The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a 10-year roundup plan for the mustangs that live within the Confusion Herd Management Area (HMA).
The BLM estimates that just 551 wild horses live on the roughly 235,000 acres of public lands approximately 30 miles north from Garrison, Utah. However, the BLM wants to remove horses down to the low “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) of 70 horses.
Under the Proposed Action, the BLM plans to:
Reduce the Confusion wild horse population by 87% through the permanent removal of 481 wild horses.
Apply untested, inhumane surgical sterilization procedures on mares released back to the HMA; including the brutal ovariectomy via colpotomy procedure.
Geld a portion of the stallions making them non reproducing and destroying their natural behaviors
Please weigh in today against this destructive management plan by signing onto the message below:
Dear Mr. Trent Staheli,
I strongly oppose the Bureau of Land Management's plan to spend my tax dollars to round up and permanently remove 481 horses from the Confusion Herd Management Area (HMA) and reduce the population to just 70 horses on 235,000 acres of public land. This large scale removal, if combined with the proposed permanent sterilization, will irreversibly set this wild horse population on a path to extinction. The Confusion wild horses must be preserved and humanely managed, not decimated and destroyed.
The Environmental Assessment (EA) on the Confusion HMA Wild Horse Management & Gather Plan is inadequate.
The EA fails to consider an alternative to reduce livestock grazing in the Confusion HMA in order to maintain a larger, genetically viable wild horse herd in the HMA. This option is legally within the purview of the BLM, as, under the law, protection of wild horses and burros is a legal mandate, while authorization of livestock grazing is a discretionary action.
The EA failed to consider the impacts of utilizing surgical sterilization procedures on wild mares and did not address the National Research Council's conclusion that "spaying" of mares through the invasive ovariectomy via colpotomy procedure is "inadvisable for field application" due to risk of bleeding and infection. The BLM must fully consider the health risks, behavioral consequences, and genetic implications of utilizing permanent sterilization methods on individual wild horses and in a small population.
The EA failed to adequately consider the impacts of gelding that could result in the loss of male-type behaviors necessary for maintaining social organization and expression of the natural behaviors that the public is interested in protecting.
The EA faied to consider humane and scientifically recommended PZP fertility control program to maintain the Confusion wild horse population at a genetically viable number without constant removals or surgical sterilization methods that will take the wild out of wild horses.
Sincerely,