Wild Horses: Stop the BLM’s Illegal Plans for the Checkerboard Roundup II – Comment by Friday April 22
April 18, 2016Wild Horses are a National Treasure – An Evening with Carol Walker May 12 at Longmont Public Library
May 10, 2016
A wild horse family in Adobe Town
Stop the Adobe Town Roundup and Radio Collar Study
The Bureau of Land Management has announce plans to roundup and remove wild horses from the Adobe Town Herd Management Area in the Red Desert of Wyoming. This roundup is in addition to the BLM’s proposed roundup of 500 wild horses from the Checkerboard portions of the Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin Herd Management Areas.
In the flyover subsidized by the Rock Springs Grazing Association in April 2015, which conveniently did not include photographs because “The survey lead indicated his reluctance to use photography, as it requires additional circling around groups that could cause air sickness” there were reported to be 858 wild horses. Somehow the population in Adobe Town jumped from 519 wild horses in October 2014 after the Checkerboard Roundup to in April 2015, 858 wild horses, no doubt the result of every mare and stallion on the range giving birth. Although the dubious count of 858 is only 58 more wild horses than the 610-800 Appropriate Management Level allows, the BLM is determined to do a roundup because of pressure from the powerful Rock Springs Grazing Association. The members of that organization view the public land in Wyoming as its own private domain. They receive millions of dollars in subsidies from our government for grazing their livestock on our public lands. They would like to see all of the wild horses removed from the area. The BLM has not said how many horses it plans to remove, but the usual practice is to remove down to the low side of AML, so at least 258 wild horses will lose their homes and their freedom.
Scoping Document Details can be found here: http://bit.ly/AdobeTownGather
In addition to this, the BLM is proposing to to a “research study” where they will put radio collars on 15-40 wild mares that have been rounded up and separated from their families. They will return the mares to the range to study: ” habitat selection, seasonal use and movement between habitats, and migration patterns with and outside of the HMA. ”
The research will be done with the University of Wyoming and “an animal care and use protocol for collaring would be submitted to the University of Wyoming Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for review by a panel of veterinarians and animal welfare officials.”
Radio collaring is a very dangerous practice for wild horses. In the past, wild horses have been seriously injured, suffered and died because of collars becoming too tight, and getting hung up on fences and brush. They are not considering doing this to the stallions but apparently it is acceptable to use risky and life-threatening procedures on wild mares. If they really want to study behavior of wild mares, do not round them up and remove them from their families – this will completely disrupt the social bonds of the wild horses as well as their behavior. A real research study would study wild horses as they are now found. Hire some interns to go out and actually observe the horses in the wild. It is possible to do this – I have been observing and documenting and tracking and photographing wild horses in Adobe Town since 2004. If you must use a tracking device, use the tags that you are planning to use with the stallions, not the dangerous and life threatening radio collars. If it is so hard to find and track the horses in this area, then there is no way you will be able to find and help alleviate the suffering of any wild mare who is in trouble with her collar.
This “radio collar research” is clearly a precursor to what the BLM has planned to do with the White Mountain Herd in Wyoming this year – round them up and study them with radio collars for a year, then spay the mares in the field and continue to study them with radio collars the next year. Perhaps the BLM thinks that by not including the part about their ultimate goal being the cruel and dangerous spaying of wild mares in the field that they will have less controversy for this Environmental Assessment.
There is no overpopulation of wild horses in Adobe Town. Stop the BLM from rounding up the Adobe Town wild horses and stop them from conducting dangerous and life-threatening “radio collar research” on wild mares. Tell them to conduct a study with observers in the field without a roundup. And tell them to stop livestock grazing in wild horse herd management areas.
Regarding conflicts between livestock grazing and wild horse use of lands in Wild Horse Management Areas:
- 4710.5 Closure to livestock grazing.
(a) If necessary to provide habitat for wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros from disease, harassment or injury, the authorized officer may close appropriate areas of the public lands to grazing use by all or a particular kind of livestock.
(b) All public lands inhabited by wild horses or burros shall be closed to grazing under permit or lease by domestic horses and burros.
(c) Closure may be temporary or permanent. After appropriate public consultation, a Notice of Closure shall be issued to affected and interested parties.
Wild stallion in Adobe Town
Please send your comments by email and by mail by May 6. If you really want to help the horses, please send individual emails and letters using your own words – the form emails are all only counted as 1 by the BLM. Feel free to use any information from this post.
Written comments should be received by May 6, 2016, and should be emailed only to blm_wy_adobetown_hma@blm.gov (Please include “Adobe Town Scoping Statement Comments” in the subject line),
mailed or hand-delivered during regular business hours (7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) to: Wild Horse and Burro Specialist, BLM Rawlins Field Office, 1300 North 3rd Street, Rawlins, WY 82301. Fax: 307-324-4224.
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21 Comments
Leave the horses alone Do not collar them it is too dangerous for the horses to be wearing these collars When they get caught up on something there is no one there to help free them They are not over populated they are a stunning magnificent animal Do not sterilize these beautiful animals Horses add value to the properties and that’s worth some thought when trying to decide So leave them alone and let them be free as God intended and you will answer to God one of these days make no mistake about it God is watching
I’m waiting for an answer
Hi Sharon. If you could write your comments to the BLM at the email address given in the blog post that would be really good, by May 6. Thank you!
