The wrangler that engaged in the abusive behavior was suspended August 2, according to reporting.
But what about the entire system that endorsed this behavior during Blue Wing and at numerous other roundups? There have been no consequences.
BLM likes to find someone at the bottom to blame for ongoing failures in the system… so they do not have to change that system. What the wrangler did was outrageous. But so is the system that allows this time and again.
We cannot allow this to happen again. (Action items in red text)
Our team assessment for Blue Wing found:
The CAWP team assessments have not changed the way removals or holding facilities operate. Assessments through CAWP began after the draft standards were adopted in 2015. In 2021, after BLM failed to release any findings of those supposed assessments (gained through the published “self-assessment tool” when the standards were adopted in 2015), failed to release the findings and draft for public comment and adopted standards as “policy” in 2021 without the enforceability of formal rulemaking, the CAWP team has not succeeded in changing national death and injury rates during gathers or in holding facilities. The data has not shifted one decimal point.
In the nine years since CAWP standards were adopted, the program is an abysmal failure. In the 4 years since a CAWP team lead was finally hired and BLM simply called the standards “Final Policy,” the taxpayer funding used for the CAWP team has not resulted in any change to national death, disease or injury statistics by even a decimal point (in the right direction).
Therefore, it is our conclusion:
The current CAWP team structure (where BLM employees evaluate their colleagues) must be dismantled and a new team of individuals from independent oversight organizations and members be chosen who have no connection to the internal social structure of BLM.
Capture during heat event and dangerous air quality from wildfire smoke when you should not even engage in exercising a performance horse (trained athlete).
As national outrage grew beginning the first day of Blue Wing that began during a dangerous extended heat index rise to the crescendo of “kick in the face” that made international news, the Blue Wing roundup was, in fact, an exercise in brutality from an agency racing to reach unscientifically set numbers for herds with barely a thought given to the suffering they cause.
It seems the only time BLM musters the troops on any animal welfare issue is when they believe it might just make a courtroom. Then they spend taxpayer funding on airline tickets and the best hotel in town to bring in their Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) team. The CAWP team comes not to do any in-depth assessment of the operation, they come to create a document to whitewash any horrific issue that might make it into a court brief.
In the first week, before the CAWP came, during the dangerous heat wave, 3 burros (15-year old, 5-year old, 2-year old jennies) all died from apparent heat related causes (2 dropping dead on trailer and 1 from colic) (click here for more info) The burro above appears to have a swollen bag, but no foal was seen anywhere near her after the roundup.
The BLM CAWP team did not arrive when we alerted them to the heat event that would last July 1 until around July 15, they came afterwards. WHE had asked (through our attorneys) that the roundup be postponed until after the heat event abated, not that the CAWP team wait until the heat event ended to assess the operation.
The CAWP team notes on their report that they were present July 18 and 19. During those days the CAWP team spends one day at holding and one day at trap; often these are not even full days. They do not interface with the public and often BLM public affairs will even deny the CAWP team is onsite (even though you recognize the individuals present). BLM’s CAWP team tries to hide as much as possible from the public and avoids answering emails (to the extent of denying they were ever received).
The BLM CAWP team was present while 8 animals died, one from a heart attack (that happened during transport) and was one of 5 deaths simply on the trailer. BLM does not take any responsibility for the death and creating real parameters, instead blaming the horse for not being young and fit (every population has individuals that are young, old, healthy, not healthy and somewhere in-between). BLM ran these animals in air quality and heat that could kill young, old, or any individual compromised in any way.
BLM’s CAWP team said this about the operation:
Coordination with Nevada and the Winnemucca District was excellent. The gather team was available to the CAWP Team to answer any questions and to provide access to the gather. Communication between the gather team (BLM, APHIS, and the contractor) was excellent. All gather team members knew what their job was and completed it efficiently. The handling of wild horses at the trap, temporary holding corral, and during transportation was outstanding and done in a quiet, calm, and relaxed manner creating an atmosphere that was supportive in providing excellent care, handling, and treatment of the wild horses. All wild horses always had food and water at the temporary holding corral. Multiple gather team members were observed checking ambient temperatures multiple times at the trap site, discussing weather conditions, and relaying information about ambient temperatures to other gather team members. Gather operations were stopped before exceeding 95˚ Fahrenheit. The care, handling, and treatment of the wild horses was a priority for all involved in this gather.
