Wild Horse Information 2

This is a page dedicated to the wild horses that are left around the United States.  There will be information on call in days, updated information on situations that come through, and any other wild horse related information. 

Carson City, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Carson City District, has issued the Decision Records for the Final Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Pine Nut and Pilot Mountain Wild Horse Gather Plans. Fertility control will be used on the Pine Nut and Pilot Mountain gathers to slow population growth to reduce the need for future gathers.

The Pine Nut HMA is located five miles east of Carson City, Nevada.  The decision is for the BLM to gather approximately 118 wild horses from within the Pine Nut HMA, vaccinate approximately 45 of the mares with a two year fertility control vaccine, and then release all 118 horses (including the 45 treated mares) back into the HMA.  Approximately 67 additional wild horses are residing well outside the HMA (up to 12 miles away), often congregating on private property in the Fish Springs (Douglas County) area, creating a public safety hazard on roads and damaging private property.
These 67 excess wild horses will be gathered and removed.  The gather is tentatively scheduled to begin mid-November 2010, and will last about one week.
The Pilot Mountain HMA is located approximately 25 miles east of Hawthorne, Nevada.  The decision is for the BLM to gather approximately 242 wild horses from within the Pilot Mountain HMA, remove approximately 53 excess wild horses, vaccinate approximately 76 of the mares with a two year fertility control vaccine, and then release 189 horses (including the 76 treated mares) back into the HMA.  Approximately 104 additional wild horses are residing well outside the HMA, often congregating on and along highway U.S. 95 near Walker Lake, Nevada, creating a serious public safety hazard.
In February - March 2010 at least seven wild horses were killed in vehicle accidents. These 104 excess wild horses will be gathered and removed.  The gather is tentatively scheduled to begin in late-November 2010.
Treating selected mares with a two year fertility control vaccine on the Pine Nut and Pilot Mountain HMA gathers will assist in maintaining the Appropriate Management Level (AML) of horses and reduce the number of excess wild horses that would need to be removed in the future. The utilization of the PZP-22 vaccine will help reduce population growth and assist in maintaining a population size within the AML.
The gathers are needed to achieve the Appropriate Management Level (AML) in order to maintain a thriving natural ecological balance for the remaining wild horse population, wildlife, permitted livestock and vegetation within each HMA. The AMLs were established upon completion of an in-depth analysis
of habitat suitability, resource monitoring and population inventory data.
The upper limit of the AML range is the maximum number of wild horses that can be maintained within an HMA while maintaining a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple use relationship on the public lands.
Establishing the AMLs within a population range allows for the periodic removal of excess animals (to the low end) and subsequent population growth (to the maximum level) between removals.  Development of the Herd Management Area Plans (HMAP) for both HMAs included public involvement.
The BLM will use helicopters to gather the wild horses and will transport the animals by motorized vehicles. The use of helicopters, which is authorized by the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, has proven to be the safest and most practical means for gathering excess wild horses.
The BLM coordinates closely with the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s (NDOA) Brands Division to provide Brand Inspectors during wild horse removal efforts across the State.  NDOA brand inspectors must verify the animals are excess wild horses and burros as defined by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.  Once verified, the Brand Inspector will provide the BLM a certificate to transport the animals. Without this cooperation and coordination, the BLM would not be able to remove the excess wild horses and burros which, if not removed in a timely manner, would result in degradation of our native rangelands.  The NDOA also may take jurisdiction of any estray, branded or abandoned domestic
horse(s) under the State of Nevada estray laws.

Wild horses removed from the range will be offered for adoption to qualified individuals through the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program.  Un-adopted horses will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be humanely cared for and will retain their “wild” status and protection under the 1971 law.  The BLM does not sell or send any horses to slaughter.
The gather and impacts are described and analyzed in the Pine Nut, Pilot Mountain & Clan Alpine HMA Gather Plan Final EA. The EA, separate Decision Records for each specific gather, associated documents, maps and other information about the Pine Nut and Pilot Mountain HMAs are posted on the
BLM Carson City website at http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/carson_city_field.html.  A Decision Record
has not yet been signed for the Clan Alpine HMA gather that is tentatively scheduled for February 2011.
The BLM also will provide updates and information at the same web address on a regular basis throughout the course of each gather.
For more information, please call (775) 885-6000, for Coreen Francis, Supervisory Natural Resource Specialist for the Stillwater Field Office (Pilot Mountain HMA gather), or Alan Bittner, Supervisory  Natural Resource Specialist for the Sierra Front Field Office (Pine Nut HMA gather).
-BLM-

Return To Freedom Rescue Update: Calico Stallion “Bucky” and His Friend Back Home in Nevada

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/news/?p=2405

It’s a Solid No for Shooting Burros in the Big Bend

http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/4186

BLM Reschedules Advisory Council Meeting
Reno, Nev. — The Bureau of Land Management has rescheduled the Resource Advisory Council originally scheduled to be held in Reno on November 4-5, 2010, until early 2011.  Once finalized, the new meeting date will be published in the Federal Register and posted on BLM Nevada web site at http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en.html.
-BLM-

http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/the-blm%E2%80%99s-multiple-ruse-mandate/

Aerial Survey Verifies Wild/Feral Horse Populations
Based upon data from an aerial population survey conducted in June 2010, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have determined approximately 3,057 wild horses remain on the BLM-managed public lands in northwest Nevada, northeast California and south central Oregon and approximately 1,258 feral horses and burros remain on FWS-managed lands within the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
The population survey methodology was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) with the assistance of BLM wild horse specialists. The methodology incorporates peer-reviewed techniques that have been used for decades to estimate wildlife populations around the world.
The final report, which contains specific population counts for each surveyed area, is available on the web at: http://www.blm.gov/nv/.  Associated news releases and documents available also include the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the BLM and FWS, which will further improve management of wild horses and burros on BLM and FWS-managed lands within this region.
 In early September, the BLM and FWS signed an agreement designed to better coordinate the management of wild horses in a region covering northwest Nevada, northeast California and south-central Oregon.   The agreement calls for BLM offices in the three states and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to improve how they count the animals and to share the information.  However, the recent feral horse gather on the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge was conducted exclusively by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
-BLM-

Good News for MoundHouse Horses!

>> As of today the large, flashing electrical warnings signs for wild horses

>> are back up in the  Mound House - Centenial Park area!  Good job

>> everyone! Dorothy 

> AS OF TODAY, THE LARGE, FLASHING ELECTRICAL WARNING SIGNS FOR WILD HORSES

> ARE BACK UP IN THE MOUND HOUSE - CENTENNIAL PARK AREA.  GOOD JOB EVERYONE,

> ESPECIALLY FOR ALL THE PHONE CALLS AND EMAILS YOU SENT TO GOV AND NDOT!!!!

Distemper outbreak kills wild horses at Herriman center

Federal wild-horse managers are suspending adoptions from their Herriman center and placing a quarantine on about 500 horses because of an equine-distemper outbreak.

Eleven horses have died — some on their own and some from euthanasia after being badly stricken — and two or three dozen more show signs of the upper-respiratory infection, said Gus Warr, head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Utah wild-horse and burro program.

Read more here: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50502825-76/horses-wild-outbreak-blm.html.csp

Comment at the link.

http://www.thedesertinde.com/Articles%202010/BLM-Declares-Their-Land--1015.html

BLM Declares Their Land “Non-Public Forums”

An Editorial by the Publisher

--

By ROBERT WINKLER
The Desert Independent

October 15, 2010

In a response filed in a Nevada court on October 14th the Bureau Of Land Management (BLM) revealed that “herd management areas” and perhaps other areas of public lands at their unilateral choosing can, be considered by the government “non-public forums.”

This is interesting news to the rest of us who have considered these lands public, open and freely accessible. It would seem, according to Ken Salazar, Bob Abbey and those they lead at the Department of Interior and BLM, the we, the press, and by extension, you the public have no have no right to know how the government manages your public resources.

The government is controlling the content of the information that reaches you, the public, by prohibiting journalists who may portray them in an unflattering light.

Our interest at this moment is wild horses on public lands. Next year it might be gas pipelines, uranium mining, or nuclear waste storage. The public has a right to know. The government behaves when citizens are watching.

They know that. They know that. They know that.

That is why Ken Salazar and Bob Abbey are fighting in court to prevent public access.

Shame on Ken Salazar.

Shame on Bob Abbey.

Shame on the agencies doing their dirty work hidden from the light of the public eye.

You cannot tear down such a national monument and not be remembered Ken and Bob. We shall not forget you; and, history shall not forget both of your hideous rolls in this.

In the Spotlite:

Take action for VA Range Horses!!!   :

The Northern Nevada Allies are scheduling a demonstration on Wednesday, October 20 in Carson City.  We are also asking supporters of the Virginia Range horses to once again make some phone calls and send emails.  We are asking selected leaders to get this information out to your respective circles of "advocate readers."

I've posted a "template" of this request on the AOWHA web site.  Feel free to copy and paste the information and personalize it as you wish.  It can be viewed and copied here:

http://aowha.org/notices/carson_protest_101020.html

I have also uploaded an  image of what is happening to these horses formatted for use in an email bulletin (compressed to make the message file size reasonable.)  That image is attached to this message.

We realize this is short notice however we would greatly appreciate your independent distribution of our call ASAP in hopes that we can get ahead of the issues illustrated in the request itself.

Thanks!

Willis (for the N. Nevada Allies)

For any of you wishing to use the "template" to send out notices about the upcoming Carson City protest, but prefer to link across to the AOWHA page instead of to your own (at the part that says "(web address)") the AOWHA on-line bulletin is located at – 

http://www.aowha.org/notices/cc_ag_101020_01.html 

Thanks!

Honey Bandit Updates:

Here is my letter to Bob Abbey and the rest of the BLM gang.  I got a very nice and very positive thank you from Bob.  Made me feel very hopeful. 

Hugs

P

p.s. 

Let me know what you think about the letter to BLM.  Bet I will get a lot of flack from them.

--

FYI  this is an open letter to BLM.    Apparently from what I understand they are not going to post it.  However, if any of you feel like posting it please feel free.  The top BLM official, Mr. Robert Abbey, wrote back to me and is definitely showing a willingness to try and work together.   I only received one other response and it was pretty generic and he told me that BLM does not publish letters.  My whole goal out of all this is to have the truth out there and be able to save the orphan foals as opposed to having them thrown away due to egos.

--

Dear Mr. Pogacnik:

I am writing this letter in clarification of  recent and ongoing publicity regarding Honey Bandit, the foal that I picked up at the BLM facility in Litchfield.  I am hoping that BLM prints this letter in it's entirety on it's website, as I would like to make clear to America the reason for this story being so public.

- - -

An "Open Letter" to BLM

My name is Lauri "Palomino" Armstrong.  I am the person who, with the support of other advocates,  took in the special needs BLM foal known as "Honey Bandit." Honey Bandit was noticed by advocates at BLM's Litchfield Corrals and appeared to be in poor condition.  There have been both facts and speculation surrounding this "rescue," and while not everything went smoothly, there was certainly cooperation by  BLM and other advocates in support of the care and recovery of this foal.

This letter clarifies my personal feelings and some things that I want known.  I want anyone who follows Honey bandit's story to clearly understand that the journals describing Honey Bandit's issues and care were not intended to be used as a tool to get people mad at BLM.  This story is about people getting off their duffs to get involved in helping horses and the broader message is for concerned citizens to motivate Congress to change some outdated legislation.

I have never “bashed” BLM.  I definitely do not agree with the roundups, especially how some are carried out and the way the horses are transported.  But I also realize that the people working at BLM's holding facilities are not the people who make national policies.

The reason we are keeping Honey Bandit's story in the public and taking him to Washington DC next spring is not to promote bad feelings toward the BLM,  but rather to get concerned Americans to contact their elected lawmakers in Congress to get laws passed that better protect our nation's wild horses and burros.   The only way things are going to change is if WE, THE PEOPLE, insist on change, using sensible and factual arguments.  I joined the call for a moratorium on the roundups because I believe that a moratorium is appropriate until the laws can be changed to better protect our horses and burros.  I believe that we need to change the way horses and burros are rounded up, as present strategies produce far too many injuries and deaths.  In reality, current laws prohibit a moratorium on roundups.  However, our call for a moratorium, and BLM's response that it couldn't if it wanted to, clearly illustrates our point with respect to the outdated nature of America's wild horse and burro laws.

Equally important is that advocacy is about all the horses and burros, not just the ones out on the range.  Therefore there are many areas where we have to work with the people at  BLM so that a safety net is in place for at risk horses, before a problem is discovered.  The next time a foal like Honey Bandit comes in, a process must be in place where BLM can call us or another qualified caregiver and we could pick up the foal immediately.

Honey Bandit somehow did "slip through the cracks."  One reason for this was BLM not being aware of the help that was available to deal with these situations.  Sometimes advocates have to stand up and say, "We're here to help and here is how we can help."  Helping horses doesn't mean we agree with all the national wild horse policies.  It means we're interested in helping horses.

To be fair to BLM, they did not hide Honey Bandit, or let him die. They turned him over to our rescue which specializes in orphan/critical care foals.  Once BLM was made fully aware of the situation, the people at Litchfield took appropriate action and our "combined" decisions and actions saved the foal's life.

The fact that Honey Bandit's condition got overlooked in a facility that was experiencing an influx of about 900 horses is not OK, but what happened  him afterwards is okay.  By working together we were able to get him to a place where he could have the 24/7 care that a foal in his condition required.  There will never be enough staff  to provide that kind of care at any of the BLM facilities, so their "standard of care" must include assistance by qualified advocates.

Honestly, I have to say that there were situations and conversations I had with BlM that I found to be very frustrating, but what matters is that we resolved those situations so that everyone could work together in the future.  Honey Bandit is alive and he will continue to get the message out that we, as the American people, need to make sure that the laws are changed.

The real issue here is not that the personnel at Litchfield don't care about the horses.  They clearly do.  What Honey Bandit's situation illustrated is BLM is stretched pretty thin in order to carry out its present "mandate." We are not likely to actually see a moratorium. Congress may change some laws but it will be a slow process. Meanwhile, horses coming off the range need homes, and in some instances special care, right now.  We need to agree to disagree about range policies but work together wherever possible for the horses.

Also, we advocates need to recognize that BLM can and will correct problems, particularly when advocates step up in cooperative ways.  At Litchfield, intervention in the case of at-risk foals will likely be much improved, mainly because the staff now knows that they have a place to send such foals.  In Nevada, and with the cooperation of local horse groups, BLM will not be removing horses from the Pine Nut Range but trap-treat-release bands where found using time release fertility control.  The local horse groups have agreed in principle to monitor the success of this "maintenance" approach to managing the herd.  This evolution in herd management should be better for the horses.

There appear to be other "improvements" being considered.

If we as advocates can remember that this whole advocacy is about horses and burros, and our complaints about problems can't go so far as to undermine opportunities to achieve improvements for the horses, then we really are helping the horses.  But then we have to be willing to step up when situations present themselves where we can help and make a difference.

That is Honey Bandit's real story.

Sincerely,

Palomino Armstrong

530 474 5197

Here's a Virginia Range update for Friday, October 15th.  Feel free to cross post.

Yesterday another horse was hit on US-50 near to Centennial Drive while crossing the highway to Hettrick's field.  The recent rains caused a large puddle to cover a portion of the "painted" cattle guard and the horses learned to ignore it.  There was also a horse hit in the Damonte Ranch subdivision in Reno.  In both situations the Nevada Department of Agriculture prevented local citizens and groups from diverting the horses back into the hills.

In contrast, in Dayton horses have also entered a subdivision adjacent to US-50 when some fences were taken down to accommodate recreational improvements at the Santa Maria River Park.  However in this instance the County and the adjacent developer took the lead and met with local citizens and horse groups - and they kept the State out of the issue. New fencing will be constructed that will not only enhance safety at the park, but will discourage horses from entering developed areas while still allowing access to the river for recreational users and rafting enthusiasts.

Such are the approaches that communities have historically used to mitigate "horse problems."

* * *

NDoA Director Tony Lesperance was quoted as saying that the department no longer manages the Virginia Range herd.  My question is that if NDoA is out of the horse management business, why is the department preventing the local communities from doing so?  Kind of doesn't make sense.

* * *

Also I nailed NDoA for illegally selling horses.  There are five Virginia Range horses presently at the Fallon Livestock Exchange.  The Department planned to sell them starting this coming week.  Yesterday I hand delivered three weeks' worth of newspapers from Storey County to the AG's office showing that the legally required estray "pick up" notices and the required sale notices were never published in that county. TWO separate notices are required, the second being placed no sooner than the 6th "working day" following the first.

(Even though the horses are technically "feral" an estray notice is required when they are picked up just in case someone's escaped private livestock were among the animals captured.)

"A notice of the estray, with a full description, giving brands, marks and colors thereon, must be published in a newspaper published at the county seat of the county in which the estray was taken up."  NRS 569.070(2)

"before the Department may sell feral livestock, the Department must publish notice of the sale of the feral livestock in a newspaper published at the county seat of the county in which the gathering of the feral livestock occurred."  NRS 569.075(2)

The legally recognized newspaper for Storey County is the Comstock Chronicle.

NDoA finally admitted that they didn't place proper legal notices.  (They were placed in the Fernley Leader in Lyon County.)  After an argument in which she insisted that there weren't any newspapers in Storey County, JoAnn Mothershead then tried to blame Daryl Peterson.  That came after I pointed out that an editor from one of the papers in Storey County sent me three weeks' worth of the Comstock Chronicle that had all the legal notices for the county except NDoA, and I also mentioned that I had forwarded those papers to the Attorney General's office.

Ms. Mothershead at NDoA said that the notices would be republished in the correct papers.

Also the horses sent to the Fallon Livestock Exchange were apparently neither branded or microchipped, another issue that needs to be resolved.

"Estrays and feral livestock must be marked, branded or identified with an individual animal identification before sale or placement."  NRS 569.080(4)

Ms. Mothershead complained about having to deal with the Virginia Range horses.  I pointed out that except for having to publish an estray notice when horses are picked up, the Department could simply drop the horses off at one of the cooperating horse groups. On the 6th day following the publication of the estray notice the horses could be "legally" turned over to the group.  For that matter the cooperative agreement could make the group responsible for microchipping the horses before taking legal possession, as well as require reimbursement to the Department for the costs of the legal notices.  Slam dunk.  Less hassle and no expense for the state.  No Virginia Range horses going to the kill buyers.

The problem appears to be that Tony Lesperance doesn't want any of the responsibility but wants all of the control.  Ergo the horses and public continue to suffer.

Contacts:

NDoA, JoAnn Mothershead  775-738-8076

Attorney General's Ofc., Edie Cartwright, PAO 775-684-1189

Fallon Livestock Exchange:  Monte Bruck  775-426-8279

":O) Willis

Parks officials shoot aoudad, burros to make way for bighorn

http://www.bigbendsentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4715&Itemid=1

Interior Department Continues War On Wild Horses

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced plans to round up – via a helicopter stampede in the middle of winter – and eliminate 80 percent of the wild horses in Nevada’s Antelope Complex. Claiming that only 427 to 788 horses can be supported by more than 1.3 million acres of public land, the BLM proposes to remove 1,659 horses (plus 50 found outside the boundaries), bringing this herd down to only 427 horses. The BLM allows 18 times more farmed animals than wild horses to graze on this same land, while blaming the horses for any damage done to the range. The BLM can even increase the land allocated to privately-held animals to 27 times the proposed wild horse herd size merely by releasing some grazing rights that have been temporarily suspended.

Red Alert!!!!:

PLEASE CROSS POST WHERE APPROPRIATE.

Some bad news re. the Virginia Range horses.

Another Mound House horse was hit on US-50 last night, just west of Centennial Drive in Carson City.

The state is still REFUSING to authorize diversion feeding that the local communities would pay for and who would perform the necessary labor to keep horses off the highway.  In fact the officials have said they would go after anyone who does that.  This "position" affects all the diversion feed programs on the range, including keeping horses out of Reno and Virginia City.

In the meanwhile the Department of Agriculture is picking up horses and hauling them to the Fallon Livestock Exchange.  It appears that the Department is doing this in secret, not publishing various legal notices as required by law and not freezebranding the horses for identification, also required by law.

I'll be taking a complaint to the Attorney General this morning along with copies of the legal sections from the newspaper showing that the required notices were not published.  Meanwhile I urge everyone with an interest in these horses to call the Governor's Office and Mr. Hettrick's Office and demand an explanation as to why the state is preventing the traditional control of these horses through feed diversion, why the horses that were picked up haven't been turned over to cooperators, and why horses are showing up in Fallon without the legally required public notices and brands.

There are Virginia Range horses presently standing at the Fallon Livestock Exchange and more are likely to show up.

Here are some phone numbers and email addresses you may wish to use

Governor Gibbons' Office:
775-694-5670
For email pleas use the web form: http://gov.state.nv.us/Contact_Us_NORTHX.htm
Deputy Chief of Staff Lynn Hettrick
lchettrick@gov.nv.gov
775-684-5670

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto
775-684-1100
Edie Cartwright, Public Affairs
ecartwright@ag.nv.gov

Beware of the BS responses.

1.  Feed diversions don't work.  (They have been successful for years.)

2.  Cooperators won't take the horses.  (Of course they will, they always have.)

3.  The state is broke.  (Then stop preventing the citizens from addressing the problem.)

4.  The state can sell the horses.  (Only after the public notice and branding requirements are met.)

5.  Notices were published.  (Advocates have copies of the specific newspapers that the law says the notices have to appear in and there are no notices.)

It is my opinion that in order to fix this situation we can't let the state think we are simply going to let the issue die down.  They felt the pressure back when the "Hettrick's Irrigation" incident started, but all indications are that they think we're losing interest and things are returning to "business as usual."

The local citizens and horse groups could have solved this problem but were prevented by the state.

":O) Willis

Here's Craig's report on the population estimate at Twin Peaks after the round-up.

http://equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/09.24.10_twin_peaks_post_round-up_population_est.pdf

The southern California advocates are gearing up. Thanks for sharing the
following info concerning the 3rd Los Angeles WH&B rally:
When: Saturday, Oct. 23 from 12:00-2:00
Where: In front of the CNN Los Angeles Hdqtrs.
6430 W. Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Please bring your posters and banners.
For more information, contact:

BLM Resource Advisory Councils Meeting
Reno, Nev.--The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Nevada Resource Advisory Councils (RACs) will hold their annual joint meeting at John Ascuaga’s Nugget Hotel Casino in Sparks, Nev., on November 4-5, 2010.  The meeting begins at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4.  The public is invited to attend.
BLM Nevada has three regional RACs: the Northeastern Great Basin RAC, the Sierra Front/Northwestern Great Basin RAC, and Mojave/Southern Great Basin RAC.  The RACs provide counsel and advice to the Secretary of the Interior, through the BLM on issues involving management of the public lands.
Members represent commercial and non-commercial uses and local governments.
“The members of Nevada’s councils are people who are interested in the use and the protection of public lands,” said Nevada State Director Ron Wenker. “This annual meeting gives all members an excellent opportunity to visit with their counterparts among the RACs, to discuss issues with the BLM, and to get an overview of the BLM’s priorities and challenges for the upcoming year.”
A public comment period will be held early in the afternoon on Thursday, Nov. 4.  The actual time will be posted on the website. The meeting agenda will be available two weeks prior to the meeting at www.blm.gov/nv.  This forum provides an opportunity for people to ask questions of the citizen-based advisory council and to make comments that may provide RAC members a better understanding of their needs and concerns.
The three RACs will meet separately on Friday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 a.m. to elect a chair and vice-chair and select meeting dates and agenda topics for the coming year.

- BLM-

Tragedy at Silver King: Braveheart’s Last Stand

Read more here:  http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/news/?p=2264

BLM Nevada News
WINNEMUCCA DISTRICT OFFICE NO. 2011-01
FOR RELEASE:  October 7, 2010
CONTACT:  Lisa Ross at (775) 623-1541, lisa_ross@blm.gov
BLM Seeks Public Input on Proposed Wild Horse Gather in Augusta Mountains Area
Winnemucca, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Winnemucca District, Humboldt River Field Office has prepared a preliminary environmental assessment (EA) proposing to gather about 344 wild horses from in and around the Augusta Mountains Herd Management Area (HMA). The BLM plans to gather and remove about 50 excess wild horses that have established home ranges well outside the HMA in the adjoining Fish Creek Mountains. All horses gathered within the HMA will be returned back to the HMA. The BLM would appreciate receiving substantive comments on the preliminary EA by November 5, 2010.
The established appropriate management level (AML) for wild horse population within the Augusta Mountains HMA is 185 to 308.  The BLM estimates there are currently 294 wild horses in the HMA.  The BLM proposes to gather the wild horses in the HMA and vaccinate all of the mares with the PZP-22 (Porcine Zona Pellucida) fertility control drug. The goal is to slow population growth and maintain population size within the AML, and extend the time before a gather to remove excess wild horses would be needed.  
“Keeping the herd population in balance with the available forage and water helps keep these wild horses healthy,” said Mike Truden, Humboldt River Field Office manager.  “It is the BLM’s responsibility to prevent deterioration of the rangelands, achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance, and achieve and maintain healthy, viable wild horse populations.”  
The Augusta Mountains HMA is located in Churchill, Lander and Pershing counties, about 75 miles southeast of Winnemucca, Nevada.  The proposed gather is tentatively scheduled to begin in January 2011.
The document may be reviewed online at http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_information/nepa0.html.  Printed copies are available upon request from the BLM Winnemucca District Office.  Questions and written comments should be directed to: Mike Truden, Field Manager, Humboldt River Field Office, BLM Winnemucca District, 5100 E. Winnemucca Blvd., Winnemucca, NV 89445-2921.  Comments may also be submitted by email to AugustaMts_HMA_PrelimEA@blm.gov.  Email messages should include “Augusta Mountains Gather Plan (Fox)” in the subject line.  Public comments submitted for this project, including names and addresses of commentors will be available for public review at the WDO during regular business hours 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except federal holidays.

WildHorse News:

For the most part we are are looking at a catch/treat/release on this one.  50 horses on HA will be removed.  ALL mares are to be birth controlled.  Does this mean no births for 2 years?    The EA can be found at the link below
 http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/nv/field_offices/winnemucca_field_office/nepa/wild_horse_and_burros/augusta.Par.37982.File.dat/AugustaMt_Prelim%20EA__100610.pdf

WildHorse News:

WH Protests Planned to Date:

BOSTON Freedom Friday Protest

WHERE: Massachusetts State House, behind the Boston Common in front of the State House

WHEN:  Friday, October 8, 2010 at 10:00am-2pm.

Come for an hour or spend the afternoon….bring a sign!

Contact: Carol Poole at mustangalley@hotmail.com for more info.

CONNECTICUT Protest:

WHERE: Downtown Stamford CT, on the Ferguson Library steps

WHEN: Saturday, October 9, 2010 at 2:00pm

Contact: Isabella Houghton: saverhorses@gmail.com

LAS VEGAS Rally:

Plus free concert: Grey Beard Bandit (Wild Horses Need our Voices)

Real (gentled) wild mustangs and guest speakers

WHERE:Horseman’s Park, 5800 E Flamingo Rd Las Vegas, NV 89122

WHEN: Monday, October 11 · 3:00pm – 6:00pm

Contacts:Shelly Smith shelly5711@yahoo.com or Katie Ellen Barron lotrfla300@yahoo.com

ARIZONA Protest:

WHEN: Helldorado Weekend, Oct.16 & 17th.  10:00am

WHERE: Downtown Tombstone, Arizona

CONTACT: Deb Catlett deborahcatlett@aol.com for more info

UTAH Protest:

WHEN: Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 11:00am

WHERE: County Bldgs (the old courthouse). 179 N. Main St., Logan, Utah

Contact: Kristy Amado kfamado@msn.com

COLORADO Protest:

WHEN: Saturday, October 16, 2010,11:00am- 2:00pm

WHERE: Southwest corner of Canyon & Broadway

Contacts: Linda Hanick vlhanick@gmail.com or Cathy Bryarly robcathyderek@peoplepc.com or 303-746-4729

SACRAMENTO Protest

WHEN: October 23, 10am-2pm
WHERE: at the West Steps of Capitol Bldg (10th and Capitol Mall) Contact: Janet Schultz: 1fastback@att.netAdditional protests are being planned for: Iowa, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine, South Carolina, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, Florida and Vermont.

