Horse Advocates Pull for Underdog in Roundups |
Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
More than 1,200 wild horses have been captured during the current roundup. |
Published: September 5, 2010 |
OUTSIDE RAVENDALE, Calif. — It is horse versus helicopter here in the high desert. |
The current roundup in northeastern California and neighboring Nevada has been going on for a month. |
On one side are nearly 40,000 horses spread over 10 states, whose presence on the range is a last vestige of the Old West. On the other is a group of crusty cowboys whose chosen method of roundup involves rotors more than wrangling, using high-tech helicopters to drive galloping mustangs into low-tech traps. |
“When they get in here, they know something’s going on,” said Dave Cattoor, 68, a straight-talking roundup expert who has been herding horses since he was 12. “The chips are down.” |
Over the last month, Mr. Cattoor and his feral quarry have been doing battle under the dry, horizon-to-horizon skies of northeastern California and a neighboring Nevada county, with humans the inevitable victor. |
Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
Dave Cattoor says the current method of rounding up wild horses is “the best we can do.” |
More than 1,200 horses have been captured during the current roundup, much to the chagrin of people like Simone Netherlands, an animal rights advocate who says that the roundups — part of a nationwide push to take some 12,000 horses off public lands — are cruel, expensive and unnecessary. |
“They’re running at full speed for miles and miles for hours, with babies, little babies, and they don’t let up on them,” Ms. Netherlands said. “They’re stressing them out to the max.” |
The Bureau of Land Management, which is overseeing the roundup, disputes that, saying that the roundups are humane and that it must reduce the wild horse population to more sustainable levels, both for their health and for that of the other animals that live in this harsh terrain. |
“Some advocate groups would like us to leave the horses out there and let nature take its course,” said Bob Abbey, director of the bureau. “We don’t believe that’s a sound option.” |
The debate over roundups dates back decades, to the passage of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, a federal law that protected what was then a faltering wild horse population and made it illegal for cowboys like Mr. Cattoor to round up horses on their own for sport or profit. |
“A cowboy really wasn’t a cowboy if you didn’t rope a wild horse,” Mr. Cattoor said. “But they stopped that. They stopped the maintenance, which costs nothing, and turned it into a multimillion-dollar deal. It’s crazy.” |
Questions about the roundups have intensified in recent years as costs have mounted, both in dollars and in dead horses. Seven horses have died in the current operation, and last winter, a roundup in Nevada resulted in over 100 horse deaths, prompting more than 50 members of Congress to ask Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to look for independent analysis of the bureau’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. Late last month, the bureau did just that, asking the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a technical review of the program. |
Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
Animal advocates like Denise Constantinide think the roundups are cruel, expensive and unnecessary. |
Horses that are captured are offered for adoption, but with demand for horses low and the cost of feed high, the government often ends up quartering them on large private ranches, primarily in Kansas and Oklahoma. In 2009, about 70 percent of the entire program’s $40.6 million budget was spent holding 34,500 horses and burros, a system that the Government Accountability Office has concluded will “overwhelm the program” if not controlled. |
“They are a symbol of the American West,” said Nathaniel Messer, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Missouri and a former member of the federal Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Committee. “But do we need 35,000 symbols of the American West?” |
For critics like Deniz Bolbol, the pattern of roundup, removal and stockpiling is an example of the bureau’s catering to private interests on public lands, namely by favoring livestock ranchers — who pay the government for the right to graze and who can sell their animals — over wild horses, which cannot be sold for slaughter. |
“We remove wild horses from the public lands so private livestock can graze, and then we ship the wild horses to private ranchers in the Midwest where we stockpile them and pay private ranchers,” said Ms. Bolbol, a spokeswoman for the group In Defense of Animals, which has sued to stop the roundups. “This is what you call a racket.” |
Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
The aim of the roundups is to reduce the horse population to more sustainable levels. |
And while Mr. Cattoor calls Ms. Bolbol and other protesters “fanatics,” he does not think the government’s reliance on big, periodic roundups makes much sense either, saying the bureau needs more steady maintenance of the wild herds, which can double in size every four years. |
Perhaps the only other thing the two sides can agree on is that the horses — whose estimated populations range from about 120 in New Mexico to more than 17,000 in Nevada — are magnificent. Art DiGrazia, the operations chief for one of the bureau’s wild horse and burro offices in California, said that some of the mustangs on the range were descended from Army cavalry horses, which were bred for size, speed and strength and left here or given to ranchers. |
