From Animal Law Coalition
Update Dec. 23, 2009: Judge Paul L. Friedman has denied the motion by plaintiffs In Defense of Animals, Craig Downer and Terri Farley, for a preliminary injunction to stop the roundup of up to 2,736 wild horses from the Calico Mountain Complex herd management areas in Nevada.
Go Here for entire Aricle: http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1119
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
A PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION FOR CHRISTMAS
http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1119
A Preliminary Injunction for Christmas
Posted Dec 21, 2009 by lauraallen
Horse Slaughter
The plaintiffs, In Defense of Animals, wildlife ecologist Craig Downer and journalist and author, Terri Farley, are optimistic U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman, will grant their request for a preliminary injunction to stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)'s plan to round up wild horses from the Calico Mountain Complex in Nevada.
Plaintiffs say BLM's proposed round up set to begin December 28 violates the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, 16 U.S.C. §1331 et seq., and is arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and in excess of and without legal authority, in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, 5 U.S.C. §701 et seq.
The judge has promised to rule before Christmas.
In their First Amended Complaint the plaintiffs point out BLM has no authority under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, 16 U.S.C. §1331 et seq., to use helicopters to round up wild horses en masse and hold them in short or long term holding facilities. BLM is required to manage the wild horses and burros as "components" of the public lands on which they were living as of 1971 or on designated ranges. 16 U.S.C. §1333 BLM must manage them at "the minimal feasible level". 16 U.S.C. §1333 WFRHBA forbids the capture, harassment, death and inhumane treatment of these animals. 16 U.S.C. §1331, 43 CFR 4700.0-2, -5
U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled recently in the case, Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition, Inc. v. Salazar, No. 06-1609 (D.D.C 2009):
"It would be anomalous to infer that by authorizing the custodian of the wild free roaming horses and burros to "manage" them, Congress intended to permit the animals' custodian to subvert the primary policy of the statute by capturing and removing from the wild the very animals that Congress sought to protect from being captured and removed from the wild. Defendants argue that the horses will not be "eradicated" or "eliminated" inasmuch as BLM intends to continue to manage the horses not in the wild but through private adoption or long-term care.
...But BLM's directive is 'to protect and manage wild free-roaming horses and burros as components of the public lands . . . ‘ 16 U.S.C. § 1333(a) (emphasis added). Congress did not authorize BLM to ‘manage' the wild horses by corralling them for private maintenance or long-term care as non-wild free-roaming animals off of the public lands. Upon removal for private adoption and/or long-term care, the West Douglas Herd would forever cease to be ‘wild free-roaming' horses ‘as components of the public lands' contrary to Congress's intent to protect the horses from capture. Moreover, the statute expressly provides that BLM's ‘management activities shall be at the minimal feasible level . . . .'
It is difficult to think of a ‘management activity' that is farther from a ‘minimal feasible level' than removal."
The BLM is directed to protect the wild horses and burros "in a manner that is designed to achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance on the public lands" and "protect the natural ecological balance of all wildlife species which inhabit such lands, particularly endangered wildlife species. Any adjustments in forage allocations on any such lands shall take into consideration the needs of other wildlife species which inhabit such lands." 16 U.S.C. §1333(a). The Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978 amended the WFRHBA to require BLM to determine appropriate management levels (AML) and maintain an inventory of wild horses and burros to help achieve these goals.
BLM is only authorized to remove "excess" wild horses or burros. Under WFRHBA, "excess animals" means wild free-roaming horses or burros (1) which have been removed from an area by the Secretary [of the Interior] pursuant to applicable law or, (2) which must be removed from an area in order to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area. 16 U.S.C. §1332.
Basically the BLM is only authorized to cull wild horses and burros from their historic herd areas where they were living in 1971 to control overpopulation or "maintain a thriving natural ecological balance". In designated ranges, there may be consideration given to "multiple uses" but even these are to be "devoted principally" to the wild horses and burros. 16 U.S.C. §§1332, 1333
Plaintiffs' Allegations
The plaintiffs say that even if there are "excess" wild horses in the Calico Mountain Complex herd management areas, the BLM cannot simply use helicopters to drive them all into holding pens or corrals and then return the few that the agency decides are not "excess". The WFHRBA is clear that BLM must first cull any wild horses that are old, sick or lame. 16 U.S.C. §1333 Plaintiffs say this most likely means these animals would be humanely euthanized in the field.
According to the plaintiffs, the BLM must then determine on a horse by horse basis which are adoptable and remove only those excess adoptable horses. 16 U.SC. §1333 The plaintiffs say BLM has no authority to round up healthy, unadoptable wild horses and transport them to holding facilities where they were not living in 1971. Though WFRHBA states BLM shall euthanize remaining unadoptable healthy excess wild horses and burros, the Appropriations Act, FY 2010, de-funds or bars BLM from using any of its budget to euthanize healthy wild horses or sell them for "processing into commercial products".
But because BLM cannot or does not euthanize healthy, unadoptable horses deemed "excess," does not mean the agency can put them into short or long term holding facilities. Nothing in WFRHBA authorizes excess wild horses to be maintained in this way.
During oral argument on Dec. 16, Judge Friedman asked about the fate of the "excess" healthy, unadoptable horses. Clearly the plaintiffs believe they should simply be left to roam freely in the herd management areas, that at this point, the law provides no basis for their removal.
The BLM also has no authority, say the plaintiffs, to round up non-excess wild horses even if the agency then returns them to the wild.
BLM Says Congress has Ratified its Plans for the Calico Wild Horses
In this case BLM plans to use a helicopter to round up 2,432-2,736 wild horses or nearly 90% of the population of the Calico Mountain Complex herd management areas and then return 268 to the wild. The herds and families will be destroyed forever.
BLM says it is too expensive, too difficult, to assess and cull wild horses on a case by case basis. BLM also says that, regardless, Congress has ratified or approved the agency's helicopter roundups and management of wild horses and burros in short and long term holding facilities. BLM contends that in appropriating funds for roundups and holding facilities, Congress has ratified the agency's policies and effectively amended the WFRHBA to allow this.
Plaintiffs countered that while Congress can amend laws in appropriations legislation, there is a presumption against it and any such amendment must be stated clearly. Congress has never stated clearly that it approves of BLM's management of wild horses and burros in this way.
The Cruelty of BLM's Handling of Wild Horses
The plaintiffs note that according to the 2008 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, 1.2% or horses died during BLM roundups also called "gathers" in 2005-2007. This means during the Calico gather, 30-34 wild horses are likely to die. According to the GAO report, up to 5% of the wild horses died while they were held in short term holding facilities from 2003-2007 and 8% died during that period in long term holding facilities.
These animals also suffer destruction of their herds, separation of families, even foals from their mares. Wild horses and burros have suffered terrible injuries during these round ups and while kept in holding facilities. Some will try to jump even 6' fences or throw themselves at corral panels in an effort to escape, breaking their necks or legs. They suffer as any wild animal would when kept in captivity, a condition known as capture myopathy. They can die from this and at best, live with their spirits broken, forever denied the free-roaming herd behavior promised by WFRHBA.
The Calico helicopter round up scheduled to begin December 28 presents a particular danger to mares likely to be pregnant with foals. Old, sick and disabled wild horses are likely to suffer injuries and even death as they are run down by helicopters.
BLM's "Excess" Wild Horses
As of May 31, 2009 there were 8,532 horses and 57 burros in short-term holding facilities that have a total capacity of 15,645 animals. As of that date there were 22,126 horses in long-term holding facilities that have a total capacity of 22,100. The long-term holding facilities are full. BLM claims there are 10,350 excess wild horses and burros that must be removed from herd areas and ranges. Since 2000, BLM has removed more than 74,000 wild horses and burros from the wild, 40% of the population.
It is far from clear that these wild horses and burros are actually "excess". In the Calico Mountain Complex environmental assessment, for example, BLM relied on old, outdated data to determine appropriate management levels of wild horses. Just last year, BLM permitted a 300% increase in cattle grazing in the area. The same area said to be too degraded and dry for the few remaining wild horses.
Also, despite the WFRHBA mandate to maintain a current inventory of wild horses, BLM's census fluctuate wildly. Plaintiff Craig Downer has questioned whether BLM is now exaggerating the census to justify removal of even more wild horses. For more on BLM's decision to round up and remove nearly 90% of the wild horses in the Calico Mountain Complex...
The Safari Club International and Safari Club International Foundation and Coalition for Nevada's Wildlife have filed amici briefs in support of BLM's assessments and decision to remove these wild horses.
Go here for information about the WFRHBA and how BLM has eroded the protections for the wild horses and burros.
Go here to find out how you can join the call for a moratorium on BLM roundups of wild horses and burros.
A Preliminary Injunction for Christmas
Posted Dec 21, 2009 by lauraallen
Horse Slaughter
The plaintiffs, In Defense of Animals, wildlife ecologist Craig Downer and journalist and author, Terri Farley, are optimistic U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman, will grant their request for a preliminary injunction to stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)'s plan to round up wild horses from the Calico Mountain Complex in Nevada.
Plaintiffs say BLM's proposed round up set to begin December 28 violates the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, 16 U.S.C. §1331 et seq., and is arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and in excess of and without legal authority, in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, 5 U.S.C. §701 et seq.
The judge has promised to rule before Christmas.
In their First Amended Complaint the plaintiffs point out BLM has no authority under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, 16 U.S.C. §1331 et seq., to use helicopters to round up wild horses en masse and hold them in short or long term holding facilities. BLM is required to manage the wild horses and burros as "components" of the public lands on which they were living as of 1971 or on designated ranges. 16 U.S.C. §1333 BLM must manage them at "the minimal feasible level". 16 U.S.C. §1333 WFRHBA forbids the capture, harassment, death and inhumane treatment of these animals. 16 U.S.C. §1331, 43 CFR 4700.0-2, -5
U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled recently in the case, Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition, Inc. v. Salazar, No. 06-1609 (D.D.C 2009):
"It would be anomalous to infer that by authorizing the custodian of the wild free roaming horses and burros to "manage" them, Congress intended to permit the animals' custodian to subvert the primary policy of the statute by capturing and removing from the wild the very animals that Congress sought to protect from being captured and removed from the wild. Defendants argue that the horses will not be "eradicated" or "eliminated" inasmuch as BLM intends to continue to manage the horses not in the wild but through private adoption or long-term care.
...But BLM's directive is 'to protect and manage wild free-roaming horses and burros as components of the public lands . . . ‘ 16 U.S.C. § 1333(a) (emphasis added). Congress did not authorize BLM to ‘manage' the wild horses by corralling them for private maintenance or long-term care as non-wild free-roaming animals off of the public lands. Upon removal for private adoption and/or long-term care, the West Douglas Herd would forever cease to be ‘wild free-roaming' horses ‘as components of the public lands' contrary to Congress's intent to protect the horses from capture. Moreover, the statute expressly provides that BLM's ‘management activities shall be at the minimal feasible level . . . .'
It is difficult to think of a ‘management activity' that is farther from a ‘minimal feasible level' than removal."
The BLM is directed to protect the wild horses and burros "in a manner that is designed to achieve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance on the public lands" and "protect the natural ecological balance of all wildlife species which inhabit such lands, particularly endangered wildlife species. Any adjustments in forage allocations on any such lands shall take into consideration the needs of other wildlife species which inhabit such lands." 16 U.S.C. §1333(a). The Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978 amended the WFRHBA to require BLM to determine appropriate management levels (AML) and maintain an inventory of wild horses and burros to help achieve these goals.
BLM is only authorized to remove "excess" wild horses or burros. Under WFRHBA, "excess animals" means wild free-roaming horses or burros (1) which have been removed from an area by the Secretary [of the Interior] pursuant to applicable law or, (2) which must be removed from an area in order to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area. 16 U.S.C. §1332.
Basically the BLM is only authorized to cull wild horses and burros from their historic herd areas where they were living in 1971 to control overpopulation or "maintain a thriving natural ecological balance". In designated ranges, there may be consideration given to "multiple uses" but even these are to be "devoted principally" to the wild horses and burros. 16 U.S.C. §§1332, 1333
Plaintiffs' Allegations
The plaintiffs say that even if there are "excess" wild horses in the Calico Mountain Complex herd management areas, the BLM cannot simply use helicopters to drive them all into holding pens or corrals and then return the few that the agency decides are not "excess". The WFHRBA is clear that BLM must first cull any wild horses that are old, sick or lame. 16 U.S.C. §1333 Plaintiffs say this most likely means these animals would be humanely euthanized in the field.
According to the plaintiffs, the BLM must then determine on a horse by horse basis which are adoptable and remove only those excess adoptable horses. 16 U.SC. §1333 The plaintiffs say BLM has no authority to round up healthy, unadoptable wild horses and transport them to holding facilities where they were not living in 1971. Though WFRHBA states BLM shall euthanize remaining unadoptable healthy excess wild horses and burros, the Appropriations Act, FY 2010, de-funds or bars BLM from using any of its budget to euthanize healthy wild horses or sell them for "processing into commercial products".
But because BLM cannot or does not euthanize healthy, unadoptable horses deemed "excess," does not mean the agency can put them into short or long term holding facilities. Nothing in WFRHBA authorizes excess wild horses to be maintained in this way.
During oral argument on Dec. 16, Judge Friedman asked about the fate of the "excess" healthy, unadoptable horses. Clearly the plaintiffs believe they should simply be left to roam freely in the herd management areas, that at this point, the law provides no basis for their removal.
The BLM also has no authority, say the plaintiffs, to round up non-excess wild horses even if the agency then returns them to the wild.
BLM Says Congress has Ratified its Plans for the Calico Wild Horses
In this case BLM plans to use a helicopter to round up 2,432-2,736 wild horses or nearly 90% of the population of the Calico Mountain Complex herd management areas and then return 268 to the wild. The herds and families will be destroyed forever.
BLM says it is too expensive, too difficult, to assess and cull wild horses on a case by case basis. BLM also says that, regardless, Congress has ratified or approved the agency's helicopter roundups and management of wild horses and burros in short and long term holding facilities. BLM contends that in appropriating funds for roundups and holding facilities, Congress has ratified the agency's policies and effectively amended the WFRHBA to allow this.
Plaintiffs countered that while Congress can amend laws in appropriations legislation, there is a presumption against it and any such amendment must be stated clearly. Congress has never stated clearly that it approves of BLM's management of wild horses and burros in this way.
The Cruelty of BLM's Handling of Wild Horses
The plaintiffs note that according to the 2008 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, 1.2% or horses died during BLM roundups also called "gathers" in 2005-2007. This means during the Calico gather, 30-34 wild horses are likely to die. According to the GAO report, up to 5% of the wild horses died while they were held in short term holding facilities from 2003-2007 and 8% died during that period in long term holding facilities.
