Tonight's Webinar: Unleash Your Inner Muttgyver: Tips and Tactics to Deal with Dog and Cat Pet First Aid Situations

 

In this webinar, pet health and safety coach Arden Moore will unleash new ways to safely render aid without a pet first aid kit handy and safely transport injured pets. You will learn how to incorporate Fear Free techniques to combat fear, anxiety, and stress in injured pets and build a confident, can-do attitude in you.

Attendees will learn how to:
 

• Understand the importance of taking a veterinarian-approved pet first aid/CPR class.

• Recognize how your mental state is "read" by injured pets.

• Embrace the value of behaving like a first responder and pet detective in your approach and the clues you gather.

• Tap into your creativity to use everyday items to render aid, stabilize, and transport an injured pet.

• Develop a stronger bond with pets by practicing first aid skills in a rewarding way.

 

Join us for this free webinar TONIGHT at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Click here or the button below to register!

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Last Friday, our wild horse champions in Congress introduced MAJOR legislation to reform the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS) Wild Horse and Burro Programs. 

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Protection Act of 2022 will enact sweeping changes to the way the BLM and USFS manage our wild herds. This includes putting an end to the disastrous cash incentives fueling the Adoption Incentive Program’s (AIP) slaughter pipeline, prioritizing humane methods of population management like fertility control vaccine programs as an alternative to cruel helicopter roundups, and much more.

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Year to date 310 dead from Round ups. 

When is this going to stop? When all 78k horses are in facilities and no more on the plains we have to stop this now

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Calico Roundup Update

BYLAURA LEIGHON SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

“Hope” died after his feet literally began to fall off at Broken Arrow. photo copyright Laura Leigh

Background:

The (Tri-State) Calico Complex is one of the few large and remote areas that became very well-known to the public over a decade ago. A roundup at Calico, on the heels of the 2009 operation at the Pryor Mountains (the home of the now deceased Cloud the Stallion of PBS fame), brought stark contrasts to light.

At Calico a select list observers were only allowed in once a week. Most observers only allowed in once for the entire operation. The wild horses were trucked to a holding facility that was still under construction and off-limits to the public, Broken Arrow (aka Indian Lakes). The treatment of Clouds herd stunned a nation. The treatment at Calico, stunned even the most seasoned advocates.

While doing a story for the now defunct Horseback Magazine, our founder saw a small colt run with a helicopter 5 feet off his back. During a tour of the facility for a story for the magazine, she saw the same colt dying from hoof slough (his feet were falling off). The experience impacted her deeply. She began to expand her volunteer work against horse slaughter to focus entirely wild horses and edited a short film (on a broken laptop) after Calico. Later that year she founded this organization.

After Calico (and all the bad press) BLM began referring to the Fallon, NV, facility as Indian Lakes, abandoning the name Broken Arrow. It is common for BLM to change the way they reference something so a Google search does not bring back the past. Another example is the 2011 “Tuscarora” roundup that they now simply reference as the Owyhee (no matter which area they are in) after chasing advocates around in the desert and threatening them with arrest (even though the advocates held a court order that said BLM needed to let them see operations).

In the following years policy began to change after relentless litigation; the first humane handling standards were created and a daily public access policy was created. Closed door facilities began to do tours for the public. On range survey work began to shut down roundups. In 2013, we entered the years of the lowest removal numbers in history that lasted through 2016.

All that changed as backdoor deals began and a group (later known as the Path Forward) used political influence and expensive lobby teams to have their plan for our wild horses incorporated into the Bureau of Land Management 2020 plan. Over the last few years we have hit the highest numbers of wild horses and burros removed since the 1971 Act passed, big money partnerships and an expansion of fertility control that includes fast-tracked sterilization. Our wild ones were truly sold-out by the biggest players of political games.

The 2022 roundup at Calico has begun. Once again wild horses are being shipped into facilities that are not open to public viewing. The same facility where a record number of deaths (including hundreds of spontaneous abortions) occurred in 2099/10.

The target for capture (for the over 584,101 acre complex) is 1,556 wild horses. The BLM claims the estimated population as of May 2022, is approximately 1,593 wild horses within and directly outside of the Complex. BLM plans to release 40 mares treated with PZP-22 at the end of operations.

