Mustang by Deanne Stillman

The long awaited “Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West” by Deanne Stillman is finally about to be released on June 9th! Of course, those on the “inside” got a sneak peak at it and here are some reviews.

“Deanne Stillman’s writing, research and inspiration in the creation of Mustang is stunning. When finished, readers will fret over how the U.S. government can continue to allow the destruction of those who have been our brothers and sisters for centuries: America’s wild horses”
-Michael Blake, author of Dances with Wolves and The Holy Road

“In Mustang, Deanne Stillman has written a classic in equine literature, an exhaustively reported and beautifully told tale of the American mustang viewed in the full sweep of his cultural and evolutionary development. The mustang is a national symbol and treasure. And, from beginning to end, now so is Stillman’s book – a riveting, compelling testimonial on why this free-roaming animal must be saved.”
-William Nack, author of Secretariat: The Making of a Champion

The Los Angeles Times also printed an Opinion piece yesterday written by Ms. Stillman titled, "Wild Horses Aren’t Free – Failure to enforce a 1971 law endangers the mustangs it was supposed to protect".

Her statements are well versed in history, science, and politics and point unflinchingly towards the impending doom headed the mustangs way if there isn’t a serious turn around from the path they are quietly being herded down through officially sanctioned government actions.

Ms. Stillman also states, “Now is the time for an immediate moratorium on wild horse removals, at least until population studies are brought up to date” and there is compelling evidence that the wild horses and burros actually still roaming free may be dramatically lower than the “officially posted populations”.

For example, in BLMs recent proposal to remove wild horses in the Callaghan Complex, (see last post, Capture Calendar), just one year ago, BLM proposed to remove the Bald Mountain wild horses, one of the herds now included in the “Callaghan Complex”.

In that proposal, BLM said there were only 379 wild horses and that included the spring foals. Due to funding issues, the round up was postponed so BLM issued a new proposal ~ but this year, BLM projects wild horse populations total 607! That's a 60% reproduction rate in just one year while BLM simultaneously claims the Bald Mountain wild horses have one of the lowest reproduction rates of all wild horse herds, merely 12%.

In the Callaghan HMA itself, BLM removed wild horses in 2002 and mares were injected with PZP to slow down their reproduction. Even using the "standard" 20% increase BLM applies towards wild horses and not factoring in the effects of PZP at all, the population should only be 542, not 995 like BLM is now claiming.

BLM has also conducted several round ups in all the areas around the Bald Mountain and Callaghan HMAs in the last few years and many of them were just within the last year. Each time, BLM reported they removed all the wild horses that were “necessary”.

In other words, there was no shortage of what they took versus what they expected to take, they didn’t “disappear” and that means they didn’t migrate into these areas. These wild horses also didn't migrate into the "other" HMA either because BLM is reporting obscenely high populations for BOTH areas!

Since BLM got the go ahead to reduce wild horse and burro populations all across the West, there have been countless herds reported with inflated populations and these are then suspected of being used to justify the necessity of immediate round ups due to the “immediate threat of overpopulation”. But here's the catch ~ there's no proof these populations exist besides BLMs "word".

BLMs own statistics consistently don’t support the populations they say are still remaining on the range and over the last few years, residents familiar with various herds have reported that wild horse and burro numbers are so low that they can barely find them anymore.

Ms. Stillman’s call for a moratorium on wild horse removals should be fully supported by anyone who cares for these magnificent animals as they deserve a place to live, both as a species in their own right as well as through their deep connection to our history, our culture and our Nation.

Until current population counts are done (and NOT by government agencies that have an agenda to remove them), the round ups should stop NOW!

To read the Los Angeles Times Article

"Wild Horses Aren't Free" by Deanne Stillman

Click Here

To order your copy of
Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West
Click Here

The Final Solution

The BLM is still accepting public comments on their Final Gather plan for the last 147 wild horses of the West Douglas HMA.

Zeroed out after long and lengthy legal battles that ended on October 10, 2007, the BLM Director dismissed all protests of the decision (1) and now BLM is revving up their engines to take them out starting October 1, 2008 and will continue indefinitely until they are only memories.

The Final Plan (or should we say Solution?) can be viewed by clicking Here and includes “humane standards” of limiting helicopter driving of the horses to 5 miles if snow is over a foot and/or canceling helicopter captures if temperatures drop to –10 degrees below 0.

So we finally started getting some answers about what BLM considers “humane treatment”!

The Cloud Foundation and Volunteer Executive Director Ginger Kathrens have posted her letter to BLM (Click Here to View) and is urging everyone to please contact BLM to voice your concerns.

