Eighty-four groups, including animal advocates and sanctuaries, ranching and conservation groups, as well as artists, called on Congress to maintain legal protections of wild horses in a “Unified Statement on the Humane, Sustainable, and Cost-Effective On-Range Management of America’s Wild Horses and Burros,” a day after the Trump Administration issued its 2019 budget which proposes lifting protections against the slaughter and sale of mustangs. We have yet to see if the final budget version allows for the killing.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), under the Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, a known enemy of the environment and wildlife, is both the agency in charge of protecting wild horses, as well as their biggest threat. The BLM controls one-eighth of the country’s land and leases over 60 percent of it to ranchers. Much of this leased land is also home to wild horses who struggle with ranchers for grazing rights. Horses have lost 41% of their habitat since 1971. The BLM has rounded up thousands of horses with helicopters and currently has about 45,000 in holding pens. The proposed budget would allow for the cruel and needless slaughter and sale of all.
The BLM has set the Appropriate Management Level (AML) of horses at 26, 710; a number so low it threatens extinction. With around 70,000 wild horses on public lands now, achieving that goal would jeopardize entire populations as well as genetic diversity and natural behavior of animals who by nature roam and have distinct social organization.
The BLM has allowed political interests and poor land management to rule its policies. It exaggerates how much grazing land is overrun with horses. Over 80% of grazing land for livestock is not occupied by horses. It’s most ignorant mistake was ignoring the advice of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report titled “Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward,” and opting for a barbaric gelding and spaying procedures in place of non-invasive humane fertility control vaccines.
Included in the recommendations from the group of 84 are:
- Developing a 10 year plan to reduce populations with fertility control, PZP or PZP-22, that does not impact reproductive hormones
- Raising the AML to a 50-50 allocation of land for horses and livestock on land designated for both
- Lower the livestock grazing levels where there is herd management
- Re-establish the historic range of wild horses and burros. Return captive geldings and vaccinated mares to original zeroed out areas (areas from where they were rounded-up and removed)
- Protect predators to ensure natural removal of horses
- Continue research on humane birth control
- Develop programs and apprenticeships with community schools and institutions to encourage animal stewardship
With the 1971 passage of “The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act” Congress declared “that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people…[they] shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death…to be considered…as an integral part of the natural system of public lands.”
Help save America’s iconic horses. Click here to sign Lady Freethinker’s petition urging the U.S. government to stop the slaughter.
WHITE PAPER
on the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse & Burro Program, with a Focus on Problems Related to Holding Facilities
DOCUMENTED AREAS OF CONCERN
The Exhibits to this document lay out an extensive, but not exhaustive, list of the evidence that WHFF
has compiled. While much of the evidence comes directly from
government documents, it is also the result of extended visual surveys of the long-term holding facilities at issue.
In connection with the documentary evidence, WHFF found multiple circumstances in which truckloads of horses were supposedly on their way to a facility, but then all of the horses
on these trucks somehow did not show up at the facility for which they were destined. That is, documents obtained by WHFF have horses going out to a facility, but the number of horses reported at the receiving facility do not reflect increases commensurate with the number of horses shipped. This is evident in multiple circumstances, and the number of horses reported being shipped and received is different to a degree that cannot be explained by any of the documents WHFF has obtained.
This documentary evidence is supplemented by sworn percipient witness testimony. WHFF first obtained maps of all of the long-term facilities. WHFF personnel then drove the public roads that
go through and around select long-term holding facilities and did their own careful counts of populations, and the results are significantly different from those reported by
the BLM. After viewing the perimeters and/or driving down roads in the middle of almost half of the facilities, and using comparisons and confirming conclusions with GPS, photographic, and video graphic evidence, including GPS overlays of the travel path over the map of the long-term facilities, WHFF has evidence that in some cases less than one-half of the horses supposedly on the
grounds of the facilities were actually there.
http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/White-Paper.pdf
Pinehurst, Texas-(PR NEWSWIRE)-Wild Horse Freedom Federation, Inc. (WHFF), today released its white paper, “Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse & Burro Program, with a Focus on Problems Related to Holding Facilities.” America’s wild horses and burros – long a national treasure and symbol of freedom – are endangered and being pushed towards extinction, despite the Trump administration’s promise to uphold the rule of law.
