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–
Did poor horse management result in killing wild horses after rounding them up or was the BLM just too lazy to give them the care they needed?
For immediate release:
LAS VEGAS, NV. (September 8, 2015)–Protect Mustangs demands the Office of the Inspector General conduct a full investigation into the management, roundup, feeding, veterinary care and killing of the 28 Cold Creek wild horses who had become skinny. The preservation organization also demands immediate full public disclosure of the death of more than 75 wild horses who were moved to a holding facility in Kansas in 2014. Allegations of wild horses becoming skinny and dying who were not able to access the feed troughs have been circulating the Internet for a year.
“The BLM roundup was supposed to save wild horses not kill them,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs, a preservation organization based in California.
“I was told by BLM staff that wild horses would be euthanized only if they could not step up into the trailer to be hauled away,” states Alynn Dalton, photographer and Las Vegas area resident who attended the roundup. “They killed the very horses they said they were there to help. Why aren’t they giving them a real chance at life?”
“Last year in Kansas the BLM’s deplorable horse management resulted in the deaths of more than 75 wild horses and that now requires full public disclosure,” explains Novak. “Today we demand an investigation into the Cold Creek killings. These federally protected wild horses were living on the range not dropping dead. The BLM should know that feeding severely skinny wild horses takes special care to nurse them back to health. . . I wonder if they thought this was an easy way to dispose of them. The truth needs to come out.”
Out of 202 Cold Creek wild horses rounded up near Las Vegas, BLM killed 28 wild horses on September 3rd and 4th, before Labor Day weekend, according to their website update. They list a “poor prognosis for recovery” as the reason for killing them but BLM’s track record speaks for itself regarding the 2014 Kansas fiasco.
“How many mares and foals have been killed or did the BLM just kill off the mares instead of helping them?” asks Novak. “If so, now what will happen to the orphans? Did the BLM kill the old mustangs too? People would have adopted these mustangs once they were well. Volunteers and rescues would have helped them recover. Killing them without giving them a fighting chance at recovery is a heinous misuse of tax dollars.”
The Cold Creek herd is the last wild herd in southern Nevada and dearly loved by the community in the Las Vegas area.
Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.
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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.
Media Contacts:
Anne Novak, Anne@ProtectMustangs.org, 415-531-8454
Petitioning Mr. Ismael Garza Install the Strieter-Lite Wild Animal Highway Warning Reflector System in Nevada on Highway 50 E. and Other High Strike Areas
From Julie Keller:
Save Wild Lives by stopping tragic dusk to dawn wild horse and other wild animal-vehicle collisions! The reflector system is the most effective method of preventing these collisions with a 78% – 90% prevention rate stopping 4 out of 5 accidents that would otherwise occur. They reduce an estimated 800,000 yearly wild animal-vehicle collisions. Please go to www.strieter-lite.com for further information and statistical analysis based on extensive road test data. The reflectors are eligible for 80% FHWA funding under the TEA-21 hazardous elimination fund. They were successfully tested on Highway 50 E. in Northern Nevada for three years (2003-2006) then removed to widen the highway. NDOT was not able to replace them because they were inadvertently destroyed. Now many tragic accidents, especially with wild horses, are happening again. Due to their success in preventing these collisions, they need replaced and also installed in other high strike areas.
Please contact the Nevada Department of Transportation at (775) 888-7087 or email Mr. Ismael Garza, Assistant Chief Traffic Operations Engineer, at IGarza@dot.state.nv.us.
Thank you.
(Note from Protect Mustangs: Highway 50 E has the Pine Nut wild horses on one side and the Virginia Range wild horses on the other)
The BLM’s HORRIBLE project goal is to maintain a population of only native 25-30 wild horses within the Water Canyon portion of the Antelope HMA. The current estimated population is only 66 wild horses.
Under the proposal, the BLM would capture the horses through bait and water trapping or by helicopter roundup, and treat and release only 25-30 wild horses back into the project area. Mares selected for release would be treated with PZP-22, a time-release pesticide for birth control (made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries) with an expected efficacy of about two years, despite the fact that it sterilizes after multiple use. The mares would be re-treated every 20-24 months and monitored to determine treatment effectiveness.
Despite the current low population, BLM trumps up allegations of “excess wild horses” to justify a waste of tax dollars and permanently remove traumatized herd members by offering them to the public through a trap site adoption.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ely District, Schell Field Office is soliciting public comment on the Water Canyon Wild Horse Growth Suppression Pilot Program Preliminary Environmental Assessment (EA). The Preliminary EA (DOI-BLM-NV-L020-2015-0014) was made available for review and comment on Friday, May 15, 2015. The 30-day comment period concludes Monday, June 15, 2015.
