Reported By Mike Zaman

July 14, 2010
ASPCA Issues Call to Stop The “Gathers”

Republished with Permission of Horseback Magazine

The Humane Society of the United States Calls for Moratorium on BLM Roundups Following Mustang Deaths

EWA Now Reporting 12 Deaths

The Tuscarora mortality rate is already in excess of 5%. Elko is now reporting 12 deaths, including 3 babies with 216 in holding. You can read the BLM reports at this LINK. Fallon had another 2 deaths for the week ending July 9, bringing the death toll to 153.

WASHINGTON, (HSUS)— Following the untoward deaths of seven wild horses in Elko County, Nev., The Humane Society of the United States today called for an immediate moratorium on all Bureau of Land Management wild horse roundup and removal operations. The dead horses were discovered Sunday morning.

The seven mustangs died as result of dehydration, water intoxication, and injuries sustained following the Tuscarora wild horse roundup. As with most wild animals, any effort to capture, handle, restrain and transport wild horses, no matter how carefully planned and executed, will inevitably cause a certain amount of stress and discomfort. In this case, the BLM conducted this gather in July—the hottest month of the year for Elko County—when water is scarce and temperatures exceed 90 degrees. The probable effect of chasing stressed and dehydrated animals for miles and then offering water should have been known to BLM, and in fact, the BLM admitted it was aware of the danger of “water intoxication,” but proceeded with the roundup under extremely adverse conditions anyway.

“For years, The Humane Society of the United States has campaigned against the use of roundups to manage wild horses on the range,” said Wayne Pacelle, The HSUS’ president and CEO. “Methods for capturing, handling and transporting wild horses during gathers are centered, more often than not, on a bureaucratic timeline and agency convenience rather than animal welfare. We urge the agency to place an immediate moratorium on all gather and removal operations until the BLM develops and is prepared an implement a new wild horse management strategy.”

A new management strategy must set clear procedural standards and policies for regulating all gathers for temperature extremes, vulnerability of young, elderly, injured or diseased animals, and length of travel for equines over various surfaces.

The BLM also must implement an animal welfare observer program that provides trained, designated individuals with the authority to intervene and cause the cessation of any gather operation when undue risks are taken with the welfare and safety of the animals involved.

Photo by Laura Leigh

From ASPCA
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior that administers America’s public lands, including the animals who call these lands home. As part of its wild horse management program, the BLM periodically rounds up large numbers of wild horses and moves them into long-term holding facilities.
Over the weekend, the BLM began its latest roundup of more than 1,200 federally protected wild horses on public lands in Nevada. The use of helicopters to run the terrified horses over miles of scorching desert resulted in serious injuries and several horse deaths, which led to temporary suspension of the roundup.
This occurred in spite of the fact that the BLM, under intense public criticism, established an open comment period on its plans for wild horses that is not over until August. Instead of waiting to hear what the American public has to say, BLM officials decided to go forward with these cruel and brutal roundups in the blistering heat of summer (several more are scheduled for the coming weeks). This, of course, is funded by your tax dollars.

What You Can Do ?

Call the White House Comment Line today at (202) 456-1111. The Obama Administration needs to be told—politely!—that the BLM’s actions are underhanded and inappropriate, and that the current roundup and others scheduled this summer must be cancelled immediately.
Please visit the ASPCA Online Advocacy Center at www.aspca.org/BLM to learn more about this issue and to see some tips on what to say when you call.

Wild Horse Advocates Call for Suspension of All Summer Roundups, Full Transparency in Agency Operations. Washington, DC (ALC) – Philanthropist and businesswoman Madeleine Pickens was joined today by the ASPCA, the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, the Animal Welfare Institute and many other organizations expressing their outrage over the deaths of at least seven mustangs in a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundup conducted Saturday in the Owyhee Complex in northeastern Nevada. The wild horses died of dehydration-related causes—including brain swelling, colic and acute water intoxication – as a result of being stampeded by helicopters for up to eight miles in 90+ degree desert heat.

In a sign on letter addressed to President Obama and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Mrs. Pickens and the groups also harshly criticized the agency for cracking down on public access to observe and videotape roundup operations. The advocates released footage of a BLM representative stating publicly that public video of a prior roundup caused the agency to have “a really hard time trying to explain what’s happening.”

“The BLM simply does not want the American people to see what its wrongheaded policies are doing to our mustangs,” said Mrs. Pickens. “The horrific deaths of Owyhee horses recall the tragedy earlier this year in Nevada’s Calico Complex, where over 100 wild horses lost their lives and dozens of mares spontaneously aborted their late term foals in another deadly roundup.”

“We are calling on the President and Secretary Salazar to immediately instruct the BLM to suspend all summer roundups to avoid a repeat of the tragedy at Owyhee,” Mrs. Pickens continued. “The entire wild horse program must be fundamentally reformed. America’s mustangs are still waiting for change.”

Over the next four months, the BLM intends to capture and remove 6,000 wild horse and burros from six Western states. At least half of these roundups are scheduled to take place in desert environments in the hot summer months. Public access to observe the roundup operations will be severely limited to a handful of staged opportunities, with broader access given to small number of handpicked “experts.”

The crackdown on public observation comes in the wake of public outrage and international media coverage of the Calico roundup, which ended in February. The controversy was fueled by release of photographs and video showing of wild horses, including young foals, heavily pregnant mares and older horses, being forcefully driven by helicopter out of the mountains of Nevada and into BLM trap pens.

“The BLM’s crackdown on public observation of roundup activities is unacceptable, and makes a mockery of President Obama’s stated commitment to open government and transparency in government operations,” added Suzanne Roy, Campaign Director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, whose grassroots efforts are endorsed by a coalition of more than 40 horse advocacy, animal welfare, conservation and historic preservation organizations.

Other supporters signing the letter include Mrs. Pickens’ Saving America’s Mustangs Foundation, The Cloud Foundation, Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, Return to Freedom, American Wild Horse Sanctuary, and In Defense of Animals. The BLM wild horse program has been harshly criticized for its lack of fiscal sustainability. The agency now stockpiles more wild horses in government holding pens and pastures than are left on the range. The cost to taxpayers for this program is expected to exceed $70 million next fiscal year. Wild horses comprise a small fraction of grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by livestock nearly 50 to 1.

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