Reprinted With Permission From Wildhorsepreservation.org

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/news/?p=1919

By JESSE McKINLEY Published: September 5, 2010

More than 1,200 wild horses have been captured during the current roundup.

OUTSIDE RAVENDALE, Calif. — It is horse versus helicopter here in the high desert.

The current roundup in northeastern California and neighboring Nevada has been going on for a month

On one side are nearly 40,000 horses spread over 10 states, whose presence on the range is a last vestige of the Old West. On the other is a group of crusty cowboys whose chosen method of roundup involves rotors more than wrangling, using high-tech helicopters to drive galloping mustangs into low-tech traps.

“When they get in here, they know something’s going on,” said Dave Cattoor, 68, a straight-talking roundup expert who has been herding horses since he was 12. “The chips are down.”

Over the last month, Mr. Cattoor and his feral quarry have been doing battle under the dry, horizon-to-horizon skies of northeastern California and a neighboring Nevada county, with humans the inevitable victor.

More than 1,200 horses have been captured during the current roundup, much to the chagrin of people like Simone Netherlands, an animal rights advocate who says that the roundups — part of a nationwide push to take some 12,000 horses off public lands — are cruel, expensive and unnecessary.

“They’re running at full speed for miles and miles for hours, with babies, little babies, and they don’t let up on them,” Ms. Netherlands said. “They’re stressing them out to the max.”

The Bureau of Land Management, which is overseeing the roundup, disputes that, saying that the roundups are humane and that it must reduce the wild horse population to more sustainable levels, both for their health and for that of the other animals that live in this harsh terrain.

“Some advocate groups would like us to leave the horses out there and let nature take its course,” said Bob Abbey, director of the bureau. “We don’t believe that’s a sound option.”

The debate over roundups dates back decades, to the passage of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, a federal law that protected what was then a faltering wild horse population and made it illegal for cowboys like Mr. Cattoor to round up horses on their own for sport or profit.

“A cowboy really wasn’t a cowboy if you didn’t rope a wild horse,” Mr. Cattoor said. “But they stopped that. They stopped the maintenance, which costs nothing, and turned it into a multimillion-dollar deal. It’s crazy.”

Dave Cattoor says the current method of rounding up wild horses is “the best we can do.”

Questions about the roundups have intensified in recent years as costs have mounted, both in dollars and in dead horses. Seven horses have died in the current operation, and last winter, a roundup in Nevada resulted in over 100 horse deaths, prompting more than 50 members of Congress to ask Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to look for independent analysis of the bureau’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. Late last month, the bureau did just that, asking the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a technical review of the program.

Horses that are captured are offered for adoption, but with demand for horses low and the cost of feed high, the government often ends up quartering them on large private ranches, primarily in Kansas and Oklahoma. In 2009, about 70 percent of the entire program’s $40.6 million budget was spent holding 34,500 horses and burros, a system that the Government Accountability Office has concluded will “overwhelm the program” if not controlled.

“They are a symbol of the American West,” said Nathaniel Messer, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Missouri and a former member of the federal Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Committee. “But do we need 35,000 symbols of the American West?”

For critics like Deniz Bolbol, the pattern of roundup, removal and stockpiling is an example of the bureau’s catering to private interests on public lands, namely by favoring livestock ranchers — who pay the government for the right to graze and who can sell their animals — over wild horses, which cannot be sold for slaughter.

“We remove wild horses from the public lands so private livestock can graze, and then we ship the wild horses to private ranchers in the Midwest where we stockpile them and pay private ranchers,” said Ms. Bolbol, a spokeswoman for the group In Defense of Animals, which has sued to stop the roundups. “This is what you call a racket.”

And while Mr. Cattoor calls Ms. Bolbol and other protesters “fanatics,” he does not think the government’s reliance on big, periodic roundups makes much sense either, saying the bureau needs more steady maintenance of the wild herds, which can double in size every four years.

Animal advocates like Denise Constantinide think the roundups are cruel, expensive and unnecessary

Perhaps the only other thing the two sides can agree on is that the horses — whose estimated populations range from about 120 in New Mexico to more than 17,000 in Nevada — are magnificent. Art DiGrazia, the operations chief for one of the bureau’s wild horse and burro offices in California, said that some of the mustangs on the range were descended from Army cavalry horses, which were bred for size, speed and strength and left here or given to ranchers.

