Ultimate Journey finds safety but no justice

Ultimate Journey finds safety but no justice

It appears that when a trainer violates New York's "anti-slaughter" policy, rather than taking action against the trainer, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) will simply change the rules.

The USS “Horse-Eater” is Sinking and the Rats are getting Restless

http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/the-uss-%e2%80%9chorse-eater%e2%80%9d-is-sinking-and-the-rats-are-getting-restless/

The Backstory Of The Helicoptered Horse

Equine Chronicle

March 17, 2010

photo Courtesy Lionshadow

By Lisa Kemp
News media around the country reported the story of the horse stranded on a sandbar in Arizona and his dramatic rescue by helicopter. However, what they didn’t report on was the behind-the-scenes preparation that went into the mission.
The smallish bay gelding named Colorado wasn’t tall enough to get through the swiftly-moving waters of the Gila River, and found himself washed up on a sandbar in the midst of rapids, about 35 miles southwest of Phoenix.
Since the horse had access to forage and fresh water and was just cooling his heels on his little ‘island,’ his rescuers felt they had time to plan things out. According to Soleil Dolce, vice president at Arizona Equine Rescue Organization, Inc. (A.E.R.O.) and an experienced large animal first responder, that planning made all the difference.
“People don’t realize that when you do things quickly in a rescue situation, things get missed,” said Dolce. “You’ve got multiple agencies involved, and you might not have the right equipment to do the job safely.” Dolce reported that because the initial assessment showed a stable situation for the horse, they felt it was better to wait and do things the right way.
Colorado had been part of a four-person trail ride, with several dogs tagging along. Although the riders had been through that part of the river recently, a combination of heavier than normal winter rains, early spring melt and run-off from the mountains, and a release of water from upstream dams formed a deadly combination.
The Salt River Project (SRP) power company controls the flow of water in that area of the Gila River; the day before, they’d released water from the dams. “The riders didn’t realize that the water had risen dramatically since the last time they rode across it,” said Dolce.
Once the riders realized the danger, it was too late; they were swept several miles downstream. Dolce indicated that one horse and rider were able to escape and call 911. The other riders were then safely rescued, as were the dogs and another of the horses. One horse came up onto the bank downriver, but had a broken leg and had to be euthanized. And then there was Colorado.
Dolce pointed out that once he reached the sandbar in the river, he calmly settled in. “He’s got Bar N breeding, from the Navajo reservation here. These horses are a Mustang/Quarter Horse cross, and they’re renowned for their sensibility,” said Dolce.
The rescue team’s first action was a call to SRP, to be sure there were no further water releases planned for the week. “They weren’t planning any more, but the next few days were going to be really warm, so there was going to be more melt run-off,” said Dolce. That meant they couldn’t wait for the river wash to empty, a frequent tactic in Arizona where flash floods are common this time of year, but water levels just as quickly diminish.
The next step was organizing an airlift, a complicated matter for a horse rescue. “When you lift a horse with a helicopter, they pick up a static charge, which is a concern because it discharges when you touch them,” said Dolce. She indicated the team tried to locate an ‘Anderson sling’ for the rescue, since it eliminates the static concern and is anti-spin, making it more stable for equine rescues. But, it wasn’t happening quickly enough, so they moved on to Plan B.
“A local equine hospital, Southwest Equine Medical and Surgical, brought over their sling. Since it wasn’t rated for a helicopter and we wanted to be sure he didn’t slip out during the flight, we also used what’s called a vertical lift tie,” reported Dolce.
With a firehose wrapped around Colorado much like a bow on a Christmas package, the dual-sling approach allowed the rescuers to feel they’d done all they could to make the process both safe and comfortable for the horse. “We used the sling as the primary harness, since it was more comfortable as a primary lift point, and we used the vertical lift tie as a secondary lift point. We knew if one failed, the other would be there as a back-up,” said Dolce.
Colorado was mildly sedated prior to the lift, but his good survival skills and common sense helped the entire operation. “He walked right up to the helicopter, and he was calm during the process. He was emotionally drained after the ordeal, but we had his owner right there to reassure him when he touched down,” said Dolce, whose specialty is the type of vertical lift rescue that carried Colorado to safety.
A.E.R.O is renowned for being able to ‘rehab the impossible,’ according to Dolce; they have a specialized equine medical rehabilitation facility to help in that area. However, since 2007 they’ve conducted large animal first response training classes, led by trainers John and Deb Fox from Large Animal Rescue Company in California; the pair also consulted on Colorado’s rescue.
“This rescue shows it’s important to get technical training for large animal rescues. Most of the time when horses are lost in an emergency situation, it’s due to lack of training. We’ve now trained over 80 first responders across the state,” she says.
Following a medical evaluation and instructions to Colorado’s owner to help improve his overall gut sounds and motility, the gelding was able to go home. In terms of rescues, it was picture-perfect.
“I kept telling my crew, we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect scenario and outcome,” says Dolce. Colorado and his owner would probably agree. You can watch the airlift video here, thanks to KPHO-TV in Phoenix.
For more information about A.E.R.O. and large animal first responder training, visit their Web site at www.azequinerescue.org.

