Presentation Transcript

1. BLM Mustangs
2. What is a Mustang? A free roaming horse of the North American West that is descended from the horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish Technically, classified as “feral horses” not wild By 1900 North America had an estimated 2 million free-roaming horses Mustangs were viewed as a resource that could be captured and used or sold (especially for military use, or slaughtered for food or pet food) in the 1900’s Since 1900, the Mustang population has been reduced drastically (approx47,000 today)
3. Protection: In 1971: "Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; (and) that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people ..."
(Public Law 92-195, December 15, 1971) Managed by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Found mostly in Nevada, with Montana, Wyoming and Oregon as the next highest population
4. Numbers: By 1900 North America had an estimated 2 million free-roaming horses Mustangs were viewed as a resource that could be captured and used or sold (especially for military use, or slaughtered for food or pet food) in the 1900’s As of Feb. 2010 there were 33,700 horses and 4,700 burros BLM says 26,000 mustangs is a manageable number
5. Behavior: As the snow clears from the mountain tops in the late spring, the horses head for higher country in search of new grass shoots in the higher precipitation zones. They will stay high on the mountain slopes through the summer until snow forces them to lower slopes in the late fall. Breeding peaks in the spring months and foaling occurs mostly from early March through summer, but can occur year round. The seasonal pattern of burros is more closely related to water availability. Burros tend to congregate near water in the hot summer months and move farther away during cooler months.
6. Eating Habits: Grazing animals. Prefer grasses, but will browse on forbs and shrubs if grasses are unavailable. Forage species include: Thurber’s needlegrass, bluebunch wheatgrass, bottlebrush squirreltail, Indian ricegrass, sagebrush, spiny hopsage, winterfat, sedges, rushs, buckwheat, phlox, and others. Horses can usually be found grazing along mountain slopes or in small meadows. They rest on breezy ridges before wandering to water later in the day
7. Water: Annual precipitation amounts range from 4 inches at lower elevations to 18 inches at higher elevations (falling mostly as snow in the winter months). Wild horses and burros drink from intermittent (seasonal) and perennial springs and streams scattered throughout the HMAs. They also utilize water improvements such as troughs and dirt catchments or reservoirs. Water sources may dry up in the summer, especially during a drought. Horses will paw at the wet ground or a trough in an effort to find additional water. Snow is often consumed in the winter.
8. Environment: Wild horses and burros share the landscape with numerous species of wildlife, including mule deer, California bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, sage-grouse, chukar partridge, California quail, and various rodents. The mountain lion is the only natural predator of wild horses and burros in this area and may occasionally prey on younger animals. However, mule deer and bighorn sheep are their preferred prey.
9. Land Use Controversies Two main viewpoints stemming from animal advocates vs. ranchers 1) Mustang is a symbol of the American West, have an inherent right to graze and populate wherever they want 2) Mustangs destroy the rangeland and compete with livestock for valuable resources like forage and water
10. The Ranchers Large cattle and sheep operations were established in the 1860s and 70s as vast acreages of unfenced public lands became available for the industries. In the 1930s when overgrazing threatened to reduce Western rangelands to a dust bowl, Congress approved the Taylor Grazing Act (TGA) of 1934, which for the first time regulated grazing on public landson about 80 million acres The TGA required ranchers who grazed horses or livestock on public lands to have a permit and to pay a grazing fee which as of 1995 is still the same amount of money
11. TGA Standards: 1) watersheds are functioning properly 2) water, nutrients, and energy is cycling properly 3) water quality meets state standards 4) habitat for special status species is protected. All address healthy, productivity and sustainability as determined by the BLM  applies to ALL public lands used for grazing
12. The Spirit of the West: Roam in bands or herds of about 15 or more with a dominate herd stallion and his mares and foals Harem band will include geldings, older siblings of mixed gender, and the occasional mature outlawed stallion Bachelor band includes groups of stallions Researchers note that most current Mustang herds live in arid areas which cattle cannot fully utilize due to the lack of water sources. Horses are better adapted by evolution to climates  travel as far as 50 miles a day for water sources (cattle don’t)
13. How to Determine their Health Wild horses and burros are managed today in designated habitat called Herd Management Areas (HMAs). An Appropriate Management Level (AML) is established for each HMA. The AML is an estimate of wild horses and/or burros the habitat can support while maintaining a thriving natural ecological balance with other resource values and uses. Population and vegetative monitoring is done to ensure that animals and rangelands remain healthy. AMLs are usually stated as a population range to allow for the periodic removal of animals (to the low range) and subsequent population growth (to the high range) between removals (gathers).