“They have the intelligence and endurance to work out in this country,” said Mr. DiGrazia, a bearded New Jersey native who speaks in a hoarse whisper. “They’ll know before you know that there’s something out there going on.”

The method of capture is simple: horses are located from helicopters, which have been used in roundups since the mid-1970s, and pushed toward the trap site, essentially a funnel shaped by two netted walls that lead into a temporary corral. Once the herd runs into the funnel, Mr. Cattoor lets loose a so-called Judas horse, which is trained to lead the rest into the trap, where — uncombed, unshod and often stomping and biting — they slowly settle into their new lives as kept animals.

All of which is more humane than the old days, said Mr. Cattoor, who recalls cowboys using rope and brawn to bring in a herd, often injuring horses and horsemen alike.

“You have to really put the pound on them,” he said. “You’d have to get them sore footed and tired, and there’s a lot of problems with getting them really tired. Today, at this point, this is the best we can do.”

One recent morning, Mr. Cattoor and his team conducted several successful runs — 10 horses in one, a handful in another — before a small herd of four horses, their black manes and wild tails flying, came running full-tilt across the desert. The helicopter was close on their heels, whipping up curlicues of dust in the horses’ wake.

They were headed straight for the trap, when suddenly the herd broke, with three horses escaping across a field, while a single stallion — the leader — galloped in another direction. The pilot, perhaps 50 feet up, chose to follow the larger group, but horse sense had its way; the three headed into a patch of trees, where helicopters cannot pursue. The stallion, meanwhile, disappeared up a ridge and back into the wild.

The aim of the roundups is to reduce the horse population to more sustainable levels

Mr. Cattoor watched it all, standing near his Judas horse with a resigned smile, as roundup opponents watched happily from a public viewing station several hundred feet away.

“These wild horse advocates love it when the horse beats the helicopter,” Mr. Cattoor said. “And they do sometimes win.”

Watch the related video

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Reprinted With Permission From Wildhorsepreservation.org

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/news/?p=1883

Some of the only remaining intact stallions from the Bureau of Land Management’s Calico roundup, along with a Calico mustang mare and her foal, began a new life this week, thanks to Return to Freedom American Wild Horse Sanctuary

Shedding the BLM tags that identified them as livestock from around their necks, the Calico mustangs started their journey to a brighter future, one that respects them as individuals and honors the importance of their strong family bonds.

Some of the only remaining intact stallions from the Bureau of Land Management’s Calico roundup, along with a Calico mustang mare and her foal, began a new life this week, thanks to Return to Freedom American Wild Horse Sanctuary

The horses were transported safely from BLM holding pens near Reno to temporary quarters in Fallon, Nevada thanks to Willis Lamm and volunteers from the Wild Horse Preservation League, under the watchful eye of Deniz Bolbol, a volunteer who coordinated transport logistics for RTF.

At Fallon, they will await creation of a Return to Freedom/Soldier Meadows Ranch (SMR) wild horse preserve, on the lands adjacent to the homes that they, along with nearly 2,000 other wild horses, were captured from in January. RTF will undertake a groundbreaking effort to recreate for these mustangs the family bands that were shattered in the BLM helicopter stampede and capture operation.

The stallions are some of the few remaining intact studs from the roundup. Most were gelded in preparation for shipment to BLM long-term holding facilities in the Midwest.

Read more about the rescued mustangs here. Support this historic rescue effort by donating to Return to Freedom and earmarking it for the Calico Rescue Fund.

In April, Return to Freedom and Soldier Meadows Ranch submitted a proposal to the Interior Department and BLM for a pilot program to keep wild horses on the Calico range by converting SMR’s public livestock grazing allotments to wild horses. Four months later, RTF and SMR are still waiting for BLM to schedule a meeting to discuss the plan.

Meanwhile, the stallions and the mare and her look-alike foal are adjusting well to their temporary quarters. Enjoy these photos, taken by Deniz Bolbol of the mustangs on their first days of their new journey. More to follow soon. . . .

