For Our 9 to 5 Friends

For those of you following this news blog from offices while working a M-F schedule, here's an easy link so you don't miss this past weekend's posts. Just start here and move forward at the end of each page until you get back to this one.

The Credibility Issue

We're constantly asked why the advocates don't sit down with the Department of Agriculture to discuss some solutions to this apparent horse crisis. The answer is simple. We've been there and done that. So long as the Department continues to stick to a single agenda and lie to the public - and we can't come up with a more politically correct word than "lie" - then there is no basis for discussion.

Just so today's report doesn't just turn into some kind of diatribe over a department whose policies we don't agree about, let's review some of the statements made by NDoA officials to the public and press, such as the April 23rd audio clip from the KTVN news about two, three, four thousand horses. Have the department's personnel turned into "shock jocks?"

While wild horse group leaders were distracted at a meeting with State Veterinarian Dr. Phil Larussa, Director Tony Lesperance finalized his plans and then approached the state's Interim Finance Committee to acquire supplemental funds because his department couldn't afford to feed the Virginia Range herd. Thus the public lies began. (Please note that every statement listed below is documented in either a news story or by television news video.)

Here are Tony Lesperance's comments that defy either documented facts or, in many instances, simply don't match the reality that anyone taking a walk outside can see for him/herself.

• The State can't afford to buy hay to feed stray horses, although many may be starving in mountains near Virginia City. The state doesn't feed stray horses - never has.

• All but 200 horses on the range aren't wild, but are strays that people let go. Locals let loose around 1,000 horses? The region must be devoid of domestic horses in private pastures and corrals.

• There is little adoption demand for (excess) horses. The department has no clue since they stopped keeping records on cooperative adoption group statistics.

• "I am far more concerned about the decline of the Virginia Range as an environmentalist than I am concerned about those horses." Lesperance's claim to fame is being a staunch foe of environmentalists.

• "There is a total loss of forage." Just take a walk through the Virginia Range.

• "The area has about 1,000 more horses than it can handle." The official NRCS study says otherwise.

• "It takes centuries to recover from because grass eaten will return as cheatgrass the next year." Biologically impossible.

• "The perennial grass has been totally eliminated. It's been replaced by annual grass, cheatgrass, they graze all that off as fast as it comes up. They graze all the shrubs." Just take a walk through the Virginia Range.

• "That range does not have forage on it, and if it has 2 - 3 - 4,000 horses on it, we're going to be seeing horses in neighborhoods, all over the highways. That is not a reasonable solution." That quote is simply too bizarre for comment.

Information Added

Silver Springs resident Kathy Graves asked Foster about his comments. He denied making them as stated in this stunning message to Mrs. Graves.

Classic. I am Ed Foster and my quote was” that if we leave the horses to “run” eventually there would be 3 to 4 thousand horses up on the Range and that’s not a solution.” This is a classic example of not hearing or having the facts. Today is the 28th not tomorrow, there is no report stating the facts you stated because they were never uttered, we are currently evaluating the herd and the Range for future planning. Thank you for your comments.

For anyone who missed hearing Foster say exactly what we reported as him saying, here is Foster on KTVN again. Click here to hear Foster's statement on TV. These guys just can't stop lying.

These kinds of arguments lead advocates to wonder, don't these people get outside their offices? Some of these statements are certainly contradicted by the evidence, others are contradicted by science and yet others, such as the 2 - 3 - 4,000 horses statement are so bizarre we can only conclude that they were fabricated simply for shock value.

Put up or shut up

Lesperance & Co. insist that the wild horse advocates are the ones who have it wrong and that the NDoA has it right. Yet the advocates are the only ones in this scrap willing to document their claims, post records, data, news archives, contemporary photos, scientific reports, etc., for the public to see. We know we'll be challenged... while NDoA dreams up their next whopper.

And let's not forget, the advocates are the ones who are actually out on the range, with the horses, working to keep them where they belong and checking on range conditions. The people actually out there doing work based on scientific reports and recommendations couldn't possibly know what they were doing. Let's get real here.

Here is the position of the working field groups. Please feel free to compare it to the hysteria offered by the NDoA.

• The population presently on the range is about right, as supported by the NRCS study. That doesn't mean the advocates think that the herd should grow and overpopulate the range. It just means that there isn't a crisis - especially one requiring additional taxpayer funds during a time the state is looking at an $800m+ budget shortfall.

• The range isn't generally overgrazed. That doesn't mean that there aren't a few spots denuded by last year's wildfires or overgrazed by domestic livestock, or where the horses' grazing habits have been modified by hand-outs offered by well intended residents. Volunteers are constantly developing ways to help disburse the grazing habits of the horses so that they can make better use of range resources, help control fire hazards, yet not overgraze a particular area.

• We didn't have time to look up the quote, but the argument that the Virginia Range horses are overly competing with other wildlife simply isn't supported by facts. We've yet to see a single bighorn sheep, elk or antelope in the Virginia Range. Overall the mule deer look great and they take advantage of the resources we provide for the horses. Rabbits seem to be in abundance, as is usually the case.

This is a manufactured crisis. The scientific data already on hand doesn't support the various claims made by NDoA and an upcoming helicopter survey for which a member of the press will be on board for validation will assure everyone that the Virginia Range isn't overrun by thousands of horses and that there remains an abundance of grass, shrubs and trees that haven't been eaten by hordes of starving horses.

The wild horse advocates are in the process of organizing a public meeting where anyone interested can review historic and contemporary documents, scientific reports, range photos, horse photos, meet the people who are actually out on the range and learn the real story about NDoA and the Virginia Range. There will also be comparisons of NDoA's public statements and actual photographs, records and scientific documents. Accredited experts should be on hand to explain what everything means.

We all agree that the range isn't perfect, that improvements need to be made and that the horse population needs some management. It's just that the advocates are into reality based management. NDoA's actions suggest that they aren't.

In the meanwhile the wild horse groups continue to check the range and the horses on horseback and in Jeeps, and continue to place horses with adopters.