Permanent Sterilization of America’s Wild Horses Proposed

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Leading conservation organization American Wild Horse Conservation has raised alarms about the latest federal budget proposal.

By: American Wild Horse Campaign | March 15, 2024

American Wild Horse Conservation is sounding the alarm over the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Fiscal Year 2025 budget request seeking $170,917,000 to fund its Wild Horse and Burro Program. This marks a $29 million increase over FY 24 appropriated levels, with $15 million allocated toward a mass permanent sterilization program, including 20 new full-time employees for its implementation.

The proposal, outlined in the BLM’s Budget Justification for FY 25, was released days after Congress cut the BLM’s FY 2024 budget by $5.9 million while preserving $11 million in 2024 funding for reversible, humane fertility control implementation.

“Permanent sterilization contradicts the BLM’s legal mandate to protect America’s wild horses in self-sustaining, free-roaming herds. It also disregards Congressional directives to implement a robust and humane fertility control strategy of reversible immunocontraceptive vaccines,“ said Suzanne Roy, Executive Director of AWHC. “The BLM should deliver on existing commitments to expand humane fertility control, rather than waste Congress’ time and taxpayer resources on a far-fetched scheme to destroy the nation’s wild horse and burro populations by mass sterilization...”

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/horse-news/permanent-sterilization-americas-wild-horses-proposed/

BLM Announces More Than 8,000 Wild Horses and Burros Found New Homes in Fiscal Year 2023

GoldRushCam.com - Full Article

Published: Saturday, 25 November 2023

November 25, 2023 - WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of the Bureau of Land Management’s efforts to manage and protect wild horses and burros on public lands, the agency and its partners helped place 8,045 wild horses and burros into new homes in Fiscal Year 2023, saving approximately $181 million in taxpayer money.

“Giving a good forever home to a wild horse or burro is not only a rewarding experience, but it helps support our efforts to keep the wild herds and their habitat healthy on public lands,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “I am incredibly grateful and humbled by those who choose to adopt a wild horse or burro.”

Of the wild horses and burros placed into new homes, 6,220 animals were adopted, 1,798 were sold and 27 were transferred to other government agencies. This is the second-highest number of animals placed into new homes in over 25 years...

Read more here:
https://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/news/local-news/51755-blm-announces-more-than-8-000-wild-horses-and-burros-found-new-homes-in-fiscal-year-2023

Ranchers sue BLM over lack of wild horse gathers in central Nevada

TheNevadaIndepentent - Full Article

The BLM did not roundup horses in parts of central Nevada this year, citing “funding limitations and competing national priorities” and lack of corral space.

Amy Alonzo
October 20th, 2023

Claiming the federal government violated its own provisions on how to manage wild horses and burros, two Nevada ranches are suing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over its failure to remove an excess of wild horses from central Nevada.

Colvin & Son LLC and Stone Cabin Ranch LLC are suing the Bureau of Land Management in federal court for what they allege is the agency’s failure to comply with the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burro Act of 1971. The act requires the BLM to manage, protect and control wild horse and burro populations on public land where they existed when the law was passed while maintaining ecological balance between the horses, burros and other wildlife.

The ranches are seeking removal of hundreds of horses from the Stone Cabin and Saulsbury herd management areas outside Tonopah. Excessive wild horses in the area negatively affect wildlife and grazing, according to the suit...

Read more here:
https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/ranchers-sue-blm-over-lack-of-wild-horses-gathers-in-central-nevada

‘Year of the Mustang’: One man’s mission to remind us of the plight — and power — of the wild horse

Deseret.com - Full Story and video

A 23-year-old Utah man embarks on 7,000-mile, 30-state journey to raise awareness of the mustang crisis and urge Americans to consider adopting one of their own

By Katie McKellar
Oct 17, 2023,

Six-year-old Denver’s ears flicked back and forth and his dark, shiny coat rippled with tension each time Jake Harvath bumped a heavy leather pack against his sides.

Jake was gently testing his youngest mustang’s memory of what it was like for a 65-pound pack to hang against his rib cage. At first, Denver flinched each time his human partner heaved the bag up, then down, up, then down. He stood still, eying Jake with more trust than uncertainty until he no longer quivered. Eventually, Jake clipped two of those packs to Denver’s saddle, one on each side.