“They have the intelligence and endurance to work out in this country,” said Mr. DiGrazia, a bearded New Jersey native who speaks in a hoarse whisper. “They’ll know before you know that there’s something out there going on.” |
The method of capture is simple: horses are located from helicopters, which have been used in roundups since the mid-1970s, and pushed toward the trap site, essentially a funnel shaped by two netted walls that lead into a temporary corral. Once the herd runs into the funnel, Mr. Cattoor lets loose a so-called Judas horse, which is trained to lead the rest into the trap, where — uncombed, unshod and often stomping and biting — they slowly settle into their new lives as kept animals. |
All of which is more humane than the old days, said Mr. Cattoor, who recalls cowboys using rope and brawn to bring in a herd, often injuring horses and horsemen alike. |
“You have to really put the pound on them,” he said. “You’d have to get them sore footed and tired, and there’s a lot of problems with getting them really tired. Today, at this point, this is the best we can do.” |
One recent morning, Mr. Cattoor and his team conducted several successful runs — 10 horses in one, a handful in another — before a small herd of four horses, their black manes and wild tails flying, came running full-tilt across the desert. The helicopter was close on their heels, whipping up curlicues of dust in the horses’ wake. |
They were headed straight for the trap, when suddenly the herd broke, with three horses escaping across a field, while a single stallion — the leader — galloped in another direction. The pilot, perhaps 50 feet up, chose to follow the larger group, but horse sense had its way; the three headed into a patch of trees, where helicopters cannot pursue. The stallion, meanwhile, disappeared up a ridge and back into the wild. |
Mr. Cattoor watched it all, standing near his Judas horse with a resigned smile, as roundup opponents watched happily from a public viewing station several hundred feet away. |
“These wild horse advocates love it when the horse beats the helicopter,” Mr. Cattoor said. “And they do sometimes win.” |
Chief Investigative Reporter George Knapp and Chief Photojournalist Matt Adams |
I-Team: More Roundups Planned Despite Pleas from Congress |
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3:36 | |
LAS VEGAS -- Government contractors have fired up their helicopters for yet another roundup of Nevada wild horses. The latest gather targets a remote area north of Ely, Nevada. |
Four more roundup operations are on the schedule in our state this year. They will not only thin the herds, but wipe them out altogether. |
2010 already ranks as one of the most aggressive in the history of Bureau of Land Management horse roundups, with a lot more to come. Operations which proved deadly for the herds have already scooped up thousands of mustangs from public ranges, but with no commensurate reduction in the number of private cattle allowed to stay. |
The next round seems are designed to wipe out the horses altogether. |
Now the BLM is asking for an "independent study" on their management practices by the National Academy of Science, supposedly to start on January 1, 2011. Well, why not. After the BLM finishes their blitz on the horses this year, there won't be enough horses left in the wild to worry about.
Even if the NAS were to tell the BLM to cease and desist rounding up these horses, suggest an on-the-range-management plan, and the BLM actually implements such a plan-which I'll believe when I see it-are enough herds left that are genetically viable enough to secure these horses' future? Not if the BLM can possibly prevent it, no there will not be enough left with large enough gene pools to survive long term. This was the whole idea after all. If it weren't, the BLM would STOP the roundups until the study was completed. Instead, they are moving at an ever increasing pace to eradicate the horses before someone steps up and stops them.
The NAS can criticize the BLM's management practices for the last 40 years to their hearts' content, and it won't bother the BLM at all. If the horses are gone, they're gone, and not all the hindsight in the world will bring them back.
So, I have a question. The report below has been around for quite a while, and I want to know why it seems to have been completely ignored by the BLM, and everyone else for that matter. Why wasn't this enough to at least consider stepping back-just temporarily!-to look at the other options that have always been at the BLM's discretion.
Shall I answer my own question or is there any need?
This area of "Wild Horses" is reserved for posting research papers or reference materials that have been approved by the administrators. Please add any comments about this information to Wild Horses' "Wall" rather than this "Notes" section. Thank you!
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Wild Horses -- National Academy of Science field studies do not support the majority of claims that wild horses damage the environment. Responsible advocates understand that areas suffering from verified overpopulation are a different matter. Alberta's wild horses endure a relatively low survival rate among foals. The climate is challenging and predators are abundant.
