Horse Slaughter Proponents attack Rose Parade Mustang Float

Straight from the Horse's Heart

“Slaughterhouse” Sue Wallis and Dave Duquette Sink Even Lower

Float Scares "Slaughterhouse" Sue Wallis and Dave "Doink" Duquette

Chicago (EWA) – Sue Wallis, Executive Director of United Organizations of the Horse (UOH) and organizer of an upcoming meeting of horse slaughter proponents in Las Vegas has launched an eleventh hour attack on not just horses, but floats showing horses.

Wallis, in a letter posted on her summit blog, announced a press release from an obscure member group called the National Tribal Horse Coalition. The organization, originally the Northwest Tribal Horse Coalition, was renamed when it joined UOH in May of 2009. The press release claims the float “is an abuse of the reputation of the North American Indian” because a Native American is included on the float looking over the mustangs.

The float, sponsored by Madeleine Pickens, mustang advocate and wife of oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, depicts the beauty of these American icons. Wallis, who believes mustangs are feral pests, has long advocated their slaughter.

The bizarre attack comes in the wake of an ethics complaint filed against Wallis by Wyoming resident Patricia Fazio, PhD. The complaint alleges Wallis has improperly used her position as a Wyoming state legislator and violated securities regulations by advertising an “investment opportunity” in a non-existent company. And there have been other revelations about Wallis’ dealings.

Temple Grandin, who gained fame as the designer of more humane methods of cattle slaughter, was being touted by Wallis as the designer of a horse slaughter plant in Wyoming. The plant was to be operated by the nonexistent company Unified Equine (a corporate shell has since been created).

This week Dr. Grandin informed Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) that she has demanded Wallis quit using her name, and that she had designed no such plant. Other revelations about the Wallis horse slaughter summit have continued to surface, including the fact that several of the prominent organizations listed as sponsors were not.

EWA President John Holland said in a statement about the attack “I cannot imagine Wallis thinking this is a good idea. Sometimes people lose perspective, like when she announced a boycott of Willie Nelson and other celebrities because of their support for equine welfare.”

This latest attack appears to be equally feckless. Pasadena Rose Parade officials were contacted for comment but only provide official statements for the sponsors. They did indicate they were unaware of any issues surrounding Ms. Pickens’ float and that the parade would be held as planned.

Madeleine Pickens could not be reached for comment.

Main target of slaughter summit now wild horses

Tuesday's Horse

Posted on Dec 31, 2010 by Vivian Grant

Rumors are that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will attend the Summit of the Horse in Las Vegas together with what advocates call the “Who’s Who” of horse slaughter.
This was reported hot on the heels of the revelation that Bob Abbey, who is the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (the DOI agency responsible for the Wild Horse & Burro Program), will be a keynote speaker.
Before Abbey and Salazar got involved, attendees and speakers were mainly comprised of individuals working to return horse slaughter to U.S. soil for the butchering of domestic horses to feed people in state institutions, such as prison inmates, the elderly and mentally challenged, to start with at least.
However, the focus of the horse slaughter convention has taken an even grislier turn and now has America’s wild horses in its deadly glare.
The Associated Press reports via The Seattle Times:

Groups seek solution to too many wild horsesRepresentatives from Indian tribes, federal agencies and other groups plan to meet next week in Las Vegas to discuss what to do about too many wild horses in the West. Wyoming legislator Sue Wallis is a member of United Horsemen, a nonprofit group organizing the meeting. She tells The Seattle Times that she favors developing a plant where horses can be slaughtered for human consumption. She says that’s a humane solution to the problem of thousands of wild horses overgrazing and destroying rangeland. That idea, however, faces strong opposition. The U.S. horse slaughter industry was shut down in 2007 by animal-rights activists. Since then, tribes and range managers say, the number of horses has grown to thousands more than the land can support.

We found the article in the San Francisco Chronicle here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/12/30/state/n141536S39.DTL#ixzz19fAXtJDR
Also on the agenda is how to get around the legal restrictions at the federal level which essentially prohibits the export of horsemeat for human consumption. Just about every ounce of horsemeat was exported for human consumption prior to the closure of horse slaughter plants in the US in 2007. This is where the real money is, as horsemeat is considered a delicacy overseas and sells for a high price.
Throughout 2009 and 2010, numerous legislators searched for loopholes in the law interfering with horsemeat export for overseas diners. The foreign owners of horse slaughter plants are suspected of seeding American politicians’ pockets with huge cash incentives to accomplish it, although nothing has yet been proved.

Abandoned Horses Are Latest Toll of Drug Trade

New York Times

Joshua Lott for The New York Times

“I can’t even describe the suffering these horses have gone through,” said Soleil K. Dolce, at a rescue center in New River, Ariz. With her was Cheer’s Gold.

PHOENIX — Found tottering alone in the desert with their ribs visible and their heads hung low, horses play a backbreaking, unappreciated role in the multibillion-dollar drug smuggling industry.  MORE...

Citizen Journalist Sued by Federal Contractor

Horseback Magazine

December 30, 2010

By Steven Long
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A citizen journalist working for The Examiner.com has been sued by the government’s largest BLM “gather” contractor. The suit filed in a rural Juab County, Utah district court charges Maureen Harmonay routinely misrepresented the facts in a series of stories on wild horse roundups in several western states.
Harmonay has filed a denial with the court.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are David and Sue Cattoor, owners of Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc. of Nephi, Utah.
Citizen journalists are recent phenomena, an outgrowth of Internet publishing. Under press freedoms afforded by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, virtually anybody can be a journalist. Unlike in other countries, in the United States no license to practice the craft is required. Such journalists, like their professional brethren, are afforded broad protections under a landmark 1964 Supreme Court ruling, New York Times vs. Sullivan. Since the ruling the legal doctrine has provided safe refuge for a generation of journalists who write about the rich and powerful, often to their subject’s discomfort. The ruling sets very high standards a plaintiff must meet to prevail in a lawsuit. Journalists are largely protected by the doctrine when writing about public officials and public figures such as someone in the news. The plaintiff must prove malice.  Both Cattoors, because of their high profile in the BLM wild horse and slaughter controversies, would likely be considered public figures by the courts.
Harmonay is a Sterling, Massachusetts real estate agent and freelance writer.
“I am a former Thoroughbred bloodstock agent and am passionately interested in the welfare of horses,” she told Horseback Magazine. “I write about equine advocacy and rescue topics, as well as about Thoroughbred pedigree issues.”
Examiner.com is a website that publishes the freelance contributions of local and national writers on a variety of newsworthy topics, including arts, culture, education, food, pets, politics, sport, and travel.
The Cattoors have been fiercely protective of their turf closing off their roundups to journalists. The couple has also threatened other publications and reporters with lawsuits.
The Cattoor’s attorney, Stephen Queensenberry of a Provo, Utah, law firm has written several extremely threatening letters to journalists, publications, and websites, covering the Cattoor’s BLM roundups including one to Harmonay stating, “I want to remind you that you will be litigating pro se in a rural county of a conservative state. Our clients have lived in Juab County for a very long time. It is likely, from our prospective, that a jury might award anywhere from six figures to the low seven figures. Our case is defamation per se, so we do not have to prove any actual damages. If we obtain a judgment, we will pursue it through bankruptcy or anything else.”
 “You can see from this brief excerpt how threatening this is,” Harmonay said.
In their years as BLM contractors, the Cattors have billed the government millions. 
Sue Cattoor responded to a request for comment by the Horseback saying, “I am sure you have read the lawsuit and what we asked Maureen to do and not to do.  The other defendents – publishers & etc I beleive can not be held accountable for what she writes or has written.”
Two defendants including the operators of The Examiner have been dropped from the lawsuit according to Harmonay.

