Help Us Oppose BLM's Disaster Plan for Wild Horses in Utah

We'll submit the petition with our official comments opposing this extermination plan for the Confusion HMA wild horses.

Every voice counts!

I join The Cloud Foundation in opposing the proposed action for the Confusion Herd Management Area. As a citizen who enjoys our public lands and appreciates our wild horses, I will be harmed if the proposed action is implemented.

I love wild horses for their natural, wild behaviors. As an American, I gain tremendous enjoyment and benefit from having wild horses living naturally and freely on our public lands. These amazing animals must survive extreme temperatures and live in rugged terrains. Natural hormone production is known to impact many aspects of mammalian personalities, social behaviors, psychology, physiology and overall welfare.

The Environmental Assessment fails to adequately address the following components of the proposed action:

• Take a hard look at reducing livestock grazing to accommodate wild horses as per 43 CFR § 4700.06  which states, “Wild horses and burros shall be considered comparably [similar] with other resource values” in the formulation of land use plans, 43 CFR § 4710.5(a) which acknowledges that livestock can be temporarily or permanently removed from a public lands area, “If necessary to provide habitat for wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros …”  and the1971 Wild, Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act which requires that the Confusion HMA is to be “devoted principally” for the welfare of wild horses. BLM must implement adaptive management in this evaluation and cannot hide behind the Resource Management Plan.
• In light of the National Academy of Sciences determination that "preserving natural behaviors is an important criterion" for wild horse management, the EA failed to take a hard look at the following:
  • Sex ratio skewing, which causes stallion aggression due to limited mares. Mares are repeated raped due to the instability of bands due to the unnatural ratio of males to females.
  • Castration, which is documented to change the natural behaviors of stallions. The primary reason domestic stallions are castrated is to change their behavior, making them more docile. Thus gelding kills the WILD in wild horses.
  • Ovariectomy via colpotomy, which is not only barbaric and dangerous but also alters the natural production of hormones necessary for natural wild mare behaviors.

As an interested member of the public, I oppose BLM issuing a 10-year Decision for Confusion HMA wild horse management because it eliminates the public's opportunity to contribute & comment on new information as it becomes available, raise important issues not known at this time and leaves that public with no recourse to address such new information. 

As an American I love our wild horses – the wild is what makes them special. I urge you to amend the Proposed Action to address these concerns and to instead use adaptive management to provide wild horses with their fair share of the forage on our public lands and utilize the humane and reversible PZP fertility control.