Did she die that first day at Callaghan? We can’t tell you because we could not see. Born ten days before the roundup in her valley and 2 foals died that day.

It is absurd that we need to do these reports more and more… and not less… every year.

A court order back in 2013 at the Owyhee Complex literally stated: “Defendant must conduct the gather and transport in a manner ensuring that all foals are able to keep up with the drive, and none are left behind from the herd.” (Among other directives)

Then after years of litigation that stopped roundups due to inappropriate conduct (like pushing a horse with helicopter skids) BLM created the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) in 2015 to address all of our lawsuits.

But they stopped short of formalizing any enforceable welfare rules. Please learn more and take action. 

BLM has a prohibition against helicopter drive trapping during foaling season. The prohibition is in place because the safety issues are very real. But BLM keeps not actual data on when foaling season starts or ends for any herd (and use of fertility control actually changes that season and they do not monitor that either). So this basic safety restriction becomes rather meaningless.

BLM has CAWP recommendations, not enforceable rules. Those recommendations do not even include basic veterinary standards for things like Heat Index or Air Quality. They certainly do not address anything in any way where a provision cannot simply be overridden by the BLM person in charge except a hard line on not running horses in temperatures above 100 or over 105 for burros.

There has never been a single public comment period that allows the public to provide any input on welfare rules. Welfare rules have not been formalized. The formal process would make them enforceable. 

CAWP says: “The appropriate herding distance and rate of movement must be determined on a case-by-case basis considering the weakest or smallest animal in the group (e.g., foals, pregnant mares, or horses that are weakened by body condition, age, or poor health) and the range and environmental conditions present.” Most BLM employees claim this is not in CAWP.

Until this is an enforceable policy, we must push incident-by-incident for appropriate action.

There are many issues involving foals, pregnant mares and stallions on high alert this time of year. Many that can have long lasting damage or cause catastrophic death (broken bones).

However, one of the questions that we receive the most emails about this time of year: How many foals do they leave behind? 

The answer: More than they should and more than we will ever know. 

At Bible Springs another foal disappeared during a drive. 

TO THE BLM… SLOW DOWN! Just ask your pilots to SLOW DOWN and actually watch for foals. Get spotters out to monitor drives (like you used to). OR you could actually put the public in a place where they could provide trap with information (and authorize communication) when foals drop off. We do not understand why asking you to slow down for the foals actually seems to make you mad!

BLM is not supposed to allow driving of bands with young foals so that foals fall behind.

If you watch the clip above you can see that this pilot is not pacing runs to accommodate young foals, he is pushing. The clip is hard to see due to heat and distance. But you can see the foal lag, the chopper push and the baby get lost in the trees. The operation did not cease. Public affairs at observation would not radio trap. No one at trap apparently saw the foal head into the trees.

BLM says that foal did come in later and paired up with mom. But we are unsure how they know that if they did not see the foal drop off or what it looked like? But they say it did come in.

This is not a “one off” incident. This type of incident is documented more than it should be and probably happens more often than we document due to the distance BLM holds observers today. When camera lenses had a reach of about 300mm, we were closer than we are now that our lenses reach further. Where observers are placed most often has little to do with safety and more to do with how long a lens can reach.

Adobe Town (WY) The foal that lagged and veered off when it could not keep up. Just like the foal at Bible Springs yesterday.

If we look at Adobe Town (WY) last summer we can see where we were initially not believed that a foal dropped off. Then, after we were adamant, we were told that they found the foal (even given a picture). Our onsite team lead insisted that was not the foal, was dismissed, and later the foal happened to come back in view. What if that foal had not come back? (If you click here, you can see that day had more than one foal left behind)

If we look at Swasey (UT) you can see another incident where the pilot was completely unaware that the group had a young foal and that the foal did not go into the trap.

At that operation public affairs asked to see the images, we showed her, and after 2 more runs, operations did cease and they went to find that foal. They found him hiding in a ditch. 

Video below: The foal breaks off and goes to hide after the drive continually pushed too hard for him to keep up. Just like the foal in the first video at Bible Springs yesterday.

If it was not for the insistence of public affairs that sat with us that day, the people at trap would have claimed the foal “simply came in on the next run.” Foals do not do that. They break off because they are tired and cannot run anymore… they hide. We have documented this more than we should have to.

At Swasey we had access to see. That access provided vital observation of what is actually happening that the BLM simply is not tracking. PLEASE: See more HERE. 

To follow active roundups click the text below:

Piceance – East Douglas (CO)

Bible Springs (UT)

Concerns with the lack of a formalized welfare standards run deep. Gaining an enforceable welfare policy that contains clear standards is vital. The concerns include concerns with foaling season, air quality and heat index standards. All of these critical issues are very relevant to this roundup. 

You can learn more about the issue and take ACTION here.

Protecting the individual wild horse and burro requires advocacy at three levels.

We engage legislatively to attempt to get Congress to address core flaws in how on range management planning is really nonexistent, there are no enforceable welfare rules, etc. and that Congressional directives through bills like the Appropriations bill can help.

When it comes to protecting a herd, that requires data from the field and engaging land use planning. It then requires site-specific litigation, not a theoretical debate on social media or in Congress. Congress does not, and cannot, write site specific planning. 

When it comes to addressing the issues you see in all the roundup videos…. it involves the work to gain an enforceable welfare standard and the crisis engagement “run-by-run” the team does in the field.

Our team is working hard.

Gaining actual enforceable welfare rules should be the easiest of all the reforms to attain. This is not a debate about how much grass should they get or weather you agree that wild horses and burros even belong on the landscape. This is simply about preventing needless suffering and death. 

If you are against gaining enforceable welfare rules? The way your mind works is not something we even want to understand.

Our team is tired, but determined.

Onward. 

We need your support to keep our teams engaging lawmakers, our team fighting in the court, our team running 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. Sincere Gratitude.