Today’s Death of Silver King, NV Wild Stallion Embodies Inhumanity of Interior Dept. Wild Horse Program

http://www.crwenews.com/?p=58862

http://www.friendsofanimals.org/actionline/autumn-2010/PZP.php  

Dear Friends,
We wanted to give you an update on the Pony Express Delivery. Since the beginning of August when we started the campaign, we have received 71,568 letters and emails! We are so elated that so many people have come through on this…and are STILL coming through on this; we’re still getting letters!!
We've received so much positive feedback for the Pony Express from all over the world. So many schools and organizations begged us to let their kids’ letters be included. So, how could we say no to that?!
So, we appreciate your patience in this very important issue of stopping the wild horse government roundups. We have extended the deadline, so please keep sending your letters in if you haven’t already. This is an issue that is at the top of everyone’s list and I will deliver on my promise. Literally.
Additionally, we are currently working with the BLM on ways to halt the gathers and a cooperative way to reach our goal. It’s an important issue to all of us and we want to make sure it gets done properly.
Thank you for understanding and for your dedication to this project. Most importantly, THANK YOU for supporting this cause and writing a letter for this effort. Without you, this would not have been so successful.
Also, our highly anticipated Kids’ Corner page is up! Please take a look on the homepage of www.savingamericasmustangs.org. Involve your children by encouraging them to educate themselves through our site. They can download the coloring page, send us photos and letters, and will eventually have fact sheets to explain to their friends what is happening to their horses.
Very Sincerely,
Madeleine Pickens + all the wild mustangs

Please Click the button below to Get on Board the Pony Express!!!
Follow Madeleine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mpickens
Become Madeleine Pickens’ Friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/madeleine.pickens
Visit her website for up to the minute information: www.savingamericasmustangs.org
Saving America’s Mustangs’ Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Madeleine-Pickens-Wild-Horse-Sanctuary/163062350007?ref=sgm
*My personal facebook page has reached its limit of 5,000 friends. I apologize for the inconvenience. Please add our fan page to get up the minute alerts* 

Help needed for NV Horses: 

I just now (4:30 pm - Friday) received a call from someone telling me the horses are AGAIN on Highway 50 East, trying to cross back to water after 'feeding on Lynn Hettrick's Smorgasboard!'  So, here's what I'm asking ALL OF YOU to do for the wild ones - even you who do not live in our area, nor our state, but are trying to save these wild horses:

Please, make the following calls/emails immediately.  It doesn't matter if the office is closed for the weekend.  What does matter is if enough people placed these calls and emails, we can LITERALLY CRASH THEIR SYSTEM!!!   A portable, self-standing fence was seen surrounding the acreage late last Saturday.  On Tuesday, there were no fences surrounding the 'field.'  WHY?????  Emergency flashing signs were placed last Thursday on Highway 50 East warning drivers this location is where horses are crossing, but the signs were removed on Tuesday.  WHY?????  (When Nevada Department of Transportation was called on this one, Scott McGruder - head of the department - wasn't even aware the signs had been taken down.  WHY???)

EMAILS:  "It is your responsibility, as a public servant, , to protect the citizens of Nevada as well as the animals of Nevada.  It is not the fault of the wild horses.  It is the fault of Lynn Hettrick who selfishly refuses to stop watering his so-called 'pasture.' "

Send this email to:

Governor Jim Gibbons

775-694-5670

jgibbons@gov.nv.gov

'cc' the above email to:

Lt. Governor Brian Krolicki

775-684-7111

ltgov@ltgov.nv.gov

'cc' the above email to:

Lynn Hettrick

lchettrick@gov.nv.gov

775-684-5670

Then, in making your phone calls, you can say just the same thing above, but can use your own words if you prefer.

PLEASE, PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO DO THIS.  OTHERWISE - SURE AS ANYTHING - THESE WILD HORSES, THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN, WILL BE ROUNDED UP AND VERY POSSIBLY BE SOLD AT THE MEAT-BUYERS' MARKETS.........!

Thank you one and all, Bonnie

A Similar Vaccine  

Recently, I have seen some interesting new trends developing in BLM wild horse & burro proposals.

http://americanherds.blogspot.com/2010/10/similar-vaccine.html

19th Calico Stallion Rescued; Captured Mustangs Begin New Life Thanks To Return to Freedom

 http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/news/?p=1530

Environmental Group Joins Growing National Opposition to Massive Wyoming Mustang Roundup

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/news/?p=2216

Interior Department's BLM Continues Assault On Wild Horses

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wants to remove wild horses in Nevada’s Callaghan Complex to bring the number of horses below the already artificially low number the BLM established for this area. Despite stating that only 894 to 1,161 horses are allowed to live on this 1,000-square-mile area of public land, the BLM now proposes to remove 221 horses, bringing this herd down to just 862 horses. As usual, the BLM allows more farmed animals to graze on this same land – and, as expected, the BLM blames horses for the damage.

Please submit comments opposing this latest effort to unnecessarily and inhumanely remove wild horses from land specifically designated for them. Congress and the President need to stop turning a blind eye to this broken program. Click here to submit your comments by October 10

https://secure2.convio.net/ida/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=1653&autologin=true&AddInterest=1022&JServSessionIdr004=zu9vywadl2.app246b

Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 2:27 PM
To: Wild Horse Mentors' List
Subject: USF&WS Sheldon Roundup Statistics
Please cross post where appropriate.
With the roundup completed, USF&WS Sheldon has released some statistics and other related information in a press release.  Since there has been some general concern about what was happening in Sheldon, Tracie-Lynn Thompson was able to obtain a copy that I converted to a PDF file and uploaded on the AOWHA site.  The document, among other things, describes Sheldon's management practices, how to see Sheldon's Environmental Assessment, how many horses have been removed, how many horses will be returned to the range, Sheldon's mortality report and related information.
Here is the link to the Sheldon document.
http://www.aowha.org/documents/sheldon_100929_completed.pdf
Since the hyperlinks don't work on the PDF file, here are clickable links to the EAs referenced in this document.
Horse gathers and other horse and burro management activities (such as contraception, monitoring, research, and fencing) are described in the 2008 Horse and Burro Management Plan and environmental Assessment:
http://www.fws.gov/sheldonhartmtn/Sheldon/horseburro.html
Comprehensive Conservation Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (CCP/EIS). (That members of the public can learn about and sign up to make comments:
http://www.fws.gov/pacific/planning/main/docs/NV/docssheldon.htm
The document also has contact information for anyone having questions about this past gather or Sheldon's future intentions.
":O) Willis

Join Ginger and James in Chicago!

28 September 2010

Click Here to Download PDF Flier

Join Colorado Filmmakers and Advocates Ginger Kathrens and James Kleinert for a series of screenings, presentations and discussions in the Chicago area on the current state of our wild herds and what can be done to save them. Featured will be clips from both of their latest productions: of Ginger’s “Cloud: Challenge of the Stallions” and James’ “Diappointment Valley: A Modern Day Western”

Ginger Kathrens is an Emmy-Award Winning Filmmaker known for her 15-year documentation of Cloud, a pale wild stallion.

James Kleinert’s films are meant to educate views about the disturbing, massive removal of our horses and to inspire changes for the future of these precious animals.

Wild Horses and Burros of the Western U.S. and Cloud’s Herd in Montana – History, Update, Film Clips and Q&A.

A great event for children and adults to learn more about our Mustangs and meet Ginger and James.  Free autographed Cloud Poster to the first 25 kids under 16.  Adult admission $10, kids free. *Sat.  October 9 – Hilton Lisle – 3003 Corporate West Drive • 3-4:30 p.m.

Disappointment Valley – A Modern Day Western Wild Horse Documentary and Expose by James Kleinert, featuring Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Viggo Mortensen, Daryl Hannah and many others.  The screening includes discussion and Q&A with James and Ginger.  www.theamericanwildhorse.com

*Saturday October 9 – Hilton Lisle, 3003 Corporate W. Drive 5:30-7:30 pm Admission $20 – includes reception.

*Monday October 11 – Wilmette Theater – 1122 Central Ave. 6:30-8:30 p.m. $10 admission.  Food and drinks will be available at concessions.

Danada Festival – October 10 – Wheaton, IL  www.danada.info

The Cloud Foundation & Ginger as well as the Spirit Riders Foundation & James will be at the Festival discussing America’s Wild Horses and Burros.

For more information contact: mustangsrunfree@gmail.com

Silver King wild horse roundup claims its first victims

Maureen Harmonay

Here we go again.  It's only three days into the controversial Silver King roundup, south of Ely, Nevada, and the BLM has already killed four perfectly healthy wild horses out of the 177 they've taken into custody.

Why were these horses "euthanized" (i.e., "shot")?  According to the BLM's report from the roundup:  "Three of the horses were blind in one eye from previous injuries.  The fourth horse suffered with a severe sway back." 

This is getting to be too much to bear.  One-eyed horses can function perfectly well under a variety of conditions, as can sway-backed horses, and it's difficult to imagine how these killings can possibly be justified, unless, of course, the eye injuries actually occurred during the entrapment process, and were not "pre-existing."

Observers in the field have noted that a magnificent white stallion is among those whom the BLM's contractor, Cattoor, has trapped since Saturday

Eighty-four of the captured wild horses have already been shipped to the BLM holding facility at Indian Lakes Road in Fallon, Nevada, which is currently closed to outside observers.

The BLM intends to remove a total of 546 wild horses from the 606,000-acre Silver King Herd Management Area, allowing only a handful to remain.  If they succeed, it will be only a matter of time before wild horses will roam this vast Great Basin no more.

For the Wild Ones:

This is both video and song for the wild ones but each time it is watched on youtube it gets counted!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIM5x8JI1i4

Horse Haven Would Be Exclusive Club

By Thomas J. Cole
Journal Staff Writer
The wild horse sanctuary planned by Gov. Bill Richardson would have a maximum carrying capacity of about 25 to 30 of the iconic animals, according to an estimate by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
That means the sanctuary could serve as home for just a tiny fraction of the 33,000 or so wild horses now roaming free on public lands in the West.
Richardson recently announced a plan to spend $2.9 million in federal stimulus money to buy the 12,000-acre Ortiz Mountain Ranch in Santa Fe County for the sanctuary.
The administration hasn't released estimates on how much more money it would take to get the sanctuary established and how much the annual operating costs would be. It says the sanctuary's operation will involve private and nonprofit organizations and one or more federal agencies.
Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, the Democratic nominee to succeed Richardson, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, oppose using stimulus money to buy the ranch, saying the funds could be put to better use, given state government budget troubles. Denish's opponent, Republican Susana Martinez, also opposes it.
Wild horses are descendants of domestic horses, some of which were brought to this country by European explorers in the 16th century. "Feral" is actually a more accurate adjective.
According to the BLM, which runs the nation's Wild Horse and Burro Program, there were 33,102 wild horses in 10 Western states as of February 2009. New Mexico, with 114 wild horses, has the fewest. Most of the horses are in Nevada.
New Mexico has two horse herds recognized as wild by the Bureau of Land Management. One is the herd in the Bordo Atravesado area east of Socorro; the other is in the Carracas Mesa area in north-central New Mexico near the Colorado border.
As of February 2009, the Bordo Atravesado area had an estimated 102 wild horses, well above the maximum carrying capacity of 60 for the herd management area of 19,600 acres, according to the BLM.
The Carracas Mesa area had an estimated 12 horses, well below the maximum carrying capacity of 23 for the herd management area of 9,000 acres.
Horses in a free-roaming herd in the Placitas area just north of Albuquerque aren't recognized by the BLM as wild. The animals are considered escapees from their owners on the San Felipe Pueblo.
Richardson said at a White House conference on the outdoors last spring that he wanted to establish a sanctuary for wild horses.
"We need the BLM to better understand state needs to preserve these icons that are so much a part of America," the governor said.
The BLM says that before it will allow wild horses to be moved onto a state-run sanctuary, the agency will need to conduct environmental studies, including an analysis of how many horses the sanctuary could sustain.
"We just can't throw horses out there," said Bill Merhege, the BLM's deputy state director for resources.
Administration and BLM representatives have met in recent months about the possibility of the sanctuary, and Merhege said he and a BLM range conservationist visited the ranch.
Merhege said he estimated a maximum carrying capacity of 20 to 30 horses. "It could be less; it could be more. That's why we need to do the range studies," he said.
The administration says the sanctuary could sustain 25-50 horses on the ranch land west of N.M. 14 and additional horses on the eastside of the highway where the main visitor center would be located.
It says the ranch was chosen for the sanctuary became of its relative low price, readily available water sources and hiking trails and because the main ranch house could become a visitor center.
Under Richardson's plan, the ranch would become part of Cerrillos Hills State Park. The ranch is about 10 miles south of the park, which now consists of just 1,100 acres and has two employees.
The state's acquisition of the ranch is subject to approval by the state Board of Finance, which Denish sits on. Richardson is president of the board and postponed action on the ranch acquisition because he couldn't attend a meeting of the board this week.
A final note: Wild horse advocate Madeleine Pickens was quoted as saying in a story published Wednesday that the United States had 2 million wild mustangs a century ago. The BLM says the figure has never been substantiated.
UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Thom Cole can be reached in Santa Fe at (505) 992-6280 or at tcole@abqjournal.com.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL UPFRONT: Horse Haven Would Be Exclusive Club http://www.abqjournal.com/upfront/250930upfront09-25-10.htm#ixzz110HsWDVG
Subscribe Now Albuquerque Journal

Sheldon Herd Removals:

 Here are the plans for zeroing out the Sheldon Herd.  Advocates need to start writing their disapproval.  

This EIS has 6 different proposed actions - two of which are a 5 and 15 year plan that both call for total removal of horses and burros.  Click on link below:

Sheldon EIS

(http://www.fws.gov/pacific/planning/main/docs/NV/Sheldon/Sheldon%20PU%203%20-%20crop%20_whole.pdf)

BLM Nevada News
ELY DISTRICT OFFICE NO. 2010-60
FOR RELEASE:  Friday, Sept. 24, 2010
CONTACT:  Chris Hanefeld, (775) 289-1842; chris_hanefeld@nv.blm.gov
BLM Offers to Lead Public to Silver King Gather Observation Areas
Ely, Nev. – Due to the large area encompassed by the Silver King Herd Management Area (HMA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is offering to lead and direct interested members of the public and media to designated viewing areas on non-scheduled observation days.  Members of the public may
either travel on their own, or may go to the rendezvous location and follow a BLM employee to that day’s gather site.
For more information or to sign up, call Chelsey Falge, BLM Ely District administrative clerk, at (775) 289-1800.  The BLM will identify the daily rendezvous time and place to meet and visitors safely follow the BLM to the observation area. The BLM also will regularly post gather information on its Website at: www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/ely_field_office.html.
The Silver King Wild Horse Gather is scheduled to start Saturday, September 25, 2010.  About 546 excess wild horses will  be gathered and removed from in and around the Silver King HMA in Lincoln County, about 90 miles south of Ely, Nev.  There will be no closure of the public lands and therefore, the public lands within the Silver King HMA will be open to the public during the gather operations, subject to necessary safety restrictions.
The BLM has established protocols for non-scheduled and scheduled public observation days, which are available at http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/ely_field_office/blm_programs/wild_horses_and_burros/silver_king_herd_management.html .
Non-Scheduled Observation Days
Individuals will be directed to the designated observation area by BLM personnel and informed of behavioral rules (such as remaining quiet and still to ensure a safe and effective gather operation).  Individuals attempting to move outside a designated observation area will be requested to move back to the designated area, or, in the event that individuals fail to comply with the necessary safety precautions, they will be required to leave the site.
A failure to comply with the safety rules and precautions put in place during the gather may result in citation or arrest as the failure to remain within the designated observation areas poses a threat to the safety of BLM
personnel and contractors, members of the public and to the wild horses.
If there are changes in circumstances that may pose additional risks to health, public safety or the safety of wild horses (such as weather, lightening, wildfire, etc.), BLM will provide further safety instructions
at the gather and/or holding sites.
Scheduled Public Observation Days
The BLM has tentatively scheduled observation days on Tuesday, Sept. 28 and Tuesday, Oct. 5, to provide the media and public opportunities to view gather activities.  The dates are subject to change depending upon weather and gather operations.  Scheduled days provide visitors more opportunity to interact with BLM staff and will include escorted opportunities to observe the animals at the gather and holding corrals.  For more information or to sign up, call Chelsey Falge, BLM Ely District administrative clerk, at (775) 289-1800.  The BLM will also regularly post gather information on its Website at: www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/ely_field_office.html.
The gathered animals will be transported to the Gunnison Prison Wild Horse Facility at Gunnison Utah and the Indian Lakes Facility near Fallon, Nevada, where they will be prepared and offered for adoption to qualified individuals through the BLM Adopt-A-Horse or Burro Program.  Wild horses for which there is no adoption demand will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be humanely cared for and retain their “wild” status and protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.  The BLM does not sell or send any horses to slaughter.
For more information, contact Chris Hanefeld, BLM Ely District public affairs specialist, at (775) 289-1842 or chris_hanefeld@blm.gov.

Australia:

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/kimberleys-wild-horses-saved.php

Here's today's story in the Nevada Appeal about the Moundhouse horses and the infamous Drako Rd. "alfalfa patch."

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20100922/NEWS/100929979/1070&ParentProfile=1058

This incident not only illustrates Nevada horse issues but also the games that get played regarding Nevada water rights.  The "alfalfa patch" is located within the Carson City city limits.  Carson City has watering restrictions in effect for the city, as described in this Nevada Appeal story.

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20100530/NEWS/100529460

So while the residents of Carson City are on water restrictions, the Governor's Deputy Chief of Staff is watering what could best be described as a glorified weed patch, claiming that he is putting the water to "beneficial use" in order to retain some water rights that he owns.

If this was a legitimate commercial farming operation it would be one thing.  But irrigating a rocky, unimproved, weed and brush infested commercially nonviable piece of ground to retain water rights while the rest of the city is going thirsty seems over the top.

WHAT YOU CAN DO.

Leave your personal comments, regardless as to how you feel about the situation, on the comment blog that accompanies the horse story.  The papers use comments to gauge public interest in the various topics they cover.  Horses need to remain a hot topic.

Contact the Division of Water Resources and ask how someone can irrigate a weed patch inside the Carson City city limits and claim it as beneficial use while the rest of the city is on water restrictions, and ask that the matter be fully investigated.  The property is on Drako Rd.

and is owned by Lynn Hettrick.  775-684-2800

Continued attention to this issue will help prevent others from scapegoating our horses, creating a public safety hazard, (and in this instance wasting our water) for their own personal benefit.

Thanks!

Help the Moundhouse WH’s in Nevada!!!  :

Hi Folks, I just walked in the door and had a message that apparently there are plans to pickup our Moundhouse Herd in the next two days as early as September 22nd. Although this is a local issue, I decided to send this information to the entire list. We have a few folks that use to live here that will probably be interested and I don't believe it hurts to let others see what we are fighting in Nevada in our quest to protect the horses that do not fall under the BLM's jurisdiction.  

My information at this time is that Lynn Hettrick, Governor Gibbons' Deputy Chief of Staff for Agriculture, State of Nevada is raising a small field (approx. 2 acres) of alfalfa and what sounds like volunteer grasses. This land is located in the Computer Corp area and just behind the Oliver's Machine Shop. It sounds like this is a very small amount of land is being watered and has been planted, has no barriers and NO FENCE. It is unclear why this land has been planted as it seems NOT to be a workable field for harvesting or bailing hay. One wonders just exactly what the reasons for planting such a grazing animal "calling card" in that particular area was done for. It very obviously will be a definite draw for these horses and there are also cattle that are occasionally grazed in the hills not far away that may be lured down and quite possibly get out to the highway also. Carson City Code Enforcement has indicated that Carson City still falls under the state fencing laws.  

IF WE DON'T GET CALLS INTO the GOVERNOR'S OFFICE AND NDA IMMEDIATELY, THESE HORSES WILL MOST PROBABLY GO TO SALE AT FALLON. The situation here is that the people that own the land and are doing the planting do not have a fence around the property. SINCE THIS IS A FENCE OUT STATE, IT IS THEIR RESPONSIBILITY but the "powers that be" have apparently decided that our horses will be the ones paying the price with their lives for other people's negligence. These horses almost never wandered across the road to this location until just recently with the grasses and hay coming up on this private property. While the fence would be the legal way to become compliant with the law, now that the horses know it's there, it will be a VERY hard situation to control even if they did right and put up a fence at this late date. It seems to me that this land should be turned over and disk up to let it go back to normal seed and not watered. I suspect they only reason it is planted is to preserve water rights for this location for the owner. WE HAVE TO FIND AN ALTERNATIVE TO THIS SITUATION. We have lost far too many already for various and ignorant reasons, whether it be OUR State horses or from OUR Federal Lands.  

WE HAVE TO FLOOD GOVERNMENT OFFICES WITH PHONE CALLS AND EMAILS LETTING THEM KNOW THAT THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY if these horses are taken and sent to the kill buyers. WHAT IS IT ABOUT FENCE OUT THAT THESE PEOPLE IN AUTHORITY ARE NOT GETTING ???? and why are the horses being lured into situations that will ultimately cause their demise in one sense or the other. This is a legal issue and what few horses we have left in this area are in TERRIBLE JEOPARDY.

PLEASE CALL AND/OR FAX ASAP and make your voices heard loud and clear that this is NOT ACCEPTABLE. The PEOPLE that are responsible need to step up to the plate and do what's RIGHT in this situation and stop "scapegoating" OUR HORSES.

Govenor's Office  775-684-5670

Fax Line  775-684-5683

Nevada Department of Agriculture   775-688-1182

Fax Line 775-688-1178   or  775-353-3600      Fax Line  775-353-3638  

http://gov.state.nv.us/Contact_Us_NORTHX.htm

BLM Nevada News
BATTLE MOUNTAIN DISTRICT OFFICE, NO. 2010-36
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 21, 2010
CONTACT:  Schirete Zick, 775-635-4000, schirete_zick@blm.gov
BLM Extends Public Comment Period for Callaghan Wild Horse Gather
Battle Mountain, Nev. -- The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Battle Mountain District, Mount Lewis Field Office is extending the public comment period for the Callaghan wild horse gather preliminary Environmental Assessment (EA) to Friday, Oct. 10, 2010.  
The extension provides additional time to comment on the proposed application of fertility control to wild mares and the removal of about 221 excess wild horses from the Callaghan Complex and New Pass/Ravenswood Herd Management Areas (HMA).  The gather would bring the number of wild horses in these HMAs to 862 animals.  The proposed gather area is located 55 miles south of Battle Mountain in Lander County.  
The proposal and associated impacts are described and analyzed in the Callaghan Complex Wild Horse Gather Plan and Preliminary EA.  If approved, the gather would begin in early December. Comments received during the public review period will be analyzed and considered as part of the decision-making process.
The EA can be found on the Battle Mountain website at:
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/battle_mountain_field.html
Questions and written comments should be mailed to Doug Furtado, Mount Lewis Field Manager, 50 Bastian Road, Battle Mountain, NV 89820.  Comments may also be provided through e-mail to:
callaghan_newpass_gather@blm.gov
When submitting comments, be aware that your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, may be made public.
The gather is needed to slow population growth to maintain population size within the appropriate management level (AML), and to remove wild horses from outside the HMA boundaries in order to protect rangeland resources from deterioration associated with an overpopulation of wild horses.  The BLM conducts wild horse gathers to maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple use relationship on the public lands consistent with the provisions of Section 3(b) (2) of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.
The proposal is to gather approximately 80 percent of the existing populations and treat all mares to be released back to the HMAs with the fertility control vaccine PZP-22. Approximately 866 of an estimated 1,083 horses would be gathered, but only 221 horses would be removed.
This gather is the start of a new strategy to use fertility control over a period of several years to reduce the number of horses gathered and removed from these HMAs, and ultimately reduce the number of horses in long term holding. The emphasis is to remove weanlings, some yearlings and wild horses captured from outside HMA boundaries.  The post gather goal would be approximately 862 wild horses remaining within these HMAs.  
Animals removed would be transported to a temporary BLM holding facility and be prepared for adoption, long term holding pastures or sale.  It is estimated that most of the wild horses removed would be young and highly adoptable, with few horses needing to be maintained in long term holding pastures.  The BLM will leave 80 percent of the existing population in the HMAs.
-BLM-
Schirete Zick
Public Affairs Officer
BLM Battle Mountain District
775-635-4067
szick@blm.gov

PLEASE CROSS POST.

In a situation bizarre enough only to happen in Nevada, the Governor's Deputy Chief of Staff is apparently engaged in some kind of odd quasi-agricultural scheme that is luring Virginia Range horses across a busy US highway, resulting in some being killed and in plans for all the others to be trapped and hauled off to the Fallon Livestock Exchange.  What appears to be the scam here is Lynn Hettrick's running what looks to be a fake farming operation in order to hold onto water rights assigned to legitimate agricultural uses. This impractical operation taking place on the edge of the wild horse range was never fenced and it has become a daily feeding stop for the horses.

The reader can draw his/her own conclusions from the information posted in this story.

http://www.aowha.org/war/moundhouse1001.html

All appearances are that now someone else on this Governor's staff is putting his personal interests above public safety and the taxpayers' interests.

Please read, and respond and pass along if you see fit.  We have a very short window in which to try to fix this situation.

Thanks.

":O) Willis

This is very sad !WH’s everywhere are being cleared out.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100920/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wild_horses

Here is a link to the Alliance of Wild Horse Advocates story on the "Fallon 101" rescue this past Saturday.

http://www.aowha.org/activities/fallon_101_01.html

The lack of transparency as to where these horses came from raised concerns that many of the horses could have been BLM or Indian Nation horses that had strayed off their ranges and were "claimed" by private landowners.  Nobody was getting a straight answer.

Jill Starr eventually determined that most of the horses were ranch stock or the offspring of ranch stock and the origins of a handful of "mustang like" horses will likely never be identified.  Since Lifesavers and their allied advocates had already "engaged" in this matter, they stayed on this issue and outbid the kill buyers for the horses.

The problem with "transparency" in this instance has nothing to do with BLM, but rather a system that is in place that makes it extremely difficult to track the origins and history of horses that, had the advocates not been present, would have entered the human food supply.

Even BLM had difficulty trying to determine if any of the horses could possibly be theirs.  There is no accounting for what drugs or medications some of these horses may have been given.  With HR.503 possibly being resurrected, the lack of accountability in the chain of transactions involving horses intended for food is the big story here.

It is discussed in greater detail in the AOWHA article.

If we are going to criticize China and other foreign countries for sending contaminated products to our shores, we need to live by the same standards.  Clearly with respect to horses being sold for slaughter, for all practical purposes we have no standards.

BLM to Conduct Silver King Wild Horse Gather
Ely, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ely District, Caliente and
Schell field offices are scheduled to begin the Silver King wild horse gather on or about September 19.  The gather is expected to last approximately two weeks. The BLM will remove about 546 excess wild horses located in and around the Silver King Herd Management Area (HMA) in Lincoln County, about 90 miles south of Ely, Nev.
The BLM estimates there are more than 600 wild horses in the gather area and any horses gathered above targeted removal numbers will be released back to the HMA so that the remaining population is within the appropriate management level (AML) range of 60-128. The mares released back to the range would be vaccinated with PZP-22 (Porcine Zona Pellucida) fertility control vaccine.
The gather, removal and fertility control are intended to slow population growth, maintain population size within the appropriate management levels and extend the time before another gather to remove excess wild horses would be needed.  Additionally, adjustment of sex ratios of the gathered animals to be returned to the HMAs may be made to 60 percent male/40 percent female ratios. The Caliente and Schell field offices issued the Decision Record for the Final Environmental Assessment for the Silver King Herd Management Area Gather Plan on June 30.
The BLM has tentatively scheduled two observation days—Tuesday, Sept. 21 and Tuesday, Sept. 28—to provide the media and public opportunities to view gather activities.  The dates are subject to change depending upon weather and gather operations. These will be the only two observation days offered for this gather based on gather site location accessibility.  For more information or to sign up, call Chelsey Falge, BLM Ely District administrative clerk, at (775) 289-1800.  The BLM will also regularly post gather information on its Website at: www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/ely_field_office.html.
The BLM coordinates closely with the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s (NDOA) Brands Division to provide Brand Inspectors during wild horse removal efforts across the State. NDOA brand inspectors must verify the animals are wild horses and burros as defined by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.
Once verified, the Brand Inspector will provide the BLM a certificate to transport the animals. Without this cooperation and coordination, the BLM would not be able to remove the excess wild horses and burros which, if not removed in a timely manner, would result in degradation of our native rangelands.  The NDOA also may take jurisdiction of any estray, branded or abandoned domestic horse(s) under the State of Nevada estray laws.
Gathered horses will be transported to the Palomino Valley Center outside Reno, Nev. and Delta Wild Horse Corrals in Delta, Utah. The public may visit the Palomino Valley Center during its regularly scheduled visiting
hours Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m. to noon.  The Delta Wild Horse Corrals are open to the public Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The BLM will use helicopters to gather the wild horses and will transport the animals by motorized vehicles. The use of helicopters, which is authorized by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, has
proven to be a safe, effective, and practical means for gathering excess wild horses from the public lands, and large scale geographic areas such as the Silver King gather area.
Horses removed from the range will be offered for adoption to qualified individuals. Unadopted horses will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be humanely cared for and treated, and will retain their “wild”
status and protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The BLM does not sell or send any horses to slaughter.
The gather and impacts are described and analyzed in the Silver King Herd Management Area Gather Plan Final Environmental Assessment (EA). The EA, a video about the gather and other gather-related information are posted on the BLM website at: www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/ely_field_office.html.
For more information, please call Chris Hanefeld, BLM Ely District public affairs specialist, at 775-289-1842.
--BLM--
Chris Hanefeld, 775-289-1842
Ely District Office public affairs

Investigation sought into allegation BLM sent Nevada wild horses ...
Reno Gazette-Journal
The concern about federal management of wild horses comes in the wake of the BLM's plans to cull about 12000 of 38000 mustangs and burros from Western ...

