(The News as We See It) by R.T. Fitch ~ author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“
Federal Report Comes as NO Surprise
BLM and Advocates at odds over cause of foals death ~ Photo by Craig Downer
HOUSTON (SFTHH) – On Aug 17th federal officials released a report stating that the holes in the carcass of a young foal found by wild horse advocates probably came from scavenger birds and not gunshot wounds.
Two days after the remains were found by concerned U.S. citizens a vet from the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service examined the carcass and stated that the cause of death could not be determined due to advance stages of decomposition according to BLM spokesperson Jan Bedrosian.
“The bony skeletal remains of the four- to six-week old colt showed no detectable physical trauma,” Bedrosian said in a statement on Monday. “There were random holes of various sizes that were evidence of feeding by scavenger birds, according to the veterinarian.”
Yet wildlife ecologist and wild horse scholar Craig Downer upon discovering the dead foal clearly noticed that a well defined hole passed through the carcass and exited on the side that laid against the ground. Begging the question of how could scavenger birds attack the side that was protected against the earth. Likewise, Downer stated during an interview on Big Blend Radio that spent shells from a high powered rifle were found nearby while other advocates indicated that there were rope burns and obvious skin trauma evident on the foal’s body.
Downer, a Director on the board of The Cloud Foundation and working with the Equine Welfare Alliance, was with the group that found the foal last week. He said it was within a few miles of a corral where a BLM contractor with helicopters stampeded hundreds of mustangs last week along the California-Nevada border.
Downer said BLM officers in the field initially dismissed his report, at one point telling wild horse advocates that the carcass was that of an antelope, not a horse.
But Downer said BLM officials from the district office subsequently showed genuine interest in the case. He said they requested—and he provided—copies of photographs he taken at the scene.
Downer, who has done numerous studies at the roundup site, said on Tuesday that he had not heard from the BLM about the examination results. He said he thought that the USDA and BLM would have the expertise to determine the source of the wounds but that he remained suspect of the conclusion.
“What gets me is the near-perfect roundness of the hole going in,” he told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He has asked to review the details of the findings.
“I’ve seen how the high-powered rifle perforates and leaves the round hole going in and going out the other side … Based on that fact alone, I would be a bit suspect of the conclusion.”
Related articles by Zemanta
- Diary of a First Time Wild Horse Stampede Observer, Part One (ppjg.wordpress.com)
- BLM Helicopter Stampede to put 50% of California’s Wild Horses and Burros behind Bars Forever (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- Two-Week-Old Wild Horse Shot and Killed Before California Roundup (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Well I did say before that I questioned whether this would truly be an impartial investigation and sad to say I think my initial misgivings were correct. No surprise, obviously going to be no further investigation as to actual perpetrators unless you can arrest birds that have incredibly strong beaks and the ability to hold a dead foal up while its buddies peck at the other side in the area which would normally be considered an exit wound. Hmmmm
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Mustanging; Alive and Well in Twin Peaks, CA. mar
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All done under the Department of the Interior? That department’s credibility is shot. It has become a liability to the Presidency.
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If these people, who claim expertise regarding the land and its animals, can’t tell the difference between the remains of a dead foal and an antelope, what the heck are they doing there and why should anyone believe anything they say?
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Excellent point linda, of course they made that statement without ever looking at the foal and just assumed we are a bunch of city folk-who don’t know what they are looking at…should have dropped the decomposing body on their lap
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Who tied the foal up ? If scavengers can tie up a horse than the ones by me are pretty dumb, cause they can’t do that. Guess BLM figures no sense addressing the harrassement and abuse part if this federally protected wild horse is already dead. I can’t even write ‘federally protected’. How can they even think anyone will believe the ‘scavenger’ hole ‘theory ? complete and utter disgust !
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I haven’t found anyone yet that believes it.
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The cowards that the BLM are. I guess the PR firm ran that little show.
The foal that stood motherless in the BLMs pen, starving to death dehydrated…dried up like a raison. Did the BLM spend more than the cost of a needle or bullet on that foal? NO
But the BLM will spend a couple thousand on a rotted corpse to ‘disprove’ a death on the range next to a waterhole with bullet cases.
yet you the BLM couldn’t spend 2 dollars on a bag of fluids and a couple seconds turning over a STARVING FOAL to the many avocates who would have taken the foal, in a instant! The foal starved in a pen right in from of their’ blind to wild horses eyes.’
The BLMs world is SO WARPED with HATE for the wild horses.(and their avocates) The BLM make America look like FOOLs and foal killers- to the entire world!
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