By Marybeth Devlin BLM’s mustang-population “data” is a fraud. While pretending to rely on the assumption that herds grow 20% a year, BLM posts numbers up to 8 times higher than that to justify roundups, which are pre-scheduled on a rotation-basis, seeming to target particular herds. For instance, the Agency recently claimed that the famous Kiger herd in Oregon grew from 21 horses to 156 horses in just four years — an increase of 643%, which equates to a yearly average increase of 160%, which is 8 times higher than the 20% BLM supposedly uses. Such growth is biologically impossible. Kiger is not an isolated example, although it is the worst found so far. Here are some other phony figures on population-growth recently claimed by BLM to make it appear that gathers were necessary: Blawn Wash (UT) 319% increase in 3 years, averaging 107% per year Fish Creek (NV) 80% increase in one year Green Mountain (WY) 281% increase in four years, averaging 70% per year Stewart Creek (WY) 311% increase in four years, averaging 78% per year But herd-growth cannot reach even 20 percent a year. It is important to understand that the birth-rate is not the same as — and should not be equated to — the population growth-rate. Here’s why. An independent study reviewed BLM roundup-records for a representative sample of four herd management areas composed of 5,859 wild horses (Gregg, LeBlanc, and Johnston, 2014). While the researchers found an overall birth-rate of just under 20 percent, they also found that half of foals perish in their first year of life. Thus, the effective foal-to-yearling survival-rate is just 10 percent. Further, adult wild horses also perish. They succumb to illness, injury, and predation. Their death-rate must be taken into consideration as well. But BLM ignores mortality — foal and adult — in its population-estimates. Given the 50% foal mortality-rate, and the 5% or higher average annual death-rate of adult wild horses, herd-growth could not increase 20% a year, and a herd-population could not double in 4 years — refuting yet another BLM myth. Stealthily inserting bogus birth-rates into the data, wrongly conflating birth-rates with population growth-rates, and failing to factor in mortality-rates — that is how BLM creates the false impression of a population-explosion. But “cooking the books” is not the only way BLM falsifies the population-picture. Another ruse BLM employs is restricting maximum herd-size below minimum-viable population (MVP) size. Then, whenever a herd is made to appear — via fictitious figures — to exceed the arbitrary management level, BLM screams “excess!” and declares an immediate need for mass-removals and sterilizations. It should be noted that more than 70 percent of the herds are “managed” below MVP. BLM also fails to consider another factor limiting herd-growth — stochastic events — which are random catastrophes such as wildfires or contagious diseases that suddenly wipe out mass-numbers of herd-members. Stochastic events can result in no-growth or even negative growth. Now BLM is distributing grant-money to universities and researchers to study more ways of dealing with the phantom overpopulation. All manner of sicko experiments are being carried out on the wild horses, such as treating them with endocrine disruptors and sterilizing them surgically. Why? Because BLM is a corrupt agency. It invented this counterfeit crisis to create a sense of urgency, which will pressure Congress to give the Agency extra money to “solve” a non-existent problem. TAKE ACTION: Sign and share the petition to Stop the Roundups and Slaughter by email to everyone you know! Let's stop the roundups so wild horses can live in true freedom and no more will suffer in the captive pens: https://www.change.org/p/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-amp-burro-roundups Contact your elected officials to make them aware of BLM’s fraudulent population claims to get funding for wild horse roundups and warehousing at great taxpayer expense: http://www.contactingthecongress.org Click “Like” https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs for updates and alerts Visit www.ProtectMustangs.org for more information and to click on the donate button help the legal fund to fight the injustice!