The comprehensive white paper cites taxpayer waste and multitudes of inconsistencies in documentation presented to both the American public and Congress. These alleged offenses continue to occur under the direction of Trump-appointed Secretary of the Department of Interior (DOI), Ryan Zinke.
WHFF’s document notes current and historical violations that include evidence of misrepresentation, wasting taxpayer funds, and lack of scientific accounting for the wild horses and burros — in absolute defiance of the Congressional statute that provides for the safety of the iconic wild herds.
The five-year investigation culminating in the document has uncovered a consistent pattern of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) releasing misinformation thought to confuse and mislead the American taxpaying public and legislators.
For years, the BLM has taken healthy wild horses and burros from their legally protected lands in the American West at the expense of taxpayers. Notably, on those lands, the cost to taxpayers was nothing, yet the BLM roundups have continued, taking tens of thousands of wild horses into captivity. Despite the reported number of horses in captivity (46,000) to date, large numbers of horses have mysteriously disappeared from the holding pens or during transports where they never arrived. And it appears that taxpayer money has been wasted by the BLM, at the expense of the wild horses and burros they are supposed to protect.
WHFF’s FOIA obtained documentation on this topic, many of which have never been reviewed by Congress or the public, appear to verify that BLM statements are filled with inaccuracies and poor math. The beneficiaries of this systemic misrepresentation have been ranching and corporate energy interests, both of whom, not surprisingly, are major donors to politicians who cover the areas where the most wild horses and burros are found.
Despite a strident outcry from American taxpayers who want, as the law requires, the horses and burros protected and returned to their rightful place on public lands, the BLM has repeatedly asserted to America that the wild horses and burros need to be under its care. In the last century, the wild horse population has gone from two million to less than 36,000 under BLM management. Less than two out of 100 wild horses that were present then remain in 2017.
WHFF’s white paper details multiple examples of mishandling of taxpayer funds, but the upshot is simple: alleged false assurances have been offered up to taxpayers while private and special interests have had their way with the use of public lands. In another words, the BLM is the fox that guards the henhouse, seemingly unwilling to enforce the laws that obligate them to protect wild horses and burros.
“The DOI and the BLM have undertaken a long term ‘Fake News’ campaign to spread misinformation to confuse the issue. They want the wild horses and burros slaughtered, gone, full stop. Americans are not going to stand for that,” says Wild Horse Freedom Federation’s President R.T. Fitch. “It appears that President Trump appointed a long time horse slaughter proponent to oversee the DOI and his first major act could be to kill tens of thousands of wild horses and burros making this White Paper a timely must read for all Americans.” he continued.
This is paramount in importance right now for the wild horses and burros and American taxpayers. In the coming days the Senate Appropriations Committee will take up the Interior appropriations bill, which includes the Wild Horse and Burro Program with the threat of killing wild horses and burros touted as a budgetary necessity. Without intervention, for the rising generations of America, wild horses and burros will be gone forever.
To read the WHFF white paper and for more information go to:
http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/white-paper/
“Do not allow the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), United States Forest Service (USFS), Farm Bureau and the extraction and mining giants and the domestic livestock grazing associations to pull the wool over your eyes. There are no excess wild horses and burros on their legally designated land. Per the unanimously passed United States 1971 Congressional Wild Horse and Burro Act, the land is to be devoted principally although not exclusively to the wild horses and wild burros’ welfare in keeping with the multiple-use management concept of public lands.
The recent National Academy of Sciences study found NO evidence of overpopulation of Wild Horses and Wild Burros. Obviously, the government’s actions toward the wild horses and burros needs to be closely and independently investigated and the animals left on their legally designated land and those already captured must be returned to their legal lands. The American people and members of Congress are being lied to by our government agencies that are mandated by Congressional Law to protect these animals. Our government agencies (BLM and USFS) are truly managing our wild horses and wild burros toward extinction.