Horse Summit comes under Friendly Fire: John Holland Editorial

For Immediate Release

December 30, 2010

Horse Summit comes under Friendly Fire

 

We have all shot ourselves in the foot, but seldom does an entire organization take up automatic weapons and form itself into a firing squad for that purpose. Such is the case with the organizers and sponsors of the upcoming Summit of the Horse to be held the first week of January in Las Vegas.

In fact, one has to use the term "sponsors" carefully because quite a few of those listed as sponsors on the event's web page were not even aware of their lofty status until struck by painful ricochets from the summit firing squad.

The list of "sponsors" has dwindled as these organizations have become aware of their listing and requested their names be removed. Even the renowned slaughter plant designer, Temple Grandin, has informed Equine Welfare Alliance that she has instructed Ms. Wallis to stop using her name.

In an interview with Horseback Magazine, Dr. Grandin said "They kind of were misrepresenting my involvement." When I read this, I thought "Welcome to Wallis World."

Sue Wallis, one of the event's chief organizers, claims the summit is aimed at finding solutions to the problem of excess horses. Her sidekick Dave Duquette, being a professional horse breeder, believes he is in a unique position to know the reason for this overpopulation; clearly it is a lack of horse slaughter!

Although over 100,000 American horses are exported to Canada and Mexico every year for slaughter, Wallis and Duquette think that is insufficient. Typical of Wallis' wild claims in this regard was an "Action Alert" on April 30th of 2010 announcing that at least 500,000 direct and indirect jobs had been lost as a result of the closing of the US plants. Ignoring the economy, Wallis blamed everything from low horse prices to high neglect rates on the closings. She left out only rain rot.

But due to the shift over the borders, the closings had actually affected only about 150 slaughter house workers at the three plants in the US. The same kill buyers are still buying the same number of horses at the same auctions and for roughly the same prices as before the closings.

These are facts that anyone can verify by simply going to USDA and other web sites. In Wallis World, however, facts lose their conventional rigidity and become remarkably malleable or even ethereal in nature. So when the lineup of summit speakers was announced, it was no surprise that it consisted largely of cattlemen, auctioneers and breeders.

While the eclectic roster touched every link in the chain that turns a horse into toxic steaks, not surprisingly it contained no speakers who disagree with horse slaughter as a solution, no mention of the drug residue issue and virtually no true rescue organizations.

Yet despite this promising start, things almost immediately began to go wrong. First there was the ethics complaint launched by Patricia Fazio, PhD of Wyoming. It alleged Wallis had misused her position as a state legislator and had engaged in improper or even fraudulent activities including illegal promotion of securities for an organization that did not exist. Each charge was accompanied by documentation.

Among these activities was the sale of raffle tickets for a truck drawing in November of 2009. In a recent interview with Northwest Horse Source, Wallis was asked if it was true that she had informed ticket holders that she had not sold enough tickets to actually buy the truck and asking whether it might be OK for her to just keep the proceeds as donations.

Wallis, apparently believing that a promise to finally provide the truck at the upcoming summit was tantamount to never having made these pleas, categorically proclaimed the charge false.

Unfortunately, a categorical denial is not well advised when your original message is still bouncing around in cyberspace. Were she a more significant figure, the statement might have become as famous as "I am not a crook" and "I did not have sex with that woman."

Interestingly, the company supplying the truck is yet another "sponsor" whose name has disappeared off the sponsor list. And the lucky winner might not want to count on driving the truck home since it will only be a "stand-in".

Wallis and Duquette have responded to these disclosures with ever more inflammatory rhetoric, calling those who disagree with their idea of promoting horse slaughter "animal rights terrorists". Indeed, a presentation by Dennis Foster will address how to handle such "terrorists", and for hands-on experience, Foster will be backed up by Trent Loos, a self confessed stalker.

Although Wallis had announced that all sides were welcome to the table (if not to actually speak), that has apparently changed. One slaughter opponent, who had decided to attend the summit rather than protest it, was rewarded with the following exchange.

First, Brogan Horton attempted to register through "Friends of Equines" an organization that had already paid a $500 membership fee. Brogan paid the applicable $100 fee but was informed by a Krissa Welshans that her membership in Friends of Equines was invalid because she was also a member of The Animal Rescue Unit which was not a member. Therefore she would have to pay an additional $400. When she asked about a refund, she was told it could not be made until after the summit.

Krissa then informed Brogan that "someone who breaks laws" is not allowed to attend.  Apparently, to make an exception the person must be a speaker or the Master of Ceremonies. Trent Loos, the summit's Master of Ceremonies, for example, is a convicted cattle felon and presenter Dave Cattoor plead down to a lesser charge in an alleged conspiracy to use his helicopter to steal mustangs.

Brogan, on the other hand, confessed that she had never even had a traffic ticket, apparently disqualifying her. In the end, Brogan was sent the following message from United Horseman's President Dave Duquette;

"We have ALL the parties we need and as your Youth shows, there are many more than just two in this. You are not part of the rational Anti slaughter side so when you grow up a little and get some real life experience maybe you will join with a group that is, but then you wouldn't be the "Star" anymore."

