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The Bureau of Land Management Does Not Allow the Public to See Wild Horses Being Driven into Traps with Helicopters
November 4, 2020
The Red Desert Complex Roundup, Largest in History is Finally Over – but What About the Horses?
November 19, 2020

The Devastating Wild Horse Roundup Continues in the Red Desert Complex of Wyoming

Published by Carol Walker at November 6, 2020
Categories
  • Blog
Tags
  • animal abuse
  • animal welfare
  • carol walker
  • helicopter roundup
  • horses
  • Red Desert
  • Wild Hoofbeats
  • wild horse
  • Wild Horse Freedom Federation
  • wild horses
Stallions to be released

Across the road, behind our observation point, we cannot see the trap or the run up to the trap from here at the Red Desert Complex Roundup. This is not meaningful observation. Two days ago we were here and could see the horses moving at a great distance then around the hill and that was it. We are in Crooks Mountain Herd Management Area. It is 36 degrees right now but when the wind picks up it gets bitter. We are waiting for the helicopters to bring in the first group of wild horses and will be watching them as best we can for the short time they are in view.

The trap – I cannot see it from where I am supposed to observe

The helicopter pilot just brought in a small family. There were 6 horses one sorrel stallion peeled off and is moving slowly away and the other 5 were driven around the corner and I assume into the trap since I cannot see it. They were very far away.

They have just stopped rounding up horses in Crooks Mountain for the day – the wind really picked up. I saw a group with a gray mare, a pinto mare and foal, bays, and a bay stallion and another darker group came in. Meanwhile three horses turned around and headed the opposite direction on the ridge. All of the 20-25 or so horses captured today have looked very tired, like they have been run a very long way. This group finally got close enough to identify a small family – dark mare, bay stallion and bay foal with blaze tucked in between them. The helicopter went back for them after driving the colorful family in. They were clearly tired. It was painful to watch. The helicopter hung way back but they had to go a long way before going out of site behind the hill. I did not see them go into the trap of course because it is behind me across the road.

They ran a long way

I am thinking they have way overestimated how many wild horses are in Crooks Mountain and indeed in the whole Red Desert Complex. This suspicion is confirmed when they announce they will be changing from Crooks Mountain to Green Mountain tomorrow.

In the stallion pen
Two mares in the same family

I go to the short term corrals where the wild horses that have been brought in are kept until they are shipped to Rock Springs, WY or Canon City, Colorado. They are separated into pens with mares, pens with stallions, and pens with foals. The foals are weaned right here unless they are very young. I wanted to check on the sorrel foal with the blaze who had run so far with his family, and he was with the other foals, the littlest of the bunch, and he did look ok as far as I could tell through the heavy mesh fencing. The foals were crying for their mothers.

The little sorrel foal in the foal pen

This morning I am waiting to go to the release of wild stallions back into Crooks Mountain Herd Management Area. I do not know how many will be released. The plan by the BLM is to only leave 65 wild horses in this 59,000 acre area and this is below the level for genetic viability which is 150 adults. The mares will be released in the next day or so and will be treated with PZP-22 birth control.

The big gray stallion in the trailer
The bay roan – he is ready to be out!

The releases up until now have been about 25 horses total per Herd Management Area but I am wondering if there will be less released in Crooks Mountain because the number of horses captured in this area, 203, fell so far short of the 819 that were projected to be removed. After the release we are supposed to go to a new trap site at the Green Mountain HMA if the wind has not picked up. In 2018 the BLM began the Red Desert Complex Roundup (only stopping because they ran out of room to warehouse the horses in holding facilities) and removed more than 1100 wild horses from this HMA. Despite that fact, now they want to remove another 199 from this area.

First out the gorgeous bay roan stallion

The gorgeous stallions leaped out of the trailer one at a time. They are bigger than the horses in the other Herd management Areas, and include a huge gray, a bay roan with a long tangled mane, a blue roan and a red pinto with a head that is completely red that I admired when he was being driven by the helicopter behind his family a couple of days ago. They disappear quickly over the hill – I cannot blame then for that! Now we are headed to the trap in Green Mountain.

The gorgeous gray stallion
The red headed stallion
They are gone

I want to shout out a big THANK YOU to everyone who called yesterday – I am in Green Mountain in the Red Desert Complex at the observation and I can see the trap and the run through the jute and am even close enough to see the horses – the best observation of this roundup. There were about 30 horses that came in before I arrived but one small family just got driven into the trap with one helicopter with no issues.

The colorful family running away

I just watched a large family with many pintos and a dark stallion bringing up the rear turn from the jute and run away. I winder if any of these horses were captured in 2019 and know what this is about. Then the helicopter drove them toward the trap again and they charged by on the wrong side of the jute wings. Meanwhile the wind was picking up with very strong blasts. The horses headed toward the highway but stopped and tried to figure out what to do. Finally they disappeared out of sight and shortly after that the BLM called it the end of the day – the wind was just too fierce. So we won’t know until tonight if they are moving the trap to a different area tomorrow – if they do this family gets to stay free in the Green Mountain HMA in the Red Desert Complex.

