There are currently only 190 wild horses (one year and older) living in the Pryor Mountains. The BLM plans to remove 70 of them, plus foals. According to the foremost equine geneticist, Dr. Gus Cothran, 150-200 adult horses are needed in the herd to ensure their genetic diversity, which is vital to their long term survival.
These 70 horses would be placed in jeopardy. Any horses over 10 years of age can be bought directly by killer buyers and transported over the Northern border to Canadian slaughterhouses or south into Mexico. Younger horses not adopted would be put into government holding with 33,000 others that the BLM has removed from the wild and has proposed killing because they can no longer afford to feed them.
BLM cites poor range condition as the reason to remove the horses but abundant snow and rain for the past two and a half years has produced wonderful range conditions according to all who have visited Cloud and his herd. The Agency is not listening to anyone. They want this herd gutted. Nearly all the mares returned to the range would be given an experimental two-year infertility drug, PZP-22.
This helicopter round up is just one among many that the BLM is trying to complete, perhaps before the Obama Administration can catch up with what is going on.
The Pryor Mountain wild horses are descendants of the Lewis and Clark horses who were stolen by the Crow Indians in the early 1800's. They can be traced further back to the horses brought over with the Spanish Conquistadors in 1500 making them one of the most Spanish of all wild horse herds in North America.
A Stallion is rounded up in Challis, Idaho- photo by Elisa Kline. July 2009.
TAKE ACTION:
Contact BLM:
State Office
5001 Southgate Drive
Billings, MT 59101
Phone: 406 896-5000
Fax: 406 896-5299
E-mail: MT_SO_Information@blm.gov
State Director: Gene Terland
Associate State Director: Howard Lemm
Billings Field Office
5001 Southgate Drive
Billings, MT 59101
Phone: 406 896-5013
Fax: 406 896-5281
E-mail: MT_Billings_FO@blm.gov
Field Manager: James Sparks
Robert_Abbey@blm.gov
To help stop this and save these majestic animals, Call and Email President Obama and Vice President Biden and tell them that you do not want a misguided agency destroying Americas wild horses. 202-456-9000 or 202-456-1111 or write. Tell them to intervene on behalf of the Pryor Wild Horse Herd. The BLM appears to be on a rampage to manage wild horses to extinction.
Sign Petition: Stop the Massive Removal of Cloud's Wild Horse Herd
Read about the Challis Idaho round up here
Documents Reveal BLM Secret Plan to Destroy Wild Horses
Noted Equine Geneticist Dr. Gus Cothran warns against massive removal
