BLM CASTRATING OLDER STALLIONS: A SMILE AND A HANDSHAKE AND A STAB IN THE BACK

    In my last post I asked, what have you got, BLM?  They have answered. They have deceit; they have a blind determination to proceed with their plans to minimize wild horses and remove, castrate, and send them to longterm holding, and no amount of reason or opportunity seems to deter them from this mission. 

     While we sat with BLM officials in Denver, while they made noises about transparency, sustainable herds, animal welfare, and asked for new proposals, they were castrating the age five-and-older stallions who remain at Fallon.  

 © Photo by Elyse Gardner taken 2/13/10              Stallions 

                                   

Horses at Broken Arrow facility in Fallon

   BLM's credibility has utterly tanked, to use the vernacular.  They claimed they were entertaining the Soldier Meadows proposal (click on this link to review the easy-to-understand proposal).

     My understanding was that those stallions would stay intact stallions.  The mares, however, were all to be treated with PZP.    What is the hurry to castrate these horses?  How can BLM be giving serious consideration to this proposal, a truly groundbreaking opportunity to manage in the wild and save taxpayer dollars, and behave in such a way? 

     I find it difficult to wrap my arms around the in-your-face manner in which the BLM misstated and misled the public.  I personally had dared to hope things might be different.

     Who is responsible for this?

      Gene Seidlitz, Winnimucca District Manager, is the one Dean Bolstad has repeatedly told me is responsible for deciding who or if any horses will be returned to their range.  I've asked that he return the older stallions. Is Gene is the person who gave the green light to the castrations in the midst of the Soldier Meadow negotiation?

     Here are some of those frightened and bewildered stallions when first they were taken from their families and forced into this crowded temporary pen on January 6, 2010. 

©1/6/10  photos by Elyse Gardner

  

Photo to right taken 1/26/10. Roundup started December 28.  These are not malnourished horses.  BLM likes to say 30 to 40 percent of the horses  came in malnourished. That is not what my camera and I saw.

 ©Photo by Elyse Gardner

    The BLM website states:

     Gelding of the five years and older stallions took place this week. (While we were sitting in good faith conversation on our part.)    During gelding one stallion was noted with two cryptorchid testicles and was euthanized, one stallion suffered a spinal injury while in the chute and died on his own and one gelding was found dead in the pen. ...

       Why did Dr. Sanford choose to euthanize this cryptorchid stallion and not others?  It is BLM protocol to sometimes eliminate cryptorchid stallions.  \
THE BROKEN BACK
        We can only surmise since we were not permitted to see.  I know that in the chute, the horses rear up in agitation, struggling to break free.  I've seen them rear again and again and flip backwards sometimes.  This can break a back.  Also, the "padded" squeeze chute is padded except for on top. When the horses rear up, which we can be assured they will frequently do,  there needs to be a pad on top or poll injuries can easily lead to death.
The following photos are courtesy of Pam Nickoles, taken in the Pryors.  Note the force with which this stallion is rearing up and fighting this confinement.
      The chute at Fallon has no opening and does not have padding at the top, so when the horses rear like this, they smash their heads on the metal grating across the top, sometimes flipping over backwards.
       BLM officials have told me, "They're not scared.  They're fine."
       I disagree.  Very simply, this stallion is fighting for his life.  And now we know it's the truth, don't we.

      

    Found dead in the pen.  Who was found dead?  Who died?  What were the other symptoms?  Was this horse in obvious pain, or was this a surprise?  Did anyone even notice?  With everybody so busy with castrations, who has room or time to follow up on the horses?  
 
     What happened to posting the tag numbers?   We want to know what stallions have died. We want to know the cause, not BLM's cryptic, sterile statements.
                ©Photo by Elyse Gardner taken 2/13/10 

       Things happen in the chute because these powerful animals are fighting for their lives.  For example, this horse, Great Star, in the Pryor Mountains was the second to struggle out the window during processing.

              ©2009 photo by Elyse Gardner                    Pryor Mountain Roundup

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(If you have trouble viewing this video, it can be seen on TheCloudfoundation.wordpress.com

      In the Pryors, BLM closed down my close access to the chute processing the day after I shot this video.  
     In Calico/Fallon holding facility, doors closed on advocates the week before these castrations began.  We cannot show you what's happening because it's all behind BLM's closed doors.

   But we can see the handwriting on the wall:  BLM chose only the young horses to show the public on Media Day, but the week before castration of the mature stallions begins, we the public are locked out because BLM knows how hard this is on the older stallions.   They do not want the public to see it because it looks bad;  because it is bad.  

And they are planning a true assault on the wild horse population starting July 1, when the roundup of 7,500 more horses begins.  Bear in mind, many babies are only weeks old.  And they are already using the "private land" song to stiff-arm the public away from the trap sites.

      It would be effective if every letter we write to BLM or anyone about the wild horses, we cc our Congressperson.  

      And we need to be there -- "there" being anywhere our wild horses are, i.e., on the range, at the roundups, in the holding facilities.  
      We cannot let BLM shut the door and then talk to each other about how sad that is.  Write and call your Congressional representatives  and the President (202)456-1111, and insist on public access to our wild horses at all public and private facilities.
       BLM is as transparent as MUD.  Nothing, absolutely nothing has changed.   As Andrea Lococo from Animal Welfare Institute pointed out during the "workshop," BLM has been singing the same song for two decades, but where are the results?
       They say they want to hear from the public yet keep cotton in their ears, AND continue with their plan to take record numbers of horses off the range only to shock and awe them like they've done in Calico.  

Facility Death:  3 (i.e., this week, cumulative Death total: 99

More to come. I must go now.  We are on the road.  Heavy heart. 

For the wild horses, captive and free, alive and dead, and their humble burro friends,

Elyse