14. Population Control: The BLM has started programs to try and control the mustang overpopulation will be further discussed in the following slides The mustangs repopulate at a rate of about 18% per year.
15. Roundups: The BLM round up the mustangs Population control, drought, starvation, and fire are all reasons why They determine the amount of mustangs to round up by using appropriate management level (AML) techniques. They use AML as a target population where an appropriate amount of horses can survive of the vegetation and water. Horses under 5 are sent to a facility where they’re vaccinated, wormed and freeze marked before being offered for adoption. Horse 5-9 are returned and set loose. While horse older than 10 are transferred to a government run facility.
16. Roundups Cont’d Both critics and supporters of the roundups agree on one thing: the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program is “out of control” and heading for crisis. With adoption rates falling, its cost has doubled in a decade to $78 million this year.  Even the government acknowledges “the current path is not sustainable for the animals, the environment or the taxpayer.”  “We don’t have an overpopulation of wild horses. We have an overpopulation of livestock on our public lands.” – Joan Guilfoyle, head of the Wild Horse and Burro Program
17. Roundups Cont’d: Utah rancher Fred Tolbert, who pays the BLM for permits to graze his cattle with wild horses, says the horses are overgrazing.   “I’m on the range and I see what the damage is,”  said Tolbert, adding that he’d go out of business if roundups stopped.  “… If my cows don’t calve, I don’t make any money. There’s no feed, they’re not gonna have calves.”  The Nation Cattleman’s Beef Association supports the BLM roundups and actually calls for more aggressive and increased use of long-term fertility control to stabilize the population BLM reports “the mortality rate during wild horse and burro gathers is typically about 1 percent or less.”  Among the common causes of deaths listed in BLM mortality reports: broken necks, head trauma and complications from the agency’s gelding of animals.
18. Roundups Cont’d In Jan. 2013 Judge Miranda Du barred the BLM from using “hot shot/electric prod treatment” on weanlings and “rushed and aggressive loading tactics.” She also instructed the bureau to “conduct the gather in humane fashion and not in a manner where the horses are driven through barbed-wire fences.” As a result of its aggressive capture program, the BLM is running out of places to put mustangs. Long-term holding pastures in the Midwest are close to capacity. The BLM adoption program tries to find homes for the younger horses and burros it removes from the wild, but the adoption rate is on the decline -- only 2,598 animals were placed last year.
19. Adoptions: Bid online or in person Adopter Must: Be 18 years of age or older Have no prior violations of adoption regulations or convictions of inhumane treatment to animals. Keep no more that 4 untitled animals at one facility at any time without written permission. Have received Title to all eligible animals previously adopted. Be financially able to properly house, feed, and provide veterinary and farrier care for the animal(s). CORRAL Facilities must meet these requirements and be constructed before your application will be approved: An outside corral with a minimum of 400 square feet (20x20) per animal. Corral should not be too large (more than 50x50), as animals are easier to gentle in smaller corrals. All fences and gates must be at least 6 feet high for wild horses over the age of 18 months. Five foot high fences are allowed for gentled horses, yearlings, and burros. Fencing material should be 2x6 inch wooden planks spaced no more than one foot apart, rounded pipes, poles, or similar materials that do not pose a hazard to the animal. Small mesh, heavy gauge, woven wire fencing with a 2x6 inch board along the top, center and bottom is acceptable. No barb wire, no electric wire, no T-posts, no high-tensile tubing. Once gentled, the animals may be maintained in pastures or in box stalls with daily turnout.
