BLM Mulestangs for Sale

Yes, mule-mustangs! These kids were all wild-born mules. They are from the Twin Peaks HMA, which is the biggest HMA in California:

Today the herd is descended from US Army Cavalry remounts released prior to and during World War I, and historic draft and riding ranching stock. The horses are mostly bay, black, and chestnut, but pintos and appaloosas are somewhat common. Some horses even have a metallic sheen to them. The burros likely originated from historic sheep grazing operations in the area. Because Twin Peaks HMA has both horses and burros, it also is one of the few HMAs that has mules. The Twin Peaks animals are highly desired by adopters because of their size, quiet temperaments, and color.

1 YEAR OLD BROWN GELDING MULE (6410) 8hh

1 YEAR OLD BAY FEMALE MULE (7035) 10hh

1 YEAR OLD BROWN GELDING MULE (5717) 12hh

The donks were on a tear this morning lol

https://x.com/504ever___/status/1697073697415418184?s=12&t=ywekEpX8k6eVf6Q260fhQA

Please help stop these atrocities!!! 🐴💔🫏

Shoutout to the only spotted burro from this coming up auction! For sale in a few hours via BLM!

Wild Burro and Horses BLM Roundup

Please share and care.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning on announcing the next roundup of wild horses and wild burro’s for fiscal year 2023. These helicopter roundups are brutal and traumatizing resulting in injury or death to the horses and burro’s. Google BLM Donkey Abuse to watch a horrible YOUTUBE video showing the truth, helicopters chasing the donkeys and the donkey suffering physical abuse from…

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are mustangs a native or invasive species? do you think they should be rounded up?

I think it would be overly conclusory to say either at this point. As far as I know, there haven't been any radio carboned equine remains that show they survived through the ice age in North America. There is some evidence that shows they survived later than what was originally thought though, and were also in the West before the Pueblo Rebellion, which was when many white people thought they were introduced there.

But if they are not native, it would be a mistake to automatically conclude that they are invasive because there is also a lot of new evidence that shows that they are ecosystem engineers. "Invasive" implies a species that causes ecological harm to a new area, but several studies done on wild horses and burros in the Western US show some positive impacts. The ones that I know of are:

Equids engineer desert water availability - this study was done in the Sonoran desert in AZ and showed that equine dug wells increased biodiversity in the surrounding areas by 64%, and often were the only water sources. The researchers concluded "that equids, even those that are introduced or feral, are able to buffer water availability, which may increase resilience to ongoing human-caused aridification.”

Impact Of Wild Horses On Wilderness Landscape And Wildfire - this was done in Northern California to push back on claims made by the BLM that wild horses had a negative impact on the ecosystem and had no predators. It found that horses degraded land less than some of the even-toed ungulates because their hooves are not sharp and pointed like theirs. The riparian ecosystems in the area of study were not permanently damaged by horses because predators prevented them from staying long, and their predators included coyotes, mountain lions, and bears for foals, and bears and mountain lions for adults. Additionally, by eating dry grass the horses reduced the fuel load in the area, and likely prevented a branch that fell and ignited after being hit by lightening from causing a wildfire.

A roundup in the Ash Meadows Reserve in Nevada caused a population of critically endangered pupfish to go extinct - this was cited by the first study mentioned. Once the equines were removed from the area, the riparian habitat became choked by vegetation, a whole population of pupfish died as a result.

To me what these studies suggest is that native or not, the mustangs and burros are filling a distinct role that was not taken on by another native species if their ancestors did go extinct. I don't think the BLM has properly taken this into account in their Appropriate Management Level assessments, though courts tend to give them so much deference as a federal agency that I don't think any have found that they actually violated National Environmental Policy Act. Under NEPA, the BLM is supposed to consider all reasonable alternatives when making environmental impact statement and assessment proposals. I think these studies show that livestock reduction and predator re-introduction should be considered as reasonable alternatives before roundups given the immense cost of roundups and lack of permanent improvement of the range after them, but the BLM has given reasons not to try these options such as "the horses don't have predators in this area" or " it doesn't conform to the current multiple use land management plans." The courts usually accept these reasons as valid. See Friends of Animals v. Silvey.

Speed Goat

k, not a goat but some folks use the slang “goat” when referring to one. The American Pronghorn is also commonly referred to as an “antelope” but it isn’t truly an antelope either. Rather, it is a species of its own. The “speed” is certainly accurate though. They are the fastest land mammal in the western hemisphere and possibly the fastest on Earth in sustained runs. They have been clocked at speeds in excess of 55 miles per hour and what’s most amazing to me is the terrain in which they can attain and sustain these speeds. They can run like that in the sort of rocky terrain that literally hurts my feet to walk in! They are truly amazing creatures and very challenging to photograph as they are also quite skittish. It takes very little to get them to display that speed AWAY from you! I have many poor images of their behinds as they ran away and felt blessed that this one ran perpendicular to my position just long enough for me to grab a shot.

