Free Spirits - BLM Corrals
by Belinda Greb
Title
Free Spirits - BLM Corrals
Artist
Belinda Greb
Medium
Photograph - Photograph, Photography
Description
Two young bay horses running around the a BLM corral. The horses have been gathered from various herd management areas around Eastern Oregon. I'm not a fan of gathers, especially if they are making room for cattle - however, there has been a drought in Eastern Oregon for the last few years that I have noticed in dried up waterholes and horses that don't look as vibrant or healthy as they normally do. Most years since 2013, I have made 2-3 trips to this area each year to visit two of the wild horse herds there. After last year's gather of the Palomino Butte Herd, I have seen hardly any horses on the range in the Palomino Butte Herd Management Area that is accessible. I decided to visit the BLM corrals in the area to see if many horses had been adopted. I had seen that there were many, many horses there last fall. They separate the horses by age, and there is a special corral for pregnant mares. I've been told there is one corral that is for horses they are going to return to the public lands, although I don't know when. Others horses from the Palomino Buttte Herd as well as other horses and burros from herd management areas in Oregon that were gathered in 2021, went up for adoption in January 2022. There are still a lot of horses not adopted. The whole situation is very sad as they live such vibrant, even if not easy lives, when they are living free with the natural dynamics in the herd which consists of many familial or bachelor bands of horses. Another worry is that unscrupulous horse brokers will adopt horses and resell them in Mexico for food. Unfortunately this issue is a political one, and in 2018 the policies were weakened to increase the number of horses that could be sold to one buyer. At the end of January 2022, the BLM instituted a new policy that bans buyers from transferring the title for the adopted animals within 12 months. They've also raised the minimum adoption fee of $25 to $125 and conduct compliance inspections (although if this takes place consistently is unknown). Hopefully this will help deter unlawful activity since these horses and burros are protected by the Federal Law from being sold for slaughter. If you are interested in adopting one of these beautiful animals, you can find out more information here: https://www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro/adoption-and-sales/how-to-adopt .
Uploaded
April 11th, 2022
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