UPDATE: BLM’s “Animal Abuser” Email Points to Brighton CO BLM Office

Straight from the Horse's Heart

By Nell Walton of AllHorses Post – Live Link

Editor of AllHorses Post Tracks Down the BLM “Animal Abuser”

BLM employee harassing taxpayers

Yesterday at 10:12 am, November 9, 2010, our good friend, wild horse advocate and blogger R.T. Fitch received the following comment on his blog. It was caught in Fitch’s spam filter, but he found it and reported it yesterday in his blog. Here is the text of the message:

“A new comment on the post “BLM Takes Wild Horse Killing to Oregon” is waiting for your approval
http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/blm-takes-wild-horse-killing-to-oregon/
Author : Animal Abuser (IP: 204.124.92.254 , BLM-92-254.blm.gov)
E-mail : AAafterYOU@*****.com
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=204.124.92.254
Comment:
You ALL have WAY TOO MUCH TIME on your hands to sit around bitching. And *****, could you really be so stupid to think that the BLM has hired animal abusers?? Honestly- you all need to get a life. If you really cared, you would search out the truth, and stop spending so much time with narrow blinders on. No one is perfect, not the BLM, not YOU. If you really want to see something done differently, you would pick a different approach.”

This IP (computer) address can be easily traced to the Bureau of Land Management office in Brighton, CO.
Why someone from the BLM would chose a name of Animal Abuser, is of course, extremely puzzling. And what does the email address AAafterYOU mean? This could be construed as a threat to Mr. Fitch.
And, I will have to point out the obvious that this individual who is apparently a FEDERAL EMPLOYEE is harassing AMERICAN TAXPAYERS online during business hours.
So it is beyond ironic for he or she to accuse the Wild Horse Advocates of having too much time on their hands.
They aren’t the ones using taxpayer dollars to support their online surfing at work.
This just shows you can run but you can’t hide.
For more information:
http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/blm-employee-%e2%80%9canimal-abuser%e2%80%9d-issues-email-from-blm-gov/
FYI – to report incidents like this:
Dept. of Homeland Security Computer Emergency Response Team:
https://forms.us-cert.gov/report/
Dept. of Interior Office of the Inspector General:
http://www.doioig.gov/hotline

BLM Helicopter Stampede Contractor Out of Control, AGAIN!

http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/blm-helicopter-stampede-contractor-out-of-control-again/

Sue Cattoor speaking to her "hurt feelings" on camera 9/9/09 - Photo by R.T. Fitch

