Monday, January 31, 2011

Breaking News: BLM suspending Clan Alpine Wild Horse gather

Posted on Jan 31, 2011 by Vivian Grant

The Bureau of Land Management, Carson City District, is suspending the Clan Alpine Herd Management Area wild horse gather that was scheduled to start approximately Feb. 1.
The Clan Alpine Herd Management Area is located 60 miles east of Fallon, Nevada.

“An aerial census conducted in late December of the wild horses in the Clan Alpines shows that the population is low enough that gathering horses in that area to treat the mares with a fertility control vaccine is not warranted at this time,” said Terri Knutson, BLM-Stillwater Field Office Manager. “We will continue to monitor that wild horse herd to ensure their population stays in balance with the other natural resources in the Clan Alpine Mountains.”

Source: http://www.mesquitelocalnews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=7095&id=11

Pictorial Essay of Obama’s Wild Horse Stampede at Antelope Complex

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Laura Leigh and R.T. Fitch at Twin Peaks ~ Photo by Terry Fitch

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

Laura Leigh Reports from the Front Lines

Laura Leigh and R.T. Fitch at Twin Peaks ~ Photo by Terry Fitch

I am, perhaps, guilty of over-working the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words” but this concept most certainly applies, as of late, to the unnecessary suffering and pain that is being rained down upon our, supposedly, federally protected wild horses by the Obama administration’s BLM. Long before the start of the stampede Laura Leigh was out on the Antelope Complex looking for horses, of which there were not many, and photographed those that she could find. Today, she has uploaded a very poignant slide show which displays the horses as they were before the roar of helicopter blades and what happens to them after the BLM’s contractor illegally removes them from our public land.
It’s been a rough week for the horses and a difficult time for those who witness the carnage. Laura needs your help and you can visit those needs at Grass Roots Horse, good folks trying to get a grip on what is happening, on the ground, to the last of our national icons.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Renowned Wild Horse Expert Disputes BLM’s Flawed Math

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Craig Downer and R.T. Fitch at Twin Peaks Roundup ~ photo by Terry Fitch

From: Craig Downer
To: bbbmavemedwhg@blm.gov
Cc: Craig Downer
Sent: Sun, January 30, 2011 4:59:49 PM
Subject: Re: Triple B, Maverick-Medicine and Antelope Valley HMA’s Preliminary E.A. DOI-BLM-NV-L010-2011-0004-EA
January 30, 2011

BLM Ely District Office
HC 33 Box 33500
Ely, NV 89301
Attn: Gary W. Medlyn, Egan Field Manager
Email: bbbmavemedwhg@blm.gov

Re: Triple B, Maverick-Medicine and Antelope Valley HMA’s Preliminary Environmental Assessment DOI-BLM-NV-L010-2011-0004-EA

Dear Sirs:

Thank you for this opportunity to give input. I have reviewed the E.A. and am disturbed by the repeated arguments that I have read many times before as concerns “wild horse overpopulation,” “multiple use,” “thriving ecological balance,” etc. The employment of these terms to justify what you are planning to do to the wild horses makes a mockery of their true meaning.

Objectively there is no overpopulation of wild horses in the herd management areas/wild horse territories under consideration. How can there be when the current estimated population of 2,198 wild horses translates into 766 acres per individual wild horse in 1,682,998 acres of hma’s (BLM) or wild horse territories (USFS)? After the proposed roundup to reduce the population by 1,726 to 472 wild horses, there would remain an immense 3,566 acres of legal habitat per individual wild horse. This would be a nearly wild-horse-empty wild horse hma complex. This mocks the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act (WFRHBA) where it clearly states that wild horse/burro herd areas shall be dedicated “principally though not necessarily exclusively” to the wild horses/burros in the wild. This latter is in keeping with the multiple use concept of the public lands (upheld by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act as well as the Multiple Use Act), since the wild horse and burro areas only represent a small percentage of the public lands (ca. 12%). To squeeze their population down to such radically low levels expands the monopoly of livestock upon the public lands as a whole. I detect a biased motivation operating to the detriment of the wild horses and burros. Year after year, this further displaces the wild equids and reduces their numbers, ignores their legal right to freedom and land, further disrupts their natural adaptation where found as well as their self-stabilizing societies, etc.

