Wild horse advocates ask Obama to stop the roundups

The Cloud Foundation

20 April 2011

cloud_foundation_logoFor Immediate release

Wild horse advocates ask Obama to stop the roundups
New wave of protests begins with San Francisco

San Francisco, CA (April 20, 2011)—The Cloud Foundation and Americans who value wild horses roaming free in the West are gathering on the steps of Grace Cathedral (1110 California Street) at 3:30 p.m. to march to the Masonic Auditorium at 4:00 p.m. where President Obama is speaking during a campaign fundraiser. The Foundation and members of the public ask President Obama to Stop the Roundups and Stop the Cruelty.

"With the country in the throes of budget cut-backs for essentials like education—tax dollars used to unnecessarily remove and warehouse wild horses is wrong,"  states Bay Area resident, Anne Novak, spokesperson for The Cloud Foundation. "We ask the President to stop the roundups now and use that money to help Americans in their time of need."

"Current government policy is breaking up our public lands for exploitive development and resource extraction—one colossal land grab," says Lise Stampfli, Bay Area environmentalist and open space advocate. "We want the President to bring true balance and sustainability back onto our public lands as well as into the Wild Horse and Burro Program."

Every year the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is awarded big budget tax dollars to fund the broken Wild Horse and Burro Program. With the a much of their $76 million budget going towards roundups and zeroing out wild horses—inadequate funds are left to care for the wild horses once they are captured.

Last week, Lisa Friday and The Foundation released a video exposing the federal BLM holding facility nightmare in Utah showing wild horses languishing in a quagmire of urine and manure as well as mares down for more than 3 hours in the mud and a 3 year-old mare who was skin and bones, despite being in the facility for more than 8 months.

"People are fed up—particularly when they find out that these massive removals are not only cruel and unnecessary but they are costing taxpayers a fortune," explains Ginger Kathrens, Director of The Cloud Foundation. "These animals are taken from their virtually cost-free, pristine environments in the wild, separated from their families and forced to live in filthy feedlot conditions on the government dole."

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Media Contacts:

Anne Novak
anne@thecloudfoundation.org
Tel: 415-531-8454

Lauryn Wachs
lauryn@thecloudfoundation.org
Tel: 617-894-6939

Links of interest:

BLM Defends Utah Holding Facility http://bit.ly/eEGT38

AP Reports: Gov't Agency Accused of Abusing Wild Horses http://bit.ly/dYAwkV

Lisa Friday's full report to The Cloud Foundation: http://bit.ly/gHIjLX

Butterfield, UT short term wild horse holding video: http://bit.ly/hWO2fG%20

CNN Report, Issues with Jane Valez-Mitchell http://bit.ly/dvl7NE

French TV reports on wild horses http://t.co/4jKWYJg

CNN series on roundups http://exm.nr/ifONib

"High Crimes and Misdemeanors" - American Herds Report: http://bit.ly/gQlaxa

Foundation video calling to Defund the Roundups: http://bit.ly/hL0eOj

Unified Moratorium letter and 200 signatories http://bit.ly/6ck87L

"Wild Horses: Management or Stampede to Extinction?" - Reno Gazette Journal: http://bit.ly/fBCBz9

"Antelope Roundup a Disaster Wild Horses" - Foundation Press Release: http://bit.ly/h0kvEn

54 Members of Congress protest BLM management http://bit.ly/gFJDs1

Independent Report to Defund Roundups: http://bit.ly/gCyiu0

How to contact your Congresspeople: http://www.contactingthecongress.org

Photos, video and interviews available by request from the Cloud Foundation