Parker Live News from the Parker Strip since 2009.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is to conduct an emergency ‘gather’ of wild burros along the Parker Strip this week, thinning the herd by 100 animals.
The gathers follow others last week in Bullhead City, for a total of 470 animals. BLM says the gathers are needed after “discussions and concerns brought forth by private landowners and community leaders following a string of incidents involving wild burros.”
Parker Live asked a BLM spokesperson, Valerie Gohlke, what incidents prompted the gather on the Parker Strip.
“Mostly human health and safety concerns when visitors interact with wild animals,” Gohlke responded. “Vehicle collision with burros resulting in damaged property, people and animals.”
According to BLM’s website, the agency uses a “water/bait trap capture method” to capture the burros. They are then transported to the BLM Wild Horse and Burro facility in Florence, Arizona and Ridgecrest, California where they will be prepared for possible adoption.
The estimated total herd population in the area is 655. For more information, visit the BLM website HERE.
Free burritos
🙁 cruel people ruined them by luring them to stand around on the road so they’d get hit 🙁
Burro itos
Or driving too fast.
“Prepared for possible adoption”. And if they aren’t adopted, where do they go and what does that process look like? Convenient how they sugar coat the outcome kinda like factory farming operations!! How about the whole story on this from start to finish? Guarantee if that truth was in the article, more people would care.
Honestly, the BLM are full blown tree huggers. I can promise no harm will be done to the burros. They will probably end up with a better life than most people in the Parker area.
So just gonna kill a hundred donkeys? Seems legit, I have anger too let me know if need help????????♂️
Kara Hitchcock Holder here you go, maybe take a few home ????????
If people would just slow down.
Matthew, at this point we’re just reporting BLM’s announcement and what they say they intend to do. No more than that is covered by this particular article
Absolutely NO!!!
I’ll adopt them!!!!!
Parker Live Updates please provide information and a contact at BLM.
Beverly Contact is in the article, along with a link to the BLM website.
Oh no hopefully not in big river
Parker Live Updates there is not a name or individual contact. Only links with vague contact info. Also the article states:
“discussions and concerns brought forth by private landowners and community leaders following a string of incidents involving wild burros.”
I’m a “private land owner” in Big River and this is the first information I’ve read in this action.
I’m interested in what “community leaders” decided this was an acceptable solution.
Once again, the human species makes a decision to interrupt wildlife because we feel and think we are superior.
How about finding land to make a sanctuary to care for these animals IN PARKER or BIG RIVER???
Parker Live Updates I’m not saying you are to blame for lack of info. I’m saying the BLM keeps stories as vague as possible so people only see what they want them to see. You guys are simply the messenger of the one sided news. I get it
It’s true.
here we go
Only a 100?
QUESTION: how were “private landowners” informed in order to be included in “discussions”?
To bad that pic is at havasu landing lol they won’t come into big river and collect them they never do
All good questions guys, thanks. I’ll continue to ask them
Really? You must not know anything about the BLM then, they are the worst. Better look into the salt river horse herd fiasco then.
BLM is a complete waste of funds!!!
Leave our donkeys alone!!! Just slow down and pay attention and dont stop to feed them in the street. Tiffany Leaverton
I know. ????
Parker Live Updates their job is to manage our land. There has to be a process they use to reach these decisions I would hope? Ask the questions please. I’m sure a lot of people would love some accountability on their side to inform us of the policies and procedures in processes like these.
Our tax dollars hard at work. This is bulls$&t
Maybe this is the world we live in. The world of news and not journalism. Parker live you guys typically rock and I appreciate what you guys do but what I’m seeing is a bunch of regurgitated news blips that the powers that be want the general public to digest and NEVER ask any deeper questions. It would be awesome to see a little more journalism in news these days. I am not directly saying you (parker live) but I mean as a whole. Media outlets are in such a hurry to report the “news” due to the 24 he news cycle that there is typically no time for actual journalism any more. So we get the 1 sided news that’s exactly how the mega corporations, bureaucracies and agencies need it told. I don’t know the fix but it’s easy to identify a portion of the problem. Tired of the problem, reaction, solution narrative we always get. Because who is always here to save us from ourselves, big government of course. The most illogical, unethical group of thrives and maniacs that run this planet.
