Dead foal triggers passion about mustang roundup in Nevada

RGJ.com

By Frank X. Mullen Jr. • fmullen@rgj.com • May 30, 2010

The foal was 4-days-old and just skin and bones when it was given a fatal dose of drugs at the Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse facility in Fallon.

The mercy killing at the Indian Lakes holding center May 16 sparked complaints from wild horse advocates that the BLM isn’t taking good care of its thousands of captured wild horses.
The report of the Churchill County Sheriff’s Office investigation was submitted last week to the district attorney, who will decide if any laws were broken.
Sheriff Richard Ingram said the report contains the facts and makes no recommendations. At issue is a state law that makes “failure to provide proper sustenance” to animals illegal. Ingram said the charges made by horse advocates were serious.
“This is important because there are obviously two passionate sides to this issue,” he said.
BLM officials say thousands of mustangs must be rounded up in the West because an overpopulation of horses is harming native wildlife and the rangeland. Activists say the agency is managing the land for the benefit of ranchers, mining operations and other moneyed interests at the expense of the wild herds.
The advocates have long complained that the agency isn’t taking good care of mustangs. They said the recent death of the foal proves the BLM isn’t equipped to do the job properly.
“The photos of the foal are self-explanatory,” said William L. LeRoy, a wild horse advocate from Arizona who has been working with Nevada activists. “If that foal was on private property and someone drove by and saw it, there would be an investigation.”
Photos and videos of the baby horse have appeared on the Internet.
“Aside from the issues of whether the roundups should have been conducted in the first place, there’s the issue of making sure those captured horses get the same standard of care as any other horse in the United States,” LeRoy said.
BLM officials said some horse advocates are looking for any reason to attack the agency’s wild horse removal program and that 2,145 mustangs now at the Fallon site, including about 320 baby horses, are well treated, constantly monitored and treated for health problems.
The emaciated foal was born May 13 and euthanized three days later after horse advocates visiting the facility asked about the animal’s condition. It was dehydrated and malnourished, the BLM said.
Dean Volsted, BLM wild horse manager, said the baby horse was very weak at birth and had been examined by a veterinarian for the first three days of its life.
“The foal’s condition had declined dramatically,” he said. “The mare didn’t have enough milk.”
After the advocates called his attention to the animal, he said, it was again examined by the agency veterinarian who determined it had “a hopeless prognosis for survival.”
Advocates argue that the animal’s extreme condition did not happen overnight and that the BLM workers should have known it was in grave trouble without visitors having to point that out.
Volsted said some “orphan foals” have been given to private sanctuaries to nurse, but because the foal’s mother was trying to feed it, the foal was left with its dam because natural milk would give it a better chance for survival.
“There’s not a question in my mind that (the foal) had good care,” Volsted said. “These (newborns) are very fragile animals. … Some of the horses that came in (to the facility) were in very poor condition and their health has been largely stabilized.”
But he said some of the pregnant mares weren’t able to have healthy offspring.
About 90 horses have died related to the Calico roundup, most at the Fallon pens, according to the BLM. Foals are not counted in BLM records. The emaciated colt’s death is in addition to at least 87 fatalities as a result of the Calico roundup, not counting mare miscarriages.
“These horses were taken off the range because BLM claimed they were at risk of dehydration and starvation, the reasons given for destroying the captive foal,” said Terri Farley, a Verdi author and wild horse advocate.
She said the horses, particularly the pregnant mares, were stressed by the helicopter roundup and their subsequent captivity.
“If this foal was born in the wild, instead of suffering in a fenced sand box, it might have lived,” Farley said.
Roundups to continue
The BLM removes “excess horses” from federal rangeland each year. This year the agency removed 1,922 mustangs from the Calico Mountain Complex north of Gerlach.
Wranglers using helicopters to herd the animals removed more than 80 percent of the Calico wild horse population, leaving behind an estimated 600 horses on the 859-square-mile complex.
This year, the agency plans to remove another 8,000 horses from Western rangelands, clearing out five federal designated wild horse areas, including two in Nevada.
Wild horse advocates said the BLM can’t take care of the horses it already has.
“We have been saying for months that one veterinarian is not adequate to monitor thousands of wild horses and now more than 300 foals,” said Ginger Kathrens, director of the Cloud Foundation, a wild horse advocacy group. “If volunteers were allowed on a regular basis to view these horses (in the Fallon pens) the death of this little colt might have been prevented.”
Volsted said one veterinarian for both the Fallon and Palamino Valley adoption center, where another 500 horses are boarded, is adequate. He said the horses are checked once a day and sick animals immediately receive care.
BLM officials said foals aren’t part of the agency’s wild horse count until they get older and are freeze-branded.
Eventually, many of the animals held at Fallon will be transported to long-term holding facilities in the Midwest, Volsted said.
“We moved 82 horses (in May) to the Palomino Valley adoption center for an Internet adoption auction in July,” he said. “Beginning in June we’ll be shipping 400 to 500 head, the younger horses, to other adoption venues.”
Horses will be shipped to Montana, Texas, New Mexico and the Midwest, he said.
“We won’t be shipping any of the mares with young foals,” Volsted said, adding foals won’t be weaned until September.
“We have a staff of 10 people at Palomino Valley and two full-time BLM people in Fallon as well as the contractor’s crew,” Volsted said. “There is a vet there on a daily basis and the wranglers are experienced in health care and can treat minor medical needs.
“Yes, we have one vet, but there’s a whole crew of experienced people out there overseeing and caring for these horses.”