American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
This morning the helicopters are descending on the wild horses of Adobe Town, driving these beautiful mustangs out of their homes in Wyoming’s pristine Red Desert. Soon they will be slammed into trap pens, torn from their family members and shipped off to holding facilities far from the lands of their birth. MORE...
Showing posts with label Department of the Interior. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Department of the Interior. Show all posts
Monday, October 11, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Group Lawsuit Filed to Stop Destruction of Colorado Mustang Herd
Straight from the Horse's Heart
Press Release from HfH Advisory Council and The Cloud Foundation
New York City, NY (October 7, 2010)— A case filed today against Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar in federal court aims to stop the elimination of wild horses from Colorado’s North Piceance herd area. Plaintiffs Habitat for Horses (HfH), the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), The Cloud Foundation (TCF), Toni Moore and Dr. Don Moore challenge the BLM’s ongoing illegal treatment of wild horses residing on public lands and it’s intention to completely remove all wild horses from this area beginning October 11, 2010.
The Plaintiffs’ attorneys, Bruce Wagman (Schiff Hardin) and Valerie Stanley, are asking the court for an injunction to stop BLM from removing any of these wild horses pending a complete judicial review of the BLM’s conduct. The complaint cites four counts and violations committed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM): violation of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Information Quality Act and the Federal Land Policy Management Act. The suit has been brought against BLM Director Robert Abbey and Field Manager of the Colorado White River Field Office Kent Walter, in addition to Secretary Salazar.
“The BLM’s ‘shoot from the hip’ policy of indiscriminately destroying and removing long standing wild horse herds has to come to an end,” says R.T. Fitch, Volunteer Executive Director of co-supporting organization HfH Advisory Council, “Poor accounting, outdated data and disengagement from the reality of the range is the hallmark of the BLM’s business plan. They must be stopped.”
On September 10th, 2010 the White River Field office of the BLM issued its final decision to completely and permanently eliminate the herd of wild horses which has lived in partnership with the natural environment in the Herd Area for centuries.
“BLM and other public agencies have eliminated over a third of wild horse herds designated for protection by Congress in 1971,” explains Cloud Foundation Volunteer Executive Director, Ginger Kathrens. “Colorado has only a few hundred wild horses remaining and the destruction of yet another herd is unthinkable—cruel, costly and completely unnecessary. It is a managing to extinction policy that must stop.”
This action is co-funded by HfH Advisory Council and the ASPCA. A suit filed last week to protect the nearby West Douglas wild horse herd has so far resulted in a one-year postponement of that “zeroing out action.” The case remains in court.
The Cloud Foundation, HfH Advisory Council, ASPCA and over 200 other organizations and tens of thousands of members of the public continue to call for an immediate moratorium on BLM wild horse and burro roundups. To date the BLM has not changed course and plans to roundup and remove a total of 3,295 wild horses and burros before the end of the year. Currently, nearly 40,000 wild horses and burros are held in pens and pastures at taxpayer expense.
Links of interest:
Legal documents filed today: http://bit.ly/d7ePWk
Congress Sends Letter for Wild Herds to Secretary Salazar http://bit.ly/54sign
Roundup Schedule- http://bit.ly/roundupsched
American Herds – “What’s Left?” http://bit.ly/WhatsLeft
Unified Moratorium on Roundups Letter http://bit.ly/MoratoriumLtr
Mestengo. Mustang. Misfit. America’s Disappearing Wild Horses – A History http://bit.ly/8ZCk8e
Straight from the Horse’s Heart http://www.sfthh.com
Stampede to Oblivion: An Investigate Report from Las Vegas Now http://bit.ly/Stampede2Oblivion
Shortlink to this release: http://bit.ly/COmustangSuit
Photos, video and interviews available by request from the Cloud Foundation
The Cloud Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to the preservation and protection of wild horses and burros on our Western public lands with a focus on protecting Cloud’s herd in the Pryor Mountains of Montana. 107 S. 7th St. – Colorado Springs, CO 80905, p. 719-633-3842 www.thecloudfoundation.org
The Habitat for Horses Advisory Council is the “The Legal Voice of the American Equine” and is comprised of like-minded equine welfare oriented organizations and individual advocates. The Council works to progress relevant issues imperative to furthering the safety and well being of horses, both domestic and wild, in the United States. Habitat for Horses Advisory Council is a registered 501c4 non-profit corporation. P.O. Box 213, Hitchcock, TX 77563, p.1-800-974-FOTH www.hfhadvisorycouncil.org
Press Release from HfH Advisory Council and The Cloud Foundation
Suit seeks immediate injunction, cites BLM’s violations of four Congressional Acts
New York City, NY (October 7, 2010)— A case filed today against Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar in federal court aims to stop the elimination of wild horses from Colorado’s North Piceance herd area. Plaintiffs Habitat for Horses (HfH), the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), The Cloud Foundation (TCF), Toni Moore and Dr. Don Moore challenge the BLM’s ongoing illegal treatment of wild horses residing on public lands and it’s intention to completely remove all wild horses from this area beginning October 11, 2010.The Plaintiffs’ attorneys, Bruce Wagman (Schiff Hardin) and Valerie Stanley, are asking the court for an injunction to stop BLM from removing any of these wild horses pending a complete judicial review of the BLM’s conduct. The complaint cites four counts and violations committed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM): violation of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Information Quality Act and the Federal Land Policy Management Act. The suit has been brought against BLM Director Robert Abbey and Field Manager of the Colorado White River Field Office Kent Walter, in addition to Secretary Salazar.
“The BLM’s ‘shoot from the hip’ policy of indiscriminately destroying and removing long standing wild horse herds has to come to an end,” says R.T. Fitch, Volunteer Executive Director of co-supporting organization HfH Advisory Council, “Poor accounting, outdated data and disengagement from the reality of the range is the hallmark of the BLM’s business plan. They must be stopped.”
On September 10th, 2010 the White River Field office of the BLM issued its final decision to completely and permanently eliminate the herd of wild horses which has lived in partnership with the natural environment in the Herd Area for centuries.
“BLM and other public agencies have eliminated over a third of wild horse herds designated for protection by Congress in 1971,” explains Cloud Foundation Volunteer Executive Director, Ginger Kathrens. “Colorado has only a few hundred wild horses remaining and the destruction of yet another herd is unthinkable—cruel, costly and completely unnecessary. It is a managing to extinction policy that must stop.”
This action is co-funded by HfH Advisory Council and the ASPCA. A suit filed last week to protect the nearby West Douglas wild horse herd has so far resulted in a one-year postponement of that “zeroing out action.” The case remains in court.
The Cloud Foundation, HfH Advisory Council, ASPCA and over 200 other organizations and tens of thousands of members of the public continue to call for an immediate moratorium on BLM wild horse and burro roundups. To date the BLM has not changed course and plans to roundup and remove a total of 3,295 wild horses and burros before the end of the year. Currently, nearly 40,000 wild horses and burros are held in pens and pastures at taxpayer expense.
Links of interest:
Legal documents filed today: http://bit.ly/d7ePWk
Congress Sends Letter for Wild Herds to Secretary Salazar http://bit.ly/54sign
Roundup Schedule- http://bit.ly/roundupsched
American Herds – “What’s Left?” http://bit.ly/WhatsLeft
Unified Moratorium on Roundups Letter http://bit.ly/MoratoriumLtr
Mestengo. Mustang. Misfit. America’s Disappearing Wild Horses – A History http://bit.ly/8ZCk8e
Straight from the Horse’s Heart http://www.sfthh.com
Stampede to Oblivion: An Investigate Report from Las Vegas Now http://bit.ly/Stampede2Oblivion
Shortlink to this release: http://bit.ly/COmustangSuit
Photos, video and interviews available by request from the Cloud Foundation
The Cloud Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to the preservation and protection of wild horses and burros on our Western public lands with a focus on protecting Cloud’s herd in the Pryor Mountains of Montana. 107 S. 7th St. – Colorado Springs, CO 80905, p. 719-633-3842 www.thecloudfoundation.org
The Habitat for Horses Advisory Council is the “The Legal Voice of the American Equine” and is comprised of like-minded equine welfare oriented organizations and individual advocates. The Council works to progress relevant issues imperative to furthering the safety and well being of horses, both domestic and wild, in the United States. Habitat for Horses Advisory Council is a registered 501c4 non-profit corporation. P.O. Box 213, Hitchcock, TX 77563, p.1-800-974-FOTH www.hfhadvisorycouncil.org
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was the first humane organization in the Western Hemisphere. Our mission, as stated by our founder, Henry Bergh, in 1866, is “to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States. 424 E. 92nd St New York, NY 10128-6804, p. 212-876-7700 www.aspca.org
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Wild Horse Eco-Sanctuary: Relief for the Imprisoned but No Help to the Free
Straight from the Horse's Heart
Anyone who knows anything about Wild Horses and Burros has heard the recent news that Madeleine Pickens has reported to garner agreement from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to move 1,000 captive wild horses from long term holding to an “Eco-Sanctuary” environment with the remaining 38,000+ to follow. Ms. Pickens should be applauded for her efforts but while she moves 1,000 altered Wild Horses to private land the BLM will strip from public land several thousand more and put them behind bars. Doesn’t speak highly of the BLM’s level of commitment to a solution, does it?
