WINNEMUCCA, NEV (BLM)  – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Winnemucca District concluded the Tri-State Calico Complex wild horse and burro gather on Monday, Jan. 9. The preliminary numbers for the animals gathered are 1,203 excess wild horses and 142 excess wild burros gathered from the HMAs, located northeast of Gerlach, Nev., and northwest of Winnemucca, Nev., within Humboldt and Washoe counties. Of those gathered, some stallions and mares were released back to the range after the mares received a 22-month fertility control vaccine treatment.

“The gather was a success and significant strides have been made on the public rangelands with the removal of excess wild horse and burros,” said District Manager Gene Seidlitz. “In turn, we now have a better balance with wildlife, livestock, and wild horse and burros. During this gather, the BLM provided a transparent and safe opportunity to the American public, to take time to observe and interact with the BLM staff to gain additional insight and information about the BLM’s management of wild horses.”

The gather started on Nov. 19. The gathered wild horses have been transported to the Palomino Valley Center near Reno, Nev., and the majority of wild burros were transported to Broken Arrow/Indian Lakes Facility at Fallon, Nev., where they will be prepared for the BLM adoption program. Un-adopted horses will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be humanly cared for and retain their “wild” status and protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The BLM does not sell or send any horses to slaughter.

The Complex consisted of approximately 584,000 acres (public and private) but the gather area consisted of approximately 1,041,000 acres to encompass wild horses and burros residing outside of the HMAs. The Complex included the following HMAs: Black Rock Range East, Black Rock Range West, Calico Mountains, Granite Range, Warm Springs Canyon, and McGee Mountain.

Removing the excess wild horses and wild burros will help to achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship as required under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, and Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, as well as help to achieve and maintain healthy wild horse and burro populations.

For more information, contact Lisa Ross, BLM Winnemucca District public affairs specialist, at 775-304-8850 or lross@blm.gov. ]]> http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/13554/feed 5 http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/13456 http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/13456#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:18:13 +0000 steven http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/?p=13456 Story and Interview By Steven Long, Photo by Laura Leigh, Horseback Magazine

New Video From Horseback’s Laura Leigh

Production note from Laura Leigh to Horseback Magazine regarding new video:

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – Last winter when about 160 horses died in the bitter cold of a Nevada desert’s winter, wild horse advocates issued howls of protest climaxing when a foal, exhausted after being stampeded for miles over rocky ground, lost his hooves and perished.

Animal advocates will not witness such an event this year because the horses are being held in a compound on private property leased at taxpayer’s expense but closed to the public.

Today, cowboys in a howling helicopter stampeded horses into a man made trap 120 miles north of Winnemucca, Nevada in the federal Bureau of Land Management’s Tri State/Calico Complex. A thousand horses have been stampeded into traps since November. The roundups just began again after a break for the holidays.  The animals are being held in large holding pens on private land closed to the public except during tightly controlled visiting hours.

With roughly 245 million acres under its control, Horseback asked the BLM man in charge of the “gather” why horses are being housed on private, rather than public land. The BLM’s Gene Seidlitz, on the record:

HORSEBACK ONLINE: We understand the press and public are restricted from viewing the horses in the facility where the captured horses are being held.

GENE SEIDLITZ, BLM: Except on Saturday only where the private landowner has agreed to allow public access to view the holding corrals with animals.

HORSEBACK: Why is it up to the private landowner?

BLM: The private landowner and Sun-J (the helicopter contractor) have entered into an agreement for the use of that private land.

HORSEBACK: Why is it up to Sun-J?

BLM: Well Sun-J is the contractor, as you know…

HORSEBACK: I understand.

BLM: Based on the location of the holding corrals it offers better access to not only water but improved roads.

HORSEBACK: Let me ask you this Gene. You stand behind Sun-J as your contractor, I presume?

BLM: Could you repeat that question?

HORSEBACK: You stand behind Sun-J as your contractor I presume?

BLM: Do I stand by them?

HORSEBACK: Yes, are you supporting their decision?

BLM: To use private land?

HORSEBACK: Yes

BLM: That decision was not mine.

HORSEBACK: Answer the question, yes or no, do you support that decision?

BLM: The decision, like I said earlier was not mine. But obviously they felt this facility on private land had a capability and infrastructure in place in terms of water, corrals, and road access.

HORSEBACK: I suppose I’m going to ask you a third time, do you support that determination on the part of Sun-J to do this and deny the public access to this?

BLM: Well, it’s only a partial denial of access.

HORSEBACK: No, six days out of seven is a full denial.

BLM: However, we have allowed complete access at the gather site. What we’ve also done based on this private land’s lack of access besides Saturday is we’ve taken pictures of the horses and we’ve posted pictures to our web.

HORSEBACK: How many horses have been “gathered” so far?

