Above: We reported on this new baby captured in our daily reports and mentioned we worried about him. The Swasey roundup in Utah has ended. (You can see what we loaded during the operation HERE.)

You can clearly see that foaling season is simply not a safe time for capturing wild horses at all. Even if the pilot brings a band in relatively slow, the travel is too hard on newborns.

We are fighting in the courts for on range management. Our cases address the lack of actual management (removal is not management and the courts recognized that earlier this year). We also have a case that directly addresses abuse. While we push to keep wild ones on the range, we still need an enforceable welfare policy, now.

Below: It is extremely hard to ensure safety when ringing in one band that has a tiny foal. But BLM rarely brings in a single band. Here, a small band of three (probably bachelors) came in with the small family. Baby gets kicked.

Below: At Swasey we were able to go to temporary corrals and see how baby was doing. Baby was laying down and we did not want to get closer or move to the other side (even though there was a lot of commotion at the corrals). Baby and mom did ship the following day to Axtel (pff-limits to public).

The Swasey roundup in Utah has ended.

189 were captured and there was one death. A mare missing her left eye was put down. That is a death rate of .52 at trap.

We do know that 1 in 9 (12%) of wild horses and burros die from the date of capture to six months out in BLM care. We also know that the number of deaths post-capture is directly influenced by the impacts of Capture Myopathy (capture stress). In other words, the harder the capture the higher the death rates even 6 months out.

We have more to share from Swasey. Swasey is where BLM released 8 mares with IUDs and BLM also removed horses from the space between Onaqui and Swasey.

You can see reports we loaded during the operation HERE.

But the Blue Wing operation in Nevada has taken center stage. Death rate at Blue wing has ranged from as high as 3.4 to 2.23 (where it stands now). The death ratio is over 4 times that of Swasey and of North Lander (.56). The deaths from capture stress will continue to be higher for the next 6 months from Blue Wing.

Blue Wing is approved to run through August 18. But instead of taking it slow or postponing when heat index rises (5 horses/burros died simply during transport and there have been 3 broken necks, a broken shoulder and 3 broken legs) BLM has raced through this roundup.

Barely any meaningful access has been given at Blue Wing.

Contrast access to Swasey and you can see access is being provided purely as a discretionary practice and not under any real guideline.

At Swasey we can assess… and Blue Wing we can guess. Having to guess is not reasonable access.

Blue Wing is simply not affording reasonable access and truly sees the public as interfering with an agenda. An agenda that, by what we know, is simply wrong. Nothing about Blue Wing is protect horses and burros. Everything is about h=getting down to less than 300 horses and 60 burros on 2,2 million acres of land that includes the largest contiguous livestock allotment (1.2 million acres) in the U.S. that is used by the same permit holder denying access to the holding corrals.

Now, Blue Wing is pushing during dangerous Air Quality Indexes from smoke blowing in from California!

There is so much wrong about Blue Wing we could write a novel!

Please take action for Blue Wing CLICK HERE and scroll to red text and send an email.

At Swasey we were able to help ID the direction a foal took off after the band was pushed ahead and BLM allowed three additional runs before looking for the baby. The baby was found two hours after it disappeared apparently hiding in a drainage ditch. (below)

At Swasey communication from trap to observers was constant, information was relayed in real time. We could also see with our own eyes most of what was happening and could make real time suggestions (i.e. lower the back of the trailer during loading and “it was a bay foal that ran this way” to help locate the missing baby.)

What is happening at Blue Wing?

There were 6 adults roped in a single day. That is not how a roundup is done when the intention is to leave horses on the range.

How many babies have been lost?

Is BLM trying to zero out (or simply decimate) Blue Wing before the court rules? It sure looks that way.

Please take action for Blue Wing CLICK HERE and scroll to red text and send an email.

We will load more from Swasey and have an update from Blue Wing where the death toll since July 8 has risen to at least 33.

In order to impact abuse… we need an enforceable welfare policy.

We know Congress is using abuse at roundups to push another “11 million for fertility control.” Fertility control may slow the number of roundups but it does not stop them unless BLM simply decimates the herd, uses long lasting GonaCon on older mares that die before it wears off. (That is how BLM is expending temporary fertility control and announced it during Reveille last year. Then they hit Surprise, Calico, Clan Alpine, on and on, in exactly that way. Those herds are likely never to recover.

Our team members remain onsite at ongoing roundups.

Please take two actions this week.

Please take action for Blue Wing CLICK HERE and scroll to red text and send an email.

AND Please make a call for an enforceable welfare policy.

If you have made the call, make another. Our wild ones desperately need an enforceable welfare policy that is crafted with transparency, public participation and complies with current welfare standards for equines.

The phone number for Congress is: (202) 224-3121. You should put it in your speed dial. Call the number tell the operator who your representative is (or where you live if you do not know) and you will be connected to an aide in the office. Ask to register your concerns and request. Ask that an amendment to the funding bill for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program be crafted to simply create a line item for funding for “Rulemaking to create an enforceable welfare policy.”

We need your help to stay in the field and keep litigation alive. Our cases address the lack of actual management (removal is not management and the courts recognized that earlier this year). We also have a case that directly addresses abuse. We need your help to expand these cases, now.

Thank you for keeping us on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our precious, amazing, unique, wild ones.