I captured the image in a high desert area known as the Smoke Creek Desert in Lassen County, California, USA. The area is managed by The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and hosts a healthy population of pronghorn as well as wild horses and burros. It is also fairly remote country much of which is only accessible on foot or horseback or a VERY rugged and reliable vehicle (and take LOTS of water).

In my Etsy shop: https://buff.ly/47ZbRV9 Prints and merch on demand: https://buff.ly/3SFWNag

…protections for horses are enshrined in federal law. The 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act mandated that the animals “are to be considered … as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands,” and as such, they “shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death.”

Under Trump in 2018, the Department of the Interior adopted a bold new program for the management of horses that exploited loopholes in the 1971 law. The program, Path Forward, was the brainchild of Republican Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah, a longtime friend of public land livestock grazers who consider horses to be their cows’ competitors on western rangelands.

Path Forward was a wholesale gift to the livestock industry. It directed the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, to expand roundups on federal herd management areas where the animals were alleged to have overpopulated. The benefit to livestock interests was obvious: Cows also use these same management areas, and the fewer horses in them, the better for stock-growers dependent on public forage to fatten their herds.

With Path Forward, the BLM began holding horses in “off-range” facilities in larger numbers than ever before, exposing the animals to rampant disease and extremes of cold and heat. It offered $1,000 a horse to would-be adopters, a much-ballyhooed “adoption incentive.” The agency promised that once the number of horses on the open range had been sufficiently reduced, it would begin widespread fertility control through darting of mares with contraceptives.

By 2020, Congress had fully funded Path Forward, and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, whom Joe Biden celebrated as the first Native American to hold the post, did not hesitate to implement it. Haaland’s BLM has overseen the largest increase in roundups of wild horses on record. It should be remarked as one of the minor ironies of history that a woman whose appointment was supposed to represent a break from the past has ended up perpetuating a violent and cruel status quo.

Occasional horse roundups, conducted humanely, are not out of keeping with the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The legislation stated that when the animals exceed the carrying capacity of management areas, the federal government should step in to regulate their numbers.

The problem is that the BLM has no scientific understanding of the carrying capacity of western rangelands where horses and burros roam free. This was the conclusion of a National Academy of Sciences report in 2013. The NAS investigators found that the BLM had failed to use “scientifically rigorous methods to estimate the population sizes of horses and burros,” failed “to model the effects of management actions on the animals,” and, pivotally, failed “to assess the … use of forage on rangelands.”

When I reported on wild horse controversies for my book on the fate of federal public lands under capitalism, I found that carrying capacity for these persecuted animals was mostly determined by the needs of cattle corporations. In every herd management area, there are cows, and they outnumber horses by orders of magnitude. Allotted the majority of the forage, the cattle do well, and the horses are left to survive on what pittance remains.

From the moment the 1971 legislation to protect horses and burros passed, the number of herd management areas, along with the total acreage included in them, has been continually declining. Horses today don’t enjoy full access to the meager acreage federal regulators designate for their survival. Livestock operators dominate even those parcels, while fences bar the horses from moving freely across the landscape. Maltreatment of horses is only one facet of a long historical process in which the BLM has treated wildlife with barely disguised contempt.

None of this appeared to be a consideration when, in 2022, the BLM decided to capture and place in holding facilities some 21,000 horses and burros, nearly twice the number of the last highest capture year, 2012. More horses and burros were rounded up and sent to holding between 2018 and 2022 — a total of 55,000 — than in any four-year period since passage of the 1971 act.

In the News: Extensive Article in the Intercept

An extensive overview of today’s BLM Wild Horse and Burro program was penned by author Christopher Ketcham and published in the Intercept today. You can access the piece here. The last section of the extensive article reads: Meanwhile, Path Forward’s vaunted adoption incentive program has gone off the rails. Multiple reputable organizations report that kill-buyers are posing as adopters,…

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BLM Burros For Sale - Litchfield Facility

These girls are in the March 2024 auction.

I am not likely to go through these individually, sorry!

The donks were on a tear this morning lol

Public response to: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control Number 1004–0042

The BLM keeps trying to change the rules, at every opportunity, to eradicate the federally protected wild horse and burros, and to dispose of the evidence of their crimes. For over 50 years, WHB advocates keep fighting the government agencies to expose...