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The Views and Opinions Expressed by the author are his or her opinions only and do not necessarily reflect those of this Web-Site or its agents, affiliates, officers, directors, staff, or contractors. The author at the time of this article did not own any shares or receive any consideration financial or otherwise from any company or person mentioned or referred to in the article.

WARNING: PICTURES BELOW ARE GRAPHIC

Reprinted With Permission From Wildhorsepreservation.org

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/roundups/reality.html

Injuries, abortions, trauma and death are the common results of wild horse round-ups (or “gathers,” to use a placating euphemism). Read Wild Horses the Stress of Captivity, a report by Dr. Bruce Nock. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) claims a mortality rate of 0.5% in connection with captures. The agency is able to claim such a low mortality rate because it attributes to natural causes most injuries/deaths sustained during round-ups (e.g., Paymaster, NV, 2006: although 21 horses were euthanized on site, BLM claimed a zero mortality rate for the round-up).

Few deaths are ever deemed by officials a “result” of the removal operations, and injury statistics are simply omitted. Reports of horses that later have to be euthanized due to injuries sustained during capture are common. According to a Capture Status Report obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, 12% of the Golde Butte burros rounded up in March of 2007 were dead within six months of their capture. Just over two months after the Calico (Nevada) roundup ended in early 2010, 86of the 1,922 horses captured had died and an additional 40 heavily pregnant mares had spontaneously aborted. Read AWHPC’s report on the Calico wild horse deaths here.

Horses seen galloping during a round-up are terrified wild animals chased by helicopter and running for their lives (e.g., NV, 1998: nine young mares died, after a 1,000-mile truck ride to Colorado, of “capture myopathy,” a condition in wild animals triggered by anxiety of capture). It has been documented that, long after they have been adopted out, BLM-captured horses will still react in terror to a helicopter flying overhead. We are aware of at least one young girl killed when the mustang she was riding panicked as a result of such an incident.

As wild horses are driven into holding pens, closely-knit family bands are broken up; foals may be separated from their mothers, trampled, or sometimes, too exhausted to keep up with the herd, left behind to fend for themselves out on the range; stallions, suddenly crammed in close quarters, will fight. At the holding site, BLM makes “liberal” use of its euthanasia policy: horses with physical defects such as club-feet are euthanized, including adults that had managed to thrive for years in the wild (e.g., White Mountain, NV, 2007: eight club-footed horses between the ages of 2 and 10 euthanized).

BLM routinely turns a blind eye on abuse by its two main round-up contractors. To quote an eye-witness to the 2006 Sulphur round-up in Utah: “In all my life I have never seen such blatant abuse and neglect and just plain lack of compassion for horses, or animals in general for that matter.” It is not uncommon for contractors to drag a listless body into the round-up pen to collect their fee, as they get paid per horse, dead or alive. In 1992, BLM’s primary round-up contractor was indicted on federal charges of selling 77 wild horses to a Texas slaughterhouse after illegally rounding up the horses via helicopter.

Round-ups are often conducted in secrecy, with heavy police presence to keep the public at bay. Once in a while, BLM and its contractors will invite the public and the media to a carefully staged capture, where a few horses are trotted into a pen. Members of the public are positioned at the holding pens, usually during the first few days of a round-up, so they are generally witnessing the horses coming in from areas closest to the round-up site. As days go by, the further out the wranglers go, the more challenging for the horses who are run in large numbers over much longer distances.

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The Views and Opinions Expressed by the author are his or her opinions only and do not necessarily reflect those of this Web-Site or its agents, affiliates, officers, directors, staff, or contractors. The author at the time of this article did not own any shares or receive any consideration financial or otherwise from any company or person mentioned or referred to in the article.