On the wrong side of the jute
They are little dots against the rocks

The BLM left the trap in the same place today but high winds called off the roundup, so this family has at least another day of freedom.

Related Posts:

The Bureau of Land Management Does Not Allow the Public to See Wild Horses Being Driven into Traps with Helicopters
Only a Tiny Amount of Wild Horses Will Remain in Antelope Hills Herd Management Area in Wyoming
Wyoming’s Ruinous Roundup: Antelope Hills Wild Horse Herd Will Never Be the Same
Only 90 Wild Horses Released Back into the Red Desert Complex During the Largest Removal in WY History
The Red Desert Complex Wild Horse Roundup Continues Despite the Winds
The Red Desert Complex Wild Horse Roundup – Freedom’s End
On the Eve of the Red Desert Complex Wild Horse Roundup
Spread the word

14 Comments

  1. Jeanne Conley says:
    November 7, 2020 at 12:53 am

    Why can’t you leave them alone? Are they safe? They are not hurting anything!!

    Reply
  2. Mary Baker Dittman says:
    November 7, 2020 at 1:32 am

    This is shameful that an Agency is allowed to conduct cruel roundups on these innocent horses. Foals separated from the mares and their herd members. One has to ask what kind of person approves this cruelty.
    These are American horses these horses were born in AMERICA! These horses generate funds from tourists, tourists don’t come to see sheep or cattle ……… they come to see the wild horses. The BLM is removing the income generated by these majestic animals favoring cattle and sheep that generates no income.
    These lands are public lands what is happening should be televised for all Americans to see the travesty the BLM is doing to the wild horses . There needs to be transparency so that we (the taxpayer) can audit this agency and stop this cruelty!

    Reply
  3. Ann Bacon says:
    November 7, 2020 at 3:18 am

    This is inhumane and so cruel, absolutely heartbreaking to me. The BLM is not even human. They are monsters committing senseless cruelty. Every caring person needs to know about this and act immediately to end the horror and loss of these precious horses !!!

    Reply
  4. The Devastating Wild Horse Roundup Continues in the Red Desert Complex of Wyoming - Wild Horse Freedom Federation says:
    November 7, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    […] Carol Walker first published Wild Hoofbeats, funded and sponsored by Wild Horse Freedom […]

    Reply
  5. Craig Downer says:
    November 7, 2020 at 6:33 pm

    This wild horse roundup is devastating to the lives of the all of these beautiful and highly evolved presences — the naturally living horses! What is happening here in the Red Desert to these wild horses, i.e. this notoriously unjust helicopter roundup and obliteration of the herd and messing with the reproduction of those few traumatized horses set back out — is a mockery of the noble WFHBA. This roundup is everything that is wrong with the world today, while the wild, naturally living horses are everything that is right!

    Reply
  6. Lynette says:
    November 7, 2020 at 10:46 pm

    What the hell can we do to stop this madness?

    Reply
    • Carol Walker says:
      November 8, 2020 at 12:55 am

      Contact your Senators and Representatives.

      Reply
      • arlene orlando says:
        November 13, 2020 at 8:01 pm

        this has NOT help for 30 yrs contacting Sen
        ators what makes you think it will……..

        Reply
  7. Dauguet says:
    November 8, 2020 at 11:16 am

    Help animals thank you

    Reply
  8. peggy conroy says:
    November 8, 2020 at 12:27 pm

    The country has been so traumatized by the Trump administration with every aspect of government and ordinary life needing repair, that what goes on in remote areas of our country are not even noticed. We somehow need to make a HUGE noise about it. I contact my reps in congress all the time and call the white house. Nothing…….whoever is there wants the red state vote….disgusting.

    Reply
  9. Gloria Wilkins says:
    November 9, 2020 at 2:30 am

    This is so sad. I hate the BLM. Maybe 2021 will be a better year for the animals and the earth.

    Reply
  10. Annie Chilcote-Carkhuff says:
    November 9, 2020 at 5:22 am

    It is so sad what the government does to our wild horses. Humans are no good and don’t give a dam. The good people are fighting so hard to save the wild horses from the bad heartless kind.

    Reply
  11. Annie Chilcote-Carkhuff says:
    November 9, 2020 at 5:24 am

    It is so sad what the government does to our wild horses. Humans are no good and don’t give a dam. The good people are fighting so hard to save the wild horses from the bad heartless kind.
    Women fight dam hard for the horses and saving them from the nightmare.

    Reply
  12. Lindsay says:
    November 19, 2020 at 2:12 am

    This needs to stop.

    Reply

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