December 10: 118 wild horses were captured (51 Studs, 39 Mares, 28 Foals). The day began at 19 degrees. Total captured to date 390 of the 450 targeted for capture. We expect the operation to wrap today or tomorrow. If BLM hits their target number for capture, about 28 (we apologize for an earlier typo of 58, we are moving extremely fast to get all of tis info to you) will be returned to range after a fertility control application.

Issues with ice slowed the start of the day including shipping of 85 wild horses (39 Studs, 26 Mares, 20 Foals) to Palomino Valley Center north of Reno. Many of the wild horses captured at this operation have been shipped direct from range to Reno.

Colt with leg or hip injury sanding in the hay, one of the only dray areas in the pen.

Moving that fast from range, through sorting and then to a short term holding facility takes a toll on wild horses that spend their days far from people. The toll becomes evident when you get up close.

On range observation has been far from trap and limited visibility. With the naked eye discerning any detail is impossible. At the facility it is not.

So our observer spent the morning checking the condition of wild horses in areas of former trap locations and north of the current trap and then scooted out to the range ahead of the semi loads.

We must be able to assess the condition of wild horses during capture. We have sent two years of notes off to our legal team.

Captured in helicopter stampede, sorted, transported, branded… all in just a few days. Think about a domestic horse; how would they fair?

Our wild horses are truly an American treasure. However, in practice they get the short end of the stick every single time. In the northern part of the HMA (about 10%) we counted 532 cows in one fast survey.

Beautiful black paint stud was offloaded as we were at facility and placed in an internal pen.

For the last 3 years the BLM has been operating with a revolving door of Deputy Directors with acting authority of the Director.The position of Director requires Senate scrutiny. For 3 years BLM has done everything it can to avoid scrutiny.

Currently William Perry Pendley is acting as Chief of BLM. Pendley has a recusal list 17-page long. Yet Pendley is running the agenda of his past clients as an attorney including entities like the Wyoming Stock Growers Association that litigated for massive removals and even slaughter to make room in holding to continue massive removals. Earlier this week Pendley made that request official (we will have an extended article for you soon).

WHE has filed a complaint, that is active, with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on Pendley’s apparent thumbing his nose to ethics rules. 

Born in a holding facility

Yesterday Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) wrote a letter as the Appropriations committees continue to meet on the spending bill for 2020. His letter asks for only $6 million additional taxpayer dollars (not the $35 million requested by Senate). He places some limits on how the funding can be used (HERE).

Although we do appreciate the effort, the letter is lame and the product of working with another million dollar entity looking for their piece of the wild horse pie. (The Cattlemen’s Ass’n, HSUS, Public Lands Council et al that influenced the Senate bill is not the only lobby group.)

The BLM Report to Congress is over 5 months late! BLM is intentionally obstructing informed debate. BLM can not complete the report but Pendley can serve Congress a wish list of his former clients? There is no excuse, reason, logic that justifies this blatant disregard for open and informed public process.

Please join us in urging your reps to put a stop to this outrage! 

BLM should receive no additional funding until the report is released and appropriately scrutinized. Approving any additional funding is irresponsible to the taxpayer until open process occurs. 

BLM should receive no new funding until the investigation by the OIG is complete.

The House should open a hearing into the vast corruption inside the BLM. 

You can find your reps here and make a call: http://GovTrack.us

Or you can use our fast click and send letter HERE. 

If you made a call or wrote a letter last month. last week? do it again. What is happening is outrageous. If this process were happening for any other interest (sage grouse, climate, endangered species) it would be headline news. Wild horses, because of the decades of lies and myth and the profit driven corporate lobby groups, are not treated with equity in politics, process or the reality of the range.

Thank you!

You can see all the Desatoya Roundup updates here. 

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Help us stay in the fight! Our teams are in the field, in the legal arena and educating Congress. Every dollar helps to keep us in this important battle.