Reprinted With Permission From Horseback Magazine

http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/2573

August 28, 2010

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A longtime horse advocate involved with the federal Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program has blasted front line activists trying to stop massive roundups in the West. Nevada’s Willis Lamm, often labeled a bureau apologist, distributed a harsh screed today to those fighting to stop the agency’s recent accelerated “gather” of Mustangs across the Western states in which scores of animals have died. The death toll is approaching 200 since the BLM begain “gathers” which some say will genetically bankrupt the herds. Lamm targeted several individuals well known in the wild horse advocacy community, however, he declined to name any who he accuses of being “The Hysteria Corps” accusing them of being self appointed experts and journalists. The following is what he wrote:

“It was not that long ago that those who wanted to disparage wild horse advocates would do so by comparing us to groups like the radical arm of PETA or to the Animal Liberation Front. It has taken years of hard work and cohesive interaction for wild horse advocates to earn serious credibility in the eyes of policy makers, the media and moderately conservative citizens. This credibility peaked in early 2010 when a number of lawmakers took up the cause for wild horses and burros. Events over the past year that involved visible mistakes on the part of BLM provided wild horse advocates with opportunities to gain ground by exposing problems within the wild horse program.

It now appears that our credibility as an advocacy camp has begun to decline. This is primarily due to the more radical elements of the horse advocacy camp going off in a number of different, and in some instances bizarre directions.

I was asked to comment on this matter so I’m listing the factions that others and I have observed to be undermining the core effort to protect America’s wild horses and burros.

The Hysteria Corps

The Hysteria Corps, or Drama Queens (and Kings) as some call them, are addicted to sensationalism. They are invested in bizarre, fantastic stories such as truckloads of horses disappearing in the night, BLM running horses off cliffs and a host of other ludicrous concoctions. Given a choice between an implausible but sensational notion and verifiable facts, they will most often ignore the facts and run around with the latest fantastic story.

There are two areas where such conduct is damaging to wild horse advocacy.

First, average people, particularly public officials, get tired of listening to the “boy who cried ‘wolf’.” When the Hysteria Corps finally does get it right, nobody other than other members of the Hysteria Corps is really listening.

Secondly, the Hysteria Corps has had a materially negative effect on the media. Reporters don’t like chasing ghosts and fantasies, and such experiences tend to sour the media on our message. I’ve even received phone calls from reporters complaining about certain obsessive “horse people” and I had to assure them that these people were not associated with our camp.

The Lap Top Experts

The discussion that took place last weekend included a general consensus that at one time the internet was our greatest tool. We used it effectively to promote public awareness. Now it is becoming our Achilles’ heel.

Anyone with basic internet savvy can start a web page or a blog and portray himself or herself as a journalist and/or expert in any subject. You don’t have to have any actual experience or credentials. All you have to do is claim to have “experience” and target an audience that knows less about the subject than you do. Generally what these self-appointed experts accomplish is the establishment of disinformation rings where one “expert” gleans information from other “experts” and the other “experts’” sites. Ultimately a whole cluster of unauthenticated information is laid out as facts before the public. In some instances the laptop experts try to link themselves to legitimate groups and sites. We have found some of these claimed affiliations to be bogus.

To protect their illusions, these self-appointed experts often dismiss the real advocate experts as “undercover BLM agents” or claim that the veteran advocates are jealous of the newcomers. (Jealous of holograms?)

Ultimately the people who actually have relevant experience and who spend hours tracking down and verifying what they report often get lost in all the hoopla generated by the lap top experts. The false and unsubstantiated statements and faulty conclusions presented by the lap top experts provide plenty of examples for those legislators and bureaucrats who would benefit from dismissing the advocates as uninformed zealots. If we are going to be regarded as credible by those people (such as in Congress) who actually have some influence over how DOI and BLM conduct business on our public lands, it is paramount that we maintain our overall credibility as an advocacy camp.

The Self Promoters

The vast majority of wild horse advocates are selfless, caring individuals who work collectively to hold the line and protect America’s wild horses and burros. Not all these personalities get along but they still work together for the common goal. However in every cause there are a few individuals who see the cause as a means to increase their own esteem, to sell something and/or to collect money. Oftentimes the self promoters will present themselves as experts, in some instances offering credentials that they don’t actually have.

The self promoters are easy to spot. Their names are splashed over everything that they are involved with. They, not the horses, are the redundant focal points of their activities. If someone is presenting information under the premise of helping wild horses but the author appears to be suffering from “I strain,” then consider that the material is likely composed to promote the writer. Please judge it carefully before passing it along.

