Old Gold notice pelvis is probably injured. She can’t get up. Whip coming at her. Eyes freaked. Agony! (Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved.)

“Dead horses are a result of this roundup fiasco,” states Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs.  “The BLM should have brought wild horses aid (water and feed) for several months to avoid an emergency ‘gather’ during foaling season. Who’s giving the orders to stampede frail wild horses and tiny foals?”

Here is the BLM’s report about the Jackson Mt. roundup: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_programs/wild_horses_and_burros/Jackson_Mountains_Gather/facreports.html

“Counting the dead from a roundup is basic math,” says Novak. “All the wild horses who died or were killed from lethal injection as a result of the BLM’s Jackson Mountain roundup should be counted as roundup-related deaths. Not counting the dead properly shows the BLM’s lack of transparency.”

“The federal agency wants to make Congress feel the roundups don’t cause many deaths so they skew the numbers to ensure their funding won’t be cut off,” explains Novak. “We request that Congress investigate their erroneous death count.”

We brought up this issue at last winter’s Calico roundup beginning with Old Gold‘s death. Read our position here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=348

Below is what we said on November 26, 2011.

“So many wild horses die because of roundups yet the BLM does not count the deaths accurately,” explains Anne Novak, Executive Director of the California-based Protect Mustangs. “Congress hears that there is only a 1% death rate at ‘gathers’. We want transparency and accountability for all the deaths at roundups.”

“If a horse is chased by a helicopter for miles and miles, then while in a trap pen terrified with plastic tied on to whips, slammed into a metal panel, next shoved into a trailer and transported to another holding facility and is put down a day or two afterwards—it is related to the roundup,” says Novak.  “If Old Gold had not been rounded up, I bet she would be alive today.”

BLM has done nothing to improve transparency since then. The subterfuge continues . . .

Contact your elected officials and ask them to intervene to make this cruel roundup become transparent with correct death counts.

Thank you for doing what you can do to stop the roundups.

Links of interest:

June 9, 2012  Associated Press Congressman criticizes Nevada wild horse roundup  http://mynorthwest.com/174/690641/Congressman-criticizes-NV-wild-horse-roundup

11/30/11  Horse yard reports on Celebrities speak out against roundups and Old Gold’s death http://bit.ly/uqkVH6

11/29/12  Tuesdays Horse Michael Blake and The Barbi Twins speak out against wild horse roundups  http://bit.ly/sWpySD

11/28/11  Wild mustang killed by BLM . . . because she was old by The Desert Independent http://bit.ly/rCE39o

11/28/11  Questions over fate of “Old Gold” by International Horse News. http://bit.ly/vr1MX9

11/26/11 KPFA  Evening News, KFCF Fresno, KPFK Los Angeles, WBAI New York, KPFT Houston, WPFW Washington, DC interview to Stop Calico Roundup. Hear it  at 26:25 on http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/75490