"PROCESSING" WILD HORSES BLM STYLE, and ABSCESSES CONTINUE

Humane Observer: Elyse Gardner

Thursday, April 15, 2010

"PROCESSING" WILD HORSES BLM STYLE, and ABSCESSES CONTINUE

LOTS OF INFO FOR YOU TODAY.  PROCESSING AND "PIGEON FEVER" UPDATE.  READ ON...

                    ©3/9/10 Photograph by Elyse Gardner

                              

 Here are photographs and video I have put together from when BLM allowed me to film their processing of the yearlings and two-year olds on "Media Day."  The consensus among the horses was unanimous, as you can see.  

     These horses below are waiting their turn in the squeeze chute.   And they are communicating with each other.  Watch, and listen, to the video.  They are amazing.  

     As it says at the end of my video, please go to my article at www.Stablewomangazette.com, scroll down and click on the title of the article, Media Day at Broken Arrow/Fallon Holding Facility by Humane Observer, Elyse Gardner, to get a more detailed picture.  My thanks to Marya Zubaty of The StableWoman Gazette for doing a fabulous job posting that article.  It is a work of art and love by all concerned.

     

©3/9/10 Photographs by Elyse Gardner

                      

      ©3/9/10 Photograph by Elyse Gardner

     ©3/9/10 Photograph by Elyse Gardner

Blood draw by Dr. Sanford for Coggins test

     ©3/9/10 Photographs by Elyse Gardner

   

                       ©3/9/10 Photographs by Elyse Gardner

                              

                       

                             

When the door opens, sometimes they shoot out of there.  But sometimes they just stand there and tentatively come out, clearly traumatized and almost afraid to move.  They pick up speed as they get the courage up to move.  This mare couldn't exit the squeeze chute fast enough.

     It is clear that the adult stallions and mares would have a harder time with all this.  (I saw adults processed in the identical squeeze chute in the Pryor Mountains last summer.  Some of my videos and photographs are available at Thecloudfoundation.org if you go to their "blogs" and click on "The Humane Observer" links and scroll way down past the Calico roundups.  You'll recognize some of the people, I'm sure.)

                     ©1/6/10 Photograph by Elyse Gardner

Mouse

     A final, chilling note on the tagging and processing:

     Remember Mouse, darling silver buckskin boy?  I will feature him sometime. When I didn't see him last Sunday, and since they had posted that a yearling colt had collicked and died since I'd seen him last, I was anxious to lay eyes on him or at least know he was okay.  I called to check on him by tag number.  BLM hasn't entered the tag numbers into computer yet, so they had to dig through papers and call me back.

    Well, the papers had Mouse's tag number, which I had clearly documented since I filmed his processing on Media Day, as a three-year-old sorrel.  Does that horse above -- Mouse -- look like a three-year-old sorrel?  This is not a computer error.  Somebody didn't keep up with the tagging numbers properly.  I wonder how many horses are off.  The tags bear the same numbers as their brands.  

     Doesn't strike confidence into my heart...  

     Thankfully, they did go out and find Mouse, with his tag on, and verified that he was fine.  Many BLM people are very nice.  But the policies and practices of this organization are at this time utterly destructive to our wild horses.

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Pigeon Fever News

     Here are photos of the young horses dealing with this ugly, sad disease.  But what disease?  Hmmm.

             ©3/9/10 Photograph by Elyse Gardner

     Verbally, at least, BLM is recanting its diagnosis of Pigeon Fever, which Fallon Manager John Neill first announced to public observers on the March 21st Sunday tour, and which veterinarian Dr. Richard Sanford's 3/31/10 report verifies.  

             ©3/9/10 Photograph by Elyse Gardner

Same horse as above, but so cute with sibling I had to include this, too.
(LOOK AT THE SAND BLOWING IN THE BACKGROUND)

    I was told it was a bacterial infection and asked to wait for the official report, which was to be posted either later Sunday or on Monday, to get the actual bacterial name.  It is now Thursday, and their report is not yet posted.  They say think maybe the young horses got bruises from rubbing on bars due to the feeding setup, and then the bruises got infected.

    Horsepeople are skeptical at this news.  I wonder what the delay is in posting the report.  They would not say how or if they are treating the horses medically.  

             ©4/11/10 Photograph by Elyse Gardner

This gorgeous horse's pus pocket drained out and now appears to be healing.

             ©3/9/10 Photograph by Elyse Gardner

I noted how carefully this youngster is avoiding rubbing on the bars.  Ouch...

