New article in TruthDig by Christopher Ketcham is out in TruthDig. Begun during the blistering heat of the Antelope Complex roundup last summer, Ketcham addresses failures in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) “policy that is not really policy” for wild horse welfare and how BLM also fails to comply with regulations to create actual management planning.

You can view the article HERE. 

Excerpts:

As head of the nonprofit Wild Horse Education in Reno, Leigh had been conducting citizen oversight of wild horse policy for close to two decades. During that time, it didn’t seem to matter whether a Democratic or Republican administration roosted in Washington. The BLM had a remarkably consistent record on wild horses, one that stood outside partisan politics. The irony was not lost on Leigh that the appointment of Deb Haaland was supposed to represent a break from the past, and here was Haaland dedicating manpower and resources to maintain the violent status quo.

What BLM calls a welfare policy has amounted to a series of internal standards that are unenforceable because the BLM is supposed to be self-policing.

Colette Kaluza, a volunteer member of Wild Horse Education’s field team, told me. “I have lost count of the number of times I’ve pointed out a policy violation while observing a roundup. The BLM person in charge will tell me that it is not in the policy and I have to pull out the sheet. ‘Would you like me to find it in the policy for you?’”

 The CFR for wild horse management, finalized in 1981, required that the BLM create science-based herd management area plans, or HMAPs. There may be no better example of the mismanagement of wild horses than the failure by our government, year after year, to abide by the law about HMAPS.  

The BLM does not deny that it is required to do HMAPs. Its rationale for refusing to abide by the law is that the federal code fails to stipulate when they need to be carried out. The BLM’s preferred moment, it seems, is never.

This article was a long time in the making. We wish it was published as the lawsuit was filed back in July, but it is out now. You can read the entire article HERE.

We need your support to remain on the frontline; on the range and in the courts.

Thank you for keeping us on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our wild horses and burros.