Wild Horses at risk in Nevada

[BUNDERSVAGUEN]

We need understand the horse like a free animal and a good friend

[kkhorsegirl124]

i wud help but my mom wudnt let me

[FreedomRunsFree]

Will there be any wild horses left for us to witness and enjoy seeing?! Not under the administration of President Obama!Why won't they stop this destruction!!!

I am ashamed of my vote. I am totally ashamed of the lack or morality and lack of respect for our law. This anniihilation is NOT lawful, intelligent, civilized or just.

It is sickening and shameful....How dare you, President Obama, to sit back and witness this with not even a whisper!? You are a pitiful excuse of American representaton

[FreedomRunsFree]

Will there be any wild horses left for us to witness and enjoy seeing?!

Not under the administration of President Obama!

Why won't they stop this destruction!!!

I am ashamed of my vote. I am totally ashamed of the lack or morality and lack of respect for our law. This anniihilation is NOT lawful, intelligent, civilized or just.

It is sickening and shameful....How dare you, President Obama, to sit back and witness this with not even a whisper!? You are a pitiful excuse of American representaton

[FreedomRunsFree]

Will there be any wild horses left for us to witness and enjoy seeing?!

Not under the administration of President Obama!

Why won't they stop this destruction!!!

I am ashamed of my vote. I am totally ashamed of the lack or morality and lack of respect for our law. This anniihilation is NOT lawful, intelligent, civilized or just.

It is sickening and shameful....How dare you, President Obama, to sit back and witness this with not even a whisper!? You are a pitiful excuse of American represtntaion

[useearth]

Anything in excess is unhealthy, Horses belong there but too many is no differnet than having too many cattle, too many people, too much traffic ect.. They do need to be managed. Also don't forget that the nevada everybody loves to try and save has been preserved by RANCHERS for years before enviromentalist activism was in place, don't forget the real Enviromentalists, the ranchers

[granholagirl]

now that is wildlife i enjoy !!!!

[superwhiz88]

jail all the fking repulscums not only horses be safe we be safe too..

[LeeAnne151]

All over the West, wild horses are being rounded up by the BLM at a cost to taxpayers of millions of dollars. They are rounding them up right now and they are killing them as well.

President Obama has been allowing the policies of removal during the Bush years to continue. Ken Salazar of the BLM is another Bush Good Ol' Boy that never should have been appointed.

[jayell79]

I couldn't get to your website, is it down?

[4WildHorsesDotCom]

4WildHorses(dot)com just launched and we are dedicated to educating the Public about Wild Horses and the cruel, inhumane roundups that are being conducted by the BLM at taxpayer's expense.  Thank you for this great video.

[4WildHorsesDotCom]

4WildHorses(dot)com just launched and we are dedicated to educating the Public about Wild Horses and the cruel, inhumane roundups that are being conducted by the BLM at taxpayer's expense. Thank you for this great video.

[telesniper2]

Wild horses are nothing but pests! They ravage the rangeland, stripping it down. They should just be shot.

[Sonoraman]

Thanks to Obama who repealed the Bush executive order preventing the murder of wild horses we will see the extinction of the wild horse in a couple of years. And all to pay for all of the insane spending by the Obama Administration. Welcome to Communist America. What's the government's is the governments and what belongs to the people is the governments.

[woundedangel73928]

@telesniper2 idiot

[RuralCoconut]

lmao! good to see snoopy dee O double G getting involved too.

and these horses have lost thousands of acres of land that was set aside for them back in '71. It's a damn shame really.

The BLM should be dismantled and the herd areas expanded by at least 50 million acres.

[cray1tws]

Beef, Beef, Oil, OIl, Gas, Ruby Pipeline...keep following the money and you'll see where the water and resources are going, in Nevada and across the Nation right now. See the You Tube video- "Bush, Oil and Wild Horses".

[wethepeoplenv1]

You can see for yourself the damaged springs and riparian areas. 1 FERAL horse eats the equivalent of 10 NATIVE antelope, just to give some perspective. You should do some research do not take this internet comment for fact, check for yourself...just as you should check the statements of the groups spreading misinformation about the horse gathers and pulling the heart strings of an uninformed public!

[smallestdachshund]

You research AMLs, HMAs, their decline in 5 years. You look at population bottlenecks 375 reduced to 29

How is zero a strategic AML for survival?

Horses typically move to where the grass is greener. Horse manure serves as fertilizer, and a perfect medium to protect the seeds that pass thru their delicate single stomach. Cows eat everything and quadruple digest it. Which contributes to global warming (see "feedlot") Also see the water supplies in the desert fenced -on federal land why?

