Stop the Roundup of Days-Old Wild Horses
- by: Care2.com
- recipient: Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior
In early July, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) ordered the roundup of about 1,200 wild horses in Elko County, Nevada.
Roundups aren't uncommon for that area, but this time, the BLM disobeyed their own rules, rounding up not only grown horses but foals -- some just a few days old.
The BLM claims, "the wild horse population in these [public lands] is more than three times what the range can sustain." but horse advocates say the land, 480,000 acres, is plenty. They suspect the BLM is forcing the issue now, instead of waiting until the horses are grown, because of two private developments planned for the area.
Gathering foals can be traumatic and dangerous for the young mustangs. During another recent roundup, some young horses were run so hard their hooves were sloughed off, and they were months older than these foals.
Send a message to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar demanding the DOI take a more compassionate, responsible approach to these roundups and ensure that the BLM follows their own "foaling season" rules.
Dear Secretary Salazar,
In early July, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) ordered the roundup of about 1,200 wild horses in Elko County, Nevada.
Roundups aren't uncommon for that area, but this time, the BLM disobeyed their own longstanding rules, rounding up not only grown horses but foals -- some just a few days old. According to the BLM's "foaling season" rules, no roundups are to be held from mid-January to mid-August.
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The BLM claims that "the wild horse population in these [public lands] is more than three times what the range can sustain." but horse advocates say the land, which totals 480,000 acres, is plenty. They suspect the BLM is forcing the issue now, instead of waiting until the horses are grown, because of two private developments planned for the area, the Arturo Mine project (where the Department of the Interior is undertaking an environmental impact study on behalf of Barrick Gold Exploration, a company that wants to expand open-pit mining to thousands of acres of public and private land) and the Ruby Pipeline project.
Gathering foals can be traumatic and dangerous for the young mustangs. During another recent roundup, some young horses were run so hard their hooves were sloughed off. They were eight months old. These foals are just days old, and must run in the summer heat.
Another roundup in Calico Complex, which the Ruby Pipeline will also pass through, resulted in the deaths of 101 horses -- not counting the foals they gathered under five months old.
I urge you, take a more compassionate, responsible approach to these roundups and ensure that the BLM follows their own longstanding and widely accepted "foaling season" rules.
