Above: foal dragged by tail to separate it from mom at trap.

The BLM Motorized Vehicle Hearing has closed the portal to sign up to give oral testimony/comments. In previous years BLM has closed the sign-up early (saying it is full) and there will be more than an hour of “dead air” with no one speaking. Because comment sign-up closed early, our volunteer sent a request to BLM to begin allowing people to sign up on a stand-by list to comment if time allows. As of publish time of this article, BLM had not responded. In addition, our volunteer wrote this article.

My Perspective on Wild Horse Roundups, Hearing on Use of Helicopters/Motorized Vehicles (Colette Kaluza)

The upcoming hearing, May 23, 2024, “Motorized Vehicle Public Hearing” moves me to communicate what it means to document roundups with video.  Wild horses are driven by helicopters to the trap site where once captured are often quickly loaded onto a truck’s stock trailer and driven over a rough road to a temporary holding corral where they are unloaded and spend the night, the next morning loaded onto semi trucks and driven to off-range corals.   

The roundup operation, just reading this sanitized version of the process, is not palatable to most of us.  The events in real time on the ground require memorializing events in video.  Even then, it is impossible to convey, through any medium, the horrific, inhumane treatment of our wild horses on site.  It feels like an unbearable onslaught to my senses.  While working within the limitations Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has put on the public to view,      my documentation still shows BLM commonly completely disregards its own so-called policy, “Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program/Policy” known as CAWP.   

I am, however, determined to expose as much of these awful events as possible.  That means paying attention to the handling of the horses at all times and attending all parts of the operation from the first sight of the helicopter on horses being chased toward the trap (makeshift corral) to requesting observation of the freshly-captured horses at the temporary holding corral, and if possible, morning loading onto semi trucks.  At the end of each day my notes and video are reviewed, edited and uploaded to the WHE team to provide an account of the roundup event, including BLM and contractor inhumane handling practices, the very next day.  Ultimately, a wrap-up of the entire roundup is produced with photography/videos.

WHE Team CAWP Reports document observed non-compliance with the CAWP standards citing sections and dates and photos and details are also produced.  There is a special commitment to providing consistent coverage of remote herd management area (HMA) roundups.

Over its 15 years, WHE has grown exponentially, organically, from recognition of its unique and critically-important content.  (It is proper to acknowledge WHE’s content when referenced or reproduced).

I am a volunteer (actually). This published opinion came from my experience of capturing the (exclusive) video of the colt at Pancake breaking his leg while being chased by a helicopter. The horses from a specified roundup, named for the herd management area (HMA), are tracked into off-range holding corrals.  This involves submitting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and analyzing the information provided.

Exposure to the reality of roundups and removals and off-range corrals is necessary in order to create real-world change. If you can’t see it, you can’t change what is wrong. Documentation informs the public and it also creates a written record and data-set necessary to reach out for the means to preserve and protect wild horses and burros under the 1971 Wild Horse Act.

Documenting wild horses on federal public lands and during roundups brings an awareness horses are being removed because of loss of habitat, whereas having a herd management area plan in place for horses would help protect habitats, and it is not an overpopulation issue.  Documenting the Pancake Complex roundup was a starting point for a rare victory for wild horse advocates in federal court in Nevada.  The Court found BLM’s lack of management (roundup and remove is not management), lack of preparing a herd management area plan (HMAP) at Pancake Complex of HMAs was egregious and ordered BLM to prepare a plan within a year, and the environmental assessment (EA) that gave BLM the authority to remove horses at Pancake was remanded.  Naysayers had said it was an impossible win.

BLM has demonstrated it would rather fight reform than manage wild horses for their survival and handle wild horses humanely.  Inhumane handling is pervasive.  BLM, contractors, and wranglers know there is no “policy,” and consequentially no accountability or repercussions.  So the courts have had to be involved on this issue.  Nonetheless, the public should either make comments at the “hearing” or write comments.  If you are a subscriber you will receive actions to take hereafter.

The public has to fight, too.  The public has the power to drive the direction of advocacy. The actions you take, support, share and grow, determine the direction of the fight. More wins are possible.

BLM invites public comment on “Motorized Vehicle Hearings” and the use of helicopters, trucks and trailers for wild horse and burro roundups and removals.  It is a Zoom event rather than holding in-person hearings on the local level.  BLM wants to handle wild horses based on its discretion, even if inhumane, and does not want the public to have a voice in the matter.  BLM is required to hold a hearing pursuant to Section 404 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) to address anticipated issues with using motorized vehicles.  BLM does not listen to public concerns or make improvements, so “hearing” is a misnomer.

That does not mean you stop engaging in the process. If a wall goes up should we walk away? Or should we get stronger, louder and greater in numbers at the juncture a wall is erected?

BLM will not stop its reduction of wild horse herds and its inhumane treatment (no matter what path Congress takes in the budget) and it will only get worse and worse, unless the public pushes back.

Below: Green handled hot shot (electric shock) being used for ease of loading. Remember, comments for the motorized vehicle hearing can include how horses are loaded and transported.

Humane management is the law. The law includes these hearings out of necessity because the possibility of abuses were more than simply “likely” when political pressure to use motorized vehicles to round up wild horses and burros was approved and section 404 in the Federal Land Management Policy Act (FLPMA) was written.

BLM may have been able to ignore the purpose of these hearings for a really long time. However, as advocacy learns and engages the system as intended, we will be able to “storm the walls” BLM has erected and expose the ugly truths behind them and create needed change,

Sample comments were crafted for you based on your input HERE.

If you want to speak at the Motorized Vehicle Hearing, the deadline to sign up to comment is May 22. The timeframe for testimony is 2 pm (PT, 5 pm (ET), on Thursday, May 23. Click HERE to register.

You can also send written comments (speakers and non speakers). Comments must be sent by 5 p.m. MT on May 23 to  BLM_HQ_MotorizedVehicleHearing@blm.gov

BLM strictly limits the public’s opportunity to comment, and it is getting worse.  I sent the email (below) to BLM. As of publish time of this article, BLM had not responded.   :             

To: Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program

Re: 2024 Motorized Vehicle Public Hearing, May 23, 2024, virtual public hearing 3-5 pm MT.

This is a request for BLM to begin a waiting list for the public to speak at the hearing and invite additional comments by those who have already registered if there is time remaining at the end of the hearing. 

At this time, two days prior to the scheduled hearing, registration is closed.  BLM has limited the number of speakers based on the available time for public comment during the hearing, and each speaker only has two minutes.

The public have their own lives to manage.  Those who registered probably had good intentions to speak and good comments to make at the hearing but had other obligations and had to cancel.  And unfortunately, there may be those who only wanted to fill up slots without ever intending to speak.

BLM could be more aware, flexible, and accommodating and help ensure the public voice is heard. 

Thank you.

Colette Kaluza, for Wild Horse Education 

I will be commenting during the hearing.

I hope to hear you speak as well. If you could not speak at the hearing, you can still email your comments through 5 p.m. MT on May 23 to  BLM_HQ_MotorizedVehicleHearing@blm.gov

Together, we speak for the voiceless.

We need your help to continue to document, expose, work toward reform with lawmakers and litigate. Our wild ones deserve to live free on the range and free from abuse.

Thank you for keeping WHE on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our treasured wild ones.