Although we want to see all of the horses out of their BLM prisons a declared moratorium on the process of using bad numbers, junk science and political motives as excuses to steal America’s mustangs from their rightful land should be a component to these negotiations and an eventual solution. Without a moratorium on the roundups, to give time for a full accounting of actual Wild Horse and Burro numbers, we are just pumping more horses into a cruel situation while gutting the taxpayer’s pocketbooks.
In reality, we are giving a spoon full of medicine to treat a symptom while the cancer continues to ravage the body; outside of giving a little comfort it does not change the inevitable outcome of the sickness’s progression and the “Eco-Sanctuary” will not stop the BLM’s decimation of the wild horses from their native homes.
Personally, I do not trust the management of the BLM as for decades they have been attempting to destroy the wild horses and burros of this great nation. It was just two short years ago when this same agency wanted to kill all of the horses that they had in long term holding; a leopard does not change his spots that quickly.
This is not an act of benevolence on the part of the BLM but an excuse and a device to distract the public outrage as the BLM “Wild Horse Harvesting Machine” continues its consumption of all of the wild horses from their rightful homes. 12,000 horses this year added to the existing 38,000 and 11,000 more stampeded into oblivion next year. Do the math and being that we do not have an accurate accounting of what is really out there, the end of the American Wild Horse draws nearer with each passing day.
Madeleine’s news will be good news to the horses that are in BLM concentration camps but it will do nothing to stop the BLM from continuing its assault upon our national icon. The only way to slow this down and stop the deadly stampedes is to chant the mantra of “Moratorium”; repeat it loud and often, the madness has to stop so that true science, compassion and ethical management can be applied to the saving of our last few, true, wild horses.
What we need, today, is a moratorium; that would be something to truly celebrate about.
Wild Horses should be Wild
Anyone who knows anything about Wild Horses and Burros has heard the recent news that Madeleine Pickens has reported to garner agreement from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to move 1,000 captive wild horses from long term holding to an “Eco-Sanctuary” environment with the remaining 38,000+ to follow. Ms. Pickens should be applauded for her efforts but while she moves 1,000 altered Wild Horses to private land the BLM will strip from public land several thousand more and put them behind bars. Doesn’t speak highly of the BLM’s level of commitment to a solution, does it?
Although we want to see all of the horses out of their BLM prisons a declared moratorium on the process of using bad numbers, junk science and political motives as excuses to steal America’s mustangs from their rightful land should be a component to these negotiations and an eventual solution. Without a moratorium on the roundups, to give time for a full accounting of actual Wild Horse and Burro numbers, we are just pumping more horses into a cruel situation while gutting the taxpayer’s pocketbooks.
In reality, we are giving a spoon full of medicine to treat a symptom while the cancer continues to ravage the body; outside of giving a little comfort it does not change the inevitable outcome of the sickness’s progression and the “Eco-Sanctuary” will not stop the BLM’s decimation of the wild horses from their native homes.
Personally, I do not trust the management of the BLM as for decades they have been attempting to destroy the wild horses and burros of this great nation. It was just two short years ago when this same agency wanted to kill all of the horses that they had in long term holding; a leopard does not change his spots that quickly.
This is not an act of benevolence on the part of the BLM but an excuse and a device to distract the public outrage as the BLM “Wild Horse Harvesting Machine” continues its consumption of all of the wild horses from their rightful homes. 12,000 horses this year added to the existing 38,000 and 11,000 more stampeded into oblivion next year. Do the math and being that we do not have an accurate accounting of what is really out there, the end of the American Wild Horse draws nearer with each passing day.
Madeleine’s news will be good news to the horses that are in BLM concentration camps but it will do nothing to stop the BLM from continuing its assault upon our national icon. The only way to slow this down and stop the deadly stampedes is to chant the mantra of “Moratorium”; repeat it loud and often, the madness has to stop so that true science, compassion and ethical management can be applied to the saving of our last few, true, wild horses.
What we need, today, is a moratorium; that would be something to truly celebrate about.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
President Obama & Congress Called Upon To Stop Massive CA Wild Horse Roundup After Federal Appeal Denied
In Defense of Animals (IDA)
Last week 54 members of Congress sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar demanding a halt to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse roundups and recommending reform of "what seems to be a deeply flawed policy. . ." Representatives Barbara Lee, George Miller, Lynn Woolsey, and Mike Honda are among the members of the California Congressional delegation who signed the letter on July 30, expressing concern over the BLM's recent helicopter roundup of 1,224 Nevada mustangs, which caused the deaths of 34 of these iconic animals, including at least eight foals.
The Twin Peaks roundup will be conducted in the heat of summer and will unnecessarily subject many old, sick, lame and vulnerable young wild horses to potential injury and death. The BLM's current policy of mass roundups, removals and stockpiling of horses has created what Interior Secretary Salazar has called an "unsustainable" situation whereby the agency is spending tens of millions of dollars annually to stockpile more than 38,000 wild horses.
The lawsuit was filed July 16 on behalf of ecologist Dr. Chad Hanson, a researcher at the University of California at Davis and author of numerous scientific studies; Barbara Clarke, wild horse expert and director of 2,000-acre DreamCatcher Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary in Northeastern California; Linda Hay, a local resident who has visited and enjoyed the Twin Peaks horses for the past thirty years; and In Defense of Animals, a Bay Area-based animal protection organization.
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C., is joined as counsel in the lawsuit by the national law firm of Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney and San Francisco Bay Area-based environmental attorney Rachel Fazio.
"The President must step in if this roundup is to be stopped. The Interior Department continues to disproportionately allocate public resources in order to serve the private livestock and other commercial industries and in turn scapegoats wild horses and burros deeming them overpopulated," said Stuart G. Gross, of Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy. "In Twin Peaks, the Department authorizes four to seven times more privately-owned sheep and cattle than wild horses and burros to graze on Twin Peak's nearly 800,000-acres - which is federally protected to serve as horse and burro areas.
"Under the Obama Administration for the first time in history, there are now more wild horses in government holding facilities than are left on the Western range. The vast majority of the captured Twin Peaks horses will join the 38,000 mustangs already stockpiled in zoo-like conditions," said William J. Spriggs of Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney. "This scheme is not only fiscally unsustainable, it is also blatantly illegal."
"The Department of Interior has a policy of removing mass numbers of wild horses from the range without fulfilling its obligation to establish the need for the action," said environmental attorney Rachel Fazio.
Wild horses comprise a small fraction of grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by livestock nearly 50 to 1. The BLM has recently increased cattle grazing allotments in areas where wild horses are being removed. Currently the BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public lands of which cattle grazing is allowed on 160 million acres; wild horses are only allowed on 26.6 million acres of this land, which must be shared with cattle. The Obama Administration has accelerated the removal of wild horses and burros from public lands in the past year.
PRESIDENT OBAMA AND CONGRESS CALLED UPON TO STOP MASSIVE
CALIFORNIA WILD HORSE ROUNDUP AFTER FEDERAL APPEAL DENIED
Half of All California Wild Horses to Be Captured In Coming Weeks
San Francisco, Calif. (August 10, 2010) - Today, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion to stop the roundup of half of all California wild horses, plaintiffs in the lawsuit are joining more than 54 members of Congress who are calling on the Obama Administration to halt the government roundup. Over 2,000 wild horses and 200 burros will be removed from the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area in northeastern California by helicopter stampede scheduled to begin on Wednesday, August 11, 2010. CALIFORNIA WILD HORSE ROUNDUP AFTER FEDERAL APPEAL DENIED
Half of All California Wild Horses to Be Captured In Coming Weeks
Last week 54 members of Congress sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar demanding a halt to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse roundups and recommending reform of "what seems to be a deeply flawed policy. . ." Representatives Barbara Lee, George Miller, Lynn Woolsey, and Mike Honda are among the members of the California Congressional delegation who signed the letter on July 30, expressing concern over the BLM's recent helicopter roundup of 1,224 Nevada mustangs, which caused the deaths of 34 of these iconic animals, including at least eight foals.
The Twin Peaks roundup will be conducted in the heat of summer and will unnecessarily subject many old, sick, lame and vulnerable young wild horses to potential injury and death. The BLM's current policy of mass roundups, removals and stockpiling of horses has created what Interior Secretary Salazar has called an "unsustainable" situation whereby the agency is spending tens of millions of dollars annually to stockpile more than 38,000 wild horses.
The lawsuit was filed July 16 on behalf of ecologist Dr. Chad Hanson, a researcher at the University of California at Davis and author of numerous scientific studies; Barbara Clarke, wild horse expert and director of 2,000-acre DreamCatcher Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary in Northeastern California; Linda Hay, a local resident who has visited and enjoyed the Twin Peaks horses for the past thirty years; and In Defense of Animals, a Bay Area-based animal protection organization.