Wild horse advocates consider legal options

Associated Press

Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009 | 6:08 a.m.

Wild horse advocates say they have no recourse but the courts after federal land managers rejected their request for an immediate moratorium on mustang roundups.
The Bureau of Land Management plans to remove more than 30,000 horses from Western rangelands over the next three years to deal with soaring numbers of the animals and costs to manage them.
John Holland of the Equine Welfare Alliance says his group is considering its legal options after the BLM rejected its request to halt the roundups.
The Chicago-based coalition opposes Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's proposal to move thousands of mustangs to preserves in the Midwest and East to protect horse herds and the rangelands that support them.
BLM spokesman Tom Gorey says there's scientific evidence to justify the roundups.

Horse slaughter: Home stretch for thoroughbreds

WYNT News Channel 13, Albany New York

The home stretch for thoroughbreds is a good place to be when they are on the track, but once their racing days are done it can be a very different story.

The arrest of local breeder Ernie Paragallo this year led us to do a little digging and what we found may surprise you

Thoroughbreds in their prime are fit, well cared for and treated like celebrities, but by the young age of six or seven, many go from being revered to being rejected and they end up at the biggest public horse auction east of the Mississippi -- the so-called killer sale in New Holland, Pennsylvania.

According to rescue groups attending the auctions, every Monday an average of 250 horses pass through the sale.

Up to 40 percent are purchased by so-called kill buyers and taken to slaughter so their meat can be sold for human consumption in Europe and Asia.

As for the slaughter itself -- it's not a pretty process.

More Information:

http://wnyt.com/wnytimages/0000_arrow.gif Horse Slaughter Legislation Tracker

"Well, the horses are slaughtered using what they call a captive bolt. This bolt is designed by law to use one hit between the eyes to stun the horse and render it unconscious, that's what's supposed to happen," says Susan Hamlin, New York State Legislative Director of the Equine Welfare Alliance.

"Many of them are not unconscious, many of them are just unable to move momentarily and many of them wake up fully awake, fully able to feel pain, fully aware of what's going on as they're hung upside down and their throats, the carotid artery, is cut to bleed out on the floor," adds Hamlin.

According to The Humane Society of the United States, 20 perecnt of the thoroughbreds born in the United States end up this way -- even some of the greats.

Ferdinand, the 1987 Kentucky Derby winner, was unable to perform as a stud. So he was slaughtered in Japan in 2002.

Slaughter is also a reality for some of the horses you see racing at Saratoga.

"Unfortunately it is and we're working hard to stop that," said thoroughbred owner John Hendrickson of Marylou Whitney Stables.

"We had one that was a half-brother to Birdstone, named Cviano, and somebody from a rescue operation called us and said, 'Do you know this horse had fallen through the claiming ranks and is about to be slaughtered, and we said we'll buy it and we'll pay you double," adds Hendrickson.

Trainer Nick Zito and his wife Kim got a similar call. A rescue group found their former horse, Little Cliff, on his way to slaughter.

"It was kind of a miracle too because he could have wound up ... and that would have been a catastrophe cause a lot of people knew his name," said Zito.