The central focus of BLMs decision to revoke the West Douglas’s federally protected status stemmed from officials determining the 128k-acre habitat is only capable of supporting 60 wild horses. BLM has decided this population is too small to be naturally self-sustaining or genetically viable. But didn’t the Interior Board of Land Appeals just rule that BLM could supplement herds if they were too small? Click Here to see IBLA Ruling (172 IBLA 128)

Only 4 herds remain out of 8 with a state “appropriate management level” of 812 wild horses, which means wild horses are allowed 9,744 Animal Unit Months (AUM) of forage per year.

For comparison purposes, the State of Colorado authorizes 219,664 head of livestock annually totaling 573,918 AUMs of forage and their 2007 free-roaming elk population was estimated between 250,000 to 260,000 - elk herds have been reported at 10-15% above population management objectives for over 20 years. (2)

Just the White River Field Office alone, who authorized the irrevocable loss of the West Douglas Herd, doles out a generous 118,441 AUMs for exclusive livestock use totaling 41,478 head while the 60 wild horses that were considered too small to be genetically viable and therefore must be removed were issued 720 AUMs.

One of the main livestock allotments occurring in the West Douglas HMA, Twin Buttes, was re-authorized by BLM in 2005 to run over 3,900 head of cattle totaling 11,500 AUMs. The other main livestock allotment in the West Douglas HMA is controlled by Cripple Creek Cowboy Company, proud recipient of over $77k dollars in livestock subsidies between 1996-2006 (3) but public lands statistics reports showing how many cattle are being run on his allotments are mysteriously “unavailable”.

Anybody else think it’s funny that the Twin Butte livestock allotment, which spans 140k acres can support 3,900 cattle but the West Douglas Herd Management Area, which spans 128k acres can only support 60 wild horses?

If you have any questions about how illegal this is, read BLMs Code of Federal Regulation 43 CFR 4710.5(a) Closure To Livestock Grazing, which states: "If necessary to provide habitat for wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros from disease, harassment or injury, the authorized officer may close appropriate areas of the public lands to grazing use by all or a particular kind of livestock."

Turns out Colorado Senator Wayne Allard (R) is a personal advocate for the permittees and has interceded with BLM on their behalf to make sure we know where the beef is. He is a member of 12 different subcommittees in the House of Representatives, including the Minority Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Interior Environment and Related Agencies and keeps his fingers in wide variety of pies.

If you would like to tell Senator Allard or other Colorado representatives just what you think of what they are allowing to happen to one of Colorado’s last remaining herds just to stuff a few more cattle, elk and oil wells on the land, Click Here for contact information.

Unfortunately, American Herds has just found out about the comment period for the West Douglas Herd and there is almost no time left! If you would like to be herd, you must submit your comments by May 23, 2008 before 4:30 p.m. for BLM to consider them.

~Contact Info~
BLM White River Field Office
220 East Market Street
Meeker, CO 81641
Fax: (970) 878-3805
Phone: (970) 878-3800
Melissa Kindall Melissa_Kindall@blm.gov

Please include the proposal number
EA# CO-110-2008-052-EA in your submission.

Photo is of a captured wild horse taken from the East Douglas Herd.

All Herd Statistics taken from BLM Herd Statistics Fiscal Year 2007 www.blm.gov Wild Horse & Burro Program
All grazing authorizations and cattle numbers taken from BLM Public Land Statistics – Colorado http://www.blm.gov/landandresourcesreports/rptapp/menu.cfm?appCd=6

(1) BLM Press Release – October 11, 2007 http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/BLM_Information/newsroom/2007/west_douglas_decision.html(2) Elk Management of 5 Western States – No Longer Available online
(3) Farm Subsidy Data Base – 2006 Reports http://farm.ewg.org/farm/persondetail.php?custnumber=009388698

What You Mean

In Janaury, 2008, Quarter Horse News published an article by Linda Hussa titled, "185 Wild Horses Dead" about the events that led up to the deaths of 185 wild horses rounded up by BLM from the Jackson Mountain Herd Management Area in August and September in 2007.

On January 21, 2008, American Herds posted their own response to the issues raised in the article with a post titled Pure Propaganda.

The next month, Quarter Horse News published BLMs response to their article via a letter written by Wild Horse and Burro Division Chief Don Glenn, which can be viewed by clicking Here.

Reading Mr. Glenns letter, Nylene Schoellhorn, a wild horse advocate from Silver Springs, Nevada was inspired to challenge Mr. Glenn's statements with her own letter and reply. Quarter Horse News did not provide any format for people to comment about either article and so, in the spirit of sharing, American Herds has decided to provide a place for Ms. Schoellhorn's letter to Mr. Glenn. The views and opinions expressed by Nylene's letter are her own.


To Don Glenn
BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program,

I would like to reply to your letter regarding our American wild horses.

First of all---for the Bureau of Land Management to 'manage' should mean---you DO NOT let the cattle ranchers fence wild horses off from the drinking water. Which they do here.

