Owyhee coverage begins with WHE volunteer Marie Milliman, Associate Director of Public Outreach. Marie is trained by our founder Laura Leigh in the welfare policy protocol with knowledge of the necessary documentation to engage as needed, and to add to the observation data base of WHE.

Marie is a former California State firefighter, and owner of an Owyhee Mustang. It is rather appropriate that she begins our Owyhee roundup coverage.

Please be patient as we load our content. WHE has been to 7 HMAs gathering information and covering roundups in the last week. WHE was the only org present at Eagle and at Owyhee to date. At this time we have no paid staff and are also building a new web portal for ease on tablets and phones, PublicHorses.com

You can see the background of the Martin fire and our engagement, specifically at Owyhee, that was instrumental in creating CAWP, HERE: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2018/09/21/background-as-the-owyhee-roundup-begins/

When a roundup begins it is the moment when managing on the range ends. When the roundup begins our advocacy focuses on how to create the safest environment possible for our wild ones that, in this moment, will lose everything they have ever known.

Sept 21

Wild Horses Captured: 223 (Studs 75, Mares 104, Foals 44)

Sept 22

Wild Horses Captured: 178 (Studs 67, Mares 73, Foals 38)

Shipped: 172 (Studs 25, Mares 102, Foals 45)

Deaths:

7-year-old, bay, stud, BLM says “physical defect,” but does not describe what that was.

1- Foal, bay, BLM says “physical defect,” but does not describe what that was.

1- Foal, bay, BLM says “physical defect,” but does not describe what that was.

Owyhee totals to date: 401 (Studs 142, Mares 177, Foals 82)

sipping totals: 172 (Studs 25, Mares 102, Foals 45)

3 deaths

(some of the observations WHE keeps and notes at each capture operation below. These notes are not a narrative. WHE keep these notes, and many others, as a reasoning basis for engaging BLM on changes to protocol; CAWP, observation, communication, etc associated with the roundup itself. )

Inspection of trap; large long wings. Barbed wire in trap area flagged (see photo). Overheads padded (in my, Marie’s, opinion padding should be more than what appears to be old duct tape tapped over). Large first trap pen.

Runs accomplished with two helicopters. Two Judas horses were used. No chaos at trap mouth, two Judas horses used is a likely contributor. 4 runs of large groups.

Observers; myself representing Wild Horse Education, one journalist and her sister doing an independent piece (non venue specified). No harassment, arguing or obstructions to observation from those present. No other wild horse org present.

Holding: Did not observe handling. Note: have not be able to observe handling or loading at trap or temporary in a long time.

Noted injuries: superficial injuries in holding, difficult to observe through fencing.

EDIT TO ANSWER QUESTIONS RECEIVED: WHE does not usually identify roundups by contractor in public posts, those notes are part of our data bank. BLM is the legal party in any removal. If you hired a contractor that violated a rule or law, something simple like painting your house pink and your neighborhood association forbids it, the contractor is not responsible, you are. However we are receiving multiple requests for that information and it is public knowledge; this operation is Cattoor Livestock, Eagle was Sun J.

Remember that for advocacy to be effective actions must be legally sound. If you have any comment or issue it must be BLM that answers under law.

Personal note from Marie: I own an Owyhee mustang. It means a lot to me to be here.

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We wish BLM had accepted our offer to create an observational base prior to this removal to create a “plan of action” that was not just “remove the horses.” The BLM website on this area does not give you a complete view of this complex. This “issues in managing this complex” are not presented by the agency from a “horse” perspective of balanced use and interest participation.

As the roundup progresses we will give you more info on the NAS, the Owyhee lawsuit, and a change in leadership at the State office in 2015 that has led many of our wild ones further into a political fiction, and further away from the reality of the range.

These are tense times on public land. The threats are coming faster than ever before. Your public lands and public horses need you to be their voice. The reality of the range is controlled by the reality of politics. Make your voice count and VOTE on November 6th.

Find your legislators here: http://Govtrack.us

Find out their position on public lands, wild horses and animal welfare. A great place to check your legislator out on environmental issues is at this link: http://scorecard.lcv.org/

If you do not like what you see and hear? vote them out.

For further reading scroll down

Further reading: Zero Accountability in Zinke’s DOI: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2018/09/09/zero-accountability-factor-department-of-interior-blm-doi-zinke-wildhorses-publiclands/ Eagle, when communication and onsite engagement fail. At Eagle volunteer Cathy Ceci began our coverage, our founder had to immediately engage DC, State and legal : https://wildhorseeducation.org/2018/09/15/eagle-update/ The next two days our founder had to go and join Cathy, engage onsite: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2018/09/16/eagle-update-day-3/ https://wildhorseeducation.org/2018/09/17/eagle-update-day-4/ The events of those two days and BLM failures to address issues (simply repeating the same practices) led to the events of the day in this link, including a mare run as she aborted or gave birth. https://wildhorseeducation.org/2018/09/18/eagle-update-cawp-violations/ BLM State, National and local had almost 24 hours to respond to requests, with no appropriate response, as we edited files. “Blame the horse” is not an acceptable answer. We are in process of creating a legal action to address the specifics of the infractions at Eagle that is not dependent on the timeline of that specific operation and are preparing to move it forward. We still await an appropriate response from BLM. If you would like to help us in our fight both before a roundup (to keep them managed on range) or during the roundups (to keep them safe from injury) you can contribute below. Wild Horse Education, through our founder, is the only org in history to take inappropriate actions during capture to court, we won every case. It’s not easy.