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