Examining Tables 3, 4 & 5 of your EA, I see that there are a total of 28 livestock grazing permittees/allotments of which 17 have 90% to 100% of their allotments within the hma’s. These livestock graziers have a total of currently permitted livestock Animal Unit Months (AUM’s) of 88,978 on a year round basis. Since the current wild horse population is 2,198, there are 26,376 AUM’s (2,198 x 12 months) currently being utilized by wild horses in the complex. This represents a little less than 30% of livestock AUM’s and only 23% of the total livestock plus wild horse AUM’s of 115,354. This is not an overwhelming percentage and in no fashion constitutes the “principal” in these hma’s. Yet, unsatisfied with this, your plan is to reduce the herds to the lower end Appropriate Management Level (AML) of 472 wild horses. This figure of 472 represents 5,664 AUM’s per year, which is only 6.4% of permitted livestock AUM’s and a little under 6% of combined livestock and wild horse year-round AUM’s. The upper end of the AML is 889, which multiplied by 12 months equals 10,668 AUM’s per year. This is still only about one-nineth of livestock within the wild horse complex …even less of the combined.

This is an extreme marginalizing of the wild horse presence and, for this reason, I urge you to increase the AUM’s for wild horses, and to decrease the AUM’s for livestock, with the goal being that wild horses receive at least 50% of the grazing allotments in order to comply with the “principal” mandate of WFRHBA. I therefore favor the No Action alternative proposal in your EA and urge you to reformulate a more just plan here, employing principles of Reserve Design that involve buffer zones, natural barriers and predators, and the allowing of the wild horses to fill their niche and naturally self-stabilize. This would obviate the cruel and biologically disruptive helicopter roundups that are now causing such enormous problems, suffering and death for the wild horses.

Finally, I urge you to hold your ground in the water issue in Nevada and not be cajoled by vested interests — under the guise of state’s rights — into relinquishing water for the wild horses. As a 4^th generation Nevadan and holder of my high school’s history award, I know that the Nevada State Constitution gives top priority to the federal government on all lands that were not claimed during the first several years after the Civil War and the formation of Nevada.

Please feel free to contact me for further details about my protest of your proposal, reserve design, etc. Again I appreciate this opportunity to give input and look forward to hearing from you again soon.

Sincerely,

Craig C. Downer, Wildlife Ecologist

Animal' Angels, USA "Light the Sky" 2010

Animals' Angels

Obama Wild Horse Stampede Contractor Rewrites the Truth

Straight from the Horse's Heart

(In My most Pissed Off Opinion) by R.T. Fitch ~ Author/Director HfH Advisory Council

Sue Cattoor Loves that Rogue’s Limelight

Sue Cattor playing to the Cloud Foundation's camera of Ginger Kathrens and Makendra Silverman at the destruction of the Pryor Mt. Herd in 2009 ~ Photo by R.T. Fitch

On January 24^th our good friend and college Robert Winkler of The Desert Independent published a guest editorial written by the wife of one of the Bureau of Land Management’s chief helicopter wild horse stampede contractors, Sue Cattoor. I read it, I gagged, I moved on and did not comment. There was a moment that I considered posting it, here, and decided against giving this self-ordained queen of wild horse suffering any more publicity to feed her maniacal ego. But after days of eating at my soul; I just can’t let it go as I sincerely owe it to the tens of thousands of wild horses whose lives have been destroyed, both figuratively and literally, to respond to this trashing of the truth and blatant attempt to further mislead and twist the opinion of the American public.

Now a word of warning about Sue Cattoor, the woman is out of touch with the laws of the land and is seriously attempting to rewrite the First Amendment and quell free speech in the press within our borders. Last year the Cattoors had their attorney send ugly and shabbily constructed (in my pissed off opinion) threat letters to rescues, foundations, publications and bloggers who publicly questioned the high flying duo for their techniques, tactics and methods of mismanaging the costly and deadly Calico Complex debacle. (You can view our letter by clicking (HERE)) These letters laid out demands for retractions, apologies, deadlines and timelines with threats of what would happen if we did not comply. Some caved, some did not, others engaged their attorneys who basically told the constitution assailing Cattoor attorneys to stick it. What ole Sue fails to realize is that she has gone above and beyond the norm to make herself a public “personality” and once that was established we are all welcome to have our own opinions of this very public, controversial, outspoken media Black Hole. As a writer and blogger I most certainly have my opinion and that is exactly what is expressed within this article. (Actually, several of us feel that a suit initiated by the Cattors would be a really fun ride for all of us because the discovery of their books and background would be a riot, wouldn’t it?…enough fodder there for the next several decades worth of Op-Eds)

The title of this “look at me” rant is “Helicopter Roundups are the Most Humane Way to Gather Wild Horses”. That one sentence says a lot, in fact, its double talk. The BLM and Cattoors refer to their helicopter stampedes as “gathers” and they have cringed when more astute individuals use the term roundup. Now we have ole Sue using both terms in one sentence, pretty slick. When we use the term “gather” we are usually using it in regards to flowers, eggs, leaves or maybe something like, “Come children, gather around and we will tell you a fairy tale before you go to bed.” Images of young girls dancing through meadows of tall lush grass with baskets of flowers on their arms comes to mind when we think of gather, NOT the bloody images of stampeded horses running for their lives before a roaring, mechanized bird of prey. The images just don’t mix.