Lawsuits, a new cottage industry

Occasionally a well conceived and well timed lawsuit strikes gold, such as the West Douglas, CO case where BLM was found to have exceeded its authority in its plans to remove horses there. However we are seeing a growing number of gratuitous lawsuits that, if anything, are putting up a bunch of numbers in BLM’s win column. A few lawsuits even appear to be designed to showcase the plaintiffs since they don’t seem to be making any material contribution to the welfare of America’s wild horses and burros. The people filing these lawsuits need to be mindful as to what these lawsuits are actually about. As an example, petitioning the court to hold up an emergency operation so that a specific individual can be present to observe what’s going on is not in the best interest of the horses.

The latest fad seems to be to put up web sites in Orly Taitz style to solicit money to pursue legal cases against the BLM every time a roundup is proposed. The lawsuit fanatics should take notice that on August 16th the Supreme Court upheld a $20,000.00 fine against Orly Taitz for filing frivolous litigation.

Being selective and sensible about pursuing legal actions should help prevent the courts from regarding the wild horse advocates as a growing nuisance. There are still a couple of cases before the courts and they need to be perceived as legitimate and professional attempts to correct problems on our public lands.

In contrast to these splinter factions, the Alliance of Wild Horse Advocates stands for careful mining of the facts, in depth analysis of events and data, objectively presenting facts in the context of our advocacy positions, collectively coming to conclusions, and bringing forth arguments and position statements that are anchored in hard evidence.

This stuff is not glamorous. Most of the work is behind the scenes and out of the public view. Commitment and dedication are required for completing the various tasks. Alliance priorities involve the horses and burros, not promoting the individuals involved in the campaign.

This is a free country and splinter factions can go off in whatever directions that they choose, however the members of the Alliance will remain committed to tried and true core values and the strategic axiom, “When the facts are on our side, we’ll stick to the facts.”

The facts are on our side. We’ll stick to the facts.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20013836-504083.html

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The Views and Opinions Expressed by the author are his or her opinions only and do not necessarily reflect those of this Web-Site or its agents, affiliates, officers, directors, staff, or contractors. The author at the time of this article did not own any shares or receive any consideration financial or otherwise from any company or person mentioned or referred to in the article.

Reprinted With Permission From Horseback Magazine http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/2558

By Steven Long, Photos by Terry Fitch

TWIN PEAKS, CA (Horseback) – A heavy police presence protected America and the federal Bureau of Land Management wild horse chase contractor from four journalists and no anti-BLM activists at the “gather” held today at Twin Peaks, according to Horseback Magazine’s R.T. Fitch at the site. There were two reporters and a photographer representing the Texas based magazine, as well as a videographer working for the New York Times, a paper which was provided unfettered access earlier this week while other media organizations and citizen observers were kept at bay.

“Why are we being kept away,” the Times photog asked, incredulous that she wasn’t given the same deferential treatment as her colleagues had been afforded earlier in the week before Horseback Online exposed BLM’s media favoritism and attempt spin its story to the powerful national paper.

She was told the captured horses were being held on private land and the landowner had prohibited outsiders from coming on his property, the usual reason BLM has refused access to its trap sites.

Fitch reported there were four armed BLM rangers, one armed sheriff, and multiple agency staff members guarding the two horses captured Friday from the intruding press. She took a photograph of the cars of personnel protecting the contractor from the press. The stampede helicopter and its operators have been the subject of intense scrutiny after scores of horses have died at recent “gathers.” The roundup was called off at 9 a.m. because the helicopter from Cattoor Livestock Roundups of Nephi, UT. could find no horses.

Fewer and few wild horses are to be found in the West in the wake of relentless roundups by the federal agency. Critics allege they are clearing the animals from the land so it may be leased for cattle grazing.

The chief of the BLM’s security detail at Twin Peaks has refused an on the record interview with Horseback regarding the reason for such a heavy police presence being paid for by the American taxpayers when there has never been an apparent threat.

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The Views and Opinions Expressed by the author are his or her opinions only and do not necessarily reflect those of this Web-Site or its agents, affiliates, officers, directors, staff, or contractors. The author at the time of this article did not own any shares or receive any consideration financial or otherwise from any company or person mentioned or referred to in the article.