Comments will be accepted for 30 days until June 15, 2015. Interested individuals should address all written comments to the BLM Ely District Office, HC 33 Box 33500, Ely, NV 89301, Attn: Paul E. Podborny, Schell Field Manager, or fax them to Podborny at (775) 289-1910. Comments may also be submitted electronically at blm_nv_water_canyon@blm.gov or comment throught the NEPA Register. Email comments sent to any other email address will not be considered.
Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time.
The EA analyzes a proposal to conduct a pilot project to gather, and treat and release, as well as remove excess wild horses from inside the Water Canyon area, located within the Antelope Herd Management Area (HMA), about 60 miles north of Ely, Nevada.
This stunning Pine Nut stud lives in freedom today near Carson City, NV, with his family, because the lawsuit kept his herd free and safe. There is much more work to do for the mustangs and honestly it’s getting URGENT we file quickly to protect America’s wild horses.
Please donate http://www.gofundme.com/qarve8 and share so the wild ones will have their voices heard in court. We will list everyone’s names who has donated to the legal fund on our website (unless you want to be anonymous) because you deserve to be recognized for being part of the next legal effort with your tax-deductible donations. YOU are making this happen with your donations.
America’s wild horses are counting on all of us to chip in to help them. They are so grateful for your caring, love and support. Thank you!
In response to a lawsuit filed Jan.26 by Friends of Animals (FoA) and Protect Mustangs against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the roundup of wild horses and forced drugging of mares planned by the government agency in the Pine Nut Herd Management Area (HMA) of Nevada has been halted at least until Feb. 17. The court has set Feb. 9 as the hearing date for FoA and Protect Mustangs to make their preliminary injunction motion.
BLM refused to hear public comments at “public” meeting
MINDEN, NV (January 22, 2015)—Edita Birnkrant, Campaigns Director for Friends of Animals (FoA) flew out from New York City with FoA correspondent Nicole Rivard to give public comments at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public meeting about the Carson City District Draft Resource Management Plan which calls to zero out 6 treasured herds of wild horses. After being denied her rights at the public meeting, held at the Carson Valley Inn in Minden, Nevada this afternoon, Birnkrant took over the microphone at the BLM meeting and held up yellow crime scene tape while Rivard filmed the protest against censorship and managing wild horses to extinction. Birnkrant was threatened with arrest by Nevada Sheriffs while holding up her banner. The hotel manager made Rivard stop filming and told the advocates they were being thrown out of the hotel, even though they had booked rooms there that night.
Statement from Edita Birnkrant:
“While we were waiting to go into the meeting a man told a BLM staffer “I wanna open up a horse butcher shop”. Then a few other guys started making jokes about how tender horse meat is. The BLM guy just chuckled but didn’t tell them it was inappropriate.
I was outraged that the BLM dared to hold a “public ” meeting and forbid the public from speaking. I took over the microphone to call out the sham of a BLM meeting, that shut out the public, and I said that Friends of Animals was there tonight to oppose the BLM’s extinction plan for wild horses in Nevada. I said the BLM is managing wild horses to extinction through roundups and PZP and we are outraged and demand it stop. I held our banner that said “Stop the BLM’s Criminal Reign of Terror. Protect Wild Horses Under the Endangered Species Act” The sheriffs were surrounding me at that point threatening to arrest me unless I left. I still had the banner and was shouting “the BLM is charged with crimes against wild horses”.
Then the hotel manager at the Carson Valley Inn in Minden, Nevada—Phil Dohrn–started bullying us and got in Nicole’s face. He pushed against her—blocking the camera and told her she had to shut her video off and we were getting thrown out.
Three extremely hostile sheriffs and the Carson Valley Inn manager escorted us to our rooms and waited outside while we packed our bags. They pounded on the door to hurry us or they’d arrest us. They called additional sheriffs to the hotel during all this. We left the hotel shocked that the Carson Valley Inn treats paying guests who exercise their First Amendment rights in their meeting room like this.”
The federal plan for public land in the Reno/Carson area is of interest to all Americans from coast to coast. Citizens care about public land and want federally protected wild horses protected by the law that allows them to roam freely without harassment.
Friends of Animals, an international animal protection organization founded in 1957, advocates for the rights of animals, free-living and domestic around the world. www.friendsofanimals.org
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Friends of Animals’ public comments that advocates were not allowed to read and were given to Collen Sievers the BLM BLM Project Manager for Carson City District at the public hearing on the draft resource management plan for Carson City District
Edita Birnkrant, FoA’s campaigns director 917-940-2725
The opinion of the American public, as declared through Congress is clear: “wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people.” BLM has an obligation to consider wild horses as an integral part of the natural system of public lands.
