Area marked in red is the approximate boundaries of the site-specific approved plan.

Lahontan consists of 6,937 acres of BLM land and 2,641 acres of a mix of private and other public lands for a total of 9,578 acres. The area of the roundup is 239,431 acres. The area of this operation impacts Horse Mountain HMA and the Virginia Range horses. 

Even though this area was designated for use by wild horses after the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was passed, BLM set the Appropriate Management Level (AML) at 7-10 wild horses. This number allowed for stragglers from the Virginia Range (managed by the state).

BLM wanted to zero-out this area of wild horses and prioritize livestock grazing. As BLM felt they could not effectively “zero out” the area due to the wandering of the state managed Virginia Range horses, they set the allowed number as 7-10.”

BLM plans to capture 700 wild horses from the area roughly outlined in the map above and permanently remove them. 

On day 1, 170 Wild Horses (70 Stallions, 80 Mares, and 20 Foals) were captured. 123 Wild Horses (49 Stallions, 54 Mares, and 20 Foals) were shipped to the Palomino Valley Center holding facility north of Reno. 47 spent the night in the temporary corrals and will ship in the morning before the days operation begins.

There were numerous members of the public that follow these herds present.

This operation is scheduled to last 10 days.

The operation does threaten to capture wild horses that are part of the highly publicized Virginia Range darting program. The Virginia Range is managed by the State of Nevada. The Virginia Range has never had a helicopter capture even before the darting program. The state manages on a “complaint/remove” system. If a private land owner is having issues the state does targeted bait trapping and then takes the captives to auction after allowing for private horses to be claimed. In recent years there are groups that have taken in these horses before auction.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has not altered its roundup protocols to prevent capturing horses from the Virginia Range darting program. Legally speaking, the federal government does not recognize the Virginia Range herd as wild mustangs, categorizing them instead as state-owned “estray livestock” trespassing on federal land. This would make them subject to immediate removal.

We know the Virginia Range groups are watching carefully to see if any of the horses they know are captured so they can adopt them from BLM.

Heat Index

We have been writing about Heat Index and summer roundups for a long time. BLM ignoring really important veterinary standards surrounding things like Heat Index and Air Quality are one of the reasons we are pushing so hard for the formalization of welfare standards within the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) BLM only created after years of relentless litigation. Complying with their program is basically BLM telling themselves it is all “ok.” 

Please take action today! CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION

At the ongoing Callaghan Complex roundup (the South Shoshone HMA roundup) we wrote extensively about Heat Index and how that operation has moved into the extreme caution zone where even performance horses can suffer heat illness and workers at trap can too.

Just because two roundups are happening in the same state at the same time, it does not mean the same conditions exist. A state like Nevada is big. It is nearly 3 times larger than the state of Virginia. Nevada has 13 distinct “plant hardiness zones” that all have different climate and other environmental differences.

The first number after the time is temperature. The column with the red arrow is heat index.

The chart above represents the first day of active trapping at Lahontan. It was hot. It is July and still foaling time. However, it was not until around 11:15 a.m.. that the extreme caution zone of the heat index began to approach. The time where the impact of even mild exertion could cause catastrophic or long term health problems.

At Callaghan that same extreme caution zone was getting ready to hit by 9:15 a.m. Our team is still onsite at Callaghan and we will update you soon.

BLM refuses to look at basic veterinary standards surrounding heat index. BLM does not track the increase in capture myopathy related deaths into holding. BLM does not even consider these factors when writing their schedule. Heat Index is only one specific factor BLM refuses to look at. There are many.

We have been writing about Heat Index and summer roundups for a long time. BLM ignoring really important veterinary standards surrounding things like Heat Index and Air Quality are one of the reasons we are pushing so hard for the formalization of welfare standards within the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) BLM only created after years of relentless litigation. Complying with their program is basically BLM telling themselves it is all “ok.” 

Please take action today! CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION

This week the Citizen Action organization Save Our Wild Horses and Wildlife is in DC. A mainline item for the numerous groups and citizens represented in this effort is to push Congress to add language to existing legislation to direct BLM to complete the process of formalizing enforceable welfare standards. You can read more about it here. 

WHE is a small organization with no corporate sponsors or big endorsements. We need your support to keep our teams engaging lawmakers, our team fighting in the court, our team ready to run the roundup schedule.

Every mile we travel to cover roundups or assess a herd, every court case we bring, every win, every action we take is only possible because of your support.