Horses For Life
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
  • WILD HORSES
  • Horse Slaughter
    • Horse Slaughter Facts
    • History of Horse Slaughter
    • Why Ban Horse Slaughter?
    • Horse Slaughter Videos
  • ACTION ALERTS
  • NEWS | BLOG

BLM Releases New Date for RoundUp of Wyoming’s Wild Horses for Monday, Sept. 15th

9/11/2014

0 Comments

 
Wild Horse Roundup Wyoming
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Rock Springs Field Office will proceed with the removal of all wild horses from checkerboard lands within the Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek herd management areas (HMAs).

Preparations will commence on Sept. 12. Removal operations are anticipated to begin on Sept. 15. Public observation will depend on access, location, operational activity and weather. To be informed of these observation opportunities, please contact Shelley Gregory at 307-315-0612 or ssgregory@blm.gov to have your name added to the notification list.

This removal comes at the request of a private land owner and is authorized under Section 4 of the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which requires the removal of wild horses from private lands at the request of a landowner. This removal is also required under the provisions of the court-approved 2013 Consent Decree between the BLM and the Rock Springs Grazing Association, which provides a schedule for the removal of wild horses from checkerboard lands within the HMAs.

For more information about the wild horse removal and observation opportunities, please visit www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/Wild_Horses/14cb-removal.html.

Source: September 11, 2014 - BLM Press Release

0 Comments

Appeals court won't block BLM Round-up of Wyoming Wild Horses 

9/11/2014

 
Wyoming Wild Horses
A federal appeals court yesterday denied a bid by wild horse advocates to block the Bureau of Land Management's removal of roughly 800 wild horses from a checkerboard of public and private rangelands in southwest Wyoming in a win for ranchers and the state government.

The decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest in a long-running battle between ranchers and mustang advocates over how to contain hundreds of wild horses that have strayed onto private lands owned by the Rock Springs Grazing Association.

The 2-million-acre checkerboard was created in 1862 when Congress awarded the Union Pacific Railroad Co. odd-numbered tracts of public lands along a railbed right of way as the company completed a transcontinental railroad. Much of the private lands are now owned by the grazing association.

BLM plans to begin rounding up horses Sunday or Monday from checkerboard lands within the Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek herd management areas, as required under a March 2013 settlement it signed with the grazing association.

Under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, BLM must remove wild horses that stray onto private lands.

Horses will be removed from the roughly 1.2 million acres of the herd management areas that fall within the checkerboard, out of total HMA areas of about 2.4 million acres. Removed horses will be offered for adoption or held in long-term pastures, said BLM's Rock Springs Field Office Manager Kimberlee Foster.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) yesterday cheered the court's ruling, arguing that removing horses would protect ranchers and the native elk, deer and pronghorn that roam alongside the horses. [Click Here to read Governor Mead's Press Release]
"Wyoming is not against wild horses on public lands, but they must be managed appropriately," Mead said in a statement.

But wild horse advocates claimed BLM has flouted its legal mandate to protect wild mustangs. Plaintiffs trying to block the roundup included the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC), the Cloud Foundation, Return to Freedom, and wild horse photographers Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl.

"This ruling allows BLM to blatantly violate multiple federal laws and essentially turns over our public lands to private livestock interests," said Suzanne Roy, director of AWHPC. "It sets a terrible precedent not only for wild horses but also for the responsible management of our public lands by elevating commercial livestock interests over the public interest and federal law."

While both the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming and the 10th Circuit denied emergency motions to stop the roundup, the case will still proceed to the merits after the operation, the groups said. A key issue in the case was what section of the wild horse act BLM should apply in pursuing the roundup.

BLM claimed that Section 4 requires the agency to swiftly remove horses that stray onto private lands when requested by a landowner. BLM authorized the removal under a categorical exclusion, bypassing a lengthier National Environmental Policy Act review. But wild horse advocates say BLM should have followed Section 3 of the act, which allows horses to be removed in order to maintain "a thriving natural ecological balance" with other wildlife. They also argued BLM needed to perform a full NEPA review.

But the district court noted that without fences, it is all but impossible for BLM to keep horses from wandering onto private lands in the checkerboard without intensive management. "All parties agree that the ownership pattern of the checkerboard makes it impossible to manage either the public lands or the private lands independently of the other," the court said this summer.

The 1971 law requires BLM to both protect wild horses and contain them to where they roamed in 1971. But that mandate has proved challenging as wild horse herds can double in size every four years, and removing them has been both a fiscal and political burden for BLM.

For more than three decades, the Rock Springs Grazing Association had agreed to allow up to 500 wild horses to roam free among herds of cattle it grazes on the checkerboard. But as numbers swelled into the thousands, the horses degraded the rangelands and left less forage and water for cattle and big game.