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C., is joined as counsel in the lawsuit by the national law firm of Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney and San Francisco Bay Area-based environmental attorney Rachel Fazio.
"The President must step in if this roundup is to be stopped. The Interior Department continues to disproportionately allocate public resources in order to serve the private livestock and other commercial industries and in turn scapegoats wild horses and burros deeming them overpopulated," said Stuart G. Gross, of Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy. "In Twin Peaks, the Department authorizes four to seven times more privately-owned sheep and cattle than wild horses and burros to graze on Twin Peak's nearly 800,000-acres - which is federally protected to serve as horse and burro areas.
"Under the Obama Administration for the first time in history, there are now more wild horses in government holding facilities than are left on the Western range. The vast majority of the captured Twin Peaks horses will join the 38,000 mustangs already stockpiled in zoo-like conditions," said William J. Spriggs of Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney. "This scheme is not only fiscally unsustainable, it is also blatantly illegal."
"The Department of Interior has a policy of removing mass numbers of wild horses from the range without fulfilling its obligation to establish the need for the action," said environmental attorney Rachel Fazio.
Wild horses comprise a small fraction of grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by livestock nearly 50 to 1. The BLM has recently increased cattle grazing allotments in areas where wild horses are being removed. Currently the BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public lands of which cattle grazing is allowed on 160 million acres; wild horses are only allowed on 26.6 million acres of this land, which must be shared with cattle. The Obama Administration has accelerated the removal of wild horses and burros from public lands in the past year.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
BLM’s Wild Horse Bloodbath Continues
http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/blm%e2%80%99s-wild-horse-bloodbath-continues/
(In My Humble Opinion) by R.T. Fitch ~ author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“
The death toll rises, as per the BLM’s own stats:
Total for the Calico Massacre = 158
Total for the Tuscarora Farce = 22
Again, “that we know of” as the BLM shamelessly hides in the shadows and conducts its shady business from behind closed private gates away from the watchful eyes of the U.S. public and press.
“When you know you are wrong you hide.
When you are afraid of being caught you rush.
When you get stuck in a lie you stomp your foot, point your finger and cuss.”
So reads the current mission statement of Bob Abbey, Ken Salazar and President Obama’s BLM.
No accountability; the only deliverables required are to the special interest groups that are, obviously, greasing the palms of individuals very high up the food chain. Corruption runs freely and always has within the Department of Interior and its Bureau of Land Management.
The new President promised change and we got it; we changed from being in a bad situation into something severely worse. We went from a corrupt federal bureaucracy to a form of government that in the recent past we have sent young men and women out to fight and die against. Thanks to the new administration we have now become our own worst enemy and still all we get is a deaf ear.
There is far worse going on in our country than the BLM’s massacre of our national icon, the wild horses (not to the horses of course). But the horses put it into perspective, they provide the focus and offer a micro version of all that is wrong within our government and they are doing this at the expense of their lives.
The leadership and management staff of the BLM have become the enemies of the union, the violators of the law and the agents of chaos to the American public. They operate outside legal parameters and flaunt their crimes while lawsuits continue to mount in an effort to stop their illegal crusade.
It’s a sad day when the citizens of the United States are required to use their hard earned dollars through the court system in an effort to stop a rogue government agency which is funded through taxation of the very same group of people.
It’s time for Congress to get off its dead ass and call these crooks to task.
It’s time for the new President to listen to the people, for a change, and call for a moratorium on these roundups.
It is time for the American public to make a serious paradigm shift under a new rallying call…”Vote the Bums Out!”
If they won’t listen, they’ve got to blinking go…every last one of them!
“For the Horses!”
(In My Humble Opinion) by R.T. Fitch ~ author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“
Cleverly tucked away on private land the BLM conducts secret operations that kill our Wild Mustangs
The "good ole days" of "MANAGING" wild horses to extinction
Total for the Calico Massacre = 158
Total for the Tuscarora Farce = 22
Again, “that we know of” as the BLM shamelessly hides in the shadows and conducts its shady business from behind closed private gates away from the watchful eyes of the U.S. public and press.
“When you know you are wrong you hide.
When you are afraid of being caught you rush.
When you get stuck in a lie you stomp your foot, point your finger and cuss.”
So reads the current mission statement of Bob Abbey, Ken Salazar and President Obama’s BLM.
No accountability; the only deliverables required are to the special interest groups that are, obviously, greasing the palms of individuals very high up the food chain. Corruption runs freely and always has within the Department of Interior and its Bureau of Land Management.
BLM's current preferred weapon for destroying wild horses - the Helicopter
There is far worse going on in our country than the BLM’s massacre of our national icon, the wild horses (not to the horses of course). But the horses put it into perspective, they provide the focus and offer a micro version of all that is wrong within our government and they are doing this at the expense of their lives.
The leadership and management staff of the BLM have become the enemies of the union, the violators of the law and the agents of chaos to the American public. They operate outside legal parameters and flaunt their crimes while lawsuits continue to mount in an effort to stop their illegal crusade.
It’s a sad day when the citizens of the United States are required to use their hard earned dollars through the court system in an effort to stop a rogue government agency which is funded through taxation of the very same group of people.
It’s time for Congress to get off its dead ass and call these crooks to task.
It’s time for the new President to listen to the people, for a change, and call for a moratorium on these roundups.
It is time for the American public to make a serious paradigm shift under a new rallying call…”Vote the Bums Out!”
If they won’t listen, they’ve got to blinking go…every last one of them!
“For the Horses!”
Call Secretary Salazar, your Representative and Senators and demand that they stop the tax-payer funded disaster in Tuscarora before more mustangs are killed.
Phone: 202-208-3100
Phone: 202-208-3100
Fax: 202-208-6956
E-Mail: feedback@ios.doi.gov
(send free online faxes via faxzero.com)
Friday, July 16, 2010
Breaking News: Judge Strikes Victory for First Amendment
The Cloud Foundation
Media Contacts:
Anne Novak
Tel: 415-531-8454
Makendra Silverman
Tel: 719-351-8187
For Immediate Release:
Judge Hicks Strikes Victory for First Amendment
Court sees Each Roundup as Separate—Allows Leigh Access to Roundup
Reno, NV (July 15, 2010)—First Amendment rights are upheld for wild horse advocate and journalist, Laura Leigh Field Manager of Herd Watch a Cloud Foundation program. Federal Judge Hicks strikes victory today despite his order to proceed with the Owyhee roundup. The other pending roundups in the complex such as Rock Creek and Little Humbolt have been acknowledged as separate events.
"This ruling was made by a judge that is obviously willing to listen," said Laura Leigh. "He does not want the deaths of 75% of the horses in Owyhee on his heart and mind. As an advocate I completely understand why he ruled the way he did. However please take note that this judge recognizes that these areas are three separate areas and not the single event BLM has claimed. He ruled without predjudice to hearing my argument in his courtroom for Rock Creek and Little Humbolt as separate events. And he ruled with an absolute recognition of the reason our forefathers made the First amendment first. A free press is vital to the system of government accountability in a Democratic society. I am on my way to Owyhee.... We are not done with making a stand for these amazing beings that are such a vital symbol of American Freedom."
The First Amendment protects the fundamental right of individuals including the press and journalists to gather information that are matters of public interest so as to provide that information to the interested public. When the BLM shut off the gather areas from public viewing they violated this concept, at least this is what federal Judge Larry Hicks conveyed in his Order.
Judge Hicks struck down the BLM’s blanket closure of public lands in the Gather area. He agreed with Laura Leigh that this "closure" amounted to a prior restraint on her First Amendment rights because she would not be able to observe and report on the health of the horses and the BLM’s management of the gather.
Assuming the BLM would fairly comply, this ruling brings back the "watchdog" concept which allows the public to observe the BLM’s activities in scheduled wild horse roundups.
"This is a victory for all member of the press. Laura Leigh took on the burden of anyone who was denied access. Now, any member of the public may have access," explains Gordon Cowan the attorney for Leigh.
# # #
Links of interest:
Restraining order sought - AP article http://bit.ly/TROsought
Grass Roots Horse http://www.grassrootshorse.com/
Roundup Schedule- updated July 12, 2010 http://bit.ly/roundupschedule
The Mustang Conspiracy: Sex, Drugs, Corruption, and BP – investigative report http://www.abovetopsecret.com/mustangconspiracy/
Wild Horse and Burro Act http://bit.ly/a7hOeS
Tuscarora/Owyhee Complex Roundup Information from BLM http://bit.ly/Tuscarora
Disappointment Valley... A Modern Day Western Trailer- excellent sample of interviews regarding the issues http://bit.ly/awFbwm
Fact Sheet on Wild Herds & The Salazar Plan http://bit.ly/bfdX1y
Photos, video and interviews available from:
The Cloud Foundation
The Cloud Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to the preservation and protection of wild horses and burros on our Western public landswith a focus on protecting Cloud's herd in the Pryor Mountains of Montana.