These animals also suffer destruction of their herds, separation of families, even foals from their mares. Wild horses and burros have suffered terrible injuries during these round ups and while kept in holding facilities. Some will try to jump even 6' fences or throw themselves at corral panels in an effort to escape, breaking their necks or legs. They suffer as any wild animal would when kept in captivity, a condition known as capture myopathy. They can die from this and at best, live with their spirits broken, forever denied the free-roaming herd behavior promised by WFRHBA.
The Calico helicopter round up scheduled to begin December 28 presents a particular danger to mares likely to be pregnant with foals. Old, sick and disabled wild horses are likely to suffer injuries and even death as they are run down by helicopters.
BLM's "Excess" Wild Horses
As of May 31, 2009 there were 8,532 horses and 57 burros in short-term holding facilities that have a total capacity of 15,645 animals. As of that date there were 22,126 horses in long-term holding facilities that have a total capacity of 22,100. The long-term holding facilities are full. BLM claims there are 10,350 excess wild horses and burros that must be removed from herd areas and ranges. Since 2000, BLM has removed more than 74,000 wild horses and burros from the wild, 40% of the population.
It is far from clear that these wild horses and burros are actually "excess". In the Calico Mountain Complex environmental assessment, for example, BLM relied on old, outdated data to determine appropriate management levels of wild horses. Just last year, BLM permitted a 300% increase in cattle grazing in the area. The same area said to be too degraded and dry for the few remaining wild horses.
Also, despite the WFRHBA mandate to maintain a current inventory of wild horses, BLM's census fluctuate wildly. Plaintiff Craig Downer has questioned whether BLM is now exaggerating the census to justify removal of even more wild horses. For more on BLM's decision to round up and remove nearly 90% of the wild horses in the Calico Mountain Complex...
The Safari Club International and Safari Club International Foundation and Coalition for Nevada's Wildlife have filed amici briefs in support of BLM's assessments and decision to remove these wild horses.
Go here for information about the WFRHBA and how BLM has eroded the protections for the wild horses and burros.
Go here to find out how you can join the call for a moratorium on BLM roundups of wild horses and burros.
Friday, December 4, 2009
CALLING ALL AMERICANS FOR THE PROTECTION OF ALL EQUINES
In a joint effort, both organizations are calling on all Americans to lend their voice to the CAUSE. Please help pass The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act HR503 and S727 and to increase awareness of the brutal practice of slaughtering American horses.
The legislation is pending in both the house and the senate and will prohibit the slaughter of American horses for human consumption, and end the transport of our American horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION
Please take a minute to see if your U.S. Representative is already a cosponsor of H.R. 503 and if your two U.S. Senators are co sponsors of S727. If your Representative and Senators are not yet cosponsors, please make a call and ask them to cospo nsor the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act.
To reach your federal legislators, please call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, or for your convenience, ?you can use this toll-free number 800-828-0498 and ask for a legislator by name (or ask for extension, last 5 numbers of legislator's office phone)
About WFLF Humanion Films:
WFLF Humanion Films is in production on the feature documentary film entitled “Saving America's Horses A Nation Betrayed”. The mission of the film is for the protection of all equines from slaughter. Through a focused look into the horse slaughter industry, this film seeks to advance compassion for horses, raise awareness for their suffering, and expose the corrupt driving forces supported by those who profit from the sordid practice of horse slaughter.
Humanion Films is the film label under Wild for Life Foundation (WFLF), a California nonprofit public benefit corporation organized for the purpose of protecting animals from cruelty and protecting wildlife from extinction.
About AAHS:
Americans Against Horse Slaughter is a grassroots movement comprised of constituents from all 50 States. Their only mission is to end horse slaughter through the passing of Federal legislation.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
155 Organizations, Celebrities and Scientists Sign Moratorium!
A Unified Letter calling for an immediate moratorium on roundups has now been signed by over 155 organizations, celebrities and scientists. Please add your support!
Send an e-mail and sign petition for moratorium in one easy step+ add your personal message- click here!
Call (202) 208-7351 and e-mail Interior Secretary Salazar
And share this press release with the media. You can read more about Sheryl Crow's rescued Mustang "Colorado" here.
Come to the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting on December 7th in Nevada-- details online here.
Letter and details on adding your support here
The Cloud Foundation
719-633-3842
Take action for our wild horses and burros
Support a moratorium on roundups and send a letter to Obama & your representatives:
Send an e-mail and sign petition for moratorium in one easy step+ add your personal message- click here!
Call (202) 208-7351 and e-mail Interior Secretary Salazar
And share this press release with the media. You can read more about Sheryl Crow's rescued Mustang "Colorado" here.
Come to the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting on December 7th in Nevada-- details online here.
Letter and details on adding your support here
The Cloud Foundation
719-633-3842
Take action for our wild horses and burros
Support a moratorium on roundups and send a letter to Obama & your representatives:
Friday, November 20, 2009
SHERYL CROW ASKS PRESIDENT OBAMA & SECRETARY SALAZAR TO STOP THE ASSAULT ON AMERICA'S WILD HORSES AND BURROS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sheryl Crow Asks President Obama & Secretary Salazar to Stop the Assault on America’s Wild Horses and Burros
Actors Ed Harris, Wendie Malick and Over 100 Organizations Demand Roundup Moratorium, Protesting Nevada’s Calico Complex Roundup to begin December 1.
CHICAGO, (EWA) – Sheryl Crow speaks out for the wild horses and burros on America’s public lands in the west. The multi-GRAMMY®-winning singer-songwriter and mustang owner joins The Cloud Foundation, over 130 organizations, scientists, authors and celebrity supporters calling on President Obama, Members of Congress and the Department of Interior to place an immediate moratorium on all wild horse and burro roundups until a long-term and humane policy to manage the animals is developed.
“With one voice we are insisting that our government stop managing these beautiful and important animals to extinction” —Sheryl Crow
The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) removal plan for Nevada’s Calico Complex wild mustangs is fueling outrage across the country and internationally. In a unified sign-on letter, wild horse supporters outline their opposition to the Obama Administration's October 7, 2009 announcement regarding the management of wild horses and burros. Groups oppose moving 26,000 wild horses to purchased lands in the east and the current government practice of removing entire wild horse and burros herds from public lands specifically designated for the animals by Congress in 1971.
“We ask that President Obama or Secretary Salazar cease all BLM roundups as of this date to prevent further suffering. We request that the government and BLM begin to work in good faith with wild horse advocates for a sustainable solution. The Calico Roundup, scheduled to begin in December and continue through the dead of winter, is inhumane and must be stopped!” —Sheryl Crow
Upon hearing about the BLM’s plans for the large-scale removal of 2,500 horses in northwest Nevada near the Black Rock Desert, more than seven thousand citizens submitted public comments to the BLM opposing the Calico Mountain Complex Round Up, scheduled to begin on December 1, 2009. Public comment has been extended through November 22, 2009 according to the BLM.
Currently more than 33,000 wild horses are stockpiled in government holding facilities at a cost to taxpayers of $100,000 a day. The scheduled removal of 2,500 from Nevada will bring that total to more than 35,000.
“We already have enough wild horses in pens. Adding more horses to those already held in confinement, when they are much safer on the range is shortsighted, inhumane and fiscally irresponsible.” —Ginger Kathrens, Emmy Award Filmmaker & Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation.
The BLM will pay the private contractor $610 per horse rounded up for an estimated total of nearly $2 million for the Calico roundup alone according to BLM spokesperson, Tom Gorey. Branding, vaccinating, sterilizing and processing of horses to be placed in government holding will cost several million more. The BLM hired the same contractor for the controversial roundup of the famous stallion, Cloud, and his Pryor Mountain herd in September, 2009. Bands including two-month-old foals were chased down off the mountaintop by helicopter for 10-15 miles in more than 90 degree heat resulting in trauma and lameness.
"The government is acting in defiance of the spirit and intent of the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act (1971 Act) which Congress passed unanimously —Julianne French, wild horse advocate.
The 1971 Act preserves wild horses and burros in over 300 areas of publicly owned rangeland in the west, forbidding their exploitation, harassment and removal. Regardless, only 30 million acres remain of the 54 million acres designated primarily for wild horse use in 1971. Over 100 herds have been completely removed by the BLM and most remaining herds are too small to insure their long-term survival. The BLM's current policy of eradicating these herds is a betrayal of the wishes of the American public.
Sheryl Crow, with wild mustang and burro supporters, calls the public to action urging all to write, e-mail, fax and phone Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, their congressional representatives and President Obama. The list of contact phones, e-mails, faxes and mailing addresses is online here.
“It's time for all of us to speak up for our Wild Horses and Burros so we do not lose these living legends and inspiring symbols of our freedom in America.” —Sheryl Crow
Contact: John Holland
Equine Welfare Alliance
540.268.5693
john@equinewelfarealliance.org
Ginger Kathrens
The Cloud Foundation
719.633.4933
news@thecloudfoundation.org
Sheryl Crow Asks President Obama & Secretary Salazar to Stop the Assault on America’s Wild Horses and Burros
Actors Ed Harris, Wendie Malick and Over 100 Organizations Demand Roundup Moratorium, Protesting Nevada’s Calico Complex Roundup to begin December 1.
CHICAGO, (EWA) – Sheryl Crow speaks out for the wild horses and burros on America’s public lands in the west. The multi-GRAMMY®-winning singer-songwriter and mustang owner joins The Cloud Foundation, over 130 organizations, scientists, authors and celebrity supporters calling on President Obama, Members of Congress and the Department of Interior to place an immediate moratorium on all wild horse and burro roundups until a long-term and humane policy to manage the animals is developed.
“With one voice we are insisting that our government stop managing these beautiful and important animals to extinction” —Sheryl Crow
The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) removal plan for Nevada’s Calico Complex wild mustangs is fueling outrage across the country and internationally. In a unified sign-on letter, wild horse supporters outline their opposition to the Obama Administration's October 7, 2009 announcement regarding the management of wild horses and burros. Groups oppose moving 26,000 wild horses to purchased lands in the east and the current government practice of removing entire wild horse and burros herds from public lands specifically designated for the animals by Congress in 1971.
“We ask that President Obama or Secretary Salazar cease all BLM roundups as of this date to prevent further suffering. We request that the government and BLM begin to work in good faith with wild horse advocates for a sustainable solution. The Calico Roundup, scheduled to begin in December and continue through the dead of winter, is inhumane and must be stopped!” —Sheryl Crow
Upon hearing about the BLM’s plans for the large-scale removal of 2,500 horses in northwest Nevada near the Black Rock Desert, more than seven thousand citizens submitted public comments to the BLM opposing the Calico Mountain Complex Round Up, scheduled to begin on December 1, 2009. Public comment has been extended through November 22, 2009 according to the BLM.
Currently more than 33,000 wild horses are stockpiled in government holding facilities at a cost to taxpayers of $100,000 a day. The scheduled removal of 2,500 from Nevada will bring that total to more than 35,000.
“We already have enough wild horses in pens. Adding more horses to those already held in confinement, when they are much safer on the range is shortsighted, inhumane and fiscally irresponsible.” —Ginger Kathrens, Emmy Award Filmmaker & Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation.
The BLM will pay the private contractor $610 per horse rounded up for an estimated total of nearly $2 million for the Calico roundup alone according to BLM spokesperson, Tom Gorey. Branding, vaccinating, sterilizing and processing of horses to be placed in government holding will cost several million more. The BLM hired the same contractor for the controversial roundup of the famous stallion, Cloud, and his Pryor Mountain herd in September, 2009. Bands including two-month-old foals were chased down off the mountaintop by helicopter for 10-15 miles in more than 90 degree heat resulting in trauma and lameness.
"The government is acting in defiance of the spirit and intent of the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act (1971 Act) which Congress passed unanimously —Julianne French, wild horse advocate.
The 1971 Act preserves wild horses and burros in over 300 areas of publicly owned rangeland in the west, forbidding their exploitation, harassment and removal. Regardless, only 30 million acres remain of the 54 million acres designated primarily for wild horse use in 1971. Over 100 herds have been completely removed by the BLM and most remaining herds are too small to insure their long-term survival. The BLM's current policy of eradicating these herds is a betrayal of the wishes of the American public.
Sheryl Crow, with wild mustang and burro supporters, calls the public to action urging all to write, e-mail, fax and phone Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, their congressional representatives and President Obama. The list of contact phones, e-mails, faxes and mailing addresses is online here.
“It's time for all of us to speak up for our Wild Horses and Burros so we do not lose these living legends and inspiring symbols of our freedom in America.” —Sheryl Crow
Contact: John Holland
Equine Welfare Alliance
540.268.5693
john@equinewelfarealliance.org
Ginger Kathrens
The Cloud Foundation
719.633.4933
news@thecloudfoundation.org
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
A Unified Call for an Immediate Moratorium on Wild Horse & Burro Roundups
November 18, 2009
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
A Unified Call for an Immediate Moratorium on Wild Horse & Burro Roundups
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (The Cloud Foundation and Equine Welfare Alliance) – November 18, 2009
120 Organizations, celebrities and scientists in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa signed onto the following letter sent to the President, Congress and the Department of the Interior to rein in the Bureau of Land Management today.
A Unified Call for an Immediate Moratorium on Wild Horse & Burro Roundups And a humane, fiscally responsible plan for preserving and protecting the iconic,free-roaming wild horses and burros of the American West
President Obama, Members of Congress and the Department of the Interior:
We, the undersigned, request major changes to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro program. This must begin with an immediate moratorium on all roundups. While we agree that the program is in dire need of reform, and we applaud your Administration's commitment to avoid BLM’s suggested mass-killing of horses, the plan outlined in October by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar raises numerous concerns. These include:
· Perpetuating the flawed assumption that wild horses and burros are overpopulating their Western ranges. In reality, the BLM has no accurate current inventory of the 37,000 wild horses and burros it claims remain on public lands. Independent analysis of BLM’s own numbers reveal there may be only 15,000 wild horses remaining on public lands.
· Continuing the mass removal of wild horses and burros from their rightful Western ranges: The BLM intends to spend over $30 million in Fiscal Year 2010 to capture more than 12,000 wild horses and burros. This stockpiling of horses continues even as an astounding 32,000 are already being held in government holding facilities at enormous taxpayer expense.
· Scapegoating wild horses and burros for range deterioration even though they comprise only a tiny fraction of animals and wildlife grazing our public lands. Far greater damage is caused by privately-owned livestock, which outnumber the horses more than 100 to 1.
· Moving wild horses and burros east off their Western homelands to “sanctuaries” in the east and Midwest at an initial cost of $96 million creates significant health concerns if animals adapted to western landscapes are managed on wet ground and rich grasses.