One can only marvel that in a single paragraph, Dave Duquette expressed not only his flickering intellect, but the true nature of his organization and its summit. Only in Wallis World could a young woman who had passed Secret Service screening twice and met with a sitting president be deemed to be too dangerous to attend a blood fest run by such a rogue's gallery.

 

Brogan Horton (left) meeting with President Bush in 2006.

Meanwhile, on the summit, the firing squad shows no signs of running out of ammunition.

_______________________

Equine Welfare Alliance is an umbrella organization representing over 125 organizations and hundreds of individuals across the United States and several countries worldwide.

Equine Rescue Group Publicly Challenges Horse Eaters

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Accredited Rescue takes Facts to the Streets

GLENVILLE, PA (Angel Acres) – With the US press awash with misinformation regarding the plight of the American horse, Angel Acres Horse Haven Rescue is stepping up to educate the public about horse slaughter via a billboard & internet campaign. Two billboards are up in Baltimore that display 2 horses with the statement, “Stop Killing Us” and a new website www.stopslaughteringus.com has been launched.

Jo Deibel, Founder and Director of Angel Acres Horse Haven Rescue, says, “We are not a huge rescue and our funds are limited, but we felt this is something we must do as there is not enough information available to the non horse owning public about what is happening to our nation’s homeless horses. From the beginning we have felt that the only way to stop American horses from being shipped to Canada and Mexico, where they face a horrific trip to a brutal and an inhumane slaughter, is raising awareness throughout the United States. Our mission is to educate the non-horse owning public about the risk our American horses face.”

The effort is timely considering the upcoming Horse Slaughter convention to be held in Las Vegas next week which touts a speaker list that reads like a “Who’s Who” in horse butchering including the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Bob Abbey.

“Only when our country’s horse and animal lovers loudly raise their voices in concert, in protest of the atrocities inflicted upon our American Icon; the horse, will our legislators finally pass the bills that in one form or another have languished in governmental committee for over 8 years. Horse slaughter is NOT humane euthanasia; it is a shame and outrage,” Deibel said.

Although the last three, foreign owned, horse slaughter plants in the United States were shuttered in 2007 as many if not more U.S. horses are inhumanly transported across US borders to be butchered as food for wealth foreigners. It has been documented that not only over bred domestic horses fall victim to this crime but publicly owned and federally protected wild horses have also made this tortuous trip. A BLM contractor, David Cattoor, who pleaded guilty to just this sort of crime will be a guest speaker at next week’s SlaughterFest along with his boss Bob Abbey and hosted by Wyoming State Rep. Sue Wallis, now under investigation for fraud and ethics violations.

Obama dream a nightmare for horses

Tuesday's Horse

 PSST, BARRY. REMEMBER. HORSES DON'T VOTE BUT PEOPLE DO. Angry Horse and Obama (c) 2009 By Chuck Ingwersen captainscratchy.com

President Obama’s dream for America has turned into a nightmare for horses, and a deadly one.
We at the Int’l Fund for Horses all agree — which is extremely rare — that President Obama needs to go in 2012, and we will be campaigning against him to achieve just that.   MORE...

Absence of Logic

Animal Law

Posted Dec 29, 2010 by lauraallen

• Horse Slaughter

Courtesy of Equine Welfare Alliance

It is said that you cannot teach someone common sense.

This is the case with the mantra of illogical statements we hear from horse slaughter supporters. The statements, spoken with such authority, in fact either lack common sense or amount to nothing more than finding a piece of jello they can nail to the wall.

The "unwanted" horse stories would lead the country to believe that millions of horses are running loose in our streets. Every sound bite and every article warns of unwanted horses. Another favorite is to start articles with; "since Congress banned horse slaughter" or "because of the slaughter ban."

When the unwanted horses are combined with the ban on horse slaughter, it provides a powerful statement in favor of horse slaughter. That is, until you look at the facts. One need not be a horse owner to see the lack of logic behind the statements of slaughter supporters. This illogic is as easily detected by a New York apartment dweller as a seasoned horse owner.

In a recent article, Horse Welfare Wars: When Emotion and Fact Collide, by Tom Lenz, the former head of the Unwanted Horse Coalition and American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), he defines unwanted horses as, "horses that are no longer wanted by their current owners because they are old, injured, sick, unmanageable, or simply fail to meet the owners' expectations."

The reader must keep in mind that slaughter supporters frequently cite Tom Lenz and Temple Grandin as authorities with their words as gospel. Yet, statistics from Temple Grandin's study on horses arriving at slaughter and the United States Department of Agriculture have proven that over 90% of the horses going to slaughter do not meet the Tom Lenz definition of unwanted horses.

Therefore, the statement by horse slaughter supporters that the horses going to slaughter are unwanted is unfounded by their own definition. The data does not support their statement.

Combine the unwanted horse myth with the fact that Congress has not banned horse slaughter and you have a statement that is totally false. A quick look at the statistics of US horses that are slaughtered in Mexico and Canada quickly quash the mythical ban. American horses are still filling slaughter houses, just not in the US.

What is truly a sad commentary on today's society is that people actually believe these statements without question. Many that call themselves journalists happily repeat the statements over and over. Perhaps it is the lack of staff and being overworked but the days of actually investigating information before going to print, for many of these journalists, are long gone.

Lenz claims that the AAEP is not pro slaughter but Lenz himself testified before Congress on behalf of AAEP against the legislation that would ban horse slaughter. More words with contradictory actions.

A quick Google search of Lenz will produce numerous articles. Every article has references to "horse processing" ending, usually with overtones as the driver for neglect and yet, not one article mentions the drugs present in US horses that make them ineligible for human consumption. By profession, Tom Lenz is a well respected veterinarian. In all the years of practicing veterinary sciences, surely he must have read at least one label of the medications he has prescribed over the years.

While Lenz's most recent article has shown more emphasis on responsible horse ownership, there is still the overtone of promoting horse slaughter and still, no mention of food safety.

In a recent communication with Horseback Magazine, Wyoming State Representative, Sue Wallis, has proclaimed herself a scientist and has changed Federal Drug Agency (FDA) and European Union (EU) regulations. Wallis' source to back her scientific evidence is backside track gossip from trainers of Thoroughbreds.

Equine welfare advocates do not deny a rise in neglect but it is not unique to horses. It is prevalent in cats, dogs, livestock and to an extent, humans. It is increasing in countries such as Canada and the UK, further proving that there is no correlation to the availability of slaughter.