107 S. 7th St. - Colorado Springs, CO 80905 - 719-633-3842 www.thecloudfoundation.org
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Injunction Slapped on BLM as Bob Abbey Attempts to Break Wild Horse Roundup Agreement
http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/injunction-slapped-on-blm-as-bob-abbey-attempts-to-break-wild-horse-roundup-agreement/
SFTHH Exclusive
Sources have forwarded to SFTHH information that indicates during a pre-hearing meeting the BLM agreed NOT to fly any more deadly helicopter attacks on wild horses in the Tuscarora area until Laura Leigh’s hearing and suit is heard on the 15th. July 18th was the earliest that they would continue their attack.
BLM Director Bob Abbey attempted to circumvent that agreement, today, which has prompted the seated judge to evoke an injuction PRIOR to the hearing. No comment from the judge at the time of this report but obviously Bob Abbey’s disregard for common law has raised his ire.
More to follow.
Image of Wild Horses
Sources have forwarded to SFTHH information that indicates during a pre-hearing meeting the BLM agreed NOT to fly any more deadly helicopter attacks on wild horses in the Tuscarora area until Laura Leigh’s hearing and suit is heard on the 15th. July 18th was the earliest that they would continue their attack.
BLM Director Bob Abbey attempted to circumvent that agreement, today, which has prompted the seated judge to evoke an injuction PRIOR to the hearing. No comment from the judge at the time of this report but obviously Bob Abbey’s disregard for common law has raised his ire.
More to follow.
Wild Horse Advocates Call for Suspension of All Summer Roundups, Full Transparency in Agency Operations
Animal Welfare Institute
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
In a sign on letter addressed to President Obama and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Mrs. Pickens and the groups also harshly criticized the agency for cracking down on public access to observe and videotape roundup operations. The advocates released footage of a BLM representative stating publicly that public video of a prior roundup caused the agency to have “a really hard time trying to explain what’s happening.”
“The BLM simply does not want the American people to see what its wrongheaded policies are doing to our mustangs,” said Mrs. Pickens. “The horrific deaths of Owyhee horses recall the tragedy earlier this year in Nevada’s Calico Complex, where over 100 wild horses lost their lives and dozens of mares spontaneously aborted their late term foals in another deadly roundup.”
“We are calling on the President and Secretary Salazar to immediately instruct the BLM to suspend all summer roundups to avoid a repeat of the tragedy at Owyhee,” Mrs. Pickens continued. “The entire wild horse program must be fundamentally reformed. America’s mustangs are still waiting for change.”
Over the next four months, the BLM intends to capture and remove 6,000 wild horse and burros from six Western states. At least half of these roundups are scheduled to take place in desert environments in the hot summer months. Public access to observe the roundup operations will be severely limited to a handful of staged opportunities, with broader access given to small number of handpicked “experts.”
The crackdown on public observation comes in the wake of public outrage and international media coverage of the Calico roundup, which ended in February. The controversy was fueled by release of photographs and video showing of wild horses, including young foals, heavily pregnant mares and older horses, being forcefully driven by helicopter out of the mountains of Nevada and into BLM trap pens.
“The BLM’s crackdown on public observation of roundup activities is unacceptable, and makes a mockery of President Obama’s stated commitment to open government and transparency in government operations,” added Suzanne Roy, Campaign Director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, whose grassroots efforts are endorsed by a coalition of more than 40 horse advocacy, animal welfare, conservation and historic preservation organizations.
Other supporters signing the letter include Mrs. Pickens’ Saving America’s Mustangs Foundation, The Cloud Foundation, Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, Return to Freedom, American Wild Horse Sanctuary, and In Defense of Animals.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Philanthropist and businesswoman Madeleine Pickens was joined today by the ASPCA, the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, the Animal Welfare Institute and many other organizations expressing their outrage over the deaths of at least seven mustangs in a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundup conducted Saturday in the Owyhee Complex in northeastern Nevada. The wild horses died of dehydration-related causes—including brain swelling, colic and acute water intoxication – as a result of being stampeded by helicopters for up to eight miles in 90+ degree desert heat.
“The BLM simply does not want the American people to see what its wrongheaded policies are doing to our mustangs,” said Mrs. Pickens. “The horrific deaths of Owyhee horses recall the tragedy earlier this year in Nevada’s Calico Complex, where over 100 wild horses lost their lives and dozens of mares spontaneously aborted their late term foals in another deadly roundup.”
“We are calling on the President and Secretary Salazar to immediately instruct the BLM to suspend all summer roundups to avoid a repeat of the tragedy at Owyhee,” Mrs. Pickens continued. “The entire wild horse program must be fundamentally reformed. America’s mustangs are still waiting for change.”
Over the next four months, the BLM intends to capture and remove 6,000 wild horse and burros from six Western states. At least half of these roundups are scheduled to take place in desert environments in the hot summer months. Public access to observe the roundup operations will be severely limited to a handful of staged opportunities, with broader access given to small number of handpicked “experts.”
The crackdown on public observation comes in the wake of public outrage and international media coverage of the Calico roundup, which ended in February. The controversy was fueled by release of photographs and video showing of wild horses, including young foals, heavily pregnant mares and older horses, being forcefully driven by helicopter out of the mountains of Nevada and into BLM trap pens.
“The BLM’s crackdown on public observation of roundup activities is unacceptable, and makes a mockery of President Obama’s stated commitment to open government and transparency in government operations,” added Suzanne Roy, Campaign Director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, whose grassroots efforts are endorsed by a coalition of more than 40 horse advocacy, animal welfare, conservation and historic preservation organizations.
Other supporters signing the letter include Mrs. Pickens’ Saving America’s Mustangs Foundation, The Cloud Foundation, Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, Return to Freedom, American Wild Horse Sanctuary, and In Defense of Animals.
The BLM wild horse program has been harshly criticized for its lack of fiscal sustainability. The agency now stockpiles more wild horses in government holding pens and pastures than are left on the range. The cost to taxpayers for this program is expected to exceed $70 million next fiscal year.
Wild horses comprise a small fraction of grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by livestock nearly 50 to 1.
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Saturday, July 10, 2010
BP and Ruby Pipeline Connection Raises Questions About Removal of Calico Wild Horses from Northwestern Nevada
________________________________________
Media Contacts:
Makendra Silverman
Tel: 719-351-8187
Anne Novak
Tel: 415-531-8454
For Immediate Release
BP and Ruby Pipeline Connection Raises Questions About Removal of Calico Wild Horses from Northwestern Nevada
Bloody BLM roundup results in more than 140 deaths of federally protected animals
Colorado Springs, CO (July 10, 2010)—A contract between the $3 billion Ruby Pipeline project managers, El Paso Corp of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and energy giant, British Petroleum, was uncovered this week by ATS News, the investigative journalism arm of number-one "alternative topics" web site, AboveTopSecret.com. The contract reveals how BP stands to reap millions of dollars from the proposed 675-mile pipeline from Wyoming to Oregon. Ruby would destroy areas of pristine wilderness in northwestern Nevada, formerly home to the majestic wild horses of the Calico Mountains. Ruby Project Coordinator Lars Ecklund said during an April 16 meeting, reported on by the Klamath Falls Herald and News: "Don't think we're going to put this pipe in without making a mess . . . It's going to look like Hiroshima. It's going to look nasty.”
The Cloud Foundation first raised the issue of a possible deal between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Ruby in January, 2010 when a letter and documents (September 14, 2009-p. 30) from Ruby Pipeline, L.L.C to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) revealed a link between the pipeline and the removal of federally protected wild horses in northwestern Nevada. Digging a 4-6 foot deep and 8 foot wide trench for a 42” diameter pipe would gravely impact five wild horse herd areas. In a written response to questions posed by the Office of Energy Projects (an agency within the Department of Energy), Ruby project consultant, Dan Gredvig, stated that “Ruby will work with BLM to minimize wild horse and burro grazing along the restored ROW (right-of-way) for three years. Possible management actions would be to . . . reduce wild horse populations following BLM policy in appropriate management areas. BLM wild horse and burro specialists were consulted in developing this management approach.” The document is dated February 23, 2009.
“Back in January when we met with an official of El Paso Corp who denied any connection between Ruby and the wild horse roundups, we had no idea that BP was going to be a major beneficiary of the project,” stated Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation.
The connection between BLM and BP extends to the current Department of the Interior (DOI) Deputy Assistant Secretary of Lands and Minerals Management, Sylvia Baca, who was hired away from BP in June of 2009 by DOI Secretary, Ken Salazar. Baca is well-known at DOI where she served as an Assistant Secretary from 1995 to 2001. Her duties included development of national policy and management direction of BLM, Mineral Management service and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Baca also served as the Acting Director of the BLM in the late 1990s when allegations were raised that BLM employees had sold wild horses to slaughter and were involved in wild horses from holding facilities going to slaughter. After the publication of hard-hitting articles by AP reporter, Martha Mendoza, an investigation ensued and a federal grand jury was convened. But before the opening gavel was struck, the plug was pulled on the grand jury for unknown reasons. Kathrens had personal conversations with one of the primary investigators in the case and remembers his belief that there was wrong-doing by BLM employees and his disgust at the mysterious closing of the case before one shred of evidence came to light.
