Mare at Antelope Roundup

“The care, well-being, and humane treatment of America’s wild horses, both on and off the range, are the highest priority for the BLM. The BLM is aware of the video taken on Jan. 27, 2011, during the Antelope Complex gather of the mare that slipped and fell in the snow. The BLM is conducting an internal review of the incident, and will make the information available to the public once that review has been completed.” ~BLM Nevada

I am interested to see the review.  As I have watched the video twice, I did not notice that the pilot did anything wrong.  He was far back the entire time.  The horses were loping or trotting.  It was when they released the Judas horse that the band lumped together, made a sharp turn, and then the mare slipped on the snow.  The pilot did not torture her or buzz her or hound her to get up and get a move on.  She is breathing normal and appears to be calm. Then she finds her footing, gets up, and lopes down the hill.  It is at this time that the pilot attempted twice to turn her into the trap site where she loped some and trotted some, but she refused to be herded in.  He let her go.  I do not know what happened after that or if she was let free for the day to be rounded up later, but either way, the helicopter pilot released the pressure when he saw she was not going to go in where he wanted her.  That is my take on the occurrence.  Here is the video for you to make your own determination.  These of course are just my opinions.

 

AR's take any footage they can of horses falling and blow it out of proportion to look like animal cruelty.  In another clip a horse slipped and you can hear in the background people gasping at the audacity of it.  Their antics are unforgiving, thoughtless, and single-minded.  They are as cruel as they believe the BLM to be.  They jump at any attempt to make the them look bad when rounding up the horses.  

What gets me, is if the BLM did not round them up, they would later be charging the BLM again with footage of starving horses and dusty ranges.  Either that, or they would blame the cows like they do day in and day out.  What they refuse to realize is that cows are managed and controlled.  Even if every last cow was removed from the range and the horses were allowed all of it, within a decade there would be mass starvation die-offs and the range would be bare.  

I am using the Yakama Reservation as an example.  They have not had much cattle grazing on their ranges in many years.  The horses population has exploded to 12,000 and there are accounts of areas where it has been so overgrazed that forage is not growing back. That can be expected to happen if Animal Rights' activists get their way with wild horse management.

At least the BLM and those who really do advocate for the wild horses, and wildlife, get that and understand that.  Hopefully we can be the voice of reason that wins over this voice of hysteria.