On August 7, the view above is what observers can see of trap. Trap is located over a mile and a half away. All we can report with certainty from this day is that BLM used 2 choppers again.
The only thing observers may have been able to see in the rising heat would have been loading down the road from stock trailers onto semi-trucks. However, reviewing video of the first loading it appears that the location of observers is noted and then trailers began parking in direct line of sight.
BLM says they captured 39 (17 Stallions, 18 Mares, and 4 Foals) .
BLM has 387 left to capture of the 3,107 targeted.
Captive wild horses have been sent to Palomino Valley Center (Reno) and the majority have been sent to Broken Arrow (aka Indian Lakes) where they are off-limits to public viewing.
7/23/23 Antelope North
Today, BLM has said there is a “no fly day.” They will resume capture in the morning.
However, BLM did respond to the court. Hearing is Wednesday.
We are not divulging anything by telling you that essentially what we see from BLM is the same old playbook: horses will starve on the range (while we experience the greenest summer in ages after a very hard winter that killed everything from cows to rabbits), BLM is humane and did nothing wrong because their own internal team says so, and advocates onsite have no worthwhile purpose or knowledge and are disruptive.
The public will be interested to know that the “internal BLM welfare team” (CAWP team) did come for a few days after our attorney sent a letter early in this operation and a day after Sunshine died. They state visits to both “South trap” and “North trap” from July 14-18. They have already published an evaluation of these operations giving south trap a 97% rating and north a 96% rating, nearly a month prior to completion of the operation.
We expect BLM to publish these reports on their website shortly so you can pull them up easily (and we will provide you with a link as soon as they do).
Above: Hotshot use to speed up loading to ship horses to of site facilities at Triple B. During Antelope, when we have gone to view loading this area of the process is repeatedly obstructed. Does BLM have a reason to block things at Antelope? (Note: BLM internal CAWP team was long gone before things like this were documented)
This is a repeat performance from BLM. At Triple B (an operation completed under the same NEPA BLM is using for Antelope that that call “site-specific”) BLMs internal team spent 3 days at Triple B near the beginning of the operation and published an “excellent” rating a month before the operation ended.
Would BLM have a reason to keep pushing observers back further and further as camera equipment improves?
Video below (over a decade ago) when we had a 300mm lens. Then BLM got 400mm lenses and pushed us back to the limits of our camera. It seems viewing distance has a lot to do with equipment… as it seems to get further and further away as the lens gets longer and the lack of change.
Note from Leigh: I recognize many of the areas BLM has set trap from the numerous times I have witnessed roundups at Antelope and visited for over a decade. The same trap areas I sat 300 ft from in 2011… people are now a mile or more away from. It amazes me that we see less today using a 3000mm lens than I did a decade ago with a 300. Would BLM have a reason to push the public away?
We have a lot of work to do today. BLM has multiple attorneys and staff in 2 offices working on this today.
WHE has to prepare today to address the ongoing operation at Antelope at hearing tomorrow. We will do a video chat from our team after hearing and update all of you at that time.
When that is complete, we will have to address BLMs failure to do appropriate analysis to justify this operation and a failure to create a set of adequate guidelines and enforcement procedures to protect the welfare of wild horses in the longer legal process attached to the underlying complaint.
WHE is a small org with no staff. Please bear with us as we set priority on the task at hand. We will try to respond to messages as soon as there is time.
Thank you for keeping us in the fight.
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Categories: Wild Horse Education
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