BLM: As of last night the total is 1,145.

HORSEBACK: How many have died?

BLM: Cumulative to date non gather related it’s seven, and gather related deaths; it’s three, so it’s a total of ten.

HORSEBACK: As you know, Sun-J was subject to criticism after the recent report was made public. Have you hired outside scrutiny to report on that firm?

BLM: In terms of?

HORSEBACK: In terms of abuse. In terms of getting the helicopter too close to the horses.

BLM: As a result of the Triple B gather?

HORSEBACK: As a result of the report that recently came out citing them.

BLM: Since the release of that Triple B report, along with the press release from the director Abbey, what generated that report was an internal review of gather operations with the focus of humane and safe treatment of horses. So I’m keenly aware of the report, of the recommendations of the report, the membership that was put together for the team to do that report, absolutely, yes I am.

HORSEBACK: Again, is Sun-J under increased scrutiny?

BLM: It’s safe to say from the start of the Tri State/Calico Complex gather which started on November 19^th, the day before they started, I as the district manager had a pre-gather briefing with them in which I outlined my leadership intent in terms of expectations of safe and humane treatment of the wild horses and the wild burros associated with the Tri State/Calico Complex. That was a written document that we went through line by line and they had a copy with them, and hopefully that copy is still with them because I presented it to them.

HORSEBACK: I have seen a photograph which was taken yesterday or the day before of Sun-J on this gather getting extraordinarily close to the animals

BLM: In terms of that photograph, I believe I’ve probably seen the same one based on dialog I had this morning with two of our visitors that I met with before they left our facility before they left to go to the gather site. I will, based on that picture, be out to the gather tomorrow on site as well as Saturday to watch operations from the gather site location and also will be interacting and dialoguing with the primary corps, public affairs, our visitors, our law enforcement, and then also the contractor. I also plan to then go to the temporary holding facility which is on private land and also observe the animals and integrate and participate with the staff there.

HORSEBACK: One final question. How much taxpayer money is being spent to keep these horses on private land instead of on BLM land, which would be free?

BLM: In terms of taxpayer money for the private land use, there is none.

HORSEBACK: How much is the contractor paying for the private land use?

BLM: That information I do not have, and that information probably exists between the landowner and Sun-J.

HORSEBACK: Is the United States government paying Sun-J with taxpayer money?

BLM: Steven, can you repeat that question please?

HORSEBACK: Is the United States of America paying Sun-J with taxpayer money?

BLM: For the gather overall for the safe removal of excess horses from public land, yes, taxpayer’s money is being used.

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The federal Bureau of Land Management has talked a good game in recent months with its appointment of a veteran agency bureaucrat to head the division that controls U.S. wild horses and burros. During that period statements from Director Bob Abbey on down have promised a new era of openess in BLM’s treatment of wild horses which have been systamatically removed from federal lands and replacd by cattle. Hundreds have died in helicopter driven stampedes in the dead of winter and the heat of a desert summer.

At the current “gather” of horses at Nevada’s Calico comples where more than a hundred horses died during hard winter stampedes last year, the government contractor has removed its wild horse trap to provate property and ordered press and public be excluded from watching their practices. That same contractor, Sun-J, came under strong criticizm recently in a BLM sponsored independent report on its “gather” practices.

Horseback twice asked Chief Washington Spokesman Tom Gorey to intervene to allow its longtime reporter and photographer Laura Leigh to have admittance to the trap site to observe and photograph the roundup. The agency finally responded, saying there would be no access to the trap site and even the press would have to observe Saturday visiting hours set by the private landowner who owns the land where the horses are being housed, presumably at taxpayer expense. BLM responded to the Horseback request sayin”

“This email is in response to your request for your reporter/photographer Laura Leigh to have (up close) access for the Tri-State Calico Wild Horse and Burro gather.  One observation area has been set-up for all public/media visitors to each gather site.  Considerations for the viewing areas are: safety to visitors, animals, and staff, plus the viewing opportunity for the observers.  Each viewing area is different depending on the landscape at the gather site area.

Visitors to the Tri-State Calico Complex Wild Horse and Burro gather are welcome and encouraged to watch gather operations every day at gather sites on public land.  The gathered animals are moved to temporary holding corrals, where they typically spend a night before being transported to short-term holding facilities such as the Palomino Valley Center in Reno or the Indian Lakes Road Facility in Fallon.   Both facilities have visitation schedules.

The temporary holding corrals are located on private land for the duration of the gather.  This location was selected because its existing corals and better access to water and improved roads.  The temporary corrals are located about 100 feet from Humboldt County Road (Knott Creek) and are visible from the road. The private land owner has agreed to allow members of the public access to the temporary holding corrals each Saturday.

Thanks, Lisa”

Horseback has responded with a specific request that press and public be located within 200 yards of any trap site at any “gather.”

