November 27, 2010
PINE NUT RANGE, Nevada – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is breaking up natural horse family groups again, this time in the Dayton area of the Pine Nut Range of northwestern Nevada. More shamelessly they have removed foals from there dams and shipped of the young to a holding area called the Palomino Valley facility where they have been thrown in with the general population. This all done while they hoped we were watching football and eating turkey so no one might notice, except GrassRootsHorse’s Laura Leigh.
This herd has incredible community support and people willing to do whatever possible to keep these families intact. Even so it appears that the intention of the BLM was to remove all foals to keep the at the “appropriate management level” according to BLM.
Foals, many still nursing were ripped from their mothers, separated for over 24 hours and a deliberate attempt to keep this quiet, apparently using the holiday to distract citizens, while the foals slipped into the void.
This morning the BLM's plan was to release all the mares and leave all 22 foals behind. Foals were transported from the Lohanton temporary holding area to Palomino Valley Center and added to the foal population there. After public outrage plans were changed and the wet mares have been transported to Palomino Valley to match up with their foals for release early next week. Alan Bitner of the Carson BLM expressed his concern along with many community members about this mornings plan. He seemed relieved as he informed the public that the foals would not be permanently removed from their mothers. The initial call to take the nursing foals from their mothers and release only the mares, came from Alan Shepard. This was confirmed at the site today.
Last night word came that there would be no roundup of wild horses today. BLM claimed it was a day for treating the horses with fertility drugs and the public was not allowed, since the horses were very skittish. The Pine Nut horses by all accounts are quite accustomed to people as they are very popular among the people who live nearby. BLM stated that Friday would be a release day for the 122 horses they captured yesterday. however, it is another BLM lie. Word came while I was on the phone with Laura that the BLM was releasing horses today! She rushed out to be there. She arrived along with other reporters with no sign yet of the BLM. She called back within a short time with very disturbing news. There are 22 foals that were captured that will not be released with their mares. The BLM states they "cannot match the foals to their mares" and are not even going to attempt it. The foals have already been shipped to Palomino Valley facility and have been added to the general population of foals already there.
This is an outrageous situation and please make calls to Mark Struble 775-885-6107 he is the person who has made this call and is responsible.
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