The economy has taken a toll and instead of using a little common sense and a bit of research, the slaughter supporters follow and support the baseless claims like lemmings.

As the "unwanted" horses are being slaughtered this year, one would think, the "problem" would correct itself but alas, as I write this, the crop of unwanted horses for next year are being prepped by the breeders that produce them, year after year. We are asked to believe that there is no relationship between kill buyers buying horses and breeders breeding more.

Next time you read about how the mythical ban on horse slaughter is resulting in "unwanted" horses and an increase in neglect, ask the author to give you the data sources that back the statement. Chances are you will never receive a response or if you do, they'll ask if you live in New York City.

________________________

Equine Welfare Alliance is an umbrella organization representing over 125 organizations and hundreds of individuals across the United States and several countries worldwide.

Summit Will Be Held to High Standard by Famed Behaviorist Temple Grandin

Horseback Magazine

Dr. Temple Grandin ~ Photo by Martha Rial

December 28, 2010

By Steven Long
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A group of livestock breeders and breeder wannabes who would build a legal abattoir in Wyoming for horses will face stringent guidelines for their proposed facility set by one of their speakers, the famed animal behaviorist Dr. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University. She outlined her speech to the group in an exclusive interview with Horseback Online.
United Horsemen, a newly formed pro horse slaughter organization is promoting a commercial facility in Wyoming where lawmakers have passed enabling legislation which would permit its construction and operation. The structure of the legislation makes the likelihood of commercial viability for such a facility a long shot at best.
The Rocky Mountain based scientist is known for her courageous triumph over autism, and for a system she invented which enables food processors to send animals to their deaths without panic by tricking them into a feeling of well being until the final moment of their lives. Grandin will speak at the Summit of the Horse, presented by United Horsemen, an ad hock group led by Wyoming State Representative Sue Wallis and an Oregon horse trainer, Dave Duquette.
Her appearance has drawn both criticism and support from readers commenting on stories at Horseback Online. In a note last week to organizers, Grandin asked that her name not be used in pre-event publicity.  The “summit” has provoked howls of protest from coast to coast from animal advocates opposed to horse slaughter.
“They kind of were misrepresenting my involvement,” she told Horseback. “The whole thing is so controversial I just wanted to pull back from it.”
Other public figures who organizers are promoting to speak include Bob Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency charged with protecting the nation’s wild horses. The BLM has a stated policy of not sending captured horses to slaughter, however, reports persist that wild horses are killed for their meat. Wild horse advocates question why the highly placed official is speaking at what has been dubbed “The Slaughter Summit.”
Grandin will tell her audience she will support construction of domestic horse slaughter facilities if they meet three strict criteria during it operation.
The facility must have video monitoring by independent observers 24/7 of the process; must score between 95 and 99 percent instant kill rate with the “first shot” to the animal, and have “management that cares about what they are doing.”
Callous treatment of horses in the United States, Canada, and Mexico during the pre-killing process and in the “kill box” has been repeatedly documented with video evidence shot at slaughterhouses prompting a growing movement that would ban all horse slaughter worldwide.
Tightened regulations requiring chemical free food animals has all but eliminated American horses legally going to slaughter because of the routine use of drugs such as bute and wormers. However, tens of thousands of horses are shipped across the porous U.S. borders using falsified documents showing animals to be drug free. Innocent consumers are eating horse meat tainted with known carcinogens.
It is illegal in the United States to sell animal meat for food that has been contaminated for food. Tests administered by the United States Department of Agriculture do not examine tissue where residues of bute or wormer would be found and critics charge this has been done on purpose.
In a recently passed law, the federal Food and Drug Administration has been given vast powers over the nation’s food supply and is expected to stringently test meat of all kinds, including horsemeat, for banned chemicals such as bute.
Grandin says she is aware slaughterhouses clean up for inspections. As a globally recognized authority on animal slaughter she is critical of operations that perform their grisly work to perfection when she is present, “then go back to their bad behavior when I leave and my back is turned.”
That is why she is now requiring video monitoring by offsite observers of slaughter operations where she or her system in involved.
But Grandin is also critical of animal activists who are quick to criticize animal agriculture but don’t offer solutions to the problem of the excess horses that feed the markets.
“I ask them, how you are going to solve that problem,” she said. “They don’t have any solutions.”
Horseback countered that much of the over breeding problem both she and activists describe is caused by backyard breeders and others.
“They need to be doing a lot of work on excess breeding,” she said of the activists who are critical of animal agriculture. “They need to work with church groups to bring pressure. I don’t see a lot of effective control of breeding.”
Grandin said there has been an overabundance of attention to horses going to slaughter to supply Europe’s hunger for the lean horsemeat.
“The EU is only half the horse market,” she said. “The ones that go to Mexico are the real horror story. They don’t use a .22 or the captive bolt gun. In the municipal slaughterhouses there, they stab them in the neck.”
The captive bolt gun, is a device that drives a bolt into the skull of an animal stuns, and in some cases kills. The body is then hoisted into the air to drain the blood.
Grandin says it is a myth that the blooding must be done while the animal is alive.
She said there is no culinary reason for the horse to be alive when the bleeding takes place.

Hey Bob Abbey, This One’s for YOU!

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Original post by Cindy MacDonald of American Herds

“The Iron Curtain“

Sec. of Interior Ken Salazar with Director of BLM Bob Abbey

Hey Bob, I thought about titling this post to you. I thought you might want to know. At first, I toyed with Dear Bob or Dear Director Abbey or something that would speak directly from one interested stakeholder to your ears, but as you can see decided against such a simple framing for the massive subject I wanted to tackle.

See Bob, I’ve been a little busy examining your Program statistics again, combing through BLMs FY2011 Budget Justification report to Congress and making a few graphs of my own.

I spent a month working with some great gals, Carla Bowers and Leslie Peeples, in trying to figure out ways to summarize one, giant oozing festering mess – something BLM and their support team are markedly proficient in coating with Teflon©.

It’s an alternative perspective on the Wild Horse & Burro Program that uses almost exclusively the BLMs own publications and numbers to make its case to Congress about why you need to be cut off from any more money until some real answers are coughed up or you are allowed to pedal your sugar coated solutions based on a foundation of non-credible data and lies. If you haven’t already seen it, you can check the “Report to Congress: Refuting FY2011 Budget Justifications and Request to Defund Roundups and Removals Through Appropriations For FY2011 and FY2012″ here.

