The Cloud Foundation and other wild horse advocate groups are once again fighting to protect the Warm Springs mares from ovariectomy experiments. Yes again. Shocking and immoral.
An ovariectomy is just what the term sounds like — the surgical removal of ovaries.
Despite having been stopped time and time again through the legal actions of wild horse advocates, the BLM have again revived their abhorrent plan to carry out cruel experimentation on mares rounded up from the Warm Springs Herd Management Area (HMA).
One difference under this revised plan is that veterinarians would not operate on pregnant mares. Oh, well — what a concession. The inhumane lack of consideration for these horses by the BLM is as unconscionable and it is predictable.
The public comment deadline expired June 12th. However, we must keep raising awareness and protesting this dangerous and despicable plan.
Social Media Shout Out
Everyone reading this is active somewhere on social media. Let’s make a fuss that can’t be ignored.
Please take to social media but especially on Twitter (tweet and RT) to continue raising awareness. These mares need us to take action and continue to take action.
Share your ideas here in comments, such as sample tweets. Also, please share your suggestions on how to use Instagram effectively.
#HASHTAGS
Most of us have used #BLM for many years. Black Lives Matter are using it for their social media outreach which is ever increasing.
The BLM’s wild horse and burro “program” has its own hashtag — #BLMWHB. That is probably our best bet, but want to hear from you. Share your hashtag ideas in comments too. Let’s be creative. We want to reach as many people as possible.
The Department of Interior is on Twitter @Interior. Use #DOI.
Wild horse helicopter roundup. National Geographic.
The BLM is seeking public input on the use of motorized vehicles and aircraft in wild horse management and monitoring on public lands in Nevada.
EDITED PRESS RELEASE
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will conduct a public hearing to discuss the use of motorized vehicles and aircraft in wild horse and burro monitoring and management on public lands in Nevada.
The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, June 25, from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino, Madrid Room, 9090 Alta Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89145.
The purpose of the hearing, required by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, is to solicit public comment on the use of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft to estimate wild horse or burro population size and the use of helicopters to gather and remove excess animals. The hearing will also consider the use of motorized vehicles to transport gathered wild horses or burros as well as to conduct field monitoring activities.
An additional proposal calls for the use of a helicopter to assist in gathering excess wild horses and burros in herd management areas and complexes throughout the state in 2020. The actual number of areas where gathers or population surveys will be conducted will depend on a number of factors, including funding. The hearing will also consider the use of motorized vehicles to transport gathered wild horses or burros as well as to conduct field monitoring activities.
If you cannot attend the hearing, you can mail written comments to:
The population of Przewalski’s horse, the world’s last surviving wild horse subspecies, is growing at a nature reserve in northwest China’s Gansu Province, with numbers estimated to reach 40 by the end of 2019 after the breeding season in May.
Two foals were born on May 17 and 22 respectively in Gansu Anxi Extreme-arid Desert National Nature Reserve, while many more mares are pregnant.
The Przewalski’s horses were reintroduced to the reserve’s semi-wild environment in 2005. Three breeding groups and one male group have been formed.
Since then, the fertility rate of breeding mares has been maintained at around 60 percent, with the survival rate reaching 85 percent.
The population of Przewalski’s horse increased from 19 in 2016 to 37 at the end of May, and is expected to exceed 40 by the end of 2019.
Przewalski’s horses historically lived on grasslands that are now part of Mongolia and China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The species came to the verge of extinction in the 1960s due to over-hunting and a deteriorating environment. Its entire global population now stands at less than 2,000.
Heber Wild Horses, Heber-Overgaard, Navajo County, Arizona.
Cross-posted from the White Mountain Independent
by MARY HAUSER
(May 28, 2019) — The Heber Wild Horses Freedom Preservation Alliance is a grassroots group that advocates to keep the Heber herd in the wild and protected as is mandated by federal law. Being boots on the ground in the forest, keeping track of the horses and documenting the bands are some of the numerous functions that we do.
Our team discovered several of the horses that had been fatally shot during the shooting spree last January.
Our team went out to every horse that was found dead. We took photos, videos and logged into our records every horse that fell victim. Bullet holes were apparent in several horses. We compiled a timeline which included the responses of the USFS law enforcement and the Navajo County Sheriff’s Department. We saw no indication of an immediate investigative process taking place by USDA Forest Service Law Enforcement officers.
In our opinion the investigative response was slow and lackadaisical. More recently an eye witness account was called in regarding a man shooting at wild horses. The Forest Service never even bothered to go out to the scene to interview the eyewitness or suspect.
On January 22, 2019 the Sheriff’s Department notified us that a black stallion was found dead. A dead bay mare found in close proximity. The stallion was a wild horse called Raven. We saw what appeared to be a bullet hole in Raven’s head and a shattered leg bone that could have resulted from having been shot. Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer John Lopez was at the scene. His investigation consisted of turning over Raven’s body. The bay mare was looked at by a Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer, but there was no real investigation done on her at that time.
A citizen told us that Officer Lopez mentioned a veterinarian was going to be out to do a necropsy on the two horses. Two of our people stayed with the bodies until dusk to keep predators away. No veterinarian came.
Over the days that passed our team continued to monitor the roads and carcasses. More dead horses were found that appeared to have been shot at the same time as Raven and the mare. Eight days after Raven and the mare were found shot, with no further inspection being done on the horses by the Forest Service, one of our team called Officer Lopez and left a detailed voice mail asking for permission to bring our own veterinarian to do necropsies. The next day Officer Lopez advised our team member that he was bringing in a veterinarian to do necropsies the following day.
The next day necropsies were done. It was officially determined that many of the horses had been shot including the black stallion, Raven. Some bodies were too decomposed to be able to determine the cause of death. It was 10 days after Raven’s body had been discovered before the Forest Service had a veterinarian perform necropsies.
Mary Hauser is a Heber Wild Horses Freedom Preservation Alliance Team Member
For hundreds of years, since before the United States declared its independence from Great Britain, wild horses have roamed the Mogollon Rim Country in Arizona. Evidence indicates ancestors of today’s Heber Wild Horses were of Spanish stock brought by the Coronado Expedition in 1540 and then again by Father Eusebio Kino in 1653.
Heber Wild Horses are protected by an Act of Congress, living in land designated for them called the Heber Wild Horse Territory.
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the US Department of Agriculture that administers the nation’s 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres.
Founded: February 1, 1905
Headquarters: Washington, DC
Jurisdiction: United States
Founders: Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt
