As a concerned citizen who has documented the plight of wild horses and won a federal court case against the BLM, I have some grave concerns about Regan Tuttle’s article Hold Your Horses in last week’s edition of The Watch.

REGARDING: LOCAL PARTNERSHIP

The article claimed that BLM officials listen to advocates’ concerns.  In my professional experience I have found the opposite to be true. I have met many likeable, cooperative BLM employees, but when it comes to documenting wild horse roundups I and other journalists have experienced systematic restriction of our First Amendment rights.  Despite my repeated requests, BLM hasn’t forwarded me any updated information on the Spring Creek herd population numbers. The fact remains that the BLM does not want the public to know about what’s really going on at roundups, or behind the scenes.

REGARDING: FUTURE PLANS

While it may be true that the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program intends to update its management plans to “re-establish the appropriate management level”, existing research questions the need for management at all.   In 2013 The National Academy of Science completed an 18-month study of the Wild Horse & Burro program and reported that they could not identify a scientific purpose behind the BLM’s arbitrary population limits (1).
C.R. MacDonald’s report America’s Mustangs & Burros: What’s Left, The High Costs of Miscalculating and Will They Survive? graphically illustrated the annual wild horse and burro population declines, revealing that at least 52 Herd Management Areas have been found to have extreme jumps in annual population reports that were key in supporting BLM’s national ‘excess.’ This hints at continued fraudulent reporting on the part of the BLM.
“… analyzing a variety of BLM’s management techniques such as … reducing wild populations to unsustainable levels… fertility control such as PZP injections and their newest “option” of castrating stallions, all indicated that BLM’s implementation of these techniques were often less than ‘honest’ and appear to be aimed at permanently crippling or eliminating the majority of free-roaming herds… Evidence was also found as far back as 2005 that BLM may have been deliberately sabotaging adoptions to keep holding costs high while they continued to take more and more wild horses and burros off the range (2).”

REGARDING: KEEPING THINGS UNDER CONTROL

Advocates such as Holmes and Jensen (who is on BLM’s payroll) will claim that the birth control drug Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) is “working to keep the population steady,” but Tuttle’s article cited no scientific findings whatsoever.  Perhaps PZP would be useful to that end if wild horses were indeed overpopulated, but they are not.  BLM routinely over-inflates their population estimates. Holmes is not a wildlife expert, and Jensen is a botanist, despite his role as ‘wild horse specialist.’   This type of intricate drug testing on wild horses should be under the supervision of someone like Dr. Cassandra Nunez, PhD, a behavioral ecologist and one of the foremost researchers on the long-term effects of PZP in wild horse herds, which she has found results in ovulation failure in mares and drastic behavioral changes in herd dynamics.  Dr. Nunez raised significant concerns in the federal court case Friends Of Animals & Protect Mustangs v. United States BLM:
“Recent research has demonstrated changes in mare stress and reproductive physiology, in addition to changes in male behavior… mares that receive PZP over extended periods are more likely to cycle, become pregnant, and subsequently give birth in the fall and winter months.  Normally, mares do not ovulate at this time of year which ensures that they do not become pregnant and subsequently give birth during the fall and winter when resources are low... Offspring born at this time face nutritional and thermoregulatory challenges not experienced by their counterparts born during the normal foaling season (during the spring and summer)... In addition, my colleagues and I have shown that after contraception management, PZP recipients both attract and initiate more instances of reproductive behavior… (3)“
Per BLM’s own genetic studies 83% of wild horse herds suffer from arbitrary management levels (AMLs) set below minimum genetically viable populations.  I have personally documented foals born in January to mothers treated with PZP, and seen significant changes in the social behavior of the wild horses of Spring Creek since treatment began - including inbreeding, a direct result of reducing the herd population.  According to geneticist Dr. E. Gus Cothran’s research, wild horses need a minimum of 150 adults to be considered genetically viable - the Spring Creek herd is now less than 60 adults. The Spring Creek herd is being managed to extinction through the use of PZP. I strongly advise that an independent Environmental Assessment (EA) be done by a non-governmental organization or individual, such as Craig Downer, renowned wildlife biologist and author of The Wild Horse Conspiracy.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: THE BIGGER PICTURE

Those are the facts, but all this research begs the question: Why is the BLM working so hard to eliminate America’s wild horses?
The second-largest form of income (second to taxation) for the U.S. Government is the leasing of public lands to the extractive industries - oil, gas and mining.  As director of several international award-winning documentaries on the plight of wild horses and public lands, I have uncovered a correlation between wild horse roundups and the extractive industries profiting off of public lands.  I have interviewed dozens of experts on the subject, including former Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Jim Baca, who was not afraid to speak truth to power during his brief term in office under the Clinton administration:
“It’s a question of who controls public lands in the western United States.  As far as BLM lands go, and to a certain extend Forest Service lands, the livestock industry, the oil industry and the mining industry control those lands.”
Before a company can begin extraction on public lands, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must be made.  If there are wildlife species on those lands - such as wild horses or burros - advocates will want to protect them, which presents a problem for the company.  Their solution? Corroborate with the BLM, who will come up with false excuses to round them up - such as overpopulation - and get them off the land. Several months later, a new mine will open and said companies will rake in profits.  My upcoming film, Disappointment Valley: A Modern Day Western, exposes the fact that eight months after the Spring Creek Herd was rounded up in 2007, the herd management area was staked out with over 100 uranium mining claims.  
Since Trump has been elected, gross offenses are escalating against America’s wild horses and our public lands under Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, a notorious proponent of horse slaughter and cheerleader for the extractive industries.  In less than two years under this administration, our public lands have been sold out, environmental protections rolled back, and wild horse roundups have escalated to an industrial pace.
The truth that the BLM doesn’t want you to know is that this issue is so much bigger than wild horse advocacy.  I have risked much in my career as a journalist to share that this issue goes all the way up the ladder. With every wild horse that gets rounded up off public land, a new frack well or uranium mine takes its place, feeding our nation’s voracious appetite for fossil fuels and minerals.  This is about defending our own civil liberties, our public lands and our right to a sustainable future.