[wethepeoplenv1]

Check t books "Man and the Environment in the Great Basin" I beklieve it is written by Dr. Gary Haines. and " The Deserts Past" by Dr Donald Grayson. There is a wealth of information on Horse extinction in North America, all you have to do is LOOK. The horses on public lands are FERAL, they are an invasive species much like the Zebra Mussel in the SF Bay. They cause extensive environmental damage. Need proof ?look up info on reduction of Sage Grouse populations, or get off your ass, come to NV

[smallestdachshund]

The genetic similarity between some of the UT/ OR horses and the Sorraia horse of portugal make this federal boondoggle a travesty. Given that the Sorraia are the most ancient modern horse breed, it also makes me suspicious of the claim that horses went extinct. So Chaguanos "stole" the horses and brought them to the one place in North America that has a mountian on one side, death valley on the other and one water source?

[sabrinaburdynski]

i like the red roan on the right at 2 15

[zmichalka]

While the horses are quite beautiful, and I've enjoyed visiting them many times, they aren't native. They were introduced into a fragile ecosystem that evolved over hundreds of thousands of years within only the last 200 years when escaping (that's right, their ancestors were the same horses you see on a ranch, only about 10-15 generations ago). But hey, horses are pretty mammals humans can relate to, so lets not worry about any damage they do to the foot hills area.

[gardenbelle]

Zmichalka, please check your facts. Wild horses EVOLVED on this continent. They went extinct (probably caused by man), and were re-introduced when the Spanish came here. They are an integral and beneficial part of the ecosystem.

[zmichalka]

While what you said is somewhat true, it's very dishonest. Truly wild horses did exist on the North American continent, but have not for approximately 10-15,000 years ago. It is unknown how they became extinct. Some theories have said that clovis man was (at least partially) responsible, however no clovis artifacts have been discovered in any ancient horse remains. More likely there was some natural cause that killed off the horses.

[zmichalka]

Furthermore, the horses "reintroduced" by the spanish were escaped, not "reintroduced" as some sort of conservation plan as implied by your post. 10,000 years, though not a huge amount of time, is quite some time where you might start to see some major evolutionary changes in an ecosystem (for instance, the end of the pleistocene era was about the same time as ancient horse died, marked by the last ice age.)

When the spanish arrived, there were no horses anywhere on the american continent.

[zmichalka]

The natives of north america did not even have words to describe what horses were. The horses we see in the foothills today are descendants of species brought over from iberia (as are most modern horses). They were not there until man showed up, in the early 1860s.

[zmichalka]

Figure about 3-4 more generations until they were truly feral, and you are looking at a population of feral horses we have today that have been "wild" for maybe 120 years at most. Human beings have lived to be 120 years old. That's hardly any time at all when you are talking evolutionary biology.

So, hopefully, you see that I do understand my facts, and that you made a grave mistake in thinking I did not. If you have any further questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

[zmichalka]

Lest you think I'm some jackass who thinks all horses should be rounded up and killed, I'm not. Again, I found them very beautiful and I believe the range can support a small population of horses. However, we have to look at this rationally. The horses being rounded up are not being killed as that is prevented by law. If their population grows too large, widespread ecological damage could occur, primarily at water sources which are quite sparse in the desert.

[zmichalka]

Once water sources are contaminated, etc, not only do other native species start dying off, but the horses themselves will too. And I don't think either of us want this. You have to think long term when dealing with any sort of ecological issue. We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think its forever. - Carl Sagan

[wildblackfish]

Where are you getting your information?

[zmichalka]

Science. Are you really doubting the veracity of my statements after all that evidence?

[wildblackfish]

Absolutely. After all, you're a stranger on Youtube. A person I'm talking too over the internet. Of coarse I'm not going to believe you. Which is why I've asked for a source, so that I may validate your claims - depending on the source - and learn for myself. Anyone can state any piece of information on Youtube and not know they've been misinformed. Especially if they got their information from wikipedia.

[wildblackfish]

Which is why, if you wished to be believed, you should always give a source. I don't just trust people Youtube on a whim. Nor should anyone else. Unless it's an organization such as: Defenders of Wildlife, Big Cat Rescue, etc. You may have gotten your information from a validated source, but I don't know that. Please give me a source if you have one, if you don't mind. Especially since your stating facts I haven't heard of.

[TheWildhorses10]

Carol King went to the streets yesterday with protesters in support of the wild horses -

More protests will be occuring - get out of the sound stage and really help us! WE are starting to get a lot of international press - you can be so instrumental in expanding that!

[TheWildhorses10]

Just noticed this is dated May 2008!

Dang folks, we are losing! 2500 Calico horses rounded up Dec & January 2009 - 2010!