And then there is the intent of the headline; ”most humane way to gather wild horses”. Like there are other ways that are worse or the entire process is inhumane and this is the lesser of the evils? I for one think the later is the implication.

But enough chatter regarding the title let’s get on to the article which is pretty much, yup you guessed it, a one-sided list of lies that ole Sue’s BLM boss Bob Abbey could be proud of. The Cattoors have made millions off from the backs of traumatized wild horses so why would anyone think for a single second that they wouldn’t believe it is such a wonderful and noble thing that they are doing. Sue is pulling all of these starving horses off from the over grazed range so the handful of wild horses that are left can grow fat and sassy. The Cattoors have been drinking that BLM Kool-Aide for far too long.

I won’t answer sentence by sentence but I will counter Sue’s hurt feelings for the likes of us using the term “Stampede” when we refer to their helicopter chasing horses down. That’s what it is Sue, it is not a walk, trot, gallop, stride, nada…it is a head long rush to escape the 100+ mile an hour generated winds, noise and terror from a giant metal bird that is swooping down upon these terrified creatures. Panic, sheer panic is what ensues when your helicopters chase the horses upon our public lands. There is nothing calm, civilized or humane about it and you have actually run the hooves right off from horses in doing so. Documented, signed and sealed so don’t attempt to quote a dictionary to me as to what the meaning of the word “stampede” is, you have taught it to me well, in person and it ain’t pretty.

If you have the stomach for it you can read the article by clicking (HERE) but I won’t dignify it on this website…she has a whopping 9 comments on it at the time of this writing and most of them are from family, friends or maybe even manufactured email addresses as all seem to think what she is doing is so wonderful and kind. Bullshit.

Personally, I believe that the Cattoors, employees of the BLM and DOI should be arrested and tried for thousands of counts of animal cruelty and held to the same standard that the general public is as outlined by very descriptive warning signs on BLM supervised land. But no, our government allows these private contractors to decide what, when, where and who can watch their destruction of OUR wild horses on OUR public land. It’s an outrageous travesty.

We said it before and we will say it again, Sue…we live for the day when you and your indicted hubby just go away, dissolve, disappear, never to be seen again over the blue skies of our public lands. And as we gaze out over the empty plains we will remember that once there were happy bands of wild horses there, living out their lives prior to the cattle and your cruel intervention. Now those horses are in long and short term holding while the bulk of them have been sold off to slaughter to tantalize the palate of wealthy foreigners; our national icons in the bellies of other nations. Thanks for being great Americans, Dave and Sue, you’ll have a whole lot to talk about come judgment day as you sold your souls to the devil a long, long time ago…and that devil, today, is Obama’s BLM.

Sleep tight.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

For Their Brand

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Original, Timely Poem by Rob Pliskin

I don’t need to see more horses run
Or watch another mare take an icy fall,
A burro fleeing like an outlaw from some lawman’s gun
When living the life God gave them’s no crime at all.

And I don’t need more video time
To tell me the difference between wrong and right,
Portraying more dirty work on the taxpayer’s dime
To sell the innocence of horses into their darkest night.

Who are they, who about the wild ones can’t feel,
Who if not taking lives, then take their souls?
And who are we to let them equivocate and steal
All our jacks and stallions, our jennys and mares, and our foals?

No longer this: out riding fence, out where the wind’s the only sound,
While the silent tears freeze on your face,
For steel hooves never again to touch the ground,
As hopeful legislation falls from grace.

Instead I ask good citizens, what must we take in hand,
We who believe in all truth and goodwill,
We who have always saddled up and ridden for the brand,
How for our compadres can we do it still?

What of us, what now are we to do?
When foremen have so completely lost their way
Traded boots for low heeled shiny shoes
And no longer show their faces to a Western day?

Is it time now to assemble at the first chirp of morning song,
And gather at the fire long before first light?
Find the faces of our friends as our cavvy greets the dawn
And together mount up to make some filly’s morning bright?

And some colt’s too, make a day filled with peace and shine,
The wild perfect welcome of old home,
Where the sound of greedy blades will forever never whine
And double barreled trucks no longer roam.