Read more here: http://www.rgj.com/article/20100911/NEWS/100911022/1321/news/Investigation-sought-into-allegation-BLM-sent-Nevada-wild-horses-to-sale-for-slaughter

The Lyon County Advisory Board to Manage Wildlife has BLM's upcoming wild horse gathers for the Pine Nut and Lahontan HMAs on its agenda for its September 13th meeting in Yerington.  Here is a link to a copy of the agenda.

http://www.aowha.org/documents/lcabmw_agenda_09132010.pdf

Someone from BLM will be present and will answer questions.

The Board may make a recommendation to BLM.

The Board is providing an opportunity for public feedback to the Board and to the BLM representative.  Everyone who has an interest in these gathers is encouraged to attend.  These meetings start at 6:00 PM and BLM is near the top of the agenda so you shouldn't be out very late!  Bonnie Matton indicated that she would assist in matching riders to carpools from the central county. mattonco@prodigy.net

BLM Nevada News
BATTLE MOUNTAIN DISTRICT OFFICE: NO. 2010-36
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  September 9, 2010
CONTACT:  Schirete Zick (775) 482-7800; schirete_zick@blm.gov
BLM Initiates Montezuma Peak and Paymaster Wild Horse Gathers
Tonopah, Nev. – On September 13 the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Battle Mountain District, Tonopah Field Office will begin gathering approximately 182 excess wild horses and burros within and outside the Montezuma Peak and Paymaster Herd Management Areas (HMAs).
The gathers are needed to achieve the appropriate management level (AML) within the HMAs to achieve a thriving natural ecological balance for the remaining wild horse and burro population, wildlife, livestock and
vegetation.  Located at the northern edge of the Mojave Desert, the HMAs are very arid do not provide suitable habitat for large numbers of wild horses and burros.
Approximately 45 excess wild horses will be gathered and removed from outside of the Paymaster HMA and inside if needed to reach an AML of 23 wild horses.  Approximately 61 wild burros and 78 wild horses would be gathered and removed from within and outside of the Montezuma Peak HMA to achieve an AML of three wild horses and 10 wild burros.  The BLM issued Final Multiple Use Decisions between 2001 and 2007 that established the AMLs for the HMAs.
The gather will be conducted in close coordination with the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s (NDOA) Brands Division to provide brand inspectors during wild horse removal efforts across the State.  NDOA brand inspectors must verify the animals are wild horses and burros as defined by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.
Once verified, the brand inspector will provide the BLM a certificate to transport the animals. Without this cooperation and coordination, the BLM would not be able to remove the excess wild horses and burros which, if not removed in a timely manner, would result in degradation of our native rangelands.  The NDOA also may take jurisdiction of any estray, branded or abandoned domestic horse(s) under the State of Nevada estray laws.
The excess horses and burros will be transported to the BLM short-term holding facility near Ridgecrest, Calif., where they will be monitored closely, provided good feed, water and veterinarian care as needed.  They will be dewormed, vaccinated, and freeze marked, and all 12 month and older studs will be gelded.
Once the animals have fully recovered they will be made available for adoption to qualified applicants through the BLM’s Adopt-A-Wild Horse or Burro Program.  The public may visit the BLM’s website at www.blm.gov for more information about adopting a wild horse or burro.
Public Observation Day
A public observation day has tentatively been scheduled for September 14 or 15, to provide the media and public an opportunity to view ongoing gather activities.  The date is subject to change depending upon weather and gather operations.
“There will be only one observation day due to the short timeframe of the gather,” said Tom Seley, Tonopah Field Manager.  “It also provides the public an opportunity to see the care the BLM and the gather contractor
uses to gather and handle the animals.”
BLM representatives will rendezvous with interested members of the public at the Tonopah Field Office, 1553 S. Main St., Tonopah, Nev., at 6:30 a.m., and caravan to the gather site, which will be about a half hour drive from Tonopah.  Four-wheel drive or high-clearance vehicles are recommended.  The
observation day will last approximately four to five hours, with an approximate departure time from the gather site between noon and 1 p.m.
In an effort to provide a safe environment for the animals, BLM staff, contractors and members of the public and media, requests will be accepted on a first come, first served basis and be limited to 10 people.  Space
should be reserved ahead of time by calling Karen Goldsmith at (775) 482-7836.  Daily gather operations could be suspended if bad weather conditions create unsafe flying conditions.
 -BLM-

BLM Foal rescued (had 97 bite marks ):

Palomino Armstrong watches over Honey Bandit, a 2-month-old foal, as the horse is treated Tuesday at Crossroads Veterinary Clinic in Anderson. Armstrong got the horse from the Bureau of Land Management on Thursday.
The foal was covered with bites and malnourished.

To follow Honey Bandit's progress:

http://terrifarley.blogspot.com/

A couple more videos of Honey Bandit:

http://www.redding.com/videos/detail/honey-bandit/

http://www.redding.com/videos/detail/honey-bandit-weighed/

The continuing saga of “Honey Bandit”:  

http://terrifarley.blogspot.com/

Updates:

WildHorse News:

Honey Bandit Update:

http://www.redding.com/news/2010/sep/09/emaciated-foal-kicks-up-support/

THIS JUST IN THIS MORNING! A NEW UPDATE AND WISHLIST FROM LAURIE Armstrong For HONEY BANDIT:

1.  Prayers
2. Horse Blanket
3. Electric blankets (for sleeping – we need several as he still has “accidents”
4. Orchard or soft grass hay
5. FOAL LAC POWDER
6. FOAL LAC PELLETS
7. NEEDLES for his meds “20 x 1A” is the size or larger
8. Syringes, small and the ex large 20cc or larger for his feedings
9 Vet wrap
10. FURALL
11. SCARLEX SPRAY
12 WONDER DUST

Hi,  just wondered if you could post this.  It is a wish list for HoneyBandit if people would rather get him ‘stuff’ as opposed to sending money if they want to help.

Yesterday was quite the day.  We moved the “hospital” inside our carport/garage.  It poured rain and was nasty cold.  It is actually a pretty good setup.  We also installed a sling so HoneyBandit could spend more time “upright” as opposed to laying down all the time and getting pneumonia.  He really cannot handle anything else happening to him at this point.  It doesn’t hold him up, just gives him a little support so he doesn’t get so tired.  He looks very cute in it.

I am sending pix of him standing  by the trailer eating.  He is actually looking much better than he did when he got here.  We changed one of his meds yesterday and I think that was huge.  He still can’t stand up by himself, but when we do stand him up, he stands much stronger.  He is also walking much better.  Matt was hanging out in the chair while I took one of those ladies room breaks, and he said that HB walked up to him and he was petting him and that he went to take a big bite out of his leg.  His ears weren’t pinned or anything, but  he is starting to have more normal impulses.  He actually walked over to a t v tray we are using for supplies and “chewed” on it like a normal baby.  These are tiny, yet huge.  He is munching away as we speak.   We have to take him back to the vet in a couple hours for more blood work and I am hoping that we get a little better news.

Our vet is working very hard to help him, but is shocked that he lived this long and has doubts about whether he will survive, but I think (hopefully and God willing) that she will find out that MUSTANG HEART kicks butt and they can beat the odds.  She said that she had never ever seen a foal with this much damage

YOU CAN EMAIL LAURIE AT:  1palomino@frontiernet.net (1palomino @ frontiernet.net)

Editor’s note: as horrible as this tragedy w/ Honey Bandit is-if Laurie is able to  establish & maintain some type of “working relationship” w/BLM(which  she is concerned won’t happen if a “backlash goes at them on this”)-A LOT OF FOALS WILL BE ABLE TO BE SAVED IN THE FUTURE.Yes,we all hate theBLM-but we MUST PUT THE LIVES  OF THESE BABIES AS TOP PRIORITY!The info that I am getting behind the scenes on this tragedy is that some of the  workers are  already being  severely reprimanded.( I sure hope they fire them!)There is NO EXCUSE FOR THIS!  

BLM planning meetings in Wyoming remain closed to public

http://billingsgazette.com/mobile/article_b21db78a-b895-11df-bc97-001cc4c03286.html

Pony Express Letters:

We are still getting so many emails and letters from you now that the Pony Express deadline has been extended until September 10^th! Keep them coming, we are so appreciative of all your effort! We have surpassed our goal so much and are just over the moon!

Current Pony Express Count: 30,521

We are in the process of finalizing our float design for the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day. Thank you all for sending in all your float suggestions to us. We have incorporated bits and pieces of a lot of them. We cannot wait to present our mustangs to 53 million viewers and thousands of spectators! 

We have started a SAM Cam. I will give periodic video updates on important things going on with the SAM team. Our first one can be viewed here  or on the facebook pages.
Also, be sure to visit the News and Events section on www.savingamericasmustangs.org for updates on the roundups currently happening and more information on the wild horse issue. It's very important to educate yourself, so you can educate others.
If you haven't done so yet, it takes less than a minute to click the Pony Express button and send your letter to us. Please do this for our wild mustangs and for future generations so that they can see these majestic creatures thriving in their natural environment.

We have had a couple of people from outside the US that wanted to write, but cannot do it from the Pony Express button, because it asks for a US zip code. Or if the link isn't working for you, please email directly to madeleinesponyexpress@gmail.com.
 Mailed letters can be sent to:
Saving America's Mustangs 
2683 Via De La Valle, G 313
Del Mar, CA 92014
I am so pleased that so many new people have subscribed to our list and joined our team! I sincerely thank you for taking the time to educate your contacts about not only the Pony Express, but about our mustangs belonging to the American people.
I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Labor Day!
Respectfully,
Madeleine Pickens & the Wild Mustangs 

LAS VEGAS — Government contractors have fired up their helicopters for yet another roundup of Nevada wild horses. The latest gather targets a remote area north of Ely, Nevada.

Four more roundup operations are on the schedule in our state this year. They will not only thin the herds, but wipe them out altogether.

2010 already ranks as one of the most aggressive in the history of Bureau of Land Management horse roundups, with a lot more to come. Operations which proved deadly for the herds have already scooped up thousands of mustangs from public ranges, but with no commensurate reduction in the number of private cattle allowed to stay.

The next round seems are designed to wipe out the horses altogether.

The Moriah Herd area near Ely will result in the removal of every one of the 72 horses living on thousands of acres. Two other Nevada herd management areas will be completely zeroed out of horses, and two others will see more than 90-percent of the mustangs taken away, even though federal law set aside those ranges as places where horses could roam forever.

Critics of the program say it looks as if BLM is in a race to grab every horse it can get before the program gets shut down, which is exactly what is needed according to a letter sent to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and signed by 54 members of Congress, including Nevadans Shelley Berkley and Dina Titus.

The letter harshly criticizes the roundups, calls for an immediate moratorium, and seeks an outside study of the science behind the gathers, or lack thereof, by the National Academy of Sciences.

BLM says it will cooperate with such a study, but Director Bob Abbey told Congress he has no intention of stopping the roundups.

“We signed the letter because we need to stop the roundups and the slaughter so we can study the policy. It hasn’t worked and they know it, we know it, the horses know it. We asked that they allow for a study but they won’t stop and I worry because these studies can take years,” said Rep. Titus.

Titus worries that by the time the study is complete, more herd areas could be wiped out by BLM. The roundups themselves can be deadly to horses.

“You see these pictures of them running to death and the colts and it breaks your heart,” she said.

A separate review of the horse program is already underway. The inspector general of the Interior Department is actively soliciting information from the public, including horse advocates, about all that’s wrong with its implementation — a review that can’t be seen as good news within BLM.

On another front, philanthropist Madeleine Pickens is hoping to move forward with her plans to build a sprawling horse sanctuary in northern Nevada. Pickens has already put millions of her own money into buying a large ranch near Elko and now has an agreement to buy a second property as well.

She will need the cooperation of BLM if she wants to put captured mustangs on the land so she can open an eco-tourism attraction, although BLM has said in the past it does not wants the horses to remain in Nevada, even in a sanctuary.

Director Abbey has agreed to meet with Pickens this month to talk about her plan but has made no promises.

Titus says she has already introduced legislation to force BLM to use options other than roundups, such as more adoptions, birth control, and a program to encourage ranchers to allow horses to graze on private range. But BLM continues to use roundups as the primary focus of the program.

Here’s a list of recent gathers:

Herd Area:      # of Horses in Area:        # of Horses Removed

Moriah:                     72                                  72

Montezuma:             139                               139

Paymaster:               45                                 45

Reveille:                   250                              198

Silver King:              600                               545

WildHorse News:

GLENNS FERRY, Idaho -- The fast moving Long Butte fire near Hagerman is now 100 percent contained and fire fighting operations are scaling down. But the trouble isn’t over for close to 200 wild horses.

The Bureau of Land Management did an emergency horse round up Tuesday.

http://www.ktvb.com/news/Wild-horses-rounded-up-after-devastating-wildfire-101932418.html

Hello,

This letter  will add momentum to the mission to stop the BLM, Bureau of Livestock and Mining, from their cruel horse culling and hopefully end the violation of our trust and the betrayal to the American Wild Horses.

In a few words, express your thoughts and ask them to stop the cruel round ups now and put an immediate moratorium in place.

To see just why this is urgent and very critical, see the link to the story of the 2week old foal that was mercilessly roped and shot by our government sponsored cruelty, paid by our tax dollars.

BLM must be stopped now. Join in the momentum to do so, as we owe the wild horses a great debt and gratitude, not the stinking propaganda of a rogue BLM out to deceive the nation and extinct the mustangs in our life time. BLM has failed and not performed in the service of the mustangs, nor the public. Do your part so our grandkids can still see a wild horse some day.

THANK YOU.

Monika Courtney

Madeleine Pickens is doing a Pony Express by delivering letters to Washington. She will personally hand them. She is extending her deadline and hopes to get kids to write on behalf of the mustangs.

In case you would help, here is the info:

http://www.capwiz.com/madeleinepickens/issues/alert/?alertid=15433501&type=ML

Madeleine Pickens Our mailbox was overflowing! I'm touched by all of you! I got lovely pckgs from so many of you &the most touching letters from children on behalf of our horses! Young voices will really make the govt take a step back & notice what needs to be done &ASAP! For the children starting school, we are extending the Pony Express deadline to let more letters be accepted. We had an outstanding response &want them included!

.Madeleine Pickens address: 2883 Via De La Valle, G 313
Del Mar, CA 92014

She hopes to get more letters and anyone can send one. All they have to say is for the government to stop rounding up the mustangs/burros and protect them in designated wild horse areas, as mandated by law ! We try to demonstrate that the American public cares and stories as the one here (link below) should make everyone aware that the BLM is out of control.

I hope you participate.

Thanks again.

Monika

http://www.madeleinepickens.com/news/two-week-old-wild-horse-shot-and-killed-before-california-roundup/

Dear Friends,

Please take some time to read up on this disturbing story of a two-week old foal being brutally shot to death near where the latest gather, Twin Peaks (California), by the Bureau of Land Management is taking place. Please note the photos below are actual photos and are very alarming.

Sincerely,

Madeleine Pickens

From Madelaine Pickens:

Here's an update on the Pony Express Campaign:
We have been sent 17,351 letters!!! You all have been fabulous in sending the letters and promoting the campaign!!! Keep them coming. We’re in the home stretch now. We need 20,000 by September 1^st. It takes less than a minute to click the Pony Express button and send your letter to us. Please do this for our wild mustangs and for future generations so that they can see these majestic creatures thriving in their natural environment.
A Huge thanks to all the organizations that have added the Pony Express to your websites, blogs, and E-blasts, we truly appreciate every single one of our supporters!! 

Madelaine’s Pony Express

Hand Delivery to Washington, D.C.

You write and she will deliver

http://www.capwiz.com/madeleinepickens/issues/alert/?alertid=15433501&type=ML

I will also be a guest on Mr. Wayne’s Radio Show on Restless Republic Radio at 11:15am PST on Thursday, August 26^th . He is the Host for The Green Revolution Show. 
Please listen live to this broadcast at the links below:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mr-wayne
http://www.thegreenrevolutionshow.com/
The following Thursday, I'll be on Rick Crandall’s Radio show, The Breakfast Club, on Thursday, September 2^ndat 8am PST.
http://www.kezw.com/
Listen live   
These are both very popular radio shows and I’m very lucky to have been invited to speak about the deadly mustang roundups and my eco-sanctuary plan!
Thank you all for your continued support!! I am very blessed to be united together for this cause.
Very Sincerely,
Madeleine Pickens
Follow Madeleine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mpickens
Become Madeleine Pickens' Friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/madeleine.pickens
Visit her website for up to the minute information: www.savingamericasmustangs.org

Obama Administration Accelerates Assault on Wild Horses
Three Actions You Can Take To Help!

Largest Roundup Of Wild Horses In California’s History Underway
Act Today To Oppose Other Planned Roundups

On August 11, 2010 the Interior Department began the largest roundup of wild horses in California’s history. Nearly half of the 4,000 wild horses left in the state will be removed from their homes and families in the next few weeks. This devastating and unnecessary roundup began despite a lawsuit filed by In Defense of Animals (IDA) and others. We have a representative on the ground at the roundup and will provide an update on the IDA blog later this week.

Today we are asking you to take three actions to help wild horses. Congress and the Interior Department must continue to hear from you! Together we can change this broken system if we continue to fight the deeply-entrenched special interests which control the Interior Department’s management of our public lands and the wild horses who live there. 

1. Speak Out Against The Zeroing Out Of All Wild Horses From The Winter Ridge Herd Area in Utah

Take action to oppose the removal of all horses at the Winter Ridge Herd Area in Utah. This is just the latest effort of the Interior Department to remove all wild horses from lands specifically designated for their usage – while allowing livestock grazing to continue on the same lands. Click here to submit comments.

2. Oppose Removal Of 321 Wild Horses From Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area In Colorado

Oppose the Interior Department’s plan to remove the majority of wild horses in Colorado’s Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area. The agency will only leave 135 horses on this 190,000-acre public land area, while allowing hundreds more livestock to graze the same public land! Click here to submit comments.

3. Summer Recess – Perfect Opportunity To Visit Your Senators And Representatives At Home Through September 12.

One of the best actions you can take to help wild horses and burros is to meet in-person with your Senators and Representative. Ask your members of Congress to stop the mismanagement of America’s wild horses and burros. Despite public opposition, the Interior Department continues the unsustainable practice of rounding up, removing and stockpiling wild horses in government holding facilities – this ill-conceived and unnecessary practice is bankrupting the American tax payer wasting tens of millions of tax dollars annually.

In the next eight weeks, the Interior Department plans to remove four-thousand wild horses, using helicopters to stampede them and removing them from their families and homes on public lands only to be stockpiled in government-holding facilities. Congress must step in to stop this.

Members of Congress are currently in their home districts on recess until September 12. This is a great opportunity to let your Senators and Representative know that you, their constituent, want them to take action to help America’s wild horses and to end horse slaughter.

Here's what to do:

Call the district offices of your U.S. Representative and both U.S. Senators and:

1.    Request a face-to-face meeting with both Senators and your Representative to discuss these issues (you may need to meet with one of their aides – try to meet with their chief of staff or lead aide on this issue);

2.    Ask for specific dates of town hall meetings or open events that constituents can attend.

Find contact information for your elected officials click here. You'll need to enter your zip code on that page to get your officials' local contact info.

Learn more about the issues by reviewing briefing documents here.

Below are talking points for specifics on what to say to schedule your in-person meeting.

TALKING POINTS FOR MEETING WITH YOUR FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVES

1. Call the local offices to schedule a meeting.

Here’s a suggestion for what to say:

“Hello, I am a constituent of ____ and I would like to set up a meeting with him/her while he/she is home in our district to talk about wild horse protection issues. I’m also wondering if he/she has any town hall meetings coming up that I can let others know about.” 

2. For your meeting, dress professionally, be friendly and polite. Here are some suggestions of what you can say to begin the meeting:

“Thank you for meeting with me. I am very concerned about our federal wild horse management program. Public opposition to the Interior Department’s massive wild horse roundups is growing. The roundups are unnecessary, inhumane and wasting tens of millions of tax dollars.

For the first time, we now warehouse more wild horses in government holding facilities (38,000+) than are left free on the range (less than 33,000). This stockpiling of horses costs taxpayers tens of millions of dollars annually. Even Interior Secretary Salazar acknowledges the program is unsustainable, yet BLM roundups continue with over 12,000 to be removed from the range this year alone. They have no solution to stop this broken cycle.

The problem is not overpopulation. Fewer than 33,000 horses live on 26 million acres of BLM-managed public land. The problem is inequitable distribution of resources within the small percentage of BLM lands that are designated as wild horse and burro areas. The majority of resources are allocated to privately-held livestock, not federally-protected wild horses.

The BLM has demonstrated repeatedly that it is not capable of reforming itself. It’s up to Congress to reform this broken federal program.”

3. Ask your Senators and Congresspersons to take the following actions:

1) Join the 56 House members who have called for a halt to roundups by sending a sign-on letter to Secretary Salazar.

2) Ensure Fiscal Year 2011 Appropriations language that: 

Suspends wild horse and burro roundups in all but verifiable emergency situations;

Prohibits the use of any funds to euthanize healthy horses or sell horses directly or indirectly for slaughter;

Authorizes a National Academy of Sciences reevaluation of Appropriate Management Levels including analysis of resource allocation for livestock and other commercial uses;

Phases out long-term holding and shifts BLM resources toward managing horses on the range in a humane and minimally intrusive manner as Congress intended;

Rejects request for $42.5 million government “preserve;”

Funds public/private partnership solutions.

3) Co-sponsor the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act (H.R. 503/S. 727) to ban horse slaughter.

BLM conducting a bloody 2000+ mustang and burro roundup
California doesn't have many wild horses and very few wild burros left but that, along with a public outcry, has not stopped the Bureau of Land Management from rounding up thousands more of California's wild equids. The BLM, responsible for managing most of the remaining wild horses and burros in ten Western States, are now running horses ten miles or more over rough volcanic terrain with helicopters. Horses bleeding from their noses in the thick dust, very young foals separated from their mothers, a mare with a broken leg and a colicking mare have been observed by a dedicated team of advocates observing the Twin Peaks roundup.

California has lost 16 of the original 38 wild horse herds designated for protection in 1971 and over 2/3 of the public land tagged for wild horses and burros has been taken away from these celebrated icons of the West. Now BLM is working fast to remove 1855 mustangs and 210 wild burros from the Twin Peaks area, just north of Susanville, California. The roundup is scheduled to last 45-60 days and BLM aims to leave only 450 mustangs and 72 burros on this 1250-square mile range, larger than the state of Rhode Island.  Almost all the mares returned would be given infertility drugs and a mere 72 burros is not a genetically viable population in this beautiful area designated principally for their use .  Over 32,000 privately-owned cattle and sheep are permitted to graze annually on the Twin Peaks area. Revenues generated yearly from livestock grazing fees are estimated at $120,000 while the cost of rounding up/processing of 1,980 wild horses and burros would be 35 times the annual grazing revenues -over $4 million. Over 38,000 wild horses are in government holding while less than half that remain on the range and BLM plans to complete the removal of 12,000 wild horses and burros this fiscal year alone.
California's Wild Herds Need You- What You Can Do

1.    Call and email and meet with staff of U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (ph. 916.448.2787) and Dianne Feinstein (ph. 415.393.0707), Governor Schwarzenegger (ph. 916-445-2841) , and your Congressperson & state legislators too! Message: High cost to the taxpayers; loss of our last big California wild horse herd; loss of potential for eco-tourism in area; loss of freedom and family for the wild horses; likely death toll at least 99 animals (.05% average deaths according to BLM)

2.    Write letters to the editor of your local paper.

3.    Tell your friends about Twin Peaks & roundups planned across the West; visit your CA herds in the wild and work to protect them for future generations to come. Observation of the Twin Peaks roundup is being allowed 7 days per week- please come and bring a reporter with you. 

Learn more at www.thecloudfoundation.org

U2 Band Promoter Peter Rowan on concern for WildHorses:

http://www.examiner.com/u2-in-national/u2-boy-peter-rowen-expresses-concern-for-america-s-wild-horses

For Immediate Release: 

Two-Week-Old Wild Horse Shot and Killed Before California Roundup

Advocates ask for investigation

Sacramento, CA (August 13, 2010)—The body of a wild horse foal was found near the site of the Twin Peaks roundup Wednesday by Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist and Cloud Foundation Board member, and Chrystie Davis, wild horse advocate. Davis, an experienced horsewoman, examined the foal for any broken bones. What she found was an apparent rope burn on a rear leg as well as a gunshot wound.

 “It seems as though the foal was shot in the gut,” Davis states. “It looked as though the foal was abused, lassoed around the hind legs and dragged.” 

The foal, approximately 2 weeks old, was killed prior to the start of the controversial Twin Peaks Herd Management Area roundup in Northern California. When Davis told BLM officials about finding the gunshot foal, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee, Carman Prisco, told Davis she must be confused and the dead animal was an antelope. Photos taken by Downer confirmed that this is indeed a wild horse foal.

Photographs taken at the capture site, set on sharp lava rock, reveal blood stains within the trap.

Mustang advocates ask BLM law enforcement to conduct a thorough investigation into the abuse and death of the federally protected wild horse—killed before independent contractor, Cattoor Livestock, began rounding up wild horses with helicopters.

Field reports from those on the ground noted a severely injured white stallion that suffered head trauma supposedly from fighting with other stallions in tightly packed transport vehicles. Even though the injury was serious, the BLM contractor was quoted as saying a vet “might need” to be called. The whereabouts of that stallion are currently unknown. Another stallion was off loaded into a pen with eight mules that attacked him, causing traumatic injuries. This incident was also brought to the attention of the BLM by public observers.

Advocates were told yesterday that there were no injuries, yet when they went to look at the horses in holding, the area was blocked off. They were told that they could not access the area because the “injured horses” needed to rest.

Injuries are not uncommon in roundups and underscore the need for public access, says Ginger Kathrens, Director of the Cloud Foundation and EMMY Award-winning producer.

“Access is absolutely essential and is granted by the Constitution,”  says  Kathrens. “The ‘acceptable’ suffering of these horses is simply not acceptable to the caring public.”

Laura Leigh, Cloud Foundation Herd Watch coordinator, agrees.

“If this is what we see when the BLM actually allows us in, what happens when they black out their actions to the press and public?” asks Leigh,  plaintiff for the Tuscarora round-up that ended July 20 in Nevada, “The time for real Congressional intervention is long overdue.”

The recent round-up in Tuscarora, Nevada—also run by Cattoor Livestock—resulted in the deaths of thirty-six wild horses. 

Simone Netherlands: Leslie was allowed brief access to the Litchfield corrals and documented 26 babies including very small ones in a pen with only 4 mares. They were screaming for their mothers who were all scattered in different corrals calling back out to them. Also one lactating mare down with a broken leg and another colicking severely in a different pen. It is 90 degrees and we have 26 babies starving and dehydrating.

Just in from Garnet. This is yesterday's NPR broadcast with Tom Gorey, George Knapp and Madeleine Pickens. It's about 50 minutes long but well worth the listen. Gorey is still using the over population...20% per year increase, etc. Madeleine and George are great - locked, loaded and dead on target!

http://www.knpr.org/audio2010/SON-mp3/100811_wild-horses.mp3

received last week from Michael Golembeski (michael@wind-dancer.org) of the Wind Dancer Foundation in Colorado.

He wanted this message to get passed on to as many people as possible...

I just talked with a legislative aide from Senator's Landrieu's office today. I asked if they had e-mails of support would they use them. Due to our being out of her state, the office can't respond but would take 
the e-mails of support for the wild horse program. Yet, yourself, Cloud Foundation, Return to Freedom and other reputable blogs need to post this message.

