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Posts Tagged ‘Burros’

Calico stallion interred at BLM Fallon holding facility Photo credit: Wild Horses of Nevada Photography

Wanted to share a terrific investigative news segment on the consequences of the Calico Mountain Complex. Kudos to George Knapp,  chief investigative reporter with KLAS I-Team (Las Vegas), for asking good questions and exposing this story. (note: in the piece you may some images of a downed mare which were taken by an IDA observer at the Fallon, NV holding facility)

I-Team: Wild Horses Forced into a Stampede of Death ( be sure and check out the video )
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=11979541#

Calico horse losing his freedom; Eagle horses spared for now. Photo Credit: Elyse Gardner

After receiving 9,000 public comments, the BLM announced yesterday that it is postponing the roundup of nearly 500 horses living in the Eagle Herd Management area in eastern Nevada.The announcement came just three days after IDA’s attorneys notified the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that they would sue to stop the helicopter stampede and capture, which had been scheduled to begin February 15.

Despite issuing an Environmental Assessment detailing a capture plan scheduled for mid-February, the BLM now states “there is not adequate time to safely conduct the proposed Eagle Herd Management Area (HMA) gather prior to the beginning of foaling season.” The agency states that it is currently seeking a solution for 50 horses who have wandered outside the Eagle HMA.

The decision comes days after the BLM ended the Calico roundup, in which, to date, 39 wild horses have lost their lives and an additional 20-30 pregnant mares spontaneously aborted.

Last month, the BLM also postponed the roundup of 200 horses in the Confusion Mountains HMA in Utah. IDA’s federal lawsuit challenging challenging the legality of BLM roundups and long-term holding facilities continues in federal court, with a hearing scheduled in late April.

Read IDA’s full news release here.

Horse struggling in trap pen at Calico on January 2, 2010. photo credit Craig Downer.

The BLM announced today that it has ended the Calico roundup, with 1,922 horses captured. This is 600 fewer horses than the BLM had targeted in its capture plan, which had estimated the horse population in the five Herd Management Areas (HMA’s) at Calico to be 3,040.

According to its press release, the BLM now estimates that 600 horses are left in the Calico Mountains Complex. If correct, this means that the BLM’s original population count was off by over 500 horses, raising serious questions about the validity of the horse census data upon which the agency is basing its management decisions.

The death toll from the roundup is 39 horses and counting, as the fatality rate at the Fallon holding facility has risen sharply in the past two weeks. Deaths not reported before in this blog include a four-year old sorrel mare who was kicked in the head while being transported from the trap pen. According to the BLM gather activity updates, her “eye globe was ruptured with complete prolapse of the iris. This eye could not be saved and would remain a serious physical defect. She was euthanized as an act of mercy.” Other deaths include mares euthanized at Fallon due to injuries to spine and pelvis, and failure to adjust to feed.

An additional 20-30 pregnant mares spontaneously aborted. Although the BLM has claimed that poor nutritional condition of the mares led to these miscarriages, equine veterinary sources disagree.

“Nutritional deficiencies have not been associated with abortion in mares. In general, if mares are in good condition (body condition of greater than 2 on a scale of 0 to 5, where 5 is very fat), they will carry a foal. Mares that are too thin, however, will not cycle or conceive.”

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/05-061.htm

Equine veterinarian Don Hoglund states: “20-25 abortions in captivity are not likely due to range conditions. Infections, vaccination reaction, but most likely stress is the cause. In fact, that many abortions are cause for concern, anywhere.”

Thanks to the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign for these resources.

The Calico roundup has taken a terrible toll on the horses who have lost their lives due to the trauma of the helicopter stampede and capture, and on the horses who survived the capture but have forever lost their freedom. The legal case over the illegality of the Calico roundup continues in federal court, and the Department of Justice has agreed that the Calico horses will not be moved from the Fallon holding facility until the case is resolved. In addition, lead counsel William J. Spriggs of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney has notified the Department of Justice that he is ready to sue again if the BLM proceeds with plans to round up 495 mustangs living in the Eagle Herd Management Area in eastern Nevada. Stay tuned.

Downed mare struggling to rise at Fallon 1/26/10 Photo Credit – Craig Downer

Mare who had spontaneous abortion that day at Fallon. Photo taken 1/26/10 by Craig Downer

Since we posted this item, the BLM has reported the deaths of four more horses at the Fallon facility, bringing the total number of deaths to 26 horses. In addition, several people have raised questions about some of the horses looking very thin in the video below. Here is what a wild horse expert has to say about this situation:

“A horse’s condition is more compromised in the winter, especially older horses, pregnant horses or those nursing foals. The additional stress of roundup, capture and separation only adds to their fragile condition. What is so sad is that not only do many of these horses have to endure a helicopter chase, capture and transport…some will be euthanized in the end. Some horses are too stressed out to eat hay or drink out of troughs when they are in corrals. These free ranging herd animals suffer more than we can see. They are wild horses, they are not even ‘tamed’ wild horses. They are born, live and die on the range and I am sure if they could speak they would prefer to live out their lives…season to season, on their range with their herd”