So as you might imagine Bob, I was a little busy when Sue Wallis & Co.’s Slaughter Summit agenda came out announcing you and other key BLM personnel and associates were invited guest speakers.

I also wasn’t able to pay too much attention to your national public response now posted on the front page of BLMs website explaining why you have tentatively accepted the invitation because you are so “fair and balanced” as to meet with such diverse stakeholders – that now include a high dollar conference comprised of the Who’s Who of the horse slaughter industry.

After all, while BLM will post every letter of support, agreement and enthusiastic applause for BLMs actions by any group or agency who often has glaringly apparent conflicts-of-interest with wild horses and burros on public lands, “our” public website stays curiously silent, some would say almost censored, of any voice, argument or document that challenges or refutes what the BLM does.

Which reminds me, will the BLM be posting our report on the Wild Horse & Burro website too so everyone can see what some of the “other” issues are because you are so “fair and balanced” towards all diverse stakeholders?

So now I’ve finally made a little time to see what you’ve been up to and I’ve have a few questions for you Director Abbey.

A few weeks ago, I sent an email to you and a whole list of key BLM employees expressing my concerns about a BLM Press Release for the Callaghan/New Pass/Ravenswood roundup.

Here is the portion of the Press Release I take issue with,

“NDOA brand inspectors must verify the animals are wild horses and burros as defined by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. Once verified, the brand inspector will provide the BLM a certificate to transport the animals”.

See, this is kind of a problem because it’s deceptive and reminiscent of one of the oldest tricks in BLMs sending-wild-horses-to-slaughter books. You remember, how BLM had been conspiring with state agriculture agency’s or turning their heads so brand inspectors could send tens of thousands of wild horses to meat packing plants by citing state jurisdiction over federal law during the first years after the passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act?

You do remember that, don’t you? It’s in your own statistics. How almost 70,000 horses counted as roaming free on the range were “privately claimed” between 1971 and 1980. You know, those “non-wild” horses who were carted off to slaughter due to new found private status, thanks to state brand inspectors working in “close coordination” with BLM personnel.

So, I’m sure you remember this as well, how a big legal battle developed and the courts had to decide who was actually responsible for making the determination of what qualified as a wild horse/burro. And the courts said it was you Bob, the authorized agent of the Secretary, who had jurisdiction and ultimate responsibility to make that determination. If the state brand inspectors couldn’t verify the animals were privately owned, they fit the definition of a wild free-roaming horse and burro and were entitled to protection under federal law.

Remember, I sent you those links to the federal court cases, American Horse Protection Institute v. US DOI (1977) and Sheridan v. Andrus (1979) that clearly outlined how state agriculture agencies jurisdiction only extended to verifying animals did not have brands, bills of sale or sufficient evidence to establish private ownership.

See, it appears that BLM and Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDoA) recently pulled this jurisdictional shell game last June with respect to the Toana “wild” a.k.a. the Pilot Valley “feral/estray” horses as each agency batted the ball back and forth until a “compromise” was reached. Finally, NDoA “verified” for BLM how those horses were not “wild” in the most suspicious manner possible in order to sell them at state livestock auction – but I’ll explain how that happened a little later in this post.

Well anyway Bob, you didn’t bother to reply, much less address my concerns. In fact, neither did BLM Wild Horse and Burro Chief Don Glenn, BLM Nevada State Director Ron Wenker, Nevada Wild Horse and Burro Lead Alan Shepherd or Tony Lesperance of Nevada Department of Agriculture.

However, I did get a phone call from the local field office promising to get back with me about my concerns but we ended up playing phone tag for so long that BLM re-issued the same statement again in the Clan Alpine round up press release; I guess I should consider that BLMs response.

After all, BLM needs NDoA to issue a certificate of transport, right? Except I can find no such authority in the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) requiring BLM to verify the status of a wild horse/burro with NDoA or needing NDoA to issue BLM a certificate to transport them.

Given the historical abuses that have occured with state brand inspectors and how Congressional testimony during the passage of the Act clearly expressed grave concern about the lax and sometimes conflicted interest states had with respect to the livestock industry, I find it curious that neither you nor your authorized agents charged with protecting wild horses and burros nor NDoA itself didn’t feel this was important enough to respond to, couldn’t be bothered to provide the NRS provisions supporting your newest press release statements about NDoA’s power, or didn’t feel the need to share any cooperative agreements granting NDoA this sort of jurisdiction over federally protected animals.

Which leads me to the Slaughter Summit you will be speaking at – but I have to confess, I’m kind of confused. See, I thought the BLM was charged with protecting wild horses and burros from that kind of crowd, commercial exploitation and all. It’s all the BLM ever says, “We don’t sell horses for slaughter”, so I’m a little confused why there’s a veritable cornucopia of BLM’ers listed on the Horse Slaughter Industry’s Summit agenda.

By the way Bob, you do know that American horsemeat is tainted and dangerous for human consumption but these people promote their own pocketbook at the expense of those who eat it anyway, don’t you? Could it be that is why you think the BLM and the horse slaughter industry is a perfect match? Do you think Sue & Co might be interested in acquiring mustang meat free of the drugs given to domestic equine?

Tell me something, Bob. Before you decided to tentatively accept an invitation to Ms. Wallis’s shindig, did you ask her why she came out of nowhere and has made the commercial exploitation and slaughter of wild horses one of her number one goals in all she publishes, says and does?

So this leads me to my next question. When BLM conducted the free and public forum in Denver last summer to discuss “management solutions”, Sue was there and never missed an opportunity to bring up wild horse slaughter as a humane and fiscally responsible alternative to BLMs primary management tool of roundups and removals. Except in the public forum, BLM’s MC poo-pooed Ms. Wallis and told her this kind of solution was neither appropriate nor on the table for discussion (pardon my pun).

Yet here we sit just six months later and while you couldn’t bother to make a guest appearance at the “free” public dog and pony show packed with “diverse stakeholders” interested in the Wild Horse & Burro Program, now Bob, you are going to personally speak at Sue’s Slaughter Summit. What’s that about? So what makes her and her cohorts so special and above the public arena? The privacy from prying public eyes? The fact that what you say will be “off the record”? Are you getting a fee for your attendance on top of your taxpayer funded salary that legitimizes your “expertise”? Or is this highly controversial and clear conflict of interest sales pitch going to allow you to meet “key” contacts over salsa in order to coordinate better with Secretary Salazar’s “new direction”?

