Photo Credit: Carol Walker, Living Images.
BLM has confirmed their intention to roundup 783 wild horses using helicopters and remove them from their home in the Sand Wash Basin HMA of Colorado.
They will return just 50 to the range – 25 stallions and 25 mares – with the intention of taking the herd to the low AML of 163.
Earlier this year, we alerted you to this roundup plan and asked you to join us in opposing it.
This is where the rubber meets the road. We need YOU to take action today and voice your protest directly to the local BLM.
Here’s what we can report from those with boots on the ground:
- It’s true that the range has been impacted by severe drought.
- Recent rains have filled up water holes and left water in the washes. Forage is bad in some areas and good in others.
- Horses for the most part are in good shape.
Here are our key points:
- Any removals should be made using the bait-and-trap method. There are newborn foals on the range and if helicopters are used, we know there will be separation, injury, and likely death. Bait-and-trap removals are far more humane, and have been used successfully in Sand Wash.
- A robust darting program should continue in order to avoid further removals in this “most watched” of Colorado’s wild horse herds.
- Livestock grazing should be further reduced or eliminated altogether in order to protect the rangeland and all of the wildlife who live on it.
Please join us in urging BLM to halt the helicopters and instead, use humane bait trapping and fertility control to manage the Sand Wash Basin wild horses.
The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org