Now to test him in movement. Denver trotted steadily around Jake until the packs bouncing on his back spurred his instincts to take over and his legs lurched out from beneath him in fear. He fought to break out into a gallop, but Jake firmly jerked the mustang’s haltered head in to keep him under control in a tight circle.

“It’s kind of like a high-fiber breakfast,” said Jake’s dad, Daniel, as he watched his son work Denver from behind the tall round pen fences at his home training facility, Sage Creek Equestrian, near Heber City, Utah.

“It’s not always easy to watch, but it’s really good for Denver. In the long run, it will help him feel calm and at peace. A lot less fear,” Daniel Harvath said. “These creatures, being herd animals, their biggest challenge is fear. At the core, that’s all Jake is trying to teach them, to work through fear.”

Jake is going to need Denver and his two other mustangs to overcome a daunting challenge of his own — a more than ambitious solo pack trip to crisscross America that he’s been planning since he was a teenager...

See more here:
https://www.deseret.com/2023/10/17/23856986/wild-horse-mustang-blm-horsemanship-record-longest-horseback-ride

Idaho Wild Horse Capture Operation is Sparking Controversy

KIVITV.com - Full Article

By: Cooper McCauley
Posted at 4:29 PM, Sep 10, 2023
and last updated 8:28 AM, Sep 11, 2023

In the Owyhee Mountains, dozens of wild horses enjoy a hundred thousand acres of public land. As part of an effort to manage their population, the Bureau of Land Management launched a roundup in the Black Mountain Herd Management Area.

The roundup was launched on September 6th, with BLM capturing 24 of the 220 wild horses they aim to gather. Once captured, BLM will treat 38 wild mares with a fertility suppression vaccine called GonaCon Equine to curb the growth of the wild horse population.

The roundup has continued steadily in the days following its kickoff, but not without sparking some controversy in the community. Wild Horse Education (WHE) is a small volunteer group that advocates for change in the management of wild horses on public land. The organization filed an Appeal and Stay Petition to halt the operation due to their concerns with the treatment of the horses being captured, and argues on a post on their website that the BLM "rushed to begin before the courts filed a ruling..."

Read more here:
https://www.kivitv.com/news/idaho-wild-horse-capture-operation-is-sparking-controversy

Hundreds Of ‘Stray’ Horses Rile Up Ranchers In Southwest Wyoming

CowboyStateDaily.com - Full Article

Hundreds of stray horses are causing problems In southwestern Wyoming, and nobody’s sure what to do about them.

Mark Heinz
June 23, 2023

Hundreds of horses that nobody claims are running loose in southwest Wyoming, and their fate seems uncertain.

Nobody even seems to know how many there are, but estimates for this rogue herd run as high as 800.

Rancher Vance Broadbent said it’s frustrating, because he’s had some of those horses on grazing allotments he leases from the Bureau of Land Management. But the horses apparently don’t count as mustangs, or wild horses, so the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) isn’t claiming responsibility for them.

“We’re still having conversations with the BLM, as far as what can or can’t be done,” Broadbent – who ranches in Sweetwater and Uinta counties – told Cowboy State Daily...

Read more here:
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/06/23/hundreds-of-stray-horses-rile-up-ranchers-in-southwest-wyoming/

Contrary To What BLM Reports, Horse Advocates Say Winterkill Hit Wyoming Mustangs Hard

CowboyStateDaily.com - Full Article

The BLM’s estimates of a thriving Wyoming’s mustang population are off, some wild horse advocates say, and that winterkill hit mustangs hard in some areas.

Mark Heinz
June 16, 2023

Wyoming’s mustangs suffered mass die-offs this winter, and there are probably about only half as many left as the Bureau of Land Management estimates, wild horse advocates tell Cowboy State Daily.

A BLM spokesman said the agency is double-checking its mustang population estimates.

Death On The Range

“I spent the first half of May documenting death and counting live horses,” Angelique Rea of Thermopolis, who has monitored and photographed mustangs for years, told Cowboy State Daily.

Chad and Lynn Hanson of Casper, founders of the Wyoming Mustang Institute, said they made a grim discovery when they checked on mustang herds this spring.

“We found the dead horses in Stewart Creek along (U.S. Highway) 287 south of Bairoil, and along Mineral X and Crooks Gap Road,” Chad Hanson told Cowboy State Daily...

Read more here:
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/06/16/contrary-to-what-blm-reports-horse-advocates-say-winterkill-hit-wyoming-mustangs-hard/