But why should we care? We slaughter chickens and cattle for food. Why are horses different?

"We don't sell horse meat in the grocery stores here in the United States. They're not in our food chain," says Kim Zito.

"It's never been in our food chain, ever. I'm talking about even in the Depression days or even when people stood on line, you know, ever. It's just something that we don't do," according to Nick Zito.

There is a movement to stop the slaughter, but it's not meeting with much success in Washington.

More on that in tomorrow's report.

Cloud Foundation Updates

 

Stop the roundups Petition

October 26, 2009 
by thecloudfoundation
 

STOP THE ROUNDUPS- Petition. This is only a small step, please continue with letter writing and calling– if you have media contacts interested, Ginger Kathrens is available for interviews.

KOWS Radio show now online

October 27, 2009 

by thecloudfoundation

For those who would like to listen to Craig Downer, Shelly Sawhook, Elyse Garnder and others who were guests on KOWS 107.3 FM Sonoma County, CA- Arnold Levine’s radio program on 10/23- fear not! Here it is. Direct link here. The radio show website is  www.tommysholidaycamp.com
Thank you all and stay tuned for a follow-up interview with Ginger Kathrens.
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USA Today: Wild horse debate gallops on

		Horses graze at the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in Montana, the USA's first public wild horse range. By Matt Dillon, Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center, via AP

Wild horse debate gallops on

By William M. Welch, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — The Obama administration's first try at resolving the debate over the wild horses of the West has not gone over well with some.

Animal rights groups say that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's proposal to relocate thousands of mustangs to preserves in the East and Midwest would compound years of federal mismanagement of the horses.

They want the 37,000 horses now roaming federal lands in the West to remain despite the risk of starvation and conflicts with cattle. In response to Salazar's proposal, they reiterated their stand during the Bush administration: let the mustangs run loose on millions of acres of federal land where beef cattle are raised.

"Why are we, a cowboy nation, destroying the horse we rode in on?" asks Deanne Stillman, author of Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West. "We may be heading toward the point where we only have wild horses in zoos."

Tom Gorey, spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management, the agency that manages the rangelands, said the federal government is aware "of the heritage and symbolic importance of these horses." Even so, the bureau says, the cost of keeping the horses at a sustainable population is far too much.

"We're protecting horses, rangelands and the taxpayer," Gorey said.

TAX BURDEN: Wild horses face slaughter

The wild horse population, which ranges largely in Nevada, keeps growing, as does the cost to the bureau to maintain them. This year alone, the cost of the horse program will be an estimated $50 million, the bureau says.

Much of that money goes to care for and feed 32,000 horses rounded up and taken off 29 million acres of federal land. The Bureau of Land Management says the land cannot sustain such a large horse population.

Taxpayers currently pay to let the horses live out their lives at 11 private pastures and corrals in Oklahoma, Kansas and South Dakota. The horses can be adopted, but few are.

Gorey said the agency needs to reduce the wild herd size to 26,600 horses and to neuter enough horses so the breeding population drops to 17,500.

Salazar's plan is to spend $96 million buying and configuring two ranches and contracting with five private ranches. The properties and what states they would be in have not been identified.

Horse advocates such as Stillman accuse the bureau of consistently favoring ranchers with low grazing fees and say this latest proposal is in keeping with that policy.

"We have almost 300 million acres of public land in the West, and they (the horses) are going to come East. ... That's ridiculous," says Chris Heyde, lobbyist for the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington.

The bureau denies favoring cattle ranchers.

"We don't remove horses so we can put cattle on the range," Gorey says. "We're not trying to make room for more cattle grazing."

Some cattle ranchers like the solution offered by Salazar, himself a former rancher.

Dan Gralian, who manages a large grazing range out of Battle Mountain, Nev., and is president of the Nevada Cattlemen's Association, calls the plan "a great thing, taking this icon of America back to where it originally came from, the East."

He says wild horses and burros are in the West because they were brought there by pioneers, cattle barons and prospectors. He disputes the contention of horse advocates that the horse is indigenous to the West.

"We were here first — that's the bottom line," Gralian says, referring to cattle ranchers.