The grazing association, the nation's largest, sued BLM in July 2011, claiming the agency had failed to hold up its end of the agreement.

Source: Greenwire, by Phil Taylor






BLM Investigates Wild Horse Deaths at Kansas Corral

8/15/2014

 
Wild Horses, BLM
Scott City, Kan.—The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has launched an investigation into the cause of death for 57 wild horses that were recently transferred to a corral in Scott City, Kan. The BLM, which manages 49,200 wild horses and burros on the range and 47,300 in open pastures and corrals, strives to ensure that herd sizes on the range remain in a healthy balance with other public rangeland resources and uses and places a priority on the well-being of the animals in its care.

After removal from the range, the BLM aims to place animals that are not adopted onto open pastures, often in the Midwest. In March 2014, an open-pasture contractor in Kansas informed the BLM that he would not renew his existing five-year contract, requiring the BLM to remove about 1,900 animals (1,500 mares and 400 geldings) by June 1, 2014. Due to concerns about the older age of many of the animals and the stress associated with being moved, the BLM worked to find an appropriate facility as close as possible to the open pasture. The BLM located an in-state facility that could accommodate the animals and began moving 1,493 mares to the Scott City corral. The transfers were completed on June 22.

On Aug. 5, the contractor informed the BLM that a number of the transferred mares died between June 22 and Aug. 5; as of Aug. 15, a total of 57 transferred mares had died. On Aug. 12, a team of BLM personnel and a veterinarian from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service arrived on site. The team is investigating the situation; determining the causes of death; evaluating the facility, the corral feed and feeding practices; and taking actions to support the short- and long-term needs of the horses. After arrival, the team euthanized an additional 13 mares that were determined to have little to no chance for survival due to health issues.

Preliminary findings from the team’s USDA large animal veterinarian indicate that the animals died as a result of their age combined with stress from the recent relocation, the shift from pasture to corral environment and the change from pasture feed to processed hay feed. There is no indication of infectious or contagious diseases being the cause.

“Our team is working closely with the corral operator to make adjustments to the care of the animals,” said USDA veterinarian Dr. Al Kane, who is on the investigation team. “The horses have been fed three times a day since the beginning. In addition to increasing the amount of feed being offered during feedings, we’ve worked with the onsite veterinarian and the operator to increase the energy density of the horses’ feed by increasing the ratio of alfalfa to grass in the hay mix. This helps support the horses’ nutritional needs during the transition from open-pasture to the corral environment,” he added.

Once the investigation is concluded, the team will complete a report that will be made publicly available.

Credentialed media are invited to attend a facility tour on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014. Interested members of the press should contact Paul McGuire at (405) 826-3036 or pmcguire@blm.gov for additional information and details.

Source: Bureau of Land Management Press Release




Activists criticize BLM's bid for extra holding space for wild horses

8/2/2014

 
Wild Horses BLM holding facilities
Federal land managers are under fire from animal welfare activists for seeking extra holding space for wild horses removed from western rangelands.

With current facilities nearing capacity, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is accepting bids until Aug. 29 from contractors interested in either operating short-term corrals in 31 states in the Midwest and East or long-term pastures.

After removing horses from the range, the bureau places them in short-term facilities until they're either adopted or shipped to pastures in the Midwest where they spend the rest of their lives.

The agency routinely thins what it calls overpopulated herds on public land. BLM officials, in a statement Thursday, said they plan to open "multiple" short-term corrals that can handle at least 150 horses each in various states along and east of the Mississippi River. They also seek one or more long-term pastures that can accommodate from 100 to 5,000 mustangs each.

The bureau has not yet awarded contracts for bids it received earlier this year from contractors interested in running short-term corrals in 17 states in the West and Midwest.

Bureau spokesman Tom Gorey said the total number of new holding facilities and their cost would depend on the number and quality of bids submitted. About two-thirds of the agency's budget covers holding costs.

"We want to get out of the holding business, but at the moment that's not possible," Gorey told The Associated Press. "The bottom line is we have to make sure we have enough off-range holding for horses that are removed."

Budget constraints are prompting the bureau to remove just 2,400 wild horses and burros from the range during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, down from 4,176 in 2013 and 8,255 in 2012. The vast majority of animals targeted for removal are horses.

But horse advocates criticized the agency's plans for more holding space, saying it continues to "stockpile" horses at a growing cost to taxpayers with about as many mustangs now living in holding facilities as on the range.