Removing tens of thousands of horses and burros from their legally-designated Western ranges and moving them into government-run facilities subverts the intent of the 1971 Wild Free-roaming Horse and Burro Act, which mandated that horses be preserved “where presently found.” A 2009 DC district court case held that “Congress did not authorize BLM to “manage” the wild horses and burros by corralling them for private maintenance or long-term care as non-wild free-roaming animals off the public lands.”
We appreciate your Administration's recognition of the horses’ value as an ecotourism resource. However, the display of captive, non-reproducing herds in eastern pastures renders them little more than zoo exhibits, further discounting the contribution to our history and the future of the American West.
We believe that workable solutions to create a healthy “multiple use” of public rangelands, protect the ecological balance of all wildlife, and preserve America's wild horses and burros in their rightful, legally protected home can be achieved. We are calling on the Obama Administration to reform the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Management Program.
We ask that you reverse the current course and immediately take the following actions:
1) Place a moratorium on all roundups until accurate and independent assessments of population numbers and range conditions are made available and a final, long-term solution is formalized.
2) Restore protections included in the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. Update existing laws that protect wild horses by reopening certain public lands to the mustangs and burros, thus decreasing the number in captivity. Return healthy wild horses and burros in holding to all available acres of public land designated primarily for their use in 1971. If these lands are not available, equivalent and appropriate western public lands should be added in their place.
3) Support federal grazing permit buybacks. Reduce livestock grazing and reanalyze appropriate management levels for herd management areas to allow for self-sustaining, genetically-viable herds to exist in the west.
4) Conduct Congressional hearings regarding the mismanagement of our wild herds and further investigate the inability of BLM to correct the shortcomings of the program as audited by the Government Accountability Office’s 1990, 1991 and 2008 reports.
Supported by the undersigned on November 16, 2009 (see list of supporters below)
Contact: Ginger Kathrens
The Cloud Foundation
719.633.4933
ginger@thecloudfoundation.org
John Holland
Equine Welfare Alliance
540.268.5693
john@equinewelfarealliance.org
List of supporters:
The Undersigned Hereby Unite As One Voice Calling For An Immediate Moratorium On Wild Horse & Burro Round-Ups
Autonomous Makana Ndlambe Horse & Livestock Association, South Africa
Adapting Gaits, Inc.
Alex Brown Racing
American Horse Defense Fund
Americans Against Horse Slaughter
Americans Against Horse Slaughter in Arizona
Andean Tapir Fund
Angel's Gate Hospice & Rehabilitation Home for Animals
Animal Healing Connection
Animal Health and Safety Associates/Pixie Projects
Animal Iridology Center
Animal Law Coalition
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Animals' Angels
Beauty's Haven Farm & Equine Rescue, Inc.
Brad Woodard, Reporter
Canadian Horse Defence Coalition
Castleton Ranch Horse Rescue, Inc.
Chantal Westermann, former ABC reporter
The Cloud Foundation
Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition
The Conquistador Equine Rescue and Advocacy Program
Cornwalls Voice for Animals
Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist and author
Senator Dave Wanzenried, Montana
Deanne Stillman, Author of Mustang
DreamCatcher Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary
Ed Harris & Family
Emthunzini
Equine Advocates
Equine Protection Network
Equine Rescue and Protection Humane Society of the US, Inc.
Equine Welfare Alliance
For the Love of Jenny Animal Rescue
For the Love of the Horse
Force of the Horse© LLC.
Friends of A Legacy
Front Range Equine Rescue
George Wuerthner, ecologist
Glen Glasscock (long distance rider, world record holder)
The Golden Carrot
Gray Dapple Thoroughbred Assistance Program
Greater Houston Horse Council
Gypsy Heart Horse Rescue
Habitat for Horses, Inc.
Hacienda de los Milagros, Inc.
The Healing Journey Rescue
Helping Hearts Equine Rescue, Inc.
Hidden Creek Friesians
Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund
Home At Last Equine Rescue and Sanctuary
Honeysuckle Farms
Hope Ryden, congressional advisor on 1971 Act, Author America's Last Wild Horses
Horse Play
Horse Rescue, Relief and Retirement Fund, Inc.
Horseback Magazine
Humanion Films
Illinois Equine Humane Center, NFP
In Defense of Animals
Joe Camp, filmmaker, author The Soul of A Horse
Jouney's End Ranch Animal Sanctuary
KBR World of Wild Horses and Burros
Lacy J. Dalton, singer/songwriter
Laura Leigh, Illustrator/writer
Least Resistance Training Concepts (LRTC)
Let 'em Run
Lifesavers, Inc.
Live and Let Live Farm Rescue
Madeleine's Mustangs – Madeleine Pickens
Manes and Tails Organization
Maria Daines, Singer/Songwriter
Mary Ann Kennedy, Singer/Songwriter
MidAtlantic Horse Rescue
Mustang Spirit
Mylestone Equine Rescue
Native American Church of Ghost Dancers
Natural Horse Magazine
Natural Horse Talk
Old Friends Equine, A Kentucky Thoroughbred Retirement Facility
Paul Sorvino, Actor
Paula Bacon, former mayor of Kaufman, TX
Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary
Quarter-Acre Rescue Ranch & Equine Advocacy Center
Rainbow Meadows Rescue and Retirement, Inc.
Redwings Horse Sanctuary
Reinfree.org
Mestengo
The Rescue Friends
Sacred Heart Equine Rescue
Santiburi Farm
Saving America's Mustangs
Saving Horses, Inc.
Saving Our American Wild Horse
Second Chance Ranch
Silent Voices Equine Rescue
South Florida Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Spirit Riders Foundation
Spoiled Acres Rescue Inc
Spring Farm CARES Animal Sanctuary
Star Lit Stables
Summer Haven Rescue
Sustainable Obtainable Solutions
Terri Farley, author of The Phantom Stallion Series
Tranquility Farm
Triple H Miniature Horse Rescue
trueCOWBOYmagazine
Wayne McCrory, Wildlife Biologist and Conservationist
Wendie Malick, Actress
Valhalla Wilderness Society
WFL Endangered Stream Live
Whispering Winds Equine Rescue
Wild Burro Rescue and Preservation Project
Wild For Life Foundation
Wild Hoofbeats
Wild Horse Observers Association
Wild Horse Preservation League
Wild Horse Spirit
Wild Horse War Room
Wildhorses In Need
Win Animal Rights
WindDancer Foundation, Inc.
Winecup/Gamble Ranch
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
A Unified Call for an Immediate Moratorium on Wild Horse & Burro Roundups
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (The Cloud Foundation and Equine Welfare Alliance) – November 18, 2009
120 Organizations, celebrities and scientists in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa signed onto the following letter sent to the President, Congress and the Department of the Interior to rein in the Bureau of Land Management today.
A Unified Call for an Immediate Moratorium on Wild Horse & Burro Roundups And a humane, fiscally responsible plan for preserving and protecting the iconic,free-roaming wild horses and burros of the American West
President Obama, Members of Congress and the Department of the Interior:
We, the undersigned, request major changes to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro program. This must begin with an immediate moratorium on all roundups. While we agree that the program is in dire need of reform, and we applaud your Administration's commitment to avoid BLM’s suggested mass-killing of horses, the plan outlined in October by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar raises numerous concerns. These include:
· Perpetuating the flawed assumption that wild horses and burros are overpopulating their Western ranges. In reality, the BLM has no accurate current inventory of the 37,000 wild horses and burros it claims remain on public lands. Independent analysis of BLM’s own numbers reveal there may be only 15,000 wild horses remaining on public lands.
· Continuing the mass removal of wild horses and burros from their rightful Western ranges: The BLM intends to spend over $30 million in Fiscal Year 2010 to capture more than 12,000 wild horses and burros. This stockpiling of horses continues even as an astounding 32,000 are already being held in government holding facilities at enormous taxpayer expense.
· Scapegoating wild horses and burros for range deterioration even though they comprise only a tiny fraction of animals and wildlife grazing our public lands. Far greater damage is caused by privately-owned livestock, which outnumber the horses more than 100 to 1.
· Moving wild horses and burros east off their Western homelands to “sanctuaries” in the east and Midwest at an initial cost of $96 million creates significant health concerns if animals adapted to western landscapes are managed on wet ground and rich grasses.
Removing tens of thousands of horses and burros from their legally-designated Western ranges and moving them into government-run facilities subverts the intent of the 1971 Wild Free-roaming Horse and Burro Act, which mandated that horses be preserved “where presently found.” A 2009 DC district court case held that “Congress did not authorize BLM to “manage” the wild horses and burros by corralling them for private maintenance or long-term care as non-wild free-roaming animals off the public lands.”
We appreciate your Administration's recognition of the horses’ value as an ecotourism resource. However, the display of captive, non-reproducing herds in eastern pastures renders them little more than zoo exhibits, further discounting the contribution to our history and the future of the American West.
We believe that workable solutions to create a healthy “multiple use” of public rangelands, protect the ecological balance of all wildlife, and preserve America's wild horses and burros in their rightful, legally protected home can be achieved. We are calling on the Obama Administration to reform the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Management Program.
We ask that you reverse the current course and immediately take the following actions:
1) Place a moratorium on all roundups until accurate and independent assessments of population numbers and range conditions are made available and a final, long-term solution is formalized.
2) Restore protections included in the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. Update existing laws that protect wild horses by reopening certain public lands to the mustangs and burros, thus decreasing the number in captivity. Return healthy wild horses and burros in holding to all available acres of public land designated primarily for their use in 1971. If these lands are not available, equivalent and appropriate western public lands should be added in their place.
3) Support federal grazing permit buybacks. Reduce livestock grazing and reanalyze appropriate management levels for herd management areas to allow for self-sustaining, genetically-viable herds to exist in the west.
4) Conduct Congressional hearings regarding the mismanagement of our wild herds and further investigate the inability of BLM to correct the shortcomings of the program as audited by the Government Accountability Office’s 1990, 1991 and 2008 reports.
Supported by the undersigned on November 16, 2009 (see list of supporters below)
Contact: Ginger Kathrens
The Cloud Foundation
719.633.4933
ginger@thecloudfoundation.org
John Holland
Equine Welfare Alliance
540.268.5693
john@equinewelfarealliance.org
List of supporters:
The Undersigned Hereby Unite As One Voice Calling For An Immediate Moratorium On Wild Horse & Burro Round-Ups
Autonomous Makana Ndlambe Horse & Livestock Association, South Africa
Adapting Gaits, Inc.
Alex Brown Racing
American Horse Defense Fund
Americans Against Horse Slaughter
Americans Against Horse Slaughter in Arizona
Andean Tapir Fund
Angel's Gate Hospice & Rehabilitation Home for Animals
Animal Healing Connection
Animal Health and Safety Associates/Pixie Projects
Animal Iridology Center
Animal Law Coalition
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Animals' Angels
Beauty's Haven Farm & Equine Rescue, Inc.
Brad Woodard, Reporter
Canadian Horse Defence Coalition
Castleton Ranch Horse Rescue, Inc.
Chantal Westermann, former ABC reporter
The Cloud Foundation
Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition
The Conquistador Equine Rescue and Advocacy Program
Cornwalls Voice for Animals
Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist and author
Senator Dave Wanzenried, Montana
Deanne Stillman, Author of Mustang
DreamCatcher Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary
Ed Harris & Family
Emthunzini
Equine Advocates
Equine Protection Network
Equine Rescue and Protection Humane Society of the US, Inc.
Equine Welfare Alliance
For the Love of Jenny Animal Rescue
For the Love of the Horse
Force of the Horse© LLC.
Friends of A Legacy
Front Range Equine Rescue
George Wuerthner, ecologist
Glen Glasscock (long distance rider, world record holder)
The Golden Carrot
Gray Dapple Thoroughbred Assistance Program
Greater Houston Horse Council
Gypsy Heart Horse Rescue
Habitat for Horses, Inc.
Hacienda de los Milagros, Inc.
The Healing Journey Rescue
Helping Hearts Equine Rescue, Inc.
Hidden Creek Friesians
Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund
Home At Last Equine Rescue and Sanctuary
Honeysuckle Farms
Hope Ryden, congressional advisor on 1971 Act, Author America's Last Wild Horses
Horse Play
Horse Rescue, Relief and Retirement Fund, Inc.
Horseback Magazine
Humanion Films
Illinois Equine Humane Center, NFP
In Defense of Animals
Joe Camp, filmmaker, author The Soul of A Horse
Jouney's End Ranch Animal Sanctuary
KBR World of Wild Horses and Burros
Lacy J. Dalton, singer/songwriter
Laura Leigh, Illustrator/writer
Least Resistance Training Concepts (LRTC)
Let 'em Run
Lifesavers, Inc.
Live and Let Live Farm Rescue
Madeleine's Mustangs – Madeleine Pickens
Manes and Tails Organization
Maria Daines, Singer/Songwriter
Mary Ann Kennedy, Singer/Songwriter
MidAtlantic Horse Rescue
Mustang Spirit
Mylestone Equine Rescue
Native American Church of Ghost Dancers
Natural Horse Magazine
Natural Horse Talk
Old Friends Equine, A Kentucky Thoroughbred Retirement Facility
Paul Sorvino, Actor
Paula Bacon, former mayor of Kaufman, TX
Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary
Quarter-Acre Rescue Ranch & Equine Advocacy Center
Rainbow Meadows Rescue and Retirement, Inc.
Redwings Horse Sanctuary
Reinfree.org
Mestengo
The Rescue Friends
Sacred Heart Equine Rescue
Santiburi Farm
Saving America's Mustangs
Saving Horses, Inc.
Saving Our American Wild Horse
Second Chance Ranch
Silent Voices Equine Rescue
South Florida Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Spirit Riders Foundation
Spoiled Acres Rescue Inc
Spring Farm CARES Animal Sanctuary
Star Lit Stables
Summer Haven Rescue
Sustainable Obtainable Solutions
Terri Farley, author of The Phantom Stallion Series
Tranquility Farm
Triple H Miniature Horse Rescue
trueCOWBOYmagazine
Wayne McCrory, Wildlife Biologist and Conservationist
Wendie Malick, Actress
Valhalla Wilderness Society
WFL Endangered Stream Live
Whispering Winds Equine Rescue
Wild Burro Rescue and Preservation Project
Wild For Life Foundation
Wild Hoofbeats
Wild Horse Observers Association
Wild Horse Preservation League
Wild Horse Spirit
Wild Horse War Room
Wildhorses In Need
Win Animal Rights
WindDancer Foundation, Inc.
Winecup/Gamble Ranch
Monday, November 16, 2009
WILD HORSE PLANS "BLOODLESS GENOCIDE"
http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2009/11/114.shtml
Wild horse plans "bloodless genocide"
November 17, 2009
The increased pace of wild horse musters in the US has united the equine welfare community like never before, an advocate says.