Something needs to be done, maybe making YouTubes is not enough - all you Snoop Dog, Nelson, Dalton - go to DC, go somewhere! Please help us! You have more power - people will pay attention to you. Michael Blake is giving a Press Conference in San Francisco today - you all could be doing that somewhere every week at least. This will probably not get posted - oh well.

[TheWildhorses10]

This is great, I've been searching YouTubes for similar stories for months - just now found this. With Calico going on right now, this YouTube is important.

Nevada Dept. of Tourism, mark my words, if you & BLM continue I will boycott and bad mouth you till my dying day and I know lots of others who will also! And I never travel one inch into your state, not one penny to you

[420Guitar420]

Pretty sad when we're moving towards a world where the only place you'll see horses is in a zoo.

[MorganJServices]

The Bureau of Land Management and the Dept of the Interior have ignored every law and the public voice. No one higher up in Washington is stopping them. The 1971 protected lands in Nevada are close to being fully leased by cattle ranchers. Nearly all the Mustangs and Burros has been brutally roundedup.

Stupid Nevada quarter should have featured desolated land instead of the beautiful American Mustang. The quarter will still be circulating and the Mustangs will be extinct.

[AslaninApril]

Nevada sure didn't protect its horses and its tourism will suffer for it. Why'd they vote to put the wild horses on their state quarter as their symbol and then allow the wild horse wipe-out?

[redo1948]

don't want to "own" or ride horses, just want to see them live as nature intended. when we retire we are moving to reno and will try to be of some help to the herds

[storm1776]

If you want to make a case then find people that care, other than a bunch of dope freaks

[oxHorseingAroundox]

=] im moving to nevada and gonna sighn up for this preogram were we go out and study the wild horses and check them to mkae sure there ok =D

[storm1776]

LMFAO snoop dog cares about da hoses LOL

[japaneseempress]

These horses are just amazing creatures. My daughter and I visit them in Reno almost daily. Thank you to the person feeding the horses in a controlled area. :)

[2horsepoor2]

Monday, Madeleine Pickens, wife of T. Boone Pickens,made known her intentions to adopt not just the doomed wild horses but most or all of the30,000 horses and burros kept in federal holding pens.Lifelong animal lovers, the Pickenses are working with the BLM to adopt the horses.Pickens met last week with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to discuss the proposal.

[JerseyRenegade]

Madeleine would surely be doing something pretty marvelous.However,it seems to good to be true! A rescue of wild horses on this scale would surely be scrutinized against by the BLM and their associates.Where will she put 30-40,000 horses?How would she reintroduce those back into the wild? Even if its not all of that would be released where would the viable ones be released?What is her plan for managing them?There are too many questions to be answered before I get excited over this news!

[2horsepoor2]

What ever happened to survival of the fittest. Leave them alone. They have survived without our help for hundreds of years. Round up a couple of hundred a year and adopt them out to people who want them(I have adopted 4 and love them dearly). When the government gets involved things always fall to peices

[sagarocks345]

thats awful!!!! its our fault their in danger so shouldnt we be the ones who save them?

[2horsepoor2]

You bet we should try and save them. We round up all our friends to adopt them. All of my friends have one. The government is going to put down 1700 horses or send them to auction for meat. What do you propse that we do now. I have written all public officials, what else should we do?

[sagarocks345]

thats great youve sone a great job i wish could adopt but i dont have much experiance width horses and my parents would never let me. I suppose that u could buy a lot of land and put some mustangs on the land but other than that i think youve sone everythiing that you can do at the moment. let me know if theres anything i can do. Also could you leave comments on my profile that way i can find them much easier thanks!

[JerseyRenegade]

If anyone would like to discuss or debate the wild horse issue with me I will be more than happy to reeducate you on ALL fabrications and fallacies that you may have been lead to believe.

[wildhorsewilly]

Conrad -

3 & 4. Downer listed in the Range Directory. He's actually best known for his discovery of a rare Andean taper that was believed to be extinct and does a lot of work in South America. He is a Nevada native, is interested in what goes on here and has published on the subject of horses and their impact on range ecology. He has consulted for the major landowners on the horse range so his opinions are relevant.

[conradcommunications]

The question isn't whether his opinions are relevant; it's what qualifies him to be listed as affiliated with UNR and Berkeley? Also, what percentage of his time is spent doing actual science versus being an activist? He's often cited as being an ecologist or an expert while others claim he uses blurs the line between science and advocacy interests.

[JerseyRenegade]

Yep your right about Craig Downer and his book Wild Horses(The Living Symbol of Freedom)is pretty good.Although Craig has a rather pompous attitude his input is well received. I have a tendancy to objectively overlook some of Craigs lack of in depth knowlege of wild horses because he really doesn't know their genetic and physiological make up as I do. I would hardly call Craig a wild horse expert by any stretch of the imagination but he can write pretty good.