Neda DeMayo
Founder, CEO
Return To Freedom, American Wild Horse Sanctuary

News of brutality and suffering  continues to stream from the BLM’s wild horse holding facility in Fallon  Nevada, where the death count from the Calico Mountains Complex roundup  now stands at 22 horses. New deaths include a mare who crashed into  a gate and broke her neck, and more horses — including a stallion and  a 12 year old mare — found dead in the Fallon holding pens. Many of  the latter deaths are being attributed to “failure to adjust to  dietary change,” raising the likelihood that these horses suffered  horribly due to colic before dying, separated from their families, at  the Fallon holding pens. (See complete fatality summary below.)

According to John Neill, the BLM employee in charge of both the Fallon and Palomino Valley holding facilities, 15-20 mares suffered from spontaneous abortions. The trauma and terror that the BLM has subjected these pregnant horses to is likely to have played a role in many or most of these miscarriages.

BLM is also reporting that 20-25 horses are being treated for injuries and lameness caused by the roundup.

Read the rest of this entry »

On the heels of a news report indicating that Freedom, the proud stallion who escaped the BLM’s trap pens, may have been recaptured, comes the news that two more horses have died as a result of the Calico roundup. One, a colt, who should have been cavorting in the hills with his mother, someday having a chance at being a proud band stallion, was instead terrorized and stampeded by helicopter so long and hard that his little hooves were bruised to the point of sloughing off.  He died in the cold, in pain and alone in the BLM holding pens.

Another foal at BLM Fallon feedlot where Calico horses are being held.

According to the BLM, the little colt, stampeded for miles at top speeds from the only home he had ever known, forcefully separated from his mother and other family members, confined in trap pens, crammed onto trailers loaded with other terrorized horses, trucked four to five hours to the BLM holding facility at Fallon — suffered for two weeks before the BLM “euthanized” him (likely by rifle) and sold his body to a rendering plant.

The vet report below confirms that his death is a direct result of the roundup:

January 22, 2010

Black Rock East

History and Report on Sloughed Hoof Foal

This foal was received at the Indian Lakes contract holding facility from the Calico complex gather around 1/6/2010. He was fed and watered for a day and when noticed to be lame was removed from the general population and placed in a hospital pen. On 1/8/2010 this horse was treated with phenylbutazone (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) and penicillin (an antibiotic) for presumptive sole bruising and abscesses. No abscesses were noted at this time but there was some foot swelling suggesting hoof trauma. During the next 5 days the colt which was nine months old was fed and watered in the hospital pen and observed for body condition and lameness. He was retreated on 1/13/2010 with phenylbutazoneand penicillin. Sole abscesses and potential hoof sloughs were noted. Both hind feet were flushed with betadine (an antiseptic) and bandaged with gauze, antibiotic ointment and tape. The colt was slightly improved after treatment but over the next couple of days spent more and more time lying down. On 1/18/2010 the 2 hind feet were examined again. Multiple hoof sloughs were noted and the foal was euthanized for humane reasons. The cause of these hoof abscesses/sloughs was most likely hoof trauma from the gather operations. (Emphasis added.)

Richard Sanford DVM

NV #565

Also dead is a mare who went down in the trucks transporting frightened horses between their Calico homeland and the Fallon holding facility. No help was given to this mare on the four to five hour journey; she died shortly after arriving at this newest BLM feedlot.

At the same time it announced these latest fatalities, the BLM also revealed that it was treating 20-25 additional horses for injuries and lameness suffered in the roundup, where helicopters are chasing horses for up to ten miles or more over treacherous terrain at full gallop speeds.

If a person were to chase a horse with a truck so long, hard and fast that his hooves were bruised and damaged, that person would be put in jail on animal cruelty charges. If a private citizen were to transport a horse from one barn to another in a trailer where the horse went down, was afforded no assistance, and died, that citizen could be brought up on charges of neglect. But the BLM considers this blatant cruelty an acceptable side result of its capture operations, which it claims are done in the best interest of the horses!

Clearly the vast majority of American citizens find this treatment of our nation’s beloved wild horses unacceptable. Amidst growing public outrage, the BLM’s days of business as usual may be coming to an end.
Please do your part in stopping this cruelty by taking action here and here.

IDA, in collaboration with The Cloud Foundation and other organizations held a rally for wild horses and burros on January 21 in Sacramento, CA. Despite the cold and rainy weather, we had a great turnout of about 35 people. We had local folks from Sacramento and the Placerville area as well as people from the San Francisco Bay Area, a lady all the way from Monterey, and Craig Downer, author and wildlife specialist from Nevada. We gathered on the capitol steps under canopies with signs and large, beautiful pictures of horses running free. Some of the media that came out was Sacramento radio station KFBK 1530 and one from the Sacramento TV station KCRA 3.