Equine Welfare Alliance spokesman John Holland described some of the plans laid out by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is responsible for the wild herds, as bloodless genocide.
"The reckless abandon with which the BLM has accelerated its gather programme is breathtaking," Holland said.
"It has, however, had one effect that nobody could have predicted. It is so outrageous and unjustified in its implementation and so staggering in its consequences that it has galvanised and united the entire wild equine community to a level we have never seen before."
The Equine Welfare Alliance, an umbrella organisation representing more than groups, has called for a moratorium on wild horse gathers.
A recent Associated Press report suggests BLM officials have rejected the idea.
The alliance will now consider its legal options.
Holland said the equine welfare community in general and the wild equine advocates, in particular, have long been a fractious, independent bunch and difficult to bring together.
"Moreover, the anti-slaughter effort has traditionally been a different set of advocates than the wild equine movement. The same can be said of other areas of animal advocacy.
"Yet we are now seeing old adversaries bury the hatchet to pull together to a degree I would never have thought possible. They realize that once the herds have been gathered and their social structures torn apart, they will cease to be wild equines and will simply be sterile, untamed horses and an unnecessary expense to the taxpayers."
The alliance is critical of the so-called Salazar plan, which proposes more aggressive use of long-term contraceptives and relocating wild horses to up to seven new horse reserves on more productive land further east of the western rangelands.
"As to the Salazar plan specifically, we see it as a bloodless genocide at best," Holland said.
He said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has attempted to alter the discussion of what to do with the horses in long-term holding into a discussion of what to do with all the wild horses.
Wild horse plans "bloodless genocide"
November 17, 2009
The increased pace of wild horse musters in the US has united the equine welfare community like never before, an advocate says.
Equine Welfare Alliance spokesman John Holland described some of the plans laid out by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is responsible for the wild herds, as bloodless genocide.
"The reckless abandon with which the BLM has accelerated its gather programme is breathtaking," Holland said.
"It has, however, had one effect that nobody could have predicted. It is so outrageous and unjustified in its implementation and so staggering in its consequences that it has galvanised and united the entire wild equine community to a level we have never seen before."
The Equine Welfare Alliance, an umbrella organisation representing more than groups, has called for a moratorium on wild horse gathers.
A recent Associated Press report suggests BLM officials have rejected the idea.
The alliance will now consider its legal options.
Holland said the equine welfare community in general and the wild equine advocates, in particular, have long been a fractious, independent bunch and difficult to bring together.
"Moreover, the anti-slaughter effort has traditionally been a different set of advocates than the wild equine movement. The same can be said of other areas of animal advocacy.
"Yet we are now seeing old adversaries bury the hatchet to pull together to a degree I would never have thought possible. They realize that once the herds have been gathered and their social structures torn apart, they will cease to be wild equines and will simply be sterile, untamed horses and an unnecessary expense to the taxpayers."
The alliance is critical of the so-called Salazar plan, which proposes more aggressive use of long-term contraceptives and relocating wild horses to up to seven new horse reserves on more productive land further east of the western rangelands.
"As to the Salazar plan specifically, we see it as a bloodless genocide at best," Holland said.
He said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has attempted to alter the discussion of what to do with the horses in long-term holding into a discussion of what to do with all the wild horses.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Sen. Landrieu to Join Call for Moratorium on Wild Horse Gathers
Sen. Landrieu to Join Call for Moratorium on Gathers
© by Laura Allen, Executive Director, Animal Law Coalition
Update Nov. 4, 2009: Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), long a supporter of the horses, will join the call for BLM to stop the gathers, the roundups and removals, of wild horses and burros! Please write or call your U.S. representative and senators and urge themto contact Sen. Landrieu to join in this effort to put in place a moratorium to stop the gathers, the roundups and removals pending Congressional action on the future management of the wild horses and burros. Ginger Kathrens of Cloud Foundation, explains:
"[Sen. Landrieu's] letter will go to BLM Director Bob Abbey requesting an IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM on the 2009 roundups which call for removing nearly 4,000 horses of perhaps only 15,000 remaining on their range. She'd like to have other Senators and [Representatives] sign on before this letter goes out later this week.
"If they would be willing to sign on to the letter calling for a moratorium please let me know and have them call Elizabeth Craddock at Senator Landrieu's office at 202-224-5824 or Elizabeth_Craddock@landrieu.senate.gov".
Read Animal Law Coalition's reports below for more information on efforts to stop the roundups and removals and get Congress to conduct an investigation or hold a hearing on BLM's management of the wild horses and burros program and make decisions about their future.
For more information on you can help and to read the entire article: http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1081
Monday, November 2, 2009
Congressional Committee Will Call for Moratorium on Gathers
Just in from The Animal Law Coalition:
http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1081
A Congressional staff member has confirmed to Animal Law Coalition that the House Natural Resources Committee is calling on BLM to stop all gathers or removals of wild horses and burros until Congress takes action on the controversial issues surrounding the wild horses and burros. (For the entire article and what you can do to help, please click here.
http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1081
A Congressional staff member has confirmed to Animal Law Coalition that the House Natural Resources Committee is calling on BLM to stop all gathers or removals of wild horses and burros until Congress takes action on the controversial issues surrounding the wild horses and burros. (For the entire article and what you can do to help, please click here.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
A CALL FOR A CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION
A Call for a Congressional investigation!
It’s time for Congress to hold public hearings and investigate BLM’s management of the wild horses and burros particularly in light of BLM’s proposed new plan for these animals. Until this happens and Congress reaches decisions about what agency and how these animals should be managed, there should be a moratorium on all roundups. The wild horses and burros are disappearing and BLM’s plan seems largely focused on continued roundups, penning these wild animals and managing them to extinction. This was not the promise of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Go here for more - http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1081
Sunday, October 25, 2009
CJ (Potlucky) Gone too soon...
It is with heavy hearts that we inform you that our friend CJ has lost her battle with cancer. She is now pain free and at peace with her beloved pets as they make the journey across the Bridge together………..
God saw you were getting tired,
And a cure was not to be,
So he put his arms around you
And whispered, “Come to me.”
With tearful eyes we watched you,
And saw you pass away.
Although we loved you dearly,
We could not make you stay.
A golden heart stopped beating,
Hard working hands at rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us,
He only takes the best.
With love and admiration for a life well lived, a life filled with kindness and caring, we wish God Speed to our dear friend, CJ.
Shelley and Deb
Friday, September 25, 2009
SENATE VOTES TO STOP SLAUGHTER OF WILD HORSES AND BURROS!
fROM Animal Law Coalition
http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/693
Senate Votes to Stop Slaughter of Wild Horses and Burros!
Posted Feb 25, 2009 by lauraallen
Wildlife
Horse Slaughter
The Senate also prohibited BLM from using funds to kill healthy unadopted wild horses and burros!
Update Sept. 25, 2009: The Senate has voted to pass H.R. 2996, an appropriations bill for 2010 for the Dept. of Interior including the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM").
BLM manages the nation's wild horses and burros. In the bill the Senate made clear to the BLM: Appropriations ... made [in this bill]shall not be available for the destruction of healthy, unadopted, wild horses and burros in the care of the Bureau of Land Management or its contractors or for the sale of wild horses and burros that results in their destruction for processing into commercial products.
This mandate was proposed by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA). This provision must still be approved by the U.S. House.
Also at Sen. Landrieu's urging
, the Senate Appropriations Committee found "the costs for gathering and holding equines to control populations on public lands have risen beyond sustainable levels. The Committee directs the Bureau to (1) consider private proposals for long-term care of wild horses and burros; (2) create a bidding process among such proposals, and (3) prepare and publish a new comprehensive long-term plan and policy for management of wild horses and burros that involves consideration and development of proposals by non-governmental entities, by September 30, 2010."
The Committee "encourage[d] all Federal agencies that need and use horses to fulfill their responsibilities to first seek to acquire a wild horse from the Bureau of Land Management, and, prior to seeking another supplier for usable horses, document why the Bureau cannot meet the needs of the inquiring Federal agency." The Committee "encouraged" BLM "to develop an expedited process for providing wild horses to local and State police forces."
Sen. Landrieu told the Senate, "We ... are down to just a few herds of horses. And the reason that i think that this is even more important than to just western states or the ranchers or landowners or humane society and others is because for the people generally, the idea of wild spaces with wild horses is something that is really part of our heritage. And we want to make sure that that heritage isn't lost, that we're being responsible in terms of the way the land is being used for multiple purposes and from the perspective of horse advocates, that the horses themselves are being treated fairly.
"And none of that right now is being done in the way that most people, i believe, would appreciate or would be satisfied with. There have been any number of studies that i'm going to submit to the record.
"Most recently, the congressional research service as well as the government accounting office has suggested major changes to the program. I'm just going to go through a few possible options. One, the creation of several public-private sanctuaries. This has been suggested by a few fairly high-profiled individuals in our country. The idea has merit. We are working with a variety of different groups along with the department to think about the possibility of creating public-private partnerships, large sanctuaries, maybe 500,000 or a million acres where thousands of wild horses could not only roam freely in a healthy way, but they also could potentially become ecotourist opportunities for some of the states and communities as it would be an attraction that could potentially make money and attract people out to some of these western areas. Or, for that matter, grant rural areas in other parts of the country.
"There is a possibility to make some smart investments to step up some of the adoption programs that might work. And there are any number of scientific and new technologies that can be brought to bear in terms of breed management, reproductive issues that could help us get a much more cost-effective, sane and humane approach to this problem."
Read Animal Law Coalition's reports below for information about the ROAM Act which would also put an end to the slaughter of wild horses and burros and killing of healthy animals and restructure the way BLM manages these beautiful American treasures.
Also, on September 29, 2009, Tuesday, 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., join "Mustangs On The Hill" in Washington, DC. Gather on the West Front Lawn of Capitol Hill at 8:00 a.m. and spend the day meeting with Senators on the Committee of Energy and Natural Resources to urge them to support the ROAM Act. You may RSVP to mustangsonthehill@gmail.com
Before that, on September 28, 2009, Monday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. there will be a meeting of the BLM's National Wild Horses and Burros Advisory Board. Public comments are invited either in person or in writing. Plan to attend or send a statement! For more information....
WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO
Find and contact your U.S. senators here and urge them to tell the BLM to stop rounding up and removing our wild horses and also vote yes on the ROAM Act, S.B. 1579.
Go here to write your U.S. representative and urge him or her to tell the BLM to stop the roundup and removals of wild horses and burros!
Contact President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and urge them to support the ROAM Act, S.B. 1579! Phone: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-9000; Fax: 202-456-2461
The ROAM Act, S.B. 1579, has been assigned to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Fax, email or call committee here and 202-224-4971 and urge members to vote yes on S.B. 1579 to restore the protections Congress intended for America's wild horses and burros under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act passed in 1971.
Update Aug. 10: Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.VA.), long an opponent of the slaughter of American horses, has introduced the Senate version of the Restoring Our American Mustangs or ROAM. The bill, numbered S.B. 1579, is the same as the House version, H.R. 1018.The House version, H.R. 1018, has already passed.
Update July 17: After some debate on the floor, the U.S. House of Repesentatives voted to pass H.R. 1018, Restoring Our American Mustangs Act or R.O.A.M., which would restore protections for wild horses and burros lost in 2004 under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The vote was 239-185.
This bill would require the wild horses and burros have the same amount of range land that they had in 1971 when the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act became law. H.R. 1018 would also implement tracking and sterilization programs and also to improve their health and provide more opportunites for adoption. No wild horses and burros could be sent to slaughter. No healthy wild horse or burro could be killed. Here is a copy of the bill.
This bill would require an about face by the BLM in its handling of wild horses and burros which has been largely to run them down, injuring and terrorizing these animals and destroying their families; trap them in holding pens and sell them for slaughter or euthanize them. Go here for more information on the BLM's plans to destroy wild horses and burros. And, go here for more on BLM policies regarding wild horses and burros.
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) proposed a substitute that would simply have banned the slaughter of wild horses and burros. It would not have stopped the BLM, however, from rounding up these animals, keeping them in holding pens at a cost of about $20 million annually, and simply euthanizing them. That substitute was defeated by a vote of 348-74 in favor of the more comprehensive approach offered by H.R. 1018!
For more information on the bill, read Animal Law Coalition's reports below.
Update April 29: H.R. 1018 has passed the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee!
The vote was 21-14.
For more on H.R. 1018, R.O.A.M., the bill to restore the protections of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act and how you can help pass it, read Animal Law Coalition's report below.
Original report: Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Az) have introduced H.R. 1018 to restore protections for wild horses and burros under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
Basically, the bill saves wild horses and burros from commercial sale and slaughter as originally intended under the Act.
The protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 were gutted in 2004 for many thousands of horses, leaving them at risk of sale and slaughter. That Act, 16 U.S.C. §1331, et seq., declares, "It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands."
In 2004 then Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), now a pro-horse slaughter lobbyist with the Washington D.C. firm, Gage, buried an amendment to this Act in a 3,300 page appropriations bill. That infamous amendment opened the door to the slaughter of thousands of horses. Basically under the Act there are certain horses and burros defined as excess animals. These are animals the [Bureau of Land Management] "BLM" has removed from an area "to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area" or for some other legal reason. See 16 USC §1332(f).
Under Burns Amendment, these "excess" horses "shall be sold...if the excess animal is more than 10 years of age; or ... has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times." 16 U.S.C. §1333. Any horse sold under this provision is no longer subject to the protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. 16 U.S.C.§1333. Since this amendment became effective, thousands of horses have been slaughtered for human consumption.
H.R. 1018 reverses the Burns Amendment. Though recent federal court rulings and Congressional action as well as state laws have shut down horse slaughter for human consumption in the U.S., for now, American horses are still shipped outside of the U.S., usually to Mexico and Canada for slaughter for their horse meat consumed primarily as a delicacy in some other countries.
This bill, H.R. 1018, will at least protect wild horses and burros from this fate.
A similar measure passed the House in the last session by a vote of 277-137 but remained stuck in a Senate committee.
This bill, H.R. 1018, would also prohibit the killing of healthy wild horses for any reason. Last year the Bureau of Land Management had proposed euthanizing wild horses en masse. Go here for more on that. And here.
This bill would require the Bureau of Land Management to take steps to improve the tracking and census of these animals by adopting and "[e]mploy scientifically sound methods to develop a policy for setting consistent, appropriate management levels". The bill clarifies that in doing so, the agency would be required to consult with other federal agencies and other experts including those outside of the government.