Today in an article (Horseback magazine) entitled, "Plenty of Water at the Nevada roundup - and dead horses too!! Senator Landrieu made the following comment; A firestorm of outrage has swept across the desert sands of Nevada and the nation at what many believe is a government agency that has turned rogue. U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, (D) La has proposed that her colleagues consider removing the Wild Horse and Burro Program from federal Bureau of Land Management control.
And fifty-four members of Congress have petitioned Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to end the capture of wild horses on land controlled by the BLM. They have asked the National Academy of Science to investigate the agency’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.
The message;
So, please take the time tonight to write an e-mail to Senator Landrieu and support that notion...... to remove the Wild Horse & Burro program from the BLM.
Senator Mary Landrieu (D- LA) 202-224-5824, fax 202-224-9735http://landrieu.senate.gov/about/contact.cfm
michael golembeski

August 9, 2010

DO SOMETHING WILD THIS SUMMER—SAVE THE WILD HORSES!!

Dear Humanitarian:

One of the most successful components of any grassroots campaign is the involvement of our youth and that couldn’t be truer than with our current efforts to protect America’s wild horses.  Kids, with their passion and honesty, are welcome and critical additions to spreading the word.  Anyone working on this issue has probably heard how massive letter writing campaigns by children all over the U.S. helped Wild Horse Annie get Congress to pass the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971.  Many adults fighting for wild horses today got their start at that time.  We need to reignite that passion because if we don’t act soon, the children of today might not be able to enjoy wild horses for much longer.

To help get more young people involved, AWI has turned its recent “Home on the Range?” ad into a coloring page for kids.  Our goal is to get this to as many children as possible so they can color it in and mail it to the Senators and Representative of the Congressional district where they live and to President Obama.  If kids are particularly enthusiastic they can also send copies to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and to us at the Animal Welfare Institute.

Please share this eAlert with everyone you know, even if they don’t have children (they probably know some!).  We hope to get an overwhelming number of these drawings colored and sent to as many public officials as possible.  If you are a teacher or work with children, this would be a great class activity.  Feel free to print out as many as you need. 

To download a PDF of the drawing, click here www.awionline.org/homeontherange.  For more information about the issue and how you can help, please visit www.awionline.org/wildhorses.  

Thanks for everything you do to help!

Sincerely,

Chris Heyde

Deputy Director

Government and Legal Affairs

--

CHRIS HEYDE

Deputy Director

Government and Legal Affairs

ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE

900 Pennsylvania Ave., SE

Washington, DC 20003

www.awionline.org ~ www.compassionindex.org

The Animal Welfare Institute has been working to alleviate the suffering inflicted on animals by humans since 1951.

Please join us in our work to protect animals – visit our website to find out more and to sign up for AWI eAlerts: www.awionline.org.

Please consider the animals and their habitat before printing.

Release Date: 08/06/10

Contacts:  Gus Warr: 801-539-4057, Lisa Reid: 435-743-3128

BLM Issues Decision for Conger Complex Wild Horse Gather

Fillmore, Utah—The Bureau of Land Management’s Fillmore Field Office today issued a decision to remove excess wild horses from the Conger Complex Herd Management Area (HMA) near Garrison, Utah, to protect range conditions and wild horses.  The Conger Complex HMA consists of the Conger and Confusion Mountain HMAs.

“The current population of wild horses in the Conger Complex is far above the number the range can handle,” said Field Office Manager Mike Gates. “Our horses are healthy and we want them to remain healthy. We must manage the population at appropriate levels to maintain an ecological balance on the range.”

Beginning in Sept. 2010, the BLM plans to gather and remove an estimated 480 wild horses for placement in the adoption program or long-term pastures.  An estimated 50 studs of the captured wild horses from the Confusion Mountain HMA will be returned to the range to adjust the sex ratio and slow population growth.  Up to 30 of the Conger Mountain HMA wild horses will be released (about 20 studs of the captured wild horses will be returned to the range to adjust the sex ratio and slow population growth and about 10 mares will be treated with fertility control and returned to the range).  This will bring the population of horses to appropriate management levels established through the Warm Springs and House Range Resource Management Plans.
The Confusion Mountain HMA is located in Juab and Millard Counties 30 miles north of Garrison, Utah, and encompasses approximately 293,000 acres, with a current population estimated at 368 wild horses (based on a Feb. 2010 population inventory).  The Appropriate Management Level (AML) for the Confusion Mountain HMA has been established at 70-115 wild horses.  This means that 250 horses will need to be removed during the gather to achieve AML. 

 The Conger HMA is located in Millard County 20 miles northeast of Garrison, Utah, and encompasses approximately 170,000 acres, with a current population estimated at 291 wild horses (based on a Feb. 2010 population inventory).  The AML for the Conger HMA has been established at 40-80 wild horses.  This means that 230 horses will need to be removed during the gather to achieve AML. 

AML is determined through land-use planning efforts that involve public participation, vegetation inventories and allocation of forage in terms of animal unit months; the BLM determines the appropriate number of wild horses and burros that each Herd Management Area can support in balance with other uses of and resources on public land.  Planning efforts include an inventory and the monitoring of all uses of the public rangelands.

“Animals removed from the HMA will be available for adoption through the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program,” Gates said.
Those that are not adopted will be cared for in long-term pastures, where they retain their “wild” status and protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The BLM does not send any horses to slaughter.

More details on the gather and opportunities for public visitation will be available soon from the BLM.  The gather and impacts are described and analyzed in the Conger Mountain Complex Wild Horse Gather Plan Final Environmental Assessment (EA). The EA and the Decision Record are posted on the BLM website at www.blm.gov/ut. The BLM also will provide updates and information at the same web address on a regular basis throughout the course of the gather.

To learn more about the program or to obtain an adoption application, visit the BLM National Wild Horse and Burro website atwww.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov. 

Horses and burros removed from the NWR would be put up for adoption or be sold at auction.

Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge Reviewing Plans to Remove All ...
By themustangproject
The Sheldon NWR has revised their management plans to include alternatives that would remove all wild horses and burros from within its boundaries. Sheldon has a wild horse management program currently in place at the refuge, ... “Based on current population and recruitment estimates, the annual removal would roughly equal 140 to 180 horses and 15 to 20 burros.” “After nearly two years of planning and public comment we believe this revised management plan will: prevent an ...
The ~Texas~ Mustang Project's Blog - http://themustangproject.wordpress.com/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Congress Must Act Now to Prevent Reckless Government Agency

from Imperiling Survival of America's Wild Horses and Burros

Washington, D.C. (August 2, 2010) - The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), along with leading Members of Congress, numerous  wild horse advocacy organizations and the majority of Americans, is exceedingly frustrated with the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) gross mismanagement of America’s wild horses and burros.  In a recent ad in the Washington, DC, newspaper, The Hill, AWI called on Congress to take swift and decisive action to prevent the BLM from “managing” our nation’s wild horses into extinction.

“AWI has long been critical of the BLM’s inability to responsibly manage wild horses on the range, and the agency’s recent actions have amplified concern for the future of America’s wild horses,” said Chris Heyde, deputy director of government and legal affairs for AWI.  “BLM’s more aggressive campaign of rounding up and warehousing wild horses began under the Obama administration and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.  Recent reports of horses dying during roundups due to broken necks and legs, sloughed hooves, and most recently water intoxication (allowing the horses to drink a toxic amount of water following a strenuous run), are unconscionable.”

Thankfully, several members of Congress are stepping up to defend these national treasures.  House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) have led the way in holding the BLM accountable for  its actions.  They sponsored the Restore our American Mustangs Act (ROAM Act), which passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming margin last year and have just sent a bipartisan letter signed by 52 of their colleagues to Secretary Salazar.  The letter raises serious questions about the recent tragic deaths of several wild horses and addresses the dire need for an independent analysis of the wild horse and burro program by the National Academy of Sciences.  As stated in the bipartisan letter, "We are concerned by the inability of your agency to acknowledge these disturbing outcomes, change what seems to be deeply flawed policy, and better manage the gathers so as to prevent the unnecessary suffering and death of these federally protected animals."  AWI shares these concerns.

Yet despite all of this public and Congressional attention, the BLM continues to recklessly round up and remove thousands of wild horses from their legally mandated rangeland. In fact, Secretary Salazar has proposed spending millions of taxpayer dollars to build additional long term holding facilities in the Midwest and East to facilitate even more wild horse removals, which will add to the staggering 38,000 animals already in confinement.

Ever defiant, just last week, BLM Director Bob Abby sent a letter to all Members of Congress decrying increased public scrutiny of the wild horse and burro program.  In this letter Director Abby wrote, “Some wild horse activists are waging a campaign in the court of public opinion, aimed at stopping the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from gathering wild horses and burros from overpopulated herds on Western public rangelands.”

“The Obama administration came into office promising greater transparency and accountability, which is entirely contrary to the BLM’s preference to keep its abuse of wild horses and burros behind closed doors,” contends D.J. Schubert, AWI’s wildlife biologist.  “If the BLM is convinced that its wild horse management program is essential for the good of the horses and the land, it should provide the public with reasonable opportunities to observe its roundups – the good, bad, and ugly – instead of complaining when advocates expose the program’s inherent cruelties and deficiencies,” adds Schubert.

AWI asserts that, like its sister Department of Interior agency, the former Minerals Management Service (MMS), the integrity of the BLM’s wild horse and burro program has been compromised by its relationships with special interests that occupy or use wild horse and burro range.  A few thousand wild horses are being blamed for every natural and unnatural problem facing the Western ranges, while ranchers, oil and gas companies, and other commercial entities abuse the public’s lands with inadequate oversight.  The BLM’s obvious favoritism toward these more politically connected and financially lucrative industries continues to jeopardize the survival of America’s last wild horses and burros.

“Based upon its record, it is no wonder the BLM balks whenever the demand for genuine accountability is discussed,” states Heyde.  “While the BLM has repeatedly ignored the public’s demands, we hope that the requests of members of Congress will not be so easily dismissed.”

##30##

For More Information:

Chris Heyde, Animal Welfare Institute, (202) 337-2332

--

CHRIS HEYDE

Deputy Director

Government and Legal Affairs

ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE

900 Pennsylvania Ave., SE

Washington, DC 20003

www.awionline.org ~ www.compassionindex.org

The Animal Welfare Institute has been working to alleviate the suffering inflicted on animals by humans since 1951.

Please join us in our work to protect animals – visit our website to find out more and to sign up for AWI eAlerts: www.awionline.org.

BLM Nevada News
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
NEVADA STATE OFFICE No. 2010-037
For immediate release: Sunday, August 1, 2010
Contact:  Doran Sanchez (775) 722-9796
Tuscarora Gather Operations Continue Throughout the Weekend
Reno, Nev. — The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Tuscarora gather operations continue in the Rock Creek drainage area, where 193 excess wild horses outside the Rock Creek Herd Management Area (HMA) have been gathered without incident since Friday.
An estimated 200 excess wild horses have been sighted throughout this area.
These excess wild horses must be removed because they are causing considerable impacts to rangeland resources on public and adjacent private lands, as well as impacting habitat for the Lahontan cutthroat trout.
The BLM contractor concluded operations in the Cornucopia Mine/Ridge area on Thursday after gathering 23 excess wild horses (12 studs, 9 mares, 2 foals) without incident or injury. The Rock Creek drainage and Cornucopia Mine/Ridge areas are several miles outside the HMA.  The excess wild horses moved into these areas and out of the HMA after a wildland fire in 2006.
The majority of the gather has been conducted between 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.  Morning temperatures range from the low 50s to the low 80s when the animals were gathered and heat has not been an issue. To date, the BLM has safely gathered more than 1,100 excess wild horses.
"The first part of the gather involved emergency rescue operations to more than 600 wild horses within the Owyhee HMA that were without water” said Ken Miller, BLM Elko District Manager. “The BLM hauled more than 46,000 gallons of water between June 12 and June 16 to help stabilize the condition of the horses prior to the rescue operation.”
The BLM initiated the emergency rescue gather on Friday, July 16. Emergency gather operations concluded on Wednesday, July 21, and the BLM successfully rescued 636 excess wild horses.
“As a result of prompt action to haul water and to provide care for these rescued horses once we learned the wild horses in this area were suffering from water starvation/dehydration, we were able to save the lives of most of the gathered horses from the rescue area,” added Miller.  “A large number of the excess wild horses we gathered from the Owyhee HMA would likely have died without the water hauling, gather operations and
subsequent care we were able to provide.”
However, 30 animals suffering from pre-existing, non-gather related injuries, including water starvation and dehydration-related complications, older injuries (lameness, blindness, pneumonia, etc.) or birth defects and
physical injury-related deformities have been humanly euthanized. Four wild horses have died or were humanly euthanized as a result of gather-related injuries.
“The remaining wild horses we have gathered are at or soon will be at one our facilities and receive the best food, water and veterinarian care possible,” added Miller.
The regularly scheduled part of the Tuscarora gather in the Rock Creek HMA is expected to continue throughout the weekend.  The excess wild horses throughout this area are in much better condition than the Owyhee HMA because lack of water is not an issue.
The BLM contractor shipped 24 mares and 11 foals to the Palomino Valley Center (PVC) at 6 a.m.  Saturday, July 31.  Those animals arrived at the facility in good condition and are receiving a good diet of grass hay and water and veterinarian care if needed.
The BLM also shipped 22 dry mares to PVC on Thursday, July 29, and 23 excess wild horses (12 studs, 9 mares, 2 foals) to PVC on Friday, July 30.
Both shipments arrived safely and without incident.  The horses continue to gain strength and rehydrate daily, and are receiving a good diet of grass hay and water with and without electrolyte supplement.
After the animals have been dewormed, vaccinated, freeze marked and gelded (all studs 12 month and older), they will be made available for adoption to qualified applicants through the BLM’s Adopt-A-Wild Horse or Burro Program.
The public may visit the BLM’s website at www.blm.gov for more information about adopting a wild horse or burro.
As more information becomes available it will be posted at the website:
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/elko_field_office.html.  For further comments and questions, the public may call 1-866-468-7826.
-BLM-
The BLM manages more land – more than 245 million acres – than any other Federal agency.  This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska.  The Bureau, with a budget of about $1 billion, also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation.  The BLM’s multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.  The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
(See attached file: 37_Tuscarora Gather Operations Continue Throughout theWeekend.doc)
JoLynn Worley, 775-861-6515
Office of Communications
BLM Nevada State Office

Senator Mary Landrieu attacks management of wild horses & burros

http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2010/08/011.shtml

http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/newsroom/2010/july/NC1088_TwinPeaksSurvey.html

Release Date: 07/30/10   

Contacts: Jeff Fontana, (530) 252-5332        

News Release No. CA-N-10-88

BLM Completes Aerial Population Survey of Twin Peaks Wild Horses and Burros

The Bureau of Land Management has completed an aerial population survey of wild horses and burros in the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA) north of Susanville.  Working from a helicopter over five days last week, observers counted 2,236 wild horses and 231 wild burros in the 800,000-acre area.

BLM natural resource specialists had earlier estimated the wild populations at 2,300 wild horses and 280 wild burros.

“The count was an important step in our plans to gather excess wild horses and burros, while ensuring that we retain the appropriate management levels, or herd sizes, on the range,” said Nancy Haug, the BLM’s northern California district manager.  “Our goal in the upcoming gather is to ensure that healthy, viable herds are left on the range in balance with other range users.”

The BLM tentatively plans to begin the five-week round up operation on Aug. 9.

Another aerial survey will be conducted after the gather to ensure the appropriate management levels (448-758 wild horses and 72-116 burros) remain in the herd management area.

Under the federal Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the BLM is required to determine the number of wild horses and burros that can be supported by the forage and water resources in each herd management area.  When populations exceed these levels, excess animals are removed.  They are offered for adoption by the public, or cared for in Midwestern pastures.

The Twin Peaks Herd Management area is the largest managed by BLM-California.  Straddling the California-Nevada border, the HMA is 55 miles long and 35 miles wide, with lands in Lassen County, Calif. and Washoe County, Nev.

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
NEVADA STATE OFFICE No. 2010-035                                        
For immediate release: Monday, July 26, 2010
Contact:  Heather Emmons, (775) 861-6594, heather_emmons@blm.gov
 JoLynn Worley, (775) 861-6515, jolynn_worley@blm.gov

BLM Delays Tuscarora Gather Operations to Conduct Overflight  
Reno, Nev. — The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has postponed daily gather operations in the Little Humboldt and Rock Creek Herd Management Areas (HMA) to conduct aerial reconnaissance of the HMAs to document and map the locations of the remaining excess wild horses inside and outside the HMAs.
The gather will resume after new areas have been identified where temporary corrals can be located nearest to the animals as possible so they may be safely gathered. The BLM estimates approximately 425 excess wild horses have moved outside the Rock Creek HMA, and are causing considerable impacts to rangeland resources on public and adjacent private lands, as well as impacting habitat for the Lahontan cutthroat trout.  A second group of approximately 150 excess wild horses have been sighted in the Rock Creek HMA.
All the wild horses shipped to the Gunnison Prison Wild Horse Training Facility at the Central Utah Correctional Facility and the Palomino Valley Center near Sparks, Nev. during the past week are stable, and receiving good feed, water and veterinarian care if needed.  
During the next several months the animals will be wormed, vaccinated, and freeze marked, and all 12 month and older studs will be gelded.  Once the wild horses have fully recovered, they will be made available for adoption to qualified applicants through the BLM’s Adopt-A-Wild Horse or Burro Program.  The public may visit the BLM’s website at www.blm.gov for more information about adopting a wild horse or burro.
On Sunday, July 25, after adjusting the sex ratio of 60 percent studs and 40 percent mares, the BLM released 24 studs back into the Little Humboldt HMA.  The BLM also applied fertility control on 23 Little Humboldt mares, which also were released back into the HMA.  
Three members of the public were present Sunday to observe the fertility application process. The observers also had the opportunity to watch, film and photograph the mares being released back into the Little Humboldt HMA.  
As more information becomes available it will be posted at the website:  http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/elko_field_office.html.  For further comments and questions, the public may call 1-866-468-7826.

Please Act Today! One Week to Send Letter To Help Create Change For Wild Horses & Burros

Obama Administration Asks For Public Comments on Reforming Wild Horse Program and Refuses To Accept Public Comments Via Email - Please Mail Your Letter Today!  Every Letter Counts!

Despite the Obama Administration's claims that it wants to encourage greater public participation in government, this Administration is creating obstacles for Americans to submit comments on the Wild Horse & Burro program. The Department of Interior released its “Wild Horse & Burro Strategy Development Document” which outlines the Obama Administration’s direction for the program.

Instead of making it easier for Americans to submit comments, President Obama’s Interior Secretary has actually eliminated the public’s ability to submit comments via the traditional e-mail and fax methods – we are forced to submit comments in one of two ways: (1) U.S. postal service or (2) online using a cumbersome and unreliable software program. We have received numerous complaints that people using this online software have had their comments deleted and lost. In Defense of Animals submitted a complaint to the White House about this blatant contradiction, but the White House has been nonresponsive.

Therefore, we urge you to download and sign the letter (click here for letter) – you can write additional comments at the bottom of the letter and be sure to sign any local organizations you may represent. The address to mail the letter is on the top of that letter you'll download.

Public comments must be received by August 3, 2010 – so please be sure to print the letter, sign and mail it today. Don’t delay – please don’t let the Interior Department’s attempt to thwart public participation in this important comment period succeed.

After you’ve printed, signed and mailed the letter above, please click here to tell the White House that we oppose the Administration’s move to make submitting public comments more difficult by refusing to accept comments via e-mail and fax.

BLM Nevada News
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
NEVADA STATE OFFICE No. 2010-031
For immediate release: Friday, July 23, 2010
Contact:  JoLynn Worley, 775-861-6515, jolynn_worley@blm.gov
BLM to Apply Fertility Control on Mares
Reno, Nev. — The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) gathered 103 wild horses in the Rock Creek Herd Management Area (HMA) without incident or injury on Thursday, July 22.  The animals gathered included 31 studs, 58 mares and 14 foals.  The Rock Creek gather will continue on Friday.  The BLM will apply fertility control on the mares gathered from the HMA.  Once treated, the mares will be released back into the HMA.  The BLM also plans to adjust the sex ratio of animals released back to the HMA to 60 percent studs and 40
percent mares.
“The positive results of applying fertility control and adjusting the sex ratios will be to slow population growth and help us maintain population size within appropriate management levels in the HMA,” said Ron Wenker, BLM Nevada State Director.  “These actions also will extend the time before another gather will be required to remove excess wild horses.”
The BLM contractor conducted gather operations from 6:10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Temperatures ranged from 61 to 82 degrees, resulting in minimal stress on the horses from heat.
“The Rock Creek horses we gathered are in much better condition than those in the Owyhee HMA because the lack of water is not a critical issue,” added Wenker.  “The BLM and the gather contractor will use the same care, skill and compassion to humanely gather these animals as was used to save the Owyhee horses.”
The BLM anticipates removing approximately 425 excess wild horses that have moved outside the Rock Creek HMA.  These animals are causing considerable impacts to rangeland resources on public and adjacent private lands, as well as impacts to habitat for the Lahontan cutthroat trout.
The excess wild horses will be shipped either to the Gunnison Prison Wild Horse Training Facility at the Central Utah Correctional Facility, or to the Palomino Valley Center near Sparks, Nev.  During the next several months all the animals will be closely monitored, provided good feed, water and veterinarian care as needed.
The animals will be wormed, vaccinated, and freeze marked, and all 12 month and older studs will be gelded.  Once the wild horses have fully recovered, they will be made available for adoption to qualified applicants through the BLM’s Adopt-A-Wild Horse or Burro Program.  The public may visit the
BLM’s website at www.blm.gov for more information about adopting a wild horse or burro.
The Tuscarora gather area encompasses the Owyhee, Rock Creek, and Little Humboldt HMAs.  The BLM concluded emergency rescue gather operation in the Owyhee HMA on Tuesday, July 20.
As more information becomes available it will be posted at the website:
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/elko_field_office.html .  For further comments and questions, the public may call 1-866-468-7826. -BLM-
The BLM manages more land – more than 245 million acres – than any other Federal agency.  This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska.  The Bureau, with a budget of about $1 billion, also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation.  The BLM’s multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.  The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
(See attached file: 7.23_BLM to Apply Fertility Control Rock Creek Mares.doc)
JoLynn Worley, 775-861-6515
Office of Communications
BLM Nevada State Office

Twin Peaks Lawsuit Filed: 

law suit was filed today to blog the Twin Peaks round-up.

Press Release:

http://equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/Twin_Peaks_PR.pdf 

Complaint:

http://equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/Twin_Peaks_Complaint.pdf

WildHorse News:

Take action now!!!  :

> Say "No" To Removing AllWild Horses From Herd Area In Colorado While

> Allowing Cattle ToGraze

> http://ida.convio.net/site/R?i=YkRQvPM8Du4fjRq43Tq2wg..

Nevada Federal Judge Blocks BLM Death Stampede

July 15, 2010

By Steven Long

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – Horseback Magazine was informed late Wednesday by activist author R.T. Fitch that a Nevada federal judge has enjoined the federal Bureau of Land Management from further roundups of the Tuscarora gathering of wild horses in northwestern Elco County.

The order follow an initial status conference on a lawsuit filed by animal welfare activist Laura Leigh on her lawsuit against the BLM. After one day’s roundup in which more than 200 horses were stampeded by helicopter, 12 of the animals died. The agency temporarily halted the roundup. An avalanche of bad press followed.

Read More here:  http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/1452

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wild Horse Advocates Call for Suspension of All Summer Roundups,

Full Transparency in Agency Operations

Washington, DC (July 13, 2010) – Philanthropist and businesswoman Madeleine Pickens was joined today by the ASPCA, the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, the Animal Welfare Institute and many other organizations expressing their outrage over the deaths of at least seven mustangs in a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundup conducted Saturday in the Owyhee Complex in northeastern Nevada. The wild horses died of dehydration-related causes—including brain swelling, colic and acute water intoxication – as a result of being stampeded by helicopters for up to eight miles in 90+ degree desert heat.
In a sign on letter addressed to President Obama and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Mrs. Pickens and the groups also harshly criticized the agency for cracking down on public access to observe and videotape roundup operations. The advocates released footage of a BLM representative stating publicly that public video of a prior roundup caused the agency to have “a really hard time trying to explain what’s happening.”
“The BLM simply does not want the American people to see what its wrongheaded policies are doing to our mustangs,” said Mrs. Pickens. “The horrific deaths of Owyhee horses recall the tragedy earlier this year in Nevada’s Calico Complex, where over 100 wild horses lost their lives and dozens of mares spontaneously aborted their late term foals in another deadly roundup.
“We are calling on the President and Secretary Salazar to immediately instruct the BLM to suspend all summer roundups to avoid a repeat of the tragedy at Owyhee,” Mrs. Pickens continued. “The entire wild horse program must be fundamentally reformed. America’s mustangs are still waiting for change.”
Over the next four months, the BLM intends to capture and remove 6,000 wild horse and burros from six Western states. At least half of these roundups are scheduled to take place in desert environments in the hot summer months. Public access to observe the roundup operations will be severely limited to a handful of staged opportunities, with broader access given to small number of handpicked “experts.”
The crackdown on public observation comes in the wake of public outrage and international media coverage of the Calico roundup, which ended in February.  The controversy was fueled by release of photographs and video showing of wild horses, including young foals, heavily pregnant mares and older horses, being forcefully driven by helicopter out of the mountains of Nevada and into BLM trap pens.
“The BLM’s crackdown on public observation of roundup activities is unacceptable, and makes a mockery of President Obama’s stated commitment to open government and transparency in government operations,” added Suzanne Roy, Campaign Director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, whose grassroots efforts are endorsed by a coalition of more than 40 horse advocacy, animal welfare, conservation and historic preservation organizations.
Other supporters signing the letter include Mrs. Pickens’ Saving America’s Mustangs Foundation, The Cloud Foundation, Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, Return to Freedom, American Wild Horse Sanctuary, and In Defense of Animals.

The BLM wild horse program has been harshly criticized for its lack of fiscal sustainability. The agency now stockpiles more wild horses in government holding pens and pastures than are left on the range.  The cost to taxpayers for this program is expected to exceed $70 million next fiscal year.

Wild horses comprise a small fraction of grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by livestock nearly 50 to 1.

##30##

--

CHRIS HEYDE

Deputy Director

Government and Legal Affairs

ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE

900 Pennsylvania Ave., SE

Washington, DC 20003

T: (202) 446-2142 ~ F: (202) 446-2131

www.awionline.org ~ www.compassionindex.org

The Animal Welfare Institute has been working to alleviate the suffering inflicted on animals by humans since 1951.

Please join us in our work to protect animals – visit our website to find out more and to sign up for AWI eAlerts: www.awionline.org.

P  Please consider the animals and their habitat before printing.

TWELVE Horses Killed on Day 1 of Tuscarora Roundup

6,000 more wild horses & burros planned for removal in the next 3 months

 12 July 2010

“In light of this devastating news, we call for an immediate stop to summer roundups,” states Ginger Kathrens, Director of The Cloud Foundation adding, “Tuscarora is another example of BLM’s reckless agenda.” from the New Press Release Online here (http://thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/press-releases/419-7-mustangs-die-in-150-minute-blm-roundup-in-nv-71310). The BLM has since disclosed that the death toll has risen to 12 horses and we hope more will not die - the 150 minutes of this roundup prior to suspension have been some of the deadliest in recent history. BLM suspended this roundup until further notice. Legal actions have been filed against this roundup before it began- read more from the Associated Press here (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jMTnDwrTwTRtYPwVG3GCYwf_Yu-QD9GUD3583).

From Madeliene Pickens:

Dear Friends,

As you all know, despite pleas and even a lawsuit from Laura Leigh, Project Manager of Herd Watch, trying to prevent the scheduled Tuscarora Roundup in Elko County, Nevada, the BLM still conducted the gather as scheduled. The gather started Saturday, July 10th and was scheduled to remove over 1,100 wild horses from the Elko County area. The gather started at 6:30 a.m. and by 9 a.m., the BLM contractor had gathered 228 wild horses. This is just too many horses, too fast, especially in the heat! Subsequently, since Saturday, we have now lost 7 horses due to dehydration and complications related to water intoxication during the removal process and/or at the holding facilities.  It has rehashed memories of last winter’s gather in the Calico Hills, where we lost 100 innocent horses, as well as dozens of pregnant mares, in one of the bloodiest mustang operations to date. This is unacceptable and we cannot let this keep happening! Luckily, the BLM has issued a press release this afternoon (7/12/10) that it is temporarily suspending the Tuscarora wild horse gather. This has been deadliest roundup of the year.We are hoping that with your help, we can stop this gather and others from resuming.
**Please watch CNN's Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell tomorrow, July 13th at 7pm Eastern Standard Time, as I will be on to discuss the Tuscarora Gather over the weekend, along with the Ruby Pipeline Project that will cut into five herd areas, and memories of the Calico Hills Deadly Roundup last winter.  We must be a voice to our horses!**

Respectfully,

Madeleine Pickens

New BLM online auction this week. They are offering a group of older mustangs, 12-25 years, mostly stallions, for SALE. These are the horses that are at high risk for slaughter thanks to Sen. Conrad Burns. These are bigger, draftier style mustangs in some fantastic colors. The horses are located in Nevada. Does anyone have it in their heart to help save these majestic wild creatures from the horrific fate that awaits them?