Cows have no upper front teeth, only a thick pad: they graze by wrapping their long tongues around grass and pulling on it. If the ground is wet, they will pull out the grass by the roots, preventing it from growing back. Horses have both upper and lower incisors and graze by "clipping the grass," similar to a lawn mower, allowing the grass to easily grow back.
In addition, the horse’s digestive system does not thoroughly degrade the vegetation it eats. As a result, it tends to “replant” its own forage with the diverse seeds that pass through its system undegraded. This unique digestive system greatly aids in the building up of the absorptive, nutrient-rich humus component of soils. This, in turn, helps the soil absorb and retain water upon which many diverse plants and animals depend. In this way, the wild horse is also of great value in reducing dry inflammable vegetation in fire-prone areas. Back in the 1950s, it was primarily out of concern over brush fires that Storey County, Nevada, passed the first wild horse protection law in the United States.
Footnotes:
Rangeland Management: Improvements Needed in Federal Wild Horse Program RCED-90-110 August 20, 1990
Public Land Management: Observations on Management of Federal Wild Horse Program T-RCED-91-71 June 20, 1991
Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros: Final Report. Committee on Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros, Board on Agriculture and Renewable Resources, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 1982
HSUS veterinarian expresses concerns over BLM's anesthesia protocols during wild horse castrations |
Newly gelded young horses being exercised by BLM wranglers at Fallon, Nevada facility in April |
More questions than answers plague Twin Peaks wild horse roundup |
- August 21st, 2010 4:25 pm
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The wild horse fatalities are starting to mount, as the Twin Peaks roundup relentlessly rolls on near Susanville, California, and so are the unanswered questions. Through Friday, August 20th, 760 horses have been helicopter-driven off their 798,000-acre Herd Management Area (HMA), and at least four of them are now dead as a direct result of having been chased and confined. |
The latest "mercy killing" occurred yesterday afternoon, when a just-captured two-week-old sorrel colt was euthanized after the attending veterinarian assessed his chances of survival "in the wild" to be slim. That's a strange comment, because this foal was obviously no longer "in the wild," but in the hands of people of questionable good will. Could they not have treated and saved him? |
Twin Peaks Stampede Outrage |
Posted Aug 15, 2010 by lauraallen |
Leslie P, director of Wild Horse Investigations for Respect 4 horses, and Jennifer, volunteer for Respect 4 horses, as well as Craig and Christy and Jessica and a few others, have been on the scene of the roundup in Twin Peaks from day one. (no last names for their protection) |
The first day was a stellar performance by the BLM. Horses only had to come from 20 minutes of a distance and were even observed trotting every once in a while. There were some reporters (Sac Bee) that justifiably reported that the roundup was conducted without much of a fuss. |
Day two and three, no more reporters, no more pretense. Horses came from miles and miles, it took the helicopter three hours to bring them in, horses were exhausted, soaking wet with sweat, way too many horses brought in at the same time, horses turning around and then being chased again a second and a third time, all the while the babies desperately trying to keep up, helicopter unbelievably close to the horses and horses being over-chased to the point of being completely piled and stuck in the traps. |
After horses are trapped and closed in, BLM men start immediately whipping their Wal-mart bag whip sticks at them separating babies from moms, and stallions from mares. After this, they are then frantically whipped into the trailers to be brought down to temporary holding. They drive at incredible speeds with trailers full of panicking horses and downed horses on the dusty roads, you would think they were trying to catch an airplane. It should be mentioned however that Troy Cattoor was so thoughtful to whip some downed horses into getting up. |
Arriving at the lower holding pens they are unloaded in that same incredible hurry, falling over each other, and then, as if they had not had enough stress yet, they are immediately processed. This means they are forced into the chutes to receive vaccinations and dewormers and who knows what else. The entire group is being whipped and flagged and stressed for hours on end. These horses are in mortal fear without a break for water or rest, for literally the entire day. Advocates are carefully kept at large distances during this process. The next morning it begins all over again because then they are transported to yet another lower holding pen. Read more at www.animallawcoalition.com |
Evidence pours in to show that wild horses were terrorized before and during Twin Peaks roundup |
- August 13th, 2010 6:06 pm
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Craig Downer shows just-captured wild horses at Twin Peaks trap site on August 12th |
One wild horse was shot and two hundred and eighty-two others were corralled into captivity by ruthless helicopters during the first two days of the Twin Peaks roundup near Susanville, California, where the BLM intends to scour 2000 mustangs who have been roaming healthy and free on over 656,000 acres in their assigned Herd Management Area (HMA) and put them behind bars. |
With a straight face, the BLM says that this amount of land can only support 450 horses. It wants to preserve most of the forage for 3700 privately owned cattle and 10,000 privately owned sheep. |
PollShould President Obama order a halt to all further BLM wild horse helicopter roundups pending further study in light of a demand to do so from 54 members of Congress?
