And yet ANOTHER Wild Horse Roundup
A Wildlife Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM Priscille Feral, FOA Friends of Animals
July 14, 2021

HSUS et al joined forces with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to assist the Bureau of Land Management in removing many thousands of wild horses each year from public lands, while also organizing a large-scale fertility program.

And see July 21 UPDATE here...

Photo from Jeremy Beckham, just days before a 'roundup'

On a day in Utah when the BLM is committing genocide of wild horses, we offer this truth.

HSUS et al joined forces with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to assist the Bureau of Land Management in removing many thousands of wild horses each year from public lands, while also organizing a large-scale fertility program. This is in spite of wild horses being underpopulated and having lost more than 20 million acres of habitat to cattle and sheep ranching. This is also dead wrong.

BLM lies about wild horses, the drought's impact on vegetation, and they're a mouthpiece for the meat industry. They've created a massive crisis of storing wild horses in holding prisons while having high hopes for slaughtering them for any consumptive purposes. We're devoted to reforming BLM, and that means getting the ear of Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland who has so far ignored the crisis and her agency's atrocities.

While the Court in the Onaqui wild horse case believed the lies of BLM and denied us a preliminary injunction, to halt the roundup that started today, Friends of Animals has won 15 legal challenges, and we'll continue to hold BLM's feet to the fire through litigation, lobbying and education -- to prevent mustangs from being ripped from their homes and families on federal public lands.

We're devoted to righting the wrongs. The photo is of Bindi (and me at Primarily Primates sanctuary), one of three wild horses we rescued from roundups and other aggressions. They never should have had to be privatized, but their band today thrives.

Bindi and Priscilla

 

UPDATE from Fund for Horses, July 21, 2021

Onaqui roundup ends with 307 horses headed for adoption

This story is so heartbreaking to report. Perhaps you have already heard about it and grieving like we are. We have always loathed BLM tactics in decimating American wild horse herds. This cruel and unnecessary roundup of the Onaqui herd takes the BLM’s behaviour to a whole new level of debauchery, chicanery and destruction. It is diabolical.

All the while the so-called head of the Department of Interior looks the other way, just like many before her, even though she has reportedly been flooded with requests for help. She is totally useless. A figurehead. A puppet. The powers that be in Washington D.C. always make sure we have absolutely no one to appeal to when it comes to our wild ones, presidency after presidency, regardless of party. We are beyond sick and tired of it. —Editor.

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THE SALT LAKE CITY TRIBUNE | Brian Maffly reporting | July 20, 2021

“The Bureau of Land Management concluded its controversial roundup of the Onaqui herd a week early Sunday, after pulling 435 horses from public lands in Tooele County.”

“Over a five-day span beginning July 14, helicopters operated by a private contractor herded horses off the public range into pens with dozens of activists watching and photographing from a distant hillside. While horse roundups occur several times a year across the West, horse advocates blasted the Onaqui gather because these free-roaming animals are considered “a national treasure,” beloved by horse lovers around the world.”

“Foals accounted for 47, or 11%, of the gathered horses, the BLM reported, although activists believe the BLM inflated the foal count. The BLM defines foals as young horses born since Jan. 1.”

“The agency acknowledged that one horse died in the roundup, and another was released for an undisclosed reason. A young mare suffered a broken ankle after getting kicked as horses were crowded into a pen, according to BLM spokeswoman Lisa Reid, and had to be euthanized.”

“An official also acknowledged most horses taken off the range exhibited fairly good body conditions, contrary to earlier reports that many Onaqui horses were suffering from lack of water and forage due to overpopulation and drought.”

“The next Utah roundup is scheduled to begin Aug. 1, when the BLM plans to remove 295 horses from the Conger herd that roams the western reaches of Millard County.”

“Free-roaming wild horses and burros, which are descended from domesticated equines brought to the West by Spanish explorers and Anglo settlers centuries ago, have been protected under federal law since 1971. It is the BLM’s job to manage these animals, whose populations can double every six years in the absence of predators and legal hunting.”

“To keep horse numbers in check, the agency relies on periodic roundups, over the objections of advocates who believe the horses belong on the range. These advocates accuse the BLM of pandering to the livestock industry and ignoring or discounting less costly, more humane solutions, such as using non-invasive fertility control treatments.”

“Such treatments have been administered to about 60 Onaqui mares that were taken off the range last week.”

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