Public response to: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control Number 1004–0042

The BLM keeps trying to change the rules, at every opportunity, to eradicate the federally protected wild horse and burros, and to dispose of the evidence of their crimes. For over 50 years, WHB advocates keep fighting the government agencies to expose their dishonesty, internal corruption, and mis-management of the WHB program and out public lands to appease the livestock and mining industries that rule them. We will never give up!

Here is my response to their newest effort to ‘attempt to get approval to not gather and dispose of public ‘records/evidence’. Often these ‘comment periods’ get overlooked, and they hope nobody notices what their true intent is.

Comments must be in by 9/18/23 – here

Be sure to make yours today!

RESPONSE IN FULL

Jennifer Robin, WHBA. (2023, sep 13). Response to federal register 2023-15230. Protection, Management, and Control of Wild Horses and Burros. (OMB) Control Number 1004–0042. Wild Horse and Burro Advocacy.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1syFHK3wiIZ0Zq2togg8x8pe_Zs5B37Vr/view?usp=sharing (PDF available)

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As BLM stated – “As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burdens”

WHBA – I propose it is important, and a necessary ‘burden’ to ‘continue gathering and maintaining the entire collection’ concerning adoptees/adoptions of wild horses and burros that are under your jurisdiction as a federally protected species. Seeing as the reduction of paper is already eliminating the burden of storage, keeping a digital copy should be an easy task for recording all documentation and records of each individual wild horse and burro that is adopted and making those documents available as requested by the public.

I am AGAINST elimination of ‘any portion’ of this Wild Horse and Burro collection.  

You also stated: Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of public record. We will ‘include or summarize each comment’ in our request to OMB to approve this ICR.

WHBA – Which basically means this public comment letter won’t be included in its entirety. Am I reading that correctly? Portions of it will be ‘censored and redacted’ prior to approval?

I am AGAINST elimination of ‘any portion’ of my public comment from the public record.

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(1) Whether the ‘collection of information’ is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility;

WHBA – According to law: ‘When the BLM is notified about a freeze-marked wild horse or burro being offered for sale, BLM officials identify the animal in the database to determine its disposition (adopted, titled, sold, transferred, or deceased). The agency investigates any possible violations of the Prohibited Acts and takes appropriate administrative or legal action” https://www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro/adoptions-and-sales/adoption-incentive-program

Will this reduction effort ‘eliminate or dispose’ of critical records of adoptees? Adoptees, whom may not be following the law in adherence to the adoption rules. Currently, multiple families adopt more than four horses every year, and send them to slaughter after title is received, which knowingly doing so by law is illegal.  In order to prosecute in a court of law, the public, overseers of the WHB program, the original documentation needs to be kept and stored for evidence of this fact. This illegal practice has been documented by AWHC in 2022 where they were able to confirm 840 BLM-branded wild horses and burros identified in kill pens in 19 months. They identified 24 groups of related individuals that have adopted multiple wild horses and burros to the same address, then flipped all the animals to kill pens as a group after receiving the full incentive payments. One group of related individuals earned $82,000 in incentive payments alone through multiple rounds of AIP adoptions.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WjfptMHGQbrC7Doq3j1m_3WIIJx83uB4/edit .

This is why keeping these records ‘is not a burden by any standards’. It is critical of this programs’ operation to make sure all parties are compliant and following the current law.

According to BLM’s adoption bill of sale: https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/wildhorse_equinesales_doc1.pdf
“Purchaser agrees not to process any of the listed animals into commercial products. Purchaser agrees not to knowingly sell or transfer ownership of any listed animals to any person or organization whose intent is to process the animals or their remains into commercial products or whose intent is to resell, trade, or give away the animals or their remains for processing into commercial products.”

“If the purchaser makes any material misrepresentations in the applicable “Application to Purchase Wild Horses and Burros,” “Bill of Sale,” or during any negotiations with the BLM leading up to purchase, including, without limitations, representations about the purposes and/or use for which the animals are obtained, then the sale is voidable at the discretion of the BLM.”

We advocates and tax-paying citizens (that pay for this AIP incentive program) are concerned that ‘not collecting this information, and/or elimination, and/or permanent disposal of these of these public adoptee/sales/transfer  records,’ would be an intentional action by government employees (BLM-DOI,USFS,USDA) to hide the facts that: not only are you are aware of the fact that our wild horses and burros you were put in charge of to protect by law, are illegally ending up in slaughter houses in Mexico and Canada, and eliminating the collection of this information altogether, you would be attempting to get rid of/dispose of the critical evidence of these adoptions, and deny the public their right to prosecute WHB adoptees who are knowingly breaking the law.

(2) The accuracy of our estimate of the burden for this collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used;

WHBA – You, being the government agency in charge of the protection of the WHB program in its entirety (Adoption program included), it is an important effort to keep accurate accounts of the disposal (sold outright / adopted) of all WHB from their rightful public lands. To record, for public viewing and access, all information related to each individual wild horse and wild burro, how many times they had opportunity for adoption (when and where), before they were sold to the lowest bidder for the slaughter pipeline (which is illegal for those who knowingly take them to slaughter). You sent people to the moon, you should have no issues with being able to accurately collect, store, and carry the burden bestowed upon you by congress and wishes of the American People that you represent, to document, and continue to uphold our rights as citizens to have access to all of this documentation that is NOT A BURDEN TO US AT ALL.

