BLM Nevada Stallion Castration Plans On Hold Until Court Ruling

RENO, Nev. -- Federal land managers have agreed to postpone their precedent-setting plan to castrate hundreds of wild stallions in eastern Nevada pending a federal court's review of the issue.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's action came a week after a coalition of conservationists and wild-horse defenders sued the government in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to block the plan's implementation.

Under a compromise approved by the court Thursday, the agency will be allowed to begin a long-term removal of roughly 1,800 wild horses from the sprawling Pancake Complex near Ely beginning about Jan. 12 as scheduled.

But the BLM agreed to put on hold its plans to castrate 200 wild stallions before releasing them back to the complex.

Horse activists think the court will rule in its favor.

Comments

[AHDFprez]

12:21 AM on 12/30/2011

How can one call it managing for diversity when cattle outnumber wild horses 245 to 1? When cattle outnumber the pronghorns, the big horn sheep (a non-native species) and every other animal on the range? How can one call it biological diversity when cattle are not even considered in making range land management decisions (see PEER lawsuit)? The issue of castrating the stallions has many issues. First, the BLM is only allowing a small number of horses to remain, in some herd areas it is as low as 10-12, so forget about preventing inbreeding and self-sustaining genetic diversity. They are then artificially manipulating the ratio of males to female. The mares are treated with a drug to prevent pregnancy that already disrupts the social structure of the herds and causes a number of issues that the BLM did not foresee. To correct these issues they want to now castrate these stallions with no scientific data to show what issues will arise with this plan. This is akin to bringing in invasive species to treat a problem, it just creates more and bigger problems. Congress approved the protection of the wild horses unanimously and it is supported by the majority of the public too. The BLM is breaking the law by catering to the mining companies and the ranchers and they should be stopped from doing it.

[ELLIEMEI AFRICA ELLIE]

06:03 PM on 12/27/2011

SUCH BRILLIANT NEW'S...WHY DON'T WE CASTRATE ALL THE HUMAN MALE'S ON EARTH TO CUT DOWN ON OVER BREEDING,UN WANTED PREGNANCY'S, ORPHANED CHILDREN, FOSTERED CHILDREN,ABUSED CHILDREN,POVERTY ,POVERTY......ETC
I SAY WHY DON'T YOU CASTRATE THE POACHER'S WHO ARE KILLING ALL THE RHINO IN SOUTH AFRICA / ZIMBABWE CENTRAL AFRICA..PLUS OTHER WILDLIFE IN AFRICA FOR HUNTER'S TROPHY'S..TOO ..WHY DON'T YOU JUST DO THE VI-VI SECTION LAW AGAIN...FOR ALL HUMAN'S..THAT THEY WHO KILL ,HARM ANIMAL'S SHOULD BE ADVERTISED INTERNATIONAL NAMED AND SHAMED...IGNORANCE COMES WITH THE MAN...AND IDIOTS ARE IN ABUNDANCE..TOO...AMERICA IS TOO BLAME FOR ALL THE CORRUPTION AND GREED TOO LET ALONE THE LAW OF AMERICA WHO TAKES FROM OTHER COUNTRIES AND THEN PROFIT..WHILE ALL PEOPLE IN SOCIETY SUFFER OF HUNGER.....SEEM'S SOCIETY BREED'S EVIL...SAVIGERY,BARBARIC HUNTER'S TOO.
AND CERTAINLY A LOT OF BUREAUCRATIC LIARS OF SUPER WEALTH...GREED..
SO MY ADVICE TO YOU ALL CASTRATE THE KILLER'S, MURDERER'S,RAPIST'S.ETC..WHO TAKE ALL THE TAX MAN'S MONEY TO LIVE IN A HOTEL (PRISON) AT LEAST WE ALL WILL BE FREE OF HUMAN SLAVERY OF MAN KIND....

[pappy50]

07:39 AM on 12/27/2011

If anybody wants to see a prime example of religious left extremism, look here at the comments. You are definitely the fanatical bunch.

[banana republican]

09:04 PM on 12/26/2011

Why can't PETA (who would find interfering in the horses sex life appalling) and the Pro-abortion camp (who would find the opportunity to pioneer horse abortions exhilirating) pool their funds and expertise to solve this problem?

[Jodi Bauter]

12:06 AM on 01/04/2012

Your stupid comment does not even make sense....this has nothing to do with PETA for one thing and another this non-sense the BLM want to do cost the tax payers millions of dollars a yr. Plus housing these horses in pens. When they eat and live for FREE in the wild! geeez

[banana republican]

08:34 PM on 01/04/2012

It was sarcasm. You and eye C I to I on this one.