Just like a bad dream the wife of Obama’s Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) helicopter, wild horse stampede specialist is back complete with all of her trumped up “look at me” and “I know wild horses” bull crap, or in this case, welfare rancher manure.  Sue Cattoor is now a multimillionaire due to the BLM’s blood lust for wild horses and it is not enough for her just to rake in the millions of tax payer’s wasted money she wants to be an internet sensation, also.  She attempted to grab the spotlight, and was allowed that effort by the BLM, during the needless Pryor Mt. roundup and then attacked the media when the BLM admitted that her company had run the hooves off from foals during the bloody Calico disaster.  17 horses dead, and counting, in the first days of the Owyhee debacle and she is back on the internet highway showing her backside and raising the ire of anyone who has ever made it past the third grade.
Inserted, below, is a comment that the Queen of Dead Horses made to the Elko Free Press listed in its entirety.  The entire mess is there but we have reserved the right to edit/comment in red during her rant.  From the roar of helicopter blades to the flapping of Sue Cattor’s lips, the poor horses just don’t get a break.
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I am co-owner of Cattoor Livestock Roundup, the contractor doing the Tuscarora roundup. ( Sue, honey, the word is out and even Judge Hicks knows that it is NOT  just one roundup as you and the BLM would like us to believe.  It’s really three different areas that you are raining terror down upon but it’s just more fun to lump it all together so as to confuse the public, ain’t it?)
While Laura Leigh, Ginger Kathrens, Stephanie Boyles and others are sitting in their air-conditioned offices drinking bottled water and filing appeals, contacting news media and calling for a moratorium to stop all roundups, these wild horses that they are so worried about are getting very thirsty. (Here’s the deal, sweetheart, Laura is out in the desert trying to get to your trap site as ordered by a federal judge.  She is going to document your nonsense if the BLM ever follows the law so she is not in any AC wonderland.  Ginger has been camping out doing what you allege she never has done for the past 16 years, observing and documenting wild horse behavior {you ever done that?} Can’t answer for Ms. Boyles but even the likes of myself just spent a day repairing a fence line for the safety of our…what would we call them, er, hmmm,…Horses, you big bag of air and I did enjoy a sip of water from a garden hose.  You really think that you are special, don’t you?)
They say we should not be gathering — foals are too young — it is too hot — lots of acreage for the horses, and so on. They would, I guess, rather just let the horses die of thirst out here on the Nevada desert.  (Maybe we should remove the private cattle that are ruining our public lands, you numbskull.  Overall the average is about 50 cattle to 1 blinking wild horse and in the instance debated here the horses water is fenced off by the welfare ranchers and YOU know it.  So your harebrained idea of rescuing the horses is to stampede the thirsty creatures with one of your idiot helicopters across the desert in one of the hottest months of the year.  What sort of upside down form of thinking is that?  Your ignorance is stunning.)
First of all, let me say on Saturday we gathered 228 head of wild horses, so we saved over 200 head. (Head?  Oh yeah, I would have said horses but you always use the term “head” as horses are considered to be livestock, just like cattle, to you.  So “head” is your primeval term.  Gosh, just think, if you weren’t around there would have been 228 horses that could have seen the sunset last Saturday.  But you sleep well knowing that you ended the lives of more horses in one day than most reputable equine rescues save in a month.  You are just so very sweet, aren’t you?)
Second, the foals are not just newborn, most are early spring foals. (Oh, that’s good to know, thanks.  You aren’t just terrifying newborns but also foals who are only a few months old.  Didn’t 3 of them die last Saturday, Sweet!)
Third, the helicopter pilot did not stampede the wild horses for miles over rough terrain. The pilot slowly herded the horses to the trap. It was early in the morning and cool. (Give me a break, I have seen you in action as has the rest of the free world.  That’s why you are frantically trying to complete this mess before Laura gets there and can document the truth.  Seems that you herded the horses very slowly, right at the end, at the Pryor Mountain’s Press Day but once the press left and you were stuck with just we AC loving, bottled water engorged equine advocates you ran the living crap out of the horses.  Didn’t run their hooves off like you did at Calico but you sure rendered the bulk of the babies lame.  All of that was so very kind of you.)
Fourth, this roundup was originally scheduled to start on July 1. It was delayed mostly because of the actions of the anti-gather people.  (Always have to blame someone else, don’t you.  Not an ounce of accountability resides in your soul, just that craggy, withered index finger pointing somewhere other than at the mirror.  You are a mess.)
So, for 10 days the ponds were quickly drying up and the horses were running out of water. Now the reservoirs and seeps in the Star Ridge and Dry Lake Pastures are all dry. The horses on Star Ridge have access to the Owhyee River but only in one place down a very steep trail. The Owhyee River runs thru kind of a miniature grand canyon. Some of the older bands probably are going to the river but most do not know where it is and are afraid to go down in the canyon.  (Gosh, the horses have been there hundreds and hundreds of years but now they have suddenly contracted a serious case of stupid and can’t even find where water is.  It must be wonderful thinking that you are bringing so much joy to the lives of the wild souls who have been around for centuries without your wisdom.  You sure are smart, Sue…gotta hand it to ya.)
The BLM is hauling water to the reservoir, and we are hopeful that the wild horses will find this water while we wait for the judge to decide if we can gather these wild horses and get them on water. The Dry Lake horses can access the Desert Reservoir. But when wild horses are short of water they tend to band up in large bands. Then they all go to water at once. The lead horses sneak down to the river or reservoir and get a drink. They then come back through the waiting horses and often everyone follows the lead horses and some do not get a drink. I have seen this happen trying to capture wild horses by water trapping. Water trapping is a very cruel way to capture wild horses.  (Why don’t you simply go back home to Utah and then we would have the BLM remove the cattle fencing from around our publicly owned water holes so that the horses can have access just like they have since the beginning of time?  Would that be so difficult?  It would mean that you would not be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars of honest people’s money but then again, don’t you have enough of our money already?  Just go away.)
The special interest groups are putting the blame on the BLM and the ranchers and us as the contractor. They got the Calico Roundup delayed last winter for a month and when we gathered we captured some very poor horses that later had trouble adjusting to feed. Now because of this delay we have lost horses from dehydration and water intoxication and the remaining horses are getting very thirsty. (The whining and finger pointing is getting old.  You are really, really digging when you publicly act like you really care about the horses.  How ironic, the very instrument of the wild horses suffering is proporting to be their savior.  I think I am going to barf.)
If only the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Specialist could just do their job, which is to manage the wild horses, there would always be lots of healthy wild horses out on the range. (Give me a break, the BLM could not manage their way out of a wet, paper bag let alone treat wild horses in a humane manner.  Not only can’t they count they are so sold out to big time special interests that they have fully lost sight of their mission and the law.  And you, the contractor, are right there in the middle of the mix violating our constitutional rights while you stuff your pockets full of our money.  That’s what it is all about isn’t it?  Money!  Both with the BLM and with you, neither of you give a gnats ass about the horses and you will concoct lies and untruths just to justify your skewed position and opinion.  All of you lost your way a long time ago and between yourself and the BLM the truth now means what you want it to be on an hourly basis.)
The time for the truth and accountability is now, the public wants to know and you can no longer hide.  We are there because we care about the horses, we are concerned about the future of our public lands and we surely want to have a say over how our money is being spent and one thing is for certain, we do not want our money to be spent on you.  Go home.