Meanwhile, Leigh’s other sponsor, the Wild Horse Freedom Foundation and Wild Horse education have issued a press release:

Business as Usual for Agency Despite Rhetoric

HOUSTON, (WHFF) – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is demonstrating that the New Year of 2012 mirrors 2011 for the hundreds of wild horses that are currently being extracted from public lands. Despite recurring declarations made by the Agency toward reform, no changes are apparent as the BLM recently resumed helicopter driven wild horse roundups after taking a brief break from operations over the holidays.

Laura Leigh of the Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF) and Wild Horse Education (WHE) stated after observing the Calico Complex roundup yesterday January 4^th,

“I felt like I was standing at the Antelope Complex roundup of last January 2011, watching the pilot demonstrate the exact same reckless behavior as he, again, flew dangerously close to the ground, very close to the horses and these maneuvers were repeated not once but continually throughout the day.”

In recent months the BLM has made several statements and recommendations in regards to the “humane handling” of the horses and burros in the agency’s care. These statements came after a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was issued by the Honorable Judge Howard McKibben in Federal District Court on behalf of Leigh’s case in response to video documentation of a BLM contractor helicopter allegedly making contact with an exhausted wild horse during pursuit. This ruling is part of a lawsuit against the agency alleging multiple instances of inhumane handling and care.

The issues were brought into the Courtroom for Leigh’s organization through attorney Gordon Cowan of Reno.

“It is troubling,” said attorney Cowan “that even with the case awaiting hearing for Injunctive Relief at months end, and the many public statements made by the agency toward addressing this very issue, that these incidents are still occurring.

Several instances happened during the Calico roundup on January 4th that may have led to injury including an instance where a horse caught its leg in the trailer and was down on the floor.
“We were so far away that even with a powerful zoom I had no ability to assess the injuries,” stated Leigh, “There was no opportunity given to the public to observe animals in holding as the BLM placed the corrals on private property and barred access.”

The BLM contractor made arrangements to place the corrals on private property excluding the public and press from a reasonable distance to observe even though a permanent government facility for holding horses exists in close proximity.
Located at Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge a permanent structure exists to house and treat wild horses and burros. The Sheldon Refuge is part of the newly designated “Tri-state” Calico Complex where this roundup is currently being conducted. The Sheldon facility would accommodate both horses and the public in a more efficient and transparent fashion.
The issue of access to document the horses and their treatment in the governments care has also become a matter in the Court system. A “Freedom of the Press” lawsuit has made its way into the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and will be heard on Monday, January 9 2012.

“The BLM’s covert, undercover style of operation comes as no surprise”, stated equine author and President of WFHH R.T. Fitch, “but it will all come to a head when we address this historical misbehavior in court next week.”

“This is not a matter of national security,” said Leigh “it’s simply about doing what’s right for our wild horses and burros that are protected by law and the public’s right to know.  If the treatment and handling were humane and appropriate, it would be wide open to observation. Until clear and defined humane standards and protocol are created and implemented in the field and consequences are in place for violations, nothing is new.”

###

Links of interest:

http://WildHorseEducation.org

http://WildHorseFreedomFederation.org

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – Respected naturalist Craig Downer issued a year end challenge to the federal Bureau of Land Management to curtail plans to further deplete the storied herd of Pryor Mountain Mustangs in Montana. The herd is known worldwide through three PBS “Nature” documentaries by filmmaker Ginger Kathrens.

During the last “gather” of the horses In the Priors the Mustangs were stampeded down the mountain by a roaring helicopter. Among them was the band stallion “Cloud” who was featured in all three of Kathrens films. The older stallion Conquistador, also prominent in the PBS specials, was captured and not returned to the herd in an act described by wild horse advocates as “unspeakable cruelty” to an aging horse

Since that time, the National Forest Service, which manages part of the mountain, has put up a fence which denies the horses their ancestral territory and breeding grounds.

Geneticists have stated the likelihood that the herd, categorized as a breed unto itself in breed books, is already genetically depleted to the level of possible extinction. Downer cites the dwindling numbers as an unhealthy action against the herd’s future viability in a New Years Eve letter to Jim Sparks, field manager in the Billing’s Montana field office of the BLM.