[Tresco]

05:36 PM on 12/26/2011

It's a complicated problem with no easy answers. All the ideas have a bad downside. I don't like slaughtering them for food or letting them starve.

[Jodi Bauter]

12:09 AM on 01/04/2012

They are NOT starving! 90% of the pictures available of these animals show them very fat and healthy. BLM are lying when they tell people they are starving to death. If they can not find water, it is because cattle rancher purposefully cut the horses OFF from water supplies. When they cut horses off many other species ALSO suffer. It is the cattle ranchers who do the damage to the lands. And oil and gas and Uranium mining.

[Judith Jaehn]

11:45 AM on 12/05/2012

You are absolutely right.. This is criminal what the BLM is doing and Salazar is leading this group of horse killers!!!
F&F

[Scrappysmith]

07:06 PM on 03/21/2013

A Tresco

It would have been cheaper for the BLM to provide feed on the range for the Herd's with lowered health (& make sure they weren't cut off from water sources) than rounding them up & coughing up over a $100K a day to feed them in holding pens. Even drilling for some new water sources for the Mustang's on the Range.

[Linus521]

04:21 PM on 12/26/2011

It is vital to remember, differences occur in animals. An ecosystem flows energy one way and can support only so much life. What matters above all else is, Earth's opinion of horses versus bison, pronghorn antelope, the plant biological diversity that sustains the entire ecosystem and all the animal and plants species interconnected and symbiotic within the ecosystem.

Man exists only because of ecosystems, and ecosystems exist only because of their richness of their plant and animal biological diversity. This specie of horse is not biological diversity but is an invasive, transported, inroduced hooved locust introduced by Spaniards.

Unlike pronghorn antelope, bison and the black footed ferret, these horses can only kill the entire ecosystem by devouring it, pushing extinct the strands in the web of all life. And, regardless, if it is a pipeline or an introduced, invasive specie, it spells death to all the reasons man exists, death to Earth's ability to create and sustain all life.

[cam1002]

10:11 PM on 12/26/2011

Spoken like a true hunter and cattleman. If you are not, then you have been listening to their propaganda. I suppose the cattle are a biological diversity and not an invasive, transported introduced hooved locust capable of killing the entire ecosystem by devouring it.

[fireart]

10:26 AM on 12/27/2011

LOL Your funny.

[Linus521]

02:08 PM on 12/27/2011

Both the European horse and cow are not biological diversity and are stealing the food, habitat, cover, nurseries and shelter of the rivets of spaceship Earth. Even the dumbest of birds does not devour his only nest. They need to reintroduce wolves and mountain lions to trim the herd to fit the ecosystem.

What is relevant is Earth's opinion of her black foot ferret and pronghorn antelope, not man's.

[Jodi Bauter]

12:12 AM on 01/04/2012

Are you kidding me? A few thousand horses are causing all the damage, and not the few million head of cattle and some sheep...and oil...and gas...and uranium miners and pipelines...get a clue...

[Linus521]

01:09 AM on 01/04/2012

Try on concrete cities, freeways and windmills and dead solar panel fields and you have a dead planet, as life giving and sustaining as Mars. Permitting horses to devour the homes/habitats, food, shelter, cover, nurseries of the strands in the web of all life, is about as ecologically intelligent and prudent as concreting the Earth. It all spells death to the Earth's ability to create and sustain all life.

Don't concern yourself though... Most scientists believe it is far too late. Man will be extinct in 50 to 100 years. Because of ecological ignorance and the inability to assess priorities. You must love Earth before horses or any hooved locust.

[Marioam]

02:26 PM on 12/26/2011

First it was the wolf, then the couger, then all of the big cats, the coyote and etc, which left an overpopulation of prey animals and an increase in disease so of course next on the hit list were wild rabbits, prarie dogs, and such. Soon the only thing that will be left is land for the cattle industry and given the dry periods this country has had and the world, the one thing we will learn like it or not is, mess around with Mother Nature and she will mess with you back.

[Salguod]

04:33 PM on 12/26/2011

I agree. And I also agree with those who say that the cattle should not be allowed on BLM land either. BLM land is public land, and it should be managed for the benefit of the public and the environment; not just so ranchers can make a profit by destroying our natural resources. But I’m sorry to say that the horses are in the same category as the cattle: Destructive to the environment.

[cam1002]

10:14 PM on 12/26/2011

But there are a lot more cattle than there are wild horses. And the question is in properly managing the horses, as the cattle should also be managed and are not. Ranchers get extremely long term leases on public BLM land for rock bottom prices, therefore as far as they are concerned the horses are the intruders, not the cattle.

