What a great weekend. Lots of stuff happening. Here's what we can share.

Lacy J. Dalton appeared on radio station KOH this morning.

Celebrities and other organizations continue to come on board.

Some new faces are emerging among the Sagebrush Snakes.

Rumor Control

Last week someone started a rumor that the NDoA had to suspend the birth control trial due to some kind of adverse side effects. We spent days researching that rumor. Here's the story.

According to all credible responses, the formulation used by Dr. Thain (for years) has yet to produce any adverse side effects on horses in the state corrals, in their trial at TRW, and the volunteers have not observed any adverse side effects in the other birth controlled horses out on the range. The one observation consistently reported, although it might not be considered adverse, is that treated mares may have been putting on a little too much weight.

Come to think of it - it may not be advantageous to a Department risking its credibility on its reports of starving horses for the public to be able to view fat and happy mares on the range.

New Snakes Emerging

Nevada Director of Wildlife Jeff Turnipseed slithered into the battle with his recent comment posted to the Reno Gazette Journal

Kudos to Mr. Lesperance and the Nevada Department of Agriculture for recognizing the horse population problem in the Virginia Range. Significant removals of "wild" (stray) horses from not only the Virginia Range but from many of Nevada's mountain ranges is long overdue.

Too often state and federal agencies turn a blind eye to this issue due to an outspoken minority's objections to any form of proper range management. Horses "running free" exert extreme pressure on the real native species of wildlife. Forage and water are finite resources in this state, supporting only a finite number of animals. A rising horse population necessitates a decline in deer, antelope and bighorn sheep populations.

Unfortunately for most wildlife species, feral horses' existence has been romanticized by local residents to the point where appropriate range management measures end up being opposed emotionally, if not legally. I can only hope that Mr. Lesperance will stick to his guns as public outcry rises and the inevitable political pressure mounts.

Jeff Turnipseed

The Alliance thanks Mr. Turnipseed for stating his position for the record, and revealing the true mission of the Gibbons Administration. For rebuttal we'll simply post this excerpt from an official report by the federal Government Accountability Office.

RANGELAND MANAGEMENT
Improvements Needed in Federal Wild Horse Program
Results in Brief

GAO found that despite congressional direction, BLM'S decisions on how many wild horses to remove from federal rangelands have not been based on direct evidence that existing wild populations exceed what the range can support. Moreover, wild horse removals often have not been accompanied by reductions in authorized livestock grazing levels or effective range management to increase the land's capacity. As a result, range conditions have not demonstrably improved, and the number of wild horses removed has exceeded the capacity of the Adopt-A-Horse program. These conditions, in turn, led BLM to implement two mass disposal options that have resulted in either inhumane treatment and commercial exploitation of the horses or committed the government to long term financial responsibility for the removed horses' welfare.

This report was issued some time back, but the present situation suggests that not much has changed. Furthermore, the wild horse groups are keenly aware of the need for appropriately managed populations. The latest proposal by the groups (which was also provided to the media last year) was entitled, Virginia Range Herd - Balanced Population Project.

The "Outspoken Minority"

Mr. Turnipseed, with respect to your comment about an "outspoken minority," go find a Nevada commemorative quarter. Please check with DMV as to how the Horsepower (Nevada wild horse) license plate has compared in sales to all the other specialty license plates. Credible polls over the past few years put public support for the preservation of Nevada's wild horses at close to 70%. These are Nevada's horses, not yours, and the citizens have spoken. As Lacy J. Dalton puts it, "I am sick of officials, from the top to the bottom of our government, not listening to the will of the American people. It's what's going to destroy our country."

It appears that Director Lesperance has tried to drag television personality John Tyson into the line of fire. Tyson was supposed to present some new management plan for the Virginia Range horses. Analysis so far is that the plan is not much different from previous plans submitted to the Department by wild horse groups (and ignored,) except that the Tyson plan appears to also call for releasing hand picked stallions onto the range and creating some kind of breeding program.

Advocates have a couple of problems with this maneuver. First none of the groups are in favor of breeding more wild horses. We already have enough.

Secondly, we have been told by the Governor's Office that a management plan will be developed that could take up to six months and that there would be wild horse group and public input. One of these statements appears below.

The Nevada Department of Agriculture will be working on a plan, which could take up to six months, that will be beneficial to both the ecology and horses of the Virginia Range. During that time we welcome positive input and open dialogue with any concerned group. We urge you submit your comments and suggestions to:
(snip)

So either Governor Gibbons is saying one thing and doing another, or Director Lesperance isn't taking notice of the Governor's position on this, or Mr. Tyson is being used in some kind of Hail Mary play. If the groups bite, Lesperance solves his problem. If they don't, then it's Tyson's fault. We believe that Tyson had good intentions and we don't want to see him put in this position.

Petition Link

In response to complaints that the AOWHA petitions seem to be constantly running out, the petition is posted on-line for easy downloading.
Go to: http://www.aowha.org/documents/nevada_vre_horse_petition.pdf.

There's lots more interesting stuff to report but this is all we have time to post at the moment. Please stay tuned!

Post Script - Snake Roundup Suggestion

A supporter from west Texas reading the blog made this suggestion. "Sounds like what y'all need to do is what we do out by Sweetwater. You need to hold a snake roundup. I just don't think you can put your snakes in a sack."

Probably would be hard to find a good recipe for our kind of snakes, too.