The post capture goal for the BLM is to reach what they call “low-AML” (the lowest appropriate management level) of 572 wild horses in the entire complex. The complex contains 5 Herd Management Areas (HMA): Black Rock Range, Calico Mountains, Granite Range, McGee Mountain and Warm Springs Herd Management Areas (HMAs).

This is the same BLM district where WHE and CANA have filed in court against outdated planning and a lack ofd public access at Blue Wing.

Cumulative totals:

Captured: 235 (90 Stallions, 105 Mares, and 40 Foals)

Shipped to Broken Arrow (aka Indian Lakes): 133 (36 Stallions, 67 Mares, and 30 Foals)

Died: 5

BLM published reasons: 4-year old Black Mare, missing right eye – blindness; 4-year old Bay Mare,  previous puncture injury, deeply infected right rear fetlock; 3-year old Sorrel Mare, missing right eye – blindness; 17-year old Bay Mare, sway back; 6-month old Bay Filly, sway back.

To learn more about the BLM’s updated euthanasia policy click HERE.

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As of August 23rd 2022

The Round ups have become more brutal because of the weather and the long helicopter round ups. More horses have died because of it. Totals to date: 1854 captured, 1616 shipped to off-limits to public view holding and 23 have died. This is from one area called Triple B. Each day more and more horses are going to "shelters" We need more and more help to save these horses, 219 64 stallions, 95 Mares and 48 foals.  Each round up take the lives of 20 - 30 horses die. They wanted 1900 horses and they just about reached their mark. 

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AS OF July 16,2022

Phase 1 of the Piceance roundup was done via bait trap and captured 18 wild horses.

Phase 2 will be executed through helicopter drive trapping and began today, July 15. A WHE team member is on-site.

The Piceance East Douglas Herd Management Area spans about 190,000 acres. BLM asserts that 135-235 wild horses is the appropriate number to manage in the HMA. The agency estimates 1,385 wild horses currently occupy the HMA.

Governor Polis of Colorado has made several public statements reflecting concern over helicopter drive trapping during foaling season and made attempts to get BLM to work with certain advocates to expand the use of fertility control darting in lieu of capture. He has also requested that the State veterinarian be present to oversee welfare as an observer independent of the operation staff.

Wild horses will be shipped to Axtell in Utah. Canon City in Colorado remains closed after deaths of  more than 140 wild horses from illness in the facility, causing the facility to close for intake beginning in April of this year.

BLM began the operation today.

Totals:

Captured to date: 235 Wild Horses (87 Stallions, 106 Mares, and 42 Foals)

Shipped: 108 Wild Horses (35 Stallions, 46 Mares, and 27 Foals)

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON (June 29, 2022) — Today, the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) commends the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations for advancing bipartisan language in its Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies funding bill and its accompanying report, which includes an allocation of $11 million for reversible immunocontraceptive fertility control in FY23 to manage wild horses and burros. The measure also calls for evaluating other on-range management options that would keep horses and burros out of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) holding facilities. 

“We applaud House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro and Interior Subcommittee Chair Chellie Pingree for taking steps to make meaningful improvements to the wild horse and burro programs at the BLM and Forest Service,” said Holly Gann Bice, director of government relations for AWHC. “Congress has sent a clear message that the status quo must change—a robust fertility control vaccine program is a humane, cost-effective option to manage healthy wild horse populations. The BLM now has an opportunity to turn away from the outdated practice of helicopter roundups and move forward with fertility control vaccines as an effective, science-based solution.”

The $11 million allocation for fertility control vaccines administered by the BLM underscores the committee’s support for sustainable and humane management first established in the FY22 bill and report. The FY23 Committee report further called for BLM to pursue partnerships with veterans and wild horse organizations to aid in this effort. The appropriate use of fertility control vaccines will stabilize horse populations and end the cycle of removing and confining horses in overcrowded holding facilities. According to AWHC, the BLM has historically spent less than 1 percent of its Wild Horse and Burro Program budget on fertility control.

