation today: https://www.gofundme.com/mustanglaw
The lawyer will be the only paid professional at Protect Mustangs. The rest of us are volunteers because we care so deeply about America’s wild horses and their right to freedom.
Most organizations are paying their Presidents and Executive Directors big salaries. They pay other staff good salaries and benefits too. At Protect Mustangs it’s different. We are here for the wild horses not for the paycheck.
As you know I’m deeply committed to protecting America’s mustangs so I donate all my professional time as do our other wonderful volunteers. Sadly pro-bono lawyers won’t donate enough time to take a big case through the end. And we want to pound BLM with more than one lawsuit that will really protect wild horses.
Time is running out . . .
Mustangs are being persecuted and forced off their legal land because greedy people want the resources and don’t care about wild horses. Roundups are cruel and deadly. Afterwards wild horses are traumatized even more by being ripped apart from their families that they love. Once mustangs are offered for adoption 3 times by the feds and not picked–they can be sold to slaughter because the Burns Amendment made it legal. This is heinous!
Today is a special day of giving. Please help America’ s wild horses survive and live in freedom with a tax-deductible donation to our legal fund to hire a staff lawyer. Click here to donate: https://www.gofundme.com/mustanglaw
Protect Mustangs is a boots on the ground organization saving mustangs with a great track record of 3 out of 4 successful legal actions that have saved thousands of wild horses. (Pine Nut, Wyoming and Fort McDermitt). Now our hands are tied without our own lawyer on staff because there is so much to do!
You can change that.
If you want to make a difference and you want to save America’s wild horses then make a donation to our legal fund right now by clicking here: https://www.gofundme.com/mustanglaw
Together we can turn this around!
For the mustangs,
Anne
Anne Novak
Volunteer Executive Director
www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs
P.O. Box 5661
Berkeley, Ca. 94705
Protect Mustangs is dedicated to the protection and preservation of native and wild horses
H.H. The Dalai Lama wisdom
Outrage over feds hauling Cold Creek wild horses to private facility in Utah
Mounting concern they will end up unadopted and go to slaughter
For immediate release:
LAS VEGAS, NV. (September 14, 2015)—Protect Mustangs, Mark Boone Junior and members of the public are outraged that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) moved the captive Cold Creek wild horses out of Nevada to a remote private holding facility in Axtell, Utah—with limited public accessibility and allegedly owned by a BLM employee. Earlier near Las Vegas, the BLM shot and killed more than 28 wild horses who were not well enough to make the long haul to Utah when the haulers were scheduled to pick them up. The skinny roundup survivors were exhibiting complications of re-feeding syndrome and severely dehydrated. Protect Mustangs has filed a complaint requesting the the Inspector General investigate matters leading up to, during and after the Cold Creek roundup.
“It’s outrageous for the BLM to move the Cold Creek wild horses out of Nevada to a private facility—in the boondocks of Utah—without public accessibility 6 days a week,” says Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “We need to be able to watchdog the mustangs and help them get adopted.”
Novak is a horsewoman who has a good track record of helping American wild horses get adopted from coast to coast. She uses Facebook and works with her vast network of supporters at Protect Mustangs to find good homes for wild horses.
“Why are the feds taking the cherished Cold Creek wild horses away from the public’s eyes especially after killing 28?” asks Novak. “It’s time for the BLM to stop violating the public’s trust. There is plenty of room at Palomino Valley Wild Horse and Burro Center outside of Reno, Nevada. It’s an accessible location for potential adopters to visit and fall in love with a Cold Creek mustang. They need to be there.”
Palomino Valley Wild Horse and Burro Center near Reno currently has 941 wild horses. Their holding capacity is 1850. They are located 27 miles away from the Reno International Airport and 4 hours by car from San Francisco. The Utah facility is 780 miles from San Francisco.
Some horse advocates and environmental researchers believe the Cold Creek wild horses are showing signs of impaired immunity because they were given PZP, the pesticide for birth control several years ago. Does BLM wants to hide the long term side-effects of PZP from the public? Is this why they whisked them off to a private facility in Utah or is there another reason?
Utah congressman Chris Stewart is pushing legislation to give individual states and Indian Tribes control of federally protected wild horses and aggressively manage them as they wish. His Wild Horse Oversight Act is proposed in Congress. http://stewart.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-chris-stewart-introduces-bill-giving-states-the-ability-to-manage
“Utah is notorious for being a pro-slaughter state and we must ensure the Cold Creek wild horses are safe forever,” states Novak. “Horse slaughter for human consumption is inhumane and barbaric. Just because horse meat sells on the foreign market doesn’t mean that the United States of America should allow our icons of freedom to be eaten abroad.”
After 3 failed attempts at adoption—live or internet—the BLM can legally sell wild horses by the truckload to middlemen who claim they won’t sell wild horses to slaughter. . . According to the Burns Amendment of the free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act, the BLM can also get rid of all wild horses over the age of 10 the same way.