In a PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) White Paper released in 1997 on this topic, PEER reported that “On February 19, 1997, the BLM issued a press release announcing the results of an internal investigation ‘which contradicts recent press allegations that wild horses are routinely sent to slaughter.’ Despite this self-proclaimed clean bill of health, the BLM simultaneously announced a series of 20 reforms in the Wild Horse and Burro Program and promised more reforms to come.” Even with the promised ‘reforms’, some of the same employees implicated in the investigation continued working for BLM and at least one is still employed by BLM.
Baca left BLM in 2001 to take a senior management position with BP where her duties included emergency response. During her tenure with BP numerous permits were issued which granted environment waivers—including a waiver for offshore drilling given to the Deepwater Horizon that later exploded, killing 11 workers and continuing to spew ceaseless amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Secretary Salazar hired Sylvia Baca back from BP in June of 2009.
“In light of the revolving door of BLM personnel shuffling between big energy and BLM as well as the possible connection between massive Nevada wild horse removals and the construction of the $3 billion Ruby Pipeline, we believe there is a need for emergency protections for the last of the mustangs on their legal rangeland,” states Kathrens. “Otherwise, generations of Americans will loose their opportunity to be inspired by these magnificent animals roaming our vast western landscapes.”
To date more than 100 wild horses have died as a result of the Calico roundup and processing, and more than 40 mares aborted their late-term foals. Calico has been called the “bloodiest roundup in modern history” by George Knapp, Emmy Award-winning journalist with KLAS TV in Las Vegas. "The public that the Department of Interior and the BLM serve is not the John and Mary U.S. Citizen public, it's the big corporate agriculture and big oil public that gets all the benefits of exploiting our public lands," he said in the ATS report.
The Cloud Foundation is calling for an immediate moratorium on roundups in the West and for Congressional Hearings into the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program which, left unchecked, will remove 6,000 additional wild horses in the next three months at enormous expense to the American taxpayers and the “protected” mustangs.
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Links of interest:
BP Connected to Wild Horse Roundups?
The Mustang Conspiracy: Sex, Drugs, Corruption, and BP – investigative report http://www.abovetopsecret.com/mustangconspiracy/
Deputy Assistant Director Sylvia V. Baca http://www.doi.gov/archive/bio/baca_bio.html
BLM Contacts and the Ruby Pipeline http://bit.ly/cT6e0a
Ruby Pipeline press release http://bit.ly/74789s
‘Herd-Watch: Public Eyes for Public Horses’ http://bit.ly/9Wvh58
Roundup Schedule- updated July 2010 http://bit.ly/2010roundup
Disappointment Valley... A Modern Day Western Trailer- excellent sample of interviews regarding the issues http://bit.ly/awFbwm
American Herds Blog http://americanherds.blogspot.com/
Mestengo. Mustang. Misfit.
America’s Disappearing Wild Horses
America’s Disappearing Wild Horses
Fact Sheet on Wild Herds & The Salazar Plan http://bit.ly/bfdX1y
Wild Horse and Burro Act http://bit.ly/a7hOeS
Link to this press release online http://bit.ly/BPMustangs
Past Cloud Foundation press releases http://bit.ly/TCFpress
Photos, video and interviews available from:
The Cloud Foundation
The Cloud Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to the preservation and protection of wild horses and burros on our Western public lands with a focus on protecting Cloud's herd in the Pryor Mountains of Montana.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
BP Connected to Wild Horse Round-ups?
Weren't You Waiting for Part 2 of George Knapp's Report?
Please visit the site for the full article and video.
Las Vegas Now
I-Team: BP Connected to Wild Horse Roundups?
LAS VEGAS -- The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has put a laser focus on BP and their operations all over the planet. Turns out, the oil giant has left a trail of toxic waste in Nevada. But is there also a BP link to wild horse roundups?
Federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Service, and Fish and Wildlife have been accused of looking the other way as BP skirted environmental rules and safety standards in the gulf and elsewhere.
For a long time, critics of the Department of the Interior have alleged that oil and gas companies, and other industries, are allowed to run roughshod over public lands, plundering what should be public resources. So, would it be a surprise if it happened here?
The BLM's Calico Hills roundup last winter proved to be the bloodiest mustang operation in memory. The government captured.....
Be sure to check out the below segment that aired last night, as well.
Las Vegas Now: I-Team: Black Gold in the Silver State?
Drills in Elko County are usually searching for gold. The one in the hills above Diamond Valley is a sign that the search for black gold in the Silver State is finally getting serious. Fasken Oil, a small Texas company, will probably make a $5 million roll of the dice on this operation. It costs about $20,000 a day just for the leased drilling rig.
The company has good reason to believe the gamble is worth it. Just down the road in neighboring Eureka County, two older, oil stained wells are still producing in a field just off the highway. The same rig is bound for Lincoln County, where Cabot Oil will plunge into what it hopes will be a massive gusher.
After that, the rig will go to the White River Valley, where a wildcatter with 50 years in the oil business thinks...
Please visit the site for the full article and video.
Las Vegas Now
I-Team: BP Connected to Wild Horse Roundups?
LAS VEGAS -- The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has put a laser focus on BP and their operations all over the planet. Turns out, the oil giant has left a trail of toxic waste in Nevada. But is there also a BP link to wild horse roundups?
Federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Service, and Fish and Wildlife have been accused of looking the other way as BP skirted environmental rules and safety standards in the gulf and elsewhere.
For a long time, critics of the Department of the Interior have alleged that oil and gas companies, and other industries, are allowed to run roughshod over public lands, plundering what should be public resources. So, would it be a surprise if it happened here?
The BLM's Calico Hills roundup last winter proved to be the bloodiest mustang operation in memory. The government captured.....
Be sure to check out the below segment that aired last night, as well.
Las Vegas Now: I-Team: Black Gold in the Silver State?
Drills in Elko County are usually searching for gold. The one in the hills above Diamond Valley is a sign that the search for black gold in the Silver State is finally getting serious. Fasken Oil, a small Texas company, will probably make a $5 million roll of the dice on this operation. It costs about $20,000 a day just for the leased drilling rig.
The company has good reason to believe the gamble is worth it. Just down the road in neighboring Eureka County, two older, oil stained wells are still producing in a field just off the highway. The same rig is bound for Lincoln County, where Cabot Oil will plunge into what it hopes will be a massive gusher.
After that, the rig will go to the White River Valley, where a wildcatter with 50 years in the oil business thinks...
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
I-Team: BP's Environmental Mess in Nevada
Las Vegas Now (Our HERO George Knapp!)
LAS VEGAS - New figures show BP Oil is falling short of what it promised it could do to clean up spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico. BP told federal regulators it would be able to collect nearly half a million barrels of oil each day in the event of a spill, but has managed to gather a mere 900 barrels per day since the spill began 77 days ago.
The Gulf might seem like a long way from Nevada, but our state has also been on the receiving end of BP promises, and they didn't work out well either.
The lake outside of Yerington is a mile long and 800 feet deep, but you wouldn't want to take a dip in its turquoise waters. This gigantic pit is the centerpiece of 80 years of copper mining at the 3,400-acre site. The Anaconda Mine had several owners. It was essentially abandoned ten years ago, leaving behind high levels of radiation in the rocks, as well as arsenic, acids, and other toxins that leach into the groundwater and blow into the air as dust.
"When you take a job with the BLM, you take an oath to protect human health and the environment," said BLM whistleblower Earle Dixon. "There is evidence that there were major releases of metals and radionuclides at the site."
A mere two weeks after being assigned by the BLM to oversee the mine site, Earle Dixon became convinced the place was a danger to everyone who lives around it. When Dixon started making noise, however, he ran into the political power of ARCO, the previous mine owner which had developed friendships with local and state elected officials, most of whom opposed designating the mine as a superfund site. That would be bad for business.
"ARCO also went to the state NDEP, and NDEP called the BLM Reno office," Dixon said. "Then, we got the call that I was being too aggressive asking all these questions."
Dixon says ARCO was even allowed by BLM to edit his public reports and take out the bad stuff. When he persisted in pushing for studies and a clean-up, then-Congressman Jim Gibbons wrote a letter saying Dixon should be fired. He was. Dixon's boss at the time was Nevada BLM Director Bob Abbey.
The company which owned ARCO, then and now, is BP. Dixon filed a whistleblower lawsuit and won in federal court. The Anaconda Mine was declared a superfund site. But years after Dixon blew his whistle, the site is still oozing radiation and poison. They're still talking about plans for a clean-up.
