WILD HORSES and BURROS INCARCERATED by the BUREAU of LAND MANAGEMENT

Janelle Ghiorso
VP, OWHO

History
Our national icons of American freedom and symbols of the American West are disappearing and/or wasting away in government-run incarceration feedlots. Instead of roaming free on our public lands, they are being removed by the thousands each year and sentenced to life imprisonment or worse, with a small fraction that is adopted or sold. The lucky few land in good, safe homes or sanctuaries, while some are a daily post on a killpen page. Many never reach social media platforms and are sold and shipped immediately to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada.

The majority of the American public has no idea that wild horses and burros live on our public lands. They would be outraged at their plight. They and future generations are being robbed of a truly beautiful, iconic wildlife species. Captive wild equine are being inhumanely treated in crowded holding facilities. No other wild animal is treated so poorly.

The BLM and USFS are mandated by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act to protect, preserve, and manage wild horses and burros. These agencies, however, are also responsible for permitting livestock grazing, oil and mining operations, and other exploitative uses. The agencies managing the wild horses and burros didn’t want the job in the first place. They still don’t, and what better way to end the task of managing them than to eliminate them entirely. They are doing a pretty good job of that!

The demand for adoptable wild horses and burros is declining. The market is saturated because more animals are being removed than there are homes for. One online auction can easily have over 900 horses/burros available. Most get passed over as adopters can select no more than 4 per year if approved to adopt. If a horse or burro is 10 years old or older or has been offered for adoption 3 times without a bid, they become sales authority. Sales authority horses/burros can be purchased and titled on the spot, and the buyer can purchase as many horses as they want. When all that’s required is to check a box claiming they won’t sell to slaughter, then BLM’s lack of oversight to confirm or enforce that is a failure to protect them as federally mandated. It also illustrates the absolute disdain the Agency has for these animals.

There is zero transparency or ability to track these animals when they are adopted or sold. Many wild horses are known in the wild. Once they are removed, the public has no idea what happened to them or whether they are safe, except for a well-loved horse that goes to a sanctuary willing to update the public on a specific animal.

If they are transferred to long term holding, the public has lost any ability to rescue or track them. Long term holding and some short-term holding facilities are off limits to the public, most being on privately owned land. Oftentimes, even sanctuaries are denied when asking to rescue individuals or their family members in order to reunite them. Outing the BLM can get them blacklisted.

Winnemucca

The Winnemucca Holding Facility is privately owned by JS Livestock. This facility is not open to the public, however it has allowed a limited number of people to visit recently. Some were horrified to see a dead foal, bleeding from the eye, laying among other foals and mares in the pen. The approval of the opening of this facility is suspicious. There were appeals filed to stop it, but does that ever happen?

On 11/20/2020, JS Livestock submitted the proposal to open the off range corral (ORC) to the BLM BEFORE owning the property. A purchase agreement had a closing date of 11/1/2021.

On 11/30/2021, BLM released its decision, which awarded JS through Oregon National numbers 140LO122D008,140LO122F0113, and 140LO123F0081. The property was sold for 3.8 million to JS on 5/31/22 AFTER they received their award. Did taxpayers pay for this money-making facility for JS?

A request for public records to a federal agency is called a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Our recent FOIA request for this short term holding facility which opened in October 2022, illuminated the horrors of the facility. It’s a 100 acre property that can hold 4000 wild horses and burros. Talk about overcrowding! Our FOIA asked for a listing of all the wild horses/burros at the facility since opening, gender, deaths and causes, births, origin and current location, status, veterinary records, adoptions and adoption records, sales, facility drainage and how dead animals are disposed of. We did not receive much of what we asked for.

We received a spreadsheet with the following information for each horse at the facility:

• original herd management area (HMA),
• signalment number,
• arrival date,
• departure date,
• adopted or not,
• born at corral,
• age,
• deaths and reason for death.

The total number of horses received at the facility since October 2022 (the date they opened) was 3689. 151 foals were born at this location. There were 114 deaths with 6 being foals and 108 adults.

Many horses left the corral on three separate days and our request for current location/status was not updated for horses with a departure date from the facility. The total number of horses who had departed the facility as of the date of the FOIA are 1,834. The mass exodus days saw a total of 62 foals and 410 adults who left. The destination of all 1,834 horses who left the facility remain unknown.

We attempted to match freeze brands with adoption events during the departure dates, but None of the Twin Peaks horses matched any of the adoption events. Where are they, BLM and JS Livestock?