The BLM keeps trying to change the rules, at every opportunity, to eradicate the federally protected wild horse and burros, and to dispose of the evidence of their crimes. For over 50 years, WHB advocates keep fighting the government agencies to expose their dishonesty, internal corruption, and mis-management of the WHB program and out public lands to appease the livestock and mining industries…

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Preserving America's Wild Horses: Our Responsibility Ahead

  Senate Moves Towards Better Management of America's Wild Horses and Burros

Return to Freedom Applauds Senate Committee for Including Humane Management Language This week, the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee has been praised by Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation for taking a significant step towards improving the management of America's wild horses and burros. Return to Freedom (RTF), a national nonprofit advocacy organization, has been working diligently with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to urge the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to implement safe, proven, and humane fertility control measures for these animals. The organization also collaborates with a diverse group of public lands stakeholders to foster broader acceptance of fertility control use. If implemented correctly and robustly, fertility control could slow the growth of wild herds, allowing them to stay in their natural habitats instead of facing costly and traumatic capture, removal, and warehousing.   RTF President Expresses Gratitude and Advocacy Efforts Neda DeMayo, president of RTF, expressed her gratitude to the Senate for their continued support in protecting wild horses. She commended the Senate Committee for explicitly directing the Bureau of Land Management to adopt thoughtful management practices that align with the humane approaches tirelessly advocated by Return to Freedom.  

Senate Committee Calls for Robust and Humane Fertility Control Strategy

The guiding report language from the Senate Committee calls for an allocation of $11 million to support the implementation of a robust and humane fertility control strategy that includes reversible immunocontraceptive vaccines. The report emphasizes specific areas of focus for the BLM, urging them to increase the use of fertility control with measurable objectives to reduce population growth, target removals from ecologically impacted and densely populated regions, expand long-term, off-range humane holding, and continue adoptions while enforcing existing safeguards.  

House Approves Funding for Wild Horse Management with Differences

In contrast, the House Interior Appropriations Committee, on June 19, approved $155 million for wild horse management in 2024. The House, like the Senate, allocated $11 million for fertility control; however, it did not exclusively designate the funding for immediate on-range implementation. The House allows the utilization of funds for research, including permanent sterilization, a measure that RTF firmly opposes.  

Reconciliation and Advocacy for Stricter Protections

Now, the House and Senate must reconcile their differences in funding and approach. Return to Freedom is urging the House and Senate conferees to adopt the House's funding level while incorporating the Senate's guiding report language. The organization remains committed to advocating for stricter protections for wild horses and burros and increased funding until the final bill is approved later this year.  

Background - The Challenge of Wild Horse Management

For years, the Bureau of Land Management has primarily relied on capture-and-removal methods, postponing the implementation of fertility control measures, while also failing to meet the agency's own population targets for wild horses. For instance, in FY 2022, the Bureau of Land Management removed 20,193 wild horses and burros from their natural habitats, while releasing only 1,622 mares after administering some form of fertility control. Presently, out of the estimated 141,000 federally protected wild horses and burros overseen by the BLM, a staggering 58,000 reside not on the range but in overcrowded government corrals or on leased pastures. The off-range holding of captured wild horses now costs taxpayers more than $83 million annually, leaving limited funds for critical range management, restoration efforts, personnel, administration, and fertility control.   Population Modeling Provides Hope for Sustainable Management Population modeling conducted by Return to Freedom and other stakeholders has demonstrated that immediate implementation of fertility control, alongside any removals carried out by the BLM, is the key to catching up with and stabilizing herd growth. This approach is essential to ensure that on-range management can replace removals and achieve a sustainable solution for wild horse and burro populations.   About Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation Established in 1998, Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving wild horses through sanctuary, education, conservation, and advocacy. The organization operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at three locations in California, caring for more than 450 wild horses and burros while effectively managing their population through fertility control since 1999.   Sources: THX News & Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation. Read the full article

25 mustangs lose their freedom, and one dead after July 14 Roundup bringing current total to 227 captured, 4 dead

https://americanwildhorsecampaign.org/media/roundup-report-antelope-complex-north-july-2023 https://americanwildhorsecampaign.org/ask-your-reps-cosponsor-wild-horse-and-burro-protection-act-hr-3656 The killing is sponsored by OUR TAX MONEY We Have the right to say no We need to say no Stop believing the lies of BLM Stop eating beef Stop supporting BLM #wildhorses…

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AGISSEZ MAINTENANT : Dites au conseil consultatif du BLM de protéger les chevaux et les burros sauvages !