DC March for Mustangs – The Nation is Speaking but is Anyone Listening

Straight from the Horse's Heart

March 28, 2010

by R.T. Fitch – author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“

Obama still turns Deaf Ear to Wild Horse Deaths

Wild Horse Advocates before mounted Police - Photo by Terry Fitch

It sort of turns the average citizen on their ear when they write, call, fax, email and even go directly to Washington D.C. only to be greeted by a wall of total silence.  For years Americans have been demanding that the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) cease their senseless stripping of native wild horses from public lands yet they have continued to do so.  In fact, this year the pace has accelerated to the point that there is true doubt over how many wild horses still exist in their native habitat.

This past week, dozens of law abiding citizens left their homes, family and jobs to participate in a rally in Washington D.C. called “March for Mustangs’, an effort to highlight the the need to stop the deadly helicopter round-ups conducted by the BLM.  Participants not only walked the halls of the Congress and Senate but they joined in a rally before the White House and marched to the Department of Interior building.

Everyone attending was a celebrity for taking the time and spending their own funds to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.  There is an Op-Ed/Commentary stirring within this story but oftentimes a picture is worth a thousand words.  So we share with you a pictorial collage of the people who are battling the federal government in an effort to save our wild horses from extinction (Please see below)

This Video is Dedicated to all of the Advocates who give of Themselves for the sake of the Wild Horses

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Wyoming’s “Slaughterhouse” Sue Wallis Gets a Dose of Red, White and Blue

Straight from the Horse's Heart

March 19, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments

News commentary by R.T. Fitch, author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“

Family man and Veteran Nick De Laat Challenges the Evil Princess of Horse Slaughter, Sue Wallis, for her ample Seat

HOUSTON (SFTHH) – There is a fresh wind blowing across the State of Wyoming; from over the mountains and across the prairie the breeze is carrying a whisper of change and the fragrance of new life and regeneration.  That change may be in the form of one Nick De Laat, Navy veteran, blue collar worker and a family man dedicated to making a change in a country and state where things have gone “bad wrong”.  Mr. De Laat is challenging bloodied Rep. “Slaughterhouse” Sue Wallis for her State House seat in Wyoming’s 52^nd district and with his energy and pure conviction he just might make the infamous horse eater go away.
With only $380 in his pocket, honorable Navy veteran Nick De Laat, his wife and 3 year old son boarded a Greyhound bus in Grand Rapids, Michigan to head out west, to Wyoming, in an effort to be part of the unemployment solution instead of being a part of the problem.  Several short years later Candidate De Laat owns a nice home, has two cars paid for and two more children while he lives the American dream that you can progress and improve your life as long as you set your mind to uplifting yourself and those around you.
During a recent interview with “Straight from the Horse’s Heart” (SFTHH) reporter R.T. Fitch, Mr. De Laat mused, “I got out of the Navy at the wrong time, things were bad for the economy but the Navy proved to be even worse for a family man.  I wanted better and the only way for “better” to happen was to go where the work was and Wyoming was calling, so we moved west.”
Reminiscent of tales titled “Move West Young Man” Mr. De Laat has bettered himself and extends the offer to assist others from economically challenged areas to do the same.
“I open up the doors of my home to assist friends and family from back east to come and find work.  It’s here and I will help any way I can to ensure that able bodied Americans earn a living if they are interested.”
Mr. De Laat’s care and compassion extends far beyond the people of his country and new found state;  Nick also reaches out to animals in need.
“Every dog that this family has cared for has been one that we adopted from the local pound.” Said De Laat. “I am shocked at my opponent’s stance on horse slaughter as the act of killing horses to eat goes against the grain of what I support.”
“I am not aligned with Rep. Wallis’s arguments on the issue of “unwanted” horses and would tend to believe that responsible breeding and shelters would be the proper way to manage any issue of horses in need.”  stated De Laat.
“It’s time that we get this country back on track and I am thankful for the opportunity to be able to run for office and, hopefully, to make a difference.”
And the strength of the clean breeze freshens.