"ARCO/BP is very good at managing these types of sites to minimize the amount of money and progress," Dixon said. "They seem to know when to ask for an extension, and they say they are only going to do the minimum at this site."
The man who fired Dixon moved to Washington to head the entire BLM. Bob Abbey's newest job is to revamp the scandal-plagued Minerals Management Service, the agency which approved BP's offshore platforms in the Gulf. The BLM person now in charge of on-shore drilling is Sylvia Baca, who left the Department of Interior nine years ago to become the Vice President of BP. Her department was in charge of BP's emergency response plan for the Gulf. Baca later re-entered the revolving door and returned to the Interior Department in 2009.
"So, if you are with BLM, then you've got to have strong contacts with the oil and gas industry. So, I guess they kind of take care of their own. As long as people are making money, I guess everything is okay," Dixon said.
Although BP no longer owns the mine site, it is still on the hook legally for all the harm done to the environment in the years when it operated under ARCO. The Environmental Protection Agency has jurisdiction, because the mine is now a superfund site, meaning it needs to be decontaminated. BP has been in no big hurry to fix things, though the company did offer to buy bottled water for residents whose water is too contaminated to drink.
BP has another connection to Nevada in a project that some say is the real reason for a deadly horse round-up in rural Nevada. The I-Team will have more on that story on Wednesday.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Text This to Save our Wild Horses!
Cloud the Stallion Text MUSTANG to 44144 to keep our wild horses and burros in the wild !!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
What's Next for the Wild Horses and Burros?
Animal Law
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The Obama administration has thus far successfully largely distracted the public's attention from the culpability of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and his Mineral Management Service (MMS) for the oil spill catastrophe.
After a few disclosures about the lingering corruption at MMS and its ongoing oil industry ties, the media quickly shifted its focus to BP.
It is not that BP is not to blame. Of course it is. But surely, Salazar and DOI should be held accountable in their rush to "drill, baby, drill" in the Gulf for their astonishing disregard for the laws to protect wildlife and their habitat. Had they done their job, the oil spill would not have occurred and the animals in the Gulf would not be suffering so.
Undoubtedly, the administration knows this. Which may explain why Salazar and his other DOI agency, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), are at least trying to appear to make nice with advocates and other citizens who care about wild horses and burros.
The good news
BLM Director Bob Abbey announced prior to the meeting that slaughter and euthanasia of wild horses and burros were "off the table", no longer options. Of course, under the Appropriations Act of 2010, BLM is prohibited from using any funds "for the destruction of healthy, unadopted, wild horses and burros in the care of the Bureau of Land Management or its contractors or for the sale of wild horses and burros that results in their destruction for processing into commercial products". It appears Congress will continue the same prohibition in 2011.
But still, at one time slaughter and euthanasia were BLM's preferred means of managing wild horses and burros.
And, when the discredited Wyoming state Rep. Sue Wallis stood during the Denver meeting to discuss a proposed partnership with BLM to slaughter America's wild horses to feed to school children, she was shut down.
Of course, commercial horse slaughter for human consumption is illegal in the U.S. and what would BLM tell school children: "Your lunch today is an American icon, a wild horse (or burro), that just days ago, roamed free in the west, supposedly protected by law, part of a close knit band or family and a symbol of our western heritage and freedom?"
Also, it was announced at the Denver meeting that the Wild Horses and Burros Advisory Board would fill two open positions with an animal welfare representative and a member of the public with knowledge of equines. It remains to be seen who will be selected, but it seemed promising.
Is this a public relations ploy?
Is this part of an administration effort to keep the lid on lawsuits, charges or complaints about BLM's violations of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the environmental laws like National Environmental Policy Act, and its gross mismanagement, deceptions and cruelty in the handling of wild horses and burros?
With the disaster in the Gulf only getting worse, the administration cannot afford to have the public reminded of Salazar's incompetence and willful disregard for wildlife and the environment. Just as he ignored laws to protect wildlife in the Gulf, Salazar who has said wild horses don't belong on public lands and who supports horse slaughter, has run over laws to protect wild horses and burros.
Abbey announced prior to the Denver meeting a partnership with the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution to engage the public in a "dialogue" and seek "in depth" public comments about Salazar's Plan to move wild horses and burros to continue to round up and remove wild horses and burros from public lands and put them in "preserves", "pastures" or feedlots in the East and midwest in non-reproducing herds where they are likely to become ill or die from the change in diet and confinement in "pastures" or feedlots and will certainly soon be extinct.
The continuing roundups have left fewer and fewer horses and burros on the public lands, and there is serious concern many bands and herds are no longer genetically viable. Indeed, Salazar's plan calls for sterilization of mares and stallions that remain on the range and even creation of non-reproducing populations on public lands. This despite the mandate of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, 16 U.S.C. Sec. 1331 et seq. that these animals are "components" of the public lands that should remain free-roaming and free from "harassment" and "capture" and managed at the "minimal feasible level". Sterilizing mares or stallions and certainly herds not only jeopardizes their survival as a species and genetic viability but destroys free-roaming behavior where they form bands or families.
The Salazar Plan ridiculed by advocates as creating Salazoos for wild horses and burros, has been reduced to writing in the Wild Horse Strategy Development Document. It is short on details, more of a splashy advertisement to sell Salazar's Plan to Congress and the public than a serious effort to solicit input. The Cloud Foundation has called the strategy plan "unsubstantial... designed to manipulate the public and marginalize the opposition to the Salazar Plan for wild horses and burros".
The Cloud Foundation has reported that BLM also hired "spin doctors", a public relations firm, Kearns and West, to help obtain Congressional approval for Salazar's Plan. Indeed, the firm's senior mediator, J. Michael Harty, facilitated the Denver meeting. Kearns and West has worked for other government agencies including MMS, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to help them accomplish their policy objectives such as energy or other development plans.
Another customer is PG&E, involved in the Ruby Pipeline natural gas project which as Cloud Foundation put it, is "threatening public lands and five public herds with environmental devastation from Wyoming to Oregon."
That doesn't bode well for real change in the way BLM has dealt with the public. It does not portend a "dialogue" with "in depth" public input.
But it is different than the strategy laid out in 2008 BLM meeting notes where BLM considered ways to keep the public away from round ups and the killing and sales of healthy horses and burros and planned to brand protests as "eco-terrorism". Now, instead, BLM hope to appear to be working with the public.
Here is the financial cost to taxpayers for the Salazar Plan to devastate wild horses and burros which make up less than .5% of grazing animals on public lands:
•In FY 2008, the cost of rounding up and holding these animals was approximately 81.3% of the $36,201,000 budget for the total wild horse and burro program. The BLM wild horse adoption program consumed another 13% of the total budget, leaving a meager 5.8% for monitoring and managing herd areas, census, and compliance inspections. (BLM report - 2010 Budget Justification)
•The 2009 budget was $40,613,000 with the increase used for more roundups and holding costs. (BLM report - 2010 Budget Justification)
•In FY 2010 there was a substantial increase in the budget for the wild horses and burros program for a total of $67,486,000 with the entire additional $26,873,000 to be used for rounding up 12,000 horses and holding what will be a total of about 40,000 horses in pens. (BLM report - 2010 Budget Justification)
•For FY 2011 BLM has requested an additional $12 million apparently to defray the costs of holding wild horses and burros in corrals and long term holding facilities and then an additional $42.5 million for the first of seven "preserves", "pastures" or feedlots in the midwest or east.
BLM has already rejected a moratorium on roundups
Even before the Denver meeting, Abbey rejected a moratorium on wild horse and burro roundups, insisting the scheduled roundups would continue. This despite thousands of letters, emails and calls to Congress, the White House and DOI to end the roundups. This despite the consensus among the public present at the Denver meeting there should be a moratorium on roundups until there is an accurate census and current determination of appropriate management levels (AMLs) of horses and burros that can be supported on the range.
As Vicki Tobin, co-founder and vice-president of Equine Welfare Alliance pointed out, "Six months or one year will not create a crisis and will give the BLM time to move forward with accurate scientific data."
The Plan document confirms roundups as well as aggressive sterilization remain a centerpiece of BLM's management of the wild horses and burros. Coupled with that is a focus on increasing adoptions and also on turning horses and burros over for use in a wide variety of organizations and programs. It is unlikely these animals could be protected from sales including for slaughter. There is, in fact, mention in the Plan, albeit casually, that sales, the "customer base", for wild horses and burros should be expanded. In effect, removal from the range remains the goal.
BLM has over the years shown little regard for the limits on its discretion to remove wild horses and burros under the WFRHBA. There is supposed to be an accurate population count and determination of appropriate management levels, a finding of overpopulation. BLM's management of the wild horses and burros has focused on round up and removal and not on maintaining them as "components" of the public lands, free roaming, and managed at the "minimal feasible level" free from "harassment" and "capture".
The Plan document doesn't address serious questions about the census taken of wild horses and burros, whether the numbers are even remotely accurate or have been exaggerated to enable round up of even more horses.
