Media Contact: Makendra Silverman, Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org 719-633-3842
For Immediate Release
Letters Cry Out to Save Calico Mountain Wild Horses
RENO, Nv. (December 2, 2009)—Terri Farley, beloved author of the popular wild horse "Phantom Stallion" series of books for school-age readers, will hand-deliver hundreds of children’s letters to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The children are calling for a stop to the wild horse roundups so that wild herds will live free on public lands as intended by the Free-Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act of 1971. Farley will attend the BLM National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting on Dec. 7th in Reno, Nevada at 8AM and will speak around 3PM. Ms. Farley has joined over 175 organizations, celebrities and scientists in what has become an international call for a moratorium on American wild horse and burro roundups. Over 12,000 will be rounded up and removed this fiscal year, adding to the over 33,000 wild horses already in government holding. Over half of America’s wild horses still roaming free live in Farley’s home state of Nevada where a massive and inhumane wintertime roundup of 2,700 mustangs is planned to begin right after Christmas in the Calico Mountains.
The author knows the starkly beautiful Calico area well. It is the setting for her popular “Phantom Stallion” series that has sold over one million copies. Farley and her fans are outraged that America’s iconic wild horses are being robbed of their homelands, separated from their families, sterilized and trucked to long-term holding facilities. Multi-million dollar roundups continue contrary to the 1971 Act designed to preserve wild horses and burros on their legally designated home ranges. Congress passed the 1971 Act to protect wild horses unanimously at the bequest of thousands of children nationwide in an effort spearheaded by the famous Wild Horse Annie.
By spending over $32 million on roundups in fiscal year 2009-2010 the BLM ensures today’s children will grow up to believe wild horses were like unicorns, existing only in stories. We want to protect the American wild horse and ensure a lasting legacy for our children and grandchildren. " —Terri Farley
Farley will carry Pony Express saddlebags stuffed with children’s letters as well as letters from citizens around the world calling for an immediate halt to the BLM's plan to roundup and ship thousands of Nevada's wild horses to holding facilities. Her delivery will recall the Pony Express; a key institution in Nevada's history that relied on horses much like those the BLM is now in the process of reducing to only small, remnant herds.
" Wild horses are returned natives to North America, animals who thrive on the dry, open grasslands and upland montane regions in the West. BLM’s claim that the Calico mustangs are starving is absolutely untrue. I was in Calico last month and I have the photos to prove it. " —Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist
Despite recent evidence in the form of footage, as well as still photographs by Downer and other independent wild horse observers, BLM continues to claim that the wild horses are starving on the lands set aside principally for their use. In the case of the Calico wild horse range, BLM plans to remove the horses and has already greatly increased permits for cattle grazing. Public lands grazing is a $132 million loss to the American taxpayer each year and independent economists have estimated the true cost at between $500 million and $1 billion dollars a year.
“We are calling on Secretary Salazar and President Obama to place a moratorium on roundups until accurate and independent assessments of our wild herds and public lands can be done and a plan to protect and preserve our wild herds is formalized.” —Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation/Emmy-award winning filmmaker.
Farley encourages children as well as adults and organizations to write letters to the BLM board and mail them to Terri Farley, 565 California Avenue, Reno, Nevada 89509 (Include your first name, age, and where you live (city, state, country). She will stand up at the BLM meeting on Dec. 7, make a statement and then read the names, ages, and locations of those speaking out for mustang freedom.
"Since humans first huddled around campfires, stories have been told of wild horses with wind in their manes, fire in their eyes and freedom in their hearts. Those horses eluded capture, and scorned the comforts of civilization. Americans have insisted they want their wild horses to live that way, forever." —Terri Farley
Media and the public are encouraged to attend the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Public Advisory Board meeting on December 7th in Reno, Nevada. http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2009/november/NR_11_12_2009.html
Of interest:
Photos and video available from:
The Cloud Foundation
719-633-3842 or 719-351-8187
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