Stop the Despicable Roundup and Sterilization Plan for Wyoming’s Five Largest Wild Horse Herds
April 19, 2021Action Alert: North Lander Complex Wild Horse Herds Need Your Help to Prevent Sterilization and Massive Removal
April 27, 2021Action Alert: Sand Wash Basin Wild Horses Need Your Help To Prevent Huge Roundup and Removal
Devastating Roundup and Removal proposed for Sand Wash Basin Wild Horses
Public Comment Deadline Extended to May 16, 2021
By Carol J. Walker
The Bureau of Land Management has published a proposal for removal of removing 772 wild horses from Sand Wash Basin starting this summer. This is over 80% of the wild horses that are currently within the Basin and outside the boundaries of the 156,000 acre Herd management Area. You can find the Environmental Assessment here: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2012689/510
I have been following and photographing the wild horses in this herd since 2011. I attended the dangerous and deadly helicopter roundup in Sand Wash Basin in 2008 where 11 wild horses died. This herd is one of the most famous and beloved of the wild horses in the west. People travel from all over the country and all over the world to see these horses. They should be managed where they live on our public lands.
The last aerial census that the BLM has done was March of 2019. They did not do a count in 2020 or 2021, they just assumed a 13% increase in population. If you are going to claim an “excess” amount of wild horses it is important to actually count them and have a real and not a made up number to work from. The BLM wants to remove horses down to low Appropriate Management Level, which would leave 163 wild horses. This number is not even enough to provide genetic viability for the horses that remain – that number needs to be 150-200 adults according to the leading wild horse geneticist, Dr. Gus Cothren.
The three alternatives proposed discuss using a 10 year plan where the horses could be removed all at once or they could be removed over several years. These 10 year plans are in violation of NEPA – every time the BLM takes action on a wild horse herd they should submit a new plan that the public can comment upon.
Alternative A which is the Proposed Action includes removing wild horses to the low end of AML which is 163 wild horses and skewing the sex ration may be done up to 40% mares to 60% stallions, using birth control such as PZP, Gonacon and possibly putting IUDs in wild mares.
Sex ratio skewing can destroy the fabric of wild horse families. It can be extremely detrimental because of the increased fighting between stallions and instability of the family bands. Wild horse herds naturally occur at 50% stallions to 50% mares, and just doing this with no care for the effects on the horses is not a good idea. It is a kitchen sink idea.
IUDs should never be used on wild mares. There has only been 1 study on 8 wild mares in 2020, and this is not enough to prove that it is safe and effective. I do not understand why they consider this to be a “temporary” method of birth control. Do they plan to remove the IUDs at a later date? There is no plan in this EA to do this. The National Academy of Sciences in their 2013 report expressed concern about the IUDs leading to inflammation in wild mares. In human woman, the IUDs can move around in the body and cause injury and death. Simply throwing this in as a method of birth control because Oklahoma State University received a large grant to study it does not justify using an unproven and dangerous method of birth control on wild horses.
Since the wild horses in this herd have already been being treated with PZP, why add additional methods of birth control? Why not continue and bolster the program that is already in place?
If there are drought conditions, the livestock grazing leases for sheep should be retired. Water should be hauled if necessary to the waterholes.
The 772 wild horses that are planned to be removed are not all going to be adopted. Many will die during the roundup and afterward at the short term holding facilities where they are processed. GEMS cannot take 772 horses. The Sand Wash Basin wild horses are safest where they belong on the public lands where they live. They should be managed on the range.
Alternative B is to roundup and remove to the low end of AML leaving 163 wild horses and do not use birth control
Alternative C is the NO Action Alternative, no roundup and removal, no birth control.
For your comments, you may use my talking points, but please be sure to use your own words.
I am suggesting the selection of Alternative C, the No Action Alternative.
- IUDs should never be used on wild mares.
- Use PZP which is already being given to mares in the herd to the wild horses in the herd if birth control is needed.
- Do not use Sex Ratio Skewing.
- Put in a fence along the roughly 10 miles of the HMA adjoining highway 318.
- The horses outside the HMA should be returned to the HMA boundaries rather than being removed.
- Retire the sheep grazing leases in the HMA. Wild horses should be managed as the principle species in the HMA.
- Do an actual count of wild horses in the HMA using an independent agency.
- Raise the AML for the herd.
- All roundup and removal plans need to be put on hold until a new National Plan gets worked out with public input.
Sand Wash Basin’s Wild Horses need your help. Please comment and get the word out.
Please submit your comments by May 16 to the BLM. Please use your own words. If you submit comments through a group form, all the comments will be counted as 1.
You can submit your individual comments online here: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2012689/570/8002143/comment
You can mail comments to: BLM Little Snake Field Office, 455 Emerson St, Craig, CO 81625.
