pa href=”http://www.seattlepi.com/news/science/article/Wild-horse-advocates-in-NM-call-for-gentle-tactics-4049915.php”seattlepi/a/p
pWe at Friends of Animals are opposed to all roundups and advocate for the rights of wild horses to be allowed to live free on public lands, where they belong./p
pSANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – A federal agency’s proposal to use helicopters to gather hundreds of wild horses in northwestern New Mexico has drawn criticism from animal advocates who are urging the government to use gentler tactics./p
pThe Bureau of Land Management office plans to round up more than 270 wild horses off the Jicarilla/Carracas Mesa area near Navajo Dam./p
pAn estimated 405 mustangs now roam the 76,000-acre Jicarilla Wild Horse Territory of Carson National Forest and 32,000 acres of BLM-controlled land in the Carracas Mesa Wild Horse Herd Area. Range managers say the herd should be much smaller because there’s not enough forage to keep the horses healthy./p
pThe Santa Fe New Mexican reports (a href=”http://www.santafenewmexican.com/localnews/111912mustangroundup#.UKou5-RlXTo”http://bit.ly/TTmvCe /a) that the federal agency’s preferred option includes using helicopters, which the agency has used for decades to gather mustangs around the West, despite protests from wild horse advocates./p
pOver the past few years, the Carson National Forest has rounded up the horses by baiting them with hay and trapping them in hidden corrals, a method the federal agency claims hasn’t been effective in removing enough of the equines from the range./p
pWild horse advocates say helicopters frighten the horses and injure more of them during a gather than no-chase methods like bait-and-trap./p
pPlus, they say there are other choices the agency could use to reduce the herd size, keep it small and reduce the number of mustangs that end up in costly, long-term holding facilities. Restoring the number of mountain lions – the mustangs’ natural predator – is one. Regularly using contraception is another./p
p”We’re saying there aren’t appropriate alternatives in the (plan),” said Patience O’Dowd, founder of the Wild Horse Observers Association in Placitas./p
pDave Evans, district manager for BLM’s Farmington and Taos field offices, said all options are on the table for gathering the mustangs, including choppers. “Helicopters is just one of the options we’re considering for a big gather,” he said. “We thought a more aggressive tactic could address this problem quickly.”/p
pHe added that the BLM intends to administer birth control to most of the mares rounded up, but keep fewer than 100 for adoption. The others will be returned to the range. There simply aren’t enough places to send the rest./p
pThe Carson National Forest’s Jicarilla Ranger District has handled the mustang gathers in the Jicarilla since 1977 because the horses stayed primarily on forest lands./p
pThe Forest Service relied on helicopters until 1997, when three horses died during a roundup. Mustang advocates cried foul, contending the roundups harmed the horses and the Forest Service didn’t need to remove so many./p
pFrom 1999 to 2004, no wild horses were gathered in the area while the Forest Service analyzed the range and came up with a management plan. In that time, the wild horse herds doubled from 93 to 197 animals, according to Forest Service reports./p