"The BLM continues to refuse to reform its broken wild horse program," said Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign. "The agency is intent on sticking American taxpayers with the bill for rounding up and warehousing captured mustangs instead of listening to the scientists and the American public, and humanely managing wild horses and burros on the range."

Gorey said activists' demands to halt the removal of horses from the range are unrealistic because herds grow at an average rate of 20 percent a year and can double in size every four years.

According to the latest figures provided by the BLM, a total of 49,209 horses and burros freely roamed 10 Western states as of March 1, the vast majority of them mustangs. That estimate exceeds by more than 22,500 the number the BLM has determined can exist in balance with other public rangeland resources and uses.

Off the range, there were 47,272 wild horses and burros in short-term corrals and long-term pastures as of July 30, the agency said.

Source: The Associated Press
, by Martin Griffith


Click Here for BLM's Wild Horse and Burro FY14 Round-Up Schedule

BLM Seeks Bids for New, Short-Term Facilities to Care for Wild Horses and Burros Removed from Western Public Rangelands

5/7/2014

 
Wild Horses BLM
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of its responsibility to manage and protect wild horses and burros, including those removed from overpopulated herds roaming Western public rangelands, the Bureau of Land Management is soliciting bids for new, short-term holding facilities (corrals) located in 17 Western and Midwestern states.

The BLM’s solicitation is for multiple short-term facilities accommodating a minimum of 200 wild horses and/or burros in a safe and humane condition. The short-term facilities must be close to and readily accessible from a major U.S. interstate or highway.

Each short-term facility must be able to provide humane care for a one-year period, with a renewal option under BLM contract for four one-year extensions. The animals will remain in a short-term holding facility until they are adopted or can be transported to a long-term pasture. The solicitation is open until June 2, 2014.

The states under consideration for this solicitation are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. In the case of Oregon and Washington, the area west of the Cascade Mountain Range is excluded. A future solicitation will cover states in the East.

The BLM’s bidding requirements are posted in solicitation L14PS00389, the details of which are available at http://www.fedconnect.net. To obtain the solicitation: (1) click on "Search Public Opportunities"; (2) under Search Criteria, select "Reference Number"; (3) put in the solicitation number (L14PS00389); and (4) click "Search” and the solicitation information will appear. The solicitation form describes what to submit and where to send it. Applicants must be registered at http://www.ccr.gov to be considered for a contract award.

The BLM manages wild horses and burros as part of its overall multiple-use, sustained-yield mission. Under the authority of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the BLM manages and protects these living symbols of the Western spirit while ensuring that population levels are in balance with other public rangeland resources and uses. To make sure that healthy herds thrive on healthy rangelands, the BLM removes excess animals from the range to control the size of herds, which have virtually no predators and can double in population every four years. The free-roaming population of BLM-managed wild horses and burros is at least 40,605 (as of February 28, 2013), which exceeds by nearly 14,000 the number determined by the BLM to be the appropriate management level. Off the range, there are more than 48,000 wild horses and burros cared for in either short-term corrals or long-term pastures. All these animals, whether on or off the range, are protected by the BLM under the 1971 law.

Source: Bureau of Land Management Press Release
Release Date: May 7, 2014
Contact:
Tom Gorey , 202-912-7420  


    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Author

    Horses For Life Foundation is dedicated to ending the slaughter of American horses, preserving and protecting the wild horses and burros on public lands, and ending horse abuse and neglect through Advocacy, Public Education, and Policy Reform.