So just to try and summarize how this works (and please feel free to set me straight if I have something wrong):

If I attend a public forum on discussing wild horse and burro management, BLM will tell those trying to bring horse slaughter to the table that it’s not appropriate and will not be allowed. But if I want to be part of the Slaughter Summit to hear what you have to say, to hear what other BLM and BLM affiliates recommend, I’m going to have to cough up $300-400.00 dollars to hear a discussion that BLM refused to allow in the “public arena” nor did you feel was worthy enough to attend.

And after I write my check to United Horseman in order to attend your presentation, it will be deposited in an account that will be used for the lobbying and promotion of commercial exploitation and slaughter of wild horses and burros.

So tell me Bob, how is the presence of BLM employees and affiliates as public representatives not considered indirectly contributing money for the promotion of commercial exploitation and slaughter of wild horses and burros or a serious breach of the public trust?

Which leads me to my next line of questioning. I have heard BLM say that if advocates have evidence of BLM selling horses for slaughter, come forward with the proof.

With no access to long term holding facilities, limited access to short term facilities, armed guard access to roundups, humane observers limited to a handful at a time on hand picked days, closely guarded or set back at a half a mile or more away, (by the way Bob, what are we spending to protect you from us and our camera’s these last few years – I couldn’t find that in the budget info), blanket closure of public lands, refusal to disclose gather locations in advance, and discussions in the 2008 Team Conference Calls about how to block access by the media, the citizenry and Congress through secret locations and sealing the deal by justifying such secrecy from those attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of horses and burros by labeling them potential eco-terrorists, with all that going for you Bob, when exactly do you think the public will be able to “get proof” from behind the BLM’s Iron Curtain?

One a side note, this also leads me to ponder; Bob, are you and other BLM personnel and affiliates worried about your safety at the Slaughter Summit? After all, there will definitely be people in attendance who do not support the BLM’s “humane treatment “ of wild horses and burros via non-slaughter, do not believe wild horses and burros have any place as integral components of the public lands and who feel the BLM is failing to be fiscally responsible. Will you and other BLM affiliates be shadowed by armed escorts to protect you from them like the BLM does to the general citizenry who advocate for lawful, transparent and humane treatment of wild horses and burros?

But back to that “proof” thing of the BLM selling wild horses for slaughter. Let me start by saying, as soon as the BLM starts letting advocates follow the wild horses and burros from the roundup pens through transport and from short term to long term holding, maybe we will have a chance. But then again, the BLM seems pretty adamant about not letting the public in to anything but the most carefully controlled slices of “management” they have yet to privatize and even much of that, advocates are having to fight tooth and nail to get.

Since you called advocates out on the issue of proving the BLMs selling wild horses to slaughter, I have to confess – you are right. I don’t have photos from start to finish showing BLM gathering horses, transporting or selling them to killer buyers with follow up shots of killer buyers transporting them and making the trek to Mexico or Canada with their carcasses finally hanging from a meat hook. Is that the kind of proof you mean, Bob?

Read the conclusion of this outstanding article by clicking (HERE)

Disgraced Horse Summit Backer Makes Top of Bad Food Safety Stories for 2010

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Excerpt of story by Dan Flynn, contributor for Food Safety News

Sue Wallis has Filthy Fingers into more than Butchered Horses

Number 15 on the 2010 top story list is: “Wyoming Holds Line on ‘Food Freedom’ for Cottage Foods“

Republican State Rep. Sue Wallis of Recluse, WY, is sometimes called “Slaughterhouse Sue” for helping to bring a slaughterhouse to the Cowboy State for processing horsemeat for human consumption.

Wallis is also known for digging into her causes, and for the last three years she has tried with some success for a “food freedom” approach to Wyoming’s food safety regulation.

What she wants is to exempt all “cottage foods,” or foods prepared in home kitchens, including potentially hazardous foods such as dairy products, canned foods, and sauces, from any regulations or regulatory oversight whatsoever.

When she failed the first time, Wallis scaled back by proposing to exempt only non-hazardous foods, including jams, cookies and bread, from regulation. Since July 1, 2009, that has allowed non-hazardous home-produced foods to be sold at roadside stands and farmer’s markets in Wyoming.

But food safety professionals in Wyoming have attempted to draw the line with that 2009 bill, opposing the rest of Rep. Wallis’ Food Freedom Bill.

The Wyoming Governor’s Council on Food Safety and local leaders like Robert E. Harrington, director of the Casper-Natrona County Health Department, have worked hard to educate lawmakers on food safety.

Wyoming food safety experts argue that licensing and inspection of cottage food businesses allows them to help owners prevent contamination by foodborne pathogens.

Wallis, however, says the “food inspection bureaucracy” has “gone overboard” and is “infringing on our constitutional rights to produce things and sell things and consume things and buy things that they have no justification for doing.”

Food safety survived in Wyoming in 2010, but the threat is not going away in the New Year. Willis will be back with Food Freedom.

And state Sen. Eli D. Bebout, R-Riverton, is going to be pushing the Traditional Community Events Act, which would exempt charitable and religious organizations from regulatory oversight when they stage potluck dinner or other food events.

Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, want to exempt raw milk producers and set up a “Cow Share” program.

“It appears that anyone who has an opposing viewpoint is ‘going overboard’ according to Rep. Wallis. Her self-elected lack of education drives her ignorance of contaminated food stuffs INCLUDING, but not limited to, human consumption of the drug tainted meat of American horses. Food Safety experts must be regarded as ‘extremists’ in her skewed mindset, also...and so the stupidity continues.” ~ R.T.

Wyoming Rep. Bumbles Defense in Wake of Ethics Complaint

Straight from the Horse's Heart

(The News as We See It) by R.T. Fitch ~ Author/Director of HfH Advisory Council

“Slaughterhouse” Sue Uses Adolescent Histrionics in Defense

Last week, Wyoming resident Patricia Fazio, Ph.D. filed a formal complaint with Wyoming state officials requesting an investigation of alleged violations of ethics laws and securities fraud by Wyoming State Rep. Sue Wallis.

Rep. Sue Wallis ~ Photo by Pam Nicholes

The complaint alleges Rep. Wallis is improperly and even fraudulently abusing her position as a Wyoming legislator. The complaint further alleges that Rep. Wallis not only neglected to recues herself or disclose her personal financial interest in votes, but that she has actually “sponsored” bills that would materially benefit her or her family.