- Yes (97%, 145 Votes)
- No (3%, 4 Votes)
Total Voters: 149  Loading ... |
More Litigation Filed to Stop BLM Stampedes – Photos Damning |
SAN FRANCISCO, (Grass Roots) - On August 10, 2010, Laura Leigh, filed a Motion For Reconsideration of Denial of Plaintiff‟s Order to Show Cause Re: Contempt brought against Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Bob Abbey, Director of the BLM and Ron Wenker, Nevada State Director of the BLM in Nevada District court. The legal actions are supported by Grass Roots Horse, http://grassrootshorse.com/legalactions.htm |
The original Motion on Contempt of Court charges levied against the BLM was denied, but a recent law change made it possible for it to be re-filed under the new standard of law. The Motion filed yesterday cites newly discovered evidence of the Defendant‟s violation of the court‟s previous order to uphold the plaintiff‟s First Amendment Rights to observe and report on the Bureau of Land Management in regard to the “gather” (“gather” is the BLM euphemism for roundups) and removal of wild horses in Owyhee Herd Management Area. The latest filing also addresses the Defendant‟s sworn testimony in open court that a „water emergency‟ existed and that an „emergency‟ roundup had to take place, or horses would die. This testimony resulted in Judge Larry Hicks lifting the Temporary Restraining Order he had put in place to halt the Owyhee gather until he could hear legal arguments in the case. |
Oppose Massive Wild Horse Roundup in Wyoming’s Pristine Red Desert; 1,500+ Mustangs Targeted for Removal in Adobe Town |
| Email us your comments by Friday (August 13); we will hand deliver to BLM on Monday (August 16) |
 BLM is galloping ahead with its wild horse roundup schedule, despite overwhelming public opposition and the request by 54 members of Congress to halt the mustang captures. Among those targeted: the famed wild horses of Adobe Town in the pristine Red Desert region of south/central Wyoming. Photographer Carol Walker has chronicled the lives of these magnificent mustangs in her book Wild Hoofbeats.
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Beginning in October, BLM intends to round up — via helicopter stampede — 1,951 wild horses, or 80 percent of the estimated mustang population living in the Adobe Town Herd Management Area (HMA) and the adjacent Salt Wells Creek HMA. Nearly 1,600 of these wild horses will be permanently removed. BLM claims that this vast, 1.7 million acre range can support no more 610-800 adult horses in Adobe Town and 251-365 in Salt Wells Creek. Meanwhile the agency allocates more resources within this public lands area to privately-owned livestock than to our federally-protected wild horses. Read more at www.wildhorsepreservation.org |
| Wild horse was driven over rocks to his death during recent Owyhee roundup |
An independent observer who recently returned from scouting the Herd Area in north Elko County, Nevada where the Owyhee portion of the Tuscarora Gather took place has photographic evidence that one of the wild horses appears to have been driven to his or her death over rocky cliffs, presumably by Cattoor, the BLM's helicopter contractor. |
Though no such fatality was ever reported by the BLM, Katie Fite, a Biodiversity Director for the Western Watersheds Project, was able to document it during her visit to the area on July 25th and 26th. Her photograph depicting a horse lying dead on the rocks near the Owyhee River was submitted in support of Laura Leigh's legal motions against the BLM on the Tuscarora matter, the most recent of which was filed on Friday, July 30th. |
| "I noted evidence that horses had been driven down the river bed and held in temporary corrals. Also noted a horse that appears to have been driven onto the rocks." |
Ms. Fite's photographs were taken at the South Fork of the Owyhee River, north of the Owyhee roundup trap site, where she observed four places at which wild horses have access to water, contrary to the BLM's prior assertions that because no water was available to the mustangs in this Herd Area (HA), an "emergency rescue gather" was justified and necessary. |
Another observer, wild horse advocate Sandra Longley, also visited the Owyhee roundup area on July 16th and 17th, to document forage, water sources, cattle, and gates. She reported: |
| "I stood there on the Owyhee on July 17th amidst fields of wildflowers, water pouring out of the sides of mountains, and springs with water running down and alongside of roads. There was nothing but cattle, but over a few hills, many wild horses were dying. . .No horses could be documented except an ecosystem littered with the dead bodies of horses, who had suffered heat stroke at the hands of Sue Cattoor, the helicopter contractor. |