Please leave these wild horses alone, they don’t bother you or round up your family that’s outside playing in the sand on the beaches. Leave them alone, why must you all decide to take something so beautiful and wonderful in your hands to destroy them, leave them alone.
I think we should protect and serve our natural resources. Horses are important resources. Horses are a part of our culture that we do not need to destroy. Please respect their lives.
I do not understand the reasoning behind this. IT IS ILLEGAL!! Why is the BLM allowed to break the law and make up laws that they deem fit. More than likely 90% of the BLM have never owned a horse let alone ride one!
WE THE PEOPLE NEED TO STOP THIS! Write to your representative and voice your complaints.
The BLM is not being tolerated by numerous Sheriff’s Depts. They are illegal according to the Constitution of the United States of America. This government appointed department was never elected by the people!
WAKE UP AMERICA and save our great natural treasures, our WILD HORSES!
Where are the animal cruelty activists? Putting collars on horses out in the wild where the collars can cause life threatening injury is pure sadism. Rounding up pregnant mares and newly born foals with helicopters is sadism also. Concentration camp mentality for horses. I wonder if the people planning this would like to see their family pets treated so. Or their family members really. These horses have families too and no one takes into account their grief at being separated from their own band and jabbed and poked and God knows what other disturbing treatment goes on in those holding pens. And horse to not pull up the roots of grass, as do cattle, when they eat and they do not digest the seeds as cattle do also, and why is it private cattle are allowed to graze on public land? That land belongs to all of us and I for one want to see the cattle grazing on MY land, since I am a member of the public, I want to see those cattle sent back to their owners land. And I want the people who are “managing” My and the rest of the Public’s land to listen to all the public of the USA about how to run our land. Bet you all the public would not be so willing to allow private cattle owners to benefit on our land HUH!
Leave the horses alone!
E-mail here to take action blm_wy_adobetown_hma@blm.gov this is in the blog post. We must unite to stop this.
Melody Johnson, Donkey Whisperer Farm, LLC
Carol,
I would assume that the next step would to send letters to the University of Wyoming, right? Kind of the same routine as Oregon.
There is no over population of wild horses . There is however am overpopulation of cattle and sheep on public lands. Stop the unnecessary roundups of the wild horses and burro.
Exactly.
The proposed wild horse roundup in Adobe Town and the use of radio collars on the mares is simply animal abuse in its highest form. Don’t we fight against animal abuse in this country! If these mares with the radio collars are not monitored as often as they should the collar becomes very dangerous if it gets too tight or its caught on a fence or bush.
The truth is the greed for the subsidies received from the government for grazing livestock. Is there no compassion for the suffering of these innocent and beautiful animals.
Is there a sanctuary for these horses? They should be allowed to live out their life. It is wrong to cause harm to these beautiful horses.
They do not need to be removed from their homes and placed in a sanctuary. They should be manage as the principle species where they are found as per the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act.
Once again, the BLM is letting cruel things happen to the mustangs. Why on earth would a human being want to possibly kill a horse by putting one of these radio collars on them?! Someone needs to tell the BLM to think about if they were a mustang and people were doing this to them. They wouldn’t like it and neither do the actual mustangs who they are inflicting these upon! These horses are beatuiful and graceful creatures who don’t deserve to be put in danger like that. The horses need to be left uncollared by the BLM because nobody deserves to be in danger of death because of a radio collar, and nobody should have to be.
Please leave these wild horses alone. Collering them is dangerous. They also belong to me. I am the public, they are public property on public lands. You have no right chasing them, collering them, removing them, herding them, neutering them, scattering them, killing them, maiming them… WITHOUT MY PERMISSION, and the permission of all those of the general public that care. If you collect fees from the ranchers on MY PUBLIC LAND, I demand my portion, as well as giving out portions to all US citizens… WE ARE THE PUBLIC. You have no right to hurt these horses or any burro, donkey, mule… or offspring.
This is cruel to these horses. You need to ask the horse-owning public what is safe and what is not. This is horribly unsafe. Do nothing and I will applaud you. Remember, we the public pay taxes that pay your salary…
Please send a personal email or mail a letter to the BLM at : blm_wy_adobetown_hma@blm.gov! The more comments – personal ones, not a form letter, the better. And yes, we do pay the taxes that pay BLM employees – we also pay taxes that allow ranchers to lease allotments for next to nothing! Please contact the BLM & tell them how you feel.
Stop the madness! Leave the wild horses alone!!! They are protected by law!!! The BLM and the cattle ranchers need to respect the law!!!!!!!! SAVE THE HORSES!!!!!
It is appalling to see the horses being so mistreated by the BLM and its minions! Time has past and the cruelty in ‘managing’ our Wild Horses continues to increase! Bar none, the BLM is the most incompetent government agency…although they have plenty of competition! How do people live in the Wild West and not appreciate that the Wild Horses are essential to the land.
Please let these last wild horses thrive as a testimony to the wild, the west, & the fast beauty of the US.