Trying to watch loading to go from the temporary corrals to facilities is often a real challenge. Observation viewing areas often seem chosen so that we cannot see anything meaningful. As an example a road can have a high spot that we can see into pens. But BLM will set us at the lowest spot and make dozens of excuses why they can’t let us park (or walk) anywhere else. Most of you do not know that observers have to climb on top of vehicles even to see what we can see (in the video Colette has her camera on as she climbs up). Instead of walking up a rise on the other side of a hill, we have to climb vehicles.
On this day or team member was driven past temporary holding (the first few clips in the video above were taken as she drove) until nothing could been seen and told there would be no trapping. Obviously she then asked to go back to watch loading. BLM actually seemed surprised. Then they drove less than half the speed they drove out to get back to holding, even stopping for a chat. By the time she got back, loading had ended.
A foal was reported to have died during transport to a facility after loading at the temporary corrals. When asked which facility, the BLM person in charge (who the incident would have been reported to) did not seem to know which facility.
There seems to be another disconnect with what is being conveyed to our team onsite about where foals are being shipped and when. BLM keeps saying the youngest foals are going to Palomino Valley Center (Reno) along with mares. Stallions and all other foals are going to Broken Arrow (Indian Lakes Rd, Fallon, NV). We had asked that BLM note where they ship in each daily update and BLM refused. Yes, it certainly does seem BLM simply does not want to inform the public at all… on anything. Or at least make tracking down basic information a monumental puzzle. Posting where shipments are going as part of the update each day would have made this highly unusual situation. much easier (BLM usually ships all mares and foals to the same place).
Our team keeps going to PVC and no foals are there from Triple B (only Buffalo Hills and those appear to be older).
If BLM is shipping the one or two foals to PVC that are determined to be too young to wean every day or two, then they would either need to be loaded alone in a compartment on a semi (because they cannot be shipped with adults) or they would need to be taken in the smaller stock trailer.
We have not seen any small stock trailers leave temporary holding. Nor have we seen any foals from Triple B of any age at PVC (or been told there are any each time we check with the office). We believe BLM is simply weaning everything and sending all of the most adoptable horses (foals) out of the sight of the public eye.
Did BLM just load small foals in with older ones and ship them all to Broken Arrow (Indian Lakes)? Or did they load the smallest of foals in with adult mares? We still have not been told which facility or the circumstances of the foals death… or even which facility informed BLM of the death.
BLM said PVC did not have space to take stallions and foals and that is why they sent stallions and foals to the off-limits to view facility in Fallon. PVC had plenty of space. It still has plenty of space. We have no idea why BLM made the bizarre choice to ship foals to one facility and mares to another.
At the facility processing is happening really fast. Many are freezemarked already. Many of these mares will give birth beginning in January. January is when foaling season begins now in many herds and extends longer into fall after fertility control treatments skewed mating/foaling season. BLM does not create a data-based foaling season prior to using fertility control and does not monitor changes on the range.
We will do a piece with tag numbers for those of you looking to adopt. If you want the little bay with one eye (so lucky she was not killed at trap), she would be easy for people at Palomino Valley Center to find: bay, one-eyed mare in pen 15. We are also looking to try to find her a home and will check back on her next week.
Our ongoing investigations continue to show the average death rate from capture through the first six months in 12%. It is really hard to know that 1 in 9 of these wild horses is likely to die.
The bays and browns from Triple B are really stunning. Cremellos were once really common out at Triple B and are increasingly hard to find on the range. Triple B was once a stunning herd on vast public lands. Today the area is in decline due to over a century of battering by domestic livestock and the water-dependent expanding mining.
BLM has never disclosed how they set the absurdly low allowable management levels (what BLM calls Appropriate Management Level or AML) for wild horses in the 1.6 million acre complex… ever. There has never been any disclosure of data or any equation used to set forage allocations or population numbers.
Triple B has never reached the AML BLM set. Not even when horses were declared “fast disappearing” in 1971 and the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act passed, have numbers of wild horses been that low.
We also have good reason to believe that BLM modeling and target numbers are inflated. Just like at other roundups in the last year (N.Lander, Surprise, Twin Peaks, etc.) we believe BLM needs to provide the public with a census flight before continuing the operation. You can learn more and take ACTION, by clicking HERE.
You can find our onsite team reports from Triple B:
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Categories: Wild Horse Education
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