Here they are: https://www.blm.gov/adoptahorse/onlinegallery.php?horseCategory=248

Also, on the adoption list is this lovely girl, who is 7 years old and has an old knee injury that makes her companion sound only:

https://www.blm.gov/adoptahorse/horse.php?horse_id=3796

They even have a NJ shipping option for her.

If you are having trouble viewing the site, and use Internet Explorer, your browser may need to be updated.   On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.  On the Advanced tab, under Security, make sure that the following check boxes are selected -  Use SSL 2.0, Use SSL 3.0, Use TLS 1.0.   Click Apply,  Click OK.

Author Terri Farley will be bidding on two of the sale authority Calico horses to place them in a sanctuary! Read her blog! 

http://terrifarley.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-girls.html

The federal Bureau of Land management has suspended a helicopter roundup in searing Nevada desert heat after seven horses of the 228 animals caught died showing dehydration after the chase.  Some of the horses were stampeded eight miles. For more on the story 

http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/1374

July 11, 2010

Big Oil Could be Player in BLM Wild Horse Scandal

Bloody BLM roundup results in more than 140 deaths of federally protected animals

COLORADO SPRINGS, (Cloud) – A contract between the $3 billion Ruby Pipeline project managers, El Paso Corp of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and energy giant, British Petroleum, was uncovered this week by ATS News, the investigative journalism arm of number-one “alternative topics” web site, AboveTopSecret.com. The contract reveals how BP stands to reap millions of dollars from the proposed 675-mile pipeline from Wyoming to Oregon. Ruby would destroy areas of pristine wilderness in northwestern Nevada, formerly home to the majestic wild horses of the Calico Mountains. Ruby Project Coordinator Lars Ecklund said during an April 16 meeting, reported on by the Klamath Falls Herald and News: “Don’t think we’re going to put this pipe in without making a mess . . . It’s going to look like Hiroshima. It’s going to look nasty.” 

Read more here:  http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/1366  

For Immediate Release 

BLM Helicopter Roundup To Begin Despite Presence of Vulnerable Young Foals

BLM starts dangerous roundup, violating their own protocol designed to protect wild horse babies 

Elko, NV (July 8, 2010)— Over 1,400 federally-protected wild mustangs are to be rounded up beginning tomorrow, July 9, in the Tuscarora area of Elko County Nevada during the hottest month of the year. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is violating their own set-protocol for waiting six weeks after the main foaling season, defined as March 1-June 30, so that young foals can escape the inherent danger of a high-heat summer roundup. BLM will dispatch privately contracted choppers to run the Tuscarora mustangs over miles of rugged terrain in a taxpayer-funded roundup expected to last three weeks and result in the removal of some 1,100 mustangs. Only last month, Oregon BLM wild horse managers postponed a planned roundup that would have started the day after foaling season—opting to begin instead in mid-August for the horses’ safety.

“If allowed to go forward this will be a massacre,” states Anne-Marie Pinter who rode the Pony Express Race through the area on her Spanish Mustang and saw small foals. “It is covered with razor-sharp, volcanic rock that will rip up the feet of these poor foals. Before riding the area, our event veterinarian strongly recommended that we put thick rubber boots over the metal shoes of our horses—the rocks are that treacherous. We experienced triple digit temperatures and had to constantly work at keeping our horses hydrated. I can’t even imagine the toll on terrified small foals and even the adult animals at the hottest time of the year. This amounts to horrible animal cruelty and no one will know what is going on because BLM has closed the area, even the roads.” 

Last winter, during the deadliest BLM roundup in memory in the Calico Mountains of Northwestern Nevada, at least two 6-9 month foals suffered a horrible death. Their hooves literally separated from their leg bones after running over similar terrain. Yet, BLM justified the dead-of-winter roundup by stating in their Environment Assessment: “Fall and winter time-frames are much less stressful to foals than summer gathers. Not only are young foals in summer months more prone to dehydration and complications from heat stress, the handling, sorting and transport is a stress to the young animals and increases the chance for them to be rejected by their mothers. By gathering wild horses during the winter, stress associated with summer gathers can be avoided.”

“Let’s be honest. What is driving these roundups has very little to do with concern for vulnerable foals and everything to do with contractor availability and using up taxpayer money before the end of fiscal year 2010,” states Cloud Foundation Director, Ginger Kathrens, who has spent over 16 years documenting the lives of wild horse families. “With only two helicopter contractors available to round up the horses, scheduling becomes tricky, especially when the goal is the removal of 6,000 wild horses before the end of September. So, the rush to rid the land of mustangs trumps humane treatment. Disgusting.”

The Cloud Foundation is asking that humane observers and the public be allowed to document the roundup and any injuries and deaths which occur. Currently BLM has arranged for a near total lockdown of roundup activities, including a widespread closure of public roads around the area. Access will be extremely limited despite promises made by top BLM officials to the contrary. 

“Having a ‘media day’ during the operation is certainly not the same as having humane observers on site at all times during the operation,” says Elyse Gardner, who has documented the Pryor and Calico roundups.  “A sanitized version of BLM activities is not transparency in dealing with the public’s horses. If anything, rather than transparency, BLM is closing the door on public observation because of what our cameras have already revealed about these roundups.”

If allowed to proceed, the Tuscarora roundup will decimate three herds, Owyhee, Little Humboldt and Rock Creek, living in a vast 455,000-acre area about 90 miles northwest of Elko, Nevada. Over 4,000 cattle are allowed to graze on the Tuscarora designated wild horse herd management area while only 337-561 mustangs are welcome. In 1990 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report underscored that wild horse removals did not significantly improve range conditions and pointed to cattle as the culprit for public lands damage. Despite GAO noting the lack of data provided by BLM back 20 years ago, the public has seen no improvement in the piecemeal management of an agency that favors welfare cattle over legally protected mustangs and burros. Herd areas containing 10 to 30 times more livestock than horses are the norm rather than the exception. 

“Damage to livestock fences is cited as a reason to remove the horses in Tuscarora. Give me a break,” states Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist, former BLM employee, and 3^rd generation Nevadan. “How about removing the fences, reducing the number of cattle and starting to manage wild horses as principal members of their ecosystems, as well as celebrated symbols of the American West? BLM’s habit of operating behind a veil of enforced secrecy is completely unacceptable.”

The Cloud Foundation opposes the further manipulation of the Tuscarora mustangs through the use of experimental infertility drugs in combination with skewed sex ratios. The result will be increased turmoil among the highly social wild horse family bands. Given the disastrous management and the lack of accurate range censuses and the presence of over 37,000 wild horses in government holding at enormous taxpayer expense, advocates continue to call for an immediate freeze on the costly roundups. Congressional hearings are needed to discuss the shortcomings of an out-of-control program that threaten the future existence of wild horses and burros on lands set aside for their use. 

“BLM has responded with its classic bunker mentality, abandoning any transparency efforts and placing at risk the lives of these small foals that have never even had a chance at life with their families,” states Kathrens. “We pray that BLM will show some compassion and ground the helicopters. With all the uncontrollable disasters in the world, why is BLM determined to create one in Tuscarora?” 

Sign the petition

Posted by: "Marge" redmm97@cox.net   redmm97

Tue Jul 6, 2010 6:43 am (PDT)
FORWARDING THIS IMPORTANT EMAIL TO YOU......
Makendra works in the Cloud Foundation headquarters and is the heart and soul of its work. Please use the EASY link below to sign a petition to stop summer roundups of horses. A winter roundup this year killed 101 horses and 39 mares aborted their foals. These roundups could kill as many, or more, because of summer conditions.
Please,
In right action with you,
Rob
p.s. I am starting a Silent Vigil at the Federal Bldg. in Cleveland because the horses have no voice. Thank you for everything you do for them. rp
----- Original Message ----- From: "Makendra" <Makendra@thecloudfoundation.org>
To: "Makendra" <makendra@thecloudfoundation.org>
Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 7:50 PM
Subject: Tuscarora Roundup delayed to July 9, 2010-- Stinkingwater likely delayed to Aug. 8
Quick update: I just checked the BLM website and the Tuscarora roundup has been rescheduled for July 9th (was originally scheduled for July 1). Similarly, Stinkingwater in Oregon has been delayed, tentatively, until August 8 (but I have not yet been able to verify with the Oregon office).
We desperately need a moratorium on summer roundups-- I've started a petition/letter sender online here: http://environment.change.org/petitions/view/stop_the_summer_roundups_of_americas_mustangs_burros
Thank you,
Makendra

George Knapp Interview on Above Top Secret.com

Kudos to George Knapp for pulling no punches in this segment. All the pieces of the puzzle are coming together. For those of you that haven't been entrenched in the plight of our wild ones, the information uncovered in this segment is an outrage and further evidence on why our government is ignoring us and our wild ones are being removed. Please post on your sites and cross post to your groups. There is also a forum on this topic that you can join to add your comments. 

The Mustang Conspiracy: Part 2: British Petroleum (BP) and The Ruby Pipeline

Equine Welfare Alliance

Please participate and forward.  Thanks.    

(If you prefer to send a message on your own:

To identify your federal legislators and find contact info, try:
http://www.Congress.org
http://www.senate.gov
http://www.house.gov )

-----Original Message-----
From: Zelda [mailto:zpenzel@nyc.rr.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2010 4:46 PM
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: Ask Congress To Force BLM To Allow Public Observation Of Wild Horse Programy
Importance: High    

Ask Congress To Force BLM To Allow Public Observation Of Wild Horse Program

https://secure2.convio.net/ida/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1525 

Top of Form

Ask Congress To Force BLM To Allow Public Observation
Of Wild Horse Program

In the face of public and Congressional outrage over the roundup of nearly 2,000 wild horses from Nevada’s Calico Mountains region, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced plans to control and minimize criticism by further restricting public viewing of its operations to a small group of cherry-picked organizations and individuals for limited viewing. The agency is ramping up its capture plans, with over 5,000 more wild horses targeted for roundup and removal over the next four months.

By its own admission, BLM’s crackdown on public observation of its roundup activities and wild horse holding facilities is designed to control images released on blogs, YouTube and other social media, thereby quashing escalating public opposition to the agency’s handling of America’s treasured mustangs.

We can’t let the BLM get away with this. The agency ignores the wishes of the American public by clearing wild horses off the land to make room for cattle ranchers and gas and mining companies who want to exploit public lands. Most of these formerly free mustangs are stockpiled in BLM holding facilities in the Midwest, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars annually. Now this public agency is attempting to prevent all but a handpicked few from observing and documenting its treatment of the wild horses who are beloved by so many Americans.

Please submit the form below today. Ask your representatives in Congress to force the BLM to allow the public to see and document how the agency is spending tax dollars to roundup and hold wild horses and burros. After you submit this form, please call your senators and representatives to follow up and ask them what action they have taken on this issue.

Please personalize the message.

Submit the form below to fax your message to your U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative, matched to the zip code you enter. 

(Click the link to send your letter.) 

Bottom of Form

**

If you prefer to send a message on your own: 

To identify your federal legislators and find contact info, try:
http://www.Congress.org
http://www.senate.gov
http://www.house.gov

ANNOUNCING A NEW WILD HORSE YOU TUBE & WEBSITE

I am proud to announce a new you tube - first in a series - by my talented brothers, Jim (the Creator) Gawne and voiceover maestro Gerry Gawne. You can hear the old broadcaster pipes in him eh? It takes aim at the BLM - to view it go to: www.wildhorsesneedyou.com  

Jim created the new website where we will feature numerous you tubes and cross posting to other wild horse and burro websites.  Please post a link to your site if you can. If you have material you want us to reference, email info@wildhorsesneedyou.com

We have a lot more in the oven but dang, it takes a long time to bake these things. Meanwhile, the horses disappear.

We really need to get lawsuits aplenty going against the BLM. Please each of us, research lawyers that might take on cases in each state, then let's raise some money and strike back for the Mustangs.

Arlene Gawne  CEL: (702) 277-1313 and FAX: (702) 838-1009    

 EMAIL: artistfromafrica@hotmail.com

SAVE MUSTANGS:  www.wildhorsesneedyou.com 

BLM appoints 3 new advisory board members:

http://tinyurl.com/33mjcuj

It just doesn't stop.
BLM to Gather Wild Horses from Moriah Herd Area
Ely, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ely District, Schell Field
Office has issued the Decision Record for the Final Environmental
Assessment (EA) for the Moriah Herd Area Wild Horse Gather.
The BLM will gather and remove approximately 72 excess wild horses from in
and around the Moriah Herd Area (HA), located about 48 miles northeast of
Ely, beginning on or about Aug. 10, 2010.  The gathered animals will be
transported to the Delta Wild Horse and Burro Facility, in Delta, Utah,
where they will be offered for adoption to qualified individuals.
Unadopted horses will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be
humanely cared for and retain their “wild” status and protection under the
1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.  The BLM does not sell or
send any horses to slaughter.
The Moriah HA gather and impacts are described and analyzed in the EA,
which is available online at http://www.blm.gov/nv/.  Click on the Ely
District map and then click on Moriah HA gather under “In the Spotlight.”
The BLM will also provide updates and information at the same Web address
on a regular basis throughout the course of the gather.
The BLM Ely District is implementing the Ely Resource Management Plan that
was signed in August 2008.  Through the planning process, a decision was
made to remove all wild horses and change the management classification
from Herd Management Area (HMA) status to Herd Area status on12 HMAs.  This
was due to insufficient habitat resources to sustain healthy wild horse
populations, including forage, water, space, cover and reproductive
viability.  The Moriah HA was included in this decision.
For more information, contact Chris Hanefeld, BLM Ely District public
affairs specialist, at (775) 289-1842 or chris_hanefeld@blm.gov.
 -BLM-
Chris Hanefeld, 775-289-1842
Ely District Office public affairs

BLM Nevada News
NEVADA STATE OFFICE NO. 2010-021
FOR RELEASE: June 30, 2010
CONTACT: Heather Emmons, (775) 861-6594, heather_emmons@blm.gov
BLM Issues Temporary Closure on Public Lands
During Tuscarora Wild Horse Gather
Elko, Nev.—Certain areas on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in northwestern Elko County will be temporarily closed to public access, use and occupancy at varying times and locations from July 6 through July 31, 2010.  The temporary closure involves about 27,000 acres and is necessary to help ensure the safety of the public, contractors and government employees, and wild horses, and to ensure the orderly progress of the Tuscarora wild horse gather operations.  The public will have the opportunity to attend the gather on specifically scheduled and escorted visitation days.  

The sites identified for temporary closure are locations the BLM has used during previous gathers in the Owyhee, Rock Creek and Little Humboldt Herd Management Areas over the past 10 years.  Some of the gather sites are on public land and some are on private land.  The temporary closure would be in effect only on public land.  Not all of the lands identified for temporary closure will be closed during the entire period.  The public will be authorized to use those areas where gather operations are not in progress.  Areas from which the public will be temporarily excluded will be dependent upon the actual area of operation which will be variable according to the needs of the gather contractor.  Areas temporarily closed to public access will be posted at main entry points with signs.  
Once gather operations are concluded in specific areas, those portions of the public lands will be reopened.  The temporary closure may be lifted prior to July 31 if gather operations are completed before that date.  

Helicopters will be used during the gather operation.  The BLM will remove about 1,100 excess wild horses from within the Owyhee, Rock Creek and Little Humboldt Herd Management Areas (HMAs) and outside of these HMAs to bring the number of wild horses in the area to the appropriate management level range of 337-561 animals.  The HMAs cover about 455,000 acres in Elko County, about 90 miles northwest of Elko, Nev.

For more information, call David Overcast, Tuscarora Field Manager, at 775-753-0320.

BLM Admits Helicopter Stampede Caused Wild Horse Deaths, Refuses Outside Observers in Nevada Census

http://horsebackpublishing.com/hb/archives/1142

Another gather announcement.  FYI: Yesterday Battle Mountain announced a recently fast tracked geothermal project, Ormat Technologies'Jersey Valley, which is expected to be online by December.  This has no link to the gather area and I have been told that no HMA's are involved ( township labels show the project near but not in the TOBIN Range and Augusta Mountain HMA's)

N.C. county looks at reining in tours of wild horses

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/06/nc-county-looks-reining-tours-wild-horses

The herd totals about 100 horses, but they typically travel in small groups. A stallion and a few mares can show up on the beach and attract a hundred people in moments.

http://thisisreno.com/2010/06/blm-to-impound-domestic-estray-horses-in-pilot-valley/

BLM to impound domestic estray horses in Pilot Valley

June 23, 2010

By ThisIsReno

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Elko District Office, in close coordination with the Nevada Department of Agriculture, Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), Simplot Land and Livestock and local residents, will impound a herd of approximately 175 abandoned domestic estray horses located within Pilot Valley north of West Wendover, Nevada.

The impoundment is scheduled to begin Friday, June 25 and is expected to take approximately three to four days.  The removal will be conducted by an experienced BLM gather contractor.

http://horsebackpublishing.com/hb/archives/1049

Naturalist Craig Downer Issues Report Showing Sparse Horse Population, Many Cows in Wild Horse Area

June 26, 2010

Request for Investigation Filed with FBI to Stop Calico Wild Horse Transport 

The 'Erin Brockovich of America's Mustangs' fights to return Nevada Wild Horses to Freedom

Reno, NV (June 21, 2010)-Cindy MacDonald, research expert and American Herds blogger has filed a request for investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) this afternoon to prevent the transport, adoption, and/or sale of non-excess Calico wild horses currently being held in BLM processing facilities. MacDonald is requesting an investigation into the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for attempting to dispose of the Calico wild horses prior to confirming that the recent removal operations left approximately 600-900 wild horses on the range as required by law.

From December 28, 2009 to February 7, 2010, BLM reported they removed 1922 wild horses from the Calico Complex in NW Nevada during the fatal winter roundup. 

MacDonald contends that, "the BLM may have removed far too many Calico horses in a massive roundup last winter and failed to return, by BLM definition, 'non-excess' horses." The BLM is required to leave at least 572 wild horses on the Calico range, the low level of their arbitrarily set "appropriate management level" (AML). Only horses above that level can be considered excess. Returning the horses would save at least $3 million dollars over the next ten years alone. 

Early this month, wildlife ecologist Craig Downer carried out a flyover of the Calico Complex in a fixed-wing aircraft. Downer was able to find only 31 wild horses but noted 350 privately-owned cattle grazing on the Herd Management Areas (HMAs). Downer noted that "there was a reasonable spring green-up of the landscape and the open treeless character of the terrain permitted a high degree of horse detection". An additional ground survey by Robert Bauer resulted in finding only 9 mustangs in Nevada's Calico Complex region.

"Two recent independent observers report the Calico herds are gone," states MacDonald, adding "there's a vast difference between less than 50 and 600-900 wild horses. The public needs to be sure the BLM followed the law before those horses are shipped out."

MacDonald points out that BLM is plagued with failures to properly count free-roaming wild horses and burros even though the agency attempts to develop new protocol to remedy these errors.

"While the BLM's numbers rarely add up, the Calico fiasco is an extreme example of this from start to finish," states MacDonald.

Responding to public comments during last Monday's BLM Denver workshop, the BLM announced Friday they will partner with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for an aerial census of NW Nevada and SE Oregon. The BLM refuses to bring along The Cloud Foundation's 'Herd-Watch' project director, Laura Leigh, on their census flights-continuing to demonstrate their closed-door protocol. The Foundation supports transparency and wants advocates involved in counting horses. 

The BLM's policy for massive removals through roundups, followed with stockpiling mustangs in government-contracted holding pens and mid-east pastures is not sustainable and is costing American taxpayers some $40 million per year. 

"In this day and age of government budget crises, to waste the lives of these mustangs at a cost of millions of dollars to the American taxpayers is unconscionable," statesGinger Kathrens, Director of The Cloud Foundation and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. "We call on BLM to show an act of good faith. We ask they put an immediate moratorium on all roundups is until we can partner together to sort this all out."

http://www.examiner.com/x-37163-Equine-Advocacy-Examiner~y2010m6d22-Beloved-Calico-stallions-castrated-behind-BLMs-closed-doors?cid=examiner-email

Ask Congress To Force BLM To Allow Public Observation
Of Wild Horse Program

In the face of public and Congressional outrage over the roundup of nearly 2,000 wild horses from Nevada’s Calico Mountains region, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced plans to control and minimize criticism by restricting the very limited public viewing of its operations to a small group of cherry-picked organizations and individuals. The agency is ramping up its capture plans, with over 5,000 more wild horses targeted for roundup and removal over the next four months.

By its own admission, BLM’s crackdown on public observation of its roundup activities and wild horse holding facilities is designed to control images released on blogs, YouTube and other social media, thereby quashing escalating public opposition to the agency’s handling of America’s treasured mustangs.

We can’t let the BLM get away with this. The agency ignores the wishes of the American public by clearing wild horses off the land to make room for cattle ranchers and gas and mining companies who want to exploit public lands. Most of these formerly free mustangs are stockpiled in BLM holding facilities in the Midwest, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars annually. Now this public agency is attempting to prevent all but a handpicked few from observing and documenting its treatment of the wild horses who are beloved by so many Americans.

Please submit the form at this link today. Ask your representatives in Congress to force the BLM to allow the public to see and document how the agency is spending tax dollars to roundup and hold wild horses and burros. After you submit the form, please call your senators and representatives to follow up and ask them what action they have taken on this issue.

WildHorse News:

The BLM will be accepting comments via snail mail, certified mail and FedEx since everyone is having so many problems with submitting comments on the WH&B program via their website.

BLM Washington Office

1849 C Street NW, Rm. 5665

Washington DC 20240

Here is an excellent summary of the BLM meeting last week from Elyse.

http://humaneobserver.blogspot.com/

Kudos to Cindy McDonald, American Herds, for another outstanding article on the issues and facts surrounding the Calico Complex in Nevada.

Calico: Past, Present & Future VI 

For those of you that have missed the previous articles, below are the permanent links for your reference. I encourage all of you to read the entire series. It is a real eye opener.

Calico: Past, Present & Future

Calico: Past, Present & Future II

Calico: Past, Present & Future III

Calico: Past, Present & Future IV

Calico: Past, Present & Future V

Changes looming in wild horse program  

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700039060/Changes-looming-in-wild-horse-program.html?pg=1

This video is  an interview with Bill Spriggs [the atty for the Calico suit], Bob Abbey and indepth discussion with Neda De Mayo and Jim & Kathy Kudma on the Soldier Meadows sanctuary proposal. There is also an article with this for those that cannot download videos. BTW-there is a view of Laura Allen's  article on the Friedman injunction from the Animal Law Coalition website.

http://ymix.com/179

For Public Information:
For Immediate Release:  June 2, 2010
Contact:  Jared Redington, 801-561-4632
BLM to Host Public Hearing for 2010-2011 Utah Wild Horse Gathers
Salt Lake City, Utah The BLM Utah will host a public hearing at the West
Desert District Office to discuss the use of helicopters and motorized
vehicles in the management of wild horses and burros on Utah’s public
lands. The hearing will be held on, June 9 at 6:30 p.m., at 2370 South 2300 West, Salt Lake City, Utah. An annual public hearing for comments on this issue is required by federal regulation.  The Salt Lake City hearing will be the only one held this year in Utah.
“Using helicopters and other advanced equipment is crucial in our
efficiency and maintaining safety in wild horse management,” said Jared
Redington, Salt Lake Wild Horse and Burro Facility Manager. “We have found the use of helicopters is the most humane method in gathering horses from the open range and remote mountain areas where they live.”
Utah’s current wild horse population is about 2,700.  Drought conditions
and increased wild horse numbers cause limited forage and water
availability, which reduces the number of animals that can be supported on the land.  BLM Utah gathers an average of 300-400 horses annually from public lands to help control horse populations. Horse populations can increase 15 to 25 percent every year.
BLM and its contractors plan to start gathering excess wild horses from
various herd areas across the state in August.  Gather locations may change due to available funding, water and forage conditions or wildfires. Herd areas scheduled for wild horse population reduction include:  Winter Ridge (Unitah County), Confusion and Conger (Millard and Juab Counties), Sulphur (Iron and Millard Counties), North Hills (Iron and Washington Counties), and Chokecherry and Mt.Elinor (Beaver and Iron Counties).
The BLM has removed more than 14,000 wild horses and 500 burros from Utah’s  rangelands since government round-ups began in 1975.  More than 6,700 of these wild horses and burros have been adopted locally, and the remainder was sent east for adoption.  Adoptions are set for Cedar City and Spanish Fork in August.  Daily adoptions are ongoing at the Delta Wild Horse and Burro Facility and the Salt Lake Regional Wild Horse and Burro Center near Herriman. Monthly adoptions are held on the first Tuesday of each month June 1 through Sept. 7, at the Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison.
For additional information about the upcoming public hearing contact Jared Redington at (801) 561-4632, or the BLM Utah State Office at (801)
539-4057.  For information on future wild horse and burro adoptions, visit
www.ut.blm.gov , or contact the Delta Wild Horse and Burro Facility
435-864-4068,  600 N. 350 W., Delta, Utah, or the Salt Lake Wild Horse and
Burro Center 877-224-3956, 8605 W. 12600 S., Herriman, Utah.
- BLM -
The BLM manages more land -- 253 million acres -- than any other Federal agency.  This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska.  The Bureau,  with a budget of about $1 billion, also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation.  The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.  The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, energy production and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.

Thanks,
Lisa Reid

Lisa_Reid@blm.gov  
Public Affairs Specialist
Bureau of Land Management
35 E 500 N
Fillmore, UT 84631
435-743-3128 (o)
435-979-2838 (c)

NC lawmakers to name wild mustangs as state horse - NewsTimes

The House has scheduled a final vote Wednesday on a bill naming the colonial Spanish mustang as the official state horse. Other official North Carolina ...

Act Today To Oppose Roundup Of 2,000 Horses And Burros In California

Earlier this week, a federal judge dismissed our lawsuit, on a technicality, to stop the roundup and long-term holding of 2,000 horses from the Calico Mountain Complex in Nevada. We are more committed than ever to continue to fight this injustice against American wild horses and burros. Please stick with us through this long battle – we must continue to submit public comments against each and every roundup, and urge Congress to change the broken system that has for decades wrongly taken freedom and family away from innocent wild horses and burros.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently issued its formal proposal to roundup 2,000 wild horses and burros in the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area in California. The BLM says this nearly 800,000-acre area can only have 448-758 horses and 72-116 burros; the BLM plans to remove 1,855 wild horses and 210 burros. Thousands of you commented earlier this year, opposing this ill-conceived plan and we must again document our opposition. We must not give up until wild horses and burros are protected from these horrible roundups. Click here to submit your comments by June 18.

We're writing to you because you've already helped us put huge pressure on governments to end the cruelty of jumps racing. As someone who cares about horses, we thought you'd also want to know about the thousands of wild horses in Western Australia that desperately need our voice today.

For decades wild horses have grazed peacefully around Lake Gregory in the Kimberley. Bred from two purebred Arab stallions taken to Balgo Mission in the 1950's, these beautiful part Arab horses were considered so unique and valuable that the Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, chose 13 for his stables.

Now the 5,000 horses at Lake Gregory have been issued a death sentence by the WA Department of Regional Development and Land who say they are causing 'unacceptable environmental damage'. The lake that these horses graze around is over 100 Km in circumference, and the entire area the horses inhabit is a huge 400,000 hectares. The Department has no issue with the 5,000 cattle grazing on the same property remaining.

The indigenous groups that live around Lake Gregory have grown up with these horses and love them. Despite the Department being aware that the horses were increasing in numbers every year, they provided no assistance to indigenous groups to introduce humane population control. Now they have ordered that the horses be rounded up and transported 3000 Km to an abattoir in South Australia for slaughter; their meat to be exported for human consumption.

Local group Wild Horses Kimberley are calling on the government to allow them to geld the stallions and inject the mares with a fertility drug. Despite this, the WA government is proceeding with the plan to round up the horses for slaughter as early as next week.

Please urgently demand of Minister Brendan Grylls — the minister whose department is responsible for the proposed cull — that the horses not become the innocent victims of government mismanagement, and to instigate Wild Horses Kimberley’shumane alternative proposal.

Your Help Is Needed Today:

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/save-kimberleys-wild-horses/

Push to Save America’s Wild Horses Continues after Judge Dismisses Case on Technicality

May 26, 2010

Washington, D.C. (CLOUD) -  Solely on the basis of standing and mootness the lawsuit brought against the Department of Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) by In Defense of Animals (IDA), wildlife ecologist and Cloud Foundation Board Member Craig Downer and author Terri Farley was dismissed by the Honorable Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. on May 24^th. The Cloud Foundation continues to call for the return to the wild of the beleaguered Calico horses now in holding pens. To date at least 90 horses have died, 40 or more mares had spontaneous late term abortions due to stress and an unknown number of young foals have died in the privately-owned feedlot-style pens in Fallon, Nevada where the majority of the captured horses are held without windbreaks, shade or cover.  

