Wild Horses: Carol Walker and Ginger Kathrens on Wild Horse and Burro Radio Tomight
November 19, 2014Wild Horse Advocates Blast Governor Mead for Suit Against Feds Over Wild Horses
December 9, 2014
Wild Mares rounded up in December 2013, given birth control, released, then rounded up again and removed two months ago
It was not enough for Wyoming Governor Matt Mead that 1263 wild horses were removed from Wyoming’s Checkerboard lands just two months ago. Right after the roundup was completed, he complained that in another few years there would have to be another roundup, and also whined about the public not being on his side. Well now Wyoming has filed suit against the BLM claiming there are too many wild horses in Wyoming, even though after the recent roundups, according to the BLM’s own figures, the current wild horse population of Wyoming is only 2508, which is far below the state’s Appropriate Management Level for wild horses. Press release from Mead’s office:
http://governor.wy.gov/media/pressReleases/Pages/WyomingFilesSuittoForceBLMtoManageWildHorses.aspx
Family of wild horses in Adobe Town 1 week before being rounded up and sent to Rock Springs corrals
It was not enough for Mead that the BLM spent $535,000 of our taxpayer money two months ago rounding up wild horses in the Checkerboard to appease the Rock Springs Grazing Association.
Somehow Mead has also conveniently forgotten that two of the BLM’s Field Offices in Wyoming are very successfully using birth control to manage wild horse populations – the McCullough Peaks Herd managed by the Cody BLM Office and the Red Desert Complex, managed by the Lander BLM Office. But Mead has no interest in controlling populations of wild horses using birth control – he just wants them gone entirely.
Mead seems good at completely ignoring facts when it suits him – this is my favorite:
“Herds will continue to exponentially grow beyond what the BLM determined is ecologically appropriate for each herd management area (HMA). These herds have population growth rates that range from as low as 25% to as high as 58% each year.”
In order to attain a 58% population growth per year, the stallions would have to become pregnant and bear foals.
Older mares in Canon City – many have hip brands – they were treated with birth control but removed anyway
If Mead wants the BLM to remove all the wild horses removed from Wyoming, there is a problem. Currently, there are over 50,000 wild horses in holding facilities, and most of them are bursting at the seams. There wasn’t even room for all the wild horses rounded up from Salt Wells Creek, Adobe Town and Great Divide Basin in the Rock Springs and Canon City corrals, so they had to send 100 youngsters to a burro facility in Utah. Perhaps Governor Mead would like the wild horses to be gunned down by helicopter like they do in Australia.
Older wild stallions now at Canon City
Governor Mead’s plan for Wyoming will leave a special interest wasteland devoid of wild horses, with drilling pad after drilling pad and public lands grazed down to the dirt by livestock. What he fails to understand is that these are NOT Wyoming’s wild horses NOR do these public lands belong to Wyoming – the wild horses and the public land belong to all of us, the taxpaying citizens of the United States of America.
Small family of wild horses in Salt Wells Creek a week before being removed
Related Articles:
http://rtfitchauthor.com/2014/12/06/blm-removes-adobe-town-wild-horses-and-now-considers-drilling/
24 Comments
Will the people of the state not stand together and stop this tragedy from happening? There are ways to strip the governor of his power, its called recall! Recall the governor! Have a special election and get rid of him! This would be such a tragedy if they completely got rid of these beautiful creatures. God might have something to say about that as well!!
P.S. Maybe some other states would take them….
Lynn Molanders
Thomaston, GA
The Governor don’t the State Of Wyoming Somebody needs to recall him. He sounds like our President. Wants to run everything his way.
Leave Obama out of this. It’s the Rock Springs Grazing Association that wants horses dead.
I am a recent transplant here to Wyoming. It is all Livestock and Mining. He doesn’t care one bit about the wild horses. The whole state only has a population of 500,000, way less than most major cities, and many who live here from what I can see are ranchers, so no help there for sure!
I just can’t believe him, but then it always comes back to the money. We can pay to subsidize the welfare ranchers, but we can’t keep our own federally protected wild horses (even well below their “appropriate levels” in the state if he has his way. Sickening!!
You know Governor Matt Mead is a rancher. His reasoning is no doubt filtered through his ranching background. If you all could look past the pretty horses and see the effects of large herds on the lands, you might understand how important herd management is.
It’s not just the horses who are effecting the land. We’re having an extremely dry winter this year, which is not helped by the continuous cloud seeding from the ski areas west of us. I agree, there needed to be a round up to decrease the over grazing. But why do ALL horses need to be removed? This isn’t just about cattle ranching, it’s gas well production and wind turbines…….money, and whoever carries the biggest stick, wins. Every side of this issue will not bend, it’s all or nothing, and the BLM has no funding to manage the herds. And the horse? They’re stuck in the middle.