Finding more range land and sanctuaries and reducing numbers through contraception
The BLM would be required to "[i]dentify new, appropriate rangelands for wild free-roaming horses and burros, including use of land acquisitions, exchanges, conservation easements, and voluntary grazing buyouts, and negotiate with private landowners to allow for the federally supervised protection of wild horses and burros on private lands." The new law would required the BLM to "[e]stablish sanctuaries or exclusive use areas" and, significantly, "[r]esearch, develop, and implement enhanced surgical or immunocontraception sterilization or other safe methods of fertility control."
The BLM would be required to develop and implement a much more aggressive adoption program that would also more rigorously screen adopters. Notably, the bill would not allow helicopters or "other [inhumane] airborne devices" for corraling and removing wild horses and burros. Also, wild horses and burros could not be contained in "corrals or other holding facilities for more than 6 months, while awaiting disposition."
Wild horses and burros could be removed temporarily otherwise from rangeland in the event of threats to their health and safety such as drought conditions.
A more open, accessible BLM when it comes to wild horses and burros
The public's right to be involved in in determining management level standards is guaranteed under this bill. The new law would require the BLM also to post information on a website accessible free of charge to the public about herd numbers, planned removals of horses or burros, animals injured during removals, and generally the treatment of wild horses and burros.
The BLM would be required to report annually to Congress the following: (1) number of acres for wild free-roaming horses and burros. (2) appropriate management levels on public rangelands, (3) description of the methods used to determine the appropriate management levels and whether it was applied consistently across the agency, (4) number of wild free-roaming horses and burros on public lands; (5) description of the methods used to determine the wild free-roaming horse and burro population; (6) any land acquisitions, exchanges, conservation easements, and voluntary grazing buyouts that the Bureau of Land Management has acquired or pursued for wild free-roaming horses and burros; (7) any sanctuaries or exclusive use areas established for wild free-roaming horses and burros; (8) programs including budget established for enhanced surgical or immunocontraception sterilization research and development and the extent to which fertility control is being used to control the population of wild free-roaming horses and burros;(9) ratio of horses the agency has contracepted and put back on the range; and (10) herds to which contraception has been administered and with what results.
Rep. Rahall chairs the House Natural Resources Committee and Rep. Grijalva leads the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.
http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/693
Senate Votes to Stop Slaughter of Wild Horses and Burros!
Posted Feb 25, 2009 by lauraallen
Wildlife
Horse Slaughter
The Senate also prohibited BLM from using funds to kill healthy unadopted wild horses and burros!
Update Sept. 25, 2009: The Senate has voted to pass H.R. 2996, an appropriations bill for 2010 for the Dept. of Interior including the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM").
BLM manages the nation's wild horses and burros. In the bill the Senate made clear to the BLM: Appropriations ... made [in this bill]shall not be available for the destruction of healthy, unadopted, wild horses and burros in the care of the Bureau of Land Management or its contractors or for the sale of wild horses and burros that results in their destruction for processing into commercial products.
This mandate was proposed by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA). This provision must still be approved by the U.S. House.
Also at Sen. Landrieu's urging
, the Senate Appropriations Committee found "the costs for gathering and holding equines to control populations on public lands have risen beyond sustainable levels. The Committee directs the Bureau to (1) consider private proposals for long-term care of wild horses and burros; (2) create a bidding process among such proposals, and (3) prepare and publish a new comprehensive long-term plan and policy for management of wild horses and burros that involves consideration and development of proposals by non-governmental entities, by September 30, 2010."
The Committee "encourage[d] all Federal agencies that need and use horses to fulfill their responsibilities to first seek to acquire a wild horse from the Bureau of Land Management, and, prior to seeking another supplier for usable horses, document why the Bureau cannot meet the needs of the inquiring Federal agency." The Committee "encouraged" BLM "to develop an expedited process for providing wild horses to local and State police forces."
Sen. Landrieu told the Senate, "We ... are down to just a few herds of horses. And the reason that i think that this is even more important than to just western states or the ranchers or landowners or humane society and others is because for the people generally, the idea of wild spaces with wild horses is something that is really part of our heritage. And we want to make sure that that heritage isn't lost, that we're being responsible in terms of the way the land is being used for multiple purposes and from the perspective of horse advocates, that the horses themselves are being treated fairly.
"And none of that right now is being done in the way that most people, i believe, would appreciate or would be satisfied with. There have been any number of studies that i'm going to submit to the record.
"Most recently, the congressional research service as well as the government accounting office has suggested major changes to the program. I'm just going to go through a few possible options. One, the creation of several public-private sanctuaries. This has been suggested by a few fairly high-profiled individuals in our country. The idea has merit. We are working with a variety of different groups along with the department to think about the possibility of creating public-private partnerships, large sanctuaries, maybe 500,000 or a million acres where thousands of wild horses could not only roam freely in a healthy way, but they also could potentially become ecotourist opportunities for some of the states and communities as it would be an attraction that could potentially make money and attract people out to some of these western areas. Or, for that matter, grant rural areas in other parts of the country.
"There is a possibility to make some smart investments to step up some of the adoption programs that might work. And there are any number of scientific and new technologies that can be brought to bear in terms of breed management, reproductive issues that could help us get a much more cost-effective, sane and humane approach to this problem."
Read Animal Law Coalition's reports below for information about the ROAM Act which would also put an end to the slaughter of wild horses and burros and killing of healthy animals and restructure the way BLM manages these beautiful American treasures.
Also, on September 29, 2009, Tuesday, 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., join "Mustangs On The Hill" in Washington, DC. Gather on the West Front Lawn of Capitol Hill at 8:00 a.m. and spend the day meeting with Senators on the Committee of Energy and Natural Resources to urge them to support the ROAM Act. You may RSVP to mustangsonthehill@gmail.com
Before that, on September 28, 2009, Monday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. there will be a meeting of the BLM's National Wild Horses and Burros Advisory Board. Public comments are invited either in person or in writing. Plan to attend or send a statement! For more information....
WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO
Find and contact your U.S. senators here and urge them to tell the BLM to stop rounding up and removing our wild horses and also vote yes on the ROAM Act, S.B. 1579.
Go here to write your U.S. representative and urge him or her to tell the BLM to stop the roundup and removals of wild horses and burros!
Contact President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and urge them to support the ROAM Act, S.B. 1579! Phone: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-9000; Fax: 202-456-2461
The ROAM Act, S.B. 1579, has been assigned to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Fax, email or call committee here and 202-224-4971 and urge members to vote yes on S.B. 1579 to restore the protections Congress intended for America's wild horses and burros under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act passed in 1971.
Update Aug. 10: Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.VA.), long an opponent of the slaughter of American horses, has introduced the Senate version of the Restoring Our American Mustangs or ROAM. The bill, numbered S.B. 1579, is the same as the House version, H.R. 1018.The House version, H.R. 1018, has already passed.
Update July 17: After some debate on the floor, the U.S. House of Repesentatives voted to pass H.R. 1018, Restoring Our American Mustangs Act or R.O.A.M., which would restore protections for wild horses and burros lost in 2004 under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The vote was 239-185.
This bill would require the wild horses and burros have the same amount of range land that they had in 1971 when the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act became law. H.R. 1018 would also implement tracking and sterilization programs and also to improve their health and provide more opportunites for adoption. No wild horses and burros could be sent to slaughter. No healthy wild horse or burro could be killed. Here is a copy of the bill.
This bill would require an about face by the BLM in its handling of wild horses and burros which has been largely to run them down, injuring and terrorizing these animals and destroying their families; trap them in holding pens and sell them for slaughter or euthanize them. Go here for more information on the BLM's plans to destroy wild horses and burros. And, go here for more on BLM policies regarding wild horses and burros.
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) proposed a substitute that would simply have banned the slaughter of wild horses and burros. It would not have stopped the BLM, however, from rounding up these animals, keeping them in holding pens at a cost of about $20 million annually, and simply euthanizing them. That substitute was defeated by a vote of 348-74 in favor of the more comprehensive approach offered by H.R. 1018!
For more information on the bill, read Animal Law Coalition's reports below.
Update April 29: H.R. 1018 has passed the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee!
The vote was 21-14.
For more on H.R. 1018, R.O.A.M., the bill to restore the protections of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act and how you can help pass it, read Animal Law Coalition's report below.
Original report: Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Az) have introduced H.R. 1018 to restore protections for wild horses and burros under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
Basically, the bill saves wild horses and burros from commercial sale and slaughter as originally intended under the Act.
The protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 were gutted in 2004 for many thousands of horses, leaving them at risk of sale and slaughter. That Act, 16 U.S.C. §1331, et seq., declares, "It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands."
In 2004 then Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), now a pro-horse slaughter lobbyist with the Washington D.C. firm, Gage, buried an amendment to this Act in a 3,300 page appropriations bill. That infamous amendment opened the door to the slaughter of thousands of horses. Basically under the Act there are certain horses and burros defined as excess animals. These are animals the [Bureau of Land Management] "BLM" has removed from an area "to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area" or for some other legal reason. See 16 USC §1332(f).
Under Burns Amendment, these "excess" horses "shall be sold...if the excess animal is more than 10 years of age; or ... has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times." 16 U.S.C. §1333. Any horse sold under this provision is no longer subject to the protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. 16 U.S.C.§1333. Since this amendment became effective, thousands of horses have been slaughtered for human consumption.
H.R. 1018 reverses the Burns Amendment. Though recent federal court rulings and Congressional action as well as state laws have shut down horse slaughter for human consumption in the U.S., for now, American horses are still shipped outside of the U.S., usually to Mexico and Canada for slaughter for their horse meat consumed primarily as a delicacy in some other countries.
This bill, H.R. 1018, will at least protect wild horses and burros from this fate.
A similar measure passed the House in the last session by a vote of 277-137 but remained stuck in a Senate committee.
This bill, H.R. 1018, would also prohibit the killing of healthy wild horses for any reason. Last year the Bureau of Land Management had proposed euthanizing wild horses en masse. Go here for more on that. And here.
This bill would require the Bureau of Land Management to take steps to improve the tracking and census of these animals by adopting and "[e]mploy scientifically sound methods to develop a policy for setting consistent, appropriate management levels". The bill clarifies that in doing so, the agency would be required to consult with other federal agencies and other experts including those outside of the government.
Finding more range land and sanctuaries and reducing numbers through contraception
The BLM would be required to "[i]dentify new, appropriate rangelands for wild free-roaming horses and burros, including use of land acquisitions, exchanges, conservation easements, and voluntary grazing buyouts, and negotiate with private landowners to allow for the federally supervised protection of wild horses and burros on private lands." The new law would required the BLM to "[e]stablish sanctuaries or exclusive use areas" and, significantly, "[r]esearch, develop, and implement enhanced surgical or immunocontraception sterilization or other safe methods of fertility control."
The BLM would be required to develop and implement a much more aggressive adoption program that would also more rigorously screen adopters. Notably, the bill would not allow helicopters or "other [inhumane] airborne devices" for corraling and removing wild horses and burros. Also, wild horses and burros could not be contained in "corrals or other holding facilities for more than 6 months, while awaiting disposition."
Wild horses and burros could be removed temporarily otherwise from rangeland in the event of threats to their health and safety such as drought conditions.
A more open, accessible BLM when it comes to wild horses and burros
The public's right to be involved in in determining management level standards is guaranteed under this bill. The new law would require the BLM also to post information on a website accessible free of charge to the public about herd numbers, planned removals of horses or burros, animals injured during removals, and generally the treatment of wild horses and burros.
The BLM would be required to report annually to Congress the following: (1) number of acres for wild free-roaming horses and burros. (2) appropriate management levels on public rangelands, (3) description of the methods used to determine the appropriate management levels and whether it was applied consistently across the agency, (4) number of wild free-roaming horses and burros on public lands; (5) description of the methods used to determine the wild free-roaming horse and burro population; (6) any land acquisitions, exchanges, conservation easements, and voluntary grazing buyouts that the Bureau of Land Management has acquired or pursued for wild free-roaming horses and burros; (7) any sanctuaries or exclusive use areas established for wild free-roaming horses and burros; (8) programs including budget established for enhanced surgical or immunocontraception sterilization research and development and the extent to which fertility control is being used to control the population of wild free-roaming horses and burros;(9) ratio of horses the agency has contracepted and put back on the range; and (10) herds to which contraception has been administered and with what results.
Rep. Rahall chairs the House Natural Resources Committee and Rep. Grijalva leads the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.
U.S. Senate Pass New Bill that Order BLM to Institue a New Plan
From Horse Back Magazine:
The United States Senate has passed a tough new bill that orders the Bureau of Land Management to institute a new plan for its management of wild horses. The legislation was introduced by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D), La.
For details of the surprise legislation go to http://www.horsebac kmagazine. com.
Horseback's cover story on America's Will Horses will be out next week.
The United States Senate has passed a tough new bill that orders the Bureau of Land Management to institute a new plan for its management of wild horses. The legislation was introduced by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D), La.
For details of the surprise legislation go to http://www.horsebac kmagazine. com.
Horseback's cover story on America's Will Horses will be out next week.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Senator Landrieu, Congressman Grijalva Join Stand with The Mustangs!