“We won’t sit by and watch America’s wild horses fall through the cracks,” says Hollywood actor Mark Boone Junior a member of Protect Mustangs. “I spent a lot of time in Vegas and I’m mad as hell 28 Cold Creek wild horses were killed by the feds. The herd was managed poorly because BLM isn’t doing their job.”
# # #
Media Contacts:
Anne Novak, Anne@ProtectMustangs.org, 415-531-8454
Kerry Becklund, Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org, 510-502-1913
Links of interest™:
Nevada: Federal Inquiry Is Sought After Starving Horses Are Euthanized (New York Times): http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/10/us/nevada-federal-inquiry-is-sought-after-starving-horses-are-euthanized.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
Horse advocates want review; 28 Nevada mustangs euthanized (Associated Press article went viral) http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/18109922-113/horse-advocates-want-review-28-nevada-mustangs-euthanized
Horse Advocates Call For Investigation After BLM Euthanizes 28 Emaciated Mustangs http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/09/09/horse-advocates-call-for-investigation-after-blm-euthanizes-28-emaciated-mustangs/#.VfD_tm8dYN8.facebook
Horse advocates seek probe of mustang killings: http://www.kezi.com/news/Horse_Advocates_Seek_Probe_of_Mustang_Killings.html
PZP proposal for research on Cold Creek wild horses (2013): http://nyecounty.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=576&meta_id=31471
Federal horse, burro adoption event designed to help manage population (Washington Post August 2014): https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/federal-horse-burro-adoption-event-designed-to-help-manage-population/2015/08/14/cdc3f3f6-4205-11e5-846d-02792f854297_story.html
Palomino Valley Wild Horse & Burro Center: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/prog/wh_b/palomino_valley_national.html
Chris Stewart WHOA bill: http://stewart.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-chris-stewart-introduces-bill-giving-states-the-ability-to-manage
Mark Boone Junior on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0095478/
Protect Mustangs on the web: www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs
Anne Novak on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak
Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.
BLM delays responding to simple questions about the Cold Creek killings
Federal agency in charge of managing wild horses avoids transparency and holds back information about public viewing
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: RE: Urgent request KILLING Cold Creek wild horses
From: Brenda Beasley <bbeasley@blm.gov>
Date: Thu, September 10, 2015 10:21 am
To: Anne protectmustangs <@protectmustangs.org>
I apologize Anne, between media calls and meetings, I’m still gathering the information to address your original questions. It may take a little longer to respond now that you’ve added more questions, but I’ll do my best to respond in a timely manner.
Thank you for your patience,
Bren
Brenda L. Beasley
Public Affairs Specialist
Wild Horse and Burro Program
Bureau of Land Management – Nevada
Office of Communications
Office: 775-861-6594
Cell: 775-315-5391
bbeasley@blm.gov | www.blm.gov/nv
From:@protectmustangs.org
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 5:00 AM
To: Brenda Beasley
Subject: RE: Urgent request KILLING Cold Creek wild horses
Dear Ms. Beasley,
Kindly respond to my questions below that you received on September 8th and said you would respond to on the 9th but I heard nothing. In addition we would like to know the following:
- How many wild horses were transported in each trailer?
- Who hauled them?
- Please provide a copy of the brand inspection, coggins and health certs.
- What sort of injury or death occurred during transport?
- Did any arrive showing signs of illness?
- Are they all alive at the Axtell Utah facility?
- What are they eating right now at the Axtell facility?
- Of the 28 Cold Creek wild horses who were killed what were their ages?
- What did you do with their bodies?
- What hours is the Oliver Ranch open for temporary holding public viewing?
- How long is the public visit?
- Where is the Oliver Ranch?
- How does the public observe the roundup?
- Where are the trap sites?
- How many more days will BLM be rounding up more Cold Creek and/or neighboring wild horses?
- Are you rounding up wild horses over the weekend?
- Why where were some members of the public told by BLM staff that as long as the wild horses could get into the trailers there would be no euthanasia?
- Why did BLM change their mind and kill them?
- When will the vet reports be available?
- Is the BLM rounding up wild horses from Forest Service land too?
- Who is coordinating volunteer aide as well as rescue organizations who want to provide aide?
- Who is coordinating adoption of all the Cold Creek wild horses that haven’t been killed?
The public doesn’t like to hear that older wild horses are being killed because there is a stigma against them amongst BLM staff. Older horses often find homes in sanctuaries or compassionate homes as lawn ornaments. It’s time for BLM to start forging partnerships with sanctuaries who care about wild horses–especially the older ones.
I assume you have read this article in the Nevada Appeal: http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/18109922-113/horse-advocates-want-review-28-nevada-mustangs-euthanized and this article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/10/us/nevada-federal-inquiry-is-sought-after-starving-horses-are-euthanized.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
Please don’t delay in responding to my simple questions. Thank you and have a nice day.
