I saw this news just before I left for the basin this week … to visit with wild horses and their foals. BLM officials for two Wyoming wild horse herds – White Mountain and Little Colorado – plan to make the herds completely sterile, non-reproducing and totally unnatural.
Pam Nickoles has information on her blog with this post.
This sort of death knell to rational – sustainable – management cannot be allowed to be set as precedent. Slow population growth, don’t stop it.
As readers of this blog are aware, I am a huge proponent of native PZP, and we plan to implement such a plan of annual darting here this fall. I am absolutely against sterilization of wild horses (and burros).
Please visit Pam’s blog for all the pertinent contact information to urge AGAINST sterilization of these herds (of any herds).
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
They’re now “reconsidering” spaying the mares. ithttp://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/news_room/2011/june/17wh-wmlc-gather.html
What happened to “genetic diversity”? I guess if there are no genes diversify, they won’t have to consider that anymore. Even if they choose not to spay the mares, I bet they’ll PZP-22 them all, and still geld all the stallions they can find. There are bound to be a few (very few!) studs left. How will that impact herds re:inbreeding?
Why can’t they see the value of what you want to do at SCB? It would satisfy their goals without decimating these herds. I know there will be few horses left across these HUGE swaths of land, but I still think it would be doable by observing grazing patterns, and using bait-trapping and trained volunteers.
We need some scientists’ comments on this action. Dr. Kirkpatrick and anyone else who’s done wild horse observation and research. I’d like to know Dr. Cothran’s reaction as well.
If the BLM is allowed to desimate these herds, it will be the “new normal” for future management, and wild horses on the range will disappear even faster than we had feared. Once the census is below a certain number, the BLM can choose not to manage the HMAs for wild horses and shut them down. Extinction of Mustangs in the wild will truly be in sight!
Exception: The “treasured herds”. They’ll leave just enough Spanish Colonial blood HMAs to satisfy the general public. “See, we’re protecting the REAL Mustangs!” I wonder if people in the past rejected the wild horse standing in front of them in favor of searching high and low for one with Spanish blood. The whole thing makes me sick!
I’ve sent 3 letters to the various individuals that were provided to me by “The Cloud Foundation” to protest the action of sterlizing free-roaming wild horses in Wyoming. Please spread the word that our voices need to be heard loud and clear regarding this subject. Once it starts in Wyoming, other states will be the next ones on BLM’s list.
Sterilization should never have been *considered* in the first place. Spring Creek Basin isn’t the only herd on its way to a sustainable management plan – others have such a plan in place, and we follow (proudly) in their footsteps. I wish the same for all the herds … I wish BLM would look at the horses as the beneficial resource they are and not as a nuisance to be destroyed.
Thank you for your letters, Lethie. Such poor decision-making by BLM cannot be allowed to stand.