[wildhorsewilly]

Conrad -

1. (repost) These horses are in the Comstock National Historic District, not BLM. They have been historically been managed by the region's wild horse groups. The problem is that the locals turned down an inappropriate high density development proposed for the range and a powerful state senator was the developers' attorney. This isn't about horses and the range. It's a "screw you" to the people of Storey County.

[SDShadowfax]

Well then, its probably a screw you to the inappropriate high density development, not to the people of Storey County

[wildhorsewilly]

Conrad -

2. Lesperance lies. The wild horse groups (mainly the VRWPA) funded the range study, we all developed management and resource strategies and provide emergency winter hay. Lesperance said the horses were starving, the range was devoid of forage and he couldn't afford to feed the horses.

ALL LIES. It's how things work in the Gibbons' administration.

[twelvehorsesvideo]

The Video is focused on the Virginia Range herds which are managed by the Nevada Dept of Ag not the BLM. As far as we are aware.

Re: #7: The NDA just cited the NRCS study in it's "Position Statement," the video responds to that.

[conradcommunications]

The entire thrust of this campaign has been Nevada's wild horses--up to and including your domain name, blog post and the explicit text in the video. Since you frame the issue as being about Nevada's wild horses, then the state's horse situation as a whole should be considered. If your interest is just the Virginia Range horses, framing it as Nevada's wild horses is, at best, disingenuous.

[JerseyRenegade]

I couldn't agree with you more Conrad! Your opinion is on point with alot of insight.

[SDShadowfax]

So...are you going to tell us what's going on in the rest of Nevada or are you going to remain mysterious. Also, what PART of Nevada are YOU talking about?

[conradcommunications]

8. If Nevada's adoption market is "good," why are there 31,000 unadopted horses in BLM holding facilities?

9. Cattle and sheep ranching has historically been an aspect of Nevada's heritage. If this video's concern is truly about branding, reputation and western heritage, shouldn't the concerns of ranchers also be included?

[SDShadowfax]

Yes- especially if the Ranchers are also thinking about the environment AND the wild horses. Why SO MANY horses rounded up recently? Doesn't that seem a little odd to you- or can you tell us about how much easier it seems to be to raze the land of horses so CERTAIN Ranchers can have all of it?

[conradcommunications]

5. Is "auto-regulation" what happened in the Jackson Mountains last Sept., where 990 horses had to be gathered and 170 died ultimately as a result of lack of water and quality forage?

6. Willis Lamm doesn't speak for all property and home owners in the Virginia Range. Many do not like these animals, and the horses reside on mostly private property.

7. Range conditions can change in a season, let along in nearly 10 years, so it's inappropriate to draw inference from a 1999 report to today.

[SDShadowfax]

There was lack of water in Yosemite also the last two years, and bears and other wildlife died. Find an area in your region (that is not a reservation) that has water or that emergency hay/water can be made available just as people could have responded to the wheather conditions all over the country which is affecting both people AND animals.

[conradcommunications]

3. Craig Downer is not found in either UC Berkley's or UNR's faculty/staff directories. What qualifies him to be listed in this video as affiliated with both institutions?

4. As an "expert," does Downer spend more time implementing controlled scientific studies, and submitting them to peer-review, than he does advocating for these animals?

[conradcommunications]

2. Ag. Director Lesperance's intended statement is that "at some point in time, the number of horses needs to be brought in line with available resources." This was confirmed in a two-minute phone call to him today. Such a statement is consistent with standard BLM policy—and common sense.

[JerseyRenegade]

Lesperance's cant estimate what the proper amount of horses would be when the environment constantly changes.First off horse dont breed like rabbits as you know so there is no reason to believe that the horses that are on the Virginia Range have outgrown the resources.If that was true then the other ungulates would be culled at a much larger rate than they are.So to say wild horses are detrimental to that particular range is absurd!In addition to that there are less than 14,000 wild horses in NV

[conradcommunications]

Some statements and questions:

1. The video implies Nevada's wild horses need saving. BLM says there are more than 16,000 horses in burros in the state—about 3,000 above the estimated appropriate management level. How do Snoop and Willie propose these horses be saved, besides phone calls and letter-writing campaigns?

[JerseyRenegade]

The numbers reported by the BLM are a lie and always have been.The so called wild horse experts would't know how to count chickens if there were two right in front of them.

[sagarocks345]

i agree the BLM have been liers frime the start. they dont care about horses at all as long as their making money.

[mehwolfy]

Makes you wonder why people want to go out and shoot wild horses. Don't seem so bad to me...

-M

[ShiftingLeaves]

Very nice. Good job.