The horses and the Bureau of Land Management

(c) Craig Downer "Horses huddle together after a Calico round up a few days ago. They did not understand what was happening to them"

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) , made up of cattle ranchers, started in 1971 managing the land and the horses per the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. Within this management they decided what the horses were worth based upon their eating capabilities. It is called the Animal Unit Month (AMU) that measures and allocates what an animal eats in a month. For a cow it is 1 AMU, goats are 5 AMU, sheep are 5AMU and horses are 0.8 AMU, per the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign. With this they decided that the horses were depleting the land and therefore making it necessary to remove them per the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. Within the Act it states that if the wild horses or burros get too great in numbers, that would devastate the land, to reduce their numbers. This was done by rounding them up and adopting them out or holding them in long-term pens. As the BLM stated these are not native to our land (not true) and so they can be removed.

The BLM has been known to round up the horses and take them from the land since they say they see the land is depleted, but within weeks lease the public land to cattlemen ranchers for their cattle to graze on. All this was for a purchase of a grazing permit to allow the ranchers to graze their cattle. If the land is so depleted then how can they justify putting cattle that eats more and creates more destruction onto that piece of land? Money. Per the American Wild Horse Preservation (AWHP), “In order to remove wild horses from public lands, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has claimed that horses are destroying critical habitat, competing for grazing lands, and overpopulating. But reports by the General Accounting Office (GAO) and the National Academy of Sciences dispute such claims: BLM has never presented any evidence that horses destroy habitat, nor that their population levels are what it claims they are. In fact, reducing horse populations in a given area has a negligible effect on range conditions: after massive wild horse round ups, herd areas show little or no improvement, especially in instances when cattle numbers remain the same (or increase).” Some ranchers even put up fences to keep the wild horses from crucial water supplies and the BLM is aware but do nothing. These poor horses then die from lack of water, especially during drought times.

When the BLM decides what herd to go after they create a round up day and set helicopters in motion to round up the herd(s). The public is allowed to view this but only from a certain viewing area that is guarded by BLM law enforcement. This viewing only shows the public when the horses come over a ridge or an area and into the corrals. What it does not show the public is that they were taken from hundred’s of miles away and forced to run at full speed for too long of periods of time. Some of these horses die in the process of going to the corral. Some are colts a few days old, older horses or horses with special conditions. The BLM does not seem to care or have concerns for the horses but only the numbers. The baby horses that could not make it fall and get trampled from the older and much larger horses. Then they are left for dead, such a horrible death. Others make it to the corral and start stampedes there in fear and trample other horses, and die. Some try to jump the extremely high fencing and get their legs broke which results in the veterinarian on site to put them down. Some even break their necks on the corral sides trying to get out, they too must be put down. All are separated by gender or age. The males are in one corral, the females in another and the colts and fillies in another. Some babies are so young that they get severely dehydrated or in one case they literally ran a poor colt so hard his hooves separated from his legs. How can the BLM justify the harsh treatments of these wild horses and burros? See more round ups and pictures on the AWHP site.

(c) Craig Downer "The horses just stand not knowing what is happening to them. They just look at the men that did this to them"

Katia Louise with Wild for Life Foundation (WFLF),Compassionate Animal TV reports on the Calico 2010 round up. Through WFLF Humanion Films, she is in production on a feature documentary film “Saving America’s Horse A Nation Betrayed” which centers on the topic of horse slaughter as it impacts all American equines including wild horses. Here she has documented that these are healthy horses, compared to what BLM states. On her recent round up visit to the Calico Range, she stated in her article she published, “We drove across hundreds of miles of unpaved back mountain roads in the general HMA areas of the Calico Range and despite the BLM claims that wild horses in the region are “over populating and excessive”, we only sited nine horses.” During the Calico round up there have been confirmed now 27 horses that have died as a result of the BLM and their ways of capture. At this round up she witnessed the horses and this is how she expressed what she saw, “Knowing that these are sentient beings, I couldn't help but notice the look in their eyes as we left the last group of mares and foals who had just been trapped. Their eyes said it all... "Why are we here? What just happened to us?..." They had no idea that they had just spent the last free roaming moments of their lives and that they were about to forever lose their family bonds.” She sees more of what the public needs to see and she has a message that she would like people to know. See here. Katia is producing a documentary that will express many of the issues at hand with the BLM and the wild horses and burros. With people like this and the citizens of the United States we can come together to help the horses and burros.

Just to give a little insight of the round up process and the horses here is a video. The video does show some graphic pictures of these horses and what these round ups have done to them. Please do not watch if you are very sensitive to animal abuse situations. This video was actually taken January 16, 2010 from the Calico Mountain Complex, Nevada at the Soldier Meadow round up. The BLM collected 122 wild horses that day.

Next article: “The BLM and their numbers”
Back to original article “Wild horses should remain free to roam”

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