From The Cloud Foundation:
BLM Capture of Iconic Wild Horse Herd Sparks Controversy
Senator Landrieu, Congressman Grijalva Join Public in Calling for an Immediate End to the Mismanagement of the West’s Living Legends
For Immediate Release
LOVELL, WY-- September 17, 2009 -- Once wild and free, living in spectacular sub-alpine meadows designated by Congress as their home, 57 wild Mustangs now wait in dusty pens in the 90 degree heat. The BLM pens sit at the base of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range of Wyoming and Montana. The corrals offer no shade for the wild horses, now branded, with ropes and numbers around their necks. 19 year-old Conquistador is no longer a proud band stallion. He is number 5336. 21 year-old Grumpy Grulla is no longer a lead mare. She is number 5321. -->-->
--> -->
The Pryor Mountain wild horses have been made world famous by the popular PBS Nature series that has followed the pale Palomino Stallion “Cloud,” throughout his lifetime. The third program will air this Fall in October, but many of the horses the world will meet next month are among those being put up for sale and adoption at the Britton Springs corrals in Lovell, WY on Sept. 26th. “They are losing what they value most – their freedom and their families,” says Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation.-->-->
--> -->
“Despite a National outcry and letters from Congress demanding that the BLM halt these roundups until an acceptable long-term plan is made, we have yet to see them make a single concession to an outraged public. Somewhere along the line BLM forgot that these are the public’s horses on the public’s land.” Kathrens continues.-->-->
--> -->
Great hopes for change lie in the Restore Our American Mustang Act (ROAM- §1579), now in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Advocates are planning a gathering, “Mustangs on the Hill,” in Washington D.C. on September 29th. Supporters of preserving our wild herds will fan out and meet with key Senate staffers and Senators. “The ROAM Act comes too late for thousands of horses, but we are hopeful that Congress can ride to the rescue for our wild horses,” states Arizona advocate, Julianne French. The Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971 saved wild horses in the American West from complete destruction. Since then, the BLM, charged with their protection, has failed to follow the Act. Nearly 20 million acres have been taken away from the dedicated land set aside for America’s wild horses. Over 30,000 wild horses are held by the BLM at a cost of over $100,000 per day according to Ed Roberson, Department of Interior official. Advocates are demanding that the wild horses be returned to the rangelands that were stolen from them. Congressman Grijalva (D-AZ) called for a stop to all roundups and Senator Landrieu (D-LA) recently called for the management of wild horses to be taken away from the BLM altogether. -->-->
--> -->
The American public is enamored with the mustang, one of the last symbols of freedom and the disappearing spirit of the American West. "Isn’t it time that the public finds out the truth, that this gross misconduct is not a result of managing for ‘healthy horses on healthy rangelands, but is an all out eradication of America’s wild horses?” questions advocate Monika Courtney. “Will hoof beats be replaced completely by oil and gas rigs and uranium mines as the old-guard BLM regime carries forth? BLM is betraying not only our horses, but our nation.” As one advocate stated, “The West will one day be about as wild as Wal-Mart.”-->-->
--> -->
The small Spanish mustangs in the Pryor herd, descendents of the Lewis and Clark expedition horses and the original Crow war ponies, may not be aware that their highly contested roundup and subsequent removal has created a wave a protest from Thoroughbred racing forums to front porches in South Texas. “A whole new group of advocates concerned about our wild horses have come out against this roundup,” states Willis Lamm, a horse trainer noted for his work with BLM mustangs. “Moving forward with this roundup was a huge mistake on the part of the BLM.” -->-->
--> -->
--> -->
For more information contact:-->-->
The Cloud Foundation-->-->
Valerie Kennedy, Public Relations Manager 312-371-4933-->-->
Makendra Silverman, Associate Director 719-351-8187-->-->
info@thecloudfoundation.org-->-->
-->
BLM Capture of Iconic Wild Horse Herd Sparks Controversy
Senator Landrieu, Congressman Grijalva Join Public in Calling for an Immediate End to the Mismanagement of the West’s Living Legends
For Immediate Release
LOVELL, WY-- September 17, 2009 -- Once wild and free, living in spectacular sub-alpine meadows designated by Congress as their home, 57 wild Mustangs now wait in dusty pens in the 90 degree heat. The BLM pens sit at the base of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range of Wyoming and Montana. The corrals offer no shade for the wild horses, now branded, with ropes and numbers around their necks. 19 year-old Conquistador is no longer a proud band stallion. He is number 5336. 21 year-old Grumpy Grulla is no longer a lead mare. She is number 5321. -->-->
--> -->
The Pryor Mountain wild horses have been made world famous by the popular PBS Nature series that has followed the pale Palomino Stallion “Cloud,” throughout his lifetime. The third program will air this Fall in October, but many of the horses the world will meet next month are among those being put up for sale and adoption at the Britton Springs corrals in Lovell, WY on Sept. 26th. “They are losing what they value most – their freedom and their families,” says Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation.-->-->
--> -->
“Despite a National outcry and letters from Congress demanding that the BLM halt these roundups until an acceptable long-term plan is made, we have yet to see them make a single concession to an outraged public. Somewhere along the line BLM forgot that these are the public’s horses on the public’s land.” Kathrens continues.-->-->
--> -->
Great hopes for change lie in the Restore Our American Mustang Act (ROAM- §1579), now in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Advocates are planning a gathering, “Mustangs on the Hill,” in Washington D.C. on September 29th. Supporters of preserving our wild herds will fan out and meet with key Senate staffers and Senators. “The ROAM Act comes too late for thousands of horses, but we are hopeful that Congress can ride to the rescue for our wild horses,” states Arizona advocate, Julianne French. The Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971 saved wild horses in the American West from complete destruction. Since then, the BLM, charged with their protection, has failed to follow the Act. Nearly 20 million acres have been taken away from the dedicated land set aside for America’s wild horses. Over 30,000 wild horses are held by the BLM at a cost of over $100,000 per day according to Ed Roberson, Department of Interior official. Advocates are demanding that the wild horses be returned to the rangelands that were stolen from them. Congressman Grijalva (D-AZ) called for a stop to all roundups and Senator Landrieu (D-LA) recently called for the management of wild horses to be taken away from the BLM altogether. -->-->
--> -->
The American public is enamored with the mustang, one of the last symbols of freedom and the disappearing spirit of the American West. "Isn’t it time that the public finds out the truth, that this gross misconduct is not a result of managing for ‘healthy horses on healthy rangelands, but is an all out eradication of America’s wild horses?” questions advocate Monika Courtney. “Will hoof beats be replaced completely by oil and gas rigs and uranium mines as the old-guard BLM regime carries forth? BLM is betraying not only our horses, but our nation.” As one advocate stated, “The West will one day be about as wild as Wal-Mart.”-->-->
--> -->
The small Spanish mustangs in the Pryor herd, descendents of the Lewis and Clark expedition horses and the original Crow war ponies, may not be aware that their highly contested roundup and subsequent removal has created a wave a protest from Thoroughbred racing forums to front porches in South Texas. “A whole new group of advocates concerned about our wild horses have come out against this roundup,” states Willis Lamm, a horse trainer noted for his work with BLM mustangs. “Moving forward with this roundup was a huge mistake on the part of the BLM.” -->-->
--> -->
--> -->
For more information contact:-->-->
The Cloud Foundation-->-->
Valerie Kennedy, Public Relations Manager 312-371-4933-->-->
Makendra Silverman, Associate Director 719-351-8187-->-->
info@thecloudfoundation.org-->-->
-->
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Horses from Cloud's Herd will be Slaughtered
http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1025
Horses from Cloud's Herd will be Slaughtered
Posted Aug 28, 2009 by lauraallen
Horse Slaughter
Update Sept. 10: Curiously, when a concerned citizen called the BLM to ask the fate of the horses to be permanently removed from Cloud's Herd, she was told all would be adopted to good homes.
Not true. The BLM confirms on its own website that "sale-eligible horses (over 10 years old) will go through the sale authority process (oral competitive bid for one round then first come-first serve)."
That means kill buyers will be there to purchase the horses for slaughter. Jerry Finch of Habitat for Horses states, "Previous statements by the BLM were that they would remove only 70 of 190 horses. Today they are exceeding that number by going beyond their specific Herd Management Area (HMA) and rounding up bands outside of their legal perimeter in Custer National Forest, branding and tagging them and shipping them to holding pens ready to be sent away. All this is being done by a contractor previously convicted of ..capturing and killing unbranded horses, mares and colts running at large on public land."
The auction for these horses from Cloud's Herd is planned for September 26. Go here for the reaction of some members of Congress to BLM's continued harassment and elimination of America's wild horses.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Keep writing and calling! Don't wait. Do it now. Of course, be very polite.
BLM Director Bob Abbey
Call: 202-208-3801 or 866-468-7826
Fax: 202-208-5242
Robert_Abbey@blm.gov
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden
Phone: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-9000
Fax: 202-456-2461
House Committee on Natural Resources 202-225-6065
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 202-224-4971
Find and contact your U.S. senators here and urge them to tell the BLM to stop this atrocity to Cloud's Herd and also vote yes on S.B. 1579. Go here for more on S.B. 1579.
Go here to write your U.S. representative and urge him or her to tell the BLM to stop the roundup of Cloud's Herd.
Plan to attend or send a statement to the meeting of the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board on Sept. 28-29.
For more on this, read Animal Law Coalition's earlier reports below.
Update Sept. 9: The Pryor Mountain Roundup has been called off! The BLM is leaving alone around 25 horses - 4 family bands.
Red Raven and his family are hiding in the mountains. Two foals are thought to be with this family.
The BLM will release some horses today, including most of Cloud's family. (Cloud is pictured here in captivity.) But there is no plan to release older horses slated for sale, meaning slaughter.
Update Sept. 7: Cloud, pictured here in captivity, the namesake of the herd, has been captured. But not without a fight. Go here for more.
The BLM has also announced that of the 70 wild horses that will be permanently removed, those 10 years of age and older, will be sold. That means these animals will likely end up at Mexican or Canadian slaughter houses. Earlier BLM had said the horses would be adopted to good homes.
Sadly, the contractor hired by the BLM for the round up of Cloud's Herd in the Pryor Mountains, is Dave Cattoor, previously indicted on federal charges of illegally running down wild horses and foals in Nevada with a helicopter and selling them for slaughter. The BLM pays him $7,000 per day for this round up.
Watch video of the roundup of Cloud's Herd and discussion of the controversy.
Update Sept. 2, 2009: U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington, D.C., has denied a motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, (attached below) filed by Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue and nature photographer, Carol Walker, in their lawsuit to stop the roundup of Cloud's herd.
The motion basically asked the judge to order the roundup delayed until the lawsuit is resolved. A hearing to resolve the lawsuit on summary judgment is set for December 3, 2009.
The U.S. attorneys representing the BLM in the lawsuit agreed to delay the roundup set to begin Sept. 1 until the judge ruled on the motion. The judge issued the denial following a hearing on Sept. 2.
Watch the videos here for more information. Go here for a look at what happens to horses including foals during these roundups.
Original report: Beginning on September 1, 2009, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency within the U.S. Dept of Interior, plans to begin rounding up "nearly all wild horses" in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in Montana.
The Cloud Foundation estimates there are 190 wild horses living in the mountains that are 1 year old or older.
The herd is called Cloud's Herd for the horse filmed by Ginger Kathrens, founder of the Cloud Foundation, when he was just a colt. Cloud lives wild and free with his family. At least for now.
The BLM plans to remove permanently "up to 70 adults including foals", having decided they are excess horses. 60 mares will be treated with a fertility control, Porca Zonae Pellucidae (PZP), and released. The way the BLM put it in its Environmental Assessment or EA which the agency is required to prepare pursuant to National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321, et seq., "The method of capture w[ill] be helicopter drive-trapping using temporary traps of portable panels as well as trapping directly at Britton Springs Corrals. After capture in the trap, horses would be sorted on site and treated with fertility control or taken to the Britton Springs administrative site for sorting and application of fertility control. Treated mares and stallions identified for retention would be released either during or after gather operations. ....Excess wild horses removed w[ill] be prepared for adoption or sale at the Britton Springs Facility."
Cloud or his family could well be among those horses deemed to be "excess" by BLM and sold. Certainly, it is unlikely they will be together again as a family.
Excess wild horses is a legal term that means horses BLM has decided to remove from an area "to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area" or for some other legal reason. See 16 USC §1332(f).
Under a 2004 amendment to the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which authorizes BLM to manage these animals, "excess" horses "shall be sold...if the excess animal is more than 10 years of age; or ... has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times." 16 U.S.C. §1333. Any horse sold under this provision is no longer subject to the protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. 16 U.S.C.§1333. Since this amendment became effective, BLM has sold thousands of wild horses for slaughter.
The horses are panicked, terrified, traumatized and many times injured as they are run down by the helicopters. Families will be separated and destroyed, probably forever. It is unlikely the BLM would bother to keep even horses marked for release together in their families.
Go here for more information about what happens to these wild horses and burros when the BLM rounds them up.
As a reason for the removal of the 70 horses including foals from the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, the BLM says only there has been "resource damage". Its EA cites to "[d]eteriorating range and forest conditions associated with past management practices". In BLM's Record of Decision issued this month, August, 2009, the BLM says only the removal will limit the horses to their herd area, "limit competition among wild horses and wildlife" presumably for food, and "prevent deterioration of rangelands and vegetation resources". It is mentioned there has been limited water.
But, according to Cloud Foundation, there has been 3 years of rainfall that has ended the drought and left the range in "excellent condition".
The BLM also refers to a need to "maintain a multiple use relationship for the area".
The wild horses and burros are actually supposed to be protected under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. In passing that law Congress declared that, "wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West"..."[T]hey contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people". Congress recognized the wild horses and burros are "fast disappearing from the American scene". "[W]ild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of public lands." 16 U.S.C. § 1331.
Indeed, the Pryor Mountain wild horses are descendants of horses in the Lewis and Clark expedition that came to be owned by the Crow tribe in the early 1800's. George Reed, Secretary of Cultural Education for the Crow Tribe Executive Branch, wrote in 2006: "We advocate preserving our heritage, culture and language, and these Pryor wild horses are part of our culture."
The WFHBA requires that BLM management activities be at "the minimal feasible level." Id. According to its own regulations, BLM must protect wild horses and burros from unauthorized capture, branding, harassment or death and provide these animals with humane care and treatment. 43 C.F.R. § 4700.
Under the WFHBA, wild horses are "to be considered in the area" where they were found in 1971 "as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands." 16 U.S.C. § 1331. These legally protected areas are known as "herd areas," and are defined as "the geographic area identified as having been used by a herd as its habitat in 1971." 43 C.F.R. § 4700.0-5(d).
A brutal wholesale round up and removal, even slaughter, of so many horses is surely a direct violation of the protections of the WFHBA. It's hardly management of the herd at the "minimal feasible level".
According to the Cloud Foundation, this removal of 70 horses will leave this unique and historical herd genetically non-viable and unable to sustain itself into the future. Equine geneticist, Gus Cothran, Ph.D. of Texas A&M University, states that "a census population of 150-200 is required to achieve the minimum effective population size.... The [Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Herd] has been one of the most important and visible herds within the BLM Wild Horse Program and it is important that it stays viable."
Just last month a federal judge entered an injunction to stop a BLM decision to eliminate an entire herd of horses in a range in Colorado. The BLM had decided simply to eliminate the horses even though the agency agreed the horses were not "excess". The BLM has also decided to eliminate entire herds, 620 horses, from their ranges in Nevada.
The Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue and nature photographer Carol Walker, have filed a lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction in the federal district court in Washington, DC to stop the roundup and removal of horses from the Range.
The plaintiffs claim the BLM has violated NEPA by failing to prepare and Environmental Impact Statement, consider alternatives, and take a "hard look" at the environmental consequences. They claim the BLM's proposed action means the herd will not be genetically viable. Also, the plaintiffs claim BLM relied on a 2004 study to support its contention the range has deteriorated when there is evidence that since then with the end of the drought, the range conditions have greatly improved.
The plaintiffs also claim these actions by the BLM violate WHBA's mandate to manage the wild horses at the "minimal feasible level" and protect them from harassment, capture and death.
A copy of the Complaint is attached below to this article. Animal Law Coalition will bring you more information about this lawsuit as it becomes available. In the meantime:
Read about BLM's final solution for America's wild horses and burros.