    Tweets by @_HorsesForLife

    Archives

    May 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    June 2011

    Picture
    >>> View Current ACTION ALERTS

    Categories

    All
    1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse And Burro Act
    AAEP
    Action Alert
    Ag Gag
    Agriculture Appropriations
    Agriculture-appropriations
    Aldf
    American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
    Animal Abuse
    Animal-abuse
    Animal Cruelty
    Animal-cruelty
    Animal Law
    Animal-law
    Animal Legal Defense Fund
    Animal-protection-of-new-mexico
    Animal Welfare Act
    Animal Welfare Institute
    Appropriations Committee
    Appropriations-committee
    Aspca
    Assateague
    AUM
    Beef-belt-llc
    Ben Shelly
    Ben-shelly
    Bible-spring-complex
    Big Lick
    Big-lick
    Bill Richardson
    Bill-richardson
    Blair Dunn
    Blair-dunn
    Blm
    Boyd Spratling
    Brian Sandoval
    Bruce Wagman
    Bruce-wagman
    Bureau Of Land Management
    Burros
    Canada
    Cfia
    Chevaline
    Chris Stewart
    Cloud Foundation
    Corolla Wild Horses
    Corolla-wild-horses-protection-act
    D'Allende Meats
    Dan-erdel
    David Rains
    David-rains
    Deerwood Ranch
    Disaster Planning
    Donkey
    Dorian-ayache
    Double D Ranch
    Eco Sanctuary
    Ed Whitfield
    Ed-whitfield
    Emergency Evacuations
    Endangered Species Act
    Epa
    Equine Information Document
    European Commission
    Farm Bill
    Fda
    Feral Horses
    Fertility Control
    Fish And Wildlife Service
    Fmia
    Food Safety
    Food-safety
    Forest Service
    Foundation To Protect New Mexico Wildlife
    Foundation-to-protect-new-mexico-wildlife
    Frank Guinta
    Front Range Equine Rescue
    Front-range-equine-rescue
    Fsis
    Gary Herbert
    Gary King
    Gary-king
    Genetic Viability
    Giving Tuesday
    GnRH
    GonaCon
    Grazing Improvement Act
    Grazing Permits
    Horse Abuse
    Horse-abuse
    Horse Care
    Horse-care
    Horse Carriages
    Horsemeat
    Horse Protection Act
    Horse-protection-act
    Horse Racing
    Horse-racing
    Horseracing Integrity And Safety Act
    Horseracing-integrity-and-safety-act
    Horse Rescue
    Horse-rescue
    Horses
    Horses For Life Foundation
    Horse Slaughter
    Horse-slaughter
    Horse Soring
    Horse Transport
    Horse-transport
    Horse Transportation Safety Act
    Horse-transportation-safety-act
    Horse Tripping
    Hr 1518
    Hr 1518ac88d1315d
    H.R. 1942
    H.R. 5058
    HSUS
    Humane Methods Of Slaughter Act
    Humane Society International
    Humboldt
    International Equine Business Association
    Iowa
    Iron-county
    Jan Schakowsky
    Jan-schakowsky
    Jay-nixon
    Jim Moran
    Jim-moran
    Joan Guilfoyle
    Joanna Swabe
    John Barrasso
    Johnnie HMA
    Kansas
    Karen Budd-Falen
    Keaton Walker
    Ken Salazar
    King Amendment
    Ld 12861fa1b5a140
    Leonard Blach
    Lester Friedlander
    Livestock
    Maine
    Mary Fallin
    Mary Landrieu
    Mary-landrieu
    Matt Mead
    Mexico
    Michelle Lujan Grisham
    Michelle-lujan-grisham
    Mike Fitzpatrick
    Missouri
    Moran Young Amendment
    Moran-young-amendment
    Moranyoung Amendment670e4071a7
    Mowdy Ranch
    NACO
    National Academy Of Sciences
    National Day Of The Horse
    National Residue Program
    Navajo Nation
    Navajo-nation
    Neil Kornze
    NEPA
    Nevada
    New Mexico
    New-mexico
    New Mexico Equine Rescue Alliance
    Nicholas Dodman
    Nm
    North-carolina
    Oklahoma
    Ottb
    Past Act
    Past-act
    Patricia M. Fazio
    Patrick Meehan
    Patrick-meehan
    PEER
    Phenylbutazon
    Platero Project
    Porcine Zona Pelucida
    Princess Anne
    Public Lands
    PZP
    Rains Natural Meats
    Rains-natural-meats
    Raul Grijalva
    Responsible Transportation
    Richard-burr
    Rick De Los Santos
    Rick-de-los-santos
    Roly Owers
    Rosa DeLauro
    Roswell
    Roy Blunt
    Roy-blunt
    Ryoichi Okubo
    SAFE Act
    SAFE Act
    Sage Grouse
    Sally Jewell
    Sally Jewell
    Science And Conservation Center
    Sooner Poll
    Soring
    SpayVac
    Sterilization
    Steve King
    Susana Martinez
    Susana-martinez
    Taylor Grazing Act
    Theodore Roosevelt National Park
    Theresa-vincent
    Tom Davis
    Tom Gorey
    Tom Gorey
    Tom Udall
    Tom-udall
    Tom Vilsack
    Tom Vilsack
    Tribal Lands
    Tribal-lands
    Us Court Of Appealsd83cbed7a8
    USDA
    Us Fish And Wildlife Service86af631d0b
    Us Forest Service367fe28759
    USGS
    Utah
    Valley Meat
    Valley-meat
    Vern Buchanan
    Walking Horses
    Walking-horses
    Walter-b-jones
    Welfare Ranchers
    Western-watersheds-project
    Wild Horse Education
    Wild Horse Oversight Act
    Wild Horses
    Wild-horses
    World-horse-welfare
    Wyoming
    Yakama Nation
    Yakama-nation

© 2012—​2019 This website and its content is copyright of ​Horses For Life Foundation. All rights reserved.