President Joe Biden
Phone: 202-456-1111
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
Deb Haaland, Secretary of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240
Phone (with employee directory): (202) 208-3100
FedRelay number: (800)877-8339 (TTY)
contact form: https://www.doi.gov/contact-us
Email: feedback@ios.doi.gov
Your Senators: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
Your Representatives: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Nada Wolff Culver, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Land Management
Phone: 202-208-2801, Email: nculver@blm.gov
Our wild horses are counting on you. Please get the word out and make your voice heard.
Previous Related Post: https://www.wildhoofbeats.com/blog/action-alert-save-americas-wild-horses-from-massive-roundups-and-cruel-sterilization-experiments/embed#?secret=o6qeXSbejU
50 Comments
IUDs should never be used on wild mares.
Use PZP which is already being given to mares in the herd to the wild horses in the herd if birth control is needed.
Do not use Sex Ratio Skewing.
Put in a fence along the roughly 10 miles of the HMA adjoining highway 318.
The horses outside the HMA should be returned to the HMA boundaries rather than being removed.
Retire the sheep grazing leases in the HMA. Wild horses should be managed as the principle species in the HMA.
Do an actual count of wild horses in the HMA using an independent agency.
Raise the AML for the herd.
All roundup and removal plans need to be put on hold until a new National Plan gets worked out with public input.
Hi Pauline,
This does not go to the BLM. Please read the instructions on submitting comments.
Please have a heart for these beautiful animals????
Find something better to do! Leave these majestic animals alone! God’s creatures!
Save this American heritage, these horses deserve to be free. They are beautiful and should continue to run free and wild.
This action is disgraceful.
Please find a way to let the wild horses remain wild and free. The money spent on roundups could be spent on their care. Only humane birth control should be done. These beautiful creatures love their families and separation is so cruel. I beg whoever makes these decisions to step back and work on solutions that won’t hurt the horses. There is plenty of room for them. I pray this cruelty comes to an end.
Hi Pauline,
This does not go to the BLM. Please read the instructions on submitting comments.
Thank you for the update. I completely agree; I’m picking “C” as well. I will be sending my representatives the information you provided. Thank you again for all you do for the horses.
Thank you!
I would donated you tell where for this I live in Maine
I am not asking for donations, just comments submitted.
Let the mustangs live free, there are enough in holding pens
Our history is disappearing right before our eyes. We need to Protect our wild mustangs. The BLM needs to be holted and held accountable for there actions and deaths of our wild mustangs. Whose filing charges on the deaths that have occurred? We do not tolerate animal abuse and this is exactly what’s happening. Someone needs to be held accountable and it needs to take place now.
These horses should not be subjected to cruelty and inhumane treatment. They should be free and wild . Using safe darting method of birth control . People should be held accountable for their barbaric actions. My tax money should go to save the horses
These animals need protection! Don’t remove these hoses and burros from their land!
The Colorado First Gentleman, Marlon Reiss, is an animal lover. I will email him along with the other contacts.
Great idea!
Done & shared!
STOP!!!! THESE HORSES ARE GOD’S MASTERPIECE…NOT YOURS SO YOU CAN CASH THEM IN. SUCH BEAUTY!! AND ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS KILL THEM. DO THEY HAVE DOLLAR SIGNS ON THEM..NO!!!!..
ONLY IN YOUR UTTERLY SICK MIND! MAY GOD INTERCEDE FOR THEM AND YOU..SO YOU DONT END UP IN HELL! GOD SAYS TOO PRAY FOR OUR ENEMIES, SO YOU TOO WILL HAVEA CHANCE OF SALVATION. THAT IS HOW MUCH GOD LOVES YOU, HIS AND MY ENEMY!!!!!
Sent Maryland Reps
Thank you!
I just don’t understand how BLM is getting away with this and why they aren’t giving us our right to voice our take on this. Our wild horses & burros are supposed to be protected not anilated. After all it is our tax dollars paying for their mismanagement, I for one don’t want to pay for this atrocity.