| There is so much more to come. We have yet to get the total of horses who died or were 'rescued' with a bullet out on the desert where they were stumbling around suffering from heat stroke from being pushed by the helicopter. Many of those would have been foals. . .By not counting those horses as 'gather' deaths, but due to drought, the BLM is allowed to escape being blamed for the largest massacre during a roundup." |
It is true that the BLM has never acknowledged, or reported, the deaths of the fallen horses Ms. Longley describes, but their stories must be told. In a press release issued today, the agency admits that 34 wild horses have died as a direct result of the Tuscarora roundup, but it's clear that the actual number who have perished at the BLM's directive is much, much higher. |
Contempt of Court Re-filed Against Ken Salazar and BLM |
By ROBERT WINKLER
RENO, Nevada – On July 30th
Laura Leigh re-filed Contempt of Court charges against Ken Salazar, Secretary ofthe Department of the Interior, Bob Abbey, Director of the BLM and Ron Wenker, Nevada State Director of the BLM in regard to what BLM calls the “Tuscarora wild horse gather.” The BLM continually refers to the three herd management areas of Owyhee, Rock Creek and Little Humboldt under one umbrella name of Tuscarora. Thejudge, at the time of hearing earlier motions, recognized that Tuscarora was
three herds and not one as BLM would like people to believe. |
Adding to what seems like a deliberate move to create confusion, every day the gather schedules change. At present the BLM website, touted in BLM press releases as the only place for correct information, has two completely different gather schedules posted. If a person really wants to know the true schedule they have to contact the appropriatefield offices. It would seem to even the casual observer to be a shell game of now you see it, now you don’t. |
The judge denied the original motion to hear the case based on the parameters set forth in a statute known as the Winters standard. This is the standard by which actions seeking injunctive relief are judged on their merit. On July 28, 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals modified its position on the test used to determine the element, “likelihood of success on the merits” when granting or denying injunctive relief under the Winters decision. The circuit court reaffirmed the use of its sliding scale method, finding it consistent with Winters. |
The law change opened the door for the re-filing under the new guidelines. “We are not going away,” said Laura Leigh, plaintiff in the lawsuit brought about through the support of Grass Roots Horse, a citizen action group. Support for Laura Leigh’s court action is coming in from people all over the country. “Some people are donating to further the cause with $3.00 donations,” said Maureen VanDerStad, member of Grass Roots Horse. “That tells it all right there. People are so fed up with the mismanagement of the wild horses and burros that they want to be a part of doing something to stop it. The blatant disregard for our First Amendment rights by BLM and the cruel and inhumane treatment of the wild horses, which belong to the American people, has spurred the movement on with a vengeance,” she further states. |
Laura Leigh is an artist, author and journalist who is best known for her work in documenting wild horses. She is the founder and director of Herd Watch, a citizen group that monitors the actions of the BLM and the Wild Horse and Burro Program. Full reports documenting range conditions in herd management areas and the condition of the horses themselves are conducted by Herd Watch with a
meticulous eye for detail. |
Yesterday at the Nevada State Legislative meeting, the main focus was on the implications of the Western Watershed Organization’s multi-million dollar settlement with Ruby Corporaton, representing Ruby Pipeline. The Wild Horse and Burro Program came into the discussion and Laura Leigh was there to set the record straight. “Sitting in the audience it was really interesting to see the cattlemen bringing up the very same issues of the difficulties of dealing with the BLM that the wild horse advocates have been dealing with for years. If people do not support accountability in government, it is easy to see how that failure to demand accountability and transparency can turn against them,” Laura Leigh said. |
To read the legal filings, donate to the legal fund, or volunteer please visit www.grassrootshorse.com where there are links to the best sites with more information on the issue. |
"From my earliest memories, I have loved horses with a longing beyond words." ~ Robert Vavra