There is no reason for these wild horse and burro removals and destruction procedures because there is no “over-population” of wild horses and burros on their legally designated land. In 1971, when Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, these animals were found roaming across 53,800,000 million acres. That amount of acreage could support more than about 250,000 wild horses and burros but even after 22,200,000 acres were robbed from the American people and the wild horses and burros by government agencies the remaining 31,600,000 acres could easily support more than 100,000 wild horses and burros today. It is currently independently estimated that only about 20,000 – 30,000 wild horses and burros are living on their legal land today and yet the government continues its aggressive removal and destructive management toward total wild horse and burro extermination.
There is a legal term for how the BLM operates. It is “Regulatory Capture”. Regulatory capture is a form of political corruption that occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest instead advances the special interest groups’ desires that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure and it creates an opening for behavior in ways injurious to the public and in this case injurious to the wild horses and burros that belong to American citizens.
In addition, the BLM is in clear violation of Title 18; falsifying legal documents. A few of many examples include, but are certainly not limited to, but prove this violation by the BLM’s statements of annual population increases such as the Buckhorn herd area 237% (71 total horses giving birth to 168 foals) in one year and the Black Rock herd area 418% (88 horses giving birth to 368 foals) in one year. Wild horses and burros have an eleven-month gestation period and give birth to only one foal. The above BLM annual population increase statements are biologically and mathematically impossible but this is the type of non-credible data being stated by the BLM and provided to you. Another example of BLM’s mathematics is their statement that the Black Mt. herd area wild burro population before capture/removal was 175 animals and after they captured and removed 80 animals, the remaining population was 635! Since when does 175, minus 80, equal 635? There are many, many other examples of the false and highly deceitful data that BLM provides to the public and to Congress.
https://www.blm.gov/
Since Congress is concerned with the cost of long-term holding of wild horses and burros, and our public lands, please allow me to remind you that these wild horses and burros already have legal lands in the wild for them to live on which cost the tax-payer nothing. In contrast, private/corporate livestock grazing on public lands has cost the taxpayers $1 Billion over past decade. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported the federal government spends at least $144 million each year managing private livestock grazing on federal public lands, but collects only $21 million in grazing fees—for a net LOSS of at least $123 million per year.
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2015/grazing-01-28-2015.html
http://www.taxpayer.net/user_uploads/file/factsheet_Grazing_Fiscal_Costs(3).pdf
These wild animals are being illegally deprived of their legal habitats and resources within their lawfully declared areas on the public lands; both BLM and US Forest Service. This is being done to gratify and indulge the contemptible and domineering demands of many public lands ranchers, including both cattle and sheep, as well as to other wild-horse/burro-enemies, such as certain big game hunters, land developers, giant mining and energy extraction corporations, and others who have been taken in by all the disinformation provided to them by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service.
What we have now is a very illegal and corrupt wild horse and wild burro program managed by the BLM and USFS that dishonors the wild horse and wild burro heritage and natural place in America. This is contemptuous of the true and core intent of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and of Congress itself, which unanimously passed this law of the United States. For decades, wild horses and burros have been protected by a ban on the slaughter of healthy animals or any sale that “results in their destruction for processing into commercial products.” The current budget proposal would allow “euthanasia and unrestricted sale of certain excess animals.” If this does pass, it will cause thousands of innocent wild horses and burros that belong on their Congressionally designated lands to be slaughtered. These wild horses and wild burros belong to me and to all American citizens and by Congressional law MUST be protected.”
Oh my god. You have drank the Kool-Aid!
You people need to learn something about overpopulation and over grazing, which clearly, none of you know anything about. Then, you need to go out there, and look at the land, as well as the horse facilities that are run there. To been with, whether you like it or not, horses and cows are an invasive species there. They are not suppose to be there, and their population needs to be controlled.
MaryBeth, do you even understand why you wear socks on your feet?
Kylie, if you think these wild horses are beautiful animals, you clearly have not seen what is out there. The majority of them, are inbred and stunted. There are nicer specimens, though. But, no one wants to adopt the poor specimens, which is the greater of them. Just the facts. I have only seen a few, out of hundreds, that I would adopt.
