Wild Horse Deaths Caused By Government Prioritization of Roundups
TCF fights to protect and preserve wild horses and burros on public lands.
Recent Report Show Agency Doesn’t Have the Staff or Resources to Care For Removed Horses – Thousands More to Be Removed This Year
A report released on May 24th detailed multiple violations of the BLM’s own Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program at the Canon City Holding Facility where nearly 150 wild horses have died from what is normally a survivable equine influenza infection. The report states that the BLM was severely understaffed, leading to a failure to provide standard care for the removed wild horses held at the facility. The West Douglas horses were not freeze-branded or vaccinated within the required 30 days, per BLM policy, leaving them susceptible to the infection which proved fatal for so many of them.
“While we applaud the BLM for being transparent in releasing this report, it’s simply another symptom of an entirely broken system,” states Lisa Friday, Director of Communications for The Cloud Foundation. “The government should not be removing tens of thousands of horses without the infrastructure to provide them with proper care in holding.”
“Congress has increased funding to the BLM every year since 2019 to fund the massive roundups that endanger the survival of our wild horses and burros,” states Ginger Kathrens, Founder and Board President of The Cloud Foundation. “Forcing agency employees to operate on a shoestring budget with inadequate staff in an effort to cow tow to the livestock lobby isn’t fair to them or to the animals for whom they are responsible.”
In addition to noncompliance with vaccination and branding protocols, the Canon City holding facility was cited for inadequate fencing in some areas, damaged paneling and chutes which present an injury risk to the animals, failure to provide hoof trims for more than 6 months, and the “accidental” mixing of stallions with mares and juveniles with adults of mixed sexes.
The Cloud Foundation (TCF), a 501(c)3 non-profit, has been at the forefront of wild horse advocacy since its inception in 2005. TCF was founded by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Ginger Kathrens, creator of three acclaimed PBS Nature series documentaries that followed the wild stallion Cloud throughout his life. Dedicated to the protection and preservation of wild horses and burros on our public lands, The Cloud Foundation advocates for protecting natural wild equid behaviors, repatriation of wild horses to zeroed-out Herd Areas, and for equal allocation of forage within Congressionally designated Herd Areas.
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Lisa Friday
The Cloud Foundation
+1 804-389-8218
email us here
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