The plan document doesn't address serious questions about whether the assessments of the range conditions are accurate or outdated, simply exaggerated or even fabricated as an excuse to remove wild horses and burros. There is only lip service to using the best science available for these census determinations and range assessments.
Horses and burros returned to the range - in "pastures"?
It is telling that one option BLM offers is to "[c]reate preserves on HAs or HMAs which currently have no animals on them." The idea would be to return either reproducing or non-reproducing herds to herd areas where they were at one time. If wild horses and burros can be returned to herd areas or herd management areas, then why were they removed, even zeroed out, in the first place? And why must they live in "preserves" which Salazar has said can mean "pastures" or feedlots? Why shouldn't they live as the law requires in herd areas as "components" of the public lands, free-roaming and managed at the "minimal feasible level"?
And why consider returning the wild horses and burros only to HAs or HMAs with no animals? Why not return them to their herd areas even if there are other animals inlcuding cattle and sheep?
What about livestock grazing?
The plan document doesn't propose that if range degradation and lack of water are truly of concern, then cattle and sheep grazing should be restricted. There is no discussion in the Plan document about phasing out livestock grazing leases or permits. (The BLM only mentions voluntary relinquishment of leases or permits or private purchasers who would use the rights for horses and burros.) BLM doesn't answer the question as to why environmental assessments relied on to justify roundups rarely mention livestock grazing at all, let alone as a substantial cause of any range degradation or use of water.
Wild horses are outnumbered by cattle at least 200 to 1. In 1990, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the range was in the best condition it had been in during the past century. The GAO found any degradation was the result of livestock grazing and suggested removal of some cattle, not necessarily wild horses and burros.
This is the same BLM that just a few months ago threw out the 11,000 or more public comments concerning the Calico roundup, ignored the plaintiffs who brought a lawsuit to try to stop the roundup, disregarded the judge's warning that BLM's policy of rounding up and holding wild horses in long term facilities may be illegal. Instead, BLM pushed ahead to use helicopters to run down nearly 2,000 horses in the dead of winter in the Nevada mountains, forcing them to run miles over rough, icy terrain with deadly and devastating results. The reasons given for the roundup were based on outdated and even blatantly false assessments. (For a comprehensive look at the history and politics behind the Calico roundup and more, visit www.americanherds.blogspot.com and for a look at the terrible illness and suffering these animals now endure, visit http://humaneobserver.blogspot.com/)
So forgive me if I am skeptical about this sketchy plan for better communications.
Ideas presented at the Denver meeting
Noted wildlife ecologist Craig Downer presented an idea of creating reserves or natural areas designed to conserve wild horses and burros and where they could roam free. He also told attendees at the Denver meeting of the importance of wild horses and burros to the western ecosystem. Both of Mr. Downer's presentations are attached below for downloading.
Ginger Kathrens, founder and volunteer executive director of Cloud Foundation, also offered proposals for working with BLM. Elyse Gardner offers a look at the presentations made at the Denver meeting. Will BLM really consider any of this?
In the Strategy Plan document there is a survey soliciting public input. Here are some ideas for BLM:
The Obama administration has thus far successfully largely distracted the public's attention from the culpability of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and his Mineral Management Service (MMS) for the oil spill catastrophe. After a few disclosures about the lingering corruption at MMS and its ongoing oil industry ties, the media quickly shifted its focus to BP.
It is not that BP is not to blame. Of course it is. But surely, Salazar and DOI should be held accountable in their rush to "drill, baby, drill" in the Gulf for their astonishing disregard for the laws to protect wildlife and their habitat. Had they done their job, the oil spill would not have occurred and the animals in the Gulf would not be suffering so.
Undoubtedly, the administration knows this. Which may explain why Salazar and his other DOI agency, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), are at least trying to appear to make nice with advocates and other citizens who care about wild horses and burros.
The good news
BLM Director Bob Abbey announced prior to the meeting that slaughter and euthanasia of wild horses and burros were "off the table", no longer options. Of course, under the Appropriations Act of 2010, BLM is prohibited from using any funds "for the destruction of healthy, unadopted, wild horses and burros in the care of the Bureau of Land Management or its contractors or for the sale of wild horses and burros that results in their destruction for processing into commercial products". It appears Congress will continue the same prohibition in 2011.
But still, at one time slaughter and euthanasia were BLM's preferred means of managing wild horses and burros.
And, when the discredited Wyoming state Rep. Sue Wallis stood during the Denver meeting to discuss a proposed partnership with BLM to slaughter America's wild horses to feed to school children, she was shut down. Of course, commercial horse slaughter for human consumption is illegal in the U.S. and what would BLM tell school children: "Your lunch today is an American icon, a wild horse (or burro), that just days ago, roamed free in the west, supposedly protected by law, part of a close knit band or family and a symbol of our western heritage and freedom?"
Also, it was announced at the Denver meeting that the Wild Horses and Burros Advisory Board would fill two open positions with an animal welfare representative and a member of the public with knowledge of equines. It remains to be seen who will be selected, but it seemed promising.
Is this a public relations ploy?
Is this part of an administration effort to keep the lid on lawsuits, charges or complaints about BLM's violations of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the environmental laws like National Environmental Policy Act, and its gross mismanagement, deceptions and cruelty in the handling of wild horses and burros?
With the disaster in the Gulf only getting worse, the administration cannot afford to have the public reminded of Salazar's incompetence and willful disregard for wildlife and the environment. Just as he ignored laws to protect wildlife in the Gulf, Salazar who has said wild horses don't belong on public lands and who supports horse slaughter, has run over laws to protect wild horses and burros.
Abbey announced prior to the Denver meeting a partnership with the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution to engage the public in a "dialogue" and seek "in depth" public comments about Salazar's Plan to move wild horses and burros to continue to round up and remove wild horses and burros from public lands and put them in "preserves", "pastures" or feedlots in the East and midwest in non-reproducing herds where they are likely to become ill or die from the change in diet and confinement in "pastures" or feedlots and will certainly soon be extinct.
The continuing roundups have left fewer and fewer horses and burros on the public lands, and there is serious concern many bands and herds are no longer genetically viable. Indeed, Salazar's plan calls for sterilization of mares and stallions that remain on the range and even creation of non-reproducing populations on public lands. This despite the mandate of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, 16 U.S.C. Sec. 1331 et seq. that these animals are "components" of the public lands that should remain free-roaming and free from "harassment" and "capture" and managed at the "minimal feasible level". Sterilizing mares or stallions and certainly herds not only jeopardizes their survival as a species and genetic viability but destroys free-roaming behavior where they form bands or families.
The Salazar Plan ridiculed by advocates as creating Salazoos for wild horses and burros, has been reduced to writing in the Wild Horse Strategy Development Document. It is short on details, more of a splashy advertisement to sell Salazar's Plan to Congress and the public than a serious effort to solicit input. The Cloud Foundation has called the strategy plan "unsubstantial... designed to manipulate the public and marginalize the opposition to the Salazar Plan for wild horses and burros".
The Cloud Foundation has reported that BLM also hired "spin doctors", a public relations firm, Kearns and West, to help obtain Congressional approval for Salazar's Plan. Indeed, the firm's senior mediator, J. Michael Harty, facilitated the Denver meeting. Kearns and West has worked for other government agencies including MMS, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to help them accomplish their policy objectives such as energy or other development plans.
Another customer is PG&E, involved in the Ruby Pipeline natural gas project which as Cloud Foundation put it, is "threatening public lands and five public herds with environmental devastation from Wyoming to Oregon."
That doesn't bode well for real change in the way BLM has dealt with the public. It does not portend a "dialogue" with "in depth" public input.
But it is different than the strategy laid out in 2008 BLM meeting notes where BLM considered ways to keep the public away from round ups and the killing and sales of healthy horses and burros and planned to brand protests as "eco-terrorism". Now, instead, BLM hope to appear to be working with the public.
Here is the financial cost to taxpayers for the Salazar Plan to devastate wild horses and burros which make up less than .5% of grazing animals on public lands:
•In FY 2008, the cost of rounding up and holding these animals was approximately 81.3% of the $36,201,000 budget for the total wild horse and burro program. The BLM wild horse adoption program consumed another 13% of the total budget, leaving a meager 5.8% for monitoring and managing herd areas, census, and compliance inspections. (BLM report - 2010 Budget Justification)
•The 2009 budget was $40,613,000 with the increase used for more roundups and holding costs. (BLM report - 2010 Budget Justification)
•In FY 2010 there was a substantial increase in the budget for the wild horses and burros program for a total of $67,486,000 with the entire additional $26,873,000 to be used for rounding up 12,000 horses and holding what will be a total of about 40,000 horses in pens. (BLM report - 2010 Budget Justification)
•For FY 2011 BLM has requested an additional $12 million apparently to defray the costs of holding wild horses and burros in corrals and long term holding facilities and then an additional $42.5 million for the first of seven "preserves", "pastures" or feedlots in the midwest or east.