It’s partly about resources. People want their news for free, but that puts a lot of pressure on an ad revenue model that doesn’t particularly reward deep, investigative journalism. Parker Live is just me – John Wright – singlehandedly upholding the entire thing for my bosses at KLPZ. I have the resources to ask questions (as I did here) but not to jump in a Jeep and spend days tracking what happens to desert donkeys. I agree it’s a problem, but there aren’t easy solutions when the public wants free news.
Im glad they are doing something, I have seen a couple donkeys with broken legs from the metal cow gaurds they put down at every entrance on the Rio Del Colorado park so they cant enter the park to get to the river to drink.
Finally. We have called 50 times. They are so bad over here in earp. The vulchers are full.
Leave the burros alone.
I think they should move the burro crossing signs to a safer area for the burros to cross.
They’re not metal. They used round style concrete guards. They are way less harmful for livestock.
Arguably, you moved into their hood! 😉
Parker Live Updates I realize this. I’m talking about the cars that have hit them and crippled them. I have had over 5 dead burros in my park.
WHAT THE ACTUAL EFFF!!!?!?!?!? 🙁 This is their land not ours, ugh!!!
Scott Kinman shut up
Does this mean the coyotes are next? The BLM had this plan in the works since June as I heard about it then. Wrote a letter then. And will do another. They just put up cattle guards & fences to keep them out of resorts! How much more tax dollars you gonna spend on the burros. Thank you for the hard work John Wright.
Lenny Holder you have to give them a try like the goats Kara Hitchcock Holder wanted.
I been counting all donkey taking photos and I know that even the worker harass them have a photo of that to I have seen the donkeys walk on the dirt in a straight line not in the road it like they know what up, yes I seen a lot of donkeys get hit by autos where they don’t even stop. this area is part of the old mining and has donkey charm we can live with them and have done so for more than 50 years
So far this summer I have seen 2 Burros with broken legs in our park, do you think those types of guards will do that to them?
All the folks that stop and feed them on the road and in the resorts have contributed to their fate over the past 20 years. Burroes are slaughtered by vehicles because they have no fear anymore. Mother’s with babies standing in the middle of the road waiting for a handout. Burros have turned into a nuisance rummaging camp sites day and night for food and some attack people if you don’t give them food. BLM has no choice but to round them up. 100 really isn’t going to make to much of a difference in the long run. So sad as I enjoy wildlife when it’s wild.
Also…the speed limit should be lowered on that road leading to Parker Dam!! You can’t see the burros on the road around the winding roads! Everyone needs to slow down!!
????
Beverly L Bonney Do you want to use your private land, labor, hay and money to take care of 100 burros?
Lauren Stallings so sad. I saw a lot on the road over the weekend. And now they can’t get into our community thanks to the cattle guards, making access to water so difficult. Makes me so so sad.
Nancy ☹️
I hated it when they put up fence and cattle guard!
Leave those burros alone
Ill take them to Oatman until i buy my 40 acres in Az.
YAHHHHHH GPA!!!
Sandra Lawrence, if we bought that property in Norco we could adopt a burro!
The burros need to be left alone, when they catch them you can here them crying in the night in the pen. So upsetting
I take this road home and I’m very good with animals I have seen their family groups. They are fine the way they are people just need to stop feeding them and need to slow down. I just saw a guy over take two cars over the double yellow line right past the Parker Dam post office, not acceptable!
Emergency gather? Bull s**t this is nothing but a culling. These animals are taken from their herds and trucked for hours. To pens and mixed with others and then sorted buy age and sex. Baby’s are separated from their mothers and that’s if the little ones survive the cramped transport. The old the week any that are not deemed “suitable for adoption” are killed the ones that are left are wear housed in cramped pens for months. Until they are put up for adoption. BLM is part of the Dept. of the interior the most bloated out of control convoluted, money wasting part of our national Government.