“I worked with the American Wild Horse Campaign to include funding for administering and researching wild horse fertility control in the House FY2023 appropriations package,” said Congresswoman Dina Titus (NV-01). “This is a step in the right direction towards a more humane program for controlling wild horse and burro populations. It will also save taxpayer dollars and help prevent cruel roundups and inadequate holding of these denizens of the Wild West.”

This action is particularly timely as the federal government is struggling to address the deadliest wild horse disease outbreak in BLM history. One hundred and forty-six wild horses recently died at a BLM holding facility in Cañon City, Colorado following an outbreak of the Equine Influenza Virus (“EIV”), a disease that captured wild horses were supposed to have been vaccinated against. AWHC believes the problems at Cañon City, however, are merely representative of larger, systemic issues with BLM’s off-range corrals across the West. An internal BLM assessment even documented significant mismanagement at the Cañon City corrals.

“I continue to be concerned about the Bureau of Land Management’s plans for large-scale roundups of wild horses on federal land and BLM’s commitment to a robust program of fertility control,” said Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a member of the Natural Resources Committee. “Americans cherish these iconic symbols of the American West, and we want to know they are being cared for in the most humane ways possible.” 

Other key measures include: 

• Calling for the BLM to evaluate options for relocating wild horses and burros to different Herd Management Areas (HMAs) as an alternative to keeping the horses captive in expensive government holding facilities.

• Reviewing the agency’s Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) for any program weaknesses that jeopardize the welfare of the mustangs and burros placed into private care.

• Emphasizing the importance of the U.S. Forest Service to screen adopters and purchasers to ensure safe outcomes for wild horses. Currently, the agency offers the animals for as low as $25 with no formal screening process in place, placing them in danger of inhumane treatment and slaughter. 

“I am so grateful that this Interior Appropriations bill protects our nation’s majestic wild horses and burros, including maintaining the bans that prevent the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management from sending them to slaughter. It is imperative that we guarantee adequate screening procedures for horses and burros adopted out or sold by the BLM or Forest Service, in order to ensure that they are not ending up in slaughter or otherwise abusive situations,” said Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40), who spoke today during the House Appropriations Committee markup.

“We’re grateful to U.S. Representatives Mark Pocan, Steve Cohen, Dina Titus, and  Roybal-Allard for their work to protect wild horses and burros and championing on-range management strategies to help keep horses and burros in the wild and out of dangerously overstressed holding facilities,” concluded Gann Bice.

The organization, however, expressed disappointment that the bill provides $19 million in increased funding, which could be used for inhumane helicopter removals. Yet, AWHC is thankful that the Committee provided $6 million less funding than the amount that the House Appropriations Committee provided in the FY22 House Interior bill. 

The bill further provides $1 million to the Foundation for America’s Public Lands for establishing an office and initial costs and urges the Foundation to prioritize FY2023 to assist BLM with “the challenge of wild free-roaming horses and burros.” While questions remain regarding the Foundation and what their wild horse and burro project would entail, AWHC is overall encouraged by the FY23 House Interior bill and hopes the pro-wild horse provisions move forward in both chambers. This bill comes on the heels of two recent legislative bills banning horse slaughter and the cruel practice of soring. 

 

 

Budget Confusion

BYLAURA LEIGHON JUNE 28, 2022

Every year as the Appropriations (budget) bills move through the process we receive many questions. Most of the questions revolve around periodic misconceptions that the process has ended or something has been “won or lost.” Over the last several years Congress has not passed any consolidated spending bill before the expiration of the fiscal year (Oct. 1) and we have had a series of short-term bills passed simply to keep the government running. This has led to further confusion for many.

We hope this answers many of your questions.

 

The spending bill begins with a request from the White House. That bill moves into both House and Senate where subcommittees for each branch create a detailed version that reflects their part of the whole. After debate and what is called a “markup” (where changes are made) the bill passes to committee and then a full floor vote. When the bill passes the House it moves to the Senate to repeat the process. If House and Senate versions do not match there is another committee that negotiates to create a single version of each bill, consolidate those bills, then send them to the President to be signed into law.

The process follows the same steps as any other bill… except there is a deadline to pass them or the government has no funding to operate.