But since when is it alright to remove all of them for our public lands in order to allow Govenor Mead and others to come through and ruin them for future use? The cattle industry is large and needed to support our growth as America but why should that mean we must destroy everything for it? I don’t agree with taking his side, I understand that he is a rancher and, to me and many others, it sounds like he only wants to take the land that belongs to the public for himself instead of benefiting others. So no, I will not look past “the pretty horses” as you so aptly put it because there is nothing to look forward to with what he or other ranchers want. Govenor Mead is not just wanting to downsize the herds to manageable numbers, he wants then All removed for good.
These horses mean a lot to many people, and while I do endorse removing them from PRIVATE lands that are owned and managed by ranchers, humanely, using the publics land is appalling and against our rights as members of America.
Wild hyve been here with the ranchers for a hundred or so years now. Ranchers cyears. ‘t have survived out here without them… Yes any competing grazing animal can effect cattle but we have been managing that for years. Matt Mead needs to go jump in a lake. These horses have been here with us since the begining. They have as much right to roam this land as I do.
Sincerely,
Angela English
5th generation Wyoming native.
Very well acquainted with Herd management and cattle grazing issues!
And what about the effects of large herds of cattle on the lands. At least horses migrate and don’t overgraze! Gee Sue are you a rancher too?
Right now the only large herds are cattle. In my book, Cattle don’t belong on public land. The Govt signed a deal with the devil the first time they allowed cheap cattle grazing on public land. I want to see wildlife on public land, including wild horses and burros. You want to raise cattle? But your own land and stop looking for ranching welfare, that’s all it is.
There are only 2500 wild horses in all of Wyo?? Is that what I read??
How many cattle?? Are you going to look me in the eye and tell me these vast herds of wild horses are degrading the rangeland? Seriously? What have you been smoking! Stop the BS already against wild horses. They are as vilified as wolves are ! You ranch people are a joke. The rest of us want the horses, I thought this is a democracy.
The gov of wyoming is a rancher….go figure.
You’ve got to get the ranchers, trappers and hunters off of all legislative bodies. If you want healthy national lands with gorgeous animals to entice and grow your tourism dollars, get the greedy snakes out of power and put in properly trained biologists who love the land and animals as much as you do.
Every time the government messes with nature they totally screw it up! Just leave nature alone. We don’t need bureaucrats sticking their noses in this
To think that Wyoming shows wild horses on their tourism commercials and now they want them all dead. Maybe they will show dead horses hanging on hooks to show what a great state they are. I have never been to WY and will never go now. I did think it might be a good place to retire. Not now.
You have got to be kidding me! Ould hot of all the land in the west they are going to obliterate the wild horses? After years of fighting to save the wild animals so that generations to come can enjoy them the government and greedy high powered people want them gone?! More control over riding public input!
Please Governor Please don’t let money make your heart hard……….. the horses were there first …not even enough for a cow a day forage out in plain 2 eat ……horses move on and don’t hang and eat forage down Cows do…………………
Hope you do right and give the consequences to God
This is terrible. Not only are horses beautiful and loyal wonderful animals. Here in Wyoming our wild horses are a integral part of out heritage.. They are a huge part of what make us who we are. They symbolize our free and courageous spirit. We need to stop this have him removed from office sign petitions whatever it takes!
When we were in Wyoming this summer, we saw a lot of pronghorn, bison, elk, and a LOT of cattle, but not one wild horse. If there are too many, where are they all???
Exactly!, there are so few…. So who is ruining the rangeland? Can you guess?
Yes cattle!!! Horses are the scapegoats
Wild horses are a living link to our past. I see no need eliminate them from OUR public grasslands. I hope enough people will band together to stop this from happening. I geta chill when I see these magnificent animals running free, and I enjoy seeing the pictures of wild horses on Facebook. Please Gov. Mead, leave this sign of our past alone.
The asinine statement about stallions having foals to gain 58% population growth reeks of ignorance. Reality check is the number of mares far exceed the number of stallions 58% growth is not unreasonable. What is unreasonable is the willingness to spend thousands of dollars a year on these feral horses, while ignoring the plight of our poor and homeless in this country.
What’s wrong with this governer does he not know that is what the west is about the Wild horses gosh that makes me so mad I have land at the Wild Horse Ranch it was so beautiful to see The Wild Horses roam the land peopek aught to fight to stop this fruel act.Basically it is amcom to show the Wild horses to get people to buy land
I could never understand why men fell the need to kill and destroy ?