If you are not up to it to simple task of managing and ‘accounting for the adoption incentive program’, or the entire WHB program for that matter, then we should allow a more capable and independent organization to take charge as currently you are not doing your duty by law of protecting the WHB.
In fact, your management of the WHB adoptive program is noted on multiple investigative reports: current and some going back to 1997 PEER’s report  https://peer.org/wp-content/uploads/attachments/1997_horses_to_slaughter.pdf.

(3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and

WHBA – In order to enhance to ‘quality, utility, and clarity’, a complete database should be at the publics’ internet fingertips for access of every single wild horse and burro’s personal information that has been removed for AIP, transfer, or sale from public land so that a more realistic actual count, and ‘clarity of the entire program’ can be seen by the public as these are the public’s wild horses and burros. As we have seen, you are not upholding your requirement of compliance checks on WHB, or to verify these horses are not being sold to slaughter after private transfers as required by law. https://www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro/adoptions-and-sales/adoption-incentive-program.

Instead you’ve changed the law which made the WHB lose their protected status, and then you just double down on ‘the titles were transferred, and now it’s out of your hands policy.’ Even though the law states “When BLM is presented with evidence suggesting that an individual may have provided false information to the agency on an adoption application or agreement, agency law enforcement conducts an investigation and may issue citations or refer cases to the appropriate U.S. Attorney to determine if prosecution is warranted “ as has been shown to you by AWHC (above) and many other advocates who document and sit at the auction houses to record wild horses and burros that are being purchased by kill buyers.

This has never been followed up by you, or the US Attorney to my knowledge with exception to the Tom Davis case in 1997 which was attempted to be tried by prosecutor Alia Ludlum, but was shut down by the DOI as too many BLM and DOI officials would have been indicted. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/mar/24/federal-officials-shut-down-texas-investigation/. Now you’re requesting to be able to dispose of /or not keep the long term records of legal adoptions?
I OBJECT to that stance 100%! 

Since you (BLM< DOI) are not following through with obligation by law,  this becomes a need for the public to step up and ‘Utilize’ all of the public records of all: AIP adoptions, transfers, or sales and take the reign on oversight of this adoption program to make sure the buying public is adhering to the laws.

Your websites and documents continually mention 82,000+  in wild, when there is no ‘public evidence or census’ that clearly shows that number, and even with the massive 35,000 removed in 2021 and 2022, you still make a claim of 82,883 for 2023. And many public WILD HORSE AND BURRO OFF-RANGE FACILITIES REPORT and statistics, show missing portions where months are not even reported on those reports throughout multiple years between 2019 -2010 and earlier as seen in my audit here.

That leaves us to ‘speculate’ that horse and burros are disappearing from the facilities at record numbers by way of either: adoptions, transfers, sales (direct to rendering plants).   

According to your data https://www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro/about-the-program/program-data#quickset-wildhorse_data_accordion_9
Total WHB placed into private care in 2022 (adoptions 6,669, sales 1,098, transfers 26): 7,793 
That’s a lot of horses. I’d like to see how those 7,793  are in 2024. Are any of them even alive today?
Without records, how will we get those answers?

(4) How the agency might minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of response.

WHBA – The public has a right to respond/protest: to any and all government actions, and for our voices be heard, documented, and recorded in public record for the wild horse and burro program, as with any other government program.  This is our right! The fact that you usually get thousands of responses for the WHB program should tell you that we citizens are regularly concerned with the management efforts of our wildlife from both current and past administrations. 

Are you attempting at alleviating ‘your burden’ by not keeping the records of our public comments?
I oppose any effort of this!

Will this ‘reduction effort’ give BLM, FS, and advocates better access to adoptees records, so that we can assure families aren’t adopting more than the four horses allowed?

Will this reduction act give advocates easier access to FOIA requests, as all documents will be computer generated?  Suggestion: If you made these WHB documents available to the citizens, you could lessen your burden of having a full staff to censor, redact, & manipulate the documents that we often request.  That would be a huge time and money saver for the BLM!

How long will these documents be accessible for public, given that often your government links become dead links?

Will dead links be a regular occurrence when using your digital copies, leaving us no access to the documents at all?

Thank you for hearing my concerns.

Jennifer Robin
WHBAdvocacy

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FEDERAL REGISTER – NOTICE OF INTENT

BLM. (2023, jul 19). Agency Information Collection Activities; Protection, Management, and Control of Wild Horses and Burros. (OMB) Control Number 1004–0042. 4p.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/07/19/2023-15230/agency-information-collection-activities-protection-management-and-control-of-wild-horses-and-burros  

This document has a comment period that ends (09/18/2023). Please reference Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control Number 1004–0042.

BLM_HQ_PRA_Comments@blm.gov. Darrin King, Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Attention PRA Office, 440 W 200 S #500, Salt Lake City, UT 84101.

Please note that the electronic submission of comments is recommended. (as it makes it easier for BLM to censor)

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#disposalofevidence  #gettingridofevidence #AIP #AIPincentive #endgovernmentcorruption #wildhorseandburro #wildhorses #BLM #DOI #federalregister #ControlNumber10040042