BLM Announces Plan to Destroy the Onaqui Mountain Wild Horse Herd in 2019

By Carol J. Walker, Director of Field Documentation, Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Yesterday the BLM issued a press release on its Decision Record for the Onaqui Mountain Wild Horse Herd in Utah. The BLM says  “The objectives of the approved population control measures are to slow the herd’s population growth and achieve and maintain a balance between wild horses on the range and other public land resources.”

You can read the Decision Record and all the other documents here:

https://go.usa.gov/xQQFE

Their plan is to remove 465 wild horses from the Herd Management Area in 2019 using both bait trapping and helicopters. Currently the population is estimated to be 505 wild horses, but the BLM is estimating that with foals born in 2019 that the population will be at 586, and they want to bring the herd down to the low end of the Appropriate Management Level of 121 wild horses. As usual, the BLM does not allow for any foal mortality, which can be as high as 40% in the first year of a foal’s life, nor do they allow for deaths of older horses during the winter. The BLM does not say WHEN they plan to do this in 2019 – it could be as early as February or as late as the fall. They cannot use helicopters during foaling season which according to the BLM starts March 1.

If the BLM brings the numbers of the herd down to 121 wild horses, this is far below the number necessary to maintain genetic viability, which according to the leading wild horse geneticist Dr. Gus Cothren is 150 adult wild horses. This risk to the genetic health and survival of this herd will be compounded by the continuing plans of the BLM to use birth control, PZP and Gonacon, to control the birth rate of a herd whose numbers will already be too low.

Ten wild horse advocacy groups including Wild Horse Freedom Federation as well as 7872 individuals submitted comments regarding this plan earlier in the year, and there was tremendous public outcry against this plan. This herd is much loved by members of the American public who come from all over the country to visit, observe and photograph this herd.

Volunteers had begun documenting and training to give birth control to the mares in this herd in order to control the population, and keep the horses in their herd management area with their families where they belong. But the BLM disregarded the wishes of the public and plan to proceed with decimating this herd.

As usual, the BLM has no concern for what happens to these horses once they are removed. If they proceed as they have been doing with herds rounded up in Wyoming this last year, the youngest will be offered for adoption, but likely the public will not even be able to see, let along adopt or purchase all the adult horses over 5 if they get shipped to the private facilities like in Axtell, Utah or Bruneau, Idaho. Instead these horses will be shipped to holding facilities or sold by the semi-load and end up at slaughter.

This is wrong. This plan is cruel, inhumane, dangerous to the continued heath of the herd and against the wishes of the people who care about these wild horses. America’s wild horses do not belong to the BLM, they belong to all of us, and they deserve to live their lives wild and free in their families in their homes, and managed in the most humane and least invasive way possible.

You Are On the Only Official Joe Camp Website

Speaker, Filmmaker, Author Joe Camp, at 78, says the Secret of Living is Not Retiring to the Golf Course, But Rather Continuing to Make a Difference

Joe Camp is from the wrong place, with the wrong education, the wrong philosophy, and the wrong product. He was rejected by every studio in Hollywood, more than once, and without any help from those studios, he turned a cute, lovable, floppy-eared notion of a dog into a worldwide phenomenon that is known and loved all around the globe. And today, the message he’s spreading to people all across the country is that if this improperly educated, small-time advertising guy from the sticks can do it with his dream, anyone can do it.

And, at an energetic 78, he is neck deep in a new passion. For decades, Joe tried to lure you into the heart and soul of a dog. Now, with his best selling book, The Soul of a Horse, he wants to lure you into the heart and soul of a horse. After reading the book, Shaye Areheart, publisher of the Harmony Books imprint at Random House, the nation’s largest publisher, said, “I will never look at horses the same way again. It’s a wonderfully personal and emotional book. We’re very excited to have the worldwide rights.”

Monty Roberts, author of the New York Times Bestseller The Man Who Listens to Horses, said, “Imagine how inadequate it makes me feel to realize how recently Joe came into horses. The man is a natural when it comes to understanding how animals tick and a genius at telling us their story. The Soul of a Horse is a must read for those who love animals of any species.”

The Soul of a Horse is in its fifteenth printing and is setting traditional thinking about horses on its ear.

Joe is living his life with purpose, on purpose, and that’s the message he has for those his age and older. “We geezers are in the prime of our productive lives,” says Camp, “but all too many folks walk away from their jobs and dissolve their entire lives into a golf course somewhere. Now is the time to use all that knowledge, experience, and wisdom gained over years and years of work and effort to help less experienced folks focus on how they can reach further, do better, and, at the same time, make positive differences in the world. To help them see that life is not all about getting rich, it’s about helping others.

“Nothing lifts the human spirit like sharing, caring, relating, and fulfilling,” says Camp. “Many people don’t get the opportunity I have been blessed with. They die young, before they think they have any time to devote to real meaning. The way you get real meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, to creating something that gives your life purpose.

“And to do so guarantees you better health as well. Nothing soothes the psyche like knowing you’ve made a positive difference in another being’s life. It lowers cholesterol, blood pressure and heart rate. Having purpose is having health in all meanings of the word.”

Joe speaks to families, churches, college students, corporations, civic and philanthropic organizations, pet adoption organizations, and equine groups, inspiring everyone within earshot to reach beyond any conceived perception of his or her limitations, and he spells out the choices that will create success. His talks are an elixir for the human spirit, proof that the unknown, the uncelebrated can still mount a white horse, charge off into the distance and accomplish things worthwhile, against the odds, and leave the world a better place for the effort.

Joe has written, produced and directed seven theatrical motion pictures (including all of the Benji movies) cumulatively grossing well over the equivalent of $600 million in today’s dollars, making him one of the most successful independent filmmakers of all time. In addition to The Soul of a Horse, he has written three novels, twelve additional books about horses, several children’s books and the non-fiction inspirational book God Only Knows .