Wyoming: Wild horse stakeholders discuss fertility control, public land use and herd management

BoiseStatePublicRadio.org - Full Story

Wyoming Public Radio | By Caitlin Tan
Published June 28, 2022 at 5:37 PM MDT

As part of Wyoming Public Media’s ‘I respectfully disagree’ series, four panelists discussed issues surrounding wild horses in the state on a Facebook live.

Stakeholders spoke for an hour about topics like herd management, fertility control and holding facilities.

The panelists were Suzanne Roy, the executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign; Brian Boner, a Wyoming senator representing District 2; Christi Chapman, the director and co-founder of Wyoming Wild Horse Improvement Partnership; and Erik Molvar, the executive director of the Western Watersheds Project.

One issue the panelists focused on was whether cattle or wild horses should have priority on public lands...

Read more here:
https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/environment/2022-06-28/wild-horse-stakeholders-discuss-fertility-control-public-land-use-and-herd-management

Wild Horse Flu Outbreak Update

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

Over 145 mustangs being held in a holding facility died of equine flu because it was short-staffed and the horses were “high-strung".

By: Kim Izzo | June 8, 2022

In what can only be described as a preventable tragedy, over 145 wild mustangs have died in Colorado from equine influenza, a respiratory illness that can lead to pneumonia. Vaccinations can protect both domestic and wild animals; however, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) who is in charge of the care of the mustangs, has admitted that at the Cañon City facility, horses were not vaccinated due to staff shortages and the claim that the horses were “unusually high-strung.” They’re wild horses ‒ high-strung is a given.

According to an in-depth report by The Colorado Sun, the official BLM policy is purportedly to “freeze-brand and de-worm mustangs within 30 days of capture and vaccinate them as soon as possible based on the advice of a veterinarian.” However, an animal welfare team investigating the deaths, which included three BLM officials and a veterinarian from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “found the federal agency was noncompliant on 13 policies. Besides being behind on vaccinations, the team noted the facility was behind on trimming hooves every six months as required and that horses did not always get freeze-marked within 30 days...”

Read more here:
https://horse-canada.com/horse-news/wild-horse-flu-outbreak-update/

Wild horses have died of strangles; BLM says it is impacting half of 2,750 animals

RFDTV.com - Full Article and video

Wednesday, May 11th 2022, 3:20 PM CDT By Currey McCullough

We have been telling you more about than a hundred of wild horses have been dying from equine influenza at a Bureau of Land Management facility in Colorado. Now, another holding facility is reporting deaths.

11 horses removed from Wyoming rangelands have died of a highly contagious bacterial disease at a Wheatland holding facility...

Read more and see video here:
https://www.rfdtv.com/story/46473059/wild-horses-have-died-of-strangles-blm-says-it-is-impacting-half-of-2750-animals

Death toll hits 142 wild horses held captive in Colorado after BLM fails to vaccinate

DenverPost.com - Full Article

By Bruce Finley | bfinley@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: May 12, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: May 12, 2022 at 6:14 p.m.

CAÑON CITY — A rising death toll of captive wild horses in fenced pens has hit 142 after federal caretakers failed to provide vaccinations in the latest breakdown of the government’s controversial holding system. This debacle has piqued concerns about humane treatment as the Bureau of Land Management ramps up roundups to reduce mushrooming mustang herds that roam free — along with cattle and sheep — on increasingly arid public lands.

BLM officials told the Denver Post they’ll investigate why 445 horses hauled from northwestern Colorado to Cañon City last summer weren’t fully vaccinated against equine flu.

Surviving chestnut, bay and painted mustangs this week wandered about the pens, which cover about 50 acres within a 120-acre holding facility next to a state prison — 2,550 horses in all. The sickness has infected primarily the unvaccinated horses and they are the ones that have perished...

Read more here:
https://www.denverpost.com/2022/05/12/wild-horses-die-unvaccinated-blm/

Oregon: More wild horses equals less fire fuels

KDRV.com - Full story and video

By: Brett Taylor
Apr 28, 2022 Updated Apr 29, 2022

MEDFORD, Ore-- We've all seen it during the last several wildfire seasons in Oregon & California, the number of wildfires per year is growing and so is their intensity.

Just in the last two years alone, more than two million acres have scorched by wildfires across Oregon, leaving thousands people homeless and some areas devastated.

But the impacts of wildfires goes far beyond impacting just people.

"We are losing wildlife, " said William E. Simpson II, an Ethologist for Wild Horse Fire Brigade. Every acre of forest that burns we are losing between 20 to 80 animals. Our wildlife populations are being decimated."

Back in 2014, Simpson had been pondering the very question that many people in Oregon might be thinking today, "Why is this happening, and how do we solve this growing wildfire problem."

But during one of his studies in Northern California, Simpson said he may have discovered one possible solution, wild horses.

"They were actually beneficial to the landscape," said Simpson. "They were creating natural fire breaks and areas of reduced fuels..."

Read more here:
https://www.kdrv.com/news/top-stories/more-wild-horses-equals-less-fire-fuels/article_f0c57e12-c70d-11ec-8cca-4b6fcee463b9.html

BLM Provides Update on Wild Horse Deaths, Influenza Strain

Thehorse.com - Full Article

As of May 3, 119 Mustangs at the Cañon City Wild Horse and Burro Facility have died from an endemic strain of equine influenza.

Posted by Edited Press Release | May 3, 2022

On May 2 the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) provided an update on the ongoing equine influenza (EI) outbreak among the more than 2,500 Mustangs residing at the Cañon City Wild Horse and Burro Facility, in Fremont County, Colorado. The virus has killed 119 horses to date, all of which belong to a group of 445 unvaccinated or undervaccinated horses gathered from the West Douglas Herd Area last summer.

On April 23, horses from the West Douglas pens began showing signs of mild to moderate fever, coughing, nasal discharge, labored breathing, and/or depression...

Read more here:
https://thehorse.com/1111079/blm-provides-update-on-wild-horse-deaths-influenza-strain/

Feral Horses Play Important Role in French Rewilding Project

Thehorse.com - Full Article

Researchers use Polish Konik horses to control tree growth and encourage biodiversity in a riverine ecosystem.

Posted by Christa Lesté-Lasserre, MA | Apr 22, 2022

What was once a massive cornfield at the French-German border has become a haven of biodiversity and a green energy site, following a rewilding effort that’s now home to a wide variety of plants and animals—including a herd of rustic horses that has been imported to help maintain the terrain.

For more than three years Polish Konik horses have been controlling tree growth on a small island in the middle of the Rhine River, said Lilla Lovász, a PhD candidate at the University of Basel, just a few miles south of the reserve in neighboring Switzerland.

In 2018 a team of conservationists and scientists brought four mares and two geldings to the island, part of the Petite Camargue Alsacienne Nature Reserve, and they added a stallion last year. Now with two foals on the way, the herd will have grown to nine horses by mid-2022.

By eating unwanted plants and fertilizing the ground with their feces and urine, the large feral herbivores “serve as a part of a functioning ecosystem,” much like their predecessors did thousands of years ago, said Lovász...

Read more here:
https://thehorse.com/1110828/feral-horses-play-important-role-in-french-rewilding-project/