Ep #3: Wild Horses Live in Families
March 6, 2023
Ep #4: Flying Over an Ocean of Snow
March 20, 2023
By Carol J. Walker
Last March I was preparing to go to the first wild horses adoption event at the Wheatland, Wyoming Bureau of Land Management corrals after the Checkerboard roundup that went from October 2021 through January 2022. I attended over 3 weeks of this roundup. There were over 2700 wild horses captured in that roundup that were in the corrals. Inexplicably the event was cancelled with no explanation. When the April event was cancelled, I spent several days calling BLM staff and waiting for an answer. Finally a press release was issued, saying that Strangles, (Streptococcus Equi) a highly infectious bacterial respiratory infection was running through the facility, and the adoptions would be cancelled for the near future. Strangles can kill, and the webpage says 19 horses have died from the disease. The way the facility is set up, there was no easy way to separate infected from non-infected horses so the disease was allowed to run through the whole facility of 2700 horses and now over 300 foals born at the facility.
I stopped by the facility on my way home last week and took photos from the road since the facility is not open to the public using an 800 lens. I could only see the horses on one side of the facility.
I stayed in communication with the High Plains District Manager Kevin Christenson who organized a “virtual tour” of the facility in October 2022 with photos of each pen the horses were in: https://www.blm.gov/sites/default/files/docs/2022-10/Wheatland.ORC_.VirtualTour.Oct22_0.pdf
He promised that as soon as the BLM veterinarian and the WY State Veterinarian certified that the disease had run its course and there were no more cases at the facility, that they would schedule a Public Tour where members of the public can tour the whole facility and see all the horses.
Now, finally there have been no new cases and so there are about 674 wild horses and 20 burros from the facility being offered in the next BLM Online Adoption running from March 13 – 20. You can view the horses in the Online Corral here: https://wildhorsesonline.blm.gov/ You need to fill out an Online Adoption form to be able to adopt during this adoption.
There are also 200 mares from Sand Wash Basin and wild horses from Carson City, Nevada offered in this online event, making the total number of horses offered completely overwhelming. I do not believe that this excessive number of horses offered is of benefit to the horses. The horses that receive no bids or are not adopted will receive 1 strike against them. What this means is that after 3 strikes, even if they are under 10 years old, they can be offered as Sale Authority, not needing to be adopted but sold without limitation, or shipped to Long Term Off Range Corrals or Long Term Pastures where they will have no ability to be adopted.
There will be a Public Tour on April 14 at the facility, although the weather in April in Wyoming is notoriously unreliable. There have been no details published yet about the hours of the event, and Kevin has said he will look into having a Zoom portion of the meeting for those who cannot attend. There will be no adoptions at this event.
On April 28, the first adoption at the facility will take place, but attendees will only be able to see and adopt the 40-50 horses they decide to offer in the adoption corrals and will not be allowed to see the rest of the horses at the facility. This is because this is a private facility, owned by ZimMetal and Welding, Inc. a private contractor who is receiving a tremendous amount of money to house, feed and care for these horses and burros. The horses and burros are not owned by the contractor, but are owned by all of us who are United States citizens.
If the well being and future welfare of the horses was being considered as the primary goal, I strongly believe that they would
- Allow the public to request horses they were interested in
- Allow the attendees of every adoption to see all the horses at the facility during adoption events
- Not dump almost 700 horses in one online event – offer no more than 100
- Have more adoption events at the facility
- Enlist photographers with better knowledge of wild horses and photography to take the photos for the online events – the photos are abysmal and do the horses no favors. Yes I volunteer to do this.
- Have adoptions on the weekend so that more people can attend.
Here is the link to the BLM Press Release for these scheduled events: https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-wheatland-range-corral-reopen-wild-horse-and-burro-adoptions
14 Comments
I’m glad their are no more cases of strangles. (hopefully) It’s too bad that can’t release after the successful adoptions have been made. So particular horses may never be offered for adoption. I saw the virtual tour. There are so many more large numbers captured since that tour. Yes ,allowing a photographer such as yourself in would be in true interest of the horses. I agree.
An atrocity 😡
Please consider the effort you can give to the cause to save the horses .
Give your comments to bring knowledge to the public of how horses are being left to die and suffer.
Please send your word’s and support as time may run out for them. The magnificent animals that they are
Please contribute and help.
Hi there, Can we all come together to get some. What d’you recommend? Are there more positive moves we could do all together. Are they doing this to flood the market?
Thank you letting us all know. By the way. How can a private owner of the facility hold wild horses that do not belong to him?
Thanks.
Alison James
The owner of the facility has a contract with the BLM – they are paying him to hold the horses. Yes you can adopt some of the horses.
Agree…Sterilizing those fine stallions is SO WRONG!!!
Please consider ALL the horses as adoptable. Making some stand in these miserable conditions is not fair! Maybe somebody would love a horse that you don’t put up for adoption! I feel you need to allow people to come at any time they are able to look and adopt any horse.
Sooooo pray they will all be free & healthy one of these days real soon.
They will never be free again but the strangles outbreak at the facility is over.
Heartbreaking
The whole situation of round ups and confinement is sickening. The BLM is so incompetent it is a joke when they say they are caring for these horses. We all know better. I hope we can change things for the good of these horses. I do what I can to support the cause.
Thank you, Carol, you do so much to document the horrible conditions these horses are thrown into. Keep the information coming !
I am newly learning about these horrible actions. Thank you for sharing your experiences and talents. I have commented on the BLM document.
How are they getting away with this? they should be publicly visible and adoptable at all times! ,it should be illegal for us not to be able to visit and check on them in holding.
Also, we need all of you to SHOW UP on Nov 15! How many would, there is no time left to ask nicely on this 😥
I visited this holding area years ago also. I don’t believe there was a case of strangles that reduced the horse numbers so drastically. This reminds me of when I would visit the San Jose, CA animal shelter years ago, trying to adopt a dog. Periodically the shelter would post notices that poarvo was running through he shelter.
After trying for weeks to adopt various dogs, and hearing the same story from other people in line, that the animals they wanted wouldn’t be adopted out because they’d been strays or were to skinny and might have problems, or that adoptions were closed due to Parvo and distemper, I demanded the manager tell me what was going on with their animal management practices. Flustered, she shouted back something very sinister – that the shelter had a contract with a feed lot in Fresno to supply them with so many pounds of carcasses, Then she realized what she’d said, im front of whole line of us trying to adopt a pet, and disappeared into the back room. Later this was reported on in the San Jose Mercury News.
You cannot tell me that the BLM cares about these horses. To them, they are just nuisance animals that compete with cattle for grazing and should go to slaughter for their meat, You will never convince me otherwise, I have heard too many such comments by ranchers who hate the wild horses. I myself have adopted two in my life that were wonderful beings