Why the groups can't work with the present NDoA,
- or -
Why the present NV Dept. of Agriculture is not credible.

When you call the Governor's office you will likely reach a courteous staffer who will tell you not to worry. The Nevada Department of Agriculture is going to conduct a study and nothing is going to happen to the Virginia Range horses until then. These folks probably believe what they have been told to tell you.

Here's the real story.

Governor Gibbons is permitting a crooked shop to operate at the Nevada Department of Agriculture. As of the posting of this report the NDoA is still lying to the public. Such an allegation may sound dramatic but the facts speak for themselves.

The Department first cooked up a fake crisis. They falsely claimed that the Department had to feed the horses in the wild, a responsibility that they couldn't afford. They then falsely claimed that the horses were starving and they falsely claimed that the horses had eaten all the forage out on the range, claims that were easily refuted. These weren't simple differences in interpretations of the facts. These were flat-out lies.

The Department held a meeting with wild horse groups under the pretense of developing strategies for managing the wild horses. But while pretending to work with the wild horse groups, Department Director Tony Lesperance went to the Interim Finance Committee to get funds to remove as many horses as he could, as fast as he could, based on his contrived crisis and a false argument that the Department simply could not afford to feed all the starving horses. (For the record, the Department has never fed horses on the range as it is the wild horse groups who provide emergency feed at non-taxpayer expense.)

After the public outcry, the Department and the Governor's office informed the public that nothing was going to happen to the horses until after an extensive study took place. However in spite of these assurances, Lesperance tried to make a back door play using TV personality John Tyson to advance a so-called "new plan."

The lies continue.

As of the date of this news post, if you log onto the Nevada Department of Agriculture's web site you will see additional absolute lies. Here is a quote "copied and pasted" directly from NV Dept. of Agriculture Press Release.

In 2000, the Virginia Range was determined in an extensive NRCS study to have a carrying capacity between 500 and 600 horses. The population of estray horses on the Virginia Range has exploded to over 1,200 animals despite the Department of Agriculture’s (DOA) ongoing birth control and adoption efforts. A large portion of the existing range has been destroyed by overgrazing. The DOA receives numerous complaints from property owners whose landscaping has been destroyed by foraging horses and about horses on the highway. The mare and foal in the picture above were picked up less than one mile from Interstate 80, 6 months ago. Six months ago it was fall, and these horses were wandering off the Range looking for food.

Continuing Lie #1.

The "Extensive Study" to which NDoA refers is the NRCS range study, for which a link appears on the bottom of every page in this news report. On Page 4 of the study you will read, "Total area within the Study Area is 85,130 acres." The study concluded that the area that was studied could support between 500 and 600 horses. Yet Department of Agriculture is still trying to get everyone to believe that the population calculated for just the limited study area applies to the entire 440,000 acre horse range! Pure deception!

Furthermore the horse population hasn't "exploded." About the same numbers of horses (and possibly fewer horses) are currently in the study area, and similarly the population on the entire range is not much different than it was in 2000. Where's this explosion? There hasn't been any. (Please note: We're not arguing that the population shouldn't be kept in balance with range resources, but the Department's claims of a population explosion are pure "shock jock" nonsense designed to scare the Interim Finance Committee into giving the Department more money.)

Continuing Lie #2.

Quite a number of people actually spend a great deal of time on the range. Some work for private landowners. Others are nature photographers and/or are volunteers keeping an eye on the wild horses, preventing vandalism and assisting private range owners and public agencies that have land on the open range. Literally hundreds of photographs have been sent in and much of the range has so much grass that it's already a fire hazard. We've taken several members of the media out on the range and they concur. The horse bands are robust. Yet the Department still claims that "A large portion of the existing range has been destroyed by overgrazing." Pure fiction! A couple of the cattle ranges are a bit thin looking but even those haven't been "destroyed," and the horse range is clearly healthier than the cattle ranges.

Continuing Lie #3.

The Department keeps dragging out a mare and foal that were found in Lockwood last year as a sure sign that the herd is dying of starvation. We checked the records and that mare appears to be a horse that came down with pneumonia. She couldn't keep up with her band and her foal naturally stayed with her. Horses get sick just like people. My neighbor had pneumonia last fall. That certainly is no indicator that we are starving here in Stagecoach. Besides, if these people knew anything about wild horses they would know that if the horses were actually starving, the entire band would be down looking for food. The bands simply don't split up like that. This "example" is just more NDoA nonsense.

Miscellaneous Deceptions.

The Department likes to play the starving horses card when horses wander into inappropriately designed subdivisions to eat grass medians and shoulders on boulevards or dine on people's landscaping. If you put a development in an inner city you would expect to install dead bolt locks, an alarm system and burglar proof windows, even though no law requires it. Yet in the open range where fence-out is the law, people complain when they move in from out of state and can't be bothered to fence out horses, deer and cattle that eat their plants, and coyotes that eat their pets. Last year we had a lady who wanted Animal Services to remove a squirrel from her yard. Last time we checked, this still is Nevada.

Animals are opportunists and some horses and other wildlife will naturally wander off the range if developers or property owners put out a free buffet for them and don't bother to provide basic fencing. It's no different than household garbage attracting bears. You avoid the problems by adjusting your lifestyle habits to suit the environment.