[Scrappysmith]

07:11 PM on 03/21/2013

Now! Now! Salguod Mustang's are Genetically Proven to be Indigenous

[NoPulse]

02:16 PM on 12/26/2011

What a great opportunity to introduce a predator.
Wolves are endangered in New York.
A reintroduction program for Central Park......
After all they havent felt the economic chaos
that listing Polar Bears is going to have
on Casinos yet.
Insane yes..................
So are rules and regs being dreamed up everyday.

[Marioam]

02:15 PM on 12/26/2011

You can thank the BLM and the cattle rancers for the continued curelty and slaughter of these beautiful animals. My source for this statement? Go to You Tube you will see it all there, google news stories that actually date back years.

[Judith Jaehn]

08:51 PM on 12/26/2011

Marioam, every single word you speak is the truth!!!!!!!!
All you disbelievers should join us on Facebook where we have been waging a war against the BLM for ages. I also feel bad for the cattle. What the cattle ranchers and BLM have done to the horses is criminal. And then Obama goes and picks a cattle rancher for the interior!!!!!
FANNED AND FAVED!!!!!

[cam1002]

10:16 PM on 12/26/2011

A word of support for Obama, he is not a rancher nor even a real Westerner, he is taking the advice of those who were presented as "experts". Bush on the other hand..........

[Julie Van Ness]

06:15 PM on 12/27/2011

Salazar for Interior was a huge mistake for Obama. Likely, he was warned, but appointed Salazar anyhow, and we have the results. Nothing has changed for our wild horses. Before Obama, there was "W" and before "W" there was...and so on, using the "Wild Horse" Act of 1971 to carry out the "removal of excess wild horses" to achieve a population within...etc. etc. etc. using whatever method the BLM comes up with.

Now, it's an ongoing horror story, full-blown for all to see, helicopters chasing the panic-stricken horses mercilessly, zooming down on them, harassing them without let-up. The helicopters don't discriminate, they chase them all, the old and infirm and the pregnant mares and their foals. These chases lead to terrible injuries as the horses try to evade the danger being forced upon them. Inevitably some are chased to death. And, for what? To "gather" them off public lands in order to make room for the cattle. All that suffering just to satisfy America's meat industry. And our tax dollars pay for it.

The BLM's answer to the problem is to tell their employees to turn each other in if they witness animal cruelty. Who would be left?

Obama should do Interior a favor and get rid of Salazar and appoint someone who isn't dead-from-the-neck-up when it comes to America's treasured wild horses.

[realitytrumpsbull]

01:51 PM on 12/26/2011

We may not be out of the woods on the energy issue, yet, so it might be a mistake to cull out future generations of horses. Their upkeep may represent a government expense, but in contrast to the tens and hundreds of billions urinated away on unaccountable entitlement programs and 'defense' and other forms of government folly, you're talking pennies on the dollar, probably tenths of a penny, by comparison. I say tend the horses. They brought us a long way, to what we now call modern America, and the future of our sole source of energy(be honest), petroleum, is far from secure. Prudence would dictate NOT hauling Trigger off to the glue factory, just yet.

[judy covey]

05:40 AM on 09/06/2012

the wild horses cost us nothing. when the blm gathers them and puts them in short and long-term holding pens, it costs $77 million per year. the president needs to abolish the blm and return all our precious equines to their rightful lands. all zeroed-out hmas need to be reopened to our horses as they are protected under the 1971 wild horse and burro act.

[Vintage59]

01:49 PM on 12/26/2011

They have to cut the numbers down on a regular basis because the available free range can only support a finite number of wild horses. The BLM used to find people to buy some of them but they are not allowed to sell them for slaughter and most horse owners are having trouble affording the upkeep right now so that option is effectively closed off.

This is hardly the best possible solution but they don't have a lot of options.

[Chris Hirsch]

02:10 PM on 12/26/2011

Well they are loaded up on semi trucks and driven right to the Canadian and Mexican borders and taken to slaughter :/ And you can send a very Special Thanks to Ken Salazer for killing thousands of wild mustangs every year.

[Vintage59]

02:37 PM on 12/26/2011

Thank you for making the hard choices, Ken. Someone has to do it while the rest of us sit around and debate the issue.

[flayden068]

03:07 PM on 12/26/2011

Let's castrate Ken and send him off to the slaughter house.

[Viper1st]

02:15 PM on 12/26/2011

Just sold prime 4th cutting barn-stored horse hay this very morning for $12/60lb bale = $400 a ton

Horses ~ eat while you sleep . . . . . . how many horses can you afford to feed? As a U.S. Taxpayer, you are paying for the feed/boarding of over 41,000 horses annually at 2010 costs of $925 per horse, per year = $37 million annually, more, annually to maintain, than the horse is worth ~ ~ ~ ~

[cam1002]

11:21 PM on 12/26/2011

Lets say we take back public lands, ban the overfeeding cattle from grazing on them and leave the much smaller number of wild horses alone.

