Observation location at Silver King in 2010 over 1.5 miles from the trap.

(RENO,NV) On Friday July 25th Amy Lueders, Nevada State Lead for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), issued a directive on access to wild horse and burro helicopter roundups. Simultaneously the National BLM office has agreed to open up the “Broken Arrow” facility on Indian Lakes Road to public tours once more, including tours if the facility is used as intake from roundups. As a condition of this directive Laura Leigh, President and founder of Wild Horse Education, agreed to voluntarily drop an ongoing federal court action to obtain meaningful access to wild horses and burros during capture and in holding.

Taken during the last tour of Broken Arrow. This baby was not only kept out of sight but born a bay. We may never know where this baby went.

“BLM Nevada’s objective is to provide an opportunity for the observation of individual animals when they are gathered, sorted, and/or placed into temporary holding on the date of the gather,” states the letter sent out from the Directors office.

“This year we have increased tensions on the range,” stated Laura Leigh, “Access to view captured wild horses and burros will be more important than ever. Wild horses and burros have been hidden from public view for almost two years now at Broken Arrow. After months of conversations we have come up with a starting point to begin to work on access issues outside of the courtroom. In addition I believe we have begun to create a conversation that can address a multitude of issues that begin on the range long before a wild horse or burro is ever removed or family bands shattered. Many of those conversations have already begun within districts in this state. It is insane that issues of public access ever had to be taken into a courtroom. It is my sincere hope that we can begin sanity into ways in which issues are addressed before the need for litigation becomes necessary.”

BLM is expected to announce public tours of Broken Arrow shortly. The capacity of the facility is nearly 3000 wild horses and burros.

“There are things you never forget,” said Leigh, “I remember that colt whose feet I literally watched begin to fall off at Broken Arrow after being run in the dead of winter. I remember every injured horse that I could not follow into that facility and then reading the facility death reports and wondering which horse died. I think of all the foals there that are born and grow and are never seen. The closed gates of Broken Arrow are a personal constant ache for me. That facility should never have been closed off. It is literally contrary to the BLM stated mission to do everything possible to adopt out animals. How can you adopt out a horse or burro the public never gets to see?”

“Hope” died after his feet literally began to fall off at Broken Arrow. photo copyright Laura Leigh

This case has gone on for 4 years. Leigh has traveled in excess of 350,000 miles in her quest to observe, report and advocate for wild horses and burros during capture and in holding. Her documentation has gained an International audience and brought needed attention not only to the ways wild horses are handled during capture and in holding, but to range management and an adoption program that need serious reform.

“Wild horses and burros in our country are in serious trouble,” Leigh continued, “we have a range over populated with special interest groups like livestock and mining that have serious backing and are very organized. If we hope to have wild horses on a range that even resembles a ‘wild place’ we need to move fast toward gaining protections for them as was the true intention of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act.”

Roundups of wild horses and burros by the BLM will begin again in the state of Nevada in September. There is nothing in the agreement that precludes Leigh from addressing this issue in court once again should the directive fail to provide access to document individual animals and to assess BLM handling methods.

Leigh carries other current active litigation that addresses inhumane conduct and unjustified removals and is an Intervenor against the Nevada Association of Counties legal effort to remove and destroy wild horses.

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Wild Horse Education is devoted to gaining protections for America’s wild horses and burros from abuse, slaughter and extinction. Main website: http://WildHorseEducation.org

THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN

The colt that stumbles in this video is NEVER seen again as he was taken behind the closed doors of Broken Arrow