We congregated inside the capitol for a press conference at noon and listened to experts express their passionate pleas to stop the round ups. Tawnee Preisner from NorCal Equine Rescue spoke of the reality that many of these magnificent animals will in up in slaughterhouses. Wildlife ecologist, biologist and author Craig Downer, who has been a humane observer of the round ups in Nevada, told the story of Freedom, a beautiful black stallion, and his escape from his captors. Freedom was determined to escape and jumped a six foot fence just to be caught in a second barbed wire fence. He somehow stomped out of the wire and galloped to the mountains. The observers, with tears in their eyes, cheered him on.

Click Here for more information on what you can do for Wild Horses.

Photo Credit: Cattoor Livestock Roundups

The BLM is reporting that a total of four horses have now died at the Indian Rivers Road holding facility in Fallon, to which the Calico horses are trucked after being stampeded into capture pens near their homeland.  The agency is attributing three deaths to “dietary feed change” and “failure to adjust in change in feed” and not reporting the cause of death for the other mare.

This brings the death toll for the Calico roundup to seven.  Meanwhile, BLM contractor Sue Cattoor reports 122 more horses were caught on Saturday, January 16, when public observers were allowed to observe the helicopter stampede and capture for just one hour and 40 minutes of a ten hour day.

The unofficial total for the Calico roundup since December 28 is just under 1,000 horses. We are awaiting the BLM’s official capture count this week.

This video was taken on Saturday by IDA’s observer Deniz Bolbol.  Kept at a distance, Deniz could hear the ominous thundering noise of the helicopter on the far side of the mountain, which obscured her view of the stampede.

When the horses came into view, several bands were being herded together by two helicopters into capture pens.  On the video you will see one horse who evaded the helicopters path and remained free.  When his horse comrades were stampeded into the traps, Deniz could hear the horse on the ridge call to them. They called back. She believes the back and forth calls occurred four or five times before the horse ran off to freedom, leaving his band behind. One can never know for certain what the horses were communicating, but Deniz felt that the captured horses were letting their friend know that they were trapped and urging him to run on and leave them behind.

Deniz reports witnessing the helicopters descend within a few feet of the horses, nearly touching them. Horses arrived in the pens covered in sweat despite the cool temperatures, meaning that they had been run great distances at swift speeds. Even after an hour in the trap pens, the horses remained sweaty.

This photo taken from video shot by Deniz Bolbol, shows just how close the helicopters get to the horses when stampeding them into traps.

Elyse Gardner, another horse advocate and public observer reported that Thursday’s roundup brought the cruelty of the Calico capture sharply into focus.  Although the observers are being kept at a distance, Elyse reported seeing the horses valiantly fighting capture, charging back toward the helicopters trying to run back to the hills.  Elyse reports one particularly heartbreaking scene where a stallion, loaded into a trailer packed with other horses, managed to turn himself around to look out at the hills as he was driven off, never to see his homeland or his family again.

It is a tough job to observe this brutality first-hand, a job that is made more difficult by the BLM’s restrictions, which prevent observers from witnessing the full activities of the BLM’s contractors as they stampede horses from ranges afar into trap pens situated on private lands.
Before the Calico roundup even ends, the next BLM offensive will begin . . . — a roundup of 550 horses in the Eagle Herd Management Area in eastern Nevada, scheduled to start in Mid-February. Public comments to oppose this roundup by January 27. Take action here.

More on this roundup and the proposed capture of 1,200 horses in the Antelope Complex also in Eastern Nevada soon.

BLM helicopter contractor Sue Cattoor has posted a photo of the second mare who was shot by BLM because she was “thin” and “very old.” The mare was shot after she was terrorized and traumatized in a helicopter stampede and separated from her family. According to the BLM, this is a mercy killing.

Meanwhile, two horses have died at the Fallon holding facility. The latest fatality is a 12-year old mare who had been at the facility for four days.

Current capture count: 759 horses, fatalities 5. One stallion escaped to freedom.

Steam escaping from sweaty horses run in the cold at Calico. Photo Credit : BLM

The BLM is reporting that a mare was found dead over the weekend in the holding pens at the Fallon facility. The veterinarian is attributing the death of the horse, who was from the Black Rock East HMA to “dietary feed change.”

Meanwhile weather grounded the capture helicopter on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Calico capture stats as of Monday: 547 gathered, 518 shipped to Fallon, 24 at gather corrals, 4 deaths, 1 escaped back to freedom.

UPDATE FROM BLM

On Thursday, January 7, the BLM killed another mare claiming “poor body condition.”  What the BLM claims is an “act of mercy” likely involved chasing this elder horse by helicopter for several miles at full gallop speed into the capture pens before determining that she was too old to withstand the transition to a captive life and therefore had to be  ”euthanized” her by rifle.

It is unknown if this mare’s condition was documented with video or photos; the condition of the foal and mare who were killed last week were not photo-documented, leaving only the word of the BLM as evidence of what happened to these victims.
For updated number of BLM Calico captives click here.