Listen to Angels for Cloud on WFL Endangered Stream Live radio
Go here for information about and how you can help pass a bill pending in Congress, Restoring Our American Mustangs or ROAM, S.B. 1579, that would restore protections under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act 0f 1971 that were lost in 2004.
For more on this historic herd, go to http://www.cloudfoundation.org/
Information was provided for this article by Equine Welfare Alliance. Photographs courtesy of R.T. Fitch.
Horses from Cloud's Herd will be Slaughtered
Posted Aug 28, 2009 by lauraallen
Horse Slaughter
Update Sept. 10: Curiously, when a concerned citizen called the BLM to ask the fate of the horses to be permanently removed from Cloud's Herd, she was told all would be adopted to good homes.
Not true. The BLM confirms on its own website that "sale-eligible horses (over 10 years old) will go through the sale authority process (oral competitive bid for one round then first come-first serve)."
That means kill buyers will be there to purchase the horses for slaughter. Jerry Finch of Habitat for Horses states, "Previous statements by the BLM were that they would remove only 70 of 190 horses. Today they are exceeding that number by going beyond their specific Herd Management Area (HMA) and rounding up bands outside of their legal perimeter in Custer National Forest, branding and tagging them and shipping them to holding pens ready to be sent away. All this is being done by a contractor previously convicted of ..capturing and killing unbranded horses, mares and colts running at large on public land."
The auction for these horses from Cloud's Herd is planned for September 26. Go here for the reaction of some members of Congress to BLM's continued harassment and elimination of America's wild horses.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Keep writing and calling! Don't wait. Do it now. Of course, be very polite.
BLM Director Bob Abbey
Call: 202-208-3801 or 866-468-7826
Fax: 202-208-5242
Robert_Abbey@blm.gov
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden
Phone: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-9000
Fax: 202-456-2461
House Committee on Natural Resources 202-225-6065
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 202-224-4971
Find and contact your U.S. senators here and urge them to tell the BLM to stop this atrocity to Cloud's Herd and also vote yes on S.B. 1579. Go here for more on S.B. 1579.
Go here to write your U.S. representative and urge him or her to tell the BLM to stop the roundup of Cloud's Herd.
Plan to attend or send a statement to the meeting of the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board on Sept. 28-29.
For more on this, read Animal Law Coalition's earlier reports below.
Update Sept. 9: The Pryor Mountain Roundup has been called off! The BLM is leaving alone around 25 horses - 4 family bands.
Red Raven and his family are hiding in the mountains. Two foals are thought to be with this family.
The BLM will release some horses today, including most of Cloud's family. (Cloud is pictured here in captivity.) But there is no plan to release older horses slated for sale, meaning slaughter.
Update Sept. 7: Cloud, pictured here in captivity, the namesake of the herd, has been captured. But not without a fight. Go here for more.
The BLM has also announced that of the 70 wild horses that will be permanently removed, those 10 years of age and older, will be sold. That means these animals will likely end up at Mexican or Canadian slaughter houses. Earlier BLM had said the horses would be adopted to good homes.
Sadly, the contractor hired by the BLM for the round up of Cloud's Herd in the Pryor Mountains, is Dave Cattoor, previously indicted on federal charges of illegally running down wild horses and foals in Nevada with a helicopter and selling them for slaughter. The BLM pays him $7,000 per day for this round up.
Watch video of the roundup of Cloud's Herd and discussion of the controversy.
Update Sept. 2, 2009: U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington, D.C., has denied a motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, (attached below) filed by Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue and nature photographer, Carol Walker, in their lawsuit to stop the roundup of Cloud's herd.
The motion basically asked the judge to order the roundup delayed until the lawsuit is resolved. A hearing to resolve the lawsuit on summary judgment is set for December 3, 2009.
The U.S. attorneys representing the BLM in the lawsuit agreed to delay the roundup set to begin Sept. 1 until the judge ruled on the motion. The judge issued the denial following a hearing on Sept. 2.
Watch the videos here for more information. Go here for a look at what happens to horses including foals during these roundups.
Original report: Beginning on September 1, 2009, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency within the U.S. Dept of Interior, plans to begin rounding up "nearly all wild horses" in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in Montana.
The Cloud Foundation estimates there are 190 wild horses living in the mountains that are 1 year old or older.
The herd is called Cloud's Herd for the horse filmed by Ginger Kathrens, founder of the Cloud Foundation, when he was just a colt. Cloud lives wild and free with his family. At least for now.
The BLM plans to remove permanently "up to 70 adults including foals", having decided they are excess horses. 60 mares will be treated with a fertility control, Porca Zonae Pellucidae (PZP), and released. The way the BLM put it in its Environmental Assessment or EA which the agency is required to prepare pursuant to National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321, et seq., "The method of capture w[ill] be helicopter drive-trapping using temporary traps of portable panels as well as trapping directly at Britton Springs Corrals. After capture in the trap, horses would be sorted on site and treated with fertility control or taken to the Britton Springs administrative site for sorting and application of fertility control. Treated mares and stallions identified for retention would be released either during or after gather operations. ....Excess wild horses removed w[ill] be prepared for adoption or sale at the Britton Springs Facility."
Cloud or his family could well be among those horses deemed to be "excess" by BLM and sold. Certainly, it is unlikely they will be together again as a family.
Excess wild horses is a legal term that means horses BLM has decided to remove from an area "to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area" or for some other legal reason. See 16 USC §1332(f).
Under a 2004 amendment to the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which authorizes BLM to manage these animals, "excess" horses "shall be sold...if the excess animal is more than 10 years of age; or ... has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times." 16 U.S.C. §1333. Any horse sold under this provision is no longer subject to the protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. 16 U.S.C.§1333. Since this amendment became effective, BLM has sold thousands of wild horses for slaughter.
The horses are panicked, terrified, traumatized and many times injured as they are run down by the helicopters. Families will be separated and destroyed, probably forever. It is unlikely the BLM would bother to keep even horses marked for release together in their families.
Go here for more information about what happens to these wild horses and burros when the BLM rounds them up.
As a reason for the removal of the 70 horses including foals from the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, the BLM says only there has been "resource damage". Its EA cites to "[d]eteriorating range and forest conditions associated with past management practices". In BLM's Record of Decision issued this month, August, 2009, the BLM says only the removal will limit the horses to their herd area, "limit competition among wild horses and wildlife" presumably for food, and "prevent deterioration of rangelands and vegetation resources". It is mentioned there has been limited water.
But, according to Cloud Foundation, there has been 3 years of rainfall that has ended the drought and left the range in "excellent condition".
The BLM also refers to a need to "maintain a multiple use relationship for the area".
The wild horses and burros are actually supposed to be protected under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. In passing that law Congress declared that, "wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West"..."[T]hey contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people". Congress recognized the wild horses and burros are "fast disappearing from the American scene". "[W]ild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of public lands." 16 U.S.C. § 1331.
Indeed, the Pryor Mountain wild horses are descendants of horses in the Lewis and Clark expedition that came to be owned by the Crow tribe in the early 1800's. George Reed, Secretary of Cultural Education for the Crow Tribe Executive Branch, wrote in 2006: "We advocate preserving our heritage, culture and language, and these Pryor wild horses are part of our culture."
The WFHBA requires that BLM management activities be at "the minimal feasible level." Id. According to its own regulations, BLM must protect wild horses and burros from unauthorized capture, branding, harassment or death and provide these animals with humane care and treatment. 43 C.F.R. § 4700.
Under the WFHBA, wild horses are "to be considered in the area" where they were found in 1971 "as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands." 16 U.S.C. § 1331. These legally protected areas are known as "herd areas," and are defined as "the geographic area identified as having been used by a herd as its habitat in 1971." 43 C.F.R. § 4700.0-5(d).
A brutal wholesale round up and removal, even slaughter, of so many horses is surely a direct violation of the protections of the WFHBA. It's hardly management of the herd at the "minimal feasible level".
According to the Cloud Foundation, this removal of 70 horses will leave this unique and historical herd genetically non-viable and unable to sustain itself into the future. Equine geneticist, Gus Cothran, Ph.D. of Texas A&M University, states that "a census population of 150-200 is required to achieve the minimum effective population size.... The [Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Herd] has been one of the most important and visible herds within the BLM Wild Horse Program and it is important that it stays viable."
Just last month a federal judge entered an injunction to stop a BLM decision to eliminate an entire herd of horses in a range in Colorado. The BLM had decided simply to eliminate the horses even though the agency agreed the horses were not "excess". The BLM has also decided to eliminate entire herds, 620 horses, from their ranges in Nevada.
The Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue and nature photographer Carol Walker, have filed a lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction in the federal district court in Washington, DC to stop the roundup and removal of horses from the Range.
The plaintiffs claim the BLM has violated NEPA by failing to prepare and Environmental Impact Statement, consider alternatives, and take a "hard look" at the environmental consequences. They claim the BLM's proposed action means the herd will not be genetically viable. Also, the plaintiffs claim BLM relied on a 2004 study to support its contention the range has deteriorated when there is evidence that since then with the end of the drought, the range conditions have greatly improved.
The plaintiffs also claim these actions by the BLM violate WHBA's mandate to manage the wild horses at the "minimal feasible level" and protect them from harassment, capture and death.
A copy of the Complaint is attached below to this article. Animal Law Coalition will bring you more information about this lawsuit as it becomes available. In the meantime:
Read about BLM's final solution for America's wild horses and burros.
Listen to Angels for Cloud on WFL Endangered Stream Live radio
Go here for information about and how you can help pass a bill pending in Congress, Restoring Our American Mustangs or ROAM, S.B. 1579, that would restore protections under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act 0f 1971 that were lost in 2004.
For more on this historic herd, go to http://www.cloudfoundation.org/
Information was provided for this article by Equine Welfare Alliance. Photographs courtesy of R.T. Fitch.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
HELP THE CLOUD FOUNDATION HELP OUR WILD HORSES
FREEDOM FUND- please help
By thecloudfoundation
We are advocating for the immediate release of the older horses who are being removed both from the designated range as well as the Forest Service. However, we have not yet made substantial progress and until the courts rule we need to keep Conquistador, Shane, Bo and Trigger’s bands intact. These horses represent an entire sub-population of the Pryor herd, unique genetic lines that will be lost forever when they are removed. We want them to stay together and we have several options lined up but will need financial backing. It is our intention to keep these horses close to their mountain.
Please help us to make this possible. We need to fundraise for these bands and for our continued legal action to preserve this herd as well. We want to see their range expanded so that the Custer National Forest lands, where Pryor Horses have lived for at least 200 years, will be legally theirs forever.
Please help us preserve this herd through action and donations
By thecloudfoundation
We are advocating for the immediate release of the older horses who are being removed both from the designated range as well as the Forest Service. However, we have not yet made substantial progress and until the courts rule we need to keep Conquistador, Shane, Bo and Trigger’s bands intact. These horses represent an entire sub-population of the Pryor herd, unique genetic lines that will be lost forever when they are removed. We want them to stay together and we have several options lined up but will need financial backing. It is our intention to keep these horses close to their mountain.
Please help us to make this possible. We need to fundraise for these bands and for our continued legal action to preserve this herd as well. We want to see their range expanded so that the Custer National Forest lands, where Pryor Horses have lived for at least 200 years, will be legally theirs forever.
Please help us preserve this herd through action and donations
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Pryor Mountain Roundup Is Over....
From The Cloud Foundation Blog:
http://thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com/
End of Roundup: Update
September 9, 2009 by thecloudfoundation
The roundup of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses is over after six days- the wild horse and burro specialist made the decision to call it so the helicopter did not go out today and no more horses were brought in.
The reasons given for ending this roundup were:
The gather operation is nearly complete and horses were coming in sore-footed.
one mare (Brumby) tied up on Monday night
The BLM feels it would be hard on the remining horses to be brought in
There is a new little black foal on the mountain top
There were 11 horses on the mountain (including two older mares, Electra and Quelle Colour) that BLM had slated for removal. In place of those horses they are taking young horses from bands already in the pens. More on the individuals soon.
BLM stated again that they will not release Conquistador nor the other older horses removed from the Forest Service.
In total 57 horses and 3 foals (a their mothers’ sides) are going to be offered up for adoption. As we understand it, older horses not adopted will be offered for sale. According to BLM’s recent press release “most of the rest of the 146 horses that were gathered and evaluated have already been released back onto the horse range.”
The BLM released Cloud and his band first. They left less Image, Rain and Arrow and Cloud Dancer (who is going to be turned out with the young stallion Exhilaration who lives in the Dryhead desert area). The wranglers did a fine job trying to get Cloud and his band out but because of all they were leaving behind the mares were reluctant to leave and for ten minutes or more Cloud snaked his band this way and that while the riders tried to push them out the half mile to the opening of the trap. It was a relief to see them finally disappear into the rolling lowland hills and start the long journey back up to their mountaintop.
The BLM released nearly all the horses who have not been tagged for removal today– Bolder and Flint and Cloud’s mom with her band among others. The old band stallion Starman (who was to be removed in a previous roundup and has been freeze-branded before advocates convinced BLM to release him) took off an galloped back to the wild followed by his mare, Rosarita, and their black yearling daughter.
Ginger and others are on the way up to the mountaintop to check on returning horses who are in the process of climbing the 10+ miles back to the home.
Don’t stop fighting for the older horses— it is cruel and unnecessary to remove Conquistador, Grumpy and the others. We have made this request of the BLM are they are still saying no. Please work for their return.
Thank you to everyone who is supporting these horses and all wild horses across the west. Their are many new faces who have joined the work of many organizations to save our wild horses and insure that we have viable herds into the future.
It is our intent to make this blog a factual and ongoing platform for education, action alerts and wild horse preservation awareness. It has also become a community board for your comments and a good form of communication. Your suggestions for improvements are always welcome. We are doing our best to catch up on correspondence and continue work on a “plan b” for these older horses should we not be successful in lobbying for their return to the wild.
Thank you for your support.
….more soon…
www.thecloudfoundation.org
http://thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com/
End of Roundup: Update
September 9, 2009 by thecloudfoundation
The roundup of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses is over after six days- the wild horse and burro specialist made the decision to call it so the helicopter did not go out today and no more horses were brought in.
The reasons given for ending this roundup were:
The gather operation is nearly complete and horses were coming in sore-footed.
one mare (Brumby) tied up on Monday night
The BLM feels it would be hard on the remining horses to be brought in
There is a new little black foal on the mountain top
There were 11 horses on the mountain (including two older mares, Electra and Quelle Colour) that BLM had slated for removal. In place of those horses they are taking young horses from bands already in the pens. More on the individuals soon.
BLM stated again that they will not release Conquistador nor the other older horses removed from the Forest Service.
In total 57 horses and 3 foals (a their mothers’ sides) are going to be offered up for adoption. As we understand it, older horses not adopted will be offered for sale. According to BLM’s recent press release “most of the rest of the 146 horses that were gathered and evaluated have already been released back onto the horse range.”