It means you DO NOT let the cows have more land than the wild horses. Which the BLM allows here.

The 1971 law states that wild horses have PRIMARY rights to their traditional lands. The BLM does not do that here either. There is now less then one wild horse for every 150 cows on our public owned lands.

If you are so concerned about a 'wild horse population yearly increase' then have the BLM stop killing off all their natural predators-the coyotes and wolves and cougars. But the cattle ranchers would not stand for that -would they?

You state that the wild horses eat up habitat that place other wildlife species and livestock at risk. You MEAN- wild animals hunted on BLM land for sport and all those cows. A Big Horn Sheep hunting tag currently can sell for thousands of dollars. That is what you MEAN. A cow that is a private owned domestic animal that feeds on our public owned land for a token amount of money compared to what private cattle grazing land costs. That is what you MEAN.

I have a solution. Quit allowing hunting on our public lands. Quit allowing cattle ranching on our public lands. Quit killing off all the natural predators. Problem solved.

The "scientific fact" is that this is all about money. Wild horses don't make money. Unless hunters could shoot them. And the BLM knows the public would never stand for wild horse hunting. Nor will they eat them. Nor allow them to be slaughtered and sent to France, as which happens with our domestic horses. So the BLM considers the wild horses useless.

As far as 'appropriate management level" goes-I repeat- there is now less than one single wild horse for every 150 cows on our public owned lands. (BLM statistic) One vs one hundred and fifty? How is this this figure in any way 'appropriate'?

'Natures Cruel Hand'? Is that what you think? How about the BLM's cruel hand? Instead of placing the wild horses in 'long term holding facilities' -why don't you round up and do that to the cows? It would make more sense. After all, they are domestic animals, raised to be slaughtered for beef. The reason that less that half of your budget goes for "managing wild horses and burros on the lands'' is because the MAIN focus of the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program is removing wild horses and burros from our public range lands so there is more room for cows.

We the people -would rather you got rid of the cows! Only 3 percent of America's beef is from cows raised on our public lands. Most of us would gladly do without the 3 percent beef and have more wild horses in the wild instead. There are no "excess wild horses" on our public lands. There are only excess cows!

You state -"If Mother Nature were allowed to step in and control the population in her own unforgiving way...". Are you KIDDING me??? The BLM allows ranchers to fence off the wild horses from water, even shoot them (have you guys caught the latest killers of the 3 baby wild foals recently shot out by Pyramid? No- and you won't.)

You round the wild horses up in terrifying helicopter chases where they are often injured and even killed. You keep no records of how many of these injured rounded up horses later die-and also die from eating too rich food they are not used to- (I have watched all this happen) -and place them in 'holding facilities" where they also get sick and sometimes die-you sell them however you can-$125. was the price last time I checked--and you NEVER check on how the newly 'adopted' horses are doing...and you promote the carefully worded '10 years of age' program-so they can then be sold to kill buyers who take them to slaughterhouses!

You make no mention of any of this-but describe a death in the "natural setting" as cruel. You describe the wild horses as starving to death. The truth is-this is not a natural setting. This is a setting without the wild horses natural predators, coyotes and wolves and cougars,which the BLM is also busy hunting down and killing-after chasing them in helicopters and shooting them or poisoning or trapping them...as a favor to the cattle ranchers (and with our tax money).

You also don't mention that when a wild animal-such as a wild horse-lives and dies on the land, its body stays on the land, and nourishes the land and other animals. That seems a much better death than being rounded up and hauled off in crowded trucks to a slaughterhouse to be stuck with electric prods and have a metal bolt gun slammed into your head and then your throat cut open and hung on a hook to bleed out....which is what you have promoted for wild horses over the age of 10.

You speak of 'economic harm' to ranchers and rural communities. There it is. There it is the bottom line-this is all about money. The truth is, most cattle ranches in the west are now owned by huge companies and stockholders back east-not small family ranches. Paris Hilton's family is one example. Poor hardworking ranch owners!

In any case, cattle ranching is a dying industry. More and more people are realizing that eating beef is not good for our environment, our health, or our economy. A wiser course of action for the BLM would be to look to the future-to promote Eco-Tourism of our public owned lands. Come visit with cameras-not guns. Wild horses do not need to be 'managed'. All they really need is to be left alone, along with all the other wild animals, on our public owned lands.

The BLM manages over 5 million acres of land. Surely that is enough land for viable herds of wild horses to run free, (without chemical birth control, castration or roundups) as the 1971 Wild Horse Act states.

BOYCOTT BEEF! IT IS WHAT IS KILLING OUR WILD HORSES AND PUBLIC OWNED LANDS!

Nylene W Schoellhorn
Silver Springs
Nevada