20. Adoptions Cont’d SHELTER Shelters can be a three-sided shed attached to the corral, or box stall in barn attached to corral, allowing animal to move freely between the corral and shelter. Shelter or stall space should be at least 12 X 12 feet per animal. TRANSPORTATION Adopters must provide their own vehicles or make private arrangements. Standard covered stock trailers and horse trailers large enough for 4 or more horses are generally acceptable, contingent on final approval prior to loading. NO 1-HORSE TRAILERS. Two horse trailers are not allowed unless they are a stock type, with no internal dividers. Animals will ride loose and must have enough space to turn around. No pick ups with stock racks. Lengthwise and slant-load dividers must be removed. NO DROP RAMP TAIL GATES ARE ALLOWED PAYMENT Payment may be made by cash, check or money order. The adoption fee is the amount of your winning bid. HALTERS Halters will be put on the animal by the BLM staff or contractor if requested, and must be provided by adopters.
21. Fertility Control: Use a dart gun to inject a fertility control drug, PZP (porcine zonaepellucidae). It lasts approx. 2 years and typically needs a booster to be the most effective The information is tracked using a photo database and a description of each horse.  You need to be 20-40 yards away from the horses to get the best shot with the dart gun It’s a little dart that pops in and out of the horse’s rump, but we only take a shot if we know the horse won’t know it was us. They are smart animals and if they know we did it, they won’t let a human near them next time. The manager of the wild ponies on Assateague Island in Maryland has seen enormous success in this method of birth control for the ponies. It requires more tracking and creative skills to trap them (twice!) but it has helped manage the population.
22. Fertility Control Cont’d The BLM currently devotes only 1.5 percent of its wild horse budget to “population suppression,” such as treating female horses with the contraceptive PZP. So most of the program’s budget goes to rounding up and permanently housing horses and burros, which are kept in separate facilities. Although oral forms of contraceptive vaccines may make it practical to annually vaccinate free-roaming species with minimal difficulty, they are not now available and their development will probably take many years. Need to modify the PZP so it they would eliminate the need for annual vaccination and provide a reasonable short-tem solution for controlling fertility in wild mustang populations.
23. Slaughter: So far the BLM has taken a public stance against slaughtering the animals Ranchers obviously support the idea of selling them for slaughter From the BLM Website: Myth #2:  The BLM is selling or sending wild horses to slaughter. Fact:This charge is absolutely false.  The Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management care deeply about the well-being of wild horses, both on and off the range, and it has been and remains the policy of the BLM not to sell or send wild horses or burros to slaughter.  Consequently, as the Government Accountability Office noted in a report issued in October 2008, the BLM is notin compliance with a December 2004 amendment (the so-called Burns Amendment to the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act) that directs the Bureau to sell excess horses or burros “without limitation" to any willing buyer
24. Sources http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/nv/field_offices/winnemucca_field_office/programs/wild_horse___burro.Par.75828.File.dat/Mustang_Country_final070313_ver3.pdf http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/04/06/tension-growing-between-ranchers-mustang-backers/7380255/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustang_horse http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/field_offices/Casper/range/taylor.1.html http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/media/blm-darts-wild-horses-dose-birth-control http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/clouds-legacy-the-wild-stallion-returns/wild-horse-roundups-why-are-they-conducted/64/ http://www.npr.org/2011/01/06/132712168/government-reins-in-wild-horses-using-birth-control http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/05/horse-burro-blm-nrc/2388947/ http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/14/17588942-cruel-or-necessary-the-true-cost-of-wild-horse-roundups?lite http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/history_and_facts/myths_and_facts.html http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/publications/06pubs/miller062.pdf