Wild horses kept at local feedlot

Click to Enlarge Kim Lamb/LVN photo Approximately 2,100 wild horses are being kept at a Churchill County feedlot near NAS Fallon. Browse and Buy Lahontan Valley News Photos

CHRISTY LATTIN
CHRISTY LATTIN, clattin@lahontanvalleynews.com
December 22, 2006, 12:05 AM

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More than 2,000 wild horses rounded up from rural Nevada are now living at a feedlot south of Fallon, adjacent to NAS Fallon.

Jim Gianola, wild horse and burro specialist with the Bureau of Land Management, said 800 horses were hauled into the Fallon feedlot in the past six weeks, which serves as an overflow facility for the BLM's Palomino Valley Center. That center, which holds a maximum of 2,000 horses, serves as BLM's main adoption facility in Northern Nevada.

Gianola said a majority of the horses at the Fallon feedlot come from Nevada herds, with some from California. The feedlot is contracted from Gary Snow.

The horses came in due to wildland fires scorching the available forage in north-central Nevada. Gianola said the BLM will monitor the vegetation before deciding to hold a roundup.

Click to Enlarge Kim Lamb/LVN photo Jim Gianola, wild horse and burro specialist with the Bureau of Land Management, talks about origins of horses at a Fallon feedlot. Browse and Buy Lahontan Valley News Photos

Don Hicks, BLM field office manager in Carson City, said the herd management areas for horses were determined years ago.

"The HMA is based on a biological evaluation of feed, how many animals (wild horses) could be supported, along with still having forage for wildlife and cattle," said Hicks.

Gianola said it's a "balancing act" to determining the Appropriate Management Level for the wild horses and domestic livestock.

"We do a pretty damn good job," he said.

The horses are rounded up by helicopter and taken to holding corrals in the Clan Alpine Mountains. There they are sorted into studs, mares and mares with colts. The three groups are loaded onto single-deck livestock trailers in separate compartments with 33 to 36 horses per trailer, said Gianola.

He said the longest duration Nevada horses are transported is seven to eight hours. If they're headed back east, the law limits travel time to 20 hours before rest is mandatory. Gianola said Elmcreek, Neb., is a stop-over point for horses headed to adoption centers or sanctuaries in Oklahoma or Kansas.

When the horses arrive at the feedlot, they are sorted by age and sex and given a freeze brand, wormed and vaccination. Gianola said the studs are gelded, or castrated, after arrival. Mares aren't permanently sterilized but are given an immuno-contraceptive shot, which prevents colting for two years. Mares who are given the shot can be released back into the wild.

Care for the horses costs $3.21 per day per horse, according to Gianola. He said the care is a combined effort between the BLM and the contractor, which in Fallon is Gary Snow. The contractor runs the facility and handles feeding and watering the animals while the BLM administers the contract, ensures the horses are fed, secures veterinary services and vaccinates the horses. The contractor bills BLM every two weeks.

Gianola said the horses are supposed to only remain in holding facilities four to five months, "but the adoption demand is not there. There are some horses that were born here three years ago," Gianola said.

When people want to adopt a wild horse, there are certain criteria that must be met. The BLM will physically check the adopter's setup, "but there are budget constraints," Gianola said. "We can't inspect them all."

The Nevada State Prison in Carson City also assists with wild horses by running a holding facility and administering a training program at the medium-security prison to halter break or saddle break the mustangs.

The horses can be adopted for $125, but "we cannot knowingly sell them for slaughter," Gianola said.

Brent Gattis, senior policy advisor and horse slaughterhouse lobbyist for the law firm Olsson, Frank and Weeda in Washington, D.C., said if a horse comes to the slaughterhouse with a federal government brand, it is returned to local BLM officials.

"Our precedence is not to slaughter any horses branded by the federal government," Gattis said. There are three Belgian-owned horse slaughterhouses in the United States.

Gianola defended the need to remove the horses from the range by pointing to the ranges surrounding Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. He said in the early 1980s, thousands of horses were "starving - dead on their feet." He said rounding the horses up and taking them to holding facilities, where they are fed and watered regularly, is the more humane thing to do than let them starve on the range.

"This is so much better for these animals," Gianola said.

But there comes a turning point. He said there are 31,000 horses in holding facilities now.

"There are more horses in holding facilities than outside in the wild," Gianola said.

Christy Lattin can be contacted at clattin@lahontanvalleynews.com