BLM has already rejected a moratorium on roundups
Even before the Denver meeting, Abbey rejected a moratorium on wild horse and burro roundups, insisting the scheduled roundups would continue. This despite thousands of letters, emails and calls to Congress, the White House and DOI to end the roundups. This despite the consensus among the public present at the Denver meeting there should be a moratorium on roundups until there is an accurate census and current determination of appropriate management levels (AMLs) of horses and burros that can be supported on the range.
As Vicki Tobin, co-founder and vice-president of Equine Welfare Alliance pointed out, "Six months or one year will not create a crisis and will give the BLM time to move forward with accurate scientific data."Abbey himself said the BLM would consider ways to make more forage available for wild horses and burros in herd management areas and whether the appropriate management levels set in herd management areas are based on the best available science. If that is true, how can BLM proceed with roundups until that has been done?
What else the Salazar Plan saysThe Plan document confirms roundups as well as aggressive sterilization remain a centerpiece of BLM's management of the wild horses and burros. Coupled with that is a focus on increasing adoptions and also on turning horses and burros over for use in a wide variety of organizations and programs. It is unlikely these animals could be protected from sales including for slaughter. There is, in fact, mention in the Plan, albeit casually, that sales, the "customer base", for wild horses and burros should be expanded. In effect, removal from the range remains the goal.
And that is exactly what the cattle industry demanded at the Denver meeting. Cattle outnumber wild horses and burros on public lands . The industry receives a substantial taxpayer subsidy from livestock grazing on public lands. The cattle industry pays $1.35 per animal under 18,000 grazing permits and leases on 258 million acres of public lands. Grazing livestock on public lands is a "$132 million loss to the American taxpayer each year and independent economists have estimated the true cost at between $500 million and $1 billion dollars a year."
Census, AMLs and other legal technicalitiesBLM has over the years shown little regard for the limits on its discretion to remove wild horses and burros under the WFRHBA. There is supposed to be an accurate population count and determination of appropriate management levels, a finding of overpopulation. BLM's management of the wild horses and burros has focused on round up and removal and not on maintaining them as "components" of the public lands, free roaming, and managed at the "minimal feasible level" free from "harassment" and "capture".
The Plan document doesn't address serious questions about the census taken of wild horses and burros, whether the numbers are even remotely accurate or have been exaggerated to enable round up of even more horses. The plan document doesn't address serious questions about whether the assessments of the range conditions are accurate or outdated, simply exaggerated or even fabricated as an excuse to remove wild horses and burros. There is only lip service to using the best science available for these census determinations and range assessments.
Horses and burros returned to the range - in "pastures"?
It is telling that one option BLM offers is to "[c]reate preserves on HAs or HMAs which currently have no animals on them." The idea would be to return either reproducing or non-reproducing herds to herd areas where they were at one time. If wild horses and burros can be returned to herd areas or herd management areas, then why were they removed, even zeroed out, in the first place? And why must they live in "preserves" which Salazar has said can mean "pastures" or feedlots? Why shouldn't they live as the law requires in herd areas as "components" of the public lands, free-roaming and managed at the "minimal feasible level"?
And why consider returning the wild horses and burros only to HAs or HMAs with no animals? Why not return them to their herd areas even if there are other animals inlcuding cattle and sheep?
What about livestock grazing?
The plan document doesn't propose that if range degradation and lack of water are truly of concern, then cattle and sheep grazing should be restricted. There is no discussion in the Plan document about phasing out livestock grazing leases or permits. (The BLM only mentions voluntary relinquishment of leases or permits or private purchasers who would use the rights for horses and burros.) BLM doesn't answer the question as to why environmental assessments relied on to justify roundups rarely mention livestock grazing at all, let alone as a substantial cause of any range degradation or use of water.
Wild horses are outnumbered by cattle at least 200 to 1. In 1990, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the range was in the best condition it had been in during the past century. The GAO found any degradation was the result of livestock grazing and suggested removal of some cattle, not necessarily wild horses and burros.
But BLM never mentions this finding.
CommunicationsOne section of the Plan proposes to "[i]ncrease the Wild Horse and Burro Program's transparency; improve communications and visibility." BLM offers to keep its website current and make it more accessible.
All nice, but what does it mean?
BLM also offers to generate "standardized" reports about roundups, adoptions, sales (there's that word again) and "facilities".
Okay, but what information would the reports contain?
BLM proposes what appears to be a glossy ad campaign to convince the public of its humane treatment of animals though it promises to develop a "structured approach" to create a program to monitor animal welfare and periodically solict input from veterinarians' groups especially APHIS on its roundups, holding facilities, and "pastures. (Yes, APHIS, the USDA agency that "regulates" puppy mills and other breeders and dealers, and animals held for entertainment, research and the like....Has BLM ever been to an APHIS-regulated puppy mill?)
This is the same BLM that just a few months ago threw out the 11,000 or more public comments concerning the Calico roundup, ignored the plaintiffs who brought a lawsuit to try to stop the roundup, disregarded the judge's warning that BLM's policy of rounding up and holding wild horses in long term facilities may be illegal. Instead, BLM pushed ahead to use helicopters to run down nearly 2,000 horses in the dead of winter in the Nevada mountains, forcing them to run miles over rough, icy terrain with deadly and devastating results. The reasons given for the roundup were based on outdated and even blatantly false assessments. (For a comprehensive look at the history and politics behind the Calico roundup and more, visit www.americanherds.blogspot.com and for a look at the terrible illness and suffering these animals now endure, visit http://humaneobserver.blogspot.com/) So forgive me if I am skeptical about this sketchy plan for better communications.
Ideas presented at the Denver meeting
Noted wildlife ecologist Craig Downer presented an idea of creating reserves or natural areas designed to conserve wild horses and burros and where they could roam free. He also told attendees at the Denver meeting of the importance of wild horses and burros to the western ecosystem. Both of Mr. Downer's presentations are attached below for downloading.
Ginger Kathrens, founder and volunteer executive director of Cloud Foundation, also offered proposals for working with BLM. Elyse Gardner offers a look at the presentations made at the Denver meeting. Will BLM really consider any of this?
In the Strategy Plan document there is a survey soliciting public input. Here are some ideas for BLM:
1. Put a moratorium on further roundups until a plan for future management of wild horses and burros is in place.You may have other ideas such as promoting eco-tourism in wild horse and burros areas and increasing education about these animals. Let BLM know your ideas! If we don't speak up, there is a danger these animals will be lost forever in the fierce competition for the natural resources of our public lands. As the Equine Welfare Alliance warned, "The clock is ticking against America's wild horses....A plan that preserves the herds at manageable levels must be developed and implemented before the last of our wild horses and burros are rounded-up and become a closed chapter in our American heritage." Pass this link onto everyone you know who will help save the wild horses and burros!
2. Amend land use plans and identify herd areas and herd management areas where wild horses and burros can be returned to live free-roaming in bands or families to be managed at the "minimal feasible level".
3. Designate ranges, reserves or refuges that are managed principally to conserve wild horses and burros and return or move wild horses and burros to these areas as a preferred alternative to sanctuaries, preserves or adoption. There are also ideas for places somewhere between living in the wild and a Salazar "pasture" or feedlot. Madeleine Pickens' plan and Soldier Meadows are 2 ideas that should be considered and developed.
4. Amend the WFRHBA and BLM regulations to mandate herds of wild horses and burros remain genetically viable and self-sustaining.
5. Amend WFRHBA and BLM regulations to make sure land use plans provide that wild horses and burros are considered as an integral part of the system of the public lands and have been provided for comparably with other uses of the public lands.
6. Facilitate keeping wild horses and burros on public lands by changing boundaries, adding contiguous lands, using corridors or fencing to facilitate migration, providing forage, developing water resources and preserving predators.
7. Amend the WFRHBA and BLM regulations to require use of the best science available and state of the art technology for census counts and range assessments including AML determinations.
8. Amend WFRHBA to eliminate use of sterilization for wild horses or burros that are not held in private sanctuaries or for adoption.
9. Amend WFRHBA and BLM regulations to require reporting and environmental assessments concerning roundups to include analysis of livestock grazing in herd areas and herd management areas and consider as a serious alternative the reduction of livestock grazing.
10. Increase reporting and public participation and access to information about census counts, range assessments including AML determinations, roundups, holding, injuries, deaths, care and treatment, including designating independent humane observers that would be present for all roundups and during holding and transport.
11. Amend WFRHBA and BLM regulations to specify requirements for humane treatment and care, and specifically ban use of helicopters and other aerial devices for roundups except in the event of an emergency, and the killing of healthy horses, and increase criminal penalties for violations of the WFRHBA.
12. Amend WFRHBA and BLM regulations to repeal the Burns-Reid Amendment that has meant the sale of thousands of wild horses for slaughter and prohibit the transfer of wild horses and burros if there is a risk they will be sent to slaughter.
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