BLM Official Attempts to Tighten the Secrecy Lid Further, Fitch Receives Threat From BLM Email Address

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Story by Steven Long ~ Editor/Publisher of “Horseback Magazine“

BLM‘s Image Continues to Tank

Author/Equine Advocate R.T. Fitch ~ photo by Steven Long

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – Horseback Magazine’s persistent queries into the practices and lack of transparency at the federal Bureau of Land Management is getting under the skin of at least one highly placed official.
Don Glenn, the chief of the agency’s Wild Horse and Burro Program fired off a note to BLM’s top Washington spokesman Tom Gorey after the magazine asked for Glenn’s salary information. The magazine also asked twice if Glenn will be attending a Las Vegas conference presented by the obscure pro-slaughter group, United Horsemen. Gorey says no BLM official plans to attend.
But Glen may have other plans from the tone of his note.
“Why do we need to do Longs (sic) research for him. He can look up the federal salary chart as well as we can. He claimes (sic) to be an investigative
journalist. Also Why should we tell him if we are going to this conference? We do not need to talk to him except under FOIA,” Glenn wrote.
FOIA is shorthand for the 1966 federal Freedom of Information Act. It was enacted and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to require federal agencies be transparent in their dealing with the public. Horseback has filed several FOIA requests with the bureau.
The BLM has come under increased scrutiny because of the lack of transparency of Glenn’s Wild Horse and Burro program in which scores of horses have died after being stampeded by a roaring helicopter sometimes flying within feet of the animals. The program has also violated FAA rules by closing off airspace above its “gathers” and used a veterinarian unlicensed to practice in Nevada during a recent roundup. Horseback first broke all of these stories.
In an unrelated matter, author and sometime Horseback Magazine contributor R.T. Fitch revealed that his blog, “Straight From the Horse’s Heart” received a threatening email signed “Animal Abuser” from an address in the Brighton, Colorado office of the BLM.
Horseback forwarded the note to Gorey at Fitch’s request asking that an investigation be launched into the incident by the federal Department of Homeland Security or the FBI. Gorey responded that he will pass the correspondence along to appropriate authorities.