Cows, cows, skinny and diseased looking cows, out all over public lands in every season. BLM will state wild horses are out all year and cows are not. Media really should check the permits before printing that as a fact. In many HMAs the cows are out all year.

BLM announces a massive increase in roundups through the fiscal year. You can download the new schedule HERE: FY21 Proposed Wild Horse and Burro Roundup Schedule and Fertility Control Schedule

BLM Press release at bottom of page: BLM plans to add 6000 to the gather schedule before the end of September using “drought emergency” to justify the action.

Partial response to BLM press release below:

For the last several years Wild Horse Education (WHE) has been asking BLM to clear the backlog and craft actual management plans for our wild horses and burros (HMAP) that address actual management, not just population suppression (fertility control/roundups).  The agency simply refused to actually craft real management planning for wild horse and continued to prioritize cow chow projects and approve more mining expansion (that draws down fragile water tables).

Over the last year the avalanche of giveaways to livestock, that damage wild horse territory and decimate habitat of the Greater Sage Grouse, have landed on the desk of every advocate in the West with an increasing regularity.

This wild horse has seen his historic source shut off at the request of the county and then the county, that obtained the water haul contract from BLM, provides inadequate water

In a number of HMAs BLM has allowed waters to be turned off and wells to be dismantled that are noted in land use planning for wild horse use. In these same HMAs the agency has refused offers from WHE to pay for new wells or repairs. Instead, the agency does inadequate water hauls, often giving the contract to haul to the exact people who pressured the agency to turn off the water.

In these same HMAs the BLM is approving projects for livestock that include well development, more fences, tree clearing, weeds (caused by livestock damage) to be sprayed with pesticides, allowing ranchers to blade their own roads through sagebrush, etc.

Mining in HMAs has seen a drastic increase in the last decade

WHE has been asking what BLM is doing to protect habitat in HMAs. We have asked for a list district-by-district what BLM is doing: restricting livestock, fixing wells, water hauls, restricting mining? Not one district responded with a single action they have taken to protect wild horses and burros.

Now the BLM is adding massive numbers of wild horses and burros to the roundup schedule after giving away all the resources our herds need to survive to private profit industrial interests.

Instead of actual reform driven by science (like the 1.3 million dollar National Academy of Sciences Report), the agency has approved a massive grant program to fund “partnerships” for capture and fertility control and hit the accelerator on removals.

Nada Culver is hitting the accelerator on the plans put in place by her predecessor, William Perry Pendley.

By using the word “emergency” the agency is actually trying to complicate any legal action by advocates. However, in fact  BLM can not use an actual small area of drought within an HMA to declare a drought emergency throughout the entire HMA. (For advocates that want more information, you can look up our win at Jackson Mountain. news clip HERE)

BLM 2021 motto: Do absolutely nothing to protect wild horse habitat and accelerate removals to satisfy livestock. Blame the drought, call it an emergency even though much of this could have been prevented if we curtail industry and ask Congress for more money and never fix anything in the broken program.

“This administration has blown a lot of greenwashing chatter with the usual poker chip of ‘partnership’ on the table,” said Laura Leigh, President of Wild Horse Education, “yet all we have seen is an acceleration of the public lands destruction, bowing to the holy cow and bending over for extraction. There has not been one, not one single directive that has come from the desk of Haaland or Culver to stop the stranglehold that bullies have over public lands.

“In January it was known that in 2021 we would face acceleration of drought conditions. Not one district took actions to protect your public lands and your wild horses from livestock and allowed turnout during the fragile growing seasons in spring. BLM hypocrisy makes me sick.

Leigh continued, “Giveaway everything wild horses need, do no review of the corrupt framework, cause suffering and then blame the victim: the wild horse. Sounds like corporate political poker to me. At least if there was any doubt, we now know this administrations position on wild horses and it is the same as the old one; placate industry and blame the wild horse and burro.”

Salt blocks illegally close to water troughs encouraging additional damage through a lack of movement. BLM does nothing about it.

An example of the “on one hand wild horses are destroying the range and drought will kill them, but on the other hand we have so much water and forage we will build more fences and wells and bend over backward to keep the cows out” of the BLM are the two EAs currently facing legal challenges at Desatoya.

WHE and WLD have legal action directly against the massive giveaway to livestock AND a second legal challenge against the removal plan for wild horses.

Waiting for cows to move off of water source. Cows campout and wild horses will often have to make a fast dash to grab a drink.

Inside the HMAs BLM gives less than 15% 0f the forage to wild horses and, on average, over 80% to domestic livestock. Domestic livestock operators pay $1.35 to graze a cow/calf pair a month; less than the cost of a single can of dog food. The federal grazing program loses in direct costs over a billion dollars a decade for the taxpayer. Yet, we allow domestic livestock producers to continue to destroy public lands and produce less than 3% off all beef utilized in the US.

Ramping up the capture and hold program for wild horses will increase the bill to the tax-payer and the number of wild horses going to slaughter.

Roundup at High Rock. BLM will begin the High Rock operation in October.

You can download the new schedule HERE: FY21 Proposed Wild Horse and Burro Roundup Schedule and Fertility Control Schedule

Our team is out at the Antelope roundup that was added last week. Only 3 days notice for the operation that adds over 2,200 wild horses to the schedule. Our team will be reporting in from onsite shortly.

Our drought team is hard at work in the field documenting conditions to refute the agencies claims at upcoming roundups. In January it was known that in 2021 we would face acceleration of drought conditions. Not ONE district took actions to protect your public lands and your wild horses, not one.