It wasn't a good year for wild horses

Photo:  Cat Kindsfather
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On January 1st, 2010, a six-month-old colt became the first of the year's multitude of fatalities among wild horses who were chased from their western ranges and put behind bars, having forever lost their freedom and sometimes, their lives.


It happened during the infamous Calico Complex roundup in Nevada, as described in the subsequent necropsy report by Dr. Albert Kane, the BLM's onsite veterinarian:

"The (helicopter) pilot (gathering horses) reported this colt lied down twice while moving just 1/2 mile from the original location of the band of horses.  The second time, he radioed to the trap for wranglers to come with a trailer and assist the colt, as he seemed unlikely to make it to the trap.

I accompanied the wranglers to the location.  We arrived to the colt's location about 10 minutes after the call from the pilot.  On arrival, he was found dead, lying in left lateral recumbency, with no signs of struggle or agonal movements apparent in the surrounding snow."

As a result of his post-mortem examination, Dr. Kane ultimately concluded that the colt had died of "left side heart failure."  But, as the BLM and its veterinarians have done in case after case when wild horses have died from the stress of the helicopter chase, Dr. Kane went out of his way to shift the culpability for the colt's demise from the BLM and its contractor, noting that "Death (was) caused by acute pulmonary artery rupture attributable to a pre-existing, probably congenital heart condition."  And even though Dr. Kane specifically characterized the colt's death as "gather related," the BLM's Calico updates said it was not.

More than 120 wild horses of the 1922 who were scoured from the Calico Herd Management Areas ultimately perished, and untold numbers of unborn foals were aborted from their dams' stress-wrenched bodies before they could ever take a breath.

Word games, deception, cruelty, and a macabre twisting of the truth permeated the BLM's relentless campaign to sweep wild horses from their rightful ranges in 2010.  And at the end of the year, a long-awaited audit report from the Office of the Inspector General simply rubber-stamped the wrangling and warehousing techniques of a federal agency that is seemingly spiraling out of control.

With the keynote appearance of BLM Director Bob Abbey at next week's pro-slaughter Summit of the Horse, the agency's true agenda is starting to come into clearer view.  Anyone who cares about horses should be alarmed.  It is a time to fight back, not to shrink back, lest 2011 bring more of the same misery to America's wild horses.

Laura Leigh seeks injunction to immediately halt wild horse roundups

Barely 18 hours before BLM-hired helicopters are scheduled to lift off in pursuit of almost 600 wild horses in the Silver King Herd Management Area south of Ely, Nevada, advocate and journalist Laura Leigh went to federal court in Reno yesterday in an effort to ground them.

And Ms. Leigh's far-ranging motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) wouldn't stop there.  She seeks nothing less than an injunction to cause the immediate cessation of "all helicopter operations wherever situated," all "transporting, whever situated or intended, of captured wild horses, feral horses," and other BLM-managed horses, and all "bulk shipment of horses from long-term holding facilities, short-term holding facilities, or sale horses outside the regular BLM adoption program."  Ms. Leigh wants to impose these prohibitions not just on the proposed Silver King Gather, but on all ongoing and planned roundups under BLM jurisdiction in every state in which they are occurring or are expected to occur.

The implications of Ms. Leigh's suit are huge, and potentially ground-breaking.  If successful, her motion would not only halt--at least temporarily--the anticipated BLM roundup at Silver King, in Nevada, but a host of other previously scheduled roundups, including the controversial Wyoming gather of almost 2000 wild horses in the Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek HMAs, which is due to start at the end of next week.
Ultimately, when these roundups resume, Ms. Leigh wants access, and she wants transparency.  In the wake of the disastrous Calico Complex roundup earlier this year, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 100 horses, the BLM has gone to extreme lengths to restrict public observers from witnessing its wild horse chases, entrapment methods, and stress-filled holding sites, hoping that by hiding what actually happens when wild horses are forcefully wrenched from their ranges, it would silence the outrage of an impassioned American public.

Instead, the voices of protest have only grown louder.

Read the rest of the story on Examiner.com