Wild Horse & Burro Radio

5:00 pm PST … 6:00 pm MST … 7:00 pm CST … 8:00 pm EST

BLM’s trend: manipulation of public

 

Debbie Coffey              Copyright 2013            All Rights Reserved.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

“If the BLM ever sets up a collaborative/consensus meeting again, advocates should demand that Robert’s Rules of Order be used for the public meeting.  If the BLM refuses, leave and hold a real meeting in another room or outside, and then present your plan to the BLM.  Your tax dollars pay the salaries of these people, so don’t let them manipulate you or intimidate you.  This isn’t North Korea.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________

While Joan Guilfoyle (Bureau of Land Management’s Division Chief of the Wild Horse & Burro Program) continues to struggle to learn what she’s doing and continues to have difficulties being polite to and interacting with wild horse advocates, the BLM brought in a “facilitator” to the August 6 meeting in Reno to discuss shelter for wild horses & burros that are being warehoused in BLM facilities.

    Palomino Valley

The public’s first clue that smoke and mirrors would be involved in this meeting could be found online in the BLM’s Workshop Handout, which included “WORKING IN GROUPS,” which outlined that people would be working in groups, with a facilitator, and then reporting to the larger group.

In this BLM meeting, instead of just being able to use your own words and speak your own mind, you were led into talking about “trends.”  The BLM workshop handout suggested that “One or more members should ensure that the group stays with the assigned task.”  So much for free speech.

This is the Delphi method, which the Rand Corporation developed in the 1950s.  It has been used to manipulate people.   The goal of the Delphi method is to lead a targeted group of people to a pre-determined outcome while keeping the illusion of being open to public input.

Judith A. Talbot, the meeting facilitator, is an associate with California State University’s Center for Collaborative Policy, which describes collaborative policy making as “a process whereby one or more public agencies craft a solution to a policy issue using consensus driven dialogue with diverse parties…”

Yet, the only two “groups” at this meeting seemed to be BLM employees and wild horse advocates.  So, who were the “diverse parties?” 

Can BLM build shade structures like this?

 Debbie Coffey                    Copyright 2013              All Rights Reserved.

____________________________________________________________

The Bureau of Land Management adoption site for wild horses at the Sundance Ranch in Redlands, CA, has excellent shade structures that don’t seem to put the horses in any danger, are open to the air on all 4 sides, and also allow sunlight on the ground in the morning and afternoons, to help kill bacteria.

photos by Debbie Coffey

Depending on the position of the sun, the shade covers different areas of the ground.  To accommodate snow at other BLM facilities, this type of roof might need to cover more area and be more steeply pitched.  But the posts are attached to the fence and don’t seem likely to cause injury.

Then again, the BLM hasn’t worried too much about the danger to the wild horses during roundups and transportation, during the use of a hot-shot, in squeeze chutes, and during the field spaying mares or gelding of cryptorchids (killing many in the process), which don’t happen to wild horses in the wild, so why their big concern about some posts attached to a fence?

While the shade cover at the Sundance Ranch in Redlands might be improved (the roof could be a little higher and an expert should make sure a horse can’t get its head caught between any pipes) this is a huge improvement over most BLM facilities, and accommodates all of the horses in their care.

Why can’t the BLM, the Department of Interior agency that drops millions of taxpayer dollars on the roundups of wild horses every year, fork over some money for shade structures like this?  The Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, has a mandate to protect the wild horses.

Send your Congressional representatives these photos, along with the photos taken by many wild horse advocacy groups and individuals at Palomino Valley, and demand some of the “loot” from the Department of Interior’s oil & gas royalties subsidize building these shelters for the wild horses, since the wild horses are being removed from their HMAs for oil and gas development on the same land.

BLM’s Pick-Up Truck Wranglers

Debbie Coffey        (c) copyright 2013 All rights reserved

______________________________________________________________

On May 23, 2013, several wranglers at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Palomino Valley facility seemed to be too lazy to saddle up their horses, so all 3 of those big boys crammed themselves into a pick-up truck and drove it around inside a pen of wild horses like they were in a Monster truck event, and what may be a government owned vehicle even fishtailed – yee haa!!  Apparently, this was supposed to have been an effort to separate out a paint horse from the other horses.

Wild horse advocate Patty Bumgarner was there and this is what she saw:

Is this BLM’s standard operating procedure?

Now, after this little joy ride failed to separate out the horse, they drove the pick-up past Patty, and one of the wranglers asked “Did you get some good pictures?”  He didn’t say this in a polite way, but in a way that seemed meant to intimidate and harass her.

It was none of this wrangler’s business if a taxpaying American, who pays his salary and for the operation and activities of this government facility (which is a public place), wants to stand there all day, every day, and take photos and/or video.

Or, isn’t this a free country anymore?

This is just one more example of not only BLM’s reckless actions around wild horses, but of an attitude towards the public that would get them fired in any other work environment.  What business do you know of where an employee could get away with treating the public rudely?   None.  And guess what BLM?   We’re NOT going to put up with it.

Bullies are brave when they think they’re anonymous, so let’s all just take a look at a photo of  these 3 yahoos:

photo by Patty Bumgarner

We encourage more advocates to go as often as possible to BLM facilities to observe both the activities and the condition of the wild horses, and to take photos and video.

Patty also observed that the horses at Palomino Valley have warts near their mouths,

(photo by Patty Bumgarner)

and noted:

“Warts can spread from one horse to another if they’re not confined.. Warts on a horse is known as papillomavirus, and they usually appear as blemishes on the face, mouth, or nose regions in younger horses.  They appear as either single warts, or as clusters of warts that have a “cauliflower” appearance. While unsightly, they usually pose no threat to the horse’s overall health and are considered merely a cosmetic blemish. In most cases, the warts will
disappear on their own, in a matter of time. But it is important to remember that warts are a viral, contagious disease and that proper steps should be taken in order to prevent them from spreading from one horse to another, especially if the horse is kept in the vicinity of other horses.

Younger horses are more susceptible to warts because they have less-efficient immune systems than older horses. Their skin also is not as tough, and they have less hair to ward off the insects that can carry the papillomavirus. The good news is that once a horse has been infected, it builds up an immunity and is less susceptible to future infections. Provided the horse is in good physical condition, has a good nutrition program, is wormed regularly, and is under good management, the warts should disappear within six to nine months.”

And what if they’re not under “good management?”

The BLM has been observed to be busy cleaning the pens at Palomino Valley.  (Has anyone ever seen warts on a wild horse in the wild?)

The BLM really needs to clean up their disrespectful attitude towards the public and immediately enforce humane handling of the wild horses and burros that they have a mandate to protect.