The National Academy of Sciences found that BLM’s roundups were actually contributing to wild horse population growth. The fact that the wild horse population is considered overpopulated when their population would be of great concern in other species populations under the ESA is troubling. Wild horses have lost millions of acres of their allowed rangelands over the last forty years and entire herds have been “zeroed out” under shady “multiple use” clause of the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horse & Burro Act. I hesitate to believe photos of rangeland degradation without considering the prolific populations of private sheep and cattle that graze many of these same rangelands at significantly higher numbers than the wild horse herds. The horse evolved to a finished form in N. America, only disappearing 70,000 years ago, returning with the Spanish. Their population is greatly restricted in weird pockets across the West. Having personally witnessed several roundups over the years, it’s hard to watch some of the gross mistreatment and unnecessary death that occur during these processes. Wild horses do, in fact, have a natural predator, it’s the mountain lion, but they are also not a welcome addition to livestock-strewn lands, so they are not allowed to take their natural place in the wild horse ecosystem (though some well-documented herds, like the Pine Nut and, in the past, the Pryor Mountains have been successfully managed by lion predation). Advocates offer their time and services to help with on-the-range management like PZP, but not all local BLM offices are willing to embark on that journey. Cattle should not be “there” in the first place. There is archeological evidence that the genus Equus, from which the modern horse is descended, originated in North America millions of years ago. The American bison, also called “buffalo,” originated in Eurasia and migrated to North America. Which means that cattle, and particularly domestic cattle, are the interlopers to the ranges of North America. Roughly 100 years ago, there were an estimated 100,000,000 wild horses sharing the ranges with buffalo, deer, and elk, and numerous historical accounts documented the lushness of the grasslands upon which these horses grazed and roamed. Today, using the BLM’s estimate (which many wild horse organizations believe to be grossly inflated) there are only about 70,000 wild horses spread out over almost 40 million acres of rangeland. Of those roughly 40 million acres, less than 30 million acres are managed for wild horses, while almost 16 million acres are managed for cattle. In addition, there are roughly 8 cattle to every 1 wild horse grazing on those lands. Cattle ranching interests are subsidized by the American taxpayer to the tune of about $500 million a year while supplying just 3% of the nation’s beef supply. The fact is, the “problem” with wild horses is caused by man; not the horses. By invading and interfering with their natural habitat, We caused the problem, not the other way around. We are the “pests”, not the horses. Please STOP the roundups and the corralling of wild horses and burros! I want my great, great, great-grandchildren and yours to be able to see these beautiful American icons in person, not just pictures in books!
Please send your comments to the BLM and President Biden and Deb Haaland and your Senators and Representatives. They will not see your commnents here.
Thank you for writing about this Carol Walker, I know you are tireless in your standing up for what is good and fair regarding the wild horses. The photos are good, hard seeing Corona and band being chased though.
Is that foal Tripod?
I wonder how he fared, he has not been seen as you will know for some time.
I’m preparing to comment on the BLM form, I hope I can help in some way. I’d like more info about studies done if possible, to put as references. I’ve found a few refs but if you are aware of any, supporting the horses, please do say as I suspect the science will be helpful.
I urge everyone to choose option C. Pzp never stopped a roundup and blm takes that as you agree they are overpopulated as they are actually going extinct.
Please help and protect our amazing horses to thrive and be protected from these horrible round ups. They deserve protection, they are trying to live their way of life with their young. Stop this heartless and frightening act upon our nation’s most loved animals.
The Earth and Other fellow creatures are NOT “ours” to pillage, control and kill. Just as homosapien has the “right” to live a healthy and free life on Earth, so do ALL the Other animals on Earth (that includes wild horses and burros). The problem is definitely NOT the wild horses or burros rather, the problem is our over-populated species that is rapidly destroying the planet.
Let these horses alone to live in peace, in the name of Jesus! Isn’t that what you want for yourselves? The difference is that the horses are innocent!
Leave these Horses alone and stop these heartless roundups.
Unbelievable that you are even considering this. Wild horses deserve to be managed humanely on our public lands where they belong. Do not ever round them up with helicopters and put in warehouses and in feed lots. Utterly despicable and without conscience to even consider that. I strongly object to this so called ‘strategy.’ If not criminal, this is cruel beyond description.
Unbelievable that you are even considering this. Wild horses deserve to be managed humanely on our public lands where they belong. Do not ever round them up with helicopters and put in warehouses and in feed lots. Utterly despicable and without conscience to even consider that. I strongly object to this so called ‘strategy.’ If not criminal, this is cruel beyond description.
Please send your comments to President Biden, Secretary Haaland and comment on the BLM website.
It’s time for true reform of the BLM and continued Roundups of torment to our Wild Horses. I call for the Best Action “C” to be put in place. The Roundups are annihilating this ICONIC herd who’s rightful home is the Sand Wash Basin, they are so loved, followed and admired for many years. Colorado has millions of acres in the Sand Wash Basin for them to coexist and continue on their rightful home land. This is a terrible disgrace to the State of Colorado losing them to greed, and sheep who should not be allowed on our government lands. Reform the insanity of GREED. THIS IS CORRUPTION AND DESTRUCTION IN THE WORST WAY!
Please send your comments to President Biden, Secretary Haaland and comment on the BLM website.
Hi Carol,
Thank you for all your hard work and efforts. We all love them very much and want them FREE.
I have done emails and calls.
