As BLM continues to race to remove wild horses from their homes, we continue to witness havoc with seemingly no concern to prevent unnecessary injury or illness as dangerous heat alerts are issued by the National Weather Service.

Above: runs start at dawn. This video of the south trap shows an interesting vantage point as it is placed in an area of view directly outside the funnel (wings). Please note placement of trap in a draw (a low and relatively sheltered area). The trap is in an area that will read as much as 10 degrees cooler than where observers sit and throughout the area where wild horses are run throughout the day. 

This daily update begins with a plea. You can skip the plea and scroll down to the update if you like, but we ask that you read it. 

18 wild horses have died since operations in the Antelope Complex began on July 9.

At least 6 foals (captured) have been orphaned. 

Many of you that have been following the Antelope Complex double-trap roundup of 2023 have been outraged by the incidents you have viewed at this operation from broken legs, necks and babies dying of colic or being orphaned.

You have been following our attempts to gain revision of the operating procedures. Many of you have been following our attempts for years. What BLM seems to focus on is creating documents that allow parameters of safety to be ignored and manipulated and teams that help them justify an unacceptable status quo.

As you watch online and in media, the point of outrage (abuse) is being used to push a dozen different agendas. Many of these agendas (like gaining a fair share of on-range resources and fears about the adoption program landing wild horses into the slaughter pipeline) have valid basis.

This also happens on the backside and the issue of reforming the operating procedures for capture get pushed aside, when these issues continue to be a trigger point for public outrage and wild horses die.

So while your attention is being drawn to TV ads that use the drama of roundups (with an underlying purpose of increasing fertility control) and hot debates on other subjects, we ask that you do not let the need for serious reform of operating procedures fall. off your radar. BLM claims the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Policy (CAWP) is providing sufficient guidelines and oversight while it is clearly inadequate to comply with the law. 

Roundups via helicopter will continue even if BLM addresses all the other issues and scales up the fertility control some are advocating for (that BLM applies primarily using helicopter capture) for years to come.

We need to keep the fight against abuse at those roundups an essential part of the discussion on reform.

BLM needs to STOP all roundups and reform the policy, now. 

Above: South trap video above shows the chaos as multiple bands with small babies are run, fracture, join with other bands. This little one is fortunate that he got lost in sight of observers. The little one is roped and taken to holding. But this video shows just how easy it is under current practices for babies to get left behind.

SOUTH TRAP: 

BLM captured 94 (31 Stallions, 47 Mares, and 16 Foals) wild horses at south trap.

BLM writes: “Gather continued under cloudy skies with 5-20 mph winds and temperatures 68 to 95 degrees. Gather operations stopped at 1 p.m. due to temperature.”

You can see clearly the goal onsite is not to create a safe environment, but to twist the operating procedure as far as they can push it. The goal is not safety, it is numbers. 

South trap has been approved to operate from July 9 until August 22 and will reach the target goal in 17 days. 

There have been 9 deaths since July 9 at South trap. 

A dangerous heat index hit the area from Wendover/Wells NV, to far south of the area of capture. Based on mapping and data published by NOAA and the National Weather Service, temperatures hit 100 degrees during active trapping in this exact location. Our observer at trap with monitoring equipment also recorded 100 degree temperatures as BLM onsite simply said “they take temperature in shade at trap” and “observers equipment is wrong.”

Perhaps in the tiny draw where trap is, in the shade, it reached 95. But everywhere else in that area, NOAA says it hit 100 during the roundup.

In addition, we are not talking about temperature. We are talking about the Heat Index, a more efficient way to determine impacts from heat on physiology.

Above: You can see that the North trap pens are located in a sheltered area above the valley floor. video above is from the first run as wild horses evade the trap and come behind observers before being pushed into the trap located in front of the observation area where terrain and heavy vegetation obscure view. The horses are in amazing body condition.

NORTH TRAP:

BLM says that 42 (14 Stallions, 20 Mares, and 8 Foals) wild horses were captured at North trap yesterday.

BLM reports another death but lists absolutely no information on which horse or the cause.

Since July 9, north trap has had 9 deaths. 

BLM claims temperatures only reached “94.3” degrees as a dangerous heat index hit the area from Wendover/Wells NV, to far south of the area of capture. Based on mapping and data published by NOAA and the National Weather Service, temperatures hit 100 degrees during active trapping in this exact location.

Perhaps in the tiny draw in a shady spot the temperatures reached 94.3 degrees… but c’mon BLM, it was 100 where you are chasing horses.

The heat index hit extreme levels. When we notified our observer of the dangerous index and she tried to tell BLM, they basically tried to turn it on her and say “If she can’t take the heat she should not go to trap.”

Note: Our observer at trap was actively using her camera all day, standing in the sun and not sitting in the shade. She mentioned, “It is really hot.” NOAA and the weather service both report that it was “really hot” and “dangerous” to even ride your domestic horse at that index. 

All of you see the chaos of Facebook that gets petty, childish and skewed fast. On-site, we live it. 

After being singled out for pursuit, this healthy wild horse demonstrated the impacts of being run in this dangerous heat… he moved very slowly out of site taking over 30 minutes just to get out of that valley. In the video above, would you say the helicopter comes “dangerously close?”

Observers onsite were informed that a foal had been orphaned at North trap on 7/21. We were told the information is in the “daily gather report.”

The daily gather report is actually a name BLM uses for both an internal report and the one online. We think personnel on-site do not understand how little information the NV state public affairs staff actually release to the public.

We know at least 1 foal was sent to foster care from north trap… BLM has yet to publicly report that orphan and if there were any others.

Our teams are out in the field today and will be reporting back soon.

Our behind the scenes team is working around the clock and we will have news for you soon.

While we continue the ENDLESS debate over how to manage wild horses and who gets what funding line item in the spending bill…. ENDING ABUSE MUST BE A PRIORITY.

You can continue to rely on WHE for the most in-depth reporting from wild horse country you can find online.

You can count on us to take action. 

Thank you for keeping us in the fight!

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