The deaths at this wild horse warehousing facility are concerning. The death list includes:

• 21 foaling deaths (mares who died giving birth),
• 19 broken spines or necks (some during mass moving days; one got head their stuck in a feeder),
• 9 broken legs,
• 21 neurological deaths (no definitive cause; possibilities could include monensin poisoning, moldy hay, or feed),
• 2 colic,
• 2 old age,
• 22 body condition,
• 3 found dead/unknown,
• 1 hung (how does that even happen),
• 3 undiagnosed,
• 1 lame,
• 2 soft tissue injuries,
• 1 physical deformity,
• 1 gelding complication

The breakdown of 21 foaling deaths (mares who died giving birth) occurred between April 13, 2023, and May 7, 2023. Of the 21 mares who died during foaling, 16 died within a month of arrival at the facility. This indicates that the deaths were likely from the stress of the roundup of the horses and would not have likely occurred if the roundup had not happened.

The number of deaths at this facility is inexcusable. The number of broken bones (especially spinal fractures), neurological, soft tissue injuries, body condition, and deaths during foaling is the result of panic and stress, lack of proper facility design and upkeep (lack of shelter, dirty pens, crowded conditions), lack of knowledge from staff or employees, in addition to a potential toxin which was possibly present in the feed or present in the environment due to this area formerly being a cattle feedlot. We are left with more questions than answers with this FOIA. This is poor and inhumane treatment for our wild horses trapped in this hellhole.

We also requested all veterinary records, rendering receipts, and adoption/sales contracts/receipts. We received none. Does this mean that, with all these documented deaths and injuries that caused horses to be euthanized, BLM has never had a veterinarian at this facility? BLM needs to complete our FOIA request. On August 28th, we appealed the lack of information we requested and did not receive.

It is also essential to know that this facility is not open to the public. Since the facility opened, BLM has allowed one tour. During that tour, members of the public alerted the BLM to a foal lying on the ground that looked as if it was already dead. It would seem that BLM would check these horses and definitely would have done so before the scheduled public tour. This just supports the feeling many members of the public have that the BLM does not care about these sentient beings.

A recent visit to the Palomino Valley Corrals (PVC) short-term holding facility in Reno, Nevada, left us heartbroken. The corrals with newborn foals, pregnant mares, and jennys were a testament to the roundups happening without regard for the foaling season. The use of fertility control can cause births outside of what BLM claims is the foaling season. Some foals are born during the cold winter months, and some in the heat of summer. The foals and pregnant mares/jennys at PVC had no shade in the heat of summer. It’s common for the summer forecast to be over 100 degrees for very long periods of time.

The horses, burros, and foals did not display the happy behavior we see when they are on the range. They appeared depressed and broken. Those with compassion can see with our eyes and feel the pain of loss in our hearts. We know abuse and injustice when it’s right in front of us. We cannot stand by and do nothing. This needs to stop.

These animals and their habitats must be protected for future generations. This is not how we should treat our cultural and historical symbols of freedom, and most taxpayers would be horrified to see what they are paying for. No other wildlife is vilified and mistreated like our wild horses and burros—sentient creatures who harm no one.

New baby burros and miserable pregnant jennys standing trapped in the heat. This is inhumane.

I’m so sorry for what humans have done to you. 😢💔

Very tiny foals. 😢 It’s foaling season at Palomino. I hope they all survive.

I’m not sure if the flake of hay that was thrown on the ground and pushed under the panel for the approximately 10 horses in this pen, was just a snack, but I hope not.

There aren’t enough troughs in these pens, in fact, I didn’t even notice where they were. I’m assuming there’s at least one for this number of horses, but there needs to be more.

So many foals and mares (some pregnant) stuck in the heat. This is unnatural for our wild horses and burros. These pens will empty out and perpetual roundups will keep them coming.

Mares and foaling pen at Palomino. No shelter. 😡

What a terrible place for burro foals to be born.

The above photos are from Palomino Valley Corral.

The photos below are from Winnemucca.

This looks like a cattle feedlot.

This type of fencing with vertical bars could be dangerous, considering that foals could get their heads stuck or legs caught. BLM claims that horses cause erosion, so if that’s factual, aren’t they concerned about the gap at the bottom and possibility that a foal might roll underneath?

Barren pens and not enough access to water. Sad.

Crowding by the trough. Looks like babies forced into weaning younger than a natural wild horse would.

These could be twins, which is rare, or a mare that adopted an orphan.