Roundups would put sterile herd back on range to die out
WASHINGTON (June 16, 2011) – The Cloud Foundation opposes the BLM’s “Record of Decision” released this Tuesday to wipe out two wild horse herds in southern Wyoming. It includes a massive round up and removal of most horses in the area, but it also implements the spaying of mares and the gelding of all stallions to be returned to the White Mountain and Little Colorado herd management areas.
“It’s a shocking and disgraceful decision,” states Ginger Kathrens, executive director of The Cloud Foundation, a non-profit wild horse advocacy group, “It is the most invasive, most dangerous, and the most permanently destructive decision they could have made. If this does not clearly demonstrate the BLM agenda of managing America’s wild horses to extinction, I don’t know what does.”
The American public is shocked to learn of BLM’s new decision to now roundup almost 1,000 native wild horses and only release 320 sterilized animals back onto their legally designated range of over 1 million acres. Meanwhile thousands of head of privately owned livestock reside on the very same acreage. The BLM decision would make these two wild horse herds unable to reproduce. Any hope for their continuation as a herd would require the expensive and invasive techniques of capturing and transporting wild horses from other herds and releasing them into the White Mountain and Little Colorado areas.
Sterilizing wild horses in the field is dangerous and has had been tested in only a few cases. The experimental surgical procedure was tested on wild mares in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Northern Nevada with at least a 10% mortality rate, and recovery taking at least a month.
“BLM’s approval to spay wild mares living on public land lacks any humane consideration for the animal,” states Donald Moore, DVM, of Fruita, Colorado. “This is a very invasive procedure and most veterinarians are reluctant, at best, to even recommend it.” Dr. Moore further questions the ability of the BLM to conduct such a dangerous endeavor, “It is not feasible to perform this surgery in the field. Even if this ill-advised surgery were to be performed BLM is not equipped to house and handle the mares in a manner that meets an acceptable level of care required for their recovery.”
Even BLM-lead vet, Dr. Al Kane USDA-APHIS, expressed his concerns over this sort of protocol, “It’s a lot more complicated and the potential for complications and side effects is much greater,” he reported to the BLM Advisory Board at their meeting in Phoenix in March. “And a lot of it has to do with the practicality of doing it on a large scale, particularly in the field. The potential effects on herd behavior or individual mare behavior are an issue… It’s never been done in wild horses on a large scale.”
Concerns run high regarding this surprising BLM decision and the timing of the roundup, scheduled to begin in July when most foals are still quite small.
“At the end of May I saw very few foals and many heavily pregnant mares,” says Carol Walker, equine photographer and wild horse advocate, who just recently visited the herd, “There is no possible way the BLM can convince me that there will not still be many heavily pregnant mares and many 1-month old or younger foals at the time of the roundup.”
“Not just the timing of this action, but the drastic nature of surgical sterilization makes this decision particularly abhorrent, “ says Kathrens. “Congress should be outraged at the blatant mockery BLM is making of the Wild Horse and Burro Act. When will they step in to rescue these animals from a rogue agency bent on destroying them?”
“The American public is outraged at BLM’s choice to sterilize America’s living legends despite other sustainable alternatives to manage healthy herds,” explains Anne Novak, spokeswoman for The Cloud Foundation. “Is Congress going to allow this disgrace to occur? We did not elect Senators and Representatives to allow this sort of animal cruelty to take place in our name.”
Source: The Cloud Foundation Press Release
Links of Interest:
Further information regarding spaying of mares: http://bit.ly/jopIso
Foundation video calling to Defund the Roundups: http://bit.ly/hL0eOj
Unified Moratorium letter and 200 signatories http://bit.ly/6ck87L
“Antelope Roundup a Disaster Wild Horses” – Foundation Press Release: http://bit.ly/h0kvEn
Butterfield, UT short term wild horse holding video: http://bit.ly/hWO2fG%20
“High Crimes and Misdemeanors” – American Herds Report: http://bit.ly/gQlaxa
How to contact your Congressmen: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Independent Report to Defund Roundups: http://bit.ly/gCyiu0
Past Cloud Foundation releases: http://bit.ly/9XD0TE
Tuesday's Horse 
WE NEED TO ABOLISH THAT BUREAUCRATIC MESS.
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GET RID OF THE STINKING BLM. THEY ARE GOOD FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, OTHER THAN SPENDING OUR HARD EARNED TAX PAYER MONEY. THE RANCHERS PUT MONEY IN THEIR POCKETS AND THAT IS WHO THEY KOW-TOW TO. I HATE THEM SO MUCH.
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The BLM is an agency that has no credentials to make decisions on round ups or any other decisions concerning our Wild Mustangs or any other breathing creature, nor do they have any right to use American citizens taxes to do so………………… We need to get rid of them forever, I believe we should fill the skies on round up day with other helicopters to devert any other helicopters the BLM has hired with our tax money……………..
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Lisa,
You are most certainly right about the failures of the BLM to manage anything but spending money. Each of the roundups costs millions of taxpayer dollars unnecessarily. Someone needs to look at these expenditures including the cost to transport the wild Native Horses to holding pens and feed them for the rest of thier lives and then they would also have to provide vet care for them ! Why aren’t they having thier budgets cut when we so desperately need money for education, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, housing and food for the poor and many other areas that are of much more importan ytthan rounding up beautiful, majestic, Native, Wild Horses from land set aside for them. The Native Wild Horses have been on this land for thousands of years and survie quite well without any human interfearance. LEAVE THE NATIVE WILD HORSES ALONE AND USE THE BUDGET MONEY FOR BETTER EDUCATION AND TO FEED THE POOR AND HOMELESS.
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These BLM idiots are so out of control they must be living on another planet. What a stupid thing to propose. Just look at the negative responses to see out cruel and dangerous for the horses this is. The government gave this landd to the horses and they should be allowed to roam free from any interfearance from BLM or the forest service or the cattle ranchers. There is plenty of land and water out there for all of them. As far as oil, gas, solar and wind turbine companies who want to lease the land, they can all share the same land. The horses nor catlle would interfear with these projects. Don’t you guys know how to play nice in the sandbox and SHARE!!!
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This sickens me. How could any ‘mandate’ – perceived or actual – allow for experimental surgery as a means of ‘management’?
There are some very broad interpretations of the Wild Horse and Burro Act and the BLM’s Program as it applies to constricting these animals in efforts to placate whatever special interest they happen to be offending, but there is nothing I’ve found anywhere that would allow or approve of this.
This can’t possibly be legal; it most assuredly is cruel & immoral and lays out plain and simple the complete disregard for and utter contempt of these animals and The Act itself under the purview of the Bureau of Land Management.
What kind of mind set would even consider adding to the already barbaric process of a roundup by subjecting helpless WILD animals to invasive surgery – with a proven low rate of survivability – and consider it a viable alternative to true on-the-range management?
A mind set that has never, not even a little, been held accountable or punished for it’s overwhelming failure at everything but spending money.
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