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UPDATE:
CONTACT:
Makendra Silverman --719-351-8187
Valerie Kennedy – 312-371-4933
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHICAGO JOINS CITIES ACROSS AMERICA TO STOP WILD HORSE CAPTURES BY BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
Chicago-based Equine Welfare Alliance and The Cloud Foundation ask Senator Durbin for help as winter captures begin
Chicago, IL - December 30, 2009—American wild horse and burro advocates, The Cloud Foundation (TCF) and the Chicago-based Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) are organizing a peaceful gathering today in Chicago. The public will assemble at noon in front of Senator Dick Durbin’s office at 230 South Dearborn in Chicago asking the Senator to help halt 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.
"We're having this peaceful assembly to tell our government we want to stop this unprecedented winter Calico roundup. It will assault the last stronghold of America’s wild horses. Despite federal law that protects them, they have been relegated to the most inhospitable areas of the range. Still, they have adapted and survived. The BLM is handling an American treasure callously, without regard for what Americans want. We want Senator Durbin's help to pass a moratorium on all roundups, including Calico, until the American public and Congress can craft a sustainable future for our legendary wild horses and burros.” ---The majority of wild horses captured are in good condition. Despite federal protection, wild horses have been relegated to the most inhospitable areas of the range. Still, they have adapted and survived.Susan Sutherland, Chicago Area resident and Cloud Foundation member.
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.
The BLM has acknowledged that 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 discovered this two days before the roundup’s scheduled start. Despite a public statement to the contrary 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.” Said Don Glenn of the BLM. Glenn delivered this message to wild horse advocates as an unannounced planned roundup was already underway in Northern Nevada.
“We are hopeful that Senator Durbin 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 filmmaker for the popular PBS Nature programs detailing the birth and life of Cloud, the pale palomino stallion well-known to Americans.
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 and member of EWA
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 right to observe, by carrying out the largest-ever wild horse capture, defying what federal law requires: notification, transparency and the public right to offer comment. The public insists that BLM has gone too far.
"To start this large-scale 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, CO and Sun Valley Idaho, so far.” —Makendra Silverman, Associate Director of The Cloud Foundation
The Chicago based Equine Welfare Alliance that represents over 85 organizations and hundreds of individuals throughout the US, Canada, the UK, South Africa and Australia will be represented at the assembly.
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MEDIA ADVISORY
Media Contacts:
The Cloud Foundation:
Ann Novak, 415.531.8454, annenovak@yahoo.com
Makendra Silverman, 719.351.8187, makendra@thecloudfoundation.org
In Defense of Animals:
Elliot Katz, DVM, 415.448.0048 x 225, emk@idausa.org
Hope Bohanec, 707.540.1760, hope@idausa.org
Support Grows for Wild Horse Protest in San Francisco
Event Coincides with pro-mustang rallies in Chicago, Colorado, Idaho and London
San Francisco, California (December 30, 2009) . . . .The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
What: Peaceful protest for all ages featuring Figaro the miniature horse, Fluffy the miniature donkey, and colorful signs and banners.
When: Wednesday, December 30, 2009.
Citizens gather at 11 a.m.; press conference at Noon.
Where: Outside Sen. Feinstein's office, One Post Street, San Francisco
Why: Call attention to the ongoing, brutal winter roundup of 3,000 horses off public lands in northwestern Nevada and issue plea for help to Senator Diane Feinstein, who has always been a friend of America's wild horses, and is the Chair of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.
Similar rallies will be held Wednesday in Chicago, Colorado, Idaho and London.
The events take aim at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and its destructive wild horse and burro management policies, which threaten the very existence of this iconic American species. Of particular concern is a massive roundup that commenced this week in the Calico Mountain Complex in northwestern Nevada. The BLM intends remove 80-90 percent of the wild horse population living in the 500,000 acre public lands complex. At the same time, the agency has increased the number of privately owned livestock allowed to graze those same public.
Last week, a federal court judge ruled that the BLM plan to transfer horses taken from the Calico Mountains to holding facilities in the Midwest is likely illegal and suggested that the agency postpone the planned roundup. Complaints are also pending with the Department of Interior and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Despite this, the BLM has not only proceeded with roundup, but also has commenced the action on private land from which the public is barred.
"The BLM knows that its latest assault on wild horses is so shameful that it cannot stand the light of day," said Elliot M. Katz, DVM, IDA president, who noted that the brutal helicopter stampede of the horses over treacherous winter terrain will result in injury and death to some horses, particularly the old, pregnant and the young. Foals will be separated from their mothers, and close family bonds will be forever shattered, he said.
Lise Stampfli Torme, a wild horse advocate and Cloud Foundation volunteer stated: "We are outraged that BLM is proceeding with this roundup under a cloud of controversy and against a US District Court judge's recommendation. The agency has moved the capture points to private land where the public cannot see how their contractors are treating our living legends. An immediate moratorium on all wild horse roundups must be implemented until the BLM's broken wild horse management program can be reformed."
“Americans want their wild horses to remain free and protected on the ranges where they currently exist. We are asking that the original spirit and intent of the Wild Free Roaming horse and Burro Act be upheld so that our grandchildren’s children will know the herds, who are a vital link to our western heritage,” says Neda DeMayo, founder of the Return to Freedom American Wild Horse Sanctuary and member of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign.
The BLM intends to remove up 12,000 horses from their western ranges each year for the next three years and place them in Midwestern holding facilities, where they will join the 34,000 wild horses already being warehoused by BLM at taxpayer expense. If the Calico roundup continues, the number of horses in the warehoused in government holding will exceed the number left in the wild.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 Protests:
San Francisco Protest: 11:00am – 1:00pm In front of Senator Feinstein’s office, One Post Street (at Montgomery)
Chicago Protest: 12:00pm- 1:00pm In front of Senator Dick Durbin’s office, 230 S. Dearborn
Longmont, Colorado Protest: 12:00pm- 3:00pm Boulder County Fairgrounds- Corner of Nelson and Hover
Ketchum, Idaho Protest: 12:00pm in front of the Chapter One Bookstore, 160 N. Main St.
Protests planned for Los Angeles, Denver and the East Coast if BLM continues this roundup
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