Sincerely,
Anne Novak
Anne Novak
Executive Director
Protect Mustangs
Tel./Text: 415.531.8454
@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.
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: RE: Urgent request KILLING Cold Creek wild horses
From: <@protectmustangs.org>
Date: Tue, September 08, 2015 6:22 pm
To: “Brenda Beasley” <bbeasley@blm.gov>
Hello,
I am officially requesting a copy of all photos and videos from the Cold Creek roundup (before during and after) as well as the killing of 28 Cold Creek wild horses near Las Vegas.
- What is the BLM feeding them? Are they receiving any medication?
- Where are they being taken for short term holding after the roundup?
- Is the public welcome to observe or is this hidden from the public?
- Is there cattle on this range? Or other livestock?
- Was any water source fenced out on this range?
- How many pregnant mares were killed?
- How many mares with nursing foals were killed?
- What method did BLM use to kill them?
- Where are the orphan foals right now?
This is what I found on your website:
Thursday,
September 3
Summary: Gather operations have been suspended
Animals gathered: 0
Animals shipped: 49
Acute related animal deaths: 0
Cause: none
Chronic/pre-existing related animal deaths: 11
Cause: Eleven (11) horses, 3 studs and 8 mares, body condition score 1.5 or less were euthanized due to “poor prognosis for recovery or improvement” as identified within BLM’s Animal Health, Maintenance, Evaluation and Response Instruction Memorandum 2015-070.
Friday,
September 4
Summary: Gather operations have been suspended
Animals gathered: 0
Animals shipped: 37
Acute related animal deaths: 0
Cause: none
Chronic/pre-existing related animal deaths: 16
Cause: Sixteen (16) horses, 3 studs and 13 mares, body condition score 1.5 or less were euthanized due to “poor prognosis for recovery or improvement” as identified within BLM’s Animal Health, Maintenance, Evaluation and Response Instruction Memorandum 2015-070.
Anne
Anne Novak
Executive Director
Protect Mustangs
Tel./Text: 415.531.8454
@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.
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: RE: Urgent request
From: Brenda Beasley <bbeasley@blm.gov>
Date: Tue, September 08, 2015 5:46 pm
To: Anne protectmustangs <@protectmustangs.org>
Hello Anne,
I just checked my desk phone’s call log and saw I had a missed call from your phone number at 1:26 p.m. today. I’m so sorry I missed you.
I wish you would have left me a message so I would have been able to research the information you’ve requested today. As it stands now, the people I need to get some of the information from (such as age and photos) are not available. I will get with them first thing in the morning and provide you with a further response.
Unfortunately, 28 of the 201 wild horses gathered were euthanized due to a “poor or extremely emaciated body condition” and were determined by a veterinarian to have a “poor prognosis for recovery or improvement.” The horses were in a severe state of starvation.
All of the 201 gathered horses were in a severe state of starvation with Body Condition Scores ranging from 1 to 3 on a scale up to 9. The majority of the population having a BCS of 2. The horses that were euthanized had body conditions of 1 to 1.5. The on-site Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) veterinarian made the animal body condition assessments.
Lack of forage in the area caused the horses to eat desert shrub species and Joshua Tree bark, which has little or no nutritional value. The entire herd was showing signs of severe starvation evident by lethargy, signs of depression, and slow response to stimuli.
The BLM had been providing food and water to the horses, in some cases for as long as six days, in an attempt to improve their condition so they could withstand shipping to the holding facility in Axtell, Utah, where they will continue their recovery.
The emergency bait-trap gather was conducted to alleviate the suffering of the horses, protect the range and decrease competition for limited resources during severe drought conditions.
The sex of the 28 euthanized animals, along with statistical gather data, is listed on our Gather Report page, which is accessible by the public, at: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/lvfo/blm_programs/wild_horse_and_burro/Cold_Creek_Emergency_Wild_Horse_Gather/gatreports.html
Again, I’ll research the information regarding age and photos in the morning and get back to you.
Thank you for your patience.
V/r
Brenda L. Beasley
Public Affairs Specialist
Wild Horse and Burro Program
Bureau of Land Management – Nevada
Office of Communications
Office: 775-861-6594
Cell: 775-315-5391
bbeasley@blm.gov | www.blm.gov/nv
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From: anne@protectmustangs.org [mailto:anne@protectmustangs.org]
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2015 5:09 PM
To: Brenda Beasley
Subject: Urgent request
Dear Brenda,
I tried to reach you by telephone today but there was no answer.
Exactly how many wild horses were killed since the beginning of the Cold Creek gather? Please provide the age and sex of each animal as well as photographs taken of these wild horses before and after they were killed with out delay.
I look forward to receiving the requested information today to demonstrate the agencies willingness to be transparent.
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.
