The roundup of the Four Mile HMA in Idaho has concluded. The agency targeted 189 wild horses out of an estimated population of of 210. They captured 215 on the 18,800 acre HMA and a stallion died from an acute condition (the agency has not identified the injury). The agency planned to release 8 stallions and 8 mares back into the area after fertility control (GonaCon) where they say the population level should be 37-60. We do not know at this time if they will increase that number.
You can see our roundup observer report HERE
Below: Foals on their own trying to figure all of this out.
Wild horses removed from the HMA have been transported to the Boise Off-Range Corral Facility. You can make an appointment to view wild horses or burros at the corral if you wish to adopt (click here).
Below: Mares
At the facility horses will be branded and sorted for adoption, sale and long-term holding (the difference between adoption and sale is in the title transfer, more here).
Young wild horses are at greater risk risk of landing in a kill auction due to the agencies failed Adoption Incentive Program (AIP). A financial incentive to adopt might help empty pens to keep the roundup machine running, but it has increased the incentive to cash in from the incentive fee and the fast sale to kill after the title transfers.
Sale Authority has always placed older wild horses in jeopardy. Title transfers immediately and you can buy a wild horse for $25. The most notorious incident was the over 1700 sold to a family friend of former Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, the kill-buyer Tom Davis. The tax-payer also paid to ship truckload to Davis who immediately sent the wild horses to a brutal death in Mexico.
Below: stallions
Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act: This bill prohibits the transporting, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation by a person of an equine (e.g., horse) that the person has reason to believe will be slaughtered for human consumption.
In the House the bill number is H.R. 3355. Your Congressperson may already co-sponsor this legislation. You can see if your legislator already co-sponsors SAFE here. If they do not, you can call and ask that they add their name. (find your Congressional Representative HERE)
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) reintroduced the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act in the Senate. The bill number S. 2732. (text here). You can simply find your Senator HERE and call and ask that they support the SAFE Act and end the transport and sale of American horses for slaughter.
Our wild horses and burros face many threats on the range and during capture. Once captive, they join all of our American horses that face a horrific death in a foreign slaughterhouse.
Make a call today for all of our beloved equines.
Our teams will continue to update you on the Four Mile wild horses.
September Roundups
Barren Valley Roundup Reports (ongoing)
Bait trap updates (coming soon)
Help keep us in the field and in the courts.
Thank you.
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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