After documenting and photographing wild herds for 6 years – I’ve witnessed the value this American icon is to all. With vast land and efforts of advocacy strides have been made to manage and maintain size of herds to viable and manageable numbers. A reduction of the numbers and tax dollars spent to house in pens is not an efficient way to resolve and is only to increase cattle grazing areas which are destructive to our water sources and environment. This has been highly documented by scientists and environmental experts
Our tax dollars are better spent on humane management and pzp which is a solution that is not only humane but cost pennies on the dollar
Beyond the emotional human aspect of why these horses are instrumental- there are millions of people who have vocalized their opposition to round ups – and have clearly illustrated a benefit of wild mustangs left wild
With these herds there is a potential for each state to monetize which if the only way for advocates to illustrate value – then so be it. But it goes far beyond this
Your constituents are pleading – this is a movement that with round ups will not be diminished. It will further incite the masses
It is important to recognize value of any wildlife and our American Icon who have been instrumental in protection and transportation of man during war and settling into new territory and working to help families with crops –
Why destroy something until you fully understand or have spent time educating yourselves
It’s easy to be the wizard sitting in an office making decisions without any knowledge of what boots on the ground and interacting involves.
Any life worth saving is one that the only person who should make this decision are those who look them in the eye and then decide if you can do so with a clear conscience. Then explain to your children and grandchildren why you chose to cause these beautiful wild horses to be reduced to numbers that ultimately will affect their ability to survive
And you can then explain why you allow wild horse families to be shot and desecrated as they have been in Heber Arizona
The holding pens you can also review cost for them to stand crowded like a human prison when the amount of land that was provided due to the Wild Horse Act of 1971 is more than sufficient
I dare you to spend even one week with advocates in the field and watch and be educated on herd dynamics – if not you will never comprehend how your decision will destroy land and whose it truly belongs to on this small scale – when the number one issue you should be focused on is fixing our country and the human element-
Horses – no wild life is destroying this or other countries – it’s man
Please send your comments to President Biden, Secretary Haaland and comment on the BLM website.
Thank you Carol, you bet I will – thank you
I want the wild horses to be free and wild and most of all are for them to be happy. Instead, they have been treated so horrific with all the torture they endure with these roundups. Running them for miles and the older ones give out and the little ones can’t keep up either. They get separated from their mamas and their families. So many die. And the horse management are not doing their duties! Get the cattle and sheep off public land that is for the wild horses. Cattle and sheep ruin the land. I know because I live on a road where people have cattle. They have cattle guards and we have to drive through all the crap they make in the road. They eat the grass down to the ground and make the road a mushy mess! Take the cattle off public land!!!! Please let the wild horses live and run free.
Please send your comments to President Biden, Secretary Haaland and comment on the BLM website.
They deserve their freedom and BLM has no rights to disrupt the wild horses way of life. Stop bullying and slaughtering these precious horses. You are doing more harm than good by rounding them up with helicopters and then carelessly sending them to slaughter for money. Their lives matter too and all BLM is doing is profiting off of their deaths. This is not humane in any way and it’s cruel and heartless. Leave all the wild horses alone they are not hurting you. Believe it or not the world is big enough for humans and animals to live together in harmony.
Please let these wild horses stay and live in the Sand Wash Basin . It is a pleasure to see them live wild amd free! They are part of history!
They are a symbol of freedom, of your country… Don’t decimate them. Let them live wild and free. Prove that the USA is a land of the free, both humans and animals.
SENT! Thank you Carol for making us aware. Mine is late but I will continue to fight for our horses! Plan C!!
Save the wild house let the be free..I am so sick of people taking amazing animals land and the Indian land as well…This needs to stop now…
We cannot allow the BLM to continue succeeding in slowly but surely eliminating our wild horses and burros—over and over again. They grossly mismanage some 245 million acres of our public land where 82.5% of forage is allocated for livestock use. As a result, there are over 50 million horses crammed in holding pens. This is no life for a wild one.
Dear Elected Officials,
We cannot allow the Bureau of Land Management to continue succeeding slowly but surely, this most historic animal abuse in America, of the unnecessary elimination of our wildHorses and Burros, over and over again. The Bureau of Lies and Mismanagement is blatantly insulting and robbing the American people, with their travesty of inhumane justice. And it must stop NOW ! They grossly mismanage some 245 million acres of our public land where 82.5% of foliage and water is a lot it to livestock use. As a result, And there are more than 50,000 WildHorses crammed in the holding pins and their babies dying.. This is wildlife injustice, to our federally protected WildHorses, that Americans pay taxes for their protection.. it’s the law of the land and the BLM is purposely breaking the law with no accountability. The American people are not only dealing with a corrupt government agency, but one that has a license for brutalizing the horrific action of animal cruelty and death..
Sincerely,
Law-abiding citizen Taxpayer
Please stop the insanity and leave tge horses alone.