The BLM released Cloud and his band first. They left less Image, Rain and Arrow and Cloud Dancer (who is going to be turned out with the young stallion Exhilaration who lives in the Dryhead desert area). The wranglers did a fine job trying to get Cloud and his band out but because of all they were leaving behind the mares were reluctant to leave and for ten minutes or more Cloud snaked his band this way and that while the riders tried to push them out the half mile to the opening of the trap. It was a relief to see them finally disappear into the rolling lowland hills and start the long journey back up to their mountaintop.
The BLM released nearly all the horses who have not been tagged for removal today– Bolder and Flint and Cloud’s mom with her band among others. The old band stallion Starman (who was to be removed in a previous roundup and has been freeze-branded before advocates convinced BLM to release him) took off an galloped back to the wild followed by his mare, Rosarita, and their black yearling daughter.
Ginger and others are on the way up to the mountaintop to check on returning horses who are in the process of climbing the 10+ miles back to the home.
Don’t stop fighting for the older horses— it is cruel and unnecessary to remove Conquistador, Grumpy and the others. We have made this request of the BLM are they are still saying no. Please work for their return.
Thank you to everyone who is supporting these horses and all wild horses across the west. Their are many new faces who have joined the work of many organizations to save our wild horses and insure that we have viable herds into the future.
It is our intent to make this blog a factual and ongoing platform for education, action alerts and wild horse preservation awareness. It has also become a community board for your comments and a good form of communication. Your suggestions for improvements are always welcome. We are doing our best to catch up on correspondence and continue work on a “plan b” for these older horses should we not be successful in lobbying for their return to the wild.
Thank you for your support.
….more soon…
www.thecloudfoundation.org
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Cloud's Herd to be Rounded Up by Federally-Indicated Contractor
Just in from EWA -
Cloud’s Herd to be Rounded Up by Federally-Indicted Contractor
CHICAGO, (EWA) – A Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) request by The Cloud Foundation and Front Range Equine Rescue was denied September 2, 2009 in Federal District Court. The TRO was filed to stop the round up of the Pryor Mountain horses, an action unprecedented in size and scope. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has contracted with the federally-indicted Dave Cattoor to round up America’s most famous wild horse herd beginning September 3, 2009. Wild horse advocate and investigator, Julianne French, explains the situation further in a youtube.com video posted today on The Cloud Foundation website.
In 1992, Cattoor was indicted by a federal grand jury for hunting wild horses, aiding and abetting. Cattoor rounded up federally protected American mustangs, corralled them into pens and loaded them into trucks bound for a Texas slaughterhouse. He pled guilty to those charges. “Since that time we suspect that he has received at least $20,000,000,” says wild horse advocate, Julianne French. “And we know for sure, from the Federal Register website, that Cattoor has earned over $12,000,000 in the past nine years alone.”
While Cattoor is currently under investigation by the Department of Interior Inspector General for procurement fraud, BLM chooses to continue their relationship with the Cattoor Livestock Roundup Company.
“Generally, an indictment would eliminate a contractor from consideration,” added French. “However, Mr. Cattoor has been rewarded and made a millionaire many times over by the taxpayer-funded BLM—despite the public outrage.”
“If I ever had a felony charge, even if I had been exonerated, I’m not supposed to get a federal contract” stated Howard Boggess, Crow Elder and Historian. “Why are they above the law?”
A photographic report, The Use of Helicopters to Remove Wild Horses and Burros from Public Lands, displays newborn foals run to exhaustion, found hog-tied on the range, horses and burros bleeding from their nostrils, broken legs and injuries sustained during long gallops to capture pens.
Fully knowing the public’s concern about wild horse roundups BLM is still debating whether independent humane observers will be granted access to round up operations in the Pryors. “Where is the transparency and full-disclosure of this new administration?” asks Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation.
In the Pryor Wild Horse herd, young foals, only days old, will be rounded up and potentially removed. BLM plans call for nearly all the 188 horses remaining in the Pryors to be rounded up in order to apply infertility drugs. Seventy horses will be permanently removed and put up for adoption and sale on September 26, 2009.
According to noted geneticist Gus Cothran Ph.D. of Texas A&M University, 150 – 200 animals are required to maintain genetic viability. This removal would leave only 120 horses in the spectacular Pryor Mountains. The Cloud Foundation is urging Americans to speak up now, or lose this unique herd forever.
For more information, contact:
www.thecloudfoundation.org
www.equinewelfarealliance.org
Cloud’s Herd to be Rounded Up by Federally-Indicted Contractor
CHICAGO, (EWA) – A Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) request by The Cloud Foundation and Front Range Equine Rescue was denied September 2, 2009 in Federal District Court. The TRO was filed to stop the round up of the Pryor Mountain horses, an action unprecedented in size and scope. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has contracted with the federally-indicted Dave Cattoor to round up America’s most famous wild horse herd beginning September 3, 2009. Wild horse advocate and investigator, Julianne French, explains the situation further in a youtube.com video posted today on The Cloud Foundation website.
In 1992, Cattoor was indicted by a federal grand jury for hunting wild horses, aiding and abetting. Cattoor rounded up federally protected American mustangs, corralled them into pens and loaded them into trucks bound for a Texas slaughterhouse. He pled guilty to those charges. “Since that time we suspect that he has received at least $20,000,000,” says wild horse advocate, Julianne French. “And we know for sure, from the Federal Register website, that Cattoor has earned over $12,000,000 in the past nine years alone.”
While Cattoor is currently under investigation by the Department of Interior Inspector General for procurement fraud, BLM chooses to continue their relationship with the Cattoor Livestock Roundup Company.
“Generally, an indictment would eliminate a contractor from consideration,” added French. “However, Mr. Cattoor has been rewarded and made a millionaire many times over by the taxpayer-funded BLM—despite the public outrage.”
“If I ever had a felony charge, even if I had been exonerated, I’m not supposed to get a federal contract” stated Howard Boggess, Crow Elder and Historian. “Why are they above the law?”
A photographic report, The Use of Helicopters to Remove Wild Horses and Burros from Public Lands, displays newborn foals run to exhaustion, found hog-tied on the range, horses and burros bleeding from their nostrils, broken legs and injuries sustained during long gallops to capture pens.
Fully knowing the public’s concern about wild horse roundups BLM is still debating whether independent humane observers will be granted access to round up operations in the Pryors. “Where is the transparency and full-disclosure of this new administration?” asks Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation.
In the Pryor Wild Horse herd, young foals, only days old, will be rounded up and potentially removed. BLM plans call for nearly all the 188 horses remaining in the Pryors to be rounded up in order to apply infertility drugs. Seventy horses will be permanently removed and put up for adoption and sale on September 26, 2009.
According to noted geneticist Gus Cothran Ph.D. of Texas A&M University, 150 – 200 animals are required to maintain genetic viability. This removal would leave only 120 horses in the spectacular Pryor Mountains. The Cloud Foundation is urging Americans to speak up now, or lose this unique herd forever.
For more information, contact:
www.thecloudfoundation.org
www.equinewelfarealliance.org
Round Up of Cloud's Herd Begins.....
Round up of Cloud's Herd Begins Following Judge's Denial of Motion
Courtesy of Animal Law Coalition
http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1025
Update Sept. 2, 2009: U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington, D.C., has denied a motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, (attached below) filed by Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue and nature photographer, Carol Walker, in their lawsuit to stop the roundup of Cloud's herd.
The motion basically asked the judge to order the roundup delayed until the lawsuit is resolved. A hearing to resolve the lawsuit on summary judgment is set for December 3, 2009.
The U.S. attorneys representing the BLM in the lawsuit agreed to delay the roundup set to begin Sept. 1 until the judge ruled on the motion. The judge issued the denial following a hearing on Sept. 2.
Watch the videos here for more information. Go here for a look at what happens to horses including foals during these roundups.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Keep writing and calling! Don't wait. Do it now. Of course, be very polite.
BLM Director Bob Abbey
Call: 202-208-3801 or 866-468-7826
Fax: 202-208-5242
Robert_Abbey@blm.gov
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden
Phone: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-9000
Fax: 202-456-2461
Find and contact your U.S. senators here and urge them to tell the BLM to stop this atrocity to Cloud's Herd and also vote yes on S.B. 1597. Go here for more on S.B. 1597.
Go here to write your U.S. representative and urge him or her to tell the BLM to stop the roundup of Cloud's Herd.
For more on this, read Animal Law Coalition's original report below.
Original report: Beginning on September 1, 2009, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency within the U.S. Dept of Interior, plans to begin rounding up "nearly all wild horses" in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in Montana.
The Cloud Foundation estimates there are 190 wild horses living in the mountains that are 1 year old or older.
The herd is called Cloud's Herd for the horse filmed by Ginger Kathrens, founder of the Cloud Foundation, when he was just a colt. Cloud lives wild and free with his family. At least for now.
The BLM plans to remove permanently "up to 70 adults including foals", having decided they are excess horses. 60 mares will be treated with a fertility control, Porca Zonae Pellucidae (PZP), and released. The way the BLM put it in its Environmental Assessment or EA which the agency is required to prepare pursuant to National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321, et seq., "The method of capture w[ill] be helicopter drive-trapping using temporary traps of portable panels as well as trapping directly at Britton Springs Corrals. After capture in the trap, horses would be sorted on site and treated with fertility control or taken to the Britton Springs administrative site for sorting and application of fertility control. Treated mares and stallions identified for retention would be released either during or after gather operations. ....Excess wild horses removed w[ill] be prepared for adoption or sale at the Britton Springs Facility."
Cloud or his family could well be among those horses deemed to be "excess" by BLM and sold. Certainly, it is unlikely they will be together again as a family.
Excess wild horses is a legal term that means horses BLM has decided to remove from an area "to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area" or for some other legal reason. See 16 USC §1332(f).
Under a 2004 amendment to the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which authorizes BLM to manage these animals, "excess" horses "shall be sold...if the excess animal is more than 10 years of age; or ... has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times." 16 U.S.C. §1333. Any horse sold under this provision is no longer subject to the protections of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. 16 U.S.C.§1333. Since this amendment became effective, BLM has sold thousands of wild horses for slaughter.
The horses are panicked, terrified, traumatized and many times injured as they are run down by the helicopters. Families will be separated and destroyed, probably forever. It is unlikely the BLM would bother to keep even horses marked for release together in their families.
Go here for more information about what happens to these wild horses and burros when the BLM rounds them up.
As a reason for the removal of the 70 horses including foals from the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, the BLM says only there has been "resource damage". Its EA cites to "[d]eteriorating range and forest conditions associated with past management practices". In BLM's Record of Decision issued this month, August, 2009, the BLM says only the removal will limit the horses to their herd area, "limit competition among wild horses and wildlife" presumably for food, and "prevent deterioration of rangelands and vegetation resources". It is mentioned there has been limited water.
But, according to Cloud Foundation, there has been 3 years of rainfall that has ended the drought and left the range in "excellent condition".
The BLM also refers to a need to "maintain a multiple use relationship for the area".
The wild horses and burros are actually supposed to be protected under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. In passing that law Congress declared that, "wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West"..."[T]hey contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people". Congress recognized the wild horses and burros are "fast disappearing from the American scene". "[W]ild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of public lands." 16 U.S.C. § 1331.
Indeed, the Pryor Mountain wild horses are descendants of horses in the Lewis and Clark expedition that came to be owned by the Crow tribe in the early 1800's. George Reed, Secretary of Cultural Education for the Crow Tribe Executive Branch, wrote in 2006: "We advocate preserving our heritage, culture and language, and these Pryor wild horses are part of our culture."
The WFHBA requires that BLM management activities be at "the minimal feasible level." Id. According to its own regulations, BLM must protect wild horses and burros from unauthorized capture, branding, harassment or death and provide these animals with humane care and treatment. 43 C.F.R. § 4700.
Under the WFHBA, wild horses are "to be considered in the area" where they were found in 1971 "as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands." 16 U.S.C. § 1331. These legally protected areas are known as "herd areas," and are defined as "the geographic area identified as having been used by a herd as its habitat in 1971." 43 C.F.R. § 4700.0-5(d).
A brutal wholesale round up and removal, even slaughter, of so many horses is surely a direct violation of the protections of the WFHBA. It's hardly management of the herd at the "minimal feasible level".
According to the Cloud Foundation, this removal of 70 horses will leave this unique and historical herd genetically non-viable and unable to sustain itself into the future. Equine geneticist, Gus Cothran, Ph.D. of Texas A&M University, states that "a census population of 150-200 is required to achieve the minimum effective population size.... The [Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Herd] has been one of the most important and visible herds within the BLM Wild Horse Program and it is important that it stays viable."
Just last month a federal judge entered an injunction to stop a BLM decision to eliminate an entire herd of horses in a range in Colorado. The BLM had decided simply to eliminate the horses even though the agency agreed the horses were not "excess". The BLM has also decided to eliminate entire herds, 620 horses, from their ranges in Nevada.
The Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue and nature photographer Carol Walker, have filed a lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction in the federal district court in Washington, DC to stop the roundup and removal of horses from the Range.
The plaintiffs claim the BLM has violated NEPA by failing to prepare and Environmental Impact Statement, consider alternatives, and take a "hard look" at the environmental consequences. They claim the BLM's proposed action means the herd will not be genetically viable. Also, the plaintiffs claim BLM relied on a 2004 study to support its contention the range has deteriorated when there is evidence that since then with the end of the drought, the range conditions have greatly improved.
The plaintiffs also claim these actions by the BLM violate WHBA's mandate to manage the wild horses at the "minimal feasible level" and protect them from harassment, capture and death.
A copy of the Complaint is attached below to this article. Animal Law Coalition will bring you more information about this lawsuit as it becomes available. In the meantime:
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Bob Abbey was President Barack Obama's choice for BLM Director. Write (faxes are best) or call President Obama and Bob Abbey and urge them to stop this atrocity, stop the roundup and removals in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range and protect Cloud's herd. Don't wait. Do it now. Of course, be very polite.
BLM Director Bob Abbey
Call: 202-208-3801 or 866-468-7826
Fax: 202-208-5242
Robert_Abbey@blm.gov
President Barack Obama
Phone: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-9000
Fax: 202-456-2461
Read about BLM's final solution for America's wild horses and burros.
Listen to Angels for Cloud on WFL Endangered Stream Live radio
Go here for information about and how you can help pass a bill pending in Congress, Restoring Our American Mustangs or ROAM, S.B. 1597, that would restore protections under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act 0f 1971 that were lost in 2004.
For more on this historic herd, go to http://www.cloudfoundation.org/
Information was provided for this article by Equine Welfare Alliance.
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