Wild Horse Education

Broken Arrow, Indian Lakes (Tour Report)

Above: You can hear the instructions for anyone wanting to adopt; you need pen number, tag number (or last 4 digits of freezemark) and you only have 2 weeks to make your request. Due to the 2-week time limit for anyone to identify a wild horse for adoption, fill out the forms and get approved, we will add additional video to this page as we section out each pen. In the past, there was no such time restriction post-tour. Deadline to notify BLM that you want a horse at Broken Arrow (Indian Lakes) is November 18. 

Added 11/10:

Pen 16

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Video: pen 4 and 26

It should be noted that pausing at all pens to allow documentation was not facilitated. We will do our best to update this posting with more video as time allows us to clip and identify pens.

Above: Mares/younger mares captured from Triple B (roundup ended August 25). This is the only opportunity to see them before they ship off to other facilities (or stay in this facility until we see them next year). If you see a horse in this pen that you want to adopt, take a screengrab of the horse with the tag (as best as you can) and ID the pen as #SD when contacting BLM. Contact Palomino Valley Center to have the horse transferred from Broken Arrow: 775-475-2222.  If you cannot get a clear tag, you can send the screengrab to us, ID the pen, and we can try to get a clearer picture to you to include with your application (Laura@WildHorseEducation.org and put “ID Broken Arrow” in the subject line)

On Friday, November 4, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducted a tour the holding/processing facility privately contracted to Broken Arrow Horse & Cattle Company, Indian Lakes Holding Facility, Fallon, NV. ​

Total earnings from this private contract  $39,166,063 since the facility first opened in 2009.

When the facility first began taking in wild horses and burros it was still under construction. There was not even a working chute to utilize for veterinary treatments and vaccines. Weekly tours of the facility revealed unacceptable care during each visit. BLM shut down public access. It took litigation to get the doors open again for tours (and if BLM used the facility for intake). Over time, BLM has approved more and more “off-limits” facilities and slid backwards on providing timely tours.

We have not been allowed opportunity to view newly captive wild horses or burros and do welfare checks at 5 of the “off-limits” facilities.

The new BLM proposed off-limits facility for 4000 wild horses and burros in Winnemucca, NV, faces at least two legal actions; one of them ours.

“Off-limits” to the public should not apply when “paid for by the public to house a public resource” is involved.

Above: Triple B mares and some foals. If you see a horse in this pen that you want to adopt, take a screengrab of the horse with the tag (as best as you can) and ID the pen as #ND when contacting BLM. Contact Palomino Valley Center to have the horse transferred from Broken Arrow: 775-475-2222. 

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It is more than obvious in the BLM Wild Horse and Burro program that the public interest is more than inconvenient … unless you are a friend or say only “good things.” From on-range, through capture, into holding, BLM consistently makes anyone attempting to advocate (or gain information) feel like they are “a problem.”

It is always worth writing: BLM employees are public servants paid for with tax-payer money (even through retirement) holding a position in a public lands agency.  (BLM regularly reads our website and this reminder is warranted.)

Question: “How many are in the facility?” BLM Answer: “Ahhh, give or take 3,700?”

Above: Triple B Stallions. We attempted to stabilize the video slightly to assist with ID.  If you see a horse in this pen that you want to adopt, take a screengrab of the horse with the tag (as best as you can) and ID the pen as #11 when contacting BLM. Contact Palomino Valley Center to have the horse transferred from Broken Arrow: 775-475-2222. 

In 2014 (after relentless litigation beginning in 2010) BLM began to finalize a Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP). In 2015, the program was formalized and included into roundup contracts. BLM was supposed to begin annual reviews and include facilities.

In 2021, BLM began to do some review of the CAWP program and including facilities. (You can learn more and read our reports and recommended changes HERE.)

In May of 2022, BLM published their report on this facility. You can see the report CLICK HERE

Among violations: lapses and backlog in record keeping, overdue vaccinations (some over a year), lags in testing for disease and not enough hay/too many horses in pens allowing only dominant horses access to feed.

Above: Pancake wild horses from the roundup in January and February. If you see a horse in this pen that you want to adopt, take a screengrab of the horse with the tag (as best as you can) and ID the pen as #11 when contacting BLM. Contact Palomino Valley Center to have the horse transferred from Broken Arrow: 775-475-2222. 

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Pen 4, stallions (Triple B and a mix)

We will try to update this page with more in the next 48 hours.


More info:
WHE reports (fiscal year 2022)

WHE Comprehensive Animal Welfare Policy (CAWP) Report

Doc 1: Assessing the Assessment and Recommended Changes to CAWP protocol and standards. 

Doc 2: Programmatic Recommendations

Doc 3: WHE CAWP team assessment of Triple B, 2022(you can compare ours to the one provided by BLM BLM Triple B CAWP Assessment)

WHE 5 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) report. Findings: Veterinary reports are not being completed during roundups. After Action Reviews (AAR) and Final Gather Data Reports are not being completed as required. Extreme differences in record keeping and interpretation of responsibilities from district-to-district and event-to-event.

Burro Update, worldwide crisis

Title Transfer, the root of the slide to slaughter

Overloaded facilities, a signal of program collapse


BLM online resources


Congress just keeps throwing taxpayer money at a collapsing wild horse and burro program. The quarterly reports BLM was supposed to provide BLM have never been made public (if they even exist).

Taxpayers deserve to know how all that additional funding is supposed to be “improving the program” and not furthering disaster.

You can learn more and help us push for a science-based review by Clicking HERE. 


Help keep us in the fight. 

Contributions will be doubled through November 15 to help us kick off end-of-year fundraising goals. Match challenge: $2,500.

 

 

 

Categories: Wild Horse Education