In a potentially bogus effort to bolster her sagging public image Wallis has posted on her blog alleged letters of support from numerous unidentifiable individuals. Harking to adolescent methods of public self adulation Wallis lists numerous emails with only first names given but all with the same central line and theme of undying support for the woman who is known around the world as “Slaughterhouse” Sue. Upon reading this listing one would think that these “emails” were, if not authored, edited and/or fluffed by Wallis, herself, in another flimsy and questionable effort to save her tarnished and bloodied image.

Wallis, likewise, speaks to an unidentified animal rights group that filed a complaint. To our knowledge only Dr. Fazio filed a complaint and that action has been applauded by many long standing and well known humane advocacy organizations. It now appears that by her own statements Rep. Sue Wallis currently has multiple formal complaints filed against herself. Wallis’ letter is inserted below:

“A few days ago I was alerted to the fact that an animal rights organization had filed an ethics complaint and called for an investigation of my efforts on behalf of the horse industry in my role as a Wyoming state legislator. Since releasing my response I have received literally hundreds of messages of support from good hearted people who appreciate the work we are doing. Tonight we are sharing some of that good mail on the Summit of the Horse Blog.

While completely unfounded and a blatant attempt at intimidation designed to prevent us from doing what we know is right for horses and for horse people…the alleged charges are nonetheless serious, and have to be answered. This outrageous and uncalled for attack was sent not only to the Wyoming Attorney General and the House of Representatives, but to every news outlet in Wyoming and spread widely on the Internet. The Legislature will deal with the matter appropriately, and I stand ready to comply with any and all requests from leadership to put this matter to rest.

Because of this organized effort by radical animal rights groups I have been forced to spend time responding and correcting the record, time which could have been put to much better use in organizing and convening the horse industry at the upcoming Summit of the Horse where we will deal with the dire problems in the horse world in a respectful and rational manner all aimed at the well being of horses and horse people.

Below are just a few of the messages that I have received.”

Sue Wallis, Vice President
United Horsemen

Click HERE to read listing

Clouded in a swirl of controversy Wallis’ “Summit” is beginning to evaporate only a week ahead of its alleged commencement. Due to the covert message that the “Summit” is sending many well known speakers have asked to have their names pulled from the publicity while federal officials are being petitioned to not attend. In her statement Wallis is prepping the reader on the potential failure of her meat industry slaughter festival and that the cause may be the result of lost time spent on defending herself from the long list of allegations versus tending to the planning of her doomed BloodFest. As so often is the case with arguments issued from the office of Sue Wallis there is a finger pointed at someone or something else versus looking in the mirror for the answers to failed policies, practices and missed opportunities.

The case for wearing “Blinders” might work for race horses but it is a pathetic excuse coming from an elected government official who refuses to see the big picture and won’t listen to the voices of the American people.

Related Articles

• Wyoming Resident Files Complaint against State Rep. Sue Wallis (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
• SlaughterFest Promoter Blasted by Wyoming Constituents (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
• “Slaughterhouse” Sue Wallis Publicly Sticks Bloody Foot in Mouth (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
• Wallis/Duquette Press Perversity to the Limit (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
• Re-Elected Wyoming Horse Eater Plans Slaughter Gala (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
• Wyoming Legislator Faces Ethics and Fraud Allegations Over Horse Slaughter Plans (animals.change.org)

Horse slaughter: An unpalatable truth (AU)

Tuesday's Horse

Posted on Dec 25, 2010 by Vivian Grant

When the demand for horsemeat ends, so will the industry that supplies it, says Vivian Grant.

The article excerpted below is thoroughly researched and expertly written. It talks about horse slaughter in Australia, and gives important insight into the people who send horses to their deaths in a slaughterhouse.
While you or I may hate them and what they do, there is quote from a trainer that “it’s a dirty business but someone’s got to do it.” Yes, right now, somebody does.
We can blame the breeders, the trainers, the owners, the doggers (called killer buyers in North America), and the butcherers themselves. But what about the people who eat horsemeat? What about them? When are they going to be singled out and held accountable for the barbarous act of horse slaughter? It is after all their appetite for horsemeat that really drives this cruel and sickening trade.    MORE...

Madeleine Pickens saves 235 little wild mustangs as Christmas Eve miracle - National Pet Rescue | Examiner.com

National Pet Rescue | Examiner.com

Just a day before their miraculous rescue by horse advocate and humanitarian Madeleine Pickens, 235 young, wild mustangs were scheduled to make the inhumane trip to a Canadian slaughterhouse where their meat would become a $24 a pound delicacy for wealthy European and Asian gourmets. MORE...

Famed Livestock Behaviorist Shuns Advance Publicity at Vegas Summit

Horseback Magazine

December 25, 2010

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A nationally know animal behaviorist, Dr. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University, has asked that her name not be linked to pre-publicity for controversial gathering of ranchers, horse breeders, and representatives of the meat industry and industry wanabes who will gather in Las Vegas shortly after the New Year.
Yet Grandin will speak at the event.
“Temple is attending the meeting and will be presenting, said the famed professor’s spokeswoman, Cheryl Miller. She gave no further explanation why Grandin is reluctant that her name be used in advance publicity which has been widely circulated to the press. In notes sent to anti-horse slaughter advocates Miller said the Colorado State faculty member had asked event organizer Sue Wallis, a Wyoming legislator that her name not be used in pre-publicity for the event.
Organizers of the event are hoping to build a legal horse slaughter plant in Wyoming. Grandin gained fame by designing a system which tricks cattle into a state of well being as they are led to slaughter by a captive bolt gun, a device that sometimes misses its mark and leaves animals maimed.
Other guests touted to speak at the summit include Bob Abbey, director of the federal Bureau of Land Management, an agency under fire for allegedly attempting to drive the wild horses of the American West to extinction in favor of providing cheap grazing land to farmers and ranchers.
Recently ethics complaints have been filed against Summit organizer Wallis R, Wyoming with her state legislature alleging self dealing and possible IRS violations of the 501(c)3 non profit status of her groups. The complaint was filed by wild horse advocate Pat Fazio, Ph.D.
Another Summit participant, BLM’s lead helicopter chase contractor, Dave Cattoor, once plead guilty to the misdemeanor of illegally capturing wild horses which were later allegedly sold for slaughter.

Tags: cattoor, complaint, Pat Fazio, slaughter, sue wallis, Temple Grandin, United Horsemen

Merry Christmas!

