FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DENVER AREA PROTEST TO STOP WILD HORSE ROUNDUP

The Cloud Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DENVER AREA PROTEST TO STOP WILD HORSE ROUNDUP

Longmont, CO - December 29, 2009—American　wild horse and burro advocates, The Cloud Foundation (TCF) is organizing a protest Wednesday in Longmont, Colorado.　The public will assemble at noon at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, 9595 Nelson Road, to protest the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM's) massive roundup of thousands of mustangs living in the half million acre Calico Mountain Complex area in northwestern Nevada. The wild horse capture began yesterday, December 28, despite a federal court ruling recommending that the action be postponed.

 

This peaceful assembly will be held concurrent with several other protests across the country; the largest ones to occur in San Francisco and Chicago. Participants hope to draw attention to the BLM’s gross mismanagement of the wild horses and their range. Thousands of horses have been rounded up in recent years, many with the excuse that the horses are starving. “I have seen, first hand, these wild horses that the BLM say are starving, and they simply are not,” states Longmont area advocate, Cathy Bryarly. “I also question the truth in the BLM claims of how many mustangs remain in the wild. The BLM states 37,000, yet by their own numbers since 2001, it has to be less than 20,000. There are not too many wild horses, there are too few.”

 

The Cloud Foundation and over 190 organizations, authors and celebrities, including Sheryl Crow, Viggo Mortenson, Lily Tomlin, Bill Maher and others, are calling for an immediate moratorium on roundups until the American public works with Congress to craft a sustainable plan that protects and preserves wild herds on public lands in the West.

 

According to a BLM Reno public affairs specialist, at least half of the Calico roundup will be held on private land where the public will be unable to view the roundup. The Cloud Foundation only discovered this two days before the roundup’s scheduled start. Despite a public statement by the BLM wild horse and burro program chief Don Glenn on December 7, 2009, the public is prohibited from viewing.

 

“All of our gathers are open to the public. The public is invited to come watch all the time.” As BLM’s Glenn spoke those words, an unannounced,　secret roundup　was underway in Northern Nevada.

 

“We are hopeful that Senator Durbin (IL) will see through the BLM lies and deception and stop this unnecessary and cruel winter roundup. It insults the democratic process if BLM gets away with this. They have betrayed the trust of the American public.”　—Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation and creator of the popular PBS　Nature　programs about the wild stallion Cloud.

　

In his December 23, 2009 decision, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman recommended that BLM postpone the Calico roundup of 2,700 horses in the more than half million acre Calico Mountains Complex in northwestern Nevada.　BLM will instead, move forward to remove 80-90 percent of the estimated 3,000 horses living in the Calico Mountain wild horse complex. Low-flying helicopters will chase the horses over dangerous winter terrain into traps and temporary corrals. Respiratory illnesses, permanent injury and death are expected as horses are run, possibly over long distances, and　foals are separated from their mothers.

 

"This is a devious ploy to displace the wild horses from their legal herd areas. It is very vicious and must be exposed and stopped.”　—Craig Downer, Nevada Wildlife Ecologist

 

The government agency entrusted to manage our public land　shows their disregard towards the U.S. District Court by going ahead with the roundup.　In denying public access to the Calico roundup—one of the most controversial roundups—BLM also shows their disregard towards the public’s right to observe,　stating the first half of the capture would be conducted on private land to which the landowner has barred public access. The public insists that BLM has gone too far.

 

"To start this immense roundup on private land where members of the pubic are forbidden to attend, allows the BLM to hide the suffering and death that will happen during the capture of the mustangs. 　The public outcry over this roundup has been massive, but this government agency is behaving as though they are accountable to no one, not the public, not even Congress.” — Mark Traverso, Chicago area resident and advocate.

 

Little trust is left in the agency that has been charged by Congress to manage what many call the living history of the American West. Protests are being organized around the globe with the San Francisco event expected to be the largest.

 

“The whole world is watching—people are outraged by the latest assault on America’s wild horses. Protests are springing up worldwide: San Francisco, London, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boulder Colorado and Sun Valley Idaho, so far.”　—Makendra Silverman, Associate Director of The Cloud Foundation.

 

CONTACT:

Makendra Silverman --719-351-8187

Valerie Kennedy – 312-371-4933