The horses are scheduled to a further “gather” this year. Downer wrote:

December 31, 2011

Mr. Jim Sparks, Field Manager

BLM Billings Field Office, 5001 Southgate Drive

Billings, MT 59101

Re: “Pryor EA Comments” re: proposed roundup of Pryor Mtn. wild horses in 2012

Dear Mr. Sparks:

Greetings for 2012!  Hopefully this will be a year to reinstate true fairness for the wild horses of the Pryor Mountain and elsewhere.  I have just reviewed your Environmental Assessment and am very much opposed to your proposed plan to remove thirty mustangs from one to three years of age. There is absolutely no necessity for doing this, and this removal jeopardizes the long-term survival and adaptation of this very small herd in future times. The Pryor herd is presently stable at ca. 150 horses, and these horses are well on their way to filling their niche and self-stabilizing according to the natural world’s criteria that confer long-term survival value, rather than the artificial selection by man.  There were eighteen births balanced by eighteen deaths in this herd in 2011, indicating utterly no need for gathering these returned North American native species. The 92-117 Appropriate Management Level is a non-viable one, even according to the substandard standard BLM generally puts forth, i.e. 150 total population for an effective breeding population (Ne) of 50.  And as a wildlife ecologist well informed on this subject, I consider this level of 150 to be way low in itself, as far as long-term viability. I further consider the taking of this age group as an unwholesome undermining of the herd’s natural vitality, social well-functioning, and resilience in face of both short- and long-term survival challenges (e.g. approaching winter). I wonder just exactly what your motivations are in treating this unique and universally appreciated herd so niggardly!

The Pryor Mountain herd is a world attraction.  It should not be cut to the quick, most of all for the individual horses’ sake. This would accord with the true intent of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971—an act we should now be celebrating, though actions such as you propose are only causing fair-minded and sensitive people to lament what has happened to this program for national heritage species in the wild.

Please give me a cause for celebration on the 40^th anniversary of the act by adopting the NO ACTION alternative and exerting your authority to convince Custer National Forest officials to tear down that abominable fence that illegally keeps the Pryor Mountain mustangs from realizing their traditional, seasonal migrations that are guaranteed by the act, for long-realized by the wild horses both during 1971 and for many generations prior.

As one who has directly observed the Pryor Mountain mustangs and intends to continue doing so as well as to fend for their higher, fairer population numbers and resource provision, I wish you a happy and progressive New Year.

Sincerely,

Craig C. Downer, AB, MS, PHD cand.

P.O. Box 456, Minden, NV 89423-0456. Email: ccdowner@yahoo.com

This commentary was written and posted today on the personal website of Horseback friend and photographer Laura Leigh, a true American Hero cut from the mold of Wild Horse Annie herself.

The Editor

Note: this site is my “blog.” The information site on “Wild Horses” is http://wildhorseeducation.org

Laura

Poster art by Fortunino Matania

“War Horse,” the much anticipated screen adaptation by Steven Spielberg opened in theatres across the country on Christmas Day.

As someone deeply involved in the issues facing both our wild and domestic equines, I actually went to a movie theatre for the first time in ages to view the film. Not only was this film about my favorite subject, horses, but it was done by one of my favorite directors of all time, Steven Spielberg.

Speilberg first “rocked my world” with “Empire of the Sun,” (not ET). Released in 1987 this autobiographical tale tells the story of James Graham, a boy “of privilege” that has his life shattered after the invasion of Shanghai in 1941. Spielberg wove his tale so that the audience became “Jim.” You experienced everything through the masterful performance of Christian Bale and through the vision of a great director. “Jim, try not to think so much!” is a line delivered at just the right moment, in just the right way, that it has haunted me for over twenty years.

The subject of war, and it’s cost to the human spirit, was again tackled by this master film maker in “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.” Both of these films, although executed with very different directorial choices, speak directly to the transformation of the human soul through the horror of human action and the ability of the human spirit to transcend. We all remember Shindler agonizing that he could have saved “Just one more.”

So Christmas Day of 2011 I took my “war weary” self to the theatre to watch “War Horse.”

Now you may not like the analogy of “war weary.” But that is how I feel. Most of you know my work for the wild ones but are unfamiliar with a past that includes a decade of work in the “horse slaughter” issue. Our “front” is taking a massive onslaught this year as our rear scrambles to deal with the issues at the front and behind our own lines. Our beloved equines, both wild and domestic, are under siege.

I plunked down the ticket price, that has gone up significantly since the last time I treated myself to a film, anticipating another “masterpiece.”

Waiting in line to find a seat I watched the movie goers leave the theatre after watching the film. There were mixed reviews. One man said “It was good” as he made the “so-so” motion with his hand. Another said “If you don’t have a tissue, don’t go in.”

A woman in line next to me confided that she had not been to a movie in a long time, but this one was about a horse. “Me, too,” I smiled.

We eagerly took our seats.

After 23 minutes of previews that flickered and had to be reset, the film began.

I began to realize that I was not going to see the Spielberg I had anticipated. I was watching a Director held by constraint.

The first third of the film is too long. It had a “made for TV feel.” Spielberg then focuses his camera lens on a plow during a scene that is to demonstrate the heart of “Joey,” our equine “star,” and “Albert” our human “spirit” focus of the film. That is when I remembered this film was created for Disney.

