Who will Speak for Us?
Suddenly the roar of the blades fill the air from the sound of a machine flying through the sky. The machine is a helicopter that starts chasing the horses across the mountain plains of the Onaqui mountains. The intent is to drive the horses either to their death or into holding pens.
The horses start running from fright not knowing what is going on. The pilot dodges all around causing chaos for these animals. Some of the horses are just babies not much more than a month or so old.
Utah, Onaqui HMA.©judylneillphotography
The Bureau of Land Management has decided that the size of this herd is too big and needs to be eliminated down to under 120. Currently there are 400 left of this wild mustang.
In 2019 they began the rounding up of the mustangs stating that “The BLM will gather approximately 200 horses from state, private, U.S. Forest Service, and BLM lands. The appropriate management level for this HMA is 121–210 animals and the current population exceeds 510 (not including foals born in 2019).” BLM’s ROUNDUP is based on its policy of “10-Years-to-AML”, which “cannot be fixed”. First of all, here’s how the 26K-max for wild horses was arrived at. Ready?
Around 1870, there were 2M wild horses. By 1970, “mustanging” had cut them down to <25K, while the cattle population had burgeoned to >2M. So what did the BLM do? It arbitrarily set the maximum allowed wild horse population at 26K, because it is as little above 25K as integers allowed, stupid.
This year (2021) they are going to chase the mustangs again with the intent of removing 294 of the horses. The first helicopter roundup of the second half of the fiscal year will begin July 12 at Onaqui. They will forced to run driven to holding pens.
The BLM is part of the Dept. of Interior. They allow cattle owners and sheep herders to be lease the land but they are forcing the horses off. What right does the DOI have to say the plight of these mustangs? They are a free and wild horse that is part of the American western wild life horse heritage.
The forcing of the horses and burros into holding pens is not just the Onaqui wild herd, but other herds as well. But the plight of these mustangs is at the fore front because the date is coming for the round up.
This was from the BLM itself. There own employees have stated that that the herd is in terrible shape, yet last Thursday they were witnessed at night coming to the watering troughs looking healthy, happy and strong. There were well over 100 mustangs including mares with foals and colts.
So where does the BLM or DOI have the right to state that these mustangs are a problem? There is no problem. The only problem is that there are other industries wanting to use the land for the fattening of their livestock. They can bring in cattle by the truck load (for a small price) and let them loose to wander the ranges along with sheep. But where is the voice of the mustangs?
The 1st is concerning the rally to stop the round up scheduled for July 12th. There are groups trying to stop the DOI/BLM from using the helicopters to attack and hurt the mustangs. The preservation of these animals is crucial for heritage.
The 2nd is the proposed plan by Anthony to help with the mustangs and keep the mustangs strong.
If you have any question s you can check out either of these groups on Facebook.
MARR-PLAN for Wild Horses
Save the Onaqui Wild Horses!
I used a lot of pictures but trying word out is my purpose. You can also check my site on Facebook to see more pictures.