Mesquite Local News
Letter to the Editor
Wild-Horse Overpopulation Is a Lie
March 1, 2018 By Special to the MLN 3 Comments
BLM’s Big Lie: The “overpopulation” of wild horses is a concocted “crisis”. The government doesn’t have a wild-horse problem — wild horses have a government problem.
Arbitrary management level (AML): The maximum number of wild horses that BLM declares the Western range can sustain – 26,715 – is a political construct. Per 49,349 square miles of wild-horse habitat, the upper bound of the AML establishes a maximum stocking density of 1 wild horse per 2 square miles! However, BLM manages down to the low bound of the AML — 16,310. That creates a stocking density of 1 wild horse per 3 square miles!
Sparsely populated, widely dispersed: Many herds are restricted even more severely. Here are stocking densities to which BLM restricts herds in Nevada.
1 wild horse per 3,102 acres — 5 square miles — Antelope Complex
1 wild horse per 3,566 acres — 5½ square miles — Triple B Complex
1 wild horse per 6,606 acres — 10 square miles — Eagle herd
1 wild horse per 9,591 acres — 15 square miles — Silver King herd
Contrast with livestock density: BLM allows 1 cow-with-calf pair (or 5 sheep) per 76 acres, which means 8 cow-calf pairs (or 40 sheep) per square mile. Further, within dedicated wild-horse habitats, livestock are awarded most of the grazing slots (AUMs). Examples from Nevada:
94% of AUMs to livestock — Triple B Complex
96% of AUMs to livestock — Antelope Complex
Normative annual herd-growth = at most, 5%: Gregg, LeBlanc, and Johnston (2014) found the average birth rate among wild-horse herds to be about 20%; but 50% of foals perish. The population-gain from surviving foals (10%) minus a conservative estimate of adult-mortality (5%) equals a normative herd-growth rate of 5%.
Fraudulent figures on the range: BLM’s herd-growth figures are falsified. Repeatedly, we find BLM reporting one-year increases that are beyond what is biologically possible. Some examples from Nevada:
260% — 52 times the norm — Shawave Mountains
293% — 59 times the norm — Diamond Hills South
418% — 84 times the norm — Black Rock Range East *
* BLM claimed the Black Rock Range East’s population grew from 88 horses to 456 horses in one year, an increase of 368. If so, to overcome foal-mortality (50%) and adult-mortality (at least 5%), that would mean each filly and mare gave birth to 17 foals.
Fraudulent figures off the range: A comprehensive report was recently issued following a 5-year investigation by Wild Horse Freedom Federation. It revealed that BLM has been publishing fictitious figures regarding the number of wild horses removed from the range and now supposedly boarded in private pastures. BLM is paying, but where are the horses? http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/white-paper/
No to birth control, no to euthanasia, no to slaughter: The population-explosion exists only on BLM’s falsified spreadsheets.
Marybeth Devlin
We need to protect these beautiful animals!
Indeed, the cattle devastate the land! Educate yourself Charles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustang
Well Charles, if you don’t like it, stop doing it!
haha Charles – are you talking about what the herds of cattle do to the land? Do you really know anything about anything with this nonsensical “argument”?
Well said! Kudos.
Oh my god! Cattle do not devastate the land. Over grazing is what devastates the land. Doesn’t matter what animal does it. Right now, the over population of horses is what is devastating the land. The land will only sustain so many head of livestock or native animals. People like you, prove that uninformed people should not be allowed to vote.
Cranksalot, you are nothing but an uneducated troll, that needs to quit muddying the water. After your statement about land devastation, you totally exposed yourself.
Susan, to begin with, people need to understand that horses are livestock, just like cows. We all like horses. I own 11 of them. I do not stand for cruel practices. I do not agree with methods used by the BLM, but, I do realize a need to regulate the horse herds.
So what do we do with all the animals? Do we stop them reproducing and let them all die out? Do we keep them and feed them until they die of illness and old age and then bury them like a family pet. Do we turn over fields to grow food for them, is this environmentally friendly? How exactly does eating veg and not animals become save the environment. I eat veg, fruit and meat; not eating meat is a waste of a natural resource, waiting for them to die and wasting the meat is not helping no one
100% Right On!