“The case remains that these horses need to be turned back out onto their designated range. After the suffering they continue to endure they deserve no less,” states Ginger Kathrens, Director of the Cloud Foundation. “We’re asking the public to write the President. It is time for an executive order to be handed down to place an immediate moratorium on roundups. The public is speaking clearly—they want their wild horses protected on our public lands and this ruling does nothing to change this unified appeal.” 

The Cloud Foundation thanks the law firm of Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney, who worked pro-bono to stop what became a deadly winter roundup in which nearly 2000 horses lost their freedom.  Judge Friedman’s decision did not address the merits of the argument, only the plaintiffs’ lack of standing.  Additionally, Judge Friedman ruled that the arguments against the roundup methods were moot as the roundup/removal operation had already taken place.

“I’m heartsick that Judge Friedman didn’t rule in favor of the Calico horses, but it’s important to note that he dismissed the case on a technicality, not on the merits of the case” explains co-plaintiff Terri Farley, author of the children’s Phantom Stallion Series. “This lawsuit shone the light of public scrutiny on BLM’s abuse of the mustang. Those of us who had our eyes opened will never look away.”

Photo by Makendra Silverman/The Cloud Foundation

Former Government Lawyer Now on the Bench Rules in Favor Of the BLM in Calico Suit

May 25, 2010

By Steven Long

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A federal judge who spent part of his career working as a government lawyer today found in favor of a controversial Obama Administration agency. Judge Paul L. Friedman dashed the hopes of lovers of wild horses when he dismissed a lawsuit challenging the legality of housing thousands of Mustangs in huge holding pens in the American West.

The suit had hoped to stop the helicopter stampede, capture, and holding as many as 2,500 animals in Nevada’s Calico Mountains. After the capture, almost 100 horses have died outright and 50 mares have miscarried.

The suit was filed by In Defense of Animals, naturalist Craig Downer, and author Terri Farley.

The capture and deaths in the wake of a stampede by a roaring chopper sparked protests from San Francisco to London as activists voiced outrage at the alleged cruelty of the government action. They claim the federal Bureau of Land Management has been in blatant violation of the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act

In a preliminary ruling Friedman wrote that holding the horses in the pens is probably illegal.

The suite was filed pro bono by the Washington law firm Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney. Lead counsel William J. Spriggs said after Friedman’s ruling “The BLM’s practice of removing horses from the western range and warehousing them in Midwestern holding facilities is flat out illegal and the judge’s preliminary ruling was correct.”

Friedman, a former government lawyer dismissed the suit on standing and mootness of the lawsuit. It was brought against the BLM and the Department of Interior. He said the arguments presented by Spriggs were moot since the roundup had already taken place.

“We remain confident in the merits of our case and look forward to pursuing this legal issue in the near future,” Spriggs said.  

In the wake of the stampede, two foals died after losing their hooves from being run for miles over rocky terrain to escape the roaring helicopter leased by the government from a Utah firm that has made millions from similar government contracts.

The roundup of 1,922 wild horses removed 80-90 percent of the Calico wild horse population. It ended February 4, 2010.

Activists blame cattle ranchers who control the BLM for removing the horses, animals many call a national treasure. In fact, the BLM has recently increased cattle grazing allotments in areas where wild horses are being removed.

Some cattle ranchers call wild horses a nuisance, calling them the “cockroaches of the west.”

More than half of America’s wild horses are now warehoused.

Ranchers lease BLM land at the rate of $1.35 per animal per month. Wild horse activists call that a national scandal.

Some geneticists claim there will be no wild horses left in the west in the wake the BLM roundups claiming the agency is leaving the herds genetically bankrupt.

Photo by Craig Downer

Wild Horse and Burro Board to Hold Public Workshop

Posted by: "Marge" redmm97@cox.net   redmm97

Thu May 20, 2010 11:57 am (PDT)
Wild Horse and Burro Board to Hold Public Workshop
by: Edited Press Release
May 17 2010, Article # 16367
The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board will conduct a public workshop and hold a regular meeting in June at a two-day event in Denver. The June 14 workshop will provide the public with an opportunity to express their views, comments, and suggestions regarding Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar's wild horse initiative, which he and BLM Director Bob Abbey announced last October. The board will hold a regular meeting on wild horse management issues on June 15.
The public workshop and board meeting will take place at the Magnolia Hotel, 818 17th Street, Denver, Colo. The workshop is slated to run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (MDT), while the board meeting is set for 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (MDT).
On June 14, the public will be able to provide feedback and input concerning Secretary Salazar's initiative. Initiative details can be accessed at the BLM's website.
On June 15, the public may address the advisory board at an appropriate point in the agenda, which is expected to be about 3 p.m. Individuals who want to make a statement should register with the BLM by noon on the day of the meeting at the meeting site. Depending on the number of speakers, the board may limit the length of presentations, set at three minutes for previous meetings. Speakers, who should address the specific wild horse- and burro-related topics listed on the agenda, must submit a written statement of their comments, which may be sent electronically to the BLM by accessing their feedback form. Alternatively, comments may be mailed to the National Wild Horse and Burro Program, WO-260, Attention: Ramona DeLorme, 1340 Financial Boulevard, Reno, Nev., 89502-7147. Written comments pertaining to the advisory board meeting should be submitted no later than close of business June 7.

Wild Horse foal dies at the Broken Arrow

Visitors went to the Broken Arrow facility as they do every Sunday. Observers have been traveling to the remote privately contracted facility to document the conditions our wild horses are held in after being rounded-up by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) this past winter.

Read more here:

http://www.examiner.com/x-45566-Horse-Examiner~y2010m5d18-Wild-Horse-foal-dies-at-the-Broken-Arrow

BLM Invites Public Comment at Board Meeting - But Will They Actually Let the Public Speak This Time

Photo by Elyse Gardner

Many speakers were rudely cut off at the last meeting of the Wild Horse and burro Advisory Board meeting in DC

WASHINGTON, (BLM) - The Bureau of Land Management announced today that the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board will conduct a public workshop and hold a regular meeting in June at a two-day event in Denver. The workshop on Monday, June 14, will provide the public with a unique opportunity to express their views, comments, and suggestions regarding Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar�s wild horse initiative, which he and BLM Director Bob Abbey announced last October. The Board will hold a regular meeting on wild horse management issues on Tuesday, June 15.
The public workshop and the Board meeting will take place in Denver, Colorado, at the Magnolia Hotel, 818 17th St., Denver, CO 80202. The hours of the Monday workshop are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time; the Tuesday Board meeting is set for 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time. The hotel�s phone number for reservations is 303-607-9000. The business agendas for the public workshop and Board meeting can be found on page 26990 of the Thursday, May 13, Federal Register.
On Monday, June 14, the public will be able to provide feedback and input concerning Secretary Salazar�s initiative, the details of which can be accessed at the BLM�s website (www.blm.gov);
On Tuesday, June 15, the public may address the Advisory Board at an appropriate point in the agenda, which is expected to be about 3 p.m., local time. Individuals who want to make a statement should register with the BLM by noon on the day of the meeting at the meeting site. Depending on the number of speakers, the Board may limit the length of presentations, set at three minutes for previous meetings. Speakers, who should address the specific wild horse and burro-related topics listed on the agenda, must submit a written statement of their comments, which may be sent electronically to the BLM by accessing the following Web address. Alternatively, comments may be mailed to the National Wild Horse and Burro Program, WO-260, Attention: Ramona DeLorme, 1340 Financial Blvd., Reno, NV 89502-7147. Written comments pertaining to the Advisory Board meeting should be submitted no later than close of business June 7.
For additional information about the meeting, please contact Ramona DeLorme, Wild Horse and Burro Administrative Assistant, at 775-861-6583. Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may reach Ms. DeLorme at any time by calling the Federal Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.
The National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board provides input and advice to the BLM as it carries out its responsibilities under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. This law mandates the protection, management, and control of these free-roaming animals in a manner that ensures healthy herds at levels consistent with the land�s capacity to support them. The BLM manages about 37,000 wild horses and burros that roam BLM-managed rangelands in 10 Western states; the agency also feeds and cares for more than 35,000 horses and burros that are maintained in short-term corrals and long-term Midwestern pastures.
The Advisory Board meets at least twice a year and the BLM Director may call additional meetings when necessary. Members serve without salary, but are reimbursed for travel and per diem expenses according to government travel regulations.
The BLM manages more land � 253 million acres � than any other Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The Bureau, with a budget of about $1 billion, also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.

Please send your letters by May 21 on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) latest proposed mass round up — 1,000 Nevada mustangs living in the Owyee, Rock Creek and Little Humboldt HMA’s are targeted for permanent removal beginning in July 2010. See sample letter below.

In northeastern Nevada, just south of the Owyee Desert, lives a population of wild horses who are descendants of Cavalry re-mounts and 19th century ranch horses. These gray, bay, black, brown, roan and sorrel horses inhabit three BLM Herd Management Areas (HMAs), encompassing nearly 500,000 acres of Columbia Plateau and the Great Basin region lands.

Despite the fact that wild horses have thrived in the Great Basin region – approximately 70 percent of the BLM’s wild horse HMAs are located within this vast rolling plateau and high desert region – the agency continues to maintain that the area cannot sustain even moderate numbers of horses. Meanwhile tens of thousands of privately-owned livestock graze on public lands in this region.

Earlier this year, the BLM rounded up and removed nearly 2,000 wild horses living in the Calico Mountains Complex in Northwestern Nevada. Now the BLM’s Tuscarora Field Office is making plans for the mass removal of more Nevada mustangs, and the fates of 1,000 wild horses living in the Owyee, Rock Creek and Little Humboldt HMA’s are on the line.

While the agency maintains that the more than 750-square mile area encompassed by these HMAs can only support 440 wild horses, it authorizes ten times that amount of livestock — over 4,000 head — to graze the same area!

The BLM is seeking public comments on a Preliminary Environmental Assessment (EA) for this capture plan. This EA fails to seriously consider realistic alternatives for keeping these horses on the range, thus avoiding the high cost of warehousing wild horses in off-the-range holding facilities. These skyrocketing costs have rendered the BLM’s wild horse program fiscally unsustainable, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Secretary of the Interior himself.

The BLM now stockpiles more wild horses in holding facilities (36,000+) than are left in the wild (>33,000). This latest roundup continues the BLM’s unsustainable cycle of mass roundup, removal and stockpiling of America’s wild horses.

Tuscarora_horse_gathers@blm.gov (Tuscarora_horse_gathers @ blm.gov),

Chair@ceq.eop.gov (Chair @ ceq.eop.gov),

David_Overcast@blm.gov (David_Overcast @ blm.gov),

Mark_Wimmer@blm.gov (Mark_Wimmer @ blm.gov),

Bruce_Thompson@blm.gov (Bruce_Thompson @ blm.gov)

Please circulate this alert to friends and family as well – the time to speak up for Nevada’s mustangs is now!

Update:

Indian Uproar Over Horses Abated Temporarily at Pine Ridge Reservation

CHICAGO (EWA) - Statement by David Swallow, Jr., Wowitan Yuha Mani

Teton Lakota Spiritual Leader, Sun dance Chief of the Medicine Wheel Sun dance, and a Headman of the Lakota Nation Band of Wana Way Gu (Broken Bow)

*For Immediate Release

Statement Date; May 8th 2010
Transcribed To and edited by Keith Rabin  

Hau, Mitakuyapi Na Mita Kola.

Mitakuyapi Sunka Wakan Oyate
Lakota Nation, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota

The Lakota people of Pine Ridge South Dakota continue their struggle to protect their Sacred Horses from the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council and the Parks and Recreation Department.

Since June 2009, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council and the Parks and Recreation (OSTPR) have been removing horses owned by the Lakota People of Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota without permission, without notice and without any warrant issued or receipt. Despite repeated efforts, continued obstacles have made it impossible for the Lakota People to get their horses back. 
The horses were to be delivered to the St. Onge Livestock Company LTD by the OSTPR to be auctioned off on Sunday, 5/9/10 as loose horses.  In A statement from Elder and Spiritual leader David Swallow, on May 7, 2010, based on the grounds of trespassing on private property, a temporary injunction was granted by the Tribal Court to stop the "Oglala Sioux Tribe "Parks and Recreation Department" from auctioning off these horses on 5/9/10 [Mothers Day]. (Further details regarding the injunction to follow early next week).   
The " Mitakuyapi Sunka Wakan Oyate " is working to establish a designated fund where supporters will be able to donate funds to help return these Sacred horses to the safety and care of The People. Supporters are encouraged not to send any money at this time.
Please watch for updates as to how to help.  Mitakuyapi Sunka Wakan Oyate (Relatives of the Sacred Horses)
Lakota Nation, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota
Our Horses are sacred to us and they are our relatives. 
We are family and we take care of each other and help each other in times of need.
That is the Lakota way.

Original info:

FYI.  Please send to SD contacts for action.  Thanks. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Zelda [mailto:zpenzel@nyc.rr.com]
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 10:27 PM
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: Pierre, SD: MORE INFO: URGENT:NOW Pine Ridge horse slaughter on Mothers Day
Importance: High

MORE INFO: URGENT:NOW Pine Ridge horse slaughter on Mothers Day

From: Colleen Meyer <carecmeyer@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, May 7, 2010 at 2:37 PM
Subject: To: carecmeyer@gmail.com
I just spoke with the GOV office, as some of you already have as well- and they are saying they don't know anything about this- I urge you to call their office and ask about it anyway- to further the phone calls and interest in this issue- they will direct you to call the  Sioux tribe directly at this number:  Please do that as well.
They will claim they don't know anything about it, that's fine- be polite and explain that you are
concerned what precedence this sets by killing pregnant mares on Mothers day and that it reflects
poorly on their people "or something" to that effect.
 605- 867-5821
I just called the GOV office and they said its separate territory and to call the Oglala Sioux Res
FIRST EMAIL:below

Folks,

I am asking any of you that have media connections or can do some media investigation for the horses of the Pine Ridge Reservation today.  This is a heartfelt plea from the Pine Ridge Reservation folks to help them stop the slaughter of their horses on MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!.  MANY OF THESE HORSES ARE PREGNANT MARES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are asking for help and I hope you can respond.  Here is Governor Rounds contact information:

Contact Governor Rounds
Office of the Governor
500 E. Capitol Ave.
Pierre, SD 57501
605.773.3212

Horse Slaughter Legislative Update

We have two important updates for you:

Tennessee HB 1428 (Niceley)

Upon hearing Tuesday, May 4th, by the House Finance Committee,  the bill was sent to a summer study committee by unanimous vote.  HB 1428's companion bill has been withdrawn from consideration in the Senate.

Missouri HB 1747 (Viebrock)

The language from House Bill 1747 promoting horse slaughter were secretly buried in an unrelated Senate bill (SB 795).  When SB 795 was dissected in committee, the pro-horse slaughter measures were removed.  SB 795 passed the Missouri State House without the provisions that were originally HB 1747.

The success in defeating the behind-the-scenes maneuver in Missouri was in very large part due to the number of calls, faxes and emails the state legislators received from all of you.  You are to be congratulated for your immense effort.  Thank you to all who took part.

The Work to End Horse Slaughter Continues

Along with you, we are working steadily against state level legislation promoting horse slaughter, and of course still lobbying the European Parliament to ban the import of horse meat from Canada, Mexico and Australia.  We are also gathering support from key federal legislators to support a new legislative measure that will make it illegal to kill any American horse for his or her meat.

A contribution from you helping to finance this work would be extremely welcome, especially right now.  Please visit this link to partner with us in ending horse cruelties and abuses, but most particularly horse slaughter, with a donation.

Regards,

Vivian Grant Farrell

President

713 893 7813

vivian@horsefund.org

For more news important to you, the horse advocate, please visit Tuesday's Horse.  Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.  Visit our website at http://www.horsefund.org.

Protecting Horses through Intervention, Education and Legislation

WildHorse News:.

http://www.thedesertinde.com/Wild-Horse-Lawsuit-Update--0506.html 

Wild Horse Lawsuit Update

Plaintiffs Seek Return of 1,900 Captured Horses to Range

By ROBERT WINKLER
The Desert Independent

May 6, 2010

Washington, D.C. - Final oral arguments were presented May 6th in Federal court in the lawsuit over the Calico wild horse captures in Nevada. The Calico lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), has already resulted in a preliminarily determination that the government's practice of sending wild horses to long-term holding facilities in the Midwest is illegal.

"To date, 87 horses have died during or as a result of the roundup, some under extremely cruel circumstances," said William J. Spriggs, lead counsel on the pending wild horse lawsuit against DOI and BLM. "Those deaths, and the suffering of the survivors, need never have occurred if the BLM had followed Judge Friedman's suggestion to postpone this roundup."

"A viable plan, unrelated to our lawsuit, to place the surviving horses within Calico while making range improvements to increase the Appropriate Management Levels in the Calico Complex has recently been submitted to the Secretary of Interior," concluded Spriggs. "We strongly believe that this option represents the best way to redress the BLM's violations of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act uncovered in this case."

The Calico Mountain Complex roundup of 1,922 wild horses is one of the largest roundups in recent years. The BLM removed at least 80-90 percent of the Calico wild horse population, leaving behind an "estimated" 600 horses on the 550,000 acre (or 859 square mile) Complex in northwest Nevada. The roundup ended on February 4, 2010 - 500 horses short of its target for removal. The roundup proceeded despite a ruling by Judge Friedman questioning the legality of the BLM's long-term holding facilities and suggesting that the BLM postpone the Calico roundup.

Wild horses comprise a small fraction of grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by livestock nearly 50 to 1. The BLM has recently increased cattle grazing allotments in areas where wild horses are being removed. Currently the BLM manages more than 256 million acres of public lands of which cattle grazing is allowed on 160 million acres; wild horses are only allowed on 26.6 million acres this land, which must be shared with cattle. The Obama Administration plans to remove nearly 12,000 wild horses and burros from public lands by October 2010. There are currently more than 36,000 wild horses warehoused in government holding facilities and only 33,000 wild horses free on the range.

Plaintiffs include international animal protection organization In Defense of Animals, renowned ecologist Craig Downer and popular children's author Terri Farley. A final ruling in the case is expected in late May. The lawsuit is being filed pro bono by the international law firm Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney.

Stop Removal Of All Wild Horses From Winter Range Herd Area, Utah

Please submit comments by Monday. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Utah wants to remove all wild horses from the Winter Range Herd Area, which was specifically designated as wild horse habitat in 1971 after passage of the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act. By eliminating all wild horses from this area, the BLM is continuing a “zeroing out” process that has removed nearly 20 million acres of wild horse and burro habitat over four decades.

We will send copies of your letters to the White House to tell President Obama you oppose the BLM's business-as-usual policies. Please click here to oppose the BLM's latest "zeroing out" proposal.

Urgent legal update: Today, our generous pro bono legal team from Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney is in federal court arguing that the BLM’s practice of stockpiling wild horses in long-term holding is illegal and that the 2,000 horses recently captured from the Calico Mountains in Nevada should be returned. The judge is expected to decide soon – we will keep you informed.

Stop BLM Helicopter Roundup Of 100 Wild Burros In Arizona

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wants to remove 100 wild burros from their homes in the Cibola-Trigo Herd Management Area (HMA) in southwestern Arizona. They intend to chase burros with helicopters at speeds up to 10 miles per hour, for up to four miles, in temperatures that could reach 105 degrees.

The BLM claims the more than one million acres in Arizona can only support 165 burros (and 100 horses) and a host of cattle. Once again BLM gives preference to cattle in this burro and wild horse Herd Management Area. Please click here to take action to stop this unnecessary roundup.

http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/news_room/2010/april/09rsfo-gathers.html 

BLM Requests Public Input on Plans to Gather Excess Wild Horses 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Rock Springs Field Office is requesting public input on a proposal to gather excess wild horses from the White Mountain and Little Colorado Herd Management Areas (HMA). Gathering would start on or about Oct. 1, 2010 or after the next foaling season, July 1, 2011.

Recent population surveys revealed that approximately 301 wild horses were residing within the White Mountain HMA and 142 wild horses in the Little Colorado HMA. Census data for these HMAs was collected in May 2009, and wild horse populations are exceeding the appropriate management level (AML) established for each HMA. The AML range for the White Mountain HMA is 205-300 and the AML range for the Little Colorado HMA is 69-100 wild horses.

The BLM manages wild horses and burros on public rangelands in a manner consistent with its overall multiple-use mission, taking into account all natural resources and users of the public lands. As mandated by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, the BLM protects, manages and controls wild horses and burros to ensure that healthy herds thrive on healthy rangelands. Through land-use planning efforts that involve public participation, the BLM determines the appropriate number of wild horses that each HMA can support.

Breeding age mares selected for release back to the range may be treated with the Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) vaccine. It is hoped that PZP, if used will slow the growth rate of the herds in these HMAs and reduce gather frequency in the future.

Comments must be received by May 7, 2010. Comments may be mailed or hand delivered to the Rock Springs Field Office at 280 Hwy 191 North, Rock Springs, WY 82901. Emailed comments must be addressed to: WhiteMountain_LittleColorado_HMA_WY@blm.gov. Electronic comments will only be accepted from the above address. Please include "White Mountain and Little Colorado HMAs Scoping Comments" in the subject line.

The scoping notice, map and all other future documents corresponding with this action will be posted at: http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/NEPA/rsfodocs/whitemtn_littlecolo.html.

For more information, please contact Wild Horse Specialist Jay D'Ewart at 307-352-0331.

 Tuscarora Wild Horse Gather Preliminary Environmental Assessment Available for Public Comment 

Elko, Nev. - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Elko District, Tuscarora Field Office is proposing to remove about 1,000 excess wild horses in the Owyhee, Rock Creek and Little Humboldt herd management areas (HMAs) to bring the number of wild horses in the three allotments to the appropriate management level of about 440 animals. The herd management areas are in Elko County, about 90 miles northwest of Elko, Nev. The gather is expected to begin in July. 

The proposal and associated impacts are described and analyzed in the Owyhee, Rock Creek and Little Humboldt Herd Management Areas Gather Plan and Environmental Assessment (EA). The BLM would appreciate receiving substantive comments on the EA by May 21, 2010. Comments received during the public review period will be analyzed and considered as part of the decision-making process. 

The proposed gather is needed to achieve and maintain the established appropriate management levels (AMLs); remove any wild horses permanently residing outside areas designated for management; and reduce potential impacts to Lahontan cutthroat trout habitat within the Little Humboldt HMA. The proposed gather also would prevent further range deterioration resulting from the current overpopulation of wild horses within the areas.

The BLM proposal is to gather about 1,400 animals and remove about 1,000 excess animals. Of the remaining 400 gathered animals the BLM would conduct fertility control measures on mares and/or adjust the sex ratios of the gathered animals to be returned to the HMAs to 60 percent male/40 percent female ratios. 

On the Owyhee HMA, the BLM would remove excess wild horses to the lower limit of AML, which is about 140 animals, apply fertility control to the mares to be released and/or adjust to a 60 percent male/40 percent female ratio for the horses to be released back to the HMA. Of the wild horses gathered within the Rock Creek and Little Humboldt HMAs, weanlings to four-year-old mares would be removed, fertility control would be applied to mares to be released, and any wild horses residing outside the HMA boundaries would be removed.

The EA may be reviewed online at: www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/elko_field_office.html.

Questions and written comments should be mailed to Dave Overcast, Tuscarora Field Manager, Tuscarora Field Office, BLM Elko District Office, 3900 Idaho Street, Elko, NV 89801, or submitted by e-mail to Tuscarora_horse_gathers@blm.gov.

Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment - including your personal identifying information - may be made publicly available.

2 Nevada men accused of killing wild mustangs

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press Writer

Posted: 04/27/2010 02:51:10 PM PDT

Updated: 04/27/2010 02:51:11 PM PDT

RENO, Nev.—Wild horse protection activists showed up at the federal courthouse in Reno to show their support for the Justice Department's prosecution of two men accused of shooting and killing five mustangs in Nevada last year.

The two men from Lovelock are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court late Tuesday on a federal charge with a penalty of up to a year in prison and $100,000 fine.

44-year-old Todd Davis and 36-year-old Joshua Keathley are accused of harassing and killing the free-roaming horses. Prosecutors say they shot them in November on U.S. rangeland near the California line about 150 miles northwest of Reno.

Makendra Silverman of the Colorado-based Cloud Foundation says several members of horse protection groups wanted to be there in person in support of the charges brought by the U.S. attorney.

From the desk of American Herds:

AMERICAN HERDS
Devoted To The Preservation of Wild Horses & Burros
America's Heritage Species
New Post - "Calico: Past, Present & Future - II" 
When BLM released the first environmental assessment (EA) to remove wild horses from the Calico Complex in late October 2009, they didn't even bother to address - much less try to explain - how the wild horse population shot up 500%, increasing from 575 estimated horses still remaining after the early 2005 round up (and all released mares treated with fertility control drugs) to a whopping 3,000+ in just five years.
To read more of this post, Click Here. http://americanherds.blogspot.com/

Please take a moment to answer this one question poll on our wild ones

http://www.mynews4.com/poll.php?id=15454

Also on LasVegasNow.com

Nevada's Wild Horses and Burros

LAS VEGAS -- The Calico Hills wild horse roundup has been characterized by the Bureau of Land Management as a huge success. But wild horse advocates say it was a disaster, and one that grows worse every day.

The roundup ended months ago, but the horses are still paying the price -- many with their lives -- according to animal activists.

The case for the Calico wild horse roundup continues to deteriorate months after the government spent nearly $2 million to capture every mustang it could find in the rugged and remote terrain adjacent to Nevada's Black Rock Desert. 

From the beginning, the BLM claimed the gather was for the good of the horses and the good of the range, but it doesn't appear either of those justifications were on the up and up. 

First, there weren't nearly as many mustangs on the range as BLM predicted. The roundup of about 1,900 mustangs fell short of the target by about 700. Second, the vast majority of the horses gathered were in good shape -- not starving or emaciated. 

BLM manager Gene Seidlitz said his agency was trying to avert a disaster down the road when food might be more scarce. As it turned out, the roundup itself was a disaster for the herds.

Horse advocates tried to stop the operation by arguing in court that chasing horses across miles of rocky terrain in the dead of winter was dangerous. BLM replied that it was safer than normal since snow on the rocks would cushion the damage to hoofs.

As of April 15, 2010, a total of 79 of the horses captured from Calico have died -- some as a result of injuries suffered during the capture, such as a foal which literally ran its hoofs off. The rest because they could not adjust to eating the rich hay fed to them at a new holding facility in Fallon. In addition, at least 40 mares suffered miscarriages during or after the roundup. 

The total number of horses that have died is more than four times what BLM projected, ranking as one of the deadliest operations in the history of the program.

"That's unfortunate, but the percentage that died due to the gather itself is still a low percentage," said Seidlitz.

Wild horse advocates don't see it that way. They are outraged over the deaths, even more so now that an outbreak of a disease known as pigeon fever has been noticed among the horses penned up in Fallon.

Another recent development puts the Calico roundup in a different light. Horse advocates were suspicious of the reasons for the roundup, as if 2,000 horses could not live on half a million acres. The suspicions were heightened when BLM memos showed the horses were not having a major impact on the range just a year before the gather was approved, which is when BLM quadrupled the amount of cattle grazing allowed on the same range. 

A massive pipeline project, the Ruby Pipeline slated for the same range, was suspected as a possible reason for the roundup. On its website, BLM states categorically that the pipeline has nothing to do with the horses. Now horse advocates have obtained documents from February 2009 which show pipeline backers intended to work with BLM to "minimize wild horses and burros along the pipeline right of way," adding that BLM horse experts were consulted about this plan.

Two weeks ago, a Washington D.C. law firm filed a suit in federal court on behalf of the group In Defense of Animal, asking that the remaining 1,800 horses being held in Fallon be returned to the open range on the grounds that warehousing the mustangs for the rest of their lives is not only costly, but illegal. We will keep you updated as that suit works its way through the courts.

Dear Friends of Horses,

New blog post:  Humaneobserver.blogspot.com

I am on my way to see Calico captives this Sunday, 4/11.  Finally finished new blog post, Craig Downer's moving report of one of his visits to Calico in the aftermath of the roundup, plus a few other issues.

I am bracing myself; hope I don't get too much backlash, but I kind of let it rip a bit, calling BLM on the carpet (where is that expression from?  Somebody?) for its callousness and deceitful ways.  I don't like to be adversarial, but sometimes a person has to call things what they are...

