Preservation of America's Wildlife

Tag: wildlife

  • BLM AGAIN Releases Fraudulent Population Statistics for Wild Horses and Burros

    Kathleen Gregg, Environmental Researcher and
    Michele Anderson, Environmental Researcher

    “BLM states biologically impossible annual
    wild horse population rates…”

    Photo by Jesica Johnston

    The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently posted their annual Wild Horse and Burro Herd Statistics. As in previous years, BLM’s report is full of obviously false, biologically impossible population growth data.

    WHY is it important to expose this fraud? Because BLM uses the phony figures to convince everyone (but especially, the Congress) that an overpopulation crisis exists.  Given the “crisis,” BLM requests millions of dollars in funding to capture and remove thousands of wild horses and burros from the range or, alternatively, to sterilize them.  The fraudulent figures reflect BLM’s corruption.  Yet, the Agency is granted deference, as if it were providing true data.

    BLM’s falsified population figures affect not only specific herds (by triggering unwarranted, excessive roundups) but also misrepresent the total wild horse and burro population.  The astronomically high numbers for certain herds significantly inflate the summary data, making it seem as if all herds grow at a high rate.

    Here are just a few of the many false figures that BLM is alleging for the reporting-year beginning March 1st, 2022, and ending February 29th, 2023:

    WARM SPRINGS Herd Management Area (HMA) a 497% increase in ONE year (per BLM, a herd of 30 horses produced 149 successful foals in one year which would require that every single horse – including the stallions! – have more than four surviving foals in one year. Biologically impossible

    TOBIN RANGE Herd Management Area (HMA) a 377% increase in ONE year (pe BLM a herd of 30 horses produced 113 successful foals in one year which would require that every single horse – including the stallions! – have more than three surviving foals in one year. Biologically impossible

    HARDTRIGGER Herd Management Area (HMA) a 371% increase in ONE year (per BLM a herd of 14 horses produced 52 successful foals in one year which would require that every single horse – including the stallions! – have more than three surviving foals in one year. Biologically impossible

    SNOWSTORM Mts. Herd Management Area (HMA) a 252% increase in ONE year (per BLM a herd of 90 horses produced 227 successful foals in one year which would require that every single horse – including the stallions! – have more than two surviving foals in one year. Biologically impossible

    DIAMOND HILLS SOUTH Herd Management Area (HMA) a 187% increase in ONE year (per BLM a herd of 216 horses produced 404 successful foals in one year which would require that every single horse – including the stallions! – have more than one surviving foal in one year. Biologically impossible

    DIAMOND HILLS NORTH Herd Management Area (HMA) a 129% increase in ONE year (per BLM a herd of 271 horses produced 349 successful foals in one year which would require that every single horse – including the stallions! – have more than one surviving foal in one year. Biologically impossible

    Not only are these false statements misleading to Congress and to the public but the perpetrators (BLM) of these fraudulent population increases are in violation of Title 18 (18 U.S.C. § 1001).Making false statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001) is the common name for the United States federal CRIME laid out in Section 1001 of Title 18 of the United States Code, which prohibits making false or fraudulent statements, in “any matter within the jurisdiction” of the federal government of the United States, 18 U.S. Code § 1519. Whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, violates this federal crime shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years.

    Horses and burros have an approximate 11-month gestation period but as shown above and in their statistics, BLM continually gives biologically impossible annual herd increases. A recent study of 5,859 wild horses showed that although the average annual birth rate was about 20%, the survival to the age of yearling was only half of those – therefore a maximum herd increase of only 10%. In addition, adult mortality must be factored which therefore reduces the average herd increase to less than 10% annually.

    The National Academy of Science report cited two chief criticisms of the Wild Horse and Burro Program: unsubstantiated population estimates in herd management areas (HMA), and management decisions that are not based in science (NAS, 2013).  The BLM’s biologically impossible and scientifically indefensible population-growth rates constitute dishonest and distorted data, which the BLM uses to mislead Congress and the American people

    WHY is this so important? Because these are the statistics that BLM gives to Congress when requesting funding for wild horse and burro capture and management plans, including the recent BLM $1-Billion Wild Horse Disaster Plan that pushes for massive roundups and the destruction of wild horse social behaviors through surgical and chemical sterilization for both mares and stallions. . These false population statements are a federal crime punishable by prison and a fraudulent action against the American public in addition to being a travesty against our wild horses and burros.

  • Reality vs. Tradition/Heritage

    Written by
    John Cox, M.A. C/M

    “Frankly, when I started to Ride Horses, and establish a reliance with them, the connection between them and I, to be comfortable for them, as well as myself, I found many traditional and heritage driven situations to be absurd. As a matter of fact, many were abusive, and these fear driven traditions, certainly inconsistent with my Horse’s reactions while in remote areas on the trail.” — John Cox, M.A. C/M Horseman

    “We are in a fight over “Ignorant Mind-Sets”, make no doubt, and “False-Narratives” brought about by heavily funded non-profits, special interest groups, and what we accepted as Tradition or Heritage.

    Yet, we “Block-Out” the Traditions of Nature, the Wolves and the Wild Horses for example, that have been around centuries before the “Human Invasion”! Upon which, “Humans” assimilated their beliefs into what is termed “Tradition or Heritage” today, while hypocritically overlooking the “True-Heritage, and how the planet was healthy enough to get us here, today, by Nature, not humans, and, not the human mind set at all. Which is truly destructive on this planet.

    Public debates over Gray Wolves and Wild Horses in North America often pit modern ecological science against deep-seated agrarian traditions and sensationalized media. Yes, tradition based upon “Myth” in the media. Drama and story-telling, not science nor facts, but enhancements to the story-telling, which become, over time, reality — or more dangerous to us all, an ironic “truth”. We now see the destruction when we attempt to assimilate these story-telling dramatic episodes within Nature versus Human, and attempts to manage our Lands and Wildlife within that perspective.

    Traditional viewpoints frequently cast both species as destructive threats to rural livelihoods; whereas, prevailing narratives sometimes romanticize them or misrepresent their direct ecological roles.

    The Conflict Over Wolves traditionally-accepted perspectives are Rooted in folklore and historical livestock protection, fantasies about being endangered by them and dramatized via story-telling, and raising the dramatic structure of the stories to extreme excitement.

    No doubt, this perspective frames wolves as relentless, bloodthirsty predators that decimate big game and domestic cattle (i.e. which are non-indigenous by the way, and should not be roaming our countryside).

    Science, i.e. credible science or “non-dramatic science”, shows Gray Wolves act as Apex regulators that help maintain healthy ecosystems. Depictions of random mass killings, of livestock, et al. (again non-indigenous domestic animals, cattle, should not be roaming our countryside), or imminent danger to humans, are largely exaggerated; although, localized livestock interactions, exaggerated to the extreme. The Wild Horses, and those same people that exaggerate the Wolves aggressiveness, establish drama through fiction, or, exaggerated lies, about the Wild Horses, as well.

    These false-narratives I discuss here, need to end, before we can actually attempt to resolve the issues we face today, within the destruction of our Natural Ecology and overall Environmental Complex.

    Conservation, for example, precisely means to approach Nature as a priority, and not a wreckless, ill-defined term that means making up lies about designated Wildlife, such as Over-Population lies, in order to enhance Trophy or Sport Hunts.

    Nothing wrong with being truthful. Before Humans invaded the planet, the Wildlife, in their version of our Planet, enhanced this Environment over millions of years. Humans here for a mere few thousand years, and we are destroying millions of years of Evolution — as many lie to themselves daily now. As if to say to themselves, their version of history is Tradition, and Heritage, as long as they do not look behind the Curtain of Reality — and the very observable destruction of our Natural Environment. . .” — John Cox, M.A. C/M