Don’t get me wrong here. I cried. I cried eight times during the film. The opening scene had me in tears as “Joey” the newborn demonstrates his legs by running side by side with his mom. I have seen so many youngsters that can’t keep up to their mothers during the helicopter chases on public land and moms so tired they are fighting to just keep the pace. I have seen so many babes taken from that protective space and stuck in pens during the most horrific experience of their bands existence… it didn’t take much for me to need a tissue.

Archive photo of WWI (photographer not credited at source)

As we enter into the war, a third of the way through the film, we begin to comprehend the first World War.

In a battle (the first the British engage in the story and the first time you actually are told you are in Britain and not in Scotland, Wales or Ireland) you are taken to what I assume is the battle at Mons. The only true cavalry charge of WWI takes place at Mons. WWI is the transitional point in human warfare into the “mechanization” era. Spielberg does demonstrate very effectively how the cavalry charge does not meet the machine gun successfully, regardless of the belief of British officers of the day.

After that point we learn that horses are utilized for transportation of wounded and the machines we now rely on to win wars. But we see these things in small vignettes.

Each time I feel that Spielberg will take me to that “real” place of experience, that had been relayed to me by my grandfather, we get close to the destination but never truly arrive. It kept making me wonder how Spielberg would have portrayed the story without restraint of a PG-13 rating. Not a thought you want as you wait to be transported from your seat into a film.

Casualty counts are not kept on horses and mules. Yet the estimate is more than 8 million horses and mules died in the conflict on all sides. 8 million died. It is estimated that 2 and one half million were treated for wounds and 2 million of those returned to the war.

A quarter of a million horses were purchased or taken from farmers at the beginning of the war for the British army.

As the conflict raged on more countries joined the efforts and horses were needed.

Yes, the “Yankees” entered in the war. The “Yankees” were not only American Soldiers, but America’s horses. America’s horses carried our soldiers but also those of other Nations. During the conflict two-thirds of the horses used by Britain were supplied by the US.

During World War I ranchers went into business selling horses to the military. All of Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge and much of the area we now call the “Tri-State Complex” had horses “harvested” and sent into battle in Europe and Africa. It is estimated that a million wild horses went into conflict, none of them returned to American soil.

American horses from the open plains of the west were described by Captain Sydney Galtrey of the British Cavalry ”in a rough and ready shape – they were shoeless, long-haired, tousled-maned and had ragged hips. But they were tough; generations of their kind had become completely at home with roaming out in the open and in all kinds of weather.”

“You put your mask on him first,” said Grandpa “He can carry you out, you can’t carry him.”

Many soldiers were moved deeply and carried stories of the mounts that carried them to safety or that they saw die horrific deaths.

Gas mask for man and horse demonstrated by an American Soldier National Archives and Records Administration cir 1917-18

I sat in the theatre with this knowledge. We would briefly touch the reality of a “War Horse” in the film and then it would vanish.

Then the scene came… (used in the trailers) a scene where “Joey” looses a companion and is faced with the “machine.” The war blazes around him as he flees an early tank. He seemingly can’t escape and vaults over the “beast.” His flight takes him through an horrific battlefield where earlier we had witnessed the casualties to man. He crashes through barbed wire. He begins to collect it as he runs through the destructive path laid by man. (I was crying and teeth clenched as I have seen what barbed wire can do and we lost some of our wild ones this year during roundups to the cruelty of the invention).

He becomes immobilized.

As dawn rises and snow begins to fall we watch as the combatants come together for a brief moment to recognize the spirit of an “amazing horse.” The scene is pure Spielberg. As the tears stream down my face I watch as “enemies” cooperate to free “Joey.” I care about “Joey” and the two men involved. I am finally “in” the film.

Only for a brief moment at the end of the piece do we even peripherally become aware of the possible fate of many of the horses. A “butcher” is present at auction. If you are not informed, you are never told the truth. You are never told how many the “butcher” actually takes.

This film will be on the shelf next to “The Black Stallion” and “My friend Flicka.” It is a “love story” story of a horse and a boy/man.

Does this film have the power of “Black Beauty” to raise the consciousness of a nation? A novel that was responsible for creating a climate to pass the first humane care laws in our country… I don’t know.

Photo by Laura Leigh

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The United States Department of Agriculture has an unusually stout influence over appointments to the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board of the federal Bureau of Land Management. The giant cabinet department that serves the needs of farmers and ranchers has veto power to appointments to the panel that oversees equine wildlife management on BLM lands.

“It’s in the board’s charter but is not in a statute,” said Tom Gorey, BLM chief Washington Spokesman. The charter was updated in July, 2010.