NDoA claims starving horses are wandering on the highways in search of food. That claim is almost too bizarre to comment on. I can see it now. Poor wastrels with knapsacks on their backs entreating motorists, "Hey buddy, can you spare me a carrot?"

LRTC is the group that fields highway horse calls in Lyon County from Dayton east. The group responded to four calls last year. At least two of those were caused by fences being cut and off-road vehicle enthusiasts scaring up the horses. A third was caused by an illegal feeding operation that was attracting horses across the highway. That hay buffet was shut down and the horses returned to their normal grazing habits.

Understandably a number of calls do get generated for horses seen on or near SR-341, however that highway runs right through the middle of the horse range. Horses on that route are not starving or in search of food. They just live there. This is open range. Drive carefully. The next animal on the highway could be a rather large steer.

The biggest continuing lie.

NDoA keeps claiming that they aren't planning to do anything about the horses until a new study is completed, until input is received and a decision is made. However this, too, appears to be a lie. As of the writing of this message the Department continues to run a shadow operation working on one group leader, then another, even using friends of group leaders, in an effort to separate one group from another and garner support for their John Tyson plan.

John Tyson is a TV personality who gets a job with the Department if he can be accepted as the Department's new horse guru. Just what we need - another person whose salary is charged to the taxpayers who hasn't a clue about running the state's wild horse program. Plus Tyson has a "history" documented by a couple of the wild horse groups that could prove embarrassing if the Tyson plan gets pushed much farther.

But this behavior on the part of NDoA is typical. Tell the public and media that you are doing one thing while in the shadows you pursue a completely different agenda.

The irony is that the Department already has a real horse expert in the person of Mike Holmes, the Virginia Range Estray Program Manager. Mike grew up here, is old school, knows as much as anyone about the Virginia Range and the horses, and he's a straight talker. Mike has earned the credibility of the horse groups through "sweat equity" and he has earned their trust by never lying to the groups. They may not always agree with what Mike has to say, but as long as everyone is engaged in an honest discussion, problems or disagreements can usually be worked out. The volunteer groups often do field work under the supervision (or approval) of the Virginia Range Estray Manager, so this relationship has been forged after years of field work. In contrast, a poll of the horse group leaders has so far produced not one single group willing to work with Tyson.

So why is Holmes being kept on the bench? Could it be that he won't lie to the horse groups and the public? Could it be that he won't fabricate a crisis where there is none? Could it be that he subscribes to "reality based" horse management? Could it be that he knows what he is doing and actually tries to save the taxpayers some money? Could it be that there is one person at NDoA who remembers who actually pays his salary?

The bottom line

The bottom line is that the Nevada Department of Agriculture still runs a crooked shop. Someone there has an agenda and will say or do anything, whether true or not, to advance that agenda. This is why the horse groups don't buy the press release that the Department isn't planning on doing anything until after a study is conducted. NDoA is still pursuing its agenda and the groups can see what's really going on in the shadows. (Plus the Department hasn't figured out that when anyone tries to manipulate one of the group leaders, pretty much all the groups will know what took place within a few minutes. This is 2008, in a century that has stuff like cell phones and email.)

Also people are starting to ask that if the Department is incapable of understanding the current range study and if Director Lesperance won't take advice from his own in-house expert, why should the taxpayers pay thousands more for a new study?

Ask the Governor why the Dept. of Agriculture Still Lies!

It's time to ask the folks at the Governor's office some new questions.

• Why is the Department of Agriculture still lying to the public?
  (Why does the Department still have false information up on its web site - stuff that can be easily checked and discredited?)

• Why is Governor Gibbons allowing a crooked shop to be run at the Department of Agriculture?

• We don't need to give more of our tax money to a department that can't be trusted. When is the Governor going to step up and do something about this?

(Of course the Governor may be preoccupied explaining why he falsified his application for a permit to carry concealed his nine handguns. Sheriff decertifies Gibbons' pistol instructor, Reno Gazette-Journal, April 24, 2008)

Scary Stuff!

Folks are starting to express concerns about a Department of Agriculture that can't understand reports, can't do simple math and whose administrative staff thinks it's OK to lie to legislators and the public. This is the same agency responsible for overseeing our food supply! Maybe for a while it would be safer to eat from cans and perhaps we should warn potential tourists to bring a bag lunch.

Nevada Trails TV Show.

A web link is available to the Nevada Trails TV episodes that focused on the Virginia Range horses. (The first segment has been uploaded and the second segment should be available shortly. The video can be viewed from the Nevada Trails web page.

Note: The Shock Wave Video is just over 100MB in size. If you have a slow internet connection you can download the segments (which may take a while) for later viewing.

A special treat!

Check out this feature that appears on the European Healing-Media site:

Love Wins

The title refers to the video being about the Austrian film company winning nine international awards this year for their features and commercials and the clip is in sort of a "European artsy" style, but the video illustrates the attention that many Europeans are now giving to the Horse Wars issue. (Note: The movie is 25 MB in size so if you have a slow internet connection, you might want to go out and clean the corrals while you wait for the video to download.)