It appears from the Carson City’s Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Environmental Impact Statement that the BLM failed to take into consideration critical information about wild horses and failed to consider any alternatives that promote a free and viable wild horse population.
Friends of Animal is here to urge BLM to reevaluate its Resource Management Plan.
We ask that BLM consider an alternative that: (1) maintains all wild horse herd management areas; (2) prohibits conflicting uses on herd management areas; and (3) prohibits efforts to eradicate wild horses, such as round-ups, fertility control and sterilization. BLM must take into consideration the small population of wild horses and the potential that they will be listed as a threatened or endangered species under the Federal Endangered Species Act. From a scientific perspective, wild horses on our public lands are at risk of extinction if BLM does not change its management plans.
BLM does not provide adequate area for wild horses. Under the current RMP, approximately 4.8 million acres of public lands covered by the plan are open for private ranchers to graze cattle and sheep while only 1.2 million acres are reserved for wild horses. In the preferred alternative the ratio or area available for cattle and sheep grazing is also more than 4 times that available for wild horses.
Moreover, under no alternative, are cattle and sheep prohibited from grazing on wild horse herd management areas. BLM must consider an alternative that provides contiguous habitat for wild horses to roam freely.
Second, all alternatives for the proposed Resource Management Plan allows BLM to continue managing horses at artificially low populations, or appropriate management levels. This results in expensive, and cruel round-ups that tear the wild horses from their homes and families and place them in tax funded holding facilities. This is one of the largest threat to wild horses on U.S. lands. Experts have warned that the “majority of wild equid populations managed by the BLM are kept at population sizes that are small enough for the loss of genetic variation to be a real concern.”
The Equid Specialist Group of IUCN Species Survival Commission recommends minimum populations of 2,500 individuals for the conservation of genetic diversity. Others have warned that populations managed with a target size of fewer than 500 horses are at some risk of losing more than 90 percent of selective neutral genetic variation over a period of 200 years.
There are no herds that have a large enough population to meet the recommendation of the IUCN Species Survival Commission – 2,500 animals—and only 1 out of 17 of the herd management areas in this planning area has an appropriate management level set to 500 or more. Limiting horses to an artificially low number is short-sighted and ineffective because it could prompt short-term population growth.
Finally, Friends of Animals submitted a petition to the US Fish and Wildlife Service asking it to recognize wild horses as threatened or endangered. The Endangered Species Act requires the government to make final determination on the petition within 12 months – which would be this June. The BLM should not undermine this legal process by allowing BLM to round-up and remove wild horses from Carson City herd management areas. Not only would such actions undermine the Endangered Species Act, but they would also put the viability of the horses here at risk. Instead the plan should recommend BLM halt all efforts to remove wild horses, and allow Fish and Wildlife Service to review the law and facts in regards to wild horses. Nicole Rivard, correspondent, FoA 203-910-1217
As my colleague just pointed out, all but one of the 17 herd management areas in the Carson City District has an appropriate management level set to 500 or more. Everywhere else the loss of genetic viability is a real concern. So additional roundups, which destroy social structure that can lead to population spikes, as well as consideration of administering fertility control, should be removed from this Carson City District Plan immediately if not sooner.
While some wild horse advocates may claim fertility control drugs, such as PZP, is the lesser of two evils, we at FoA believe birth control is equally harmful and inhumane as roundups. In most cases—even the BLM admits this—wild horses would still have to be captured to be treated with the pesticide before being released.
The widespread use of PZP is really very contrary to the true core intent of the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971, which was to restore wild horses as naturally, integrated, harmonious components of the public land ecosystem who are not overly tampered with. Deciding which animal should give birth or not is a very invasive, unacceptable thing to do to these wild animals.
Studies have revealed adverse effects of PZP— that it sterilizes wild horses after multiple uses and results in risky foal birth out of season and significant behavioral changes that can affect the health of the herd.
BLM’s discussion regarding a population control program in the EIS is inaccurate and unsupported. They claim fertility control limits the stress of pregnancy on mares, and helps stallions as they will not be exerting extra energy fighting to control mares or raising foals.
What about the stress on mares of not being able to get pregnant as nature intended!
We urge the BLM to look beyond data provided by the Humane Society of the United States, which has a vested interest in PZP as it is the registrant of the pesticide, and Jay Kirkpatrick, the director of the Science and Conservation Center, which produces the active ingredient in PZP. For instance a 2009 Princeton University study of the horses on Shackleford Banks in North Carolina, who began getting PZP in 2000, showed that prolonged infertility has significant consequences on social behavior.