Justin Keep I agree with you. That’s how BLM operates thay just go exposed at salt river.
The article reads that they are transported and possibly adopted. What happens to those that don’t get adopted?
If the burros are left, as it is now, they will ALL die a horrible death. (FYI, they are NOT “mules”, which are sterile offspring of horses and donkeys) They might be “wild” animals, but they are not native to the area. They are the descendants of miner’s and pack donkeys, brought in by Spanish explorers and American settlers and miners. Once the mining, exploring and settling stopped, and better transport means came about, the donkeys were abandoned in the desert. With few predators, they proliferated the desert, living off of sage and mesquite pods, among other natural foodstuff. In 1970, Congress passed the Wild Horse and Burro Act, placing the animals into protected status on public lands, and tasking the BLM with their care and monitoring. They are actually an invasive species in our deserts, competing and taking resources that are also needed by native animals, such as deer, Bighorn Sheep, and all through the food chain from rabbits to road runners to tortoises. Federal and State Game laws allow those species to be reduced through regulated hunting to maintain their numbers and species survival, but hunting donkeys would not be any kind of “sport” and the public would be naturally outraged at the hunting of burros and wild horses, not to mention that any such hunting is prohibited by law. In order to comply with the 1970 law regulating the herds, and also look out for the good of the land, donkey herds (and horse herds in other locales) must be reduced to ensure the survival of, not only the donkey herds, but also other species, including natural vegetation. The first donkeys to be taken are those that have been desensitized to humans, through feeding and the animals’ growing reliance on human hand-outs and human “improvements” to the land. The animals that are removed, thinned, culled (or whatever you want to call it) from the herd aren’t just adopted out and forgotten. Prior to adoption the animals are recorded, logged, and marked so BLM and volunteer groups can monitor their condition with their new owners. Animals that are mistreated are removed and proper enforcement actions taken against the owners. Unfortunately some animals may not be suitable for adoption, just like any other species (dog, cat, etc) of animal and must be destroyed. Some go to research facilities, universities or other scientific uses. Euthanizing is always a last resort, usually reserved for diseased, injured, and unmanageable animals.
Doing nothing will cause suffering throughout their population and eventually be the demise of them all, not to mention other native desert species.
This is crap…i heard the last round up was so sad ..it’s there land ..so what happens to the ones that don’t get adopted ?let the donkeys be ..leave them alone poor Donkeys ????
They will go to holding I’m sure. It happens all over. It’s sad but what’s worse is them starving. The land can only support so many. There are blm holding facilities all over. Brittney has a blm mustang herself. Mary Roberts
Kelsey Wright I sure hope this round up goes better then the last I heard they took moms and left babys ..I sure hope they all get homes that’s one of my favorite parts to the river is the donkeys ..praying for them????❤????
Mary Roberts well hopefully it does but if babies are left hopefully they are of weaning age. Horses/mules/donkeys don’t stay with their mom forever. In the wild it’s a little different and the mare will wean her baby herself and it all depends on how she feels. Some wean younger then others but in the domestic world horses/mules/donkeys are weaned any where from 3 months old to 6 months old. For me I would be more worried about the amount of donkeys that are on the herd management area. The article says over 600. That’s a lot in a desert climate. While cars are an issue; I’d be more concerned about the herd management area not being able to feed over 600 donkeys. I for one don’t want to see starving donkeys.
If anyone wants a horse or burro and has horse experience or a trainer; mustangs & wild burros could be a good choice. The adoption fee is $125 I believe.
The blm also has the TIP program where trainers halter brake the horses and donkeys before they are adopted. Adoption fee is still $125 I believe.
They are not going to kill the donkeys they are relocating them as an employee that works around Parker Dam they eye safety hazard when their numbers are great they are going to a cooler climate which is a good thing