Trying to keep you all updated.  A lot is happening.  Everyone, keep telling friends and family about our beautiful wild horses.   Please spread the word about the blog.  

And if there are suggestions you have for me, things I can equip you better about, thinks you might want to see, if I'm too wordy (always)  I welcome your remarks.  

Must pack for Nevada...  Love to all.  Please, if you are a praying type, pray for me and other front line advocates for wisdom, courage, compassion, self control for me, whatever I can and must be to be most effective for the horses.

For the horses and their humble burro friends,

Elyse

Comments Needed to BLM:

How should the U.S. Bureau of Land Management remove the footprints of civilization from the 24,100-acre Soda Mountain Wilderness Area?

Gathering answers to that question is the goal of the BLM's 45-day public comment period that begins today, as the agency develops a plan to manage the wilderness created a year ago within the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

The Bureau of Land Management will hold two public meetings on creating a management plan for the Soda Mountain Wilderness on May 13 in Ashland.

The first will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., followed by another two-hour session beginning at 5:30 p.m. Both meetings will be held at the Bellview Grange, 1050 Tolman Creek Road, Ashland.

"We're asking the public for any kind of concerns they may have," said Howard Hunter, assistant manager of the 53,827-acre Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, which includes the wilderness.

"But the focus will be on less intrusion, less noise and less impact, on enhancing the wilderness values," he added. "The wilderness will have a higher order of protection (than the rest of the monument)."

The footprints that could be removed include old roads as well as cattle-loading chutes now inside the wilderness, he said. The goal is to have a wilderness management plan in place in about a year, he added.

As a wilderness, the area will remain open to a variety of recreational activities, including backpacking, horseback riding, hunting, fishing and camping, Mechanized travel, including the use of bicycles, is prohibited in wilderness.

Under the original 1964 Wilderness Act, wilderness designation requires an area must be preserved and protected in its natural condition, he noted.

"Wilderness is a place where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain," it stated.

BLM officials are quick to observe that private holdings surrounded by the public wilderness land are not part of the designation. As indicated in the Omnibus Public Lands Act of 2009 that created the wilderness, owner access to those private parcels must be retained, Hunter said.

The wilderness was designated by Congress on March 30, 2009. In the legislation creating the wilderness, BLM is required to have a wilderness plan in place within two years of the area's designation.

At the heart of the wilderness is 5,720-foot-high Boccard Point, where the Great Basin meets three mountain ranges: the Klamath Range from the south, the Siskiyou Range from the west and the Cascades from the north.

Created 10 years ago this coming June, the monument was established to protect what scientists say is an unusually rich biological diversity in the region.

"The designation of Soda Mountain Wilderness within the Cascade-Siskiyou National monument is going to change how some of these areas have been traditionally used," said Tim Reuwsaat, the BLM's Medford District manager.

The BLM has been working with the Oregon Department of Forestry, the agency that provides wildfire protection for the district, to write a fire protection plan for the wilderness.

Dave Willis, chair of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, which fought for roughly a quarter of a century for the wilderness' creation, said he intends to comment on the plan.

"Helping a Soda Mountain Wilderness management plan live up to the Wilderness Act is a much more pleasant chore than fighting BLM old-growth timber sales," Willis said. "The BLM is still in charge, but their usual predilection for over-management and mechanization is now legally constrained by the Wilderness Act."

The comment period ends May 24.

More information concerning the public comment process, including how to provide input, can be found at the BLM's Medford district Web site: http://tinyurl.com/ylzjcmq.

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 541-776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.

Plaintiff in BLM Lawsuit Offers Update

Lawsuit Filed to Return Mustangs to Range

SAN RAFAEL, CA (IDA) - In Defense of ANimals's lawsuit to stop the roundup of wild horses in the Calico Mountain Complex in northwest Nevada proceeds. Last week, our generous pro bono legal team at Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney in Washington DC filed the final brief in the case. We continue to highlight the illegality of the government's practice of removing wild horses from the wild only to stockpile them in government holding facilities in the midwest. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for April 30 in Washington DC, and the court is expected to issue a ruling by the end of May.

The roundup of the Calico horses exemplifies what is wrong and illegal with the government's management of wild horses.

The tragedy of the Calico horses began with the helicopter stampeding of horses into traps and the separation of family members. It continues today at the holding facility which confines these wild horses in unnatural, zoo-like conditions. Of the reported 1,922 Calico horses rounded up, from December 28, 2009 to Feb 4, 2010, at least 83 have died from roundup-related problems. More than 40 heavily-pregnant mares have spontaneously aborted, and an uncounted number of foals born at the facility have died. (The BLM does not report foals born at the facility who have died.) The government officials claim this is the typical cost of a roundup and they make our point for us - it is too high a cost. It is an unnecessary cost. It is wrong and it must be stopped.

The Calico horses are kept at a newly-built, feedlot-like facility in Fallon, Nevada - approximately 200 to 300 miles from their home range. They are forced to stand and lie in their own waste. The horses are stressed from the confinement, being kept with unfamiliar horses, separated from their family members and the boredom.

Stress tends to weaken immune systems, which can increase susceptibility to health problems that could otherwise (under healthy, stress-free conditions) be warded off. The government recently revealed that a highly-contagious bacterial disease called "pigeon fever" is present at the holding facility. This bacteria, which lives and multiplies in dry soil and manure, is spread by flies and creates large, open intramuscular abscesses on the horse (the abscesses can also be internal). The government states between 50-100 horses are currently infected. This is just the latest misery to befall these innocent victims. We will continue to monitor this situation and let you know how you can help.

The first Freedom Fund foal has arrived

Posted by: "Jenny Estripeaut" jestri01@yahoo.com   jestri01

Thu Apr 8, 2010 5:28 am (PDT)
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=b16d80346618d3ce64e8e9877&id=4684e66fc3&e=631ef37760

Comment due by 4/5 -Second Gov Agency Targets Wild Horses, Tell Forest Service “Give Wild Horses Their Fair

TAKE ACTION HERE

This is an In Defense of Animals Take Action Letter: Forest Service Caters To Cattle Ranchers, Proposes Establishing Dangerously Low Number of Wild Horses

The Forest Service has presented a horrible proposal. It establishes dangerously low numbers for wild horses and burros AND short-cuts the public comment period. RIGHT NOW until April 5 is that brief comment period to speak up in opposition to this horrible proposal.

Submit the form at the bottom of this page to tell the Forest Service that wild horses and burros deserve their fair share of our public lands.

At the heart of the broken wild horse and burro program is the government’s systematic approach to establishing artificially low numbers for wild horses and burros allowed on public lands. Repeatedly, the government allows cattle grazing in horse territories, gives the lion’s share of range resources (i.e. forage, water, etc) to cattle, and routinely scapegoats wild horses and burros for any real or imaginary range problems.

The Forest Service is proposing that only 236 to 437 horses and burros be allowed to live in 11 wild horse and burro territories encompassing more than 730,000 acres in central Nevada. If this proposal is finalized, all horses and burros outside of that count will be subjected to roundup and removal – thus continuing the ill-conceived and unfair wild horse and burro “management” program.

Earlier this month the Forest Service proposed continuing and even introducing cattle grazing in these same wild horse and burro territories. Today, we ask for your help to convince the Forest Service that it must change course and reform its broken system of establishing artificially low wild horse and burro numbers, starting with the current proposal.

Please submit the form below to tell the Forest Service that you oppose their proposal. Public comments must be submitted by April 5, 2010. TAKE ACTION HERE

(Note from Brandi:  This is from Australia.)

Please sign this and help save our wild horses...
The government are planning to cull numbers, shooting them from the sky, in most cases not killing them instantly, leaving them to suffer...
This needs to stop... Please take a few minutes to sign the petition..
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/28/Stop-the-slaughter-now
Kindest Regards
Amanda Vella

Shouts of Wild and Free, Let Them Be From Protestors of Obama Administration Policy

CHICAGO, (EWA) – March 25 will be remembered by equine advocates across the United States and the United Kingdom as the day the international cries for the wild horses and burros were raised loud and clear.

Rallies held in Washington, DC, London, England, Las Vegas, NV and Los Angeles, CA culminated with a report on CNN that exposed the propaganda being fed to the public by the Department of Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The video footage of the “starving” horses was released on a prime time report and left no doubt, the rationale given for the round-ups is pure fiction.

Mariana Tosca, Actor and Social Activist, was among the advocates attending the Los Angeles rally. Ms. Tosca delivered an impassioned speech that moved the crowd to tears. Ms. Tosca commented, "It is an honor to stand united with the citizens of our global community to bring attention to this urgent matter, which being left virtually unchecked is eroding the landscape of our national heritage."

The London rally took place outside the US Embassy. In attendance were Maria Daines, Singer/Songwriter and Melita Morgan, International Actress. Melita Morgan commented on the rally, “After working hard on our Mustang Mission, I hope we are very rewarded by all of our combined efforts, that have made such a difference. All these efforts long term will open eyes, tune ears and turn heads as to the plight of these very precious horses. Just being at Grosvener Square on that day, in front of The American Embassy in the grounds amongst the statues and words of great U.S Presidents of the past, gave me such food for thought. It brought to mind the words of Dwight David Eisenhower’s first Inaugural Address on January 20, 1953 – ‘The faith we hold belongs not to us alone, but to the free of all the world.’"

Maria Daines added, “There is danger in removing the beauty of living nature from its natural surroundings. For when the last horse is rounded-up, then shall we look back and regret that we could not live and let live, not even for the sake of the generations that will come after us, who will never know what it is we lost and how careless we were to lose it.”

Despite high winds, the Las Vegas rally was a huge success. Advocate Arlene Gawne commented that 500 petition cards were signed along with great coverage from KLAS-TV8. A smaller group of advocates continued the rally on Saturday at the opening of the Clark County Shooting Center and received honks of approval from event attendees. Senator Harry Reid commented that he supported Madeleine Pickens in her efforts for a western home for the captured horses and it was terrible how the horses were being penned.

The Washington DC protest moved from Lafayette Park to the steps of the DOI building. As the rally was winding down, the mounted police arrived. One can’t help but wonder if they were sent for crowd control or came to stand in silent protest with equine advocates. Proudly standing amongst the crowd were the living examples of why advocates are calling for an end to the slaughter of domestic and wild horses. Our horses are not food animals and deserve a humane end to their lives after racing, serving, performing, working or inspiring us as we provide for all non-food animals in our country.

The majestic horses under their mounts spoke volumes of the important role horses play in our society and throughout the history of mankind.

A note from Maria Daines:

Dear all,

I was astonished this morning and very humbled to see that a young man called Drew, who has overcome so many health problems since being run over when he was a child, had been inspired by my speech for the wild horses and had recorded his own speech to add his voice to the campaign to save the beloved herds. Please take a moment to view Drew's message and if you have time, to thank him. Drew subscribed to our channel about 2 years ago and he cares very much for our voiceless friends, it has indeed inspired me to know that Drew watches our new videos and keeps in touch with what's happening in the world and does what he can to make a difference, despite his physical difficulties. I wish other people could see this and know that we all have a voice and we can express it in our own special ways. Bravo to this amazing and very brave young man.

Drew's speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIMKgGBs68w

Drew's channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/Care2Drew

Love from Maria xxxxx

Wild Horse News: 

 From the desk   of Elyce Gardner: 

Dear Friends of Horses,,

We are returning from Washington D.C., and my blog, Humaneobserver.blogspot.com,  is updated.  I believe it will prove to have been a fruitful trip.  For me personally, the relief and refreshment I feel in connecting with these stellar people with whom I bonded so much during Cloud's roundup was alone worth the trip. 

Forgive me if I don't sound all upbeat about it;  until we get a true moratorium on these hideous roundups and an assurance that Secretary Salazar's plan has been shot down, and an acceptance of a true Reserve Design plan, I will not be satisfied or even partly finished.  However, one step at a time is all we can take, and I am satisfied that we suited up and showed up bigtime, and that was and is terrific.

My in-depth article and photos on the processing at Fallon is up on StableWomanGazette.com.  She did a beautiful job posting it.   I will be putting more photos and some video out there soon.  Again, if I sound surprisingly downtrodden, here is why: 

Serious News:

The Calico horses forced to live in the pens at Fallon now have Pigeon Fever.  Pigeon fever is a highly contagious disease where large abscesses form, usually on the chest which puffs up pigeonlike, and need to be lanced or break on their own, a real pus mess.  Abscesses can and do form also under the jaw, on sheaths, and in mammary areas.  Ugh.  It is usually not fatal.  There is no inoculation for this, and antibiotic treatment, if given at all, is not suggested until after abscesses break.  It is suggested that boots and tools be kept clean, horses be quarantined, topsoil where pus has spilled be removed... you see how unlikely it is that BLM will be able to effect the prophylactic measures suggested to avoid an epidemic outbreak.

Reminds me of a horrible case of chickenpox multiplied 100-fold.   Sigh.

R O U N D U P S    S T I N K.    

I just learned that BLM is skipping the visitation of the horses next Sunday due to Easter, which I honor, but I will be pressing, requesting that BLM provide another day for us to see the horses.  It's bad enough BLM only allows public access once a week (on a Sunday afternoon, no less), but to skip the entire week is not okay, especially in view of their current Pigeon Fever outbreak.

Below are links to articles in the S.F. Examiner.  I appreciate Maureen Harmonay's passion and diligence in following the plight of the wild horses.

http://www.examiner.com/x-37163-Equine-Advocacy-Examiner~y2010m3d25-Elyse-Gardner-gets-up-close-and-personal-with-captive-Calico-wild-horses

http://www.examiner.com/x-37163-Equine-Advocacy-Examiner~y2010m3d28-Marching-in-memory-of-La-Belle-the-first-Calico-mare-shot-by-the-BLM

ACTION ALERTS will be forthcoming soon because more roundups are planned.  Please respond to these:  let's do our small parts so together we make a big noise:  please let's avoid another Fallon.  

For the wild horses and their humble burro friends, 

Elyse Gardner

From: Vicki Tobin

Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 11:49 PM

To: Vicki Tobin

Subject: London Protest

Wow! Attached are a photos from the London Rally. Here is a video of guitarist, Paul Killington speaking up for our wild ones at the protest. Please take a moment to view this. It is very powerful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J9m_qkB_14

Our heartfelt thanks to Mary Alice Pollard (Cornwalls Voice for Animals), Maria Daines (singer & songwriter), Melita Morgan (international actress) and Jane Bravery (chief coordinator!) for their awesome work in bringing together such a successful rally on such short notice. BTW-Maria, love the hat!

Below is a report from Melita.

After working hard on our Mustang Mission, I hope we are all very rewarded by all of our combined efforts, that have made such a difference, all these efforts long term will open eyes, tune ears, turn heads as to the plight of these very precious horses.

Working on the peaceful protest on 25th of March 2010 was not only very rewarding but very mind opening and inspiring to me.

Just being at Grosvener Square on that day, in front of The American Embassy in the grounds amongst the statues and words of great U.S Presidents of the past, gave me such food for thought. My Husband David, drew my attention to the words of the great Dwight David Eisenhower ...  First Inaugural Address January 20th 1953 he said "The faith we hold belongs not to us alone, but to the free of all the world"

These words on a day like the 25th when we joined hands across the world and stood united in our mission for the mustangs to draw attention to the world of their peril, struck such a deep chord with me.

Many of the thoughts of the British people who took a concerned interest on that day were also very inspiring , I was touched by just how much these wild horses mean to many of us Brits, from a wide range of comments as humorous as "the wild west without wild horses would be like the wild west without the lone ranger!", right through to touching comments like  "America without its wild mustangs is like having Africa without its Lion".

I clearly saw as the day progressed Britain's do care, I was questioned myself by a dear passer by, who said why do you care so much about horses as far away as America, and I could only say the first thing that come to mind, and that was that "I care about horses, animals and people where ever they are in the world and I feel it’s very distressing that 'anything' or anyone alive can have their freedom and life ripped apart in such a cruel way as in the way these wild horses lives are being torn and uprooted from their born free natures and the way they have lived for centuries"

As a horsewomen myself, I have spent nearly 40 years with horses, and understand their spirituality very well, they are strong and willful to fight for their rights, freedom and family, along with being loyal, and hardworking for man.

In my journey to learn more about horses as I grew up, I was fascinated by all the worlds horses, such as the Arab of the Middle East, to the mountain and moorlands of Great Britain, to the Mustangs of America, they all inspired me and filled me with wonder, I so hope they will all be there for the wonder of people for centuries to come.

Man took them for his own means and used them for sport, companionship, a brave and fearless war ally, and his recreation, through the centuries the horse has been one of mans most loyal servants, for that the wild horses that live free, I believe should remain free, and not to be used and abused for the greed of man. I hope the world will continue in its 'unity' to peacefully protest at the plight and peril of one of nature’s wild wonders ...the great American wild mustangs.

Melita Morgan (26th March 2010)

P.S Some Photos coming through from my end after a very successful day!!!!

Very Rewarding day!!! my report or any words from this report may be used in any way that may be useful for the mission of these wonderful horses.

Vicki | A Voice for Our Horses

Big Story

From the White House Protest Rally

By Steven Long

Photos by Terry Fitch

WASHINGTON - Protesters gathered in front of the White House as President Obama spoke in support of health care at a packed house at the University of Iowa today.

The protesters were met with armed guards when they reached the U.S. Department of Interior. One protester reported back to supporters of the tnd of federal Bureau of Land Management roundups.

"We congregated at Layfayette Park and there uuwas a podium with microphone and speakers," said a wp,am wjp declined to be identified. "Ginger Kathrens, RT Fitch, Nancy Perry from the Humane Society of the United States, John Holland if the Equine Welfare Alliance, Elyse Gardner, James the film producer, Rob, a BLM volunteer who is very much on our side, and Craig Downer, spoke to the crowd.

"There were about 100 people at the rally," she reported. "After the speeches, we walked to the Department of Interior with our signs and we chanted slogans like 'tell the truth' wild and free let them be, no Salazoos."

But the peaceful protesters were met with force when they reached the office of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

"We were met by several armed police officers standing at the top of the steps with their guns in their holsters. More police on foot came to the DOI, a policeman on a motorcycle and then 4 mounted police officers stood in a line across the street where there is a park. I couldn't believe that they felt so threatened."

Anger and frustration wereat American horse lovers being treate like foreign terrorists were voiced by those who marched.

"It was pretty amazing and shocking that Salazar and company called out essentially the National Guard," a protester told Horseback Online. "All they needed were RPGs and Armed Personnel Carriers to complete the military style posse."

A Washington area protester was nostalgic about the DC of old and tje Department of Interior structure..

"This imposing building hides all of the secrets, deception and the selling out of our public land to special mining interest. The figures were standing by the large windows on the upper floors looking down on us and we crossed the street to the park so we could stand in front of the horses of the mounted police. Their silence was deafening despite gestures to start a conversation with them."

Senator Landrieu Speaks Out for Wildhorses:

Sen. Mary Landrieu Gets Tough With BLM as DC and Global Protests Fan Fire of Disgust in Wake of Helicopter Assisted Horse Deaths

WASHINGTON. (Laudrieu) – U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., today joined the call for a better federal plan for the treatment of wild horses and an end to the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) unnecessary wild horse roundups.

The international March for Mustangs, a public protest against the inhumane treatment of wild horses, took place today in four cities across the globe: London, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Led by celebrity activist, Wendie Malick, in Washington, D.C., the protest comes in reaction to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s attempts to persuade Congress to provide more than $42 million to move animals from the West to the East.

“I have repeatedly called for an end to these inhumane roundups until a more sufficient plan is set in place by the BLM,”said Sen. Landrieu. “There is a civilized way that we can handle these horses, by providing for their adoption or their relocation to a sanctuary. But the cruel and horrific roundups, such as the recent Calico roundup that resulted in painful injury and even death for some horses, cannot continue.”

Last year, Sen. Landrieu fought to protect wild horses by championing language in the Interior Appropriations Bill to prohibit the BLM from using taxpayer dollars for the destruction of healthy, unadopted horses and burros. At Sen. Landrieu's urging, the Senate directed BLM to develop a new comprehensive long-term plan for wild horse populations by September 30, 2010.

Sen. Landrieu also supported language that encouraged all federal agencies that use horses to acquire a wild horse from the BLM prior to seeking another supplier. In addition, Sen. Landrieu supports the BLM developing an expedited process for providing wild horses to local and state police forces.

As a result of the recent 40-day BLM Calico Roundup, at least 79 mustangs have died and nearly 40 females have aborted their late term foals in the Fallon, Nevada holding pens—where the death toll rises daily as a result of the winter roundup.

Currently, the wild horse and burro population in the United States is about 69,000, and there are 32,000 horses in short-term and long-term BLM holding facilities.

Click here to view this message in your web browser.

Help Stop Another Proposed Wild Horse Roundup

Submit Comments By April 2!

Government proposes removal of more than 1,000 horses in Wyoming,
claiming 1.7 million acres can only support 1,165 horses

Please send the e-mail at this page by April 2 to submit comments to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM is continuing its business-as-usual roundup of wild horses. The latest proposal is to remove more than half of the 1,950 wild horses on 1.7 million acres of Herd Management Areas in southcental Wyoming.

This is the beginning of the BLM’s process to remove wild horses in the Adobe Town and Salt Wells Herd Management Areas in Wyoming. It’s important that we submit our comments now to oppose this newest proposed assault on wild horses.

The BLM claims that the Adobe Town Herd Management Area encompassing more than 472,000 acres can only have 610 to 800 wild horses and the Salt Wells Herd Management Area comprised of nearly 1.2 million acres can only sustain 251 to 365 wild horses. 

Please submit your comments today with the form at this page. Protest against another massive Obama Administration wild horse roundup. Public comments must be submitted by April 2, 2010.

In Defense of Animals, located in San Rafael, Calif., is an international animal protection organization with more than 85,000 members and supporters dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by protecting their rights and welfare. IDA's efforts include educational events, cruelty investigations, boycotts, grassroots activism, and hands-on rescue through our sanctuaries in Mississippi, Mumbai, India, and Cameroon, Africa.

In Defense of Animals is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. We welcome your feedback and appreciate your donations. Please join today! All donations to IDA are tax-deductible.

In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner, San Rafael, CA 94901
Tel. (415) 448-0048 Fax (415) 454-1031
idainfo@idausa.org

Unlicensed Vet Working Nevada Gather Where 113 Horses Have Died or Have Been Miscarried

By Steven Long

Photo by Laura Leigh

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A government veterinarian working for the Bureau of Land Management in its Nevada office has treated horses there without a state license.

At least 113 captured horses have either died or been miscarried after a grueling chase by helicopter over rocky mountain land in the dead of winter.

Horseback Magazine confirmed late Monday in a check with the Nevada Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners that there is no record of a veterinary license for Dr. Albert Kane. Last month the magazine sought the vitae of the veterinarian but the BLM refused to supply it.

Kane is a Veterinary Medical Officer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Health Policy and Programs staff. In this position he serves as a staff veterinarian and advisor for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program, according to spokeswoman JoLynn Worley.

“Dr. Kane doesn’t have a current bio or CV available at this time and has declined to prepare one specifically at your request,” Worley said at the time.

After the refusal to respond to the magazine’s request for Kane’s credentials, a request for that information under the Freedom of Information Act was filed. Thus far there has been no BLM compliance on the FOIA.

The 113 dead horses came from BLM’s Calico Wild Horse Management Area in Northern Nevada. The “gather” was a tightly controlled operation in which press and public was held in a viewing area far from the actual roundup and helicopter driven stampede.

Horses captured in the operation are now held in the BLM’s Fallon processing facility.

Horseback Magazine has now asked the BLM if Kane is licensed elsewhere other than in Nevada.

The Fallon facility is under tight control with press and public barred from observing horse processing in other than rare and brief media days and observation opportunities.

Opponents of the gathers have charged that the government agency is rendering America’s wild horse herds genetically bankrupt on its 260 million acres of mostly vacant land.

Last year, in a 68 page document titled “Alternative Management Options” the BLM discussed killing thousands of wild horses. It also addressed the issue of neutering horses in enormous numbers.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former rancher, has proposed that thousands of horses be sent to seven holding areas in the Midwest and East as tourist attractions. The proposal has been ridiculed by equine welfare activists as “Salazoos.”

 Fw: EWA Press Release | Outrage Over Wild Horse and Burro Removals C

Posted by: "Horse Helping" horsehelping@gmail.com   eaglewhowatches

Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:34 pm (PDT)
----- Original Message -----
From: Vicki Tobin
To: Vicki Tobin
Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2010 12:53 PM
Subject: EWA Press Release | Outrage Over Wild Horse and Burro Removals Crosses the Pond
March 14, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Vicki Tobin
Equine Welfare Alliance
630.961.9292
vicki@equinewelfarealliance.org
Mary Alice Pollard
Cornwalls Voice for Animals
0044-1 872.580.429
cvfa.uk@virgin.net
Outrage Over Wild Horse and Burro Removals Crosses the Pond
CHICAGO, (EWA) - The outrage over the round-up of America's wild horses and burros has spread internationally. Groups in the United Kingdom will be holding a rally in front of the American Embassy in London on March 25. On the same day, Americans will be holding a rally across from the White House in Lafayette Park that will conclude in front of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) offices.
The London Protest was organized by Jane Bravery, Mary Alice Pollard of Cornwall's Voice for Animals (CVFA), Maria Daines, singer/songwriter and board member of Saving America's Horses and international actress, Melita Morgan. The rally is cosponsored by the Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) and The Cloud Foundation (TCF).
Maria Daines commented, "If we do not stand as one on issues that affect all species whose purpose is to live wild and free, we cannot expect our own species to evolve in a compassionate and considerate way towards each other. Wild horses deserve their time and place, they deserve our protection and we must exist peacefully with these glorious creatures or risk losing them forever."
Mary Alice Pollard adds, "Cornwalls Voice for Animals represents seven thousand supporters worldwide and stands united in ending wild horse round-ups and seeing the wild horses being born free and living wild and free."
The Washington DC rally and press conference is hosted by Friends of Animals and is cosponsored by EWA, TCF, and In Defense of Animals. A screening of James Kleinert's documentary, Disappointment Valley will be held the night prior to the protest. Celebrities, advocates and organization members from across the country are expected to attend the two day event.
"There is a groundswell of support for the preservation of America's Mustangs. The BLM would like the public to believe this is just a minor uprising but this is a major international movement." ~Ginger Kathrens, volunteer executive director, TCF.
The recent deadly round-up at the Calico Complex in Nevada has added to the tremendous support for a moratorium on round-ups. To date, 113 wild horses have lost their lives as a result of the round-up. At least two foals literally had their hooves run off.
"Our wild horses don't have the luxury of time to waste while we grapple with bad policy. We must not allow special interests to methodically eliminate these horses from public land or our future generations will be robbed of their natural heritage." ~Mariana Tosca, Actor and Social Activist/Animal Activist
CVFA, EWA and TCF urge the public to attend these rallies and ask that President Obama issue an immediate moratorium on round-ups and reject BLM plans to relocate wild horses to the East and Midwest until current range studies and independent population counts are available.
EWA's John Holland notes, "The United Call for a Moratorium originally sent to President Obama and the Department of Interior in November, remains unanswered."
The Equine Welfare Alliance is a dues free, umbrella organization with over 100 member organizations. The organization focuses its efforts on the welfare of all equines and the preservation of wild equids.
www.equinewelfarealliance.org
www.cornwallsvoiceforanimals.org

Charges Filed in Nevada Mustang Shootings

by: Pat Raia
March 12 2010, Article # 15967

Two Nevada men face federal charges in connection with the shooting deaths of five Bureau of Land Management (BLM) mustangs at the Buckhorn Herd Management Area in November.

Agency helicopter pilots discovered the animals' carcasses during a round-up of mustangs in a remote range along the Nevada-California border.

On Wednesday federal authorities charged Todd Davis and Joshua Keathley with maliciously causing the death and harassment of free-roaming horses by shooting them.

If convicted, each faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Read more: BLM Investigates Mustang Deaths

Fight For Wild Horses And Burros Focuses On Congress

Your response to our call to action for wild horses has been inspiring! Over 20,000 messages have been sent to U.S. Senators and Representatives over the past few weeks, all calling for reform of the BLM’s ill-conceived, inhumane and fiscally-irresponsible wild horse and burro program. Members of Congress are now echoing our concerns and calls for change.

Three Congressional hearings over the past week began the review of the Department of Interior's proposed fiscal year 2011 budget, including funding for the Wild Horse and Burro program.

We want to keep the momentum going, so please join us and advocates from across the country at the March for Mustangs - Thursday and Friday, March 25-26, in Washington DC.

Click here for a summary of the Congressional hearings, an update on our federal wild horse lawsuit, and more information about the Washington DC Rally!

