(In My most Pissed Off Opinion) by R.T. Fitch ~ Author/Director HfH Advisory Council
Sue Cattoor Loves that Rogue’s Limelight
Sue Cattor playing to the Cloud Foundation's camera of Ginger Kathrens and Makendra Silverman at the destruction of the Pryor Mt. Herd in 2009 ~ Photo by R.T. Fitch
On January 24th our good friend and college Robert Winkler of The Desert Independent published a guest editorial written by the wife of one of the Bureau of Land Management’s chief helicopter wild horse stampede contractors, Sue Cattoor. I read it, I gagged, I moved on and did not comment. There was a moment that I considered posting it, here, and decided against giving this self-ordained queen of wild horse suffering any more publicity to feed her maniacal ego. But after days of eating at my soul; I just can’t let it go as I sincerely owe it to the tens of thousands of wild horses whose lives have been destroyed, both figuratively and literally, to respond to this trashing of the truth and blatant attempt to further mislead and twist the opinion of the American public.
Now a word of warning about Sue Cattoor, the woman is out of touch with the laws of the land and is seriously attempting to rewrite the First Amendment and quell free speech in the press within our borders. Last year the Cattoors had their attorney send ugly and shabbily constructed (in my pissed off opinion) threat letters to rescues, foundations, publications and bloggers who publicly questioned the high flying duo for their techniques, tactics and methods of mismanaging the costly and deadly Calico Complex debacle. (You can view our letter by clicking (HERE)) These letters laid out demands for retractions, apologies, deadlines and timelines with threats of what would happen if we did not comply. Some caved, some did not, others engaged their attorneys who basically told the constitution assailing Cattoor attorneys to stick it. What ole Sue fails to realize is that she has gone above and beyond the norm to make herself a public “personality” and once that was established we are all welcome to have our own opinions of this very public, controversial, outspoken media Black Hole. As a writer and blogger I most certainly have my opinion and that is exactly what is expressed within this article. (Actually, several of us feel that a suit initiated by the Cattors would be a really fun ride for all of us because the discovery of their books and background would be a riot, wouldn’t it?…enough fodder there for the next several decades worth of Op-Eds)
The title of this “look at me” rant is “Helicopter Roundups are the Most Humane Way to Gather Wild Horses”. That one sentence says a lot, in fact, its double talk. The BLM and Cattoors refer to their helicopter stampedes as “gathers” and they have cringed when more astute individuals use the term roundup. Now we have ole Sue using both terms in one sentence, pretty slick. When we use the term “gather” we are usually using it in regards to flowers, eggs, leaves or maybe something like, “Come children, gather around and we will tell you a fairy tale before you go to bed.” Images of young girls dancing through meadows of tall lush grass with baskets of flowers on their arms comes to mind when we think of gather, NOT the bloody images of stampeded horses running for their lives before a roaring, mechanized bird of prey. The images just don’t mix.
And then there is the intent of the headline; ”most humane way to gather wild horses”. Like there are other ways that are worse or the entire process is inhumane and this is the lesser of the evils? I for one think the later is the implication.
But enough chatter regarding the title let’s get on to the article which is pretty much, yup you guessed it, a one-sided list of lies that ole Sue’s BLM boss Bob Abbey could be proud of. The Cattoors have made millions off from the backs of traumatized wild horses so why would anyone think for a single second that they wouldn’t believe it is such a wonderful and noble thing that they are doing. Sue is pulling all of these starving horses off from the over grazed range so the handful of wild horses that are left can grow fat and sassy. The Cattoors have been drinking that BLM Kool-Aide for far too long.
I won’t answer sentence by sentence but I will counter Sue’s hurt feelings for the likes of us using the term “Stampede” when we refer to their helicopter chasing horses down. That’s what it is Sue, it is not a walk, trot, gallop, stride, nada…it is a head long rush to escape the 100+ mile an hour generated winds, noise and terror from a giant metal bird that is swooping down upon these terrified creatures. Panic, sheer panic is what ensues when your helicopters chase the horses upon our public lands. There is nothing calm, civilized or humane about it and you have actually run the hooves right off from horses in doing so. Documented, signed and sealed so don’t attempt to quote a dictionary to me as to what the meaning of the word “stampede” is, you have taught it to me well, in person and it ain’t pretty.
If you have the stomach for it you can read the article by clicking (HERE) but I won’t dignify it on this website…she has a whopping 9 comments on it at the time of this writing and most of them are from family, friends or maybe even manufactured email addresses as all seem to think what she is doing is so wonderful and kind. Bullshit.
Personally, I believe that the Cattoors, employees of the BLM and DOI should be arrested and tried for thousands of counts of animal cruelty and held to the same standard that the general public is as outlined by very descriptive warning signs on BLM supervised land. But no, our government allows these private contractors to decide what, when, where and who can watch their destruction of OUR wild horses on OUR public land. It’s an outrageous travesty.
We said it before and we will say it again, Sue…we live for the day when you and your indicted hubby just go away, dissolve, disappear, never to be seen again over the blue skies of our public lands. And as we gaze out over the empty plains we will remember that once there were happy bands of wild horses there, living out their lives prior to the cattle and your cruel intervention. Now those horses are in long and short term holding while the bulk of them have been sold off to slaughter to tantalize the palate of wealthy foreigners; our national icons in the bellies of other nations. Thanks for being great Americans, Dave and Sue, you’ll have a whole lot to talk about come judgment day as you sold your souls to the devil a long, long time ago…and that devil, today, is Obama’s BLM.
Sleep tight.
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