Press Release from The Cloud Foundation

For Immediate Release

Foundation Calls for End to BLM’s Participation in “Horse Slaughter Summit”

BLM Director Bob Abbey to speak at pro-horse slaughter convention 

Las Vegas, NV (December 23, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation voices its concerns today over the significant BLM participation in the early January “Summit of the Horse”, better known as the “Slaughter Summit”. BLM Director, Bob Abbey, will be a keynote speaker at the conference, which purportedly ties wild horse management to the “solution” of horse slaughter. American wild horses must be protected from groups trying to profit from their slaughter. Director Abbey’s taxpayer-funded trip to Las Vegas to participate in a conference supporting horse slaughter is concerning.

“The BLM’s significant participation in this slaughter summit is truly troubling,” states Cloud Foundation Director, Ginger Kathrens. “The BLM needs to change course and begin listening to the American people who are calling for the protection and preservation of our wild herds, not to those who would profit from their flesh.” 

Joining Director Abbey is the BLM’s longtime primary roundup contractor, Dave Cattoor, who, in 1992 pled guilty to one federal misdemeanor of “aiding and abetting” the use of an aircraft to illegally capture wild and free horses. The horses were sold to a Texas slaughter plant. Despite this conviction, BLM continued to award Cattoor millions of dollars in roundup contracts. Other speakers of note at the conference include current BLM Wild Horse and Burro Public Advisory Board member, Dr. Boyd Spratling DVM and Larry Johnson, who served on the Advisory Board for over ten years and made no bones about supporting the euthanasia of healthy wild horses in government holding facilities.

Organizers of the Summit promote the building of horse slaughter plants in the USA that would export horsemeat to Asian and European markets. Wild horses, essentially “grass fed”, are not tainted by drugs and dewormers, thereby making them more vulnerable to slaughter. The European Union, tightening food safety regulations, currently prohibits all wild equid meat except for that of zebras. Despite BLM assertions to the contrary, wild horses are sent to slaughter in Mexico and Canada regularly (link to video).

“How many of our wild horses sent to long term holding have ended up in slaughter houses?” questions Kathrens. “BLM lacks a transparent tracking system in order to account for the thousands of animals sent to numerous facilities around the country.  To make matters worse, independent observers are denied access to these facilities to confirm the total number of animals being held.”

Horse slaughter is illegal in the US where horses are not consumed. The majority of horses sent to slaughter are young, healthy animals while others are barely able to walk and may be old and infirm, deserving of humane euthanasia—not slaughter.

The Master of Ceremonies for the Summit is agricultural talk show host and former disgraced pork factory farmer, Trent Loos. Conference organizers include the leading advocate of horse slaughter, Sue Wallis, Republican State Representative of Wyoming. Wyoming resident, Patricia Fazio, Ph.D. recently filed a complaint with state officials for alleged violations of ethics laws and securities fraud by Representative Wallis. 

“They call the wild horses ‘feral’ and the slaughter horses ‘unwanted’ to denigrate them,” explains author RT Fitch. “The proponents of horse slaughter complain about the cost of wild horses in holding, but completely ignore the hundreds of millions of dollars shelled out by taxpayers to subsidize privately-owned livestock on public lands.”

The Cloud Foundation requests transparent tracking of all American wild horses removed from the wild and held by the BLM as well as an independent count of the estimated 40,000 wild horses in long and short term holding corrals and pastures. Wild horses cost little on our public rangelands but more than $40 million annually when incarcerated in government holding. Meanwhile, subsidized privately-owned livestock graze the majority of the wild horse ranges, at a net loss of at least $123 million per year. Restoring wild horse and burros to the more than 24 million acres removed from them over the past 40 years along with reinstatement of the more than 150 “zeroed out” herds while managing ranges “principally” for wild equids would effectively solve the “wild horse problem,” created through decades of mismanagement by the BLM.

Currently the BLM is removing the last of America’s wild horses and burros from Western public lands at enormous taxpayer expense—animals that Congress intended to remain free and unharmed. Population estimates, based on BLM’s own data, reveal a wild population of less than 20,000 wild horses and burros remaining now on American western public lands—at least 5,000 fewer than roamed free in 1971 when Congress decreed wild horses and burros to be “fast disappearing” and unanimously passed the Wild Horse and Burro Act. In 1971 there were more than 8,000 burros. Today BLM reports there are 4,7000 but likely far fewer. The BLM’s target population is only 1,200 burros. 

On December 10^th the US House of Congress agreed to a budget increase for BLM, giving the broken program $75 million to continue the roundup/removal of America’s wild herds. However, this week the Senate held BLM funding at 2010 levels until March by passing a Continuing Resolution. This resolution did not include the additional $12 million requested by BLM and did continue the prohibition to not allow the use of federal dollars to kill healthy wild horses or sell them for slaughter.

The Cloud Foundation will continue to push for a “defunding of the roundups” as legitimized by a recent independent report on the BLM’s mismanagement. Economist Dr. Caroline Betts of Southern California University estimates that wild horses and burros will undergo rapid extinction in as little as 11 years if BLM is allowed to continue on the current track of removals. 

###

Links of interest:

Horse slaughter http://bit.ly/fZjRv5

Trent Loos http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/Abbey-Summit.pdf

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

WY Resident Files Complaint against Wallis http://bit.ly/hZPccF

Stampede to Oblivion: An Award Winning Investigative Report from CBS Las Vegas: http://bit.ly/iiNNYs

American Herds - "What's Left?" http://americanherds.blogspot.com/2009/12/whats-left.html

  

Congress Sends Letter for Wild Herds to Secretary Salazar: http://bit.ly/54sign

Roundup Schedule: http://bit.ly/roundupsched

Mestengo. Mustang. Misfit.  America’s Disappearing Wild Horses - A History: http://bit.ly/8ZCk8e

Public Lands Grazing Costs http://www.sagebrushsea.org/pdf/factsheet_Grazing_Fiscal_Costs.pdf

Short link to this release: http://bit.ly/dVMNZB

Past Cloud Foundation releases: http://bit.ly/9XD0TE

Media Contacts:                

Makendra Silverman 

Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org 

Tel: 719-351-8187

Anne Novak

Anne@TheCloudFoundation.org

Tel: 415-531-8454

Photos, video and interviews available from:

The Cloud Foundation

makendra@thecloudfoundation.org

The Cloud Foundation is a 501(c)3 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 - 719-633-3842

www.thecloudfoundation.org