Urgent Action Needed! Press for the Horses

Posted by: "Lisa Drahorad" rovergrl@hotmail.com   rovergirl1

Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:01 am (PST)
Permission to crosspost!
Ok guys we have the attention of a Bill O' Reilly staffer that said if we send enough emails requestiing a story on BLM and fleecing of our wild horses and tax dollars they would do a story. We need to email on why it it important to tell America the truth on this issue and what is going on with all our horses being shipped to slaughter.
Please take a minute email the show. oreilly@foxnews.com (oreilly @ foxnews.com)
Thank you.
Lisa Drahorad, Event Coordinator
Another Chance 4 Horses
www.ac4h.com
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."
Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty
"Never, Never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our souls when we look the other way." Martin Luther King Jr.

March for Mustangs Invitation

Please come to Washington DC to attend the “March for Mustangs” on Thurs., March 25th, 2010.
We will gather and hold a press conference in Lafayette Park on the north side of the White House where we will be making a stand for the preservation and protection of America’s Wild Horses and Burros. Then we will all march to the Bureau of Land Management Office as we call for the freedom and protection of all that is wild.
Please RSVP to: The Cloud Foundation, info@thecloudfoundation.org (info @ thecloudfoundation.org), 719-633-3842.
Details

When: Thursday, March 25, 2010, 1:00-3:00pm, Press conference and speakers at 1:30pm (Filmmaker/Advocate Ginger Kathrens, Author RT Fitch and many more - including special guests to be announced)

Where: Lafayette Park (north side of Whitehouse, on H Street between 15th and 17th Streets, NW). At 3:00pm protesters will march with signs to the BLM office at 1849 'C' Street.

Plus Mustangs on the Hill II: On Friday morning, we’ll brief advocates regarding their meetings with their Senators and Representatives in regard to saving our mustangs. Please schedule an appointment with your Senators and Congressperson for Thursday morning or Friday.

Why: The Bureau of Land Management’s cruel and costly mismanagement is destroying a vital piece of the American West. The American public is standing up for our horses and burros - Please join us in a March for Mustangs, rally and protest.

Background: Roundups increased significantly in 2000 in the Bush years and they haven’t let up under the Obama administration.  12,000 wild horses and burros are scheduled for removal from our Western public lands this fiscal year alone. These cruel helicopter roundups come at enormous expense to our wild herds and to the American taxpayer.
Recently the roundup of 1900 mustangs took place in the Calico Mountains of Northwestern Nevada during the dead of winter, ending early in February when BLM realized the herds were far smaller than estimated. To date 60 horses have died due to this roundup and the death toll continues to climb daily. This does not include the 30 plus mares that have aborted their late-term foals in the feedlot-style corrals in Fallon, Nevada, where the horses are being held. Two foals had their hooves literally separate from the bone after the helicopters ran their families for miles over rocky and sharp volcanic ground.
Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversees the BLM, has decided there is no room left for our mustangs on their legally designated lands in the West and has proposed purchasing private land and shipping wild horses (gelded stallions and mares) East to the first of seven "preserves" which many people call SalaZoos. The plan as it stands only adds to the financial train wreck that the Wild Horse and Burro Program has become.
So, rather than spending over $50 million this fiscal year to remove our wild horses and burros from the range plus $42 million to buy land in the East, let’s protect them on their Western lands. The intent of Congress’ 1971 Free-Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act was not to warehouse our mustangs but to allow them to live in freedom in self-sustaining numbers on Western rangelands designated primarily for their survival. Drastic change is needed in the management of wild horses and burros if they are to survive, as wild animals, into the future. Wild horses benefit the land as they evolved in North America and they represent our living history in the West.
Add to the millions spent for round ups is the annual loss of $123 million running a taxpayer subsidized grazing program, often referred to as “welfare ranching”. The fees charged to livestock permittees is currently the lowest allowed by law—$1.35 per cow/calf pair per month. This rate would need to be over $9.00 in order for the program to break even. If cows were removed on legally designed wild horse herd areas and horses allowed to stay, we’d save even more—including our valued mustangs. Holding the 1900 Calico horses alone in a feedlot style facility amounts to a staggering cost of over $10,000 per day!
But change is on the way for our wild horses and burros! Some 25 protests have been mounted from coast-to-coast including Chicago, LA, NYC, Denver, Las Vegas, Reno, and Sacramento since late December. Thousands of people have braved the cold and come out with their families to hold banners and signs demanding that President Obama react to the hideous mistreatment of our spectacular wild horses and respond to the incredible waste of taxpayer dollars on a broken program that only lines the pockets of powerbrokers and cattle barons. Now is the time to say enough is enough. Open the gates and return our wild horses to their rightful ranges.
Please take action for our wild herds. An immediate moratorium on all roundups is needed! This must be followed by hearings and investigations on BLM mismanagement; accurate and independent assessments of just how many wild horses we have left and the real range conditions. Then we need to develop a sustainable plan for our wild herds on our Western public lands and restore their protections set forth in the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Moving our wild horses in non-reproducing, broken families to the East is not the answer.
Join us on Thursday, March 25th, for a Mustangs March on Washington and take action today to save these incredible animals who are currently being managed to extinction.
Take Action:  Call President Obama 202-456-1111, Call your Senators 202-224-3121
Please visit www.thecloudfoundation.org for more information on this event.

Groups Call on Congress to reject Salazoos: 

CHICAGO, (EWA) - The funding testimony for the planned sanctuaries dubbed by wild horse supporters as "Salazoos" outlined last October by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, will be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Energy and Natural resources on March 3, at 10am.

The outcome of the testimony will decide if our wild horses belong on their western public lands or in "zoos" in the East and Midwest and whether the BLM will commit millions upon millions of future dollars to warehouse wild horses and burros that would otherwise live without cost to the taxpayers in their natural habitat where they have lived for centuries.

The requested funding would increase the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) budget by $42M to purchase one of the seven planned "Salazoos." The Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) and its over 100 member organizations, Animal Law Coalition, The Cloud Foundation and numerous Mustang advocate and welfare organizations are vehemently opposed to increased funding for the BLM for this incredible financial sinkhole.

America already has a management program in place for our wild equines. It's called the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act. It was inspired by a heroic Nevada woman, Velma Johnston, who as "Wild Horse Annie" gave these horses a sanctuary BLM has been trying to destroy ever since it was passed.

A management program for wild horses and burros on public land has yet to be proposed by the BLM or DOI that is compatible with current law. Their answer is to remove wild horses from the land, permit grazing by millions of cattle at below market rates and move our horses to a zoo like setting far from their home. In fact, the BLM was given appropriations to care for the wild horses in holding pens but has appeared to use the funding to round-up more horses. When citizens complained, they were denied access as armed guards prevented them from even viewing horses in captivity.

With no viable management plan in place, it is a disgrace and waste of critical tax payer dollars to increase funding to yet another mismanaged program. The 1971 law calls for wild horses and burros to be managed on their public lands - not in holding pens and not in zoos.

The BLM spent approximately $2M gathering a mere 2,000 animals at its Calico wildlife management area, a cost of $1,000 per horse. Once in holding, the animals will each cost the government approximately $500 per year to warehouse. Worse, the government charges ranchers only about 20 cents of every dollar that program costs taxpayers. "The Salazoo plan is yet another raid on the public funds by special interests", says EWA's John Holland.

BLM has spent more than $2 million in 2009 on a firm that stampedes wild horses with a roaring helicopter. At the Calico Nevada round-up, more than 98 have died as a result, including unborn foals and two babies who lost their hooves after a multi-mile run of terror.

The wild horses and burros represent a mere .05% of animals grazing on public lands. When the 1971 law was passed, wild horses were present on 54 million acres. Since then, over 200,000 horses have been removed along with 22 million acres of public land. Many herds have been zeroed out leaving public land available to return wild horses to their land. Congress should replace the lost acres with good grazing land for the animals BLM wants to place in its Salazoos.

The livestock grazing on public lands alone outnumber the wild horses and burros by over 200 to 1 and are subsidized by taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Neither the BLM nor DOI has yet to explain how millions of privately owned livestock are sustainable or how neither agency can find room on the 262 million acres of public land it manages for less than 50,000 wild horses and burros. Neither has explained why the wild horses and burros are being blamed and removed for range degradation when the government GAO studies reflect the livestock are ruining the ranges.

The EWA and ALC call on Congress to deny additional funding and specifically defund wild horse and burro round-ups until the DOI and BLM can provide independent current range population counts, current range assessments and a viable management plan that upholds the 1971 law.

Both Sen. Mary Landrieu and Sen. Barbara Boxer have posed serious questions to the BLM on its management practices. Those questions should be answered immediately with facts, not spin.

Additional details on defunding the BLM for "Salazoos" can be found at Animal Law Coalition, article number 1188.

Fw: Calico Death Toll | 95 (includes 35 miscarriages)

Posted by: "Marge" redmm97@cox.net   redmm97

Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:04 am (PST)
----- Original Message -----
From: Vicki Tobin
To: Vicki Tobin
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 11:31 AM
Subject: Calico Death Toll | 95 (includes 35 miscarriages)
The BLM site is no longer reflecting the totals so you must read the updates. Below are the totals from a spreadsheet I've started to track the totals. I don't think we have an accurate total on miscarriages. When the gather ended on the 5th, the number thrown around was 30. I'm using that as the starting point and have added to that based on the daily updates. It should also be noted that there are several days where miscarriages are not mentioned.
Fallon Facility:  53
Round-up Site:  7
Miscarriages:  35
95
Fallon @ 02.17:  47
23-Feb:  1
22-Feb:  1
21-Feb:  1
20-Feb:  3
Miscarriages @ 02.17:  31
23-Feb:  1
18-Feb:  1
13-Feb:  1
7-Feb:  1
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_programs/wild_horses_and_burros/calico_mountains_complex/gather_activity_updates.html
Vicki | A Voice for Our Horses

FW: [thecloudfoundation.org]: March for Mustangs - DC Protest + Must

Posted by: "rjyager" rjyager@yahoo.com   rjyager

Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:09 am (PST)
Will keep you posted as more details become available.  Contact me off-list if you would like to carpool.
Robin
forwarded message:
Subject: [New post] March for Mustangs- DC Protest + Mustangs on the Hill II
March for Mustangs- DC Protest + Mustangs on the Hill II
thecloudfoundation | February 24, 2010 at 11:45 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pDfE4-zN
A Rally and Lobby Day for Mustangs and Burros
When: Thursday, March 25th
Time: 1:00-3:00pm, Press conference and speakers at 1:30pm (Filmmaker/Advocate Ginger Kathrens, Author RT FItch and many more- including special guests to be announced)
Where: Lafayette Park (northside of Whitehouse, on H Street between 15th and 17th Streets, NW). At 3:00pm protesters will march with sign to the BLM office at 1849 'C' Street.
Plus Mustangs on the Hill II: On Friday morning we'll gather and brief people for meetings with their Represenatives in meetings to save the mustangs. Please schedule an appointment with your Representatives for Thursday morning or Friday. (Morning briefing location TBD)
Why: BLMs cruel and poor mismanagement is destroying a vital piece of the American west. The American public is sanding up for our horses and burros- please join us in a "March for Mustangs", rally and protest and schedule meetings with your Representatives for Thursday morning or Friday. Call 202-224-3121 for the Whitehouse Switchboard.
Ideas for signs will be posted soon and we'll try to set up a carpooling site for those driving to DC. Stay posted and spread the word!
forwarded by:
Robin J. Yager,  Director
Network Partners for Animals*
* We do not sanction any groups' ethics or actions and offer the Network Partners Group as a networking resource tool.
http://www.partnershelpinganimalscoalition-subscribe@yahoogroups.com  (remove spacing)
Spring Farm CARES
3364 Route 12
Clinton, NY 13323
315-790-1404
http://www.springfarmcares.org (no spaces)
Life is as dear to the mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants
happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so
do other creatures. ~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Wildhorse News:

Please Take a Minute to Help Wild Horses -

Reminder: Public Comments Needed by March 5 on Proposed Wild Horse and Burro Roundup in California

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Eagle Lake (California) Field Office is seeking public input by March 5 on the proposed roundup and removal of 1,800 wild horses and 180 burros from the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA), northeast of Susanville, Calif.  The roundup is tentatively planned for August and September 2010.

In keeping with the BLM practice of setting arbitrarily determined and artificially low "appropriate management levels" for horses and burros, the BLM is claiming that this 798,000-acre public land area can only sustain 448-758 horses and 72-116 burros.

The BLM is seeking comments in advance of preparing a Preliminary Environmental Assessment (EA) on its plan to capture and remove the Twin Peaks burros and horses, some of whom are descended from Spanish stock and Cavalry remounts and include both draft and light breeds.

Read the BLM's news release announcing the public comment period here.

Now is the time to speak up for the Twin Peaks horses and keep the momentum going to stop BLM wild horse roundups! In the past two months, after receiving well over 10,000 comments in opposition, the BLM postponed two scheduled wild horse roundups in Utah's Confusion Mountains Complex and eastern Nevada's Eagle Herd Management Area.  The BLM also recently removed several burro captures from its 2010 roundup schedule.

Please personalize, cut and paste the sample email below. Help save the Twin Peaks horses from the tragedy that has befallen Nevada's beautiful Calico Mountain horses, 54 of whom have died so far as a result of the roundup, which ended on February 5, 2010.

Americans are speaking out in increasing numbers for wild horses and burros, and

now is the time to keep up the pressure!

Comments are due by March 5.

A MAJOR PROTEST!!!

The White House and BLM!!!
Washington, DC

Please, mark you calendars!*** Make your reservations!
*** Organize carpools!*** Make appointments while in town!***
Bring your Signs and Banners!

I wonder, can we bring some horses???

This is preliminary info on the DC protest from Jo DeGeorge, who also organized the NYC protest.

Date: Thurs, March 25 From 3p-5p

Location: Lafayette Park (across from the White House) followed by a march to the BLM building.

Keynote speakers: (thus far) are Ginger Kathrens and RT Fitch.

Will pass on more info as it is received

Activists Publish Fact Sheet, Blast BLM

AOWHA TRUTH RALLY
BLM, FACTS OR FICTION?

WHAT BLM SAYS: In 1971, when the BLM was given legal authority to protect and manage wild horses and burros, the number of wild horses was 17,300 mustangs compared to today's on-the-range population of 33,100 wild horses.” BOB ABBEY, Director, BLM
WHAT BLM DOESN'T SAY: "The 17,000 figure is undoubtedly low to an unknown, but perhaps substantial, degree...” National Academy of Sciences Report, 1982
What BLM says: "Over the last four decades, the Bureau of Land Management has helped wild horses thrive and populations recover on the arid expanses of public lands in the West." Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar
WHAT BLM DOESN'T SAY: BLM's statistics show a steady decline in wild horse populations since the 1974 "hard count." BLM Wild Horse & Burro Removal, Adoption, Population, AML Table.
WHAT BLM SAYS: "The removal of wild horses and burros from public rangelands is carried out to ensure rangeland health, in accordance with land-use plans that are developed in an open, public process." Robert Abbey, Director, BLM
WHAT BLM (in this case) ALSO SAYS: "No public access to meetings that help establish land use plans." KIFI Channel 8 News, February 2, 2010
WHAT BLM SAYS: "The direct mortality rate resulting from helicopter-driven gathers is usually less than one percent. Some indirect mortality also occurs." BLM Wild Horse and Burro website
WHAT BLM DOESN'T SAY: "BLM data indicates that the wild horses and burros held in short term holding facilities, from 2003-2007, had a mortality rate of about 5 percent. BLM does not report this information regularly to members of the public who remain concerned that the agency does not adequately care for animals in short term holding." Governmental Accountability Office Report, 2008
WHAT BLM SAYS: "The estimated current free-roaming population exceeds by some 10,350 the number (AML) that the BLM has determined can exist in balance with other public rangeland resources and uses." BLM Wild Horse and Burro website
WHAT BLM DOESN'T SAY: "Although field offices use many factors to make their AML determinations, BLM has no guidance or policy about the specific factors they must consider in determining AML." Governmental Accountability Office report 2008
WHAT BLM SAYS: "Horse removals are necessary to protect public lands and public land resources." BLM Wild Horse and Burro website

WHAT BLM DOESN'T SAY: "Wild horse removals often have not been accompanied by reduction in authorized livestock grazing levels or effective range management to increase the lands' capacity. As a result, range conditions have not demonstrably improved and the number of horses removed has exceeded the capacity of the Adopt-A-Horse program. BLM could not provide us with data to demonstrate where wild horse removals have materially improved the specific areas from which they have been removed. " Government Accountability Office Report 1990
AOWHA TRUTH RALLY
WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON

1. Wild horse and burro populations have declined since 1971 when Congress declared that they were "fast disappearing from the American scene."

2. While most parties agree that horse populations need to be managed, Congress mandated that such management be carried out "at the minimal feasible level."

3. Scientific data and reports from the Government Accountability Office indicate that BLM's current rate of horse removals is producing unsustainable long-term expenses and have not "materially improved the specific areas where they were removed."

4. BLM doesn't really know what is going on with respect to wild horse populations and their impacts on range conditions due to cuts in staff that monitored and collected such data. The resulting savings of thousands of dollars could conceivably be costing taxpayers millions of dollars due to agency mistakes.

5. Reductions in educational outreach designed to promote successful horse adoptions have resulted in a decline in adoptions, increased the number of horses sent to long term holding, and produced incalculable long term costs for indefinitely holding horses in contract facilities.

6. The absence of any coherent birth control plan limits BLM's "management" options to large-scale horse removals, the most expensive of the various available strategies. Using the recent Calico Mountains roundup as an example, NO horses were provided birth control.

7. The absence of equine-based ecological management approaches in areas managed for horses contributes to the problems that BLM attempts to solve through large-scale horse removals. The GAO has determined that this strategy does not work.

KEN SALAZAR'S "EXODUS" PROPOSAL

Instead of addressing the failures associated with BLM's range management strategy, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is proposing a new boondoggle, establishing wild horse sanctuaries in the Midwest and East. He proposes to haul thousands of horses across the country when lands are available for them in the West.

Most wild horse advocates oppose Salazar's sanctuaries as they simply shift taxpayer funds from one set of contractors to another. Salazar's proposal does nothing to address fundamental problems on western ranges. The Salazar Plan is a "magic pill" that in fact is nothing more than a placebo.

Furthermore what differentiates a wild horse from a domestic horse is its environment. A horse on a managed pasture is simply a pasture horse.

There are sufficient Western resources, already owned by the American taxpayer, that can be used to mitigate the present wild horse "crisis," provided practical and relevant management strategies are adopted. Wild horses can be intelligently managed and their continued presence can be compatible with the other multiple uses of our public lands. It just isn't happening now.

For additional information:

Willis Lamm, willis@kbrhorse.net 775-721-2332 Carrol Abel, hiddenvalleyhorse@yahoo.com 775-624-7807
Shirley Allen, shirley@whmentors.org 775-246-7636 Bonnie Matton, mattonco@prodigy.net 775-220-6806

BLM Hosting Wild Horse Adoption Event

Posted: Feb 17, 2010 1:29 PM EST Updated: Feb 17, 2010 1:29 PM EST

The federal Bureau of Land Management says it plans to allow people to adopt wild horses at reduced fees at an event in Carson City.

The BLM says the adoption event will be held Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Silver Saddle Ranch.

Officials say would-be adopters can be approved on site, and the BLM is offering free delivery within 400 miles. 

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Wildhorse News:

The Big Story

BLM Puts Up Comment Page to Address Beleaguered Wild Horse and Burro Program After 41 Die – Countless Mares Miscarry – And 2 Foals Euthanized After Losing Hooves

BLM Wild Horse and Burro Comment Line

By Steven Long, Photo by Terry Fitch

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The federal Bureau of Land Management has spent months at the epicenter of discontent as individuals and groups have been increasingly angered by the agency’s alleged mismanagement of its wild horses program. These animals populate a tiny fraction of the 260 million acres under BLM control in the West

Critics say the agency turns a tin ear to public comment serving only ranchers, mining, and hunting interests. The BLM says there is no room for a breeding horse population.
It’s policies have sparked loud protests from coast to coast.

The agency has suffered a flood of emails from around the country, and indeed the globe protesting a policy many believe is predetermined to make the wild horse extinct on lands under BLM control. Some geneticists say its standard birth control policy is being administered at breakneck speed to far too many horses creating genetic bankruptcy in herds that have already been subject to its “gathers.”

Yet the BLM has its supporters too. Horseback Magazine has received email from residents of wild horse country who describe the horses as “The cockroaches of the West.”

BLM wild horse roundups have been depicted as cruel by mainstream media in crushing investigative reports.

Often BLM’s own census numbers, including roundup death counts, don’t hold up under scrutiny.

Despite howls of protest from wild horse activists, critical media coverage, and damning videos released on You Tube, he agency has countered saying thousands of horses have been, and will be, rounded up for their own good. They claim the animals, shown fat and healthy after their capture in news footage, face starvation during the long mountain winter. Yet the annual spring thaw is just weeks away and recently captured horses appear healthy on the rare occasions press and public is allowed to briefly view them.

Critics, including Sen. Mary Landrieu, also claim the BLM has squandered its appropriation on a wild horse program that doesn’t work. They cite as an example of careless fiscal policies that despite the vastness of BLM holdings, the agency warehouses the horses it has captured on property leased from private landowners. Wild horse advocates say the horses only cost the government pennies when they roamed free in their natural habitat.

The Obama budget calls for an increase of $12 million over last year’s $64 million that depleted on the program of capturing and holding wild horses.

In memos leaked to the Associated Press last year, BLM managers discussed euthanizing thousands of captured horses. The stories sparked howls of derision and cries of anger from horse lovers everywhere..

The press and public has been largely barred from witnessing the activities of the BLM and its contractors despite a recent pledge to allow humane observers

Forty one horses have died in the recent Calico Mountain roundup, including one who died Monday. Two foals died after being stampeded for miles by a roaring helicopter. Their hooves became detached from their bodies and the two babies were euthanized.

Wildhorse Rallies in Nevada:

Las Vegas and Carson City, NV

Nevada wild horse advocates supported and accompanied by advocates from several other states plan to deliver a "one-two" punch this coming week.

The first punch is called "Mustang Outrage" and will be held in front of the Lloyd D. George courthouse in Las Vegas on Thursday, February 18th.

The second punch is called the "Truth Rally" and will be held in front of the State Legislature building in Carson City on Saturday, February 20th.

Details and links to downloadable printable flyers, contact information, etc. can be found in the Wild Horse War Room - http://www.aowha.org/war/nevada_one_two01.html

The Nevada advocates conduct "safe and sane" informative rallies and demonstrations.  Everyone is welcome to attend, but please keep all activities peaceable and respect the access to streets and sidewalks by other citizens!

Thanks!

":O) Willis

It' s getting "Wild" for the Wild Horses in NV:

PLEASE EMAIL, FACEBOOK & TWITTER THIS INFORMATION TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.....
PROTEST:    THE MUSTANG OUTRAGE will boil over on:
WHEN?         Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 1:30 PM
WHERE?       Protest Speakers will first address the Press and Public on the steps of the Lloyd D George Federal Courthouse, 333 S. Las Vegas Building, Las Vegas NV (offices of Senators Ensign & Reid) and then Banners will be carried to over 40 locations across the entire city of Las Vegas so the public can see THE MUSTANG OUTRAGE!
CONTACT PERSON? ARLENE GAWNE 702-277-1313 artistfromafrica@hotmail.com
On Thursday, February 18, 2010, President Obama is expected to arrive in Las Vegas, NV just when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is asking Congress for over $60 million dollars mostly for more roundups and over $40 million to buy farms in the East to warehouse the wild horses the BLM has condemned to captivity.
In memory of Freedom, the Calico mustang that leapt a high pen wall and burst through barbed wire to freedom, we ask you to turn out in huge numbers to say:
NO MORE TAX DOLLARS for horrific roundups, castration & warehousing OUR Western Heritage in the East! President Obama, we the People demand an end to BLM’s 40 years of subsidizing livestock & commercial interests on our land. GIVE WILD HORSES & BURROS THEIR FAIR SHARE OF PUBLIC LANDS. Protect them as the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse & Burro Act ordered you to do.
THE MUSTANG OUTRAGE will boil over at 1:30 PM on the northeast steps of the Federal Courthouse where one by one for maximum visual impact, 40-50 large banners will unfurl on the sidewalks of Las Vegas Boulevard!
We are asking for a minimum of 100 people to hold these big banners, 2 persons to a banner. Banner holders or their friends/family can also wear a fabric sign we will provide that reads: OBAMA: Order The BLM To Abolish Mustang Atrocities. This front piece leaves your hands free for the banner or to pass out information sheets to the public. We ask all protestors to dress in black to symbolically mourn the 39 horses that the BLM admits have already died in the Calico Roundup. Transparency is not their strong suit.
At 2 PM, Protest Speakers will make short but powerful speeches addressed to the President, beginning with the eyewitness account of the Calico Roundup by humane observer, Craig Downer. Speakers will also include Dr. Elliot M. Katz DVM and President of In Defense of Animals, Neda DeMayo, founder & CEO of Return To Freedom, an American Wild Horse Sanctuary in Lompoc CA, Gina Greisen, President of Nevada Voters for Animals; and Arlene Gawne, wildlife artist and concerned citizen.
At 2:30 PM, the banners will be rolled up and each pair of banner holders will have one hour to drive to their assigned location across Las Vegas. Bring along any assistants, friends, family – especially your kids. Bring your folding chair and favorite snacks – have fun!
At 3:30 PM at your assigned location, you will hold your banner for 1-1/2 to 2 hours so thousands can see our message across Las Vegas: home-going traffic on major streets, convention attendees, shoppers all across the city, tourists at major casinos, travelers entering and leaving McCarran and Nellis airports, university and college students at campus entry points, all Congress members’ offices (Reid, Ensign, Berkley, Titus and Heller), tourists at Red Rock Canyon and more. In particular, there will be a special banner at the BLM office near I-95 and Craig Road where there will be a meeting on Feb.18 concerning renewable energy – and some fear BLM plans to remove wild horses to make it easier to build such facilities. We say NO to that Mr. President. We can have renewable energy and wild horses & burros on the same public land.  
There will also be a special banner at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign on Las Vegas Blvd. This banner will let Nevada know that the BLM is stealing our wild horse & burro legacy. And we say NO to that, Mr. President, Secretary Salazar, and Mr. Bob Abbey, head of the BLM. This banner features the beautiful wild horses that delighted Red Rock Canyon visitors until the BLM rounded them up, castrated the stallions (their unique blood line was lost forever), and shipped them to the Midwest (most horses & burros never get adopted). We would like the Red Rock horses back please. They would increase jobs if Las Vegas became the hub of Southwest eco-tours.
Come out and let politicians know we are not going to take it anymore! Come from another state and express your passion for mustangs & burros – America’s Wild History. If you are local and can’t take the full afternoon off work, call Arlene Gawne and get an assigned location for 3:30-5:30pm where you can pass out handouts or just stand up for what you believe in. It is invigorating to stand up to two-faced politicians; to special energy, mining and water groups that want the horses/burros gone, and the BLM. Let the Hilton Family Trust and other corporate cowboys pay the fair market cost to raise cattle on public land, not at 1/10th the cost with current subsidized leases. America has already been brought to its knees by corporate greed and deliberate lack of political oversight. Mr. President, no more welfare cows! No more welfare industries!
Please phone or email Arlene Gawne at 702-277-1313 or artistfromafrica@hotmail.com artistfromafrica @ hotmail.com to sign up for one end of a banner. Bring a friend to hold the other end and a folding chair to sit on. If you can’t find a friend, we’ll pair you up with another volunteer. If you can’t hold a banner, pass out information sheets to the public. Just wave at people!
Some 8’x3’ banners will be commercially printed and some will be hand-painted. You are welcome to bring your own banner but please make it big and easy to read. Our banners, the Obama fabric front pieces, handouts and Mustang Protest 101 instructions will be handed out on Wednesday at a time and place to be announced.
TOGETHER WE WILL SHOW THE PRESIDENT -  NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL! If for some reason the President’s visit is cancelled, it doesn’t matter as long as we make MUSTANG OUTRAGE heard, loud and clear. The BLM in their Las Vegas meeting February 18, 2010 need to hear our MUSTANG OUTRAGE and stop plotting roundups. Committee members listening to Salazar’s sales pitch for our tax dollars need to know that Salazar must not get one single wild horse quarter for roundups and pens!
Maybe the President’s daughters will hear about MUSTANG OUTRAGE and ask dad why those people want to keep the mustangs and burros wild and free in the West? When he thinks about his answer maybe his conscience will kick in because he handpicked Salazar. Let us stand together on February 18, 2010 and invite the President to bring his family West to view mustang behavior with someone like Ginger Kathrens. When he experiences the thrill of wild horses running free, he must realize there is great value in keeping mustangs wild – a value greater than a field of solar panels or a hamburger. President Roosevelt will turn in his grave if he doesn’t.

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