Case Study #1 - Jackson Mountain round-up/Palomino Valley deaths, NV, 2007
Dead foal being hauled away, (c) Wild Horse Spirit
On August 12, 2007, hikers came upon hundreds of thin, dead and dying horses in the Jackson Mountain Herd Management Area (HMA):The basin was full of horses hundreds of them the trough was empty and there were horses standing in it! And all around it. (source: Quarter Horse News, Jan. 08, 185 Dead Wild Horses" by L. Hussa). A local BLM Manager admits to driving out to the HMA twice that June to monitor the water and seeing horses standing in the troughs on both occasions. Yet, a BLM report dated August 8 stated that the situation in the HMA was not an emergency.
While BLM stated that there was no emergency and no need to consider water trapping, 185 wild horses eventually died at BLM s Palomino Valley holding facility. An outbreak of salmonella was the result of the extreme stress placed on the horses systems by months of drought conditions and being chased by helicopters in their already weakened condition. Eyewitnesses stated that wild horses were already dying or dead out on the range on August 12. Yet removals didn t begin until August 28, over two weeks later.
That June, wild horse advocates had offered funding for emergency water supplies and for possible payments to livestock permittees to leave their water troughs on for wild horses and wildlife. BLM Director Ron Wenker had turned down the offer, stating BLM didn t see a need and generally didn t like to provide artificial water sources for wild horses (note: big game hunters are routinely allowed to fund and participate in such projects for big horn sheep).
To explain BLM s decisions in this series of events, a BLM official stated that the field staff determined [the horses] had enough water. However, a BLM Manager had been there in June and knew the troughs were empty already at that time - still he personally authorized rounding up the horses using helicopters, even though water-trapping had been deemed feasible. Given the distance and extremely rough terrain of the Jackson Mountain area, coupled with the well-documented drought, advocates had lobbied for BLM to utilize water-trapping. BLM chose to ignore the public s concerns.
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