TONOPAH — The Bureau of Land Management concluded its wild horse gather near Tonopah on February 10, 2015. The agency removed 140 wild horses from the Little Fish Lake Herd Management Area and will release seven horses back into the area.
BLM staff used the Henneke body condition scale to judge the condition of the horses. On a scale from one to nine the Little Fish Lake horses were a body condition score of 2 (very thin) to 3 (thin), with a few wild horses observed to be higher or lower. The studs that were released back into the HMA were a body condition of 4 or better.
“The original plan was to gather and ship 100 horses and release any gathered above that number back into the HMA after treating the mares with fertility control,” said Deborah Brown, the incident commander for the gather. “After observing the condition of the horses in the gather corral we determined that they were not healthy enough to be released and the amount of forage available in the HMA would have led to further decline in their condition.”
The removed horses were sent to a BLM facility in Ridgecrest, California where they will be prepared for the BLM’s adoption program. Any un-adopted wild horses will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be humanely cared for and retain their “wild” status and protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
The BLM does not sell or send any wild horses to slaughter.
BLM’s Little Fish Lake gather website can be accessed at http://on.doi.gov/1wJJqkY. Photos from the gather can be found at http://bit.ly/1KEnXkT.
For more information, contact Chris Rose, BLM public affairs specialist, at (775) 861-6480 or [email protected].