We woud not be the amazing country we are today withoiut these beautiful, amazing wild horses. It is our respoonsibility to protect them from the barbaric methods of the BLM.” and from the ranchers, whose only concern is grazing their cattle on OUR public land and eliminating the willd horses. Ryan Zynke is an Enemy to our Wild Horses, All Animals and the Environment. We MUST stand together to protect the Animals that cannot speak for themsleves, it is our Responsibility to be their voice, share their pain and Protect them! They are part of our Heritage for our Children and Grandchildren, we cannot stand idly by and let this continue!
Susan, you are exactly right
Janet, the land you speak of being designated, has become over populated, and will not maintain the horse herd and the animals that are native to that land. Realize that the horses are not suppose to be there. The horses are not native to the land.
No, I do not run cattle there. I do own 11 horses. I have seen the atrocities done to the horses there. I also realize that there are too many there, for the land to maintain. Realize that the horses are not suppose to be there.
But, they are not native to the land. I do not agree with the BLM methods, but I also do not agree with just letting the horse herd over populate and ruin the land.
We will not stand by and let you do this to our horses, wild or otherwise.
Hurray for everyone finding the ways to help the voiceless, voteless creatures of Earth.
It’s a Positive start!!!
Resa –thank you –it’s been a hard fight when private people want to use OUR land that was designated for wild horses and burros –the people that want to make a private profit eliminating our majestic wild horses and burros need to BUY their own land and not expect the rest of America to support their cattle, sheep, mining, etc. —
Charles you are SOOOO misinformed I wonder what your motives are?? Have you seen the atrocities done to our wild horses and burros? YOU are mistaken with your comments -do you own cattle and haven’t been able to afford your OWN grazing land and want to use OUR public land? Protect our wild horses from private exploitation —
-Charles Collins have you seen the number of PRIVATE cattle and sheep grazing on OUR public land?? thousands of acres have been taken away from the wild horses for private ranchers to make their private profits — Horses have been abused with helicopter “round ups” that often run foals to death or horses break their legs from the terror !! ONE round up costs over $250 THOUSAND –more than enough to take care of the wild horses -and we’ve done multiple round ups — get private people off our public lands that they lease for UNDER $2.00 per year for a cow and calf –ripping off America and our wild treasures –
these animals are descendants from historic animals (pre 1800’s) –they have been on the range longer than ANY private ranchers and speculators —
The mustang is an intrical part of American History. They should be protected and cherished as such! Let them run free!!!
Please leave them alone. They are so precious – you’re are lucky to have them living free – don’t kill them.
Please the killing, rounding up of our wild horses must stop. I believe in birth control but the BLM could care less.release ones in pins and use birth control to keep heard.
quit murdering our horses for the hell of it leave them alone bastards
Have you ever been to the BLM lands and seen the herds and what the do to the land? Have you been to the BLM facilities, where they keep the horses they have trapped? Do you really know anything about the issues?
Anya, these horses and burros are not in there natural environment. They are not native to the US.
Sharon, we are Omnivores, not Vegetarians (such as cows and rabbits)
I love it when people not exposed to the actually problem and issues, make decision on what should happen somewhere, from behind their computer a 1000 miles away. PERFECT!
Sauvez sais chevaux et tout les animaux de la terre il on tous le droit de vivre
Save these horses, ponies and burros. All animals have the right to live, and to live in their own environment.
By eating vegetables rather than animals, we can save the environment, our own health, and find a balance for life on this planet. Eating a vegetarian diet is a process that does take time, it is a journey that will be very rewarding spiritually as it allows us to live a life that causes less violence. To do so we need to look at nutrition rather than ingredients and ultimately is more flavorful and exciting.
Congress got it right in 1971 lets hope Trump gets it right this time.
Thank you to all who are part of this coalition for this mastermind effort to defend and protect these beautiful and innocent animals. Thank you for giving of your time to be their voice and to take a stand and to offer a thoughtful, reasonable, and humane plan for these creatures to have the opportunity to live their God given lives on this earth that we are supposed to share. God bless you all and may he give you strength to continue until it is done. The protections for these horses must remain in place.