Caribou Gear

Target practice on Wild Horses

2rocky

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Jul 23, 2010
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Bet that got your attention!

Found this on Facebook.
Do you want to help provide birth control to wild horses? We, PNWHA, always need new darters, as well as the American Wild Horse Campaign. All mares on our range that were due to be darted are current and darted. At least for now. But on the HMA (Herd Management area) they need help to ID mares, to find the horses and volunteers to get certified to dart. So let me tell you what to expect. You could be ready by next season.

You should: Understand the need to stay safe.
Be physically fit (Not perfect, I am 71, overweight and I have a bad knee) I can still hike slow and steady and I am willing to schedule time.

Be committed to target practice... a misplaced dart in a wild horse can cause pain and infection and the horses cannot usually be treated. It is essential you practice constantly from 12 yards to 37 yards. We avoid taking long shots unless you absolutely cannot get closer to the mare. We are not there to show off our shooting skills. We prefer safe shots in the large rump muscle, carefully avoiding the flanks, legs and face. There are lots of rules to assure clean safe shots.

The people who ID and search for horses are essential and equally important to the process. Once our team went out in advance of the darters the entire process became more effective, faster and more efficient. It is truly a team effort.

Understand our purpose to reduce the reproduction rate of the horses. The goal is to protect the range they roam on, avoid roundup and removal at the risk of horses ending up at a slaughterhouse in Canada or Mexico. This saves horses lives and saves American taxpayers a whole lot of money.

To become an ID person, photographer or help us search for horses just text me at 775 720-8200 or pm me on this page -Mary You do not have to be a professional or talented photographer. We are just looking for ID shots of all the horses so we can document the horses. I hone can work. You will need a 4-wheel drive with good clearance. You MUST want to protect wild horses and be a team player.

We would like to be prepared for fall when mares get darted to prevent them getting in foal in the spring. It takes time to get them, so we have to start early. We don't dart in heavy wind, rain, extreme heat or smoke.

To become a certified darter to deliver the vaccine PZP you will have to travel to Billings, Montana to take the course. https://www.sccpzp.org/training/ Once in a while the team travels to our area to train. (I hope they still do) But the fastest way is to go to the Science and Conservation Center in Billings.

People searching for horses is what we need the most right now so we know where they are hanging out. We can't dart them if we can't find them!
 
Hunted Nevada last year. Lost count of those mangy beasts. I’m not a horse person but have hung around horse people enough to know that they can see qualities I never will in a specimen (grace, strength, build). That said, even I could tell that these were giant headed, misshapen genetic freaks. Equine Boris Karloffs, every one.
 
I live at the base of the Pinenuts in the same valley with these wack jobs. These “advocates” are nothing short of animal activists that attack anyone who speaks out against wild horses or for some type of logical management. They’ve effectively run BLM and harass landowners that fence the feral creatures out. It’s a shame because the country they are destroying used to have(and still does in some areas) some phenomenal muley habitat.
 
It's sad when activist force land managers to accept overpopulated wild horses without doing anything meaningful to help manage the populations. It's a total disconnect from reality being financed by Hollywood types with idealistic glamorized views of wild horses on the landscape. Activist will even push their way into tribal politics if they catch wind of a horse roundup. They find an elder they can influence to speak out for mother earth and their horse brothers given to them by the creator..., or something like that. Then they are left with trampled down/denuded landscapes that used to support grazing cattle, and wildlife. There are NO wild horses in N. America. We are trying to manage feral horses the same as feral swine. The only difference is that one is beautiful and majestic and the other is an pig. If horses were ugly creatures then we would tag them with high caliber rifles instead of fertility control. They are going to throw me out of the Razorback club for saying pigs are ugly!
 
There's a lot of great conservative minds on this board,
So what is the potential to have a group like MDF or WSF to sue the BLM to do gathers?
Would that help get more feral off the landscape?
 
I listened to a presentation from a lady from Healthy Nevada Lands and she thinks that wild horse management is more contentious than any other political subject (including abortion). She suggested that there was no way the Wild Horse and Burro Act was going to get changed in our lifetimes and lethal control would also not be allowed in our lifetimes. Also, the sterilization programs (darting) cost about as much as paying to have the horses rounded up and fed. Unfortunately, her only real suggestion was to get more people to adopt horses (basically, make them private problems instead of public land problems), which seems unlikely to really work either - no one wants the damn things.
 
The BLM should not be in the livestock business.
My solution is to issue the horse people grazing permits just like any other livestock, Number of horses set by BLM range scientists.
Charge horse people just like cattle and sheep men.
If the number of horses are more than the permit, it is up to the horse people to get numbers in line, if they don't fine them, if they still don't remove them and sell them.
No reason horses should be treated any differently than other livestock.
 
I listened to a presentation from a lady from Healthy Nevada Lands and she thinks that wild horse management is more contentious than any other political subject (including abortion). She suggested that there was no way the Wild Horse and Burro Act was going to get changed in our lifetimes and lethal control would also not be allowed in our lifetimes. Also, the sterilization programs (darting) cost about as much as paying to have the horses rounded up and fed. Unfortunately, her only real suggestion was to get more people to adopt horses (basically, make them private problems instead of public land problems), which seems unlikely to really work either - no one wants the damn things.
Adopt hold them for the allotted time them home butcher them and use for personal consumption. Pretty simple solution.
 
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