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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Press Conference to Call for Immediate Investigation of BLM “Slaughtergate” Allegations

Horseback Magazine


October 27, 2012
Wild Horse & Burro Preservation Groups Announce Salt Lake City
Press Conference
Photo by Terry Fitch
SALT LAKE CITY, (Wild Horse Preservation) – Award winning Cinematographer Ginger Kathrens to join author R.T. Fitch and noted
equine advocate Simone Netherlands in a wild horse and burro advocates press
conference on October 29th during opening day of BLM’s Advisory Board Meeting.
Salt Lake City, UT (October 26. 2012) – The Cloud Foundation, Respect4Horses and Wild
Horse Freedom Federation will hold a special press conference on the current state of
America’s mismanaged wild horses and burros. The groups are calling for a halt to all
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundups that are destroying the last of America’s
wild herds at enormous and escalating taxpayer expense and an immediate
investigation into credible allegations where stockpiled wild horses and burros are
being sold to known kill buyers for eventual slaughter for human consumption abroad.
The media and the interested public are encouraged to attend this public press
conference at the Radisson Hotel Salt Lake City Downtown (215 West South Temple)
from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. on Monday, October 29th, 2012. The public press event will
take place on the opening day of the BLM’s controversial Wild Horse and Burro
Advisory Board meeting occurring, likewise, at the Radisson Hotel.
Currently the BLM has scheduled massive roundups of wild horses and burros
throughout the remainder of this calendar year. Remnant herds of wild horses and
burros live in 10 western states, including Utah, but their future is tenuous. The agency
responsible for their protection and preservation, the BLM, is managing them to
extinction. While the cruel and costly roundups continue, the BLM has no idea how
many wild horses remain in the wild while pumping tens of thousands of captured wild
horses and burros into both short and long term holding facilities. To date the BLM has
stockpiled more than 48,000 + wild horses and burros in costly government holding,
leaving millions of acres of legally designated wild horse and burro ranges empty.
Advocates are calling for the return of wild horses and burros to the 24 million acres of
designated lands cleared since 1971. Only 180 of the originally identified 339 herds
remain in the wild. Horse Welfare organizations estimate that currently we have less
than 20,000 wild horses and burros remaining wild and free. The BLM continues to
“zero out” herds each year without proper justification.
The groups, supported by advocates from coast to coast, will come together in Salt
Lake City to demand the BLM call o! all scheduled roundups immediately while an
accurate and unbiased count is conducted as well as an investigation into the
allegations of slaughter sales and the continued mismanagement of wild horses and
burros both in the wild and in captivity by the BLM and their hired contractors.

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