(To learn more about Nick De Laat’s effort to unseat “Slaughterhouse” Sue click HERE)

 

 

March for Mustangs

Straight from the Horse's Heart

February 25, 2010 R.T. Fitch

When: Thursday, March 25^th From 1:00-3:00pm, Press conference and speakers at 1:30pm (Filmmaker/Advocate Ginger Kathrens, Author R.T. Fitch and many more- including special guests to be announced)

Where: Lafayette Park (north side of Whitehouse, on H Street between 15th and 17th Streets, NW). At 3:00pm protesters will march with signs to the BLM office at 1849 ‘C’ Street.
Plus Mustangs on the Hill II: On Friday morning we’ll brief advocates regarding their meetings with their Senators and Representatives in regard to saving our mustangs. Please schedule an appointment with your Senators and Congressperson for Thursday morning or Friday.

Why: The Bureau of Land Management’s cruel and costly mismanagement is destroying a vital piece of the American west. The American public is sanding up for our horses and burros- please join us in a March for Mustangs, rally and protest.

Background: Roundups increased significantly in 2000 in the Bush years and they haven’t let up under the Obama administration.  12,000 wild horses and burros are scheduled for removal from our public lands this fiscal year alone. These helicopter roundups come at enormous expense to our wild herds and to the American taxpayer.

Recently the roundup of 1900 mustangs took place in the Calico Mountains of Northwestern Nevada during the dead of winter, ending early in February when BLM realized the herds were far smaller than estimated. To date 60 horses have died due to this roundup and the death toll continues to climb daily. This does not include the 30 plus mares that have aborted their late-term foals in the feedlot style corrals in Fallon, Nevada where the horses are being held. Two foals had their hooves literally separate from the bone after the helicopters ran their families for miles over rocky and sharp volcanic ground.

Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversees the BLM, has decided there is no room left for our mustangs on their designated lands in the West and has proposed purchasing private land and shipping wild horses (gelded stallions and mares) East to the first of seven “preserves” which many people call SalaZoos. The plan as it stands only adds to the financial and humane train wreck that the Wild Horse and Burro Program has become.

So, rather than spending over $30 million this fiscal year to remove our wild horses and burros from the range plus $42 million to buy land in the East, let’s protect them on their western lands. The intent of Congress’ 1971 Free-roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act was not to warehouse our mustangs but to allow them to live in freedom in self-sustaining numbers on western rangelands designated primarily for their survival. Drastic change is needed in the management of wild horses and burros if they are to survive, as wild animals, into the future. Wild horses benefit the land as they evolved in North America and they represent our living history in the west.

Add to the millions spent for round ups, the annual lose of $123 million running a taxpayer subsidized grazing program, often referred to as “welfare ranching”. The fees charged to livestock permittees is currently the lowest allowed by law—$1.35 per cow/calf pair per month. This rate needs would need to be over $9.00 in order for the program to break even. If cows were removed on legally designed wild horse herd areas and horses allowed to stay, we’d save even more—including our valued mustangs. Holding the 1900 Calico horses alone in a feedlot style facility amounts to a staggering cost of over $10,000 per day!

But change is on the way for our wild horses and burros! Some 25 protests have been mounted from coast-to-coast including Chicago, LA, NYC, Denver, Las Vegas, Reno, and Sacramento since late December. Thousands of people have braved the cold and come out with their families to hold banners and signs demanding that President Obama react to the hideous mistreatment of our spectacular wild horses and respond to the incredible waste of taxpayer dollars on a broken program that only lines the pockets of powerbrokers and cattle barons. Now is the time to say enough is enough. Open the gates and return our wild horses to their rightful ranges.

Please take action for our wild herds.  An immediate moratorium on all roundups is needed! This must be followed by hearings and investigations on BLM mismanagement; accurate and independent assessments of just how many wild horses we have left and the real range conditions. Then we need to develop a sustainable plan for our wild herds on our Western public lands and restore their protections set forth in the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Moving our wild horses in non-reproducing, broken families to the East is not the answer.

Join us on Thursday, March 25th for a Mustangs March on Washington and take action today to save these incredible animals who are currently being managed to extinction.