Researchers found that females who were receiving contraception were much more likely to change groups. Normally bands are really very stable, said researcher Cassandra Nunez, and mares will stay with males much if not all of their lives. That stability is really important for the health of the group members. Foal mortality increases when there are a bunch of different changes, and parasite load of animals in the group can go up because they are getting more stressed.
In a later study in 2010, Nunez found that recipients of PZP also extend the receptive breeding period into what is normally the non-breeding season, resulting in foal birth out of season.
Normally the winter is spent eating as much as they can, and everyone is more relaxed. Males tend to let females roam farther, which is good because food is patchier. So all of this is changing because of extended cycling.
Nunez also noted it’s taking a while for the contracepted mares, who were taken off PZP in 2009, to respond physiologically. So that flexibility that you think you have with PZP…it’s not really that flexible.”
It is imperative that BLM reduce the number of cattle and sheep allowed to graze on public lands, as well as consider holistic resource management plan, such as reserve design, which is described in detail in Craig Downer’s Book the Wild Horse Conspiracy. Both options would adequately protect these majestic animals so that they can persist for future generations.
Friends of Animals, an international animal protection organization founded in 1957, advocates for the rights of animals, free-living and domestic around the world. www.friendsofanimals.org
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BLM Nevada News CARSON CITY DISTRICT OFFICE NO. CCDO 2015-11 FOR RELEASE: November 28, 2014
CONTACT: Lisa Ross, 775-885-6107, lross@blm.gov
Draft Resource Management Plan Environmental Impact Statement Available for
BLM Carson City District
Carson City, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is asking the public to review and comment on a Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Carson City District. The draft plan will affect approximately 4.8 million acres of public land. The comment period opened with the publication of a notice of availability in the Federal Register on November 28, 2014. Comments will be accepted during a 120-day period which closes March 27, 2015.
Public meetings to review and comment on the draft EIS will be announced at least 15 days in advance in local newspapers and on the BLM website.
The plan will address: Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, lands and realty, utility corridors, wind energy, travel management, recreation, fish and wildlife, minerals, wild and scenic rivers, public health and safety, and visual resource management.
Public meetings on the Draft RMP/Draft EIS are currently scheduled for 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.; on January 13, at the John Ascuaga’s Nugget (1100 Nugget Ave.) in Sparks, Nev.; on January 15, at the Fallon Convention Center (100 Campus Way) in Fallon, Nev.; on January 20, at the Mineral County Library (First & A Street) in Hawthorne, Nev.; on January 22, at the Carson Valley Inn (1627 US Hwy 395 N) in Minden, Nev.; and on January 29, at the Yerington Elementary School (112 N. California St.) in Yerington, Nev. An additional public meeting will be held from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., on January 24, at the Carson City Plaza Hotel and Event Center (801 South Carson Street) in Carson City, Nev. Additional public meetings are anticipated in coordination with local County Commissions and Boards of Supervisors.
Written comments related to the Carson City District Draft RMP/Draft EIS may be submitted by any of the following methods:
• Website: http://on.doi.gov/1uYBNGT• E-mail: BLM_NV_CCDO_RMP@blm.gov
• Fax: 775-885-6147
• Mail: BLM Carson City District, Attn: CCD RMP, 5665 Morgan Mill Rd., Carson City, NV 89701.
Copies of the Carson City District Draft RMP/Draft EIS are available in the Carson City District Office at the above address or on the following website: http://on.doi.gov/1uYBNGT
“If the good people of Nevada choose to use PZP to manage their wild horses on state land it’s up to them because that is a state issue. Americans across the country are concerned PZP isn’t safe and don’t want their wild horses and burros on federal land to be given the restricted-use pesticide hailed as “birth control” but known to sterilize after multiple use. If PZP advocates can prove PZP is 100% safe for native wild horse and burro herds, won’t sterilize them, ruin genetic variability or cause behavioral abnormalities then it could be considered as a management tool. Until then other holistic management tools must be examined. It’s time for a freeze on roundups, drugging and removals for scientific reevaluation. We need to get it right for our icons of American freedom.” ~ Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs
The Bureau of Land Management is wiping out America’s wild horses,” says Anne Novak, executive director of the group. “We need to stop the roundups and protect our native wild horses.”
Protect Mustangs described the appropriate herd management level of 138 for the area as out of date and lacking in scientific merit.
“We must ensure native wild horses can survive upcoming environmental changes,” Novak says.
“The minimum population for a genetically variable herd is 150. Why are PZP advocates and the BLM allowing wild horse herds to fall below safe numbers?”
![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)
