Word around town is that NDoA minion Ed Foster has been making the rounds touting a whole new concept - "science." It seems that the NDoA is now saying that they want to undertake a scientific study with real scientists to determine how many horses are on the Virginia Range and how many horses the range can support.

There's only one problem with this new tactic - well, two actually. It's been the wild horse groups who have been beating the drum about science and the NDoA can't seem to understand simple arithmetic when it comes to the study that they already have.

In 1999 the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS,) staffed with real scientists, surveyed 85,130 acres of the 200,000+ acre horse range. The study, funded primarily by the Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association, was called for after several successive years of drought with no end in sight. The NRCS published its findings in a booklet that we photocopied page by page, uploaded to the web, and for which a link is available at the bottom of every page in this report.

Lesperance, who might need a refresher in the definition of science, went babbling off to the Interim Finance Committee crying, "The horses are starving, the range is dying," leading one pundit to ponder when he was going to start crying that the sky was falling. Thus was coined the moniker, "Chicken Little Lesperance," although most wild horse advocates prefer to fondly refer to him as "The Old Fool."

So the old credibility monster raises its ugly head again. If the Department cannot be relied upon to understand the study that it already has, why should the taxpayers be asked to fund yet another study to produce yet another document that can be similarly misquoted and misrepresented?

And has anyone noticed that while the sky might not be falling, Nevada's state budget appears to be in free-fall? Yet the Department of Agriculture can run around, beg money to buy more corrals, prepare to gather up all sorts of horses, concoct some kind of expensive study that they can tweak in order to justify the conclusion that they have already reached, then create a brand new staff position so they can hire a TV personality in order to put the best possible make-up on this ugly pig they're creating.

We thought that this was an administration of fiscal responsibility. Not!

The Department already has a field manager who knows what he is doing with the horses and he understands the range. If the Nincompoop Squad would just leave, the wild horse groups could once again take up the remaining slack, financial and otherwise.

The bottom line is that there is no point in putting one more Nevada quarter into the Department of Agriculture's horse budget until the department can demonstrate that it has a clue as to what it is doing. This taxpayer wants the Gang That Can't Shoot Straight playing out their comedy on somebody else's dime.

Young Foals Shot

Some nut case is going around shooting young foals up in Washoe County. For the record, these are likely to be BLM horses as the incident occurred several miles north of the Virginia Range. A naturalist hiking in the area provided this account and photos.

Last weekend I was hiking above Fred Tule Well which is just outside the north entrance to the Pyramid reservation. I was hiking up the Adobe Spring drainage and not far from the spring when I came across these three dead foals. All were within 50 yards and dead laying in the drainage. The two lower foals had been chewed by coyotes already but the upper was intact. They had been dead for some time but not long enough to be pulled apart by coyotes or other carrion eaters. Two of then you will notice from the picture appear to have been shot in the chest area as the ribs seemed to be broken away and internals blown outward. the upper foal as close as I could tell had a hole (bullet) in its neck and just behind the ear. There was no one else that I could see in the area. The photo of the drainage was taken above the foals about 1/4 mile. Here I saw the rest of the herd, about 15 horses grazing high on the hill. They had two foals with them as far as I could tell.

If this is to be pursued someone should go up there soon or the coyotes will have the carcasses spread before long. It is about a 2 hour hike from the end of the road above the Fred Tule well.

I am disgusted by the stupid murder of these foals. It is a shameful way of trying to save grassland for a few cattle. I would like to believe that is what it is and not something more wanton than that such as someone getting pleasure out of killing wild horses.

Warning - The photos that follow of the three dead foals are pretty graphic. If you wish not to view them, please continue to the next part of this report using this link.

Open Invitation

The Wild Horse Advocates are serious in their offer to meet any interested representatives from the Gibbons Administration outside the Peppermill on Saturday. They will be available out front during the lunch break at the Republican State Convention where the public and the news media can view such an exchange. The Advocates are always willing to engage in constructive dialogue provided the circumstances are such that everyone can be held accountable for his/her statements and actions.