While the board’s responsibility is not to set policy, but to advise, the Wild Horse and Burro panel has served as a rubber stamp for BLM “gather” policy that has resulted in the capture, killing, and holding of tens of thousands of wild animals in giant pastures at taxpayer expense. The policy has cost so much in   that the federal agency depletes its entire $60 million wild horse budget each year. Often, as soon as horses are removed they are replaced by cattle.

Last year hundreds of horses died in the “gathers” including one in Nevada during the dead of winter. Typically, the horses are stampeded by helicopter into a trap. One foal ran so hard during a chase it lost its hooves and died. The agency is the subject of several lawsuits in different jurisdictions over alleged inhumane treatment of the animals, and denial of access to press and public access its captures. Recently allegations have surfaced that BLM vets routinely castrate stallions without the benefit of anesthesia.

Asked how the USDA, and by extension the ranching industry, got veto power over a wildlife board in the first place, Gory responded saying, “The charter was renewed (and possibly revised) during the late 1990s when Pat Shea of Utah was BLM Director. The reason USDA is involved is that the Forest Service manages a small number (2,000 or so) of wild horses and burros, in accordance with the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.”

Wild horse advocates claim that more than a million cattle graze on BLM lands, much of which is covered under the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Acto of 1971, the “Wild Horse Annie Law.” Stockmen lease BLM land at the below market price of $1.35 per cow and calf per month. Yet Gorey was unable to provide Horseback the exact number of animals grazing under lease.

“We manage cattle in accordance with the provisions of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, and the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978.” He told Horseback Magazine. “We don’t count head of cattle but do keep track of forage used. In Fiscal Year 2010, livestock consumed 8.2 million forage units, known as animal unit months. Since most grazing is seasonal, the way to estimate the number of livestock grazing on BLM land year-round is to divide 8.2 million by 12 (months). For more info, see our grazing page on www.blm.gov in our “What We Do” section.”

Three board members terms expire January 8, 2012. They include Robyn Lohnes, a controversial appointee who operates the Washington based American Horse Protection Association, Dr. Boyd Spratling, a Nevada vet from the extremely rural town of Deeth, and Janet Jankura of Richfield, Ohio.

Photo by Laura Leigh, Horseback Magaine

BLM Review of Triple B Wild Horse Gather, Finds Overall Safe Practices, but Cites Incidents of Aggressive Handling

WASHINGTON, (BLM) – After reviewing instances of alleged animal abuse during the recently completed Triple B wild horse gather in Nevada, a Bureau of Land Management team has found that helicopter contractor Sun J Livestock generally demonstrated appropriate, humane handling of wild horses over the course of the six-week gather that ended August 31.  The review team also cited specific incidents of inappropriate, aggressive practices, including cases when the helicopter operated too closely to single horses and pursued small groups of horses or single horses too long.  No single incident, however, generated a consensus among animal welfare experts that horses were treated inhumanely.  The team’s seven-page report made 11 recommendations, including the need for the BLM to ensure clarity of management expectations of what is appropriate and what is not in gather-related operations.  The agency will take corrective actions in response to all recommendations.

BLM Director Bob Abbey called for the review on September 23, following the conclusion of the Triple B gather, which resulted in the removal of more than 1,200 wild horses from overpopulated herds roaming in a complex northwest of Ely and southeast of Elko. The purpose of the gather was to bring wild horse herd populations into balance with the land’s forage capacity, consistent with the BLM’s mandate to manage the public lands for multiple resources and uses, including wildlife habitat, livestock grazing, and outdoor recreation. Toward the end of the gather, U.S. District Court Judge Howard D. McKibben granted a Temporary Restraining Order to plaintiffs opposed to the Triple B gather because of his concern that a helicopter was flying too closely to a horse being gathered.

“Aggressive and rough handling of wild horses is not acceptable and we are actively taking steps to ensure that such behavior is not repeated,” Director Abbey said. “Guidance documents will be issued to ensure that all gather personnel are aware of appropriate handling techniques and related procedures.”

The BLM team was composed of Ken Collum, BLM Eagle Lake (CA) Field Manager; Gus Warr, BLM-Utah Lead Wild Horse and Burro Specialist; Steven Hall, BLM-Colorado Communications Director; and Dr. Owen Henderson, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service veterinarian.  The team interviewed BLM staff, external animal welfare experts, and Sun J Livestock employees.  The team also reviewed declarations filed in U.S. District Court by public observers who documented alleged abuse at the gather.  In addition, the BLM examined 11 videos taken by public observers of the BLM’s Triple B gather and reviewed the more extensive collection of BLM videos, photos, and reports.

“I am instituting a proactive process for conducting internal reviews of many aspects of our program to ensure that we are moving toward the ‘new normal’ of wild horse and burro management,” said Joan Guilfoyle, Chief of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Division.