Take Action: Call President Obama 202-456-1111, Call your Senators 202-224-
visit www.thecloudfoundation.org or call 719-633-3842 for more information
This protest is being organized by The Equine Welfare Alliance, The Cloud Foundation, Friends for Animals and Many Others– please spread the word!
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BLM Contractors Stick a Cattle Prod in the First Amendment

Straight from the Horse's Heart

January 28, 2010 R.T. Fitch 

Op-Ed by R.T. Fitch

22 Horses Now Killed at Calico Round-up

 

 

Sue Cattoor speaking to her "hurt feelings" on camera 9/9/09 - Photo by R.T. Fitch

While the world watched another living soul being pulled from the Haitian rubble, a bomb go off in Iraq and a U.S. President hit the reset button; the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) wild horse contractors, the Cattoors, were quietly shoving a cattle prod into your First Amendment rights and attempting a backdoor effort to quell the voice of Wild Horse advocates around the world.

Be it a Blog, Non-Profit, Publication or private citizen, letters from the Cattoor’s attorneys were being delivered in an effort to stifle the truth about what really goes on in one of their “humane” wild horse round-ups. Reading the truth is even more than they can bear.

American citizens should be appalled at the fact that a Federal contractor cannot stand up to being transparent and would turn and bite the very hand that feeds them simply because the truth “hurt” Sue Cattoor’s feelings. You have the right to be enraged as it is your money that made these people multi-millionaires. It’s your money that bought the very helicopters that rain trauma and even death down upon our wild horses and it is your money that you never approved to be spent in this manner yet the very recipients have the audacity to trample on the right of free press and subvert our very Constitution.

Some of the assailed have folded, others will fight back but overall it has sent a ripple of disdain across the free world that is bound to come back and sit squarely on heads of the Cattoor contractors and the rouge Federal agency, BLM, that hired them.

Perhaps the reason that this rankles me the most is that I had to, personally, put up with the shenanigans and idiosyncrasies of Sue Cattoor and company during the entire botched Pryor Mountain round-up. It’s one thing to be treated like a criminal by the BLM while on our federal land but add to that the continued inane mumbling and commentary of a contractor’s wife while watching the horror and emotionally depleting experience of a BLM round-up is more than most sane people could withstand.

But there we were, with Sue Cattoor buzzing rumors, misinformation and junk science in our ears as we attempted to document the event for what it was; a total, inhumane and unjustified act of animal cruelty.
On the last day of the round-up during the morning meeting, we were not allowed to ask any questions unless they were “operations” oriented. BLM field agent Jim Sparks would walk all over and discredit anyone who would ask a question regarding the horse’s welfare but not when it came to the babble, in my opinion, that fell from the lips of Sue Cattoor. That last day she launched off into a speech on how we handful of advocates had hurt her feelings on our blogs and websites by bringing up the past sins of her husband and that all wild horses should be cleared from the ranges and those that could not be adopted should be destroyed. No one commented, not even the BLM officials, as it was just too bizarre.

On that last day the BLM was to release the horses that they were not going to auction and the likes of Ginger Kathrens, Makendra Silverman, Ben Sussman, Carol Walker, Elyse Gardner, Pam and Tom Nicholes and Terry and myself set up on a bluff, overlooking the area where the horses would be released, and waited to celebrate a few moments of triumph that at least there were a few horses that would be returned to the wild. But do you think that Sue Cattoor could give us any peace? No.

This Federal contractor stood behind us and commented on every single word we said and rained on every good moment we were trying to experience. We were under “guard” by two BLM security individuals and when I begged one to intervene and stop the onslaught of verbal gunshots he turned walked away and when I approached “Chuck” the other agent he simply stared at me.
I asked if he was going to respond and render aide and after thinking about it for a while, he replied:
“I don’t want to trample on her right of free speech.”

Whose rights are being trampled on now?

Since when can a Federal contractor turn on the U.S. press and threaten suit simply because they print the truth? Where do they feel that they have the right to attempt to intimidate those who work with fact versus fiction? This transgression, alone, constitutes the need for a Congressional inquiry notwithstanding the fact that they have killed 22 horses, to date, during this contested and unnecessary round-up. Those 22 horses would be alive, today, if not for the dysfunctional BLM and their “humane” contractors, the Cattoors.
The Cattoors and their legal team need a remedial course in the true definition of the First Amendment and we as citizens need to ensure that the likes of the Cattoors do not acquire anymore of our hard earned tax dollars.

Enough is enough.