Then the only thing the CAWP team noted was that loading to go from temporary corrals to the off-limits to the public facility in Fallon was begun before dawn.
We are serious. The overly flowery language in an agency oversight document and one finding of noncompliance notation is all the CAWP team found. They gave Blue Wing a 99% compliant rating of “excellent.”
The video below from Blue Wing demonstrates a type of flying we see repeatedly, that resulted in a crash at Triple B just two years earlier, might make the typo actually an accurate description of the method. (Tail rotor hits the ground showing pilots are not cognizant of how close they are to the ground or horses) The BLM CAWP team stays huddled down at trap and never moves out where the public is situated to see what we see.
From the first day of Blue Wing to the last, each day caused suffering and increased the likelihood of death from capture stress in holding in the days and months ahead. Our research continues to show that 12%, or 1 in 9, wild horses and burros will die beginning the date of capture through the first six months in BLM care. BLM is abysmal at record keeping and providing the most basic spreadsheet. BLM is still lax in hoof care, vaccinations, logging deaths, keeping veterinary records, and on and on. All of these issues are referenced as “CAWP standards” as well as handling at roundups.
The BLM CAWP team must be disbanded and replaced
It is absurd that BLM employees are assessing other BLM employees they have (often obvious) personal relationships with.
It is more than obvious that the current CAWP team is not an oversight body, but more of an emotional support team that has the “back” of other BLM employees (further evidenced by emails uncovered through FOIA).
BLM must immediately disband the current CAWP team and replace them with representatives of independent oversight organizations and individuals with absolutely no connection to the federal government they are charged with policing.
You can take action by signing the letter we will be presenting to BLM leadership, the Government Accountability Office (waste of taxpayer funding), the DOI Inspector General (the CAWP team needs a “hard look”) and key Congressional members.
Click HERE to Sign the Petition to Disband the CAWP team
We will be sending this letter in a packet that includes recommendations we crafted and sent in 2020, as BLM was finally hiring someone to lead a team to review a draft policy they began in 2015. Instead of opening the draft for public review as part of “Rulemaking,” BLM leadership simply typed the words “Final” and “policy.”
We will also include our draft assessment report from Blue Wing and the one BLM published nearly on the same day their lack of oversight, placation, coddling, resulted in a horse being kicked in the head and yanked and dragged to its feet after collapsing by a cheap nylon rope.
Compare with:
The BLM CAWP team report simply showered them with praise and found they were starting loading before dawn and claimed to take “corrective action.” This report was published by the BLM CAWP team the day after they left, July 20. They must not have had many notes to review?
How can the public, internationally, find Blue Wing so outrageous but the BLM oversight team thinks it is “excellent” and “outstanding” and finds one minor infraction?
There is something seriously wrong with the system.
Do not let BLM get away with calling this matter closed as they suspend one wrangler, the fall guy, for the system’s failure.
The reason CAWP is not easily enforceable (and we have to go to Civil court), nor prosecutable according to the laws set out for the public, is the failure of BLM to finalize a welfare policy through Rulemaking.
Take the action in red above to get BLM’s internal team investigated and disbanded. Then, please, scroll down and make the call.
WHE has active litigation addressing BLM’s lack of enforceability, consequences and continued abuse… now.
But you can help speed up the process we need to gain an enforceable welfare policy today!
Please make a call. 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.”
The phrase “rulemaking” is vitally important as it is the name of the process that opens a welfare policy to public comment and finalizes with enforceability.
Forward… together we can create real and lasting change.
You can visit our daily logs from summer 2024 roundups:
We won an amazing victory earlier this year where the courts recognize removal is NOT management. We have three additional cases in the system now. We need your help to keep our teams in the field and expand our litigation.
Thank you for keeping WHE running for the wild.
Categories: Lead
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