    My view remains unchanged, which is: 

    FACT:  You have some kind of outbreak occurring which resembles a highly contagious, painful and sometimes (not usually, thankfully) fatal disease.  BLM itself diagnosed it as Pigeon Fever.

    Prudence and compassion and intelligene dictate that you separate the infected horses (or humans, if it were in people) from the general population as a precautionary measure.  Veterinary experts strongly recommend separating infected horses especially since feces and flies play a part in the spread of the suspected disease.  They say keeping the pens meticulously clean from manure is important to prevent spreading the disease.  

               ©4/11/10 Photographs by Elyse Gardner

This poor baby is miserable. Her eyes are pinched.  She is like so many we see there.  It's not just about the pus, either.  They    are    in     prison.

     Putting the, at the time, "handful" of infected horses in the AMPLE sick pens in Fallon would have enabled them to A) keep the pens mucked and very clean;  B) Protect healthy horses from contact C) keep an eye on and more easily treat infected horses.  Presently we counted over 20 horses with these abscesses.  Why not keep them from the general population as a precaution?  

     This is not rocket science.  And continuing to process horses on shared equipment, and then move horses around into different pens as they are re-categorized by age for future adoption events, is simply flirting with epidemic disaster.  

     CONCLUSION:  These people who are in charge of caring for and about our horses demonstrate a chilling lack of compassion in virtually every aspect of "managing" these sensitive, amazing animals. 

     Oh, sure, it could be worse, they'll remind me.  Yes, it could.  But it could be so, so, so very much better.  Like get the cows out of the horses' legally designated herd areas for starters; increase those arbitrary, completely fictitious "AMLs" (appropriate management levels). I want to talk about that issue and will address it directly in another post.  

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 LIVING IN SAND

     I am dreadfully concerned about the sand.  It's like walking at the beach.  The wind was up, and it was in my eyes, in my mouth, in my hair.  Worse yet, when I went to move the horses' hay closer to the pens, it was loaded in the hay.  There is no way to keep it out of the ground feeding as it's done.  The facility is built on sand, like at the beach.  Some of the horses were coughing.  I'm hoping it was just because it was windy.  I'm covering a lot on this post, but it is all current, and I have to call it like I see it.
 ©4/11/10 Photograph by Elyse Gardner

Fallon is built on sand.  What is it going to be like in the summer?  It was terribly windy, sand stung my eyes.  It was everywhere.

     Right now, whatever the yearling horses are suffering, it is because of this roundup and living in these twisted, completely unnatural conditions.  We as humans couldn't come close to tolerating all the abuse these gentle animals have suffered at the hands of humans.  When will it be enough? 

       Think about horse-ness.  Think about the strange and wonderful healing that happens when abused or at-risk kids are given time with ...  h o r s e s.  Horses that will trust them, horses that will accept them.  I've worked in a theraputic riding program for disabled and at-risk youth, and it is AMAZING how quickly the horses open people up in a way YEARS of therapy could only approach.

      Horses are gifts. They are healing to our world to look at, to touch, to smell (they have a wonderful, earthy smell), to hug.  (I haven't even gotten to the riding part yet! One doesn't at all have to ride a horse to be transformed by his presence.)  Grooming them is so centering, this big "ahhh" sigh comes over us and we relax, get out of our head-spinning and connect to this wonderful gentle soul.  I enter horse-time when I pull into the ranch.  No rushing works around horses.  Leave the rush and the anger and the fight at the gate...  
     Even cleaning up after them is meditative.  We get flooded with endorphins and all kinds of good things looking at them, touching them, LOVING them.  And, oh, being  loved by them is the best.

 ©2009 Photograph by Elyse Gardner

Being loved by them is the best.

     Do we not get it, that they are unique gifts from an incredibly imaginative creator?  And oh my, to be carried by such a one.  I confess every time I get on a horse whom I know is okay with carrying me, I feel so elevated, almost like royalty.  Humbled royalty, because what a privilege to be borne by them -- not to mention the incredible fun it is.

     And what about the service they've given us in this country -- in the world as we know it?  How many horses died for every mounted soldier?  And now that horses are largely out of a job, we treat them with contempt?  What does that say about humanity? 

    I will leave you with another look at a little wild beauty. 

       ©4/11/10 Photograph by Elyse Gardner 

I remain,

For the wild horses, captive and free, and their humble burro friends,

Elyse Gardner