In response to the team’s recommendations, the BLM is taking corrective actions, including:

n  Establishing a helicopter gather contracts review team to determine what operational improvements are needed, whether by modification of existing contracts or by issuing new “Requests for Proposal” (solicitations) for gather-related work, and to clarify management expectations as to what is appropriate and what is inappropriate.

n  Reviewing existing training courses and recommending supplemental curricula to help implement an incident command structure and meet the expectations referred to above.

n  Issuing guidelines to ensure that helicopters do not make contact with wild horses and burros and to clarify decisionmaking regarding the movement of small groups of horses or single horses to the trap.

The full text of the report, along with the 11 recommendations and the corrective actions the BLM is taking, can be found at http://on.doi.gov/TripleBReport .

The BLM manages more land – over 245 million acres – than any other Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The Bureau, with a budget of about $1 billion, also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM’s multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.

By Steven Long

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The director of the federal Bureau of Land Management, Bob Abbey, found time to fly from Washington D.C. to Las Vegas to speak at a poorly attended meeting of pro-horse processing ranchers and slaughterhouse owner wannabes two days after 2011 began. Yet senior management at the federal Bureau of Land Management refused to allow the freshman director of its wild horse program to attend an academic conference held by the prestigious NYU School of Law.

New Wild Horse and Burro Program director Joan Guilfoyle was the first invited to speak on a panel that was to discuss the agency’s ongoing decimation of wild herds in the American West.

“The BLM collectively made the decision about not participating in the NYU legal forum, which the agency concluded was deliberately tilted against the BLM based on several factors, including the misleading, apocalyptic title of the conference (“Managed to Extinction?”) and the number of anti-BLM partisans selected to speak,” said BLM Chief Washington Spokesman Tom Gorey.

“Joan Guilfoyle, the BLM’s Chief of the Wild Horse and Burro Division, was one of the participants in this collective decision; she was in no way “censored” or “not allowed” to speak. “

In a letter to the school declining the invitation to speak, Abbey’s assistant Ed Roberson wrote, “I unfortunately found the title of the conference to be “Managed to Extinction?” and a list of invited panelists who predominantly have a negative stance regarding the BLM’s management of wild horses and burros.”

When asked by Horseback Online how the refusal to participate in an academic conference specific to the 50^th  anniversary of the Wild Horse and Burro Act squares with Abbey’s speech to the pro-slaughter conference, Gorey did not respond leaving the agency open to charges of bias toward those who would sell the herds for meat processing.

BLM spent more than $60 million on its wild horse program last year, largely on capture and maintenance. Had the herds been left alone it would have cost the taxpayers virtually nothing to house them free on the BLM’s 240 million acres. Moreover, hundreds of wild horses would not have died in and after being stampeded by roaring helicopters.

In many cases, entire herd management areas have been depleted of horses and filled with cattle that are highly destructive to fragile ecosystems. The land is leased to stockmen at the fire sale rate of $1.35 per cow and calf per month.

 Wild horse advocates and activists claim the federal agency is purposefully managing the herds to extinction after getting caught discussing a 2008 plan to euthanize thousands of animals  many believe is an iconic symbol of the west. The revelation came in a leaked BLM memo reported by the Associated Press. Since that time the bureau has captured and held tens of thousands of North American Mustangs on enormous pastures on private land fenced off from public access.

Several lawsuits have been filed against the agency in federal court on a variety of grounds.

Critics also claim wild horses are removed from the giant BLM pastures in the dead of night and sold for slaughter in Mexico. Recently, a truckload of horses the agency termed “excess” was seized from a Nevada “killer buyer” on their way to slaughter. He and others are now under federal indictment. Many advocates believe the BLM knew full well he was a slaughter buyer but sold him the horses anyway. The BLM claims it does not sell animals for slaughter.

The BLM is currently conducting another massive “gather” at Nevada’s Calico complex where hundreds of horses died or were injured at their hands last year in stampedes conduced in the bitter cold of a Nevada winter.

The agency rebuffed the NYU invitation in this letter from Abby’s assistant.

