BLM to begin new wild horse roundups in Northern Nevada

Cross-posted from the Reno-Gazette Journal

Written by FRANK X MULLEN JR.

(Nov. 16, 2010) — Federal land managers this week are scheduled to begin the first of three wild horse roundups aimed at reducing the number of mustangs in Northern Nevada.

The Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday plans to gather and remove about 94 “excess” wild horses from a site south of the Lahontan State Recreation Area in Lyon County, about 35 miles east of Carson City.

“We think there are up to about 150 horses in that (Lahontan) area, and there’s supposed to be about 10,” said Mark Struble, BLM spokesman in Carson City. “We don’t always know an exact number. In that area, the horses are often down under the trees along the river and can’t be seen (from airborne surveys).”

The gather is expected to be completed in two to three days. It’s part of an effort to remove up to 12,000 mustangs from the West this year.

The agency said there are too many horses on the range, and the herds must be culled to ensure ecological balance and forage for the remaining horses, wildlife and privately owned cattle. Wild horse advocates said the BLM exaggerates the number of animals and harms the genetic viability of herds by indiscriminately removing animals. Read full story >>

I was surprised to see this article. I didn’t realize there were any wild horses left in Nevada to round up. -Ed.

Wild horses: Calico roundup case dismissed

Cross-posted from the Nevada Sun

ASSOCIATED PRESS | May 24, 2010

Wild horses rounded up from the Calico Complex in northern Nevada earlier this year in wintry conditions left out in the cold for good as federal Judge Paul Friedman dismisses case to protect them.

A federal judge Monday officially dismissed a lawsuit brought by animal rights activists over a big wild horse roundup in northern Nevada, saying the case was moot and plaintiffs lacked standing.

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman in Washington, D.C., who in December denied an injunction to prevent the roundup, said the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has already gathered 1,922 horses from the Calico Mountains Complex north of Reno, therefore challenging the use of helicopters was moot.

The group In Defense of Animals, wildlife ecologist Craig Downer and children’s author Terri Farley also claimed in their suit that shipping horses removed from the range to long-term holding corrals in the Midwest is not permitted under the Wild Horse and Burro Act.

But Friedman said the plaintiffs failed to show how sending the horses to other facilities would cause harm to themselves. Read all >>

Related reading:

• OPINION, In Defense of Animals et al vs Ken Salazar et al, Civil Action No. 09-2222 (PLF), US District Court for the District of Washington, May 25, 2010

• Calico Wild Horse Lawsuit Dismissed on Technicality, not Merits, IDA Press Release, May 24, 2010 (from TCF blog)

• Judge dismisses Nevada wild horse roundup lawsuit, Reno Gazette-Journal, May 24, 2010

• NV horse roundup suit dismissed by federal judge, Nevada Appeal, May 24, 2010

Image not filed with original story.

Wild Horse Red Rocks April 25 Rally Report

Advocates Tell the BLM: Don’t Take My Balls

Written by ARLENE GAWNE
April 26, 2010

Every wild horse volunteer knows how hard it is to steal a bit of time from the demands of career and family and stand up for those wild herds that desperately need our protection. Yet 30 people showed up this fine spring morning, Sunday, April 25, 2010, in magnificent Red Rock Canyon outside Las Vegas, Nevada, in sympathy with the suffering of the approximately 1900 Calico Mountain wild horses held in the aptly named Broken Arrow facility near Fallon Nevada. Quadruple that number of people wished they could have come because last week the BLM painfully castrated all Calico stallions under 4 years of age, thereby stealing the next generation of horses – before a Federal judge could rule on a lawsuit demanding the horses be returned to their native range. So for a few hours, we became the Voices for Horses.   
 
We volunteers know that Red Rock Canyon is the perfect place to protest the pillaging of our wild horse heritage by Washington bureaucracies. This National Conservation Area was recently home to some of the West’s most beautiful wild horses and gentle burros – a superb example of the heritage herds that have adapted amazingly to the poorest bits of American public land left to them by faceless bureaucrats, self-centered politicians, careless cowboys, energy and mining companies, and greedy bottom-line agribusiness. We have reason to be angry.
 
American taxpayers are paying over $10,000 a day just to hold these captured Calico horses at the Broken Arrow holding facility. Processing that includes freeze-branding, inoculating, tagging and castration adds thousands more to that cost. BLM has denied repeated requests for observers to be present during processing and only allow public visits by reservation for two hours once a week. They must not want us to see how they spend our tax dollars; they certainly don’t want us to fire them. But we will.

We stood this Sunday and heard passersby honk, cheer and stop to sign petitions. Over and over, locals said they used to hike or ride by magnificent horses and burros, but now they only see a few burros and never see a wild horse. “Why is that?” they ask. We tell them all the reasons and ask them to vote out of office the politicians who will not force these Federal agencies to give our wild heritage herds their fair share of public lands. 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

All images by Arlene Gawne

We have an anthem for those wild stallions whose bloodlines may be lost:
 
HEY BLM
DON’T CASTRATE AT ALL.
IF YOU DO,
WE”LL BE WALKING
DOWN THE HALLS
OF THE SENATE, THE HOUSE
AND THE PRESIDENTIAL HOME
UNTIL WILD HORSES & BURROS
ARE FREE TO ROAM.

– Read Full Report here >>