Fencing in and sterilizing horses violates a 1971 law that protected the West's wild horses and set aside land for them to roam free, says Ginger Kathrens, a filmmaker who has done documentaries on the mustangs.

"We'd like to see our wild horses staying free roaming on public lands we already own," she says. "If we return some of the holding horses to the land, we think that would be a better solution than sticking them on tourist attractions in Ohio."

Makendra Silverman, associate director of the Cloud Foundation, agrees.

"It's a bad idea because the nation deserves and wild horses deserve to live on their rangelands in the West, on public lands," she said.

The Conquest, Conquistador

__________________________________________

Aging PBS Star Still Held And At Risk Of Death

Wild Horse Adoption Day Set for Sept. 26th

By Steven Long

Photo, The Cloud Foundation

http://www.horsebackmagazine.com/Conquistador%20g%20kathrens%202%20inch.jpgHOUSTON, (Horseback) - Conquistador, a 19-year-old Pryor Mountain Mustang captured during a “gather” by the Bureau of Land Management over the Labor Day Weekend could soon face execution for the crime of being an older horse.

The agency has 33,000 wild horses in captivity, and despite the fact they manage 256 million acres, it has no place to release them where they can run free. What’s more, BLM has so depleted its budget, spending $27 million holding the horses in captivity, the agency last year seriously contemplated euthanizing tens of thousands of Mustangs and burros.

Despite having a leading role in the PBS “Nature” series starring the famed wild palomino Mustang named Cloud, the aging horse known to television fans across the globe as Conquistador is at risk.

Last year documents came to light under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) query by a Phoenix group regarding an equicide plan to destroy healthy horses gathered on public lands and placed in holding pens by the thousands

Ironically, the plan was dubbed “The Conquistador Program.”

The BLM deems natural resources on Pryor Mountain as not being able to sustain the number of horses living off the land there.

Agency policy considers horses such as Conquistador as too old and thus, expendable. Under a 2004 law, the BLM is required to sell horses “without limitation” that are either more than 10 years of age, or which have been passed over for adoption three times.

The law’s mandate to sell without limitation is subject to interpretation, and while BLM vigorously denies that it sells to slaughter plants or to “killer buyers,” scant scrutiny is given to potential purchaser after the sale. Numerous reports have reached Horseback Magazine by observers who allege they saw the distinctive BLM brand on the necks of horses destined for abattoirs across the Mexican and Canadian borders as they were confined to holding pens with a telltale slaughter tag attached to them.

Minutes of BLM discussions of the Conquistador Plan reveal the agency at one point became so desperate to rid itself of the horses it now holds that it considered euthanizing horses more than 10 years old after only one attempt at adoption, not three.

Beginning in July, 2008, managers compiled a 68 page document dubbed Alternative Management Solutions. It detailed methods of dealing death such as barbiturates, gunshots, or the often cruel captive bolt.

The report revealed that it would call upon the agency’s public relations arm to shield those doing the killing from the scrutiny by the public, media, or even members of Congress.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D), Louisiana, has said she would consider removing management of wild horses and burros from the BLM..

The plan even contemplated psychiatric counseling for BLM employees or contractors who would do the actual killing of thousands of horses.

While Cloud and members of his herd were released back into the wild, albeit fatigued, and depleted of much needed fat fat after as much as a 10 mile stampede by helicopter, Conquistador remains in BLM custody along with two other horses that will be seen in the next installment of the Cloud “Nature” series on PBS. The program by Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker Ginger Kathrens is scheduled to air in October.

The gather, completed September 8, captured 146 horse including 15 foals.

A meeting of the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board is scheduled for September 28, in Arlington Virginia.

The agency’s National Adoption Day is scheduled for September 26. The 57 horses, including Conquistador, that were not returned to freedom on Pryor Mountain will be offered for adoption that day at the Britton Springs camp at the base. Pryor Mountain is located in Montana near Billings.

The BLM left 125 horses on the mountain to face the fierce Montana winter. The agency claims no horses were injured in the gather despite video of Cloud limping after his release.

A BLM spokesman said sore feet don’t constitute an injury.

Repeated requests for an interview with BLM Director Bob Abbey have been refused.