[dickn2000b]

01:46 PM on 12/26/2011

Considering the recent decision to permit the sale of horsemeat in the U.S., one must ask the question, From where will this horsemeat come? Horses are not raised for food as cattle are. The most likely source, therefore, are the wild mustang herds. Should this occur those herds will be decimated to the point of extinction. I submit, therefore, that castrating a single wild horse at this time would be unwise.

[Justine George]

03:05 AM on 12/27/2011

More US horses are sent to slaughter in a year than the total mustang population. The idiots who want to slaughter horses on US soil and decimate the mustang herds are only hoping for less competition. It'll be great when the EU bans the importation of American horse meat because it is full of toxins. Then we'll only be fighting the welfare cattle ranchers for the tiny bit of land BLM allows for the wild herds (less than 20% of all BLM land).

[edwrmelo]

01:29 PM on 12/26/2011

What are their plans with these wild horses? Please don't tell me they are going to kill them they should be adopted out not killed or used for meat. We are to blame again we are taking over the habitat yet no one will get to the real issue. We need to put a limit on how many children a couple can reproduce. We have way to many people on this planet yet no one wants to address the issue it's sickening to me for people to keep bringing these children into the world and can't feed them.

[Vintage59]

01:51 PM on 12/26/2011

The key question is "who do you mean by we?" Who gets to decide what my reproductive rights are? That's always the rub and there is never a good answer for it.

Do we start deciding which humans are worthy of passing on their genes at all next?

[flayden068]

03:21 PM on 12/26/2011

Do away with the free loading welfare programs would be the first step. Round up all the free loading Fathers of these welfare ticket children and castrate them. Children should be born into the world because they are conceived out of love, except in the cases of rape, and rapist should definitely be castrated along with the rest of their male organs removed. So, yes Vintage 59, in some cases we should decide who is responsible and capable of loving and supporting their offspring.

[mudshark12]

06:59 PM on 12/26/2011

The government needs to introduce the public to the concept of Zero Population Growth and after doing this eventually enacting it into law after the states have had time to discuss it. Zero Population Growth is couples married or not agreeing not to have more than 2 children which will reduce population growth by causing it to level off. China has couples licensed to have children.

Bottom line is that the Earth will only support so many humans.

[Viper1st]

01:55 PM on 12/26/2011

Same as the existing BLM Policy ~ to board these horses, as do the current 41,000 wild horses in short-term & long-term facilities at a annuall cost to the U.S. Taxpayer of $925 per horse per year

> that's $37 million annually for the boarding of 41,000 wild horses in captivity ~ while 33,000 wild horse remain FREE on BLM Managed land

> while less than only 12,000 wild horses annually are either purchased and/or adopted

[Vintage59]

02:45 PM on 12/26/2011

It's the same old story. Back when average Americans could afford luxuries that cost $1000-2000/year more people adopted them. Now we feed them because we don't come up with real solutions for our problems. We play politics instead because taking any real actions makes enemies and that means those enemies will fund attack ads against any politician of either party who dares to make any kind of stand at all.

My share of this feeding costs less than a dime each year. I'd gladly pay a dollar but I would strongly prefer to have solutions. I'm just not all that optimistic that they will be offered, much less acted upon.

[DawgBone5]

01:16 PM on 12/26/2011

Run horses, run ...

[earlsspg]

12:49 PM on 12/26/2011

Too many horses?
Eat them, good tasty protein, don't waste it.

[Viper1st]

02:51 PM on 12/26/2011

16 million U.S. Citizen Children are living in poverty ~ going to bed hungry, each & every night.

Maybe the $37 million U.S. Taxpayer monies used to "house" 41,000 horses, should be used to feed the 16 million CHILDREN

> or use, 41,000 horses to feed the CHILDREN?

Still are 33,000 wild horses on BLM Land running FREE . . . . . .

[earlsspg]

08:48 PM on 12/26/2011

Sounds a sensible idea. havng eaten horse flesh I would recomend it a little sweeter than beef and best cooked long.

[catahoulahogdogs]

10:15 PM on 12/26/2011

you are very realistic, but an a_s.

[flayden068]

03:23 PM on 12/26/2011

Unfortunately we are not allowed to print the appropriate words that would befit your comment.
Quess if I said I hope you choke on your words would be okey though.

[earlsspg]

08:51 PM on 12/26/2011

I am sure your comments will be apprciated by those like you.
Happy that your breeding programme is a failure

[catahoulahogdogs]

10:18 PM on 12/26/2011

your newest fan, thanks