Dear Mr. Lutz:
>
>  
>
> I appreciate your recent invitation to Joan Guilfoyle to participate in New York University’s (NYU) legal forum titled “Managed to Extinction?” regarding wild horse management issues.  Joan is on my staff and I am responding on her behalf and on behalf of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
>
> I found it unusual that the letter inviting Ms. Guilfoyle to participate was unsigned and was hand-delivered by an NYU student working on a video project related to the issues surrounding wild horse and burro management on public lands.  I expressed concern to Ms. Liverance, the NYU student who delivered the letter on October 13, that the proposed forum was just over a month away and that, in spite of the fact that the forum was being touted as a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the WFRHB Act, no one at BLM was consulted regarding the development of a forum agenda and invitation of attendees.  I also expressed concern that the letter did not provide any indication of whether the focus would be on the legal issues (the Act and litigation), which I would think would be important to the NYU School of Law and Environmental Law Journal. 
>
> The BLM is focused on a management objective that results in healthy horses thriving on healthy rangelands.   We strive to continuously improve the humaneness and effectiveness of our management actions using the best science.  We recently completed a strategy and will soon present a report to Congress on the ideas we developed over the past year and a half with extensive public engagement.  We would have welcomed the opportunity to participate in a discussion about these issues.   
>
> I was advised by Ms. Liverance that the forum would be balanced with discussions on all sides of the issues, and that it would provide the opportunity to chart or forge some new, more sustainable solutions.  At that time I did not have any more information about the forum than was provided in the very short invitation.  When I was finally able to  get the details a week ago, I unfortunately found the title of the conference to be “Managed to Extinction?” and a list of invited panelists who predominantly have a negative stance regarding the BLM’s management of wild horses and burros.  This leads me to the conclusion that the intent is not to find common ground and sustainability, and, further, that the forum is unbalanced by design.  I therefore must advise you that the Bureau of Land Management declines to participate.  Had the BLM been brought into the preliminary discussions about putting on this forum, our agency would have had an opportunity to provide input at a time when it could have made a difference.  Regrettably, this did not happen.
>
> As the 40th anniversary of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act is marked, our agency remains committed to the health and well-being of wild horses and burros, both on and off the range.  We welcome partnerships with all who share this commitment as we carry out our multiple-use mission, as set forth by Congress in the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act.  Accordingly, we will continue to manage and protect wild horses and burros, along with the Western public rangelands on which they roam, for current and future generations.
>

> Sincerely,
> Ed Roberson, Assistant Director
> Bureau of Land Management
> 20 M St., S.E.
> Washington, D.C. 20003

AWHPC Statement on the White House’s “Canned” Response to Our Wild Horse Petition

Photo by Laura Leigh

If you signed the Wild Horse and Burro petition on the White House’s “We the People” website, you have received the same canned response that we received from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) director, Bob Abbey.

We are as frustrated and disappointed as you are with this insulting and dismissive response to the sincere concern of thousands of American citizens who seek reform of the costly and cruel federal Wild Horse and Burro Program.

We wanted to share our letter to President Obama’s chief of staff, William Daley, highlighting the inadequacy of the response and the White House’s utter failure to consider this issue, as promised in the “We the People” initiative.

To the thousands of you who took the time to sign the petition – WE THANK YOU and promise to continue to fight for our wild horses and burros. We hope that you will continue to join us.

18 November 2011

William Daley, Chief of Staff

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. Daley:

I am writing on behalf of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign and the thousands of Americans who signed the “We the People” petition titled “Protect Wild Horses and Burros; Reform Inhumane Interior Department Management Program That Wastes Tax Dollars” to register our grave disappointment with the November 17, 2011 response from the White House. The petition calls on the Obama Administration to stop the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from wasting millions of tax dollars to roundup and remove wild horses by the tens of thousands from public lands in the West, and to instead implement a cost-effective policy to manage these national icons on the range using proven and humane cost-effective methods.

The White House’s canned response to this petition, signed by thousands of American citizens, was authored, not by a White House policy official, but rather by BLM Director Bob Abbey - the very individual responsible for the mismanagement of the federal Wild Horse and Burro Program, which is the subject of the petition.

In unveiling the “We the People” initiative, the White House promised “a new way to petition the Obama Administration” and that “White House staff will review” the issue. However, there was nothing new in the response. The White House merely delivered the old familiar BLM rhetoric that has been used for the past several years to rationalize the agency’s mismanagement and waste of tax dollars. Included is the touting of a “new strategy” that is being implemented despite the receipt of tens of thousands of public comments opposing the majority of the strategy’s components.

Had we, the people who signed the petition, wanted a response from the BLM, we would have written to the BLM. Or better yet, since the response is just a cut-and-paste of BLM propaganda, we could have read it on the agency’s website and saved ourselves the considerable time and effort it took to log into the White House’s website and sign the petition!

President Obama has the full authority to reform the federal wild horse and burro program and could do so with one telephone call to his Secretary of the Interior. The fact that the White House didn’t even take the time to review this petition is a slap in the face to the American citizens who believed in the President’s promise that their concerns would be seriously considered. As a result, we are left to conclude that the entire “We the People” website is little more than a re-election campaign gimmick.

We conclude this letter with a final plea for President Obama’s attention to this issue and a request for a meeting with White House staff to discuss badly needed reform.  To such a meeting we would bring wild horse and range experts to discuss the humane, cost-effective solutions, which have already been proposed but continue to be ignored by the BLM and Mr. Abbey.

It’s time that President Obama intervened in this issue to fulfill his promise for hope and change for the future.

We await your prompt response.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Roy

Campaign Director

American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign