October 27 2016

AWHP: Urge BLM to Drop Wyoming Wild Mare Radio Collar Study!

Equine Welfare News Archive AWHP, BLM, Equine Welfare News, wyoming 0

The following is an update and call to action from the American Wild Horse Preservation.

Your comments are needed today to stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from conducting an expensive and traumatic helicopter roundup of wild horses in the Adobe Town Herd Management Area (HMA) for the sole purpose of putting radio collars on 30 mares. The study is designed to lay the groundwork for zeroing out the HMA by showing that Adobe Town wild horses migrate into the Checkerboard sections of the HMA following removal of horses from that area. The entire premise of the study is now invalid, because the BLM has cancelled the 2016 Checkerboard roundup in response to our recet legal victory at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Tell BLM NO to wasting our tax dollars on another unnecessary and traumatic wild horse helicopter roundup and study by clicking here.

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Your comments are needed today to tell the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to drop plans to conduct an unnecessary and dangerous radio collar tracking study of wild mares in Wyoming.

The agency wants to conduct an expensive and traumatic helicopter roundup for the sole purpose of placing radio tracking collars on 30 mares living in the Adobe Town Herd Management Area (HMA). The collars are part of a proposed 5-year study conducted in conjunction with the University of Wyoming to study the movement and habitat selection of the horses.

It is clear from the documents that the study is intended to lay the groundwork for the “zeroing out” of the Adobe Town wild horses, because it aims to prove that wild horses from the non-checkerboard portions of the HMA migrate into the checkerboard sections. The BLM is in the process of eliminating wild horses from the Wyoming Checkerboard to appease the Rock Springs Grazing Association, and wants to prove that wild horses must be eradicated from the entire area in order to keep the checkerboard clear of wild horses.

Ironically, the whole premise for the study is now void since the BLM has cancelled the 2016 Checkerboard roundup, thanks to our legal victory at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Not only is this study unnecessary, but also it presents a danger to wild horses, both from the helicopter roundup that will injure and kill horses and shatter their families, and from the radio collars that are not breakaway, but rather must be released via “remote detonation” if a horse get in trouble.

Finally, the underlying bias of the study is revealed by the University of Wyoming’s research proposal, which “predicts” that the study will show that horses can’t be kept off checkerboard lands, “disproportionately” use riparian resources, “displace” ungulate species and complicate management of other wildlife species and livestock.