Time to buy back your old saddle, or pick it up and get
The kit down that reminds you you got sand.
For every wild horse and burro your children haven’t met,
It’s time to ride like there’s no tomorrow for their brand.

Nevada Horses Would Parish of Thirst if Wildlife Board Has its Way

Horseback Magazine

January 29, 2011

By Steven Long
Photo by Craig Downer
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – Nevada wild horses and burros could face a thirsty spring if a proposal to the state’s water engineer by the board overseeing wildlife is passed and

implemented.
The board will meet at 1 P.M. Monday in Reno to approve a draft letter denying water to the state’s wild horses and burros. The letter will be sent to State Water Engineer Jason King. He serves with the Nevada Division of Water Resources. If the board agrees to proceed, the letter will tell King to notify federal agencies charged by law with caring for wild horses that only animals “designated for beneficial use” will be allowed to drink Nevada water. Those animals include cattle and “wildlife.” And that is the distinction.
To comment directly to the board, follow this link to obtain their published addresses and phone numbers of the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners. The commission is made up of a farmer, rancher, five sportsmen, a conservationist, and a representative of the general public.
Horseback Magazine is also running a poll asking readers to vote either for or against President Obama’s intervention on behalf of Nevada’s wild horses and burros to enable them to have access to water.
In Nevada, the Board of Wildlife Commissioners claims that wild horses and burros are “feral” and not deserving of a taste of life giving water. The proposed letter goes on to charge that horses under the care of the federal Bureau of Land Management “are making unlawful use of Nevada waters.” According to Nevada law, water on public lands is designated only for livestock and wildlife. Allowing a national treasure such as the state’s wild horses and burros to drink is “illegal” according to the letter.
The BLM holds around 28 water permits in Nevada for the wildlife under its jurisdiction, however, under the feral designation wild Mustangs would not be permitted to drink.
The issue is complex, and BLM policy makes it more so because the agency also calls wild horses “feral.”
Wild horses and burros compete with millions of cattle who graze BLM lands under leases dramatically lower than market value. The letter says “neither the Nevada Department of Wildlife, nor the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claim these animals are wildlife under their jurisdiction. The waters within most of the Nevada rangeland wildlife habitats that are grazed by domestic animals are owned by the rancher and shared by law and cooperation with Nevada wildlife. The federal government has no law that supersedes the State of Nevada’s water law.” The letter cites the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The claim is a stretch. The Tenth Amendment states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Wild horse advocates say the horse is a native species reintroduced to its natural habitat. They cite a recent National Academy of Science study confirming that the genus equidae originated here. Some claim the wild horse never went extinct in America. In fact, when Lewis and Clark made their epoch exploration of the west, they bought horses from Indians who had been breeding them for generations.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that Nevada is home for the largest number of Wild Horses under BLM jurisdiction. For two years, the BLM has been capturing thousands of them and housing the horses on large private pastures enriching landowners. The program has consumed the entire budget of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.
Last week, the wild horse program’s head, Don Glenn, quietly resigned without explanation. He was replaced by a longtime BLM employee with no wildlife management experience.

Horses used as 'mules' saved from Arizona desert

ABC 15.com

NEW RIVER, AZ - The stallion circles and plods, whinnies and trots across the pen.
"He's doing better," says his trainer, who notes you can still see his ribs sticking through his rib cage.
Outsiders are always amazed at how quickly they recover -- a 1,500 pound animal near death just a few weeks ago is showing few signs of the struggle and the abuse he's suffered.
It's a familiar scene at Arizona Equine Rescue in New River. Each week, volunteers are called out to corral a stray horse found wandering through a neighborhood or more likely, lost and starving in the desert.
No one has exact numbers, but experts say there are likely hundreds of horses recovered in the Sonoran Desert every year that are used to run drugs from Mexico.
"They're used as vehicles," said Soleil Dolce of Arizona Equine Rescue. "And when they're done with them, they're just abandoned."
More often than not the animals are emaciated and dehydrated. They often have other problems too, from scars and chafing from the heavy loads, to illnesses which often go untreated in Mexico.
Many of the animals also show signs of abuse, Dolce said. They often are fearful around humans.
The horse problem is not a new phenomenon, but it's one which has steadily grown in recent years, exacerbated by a struggling economy.
Rescue groups offer one of the few outlets when border agents find the animals in the desert. But as unemployment grows and foreclosures hit hard, rescue groups often watch funding dry up, even as more horse owners turn to them, unable to care for their animals anymore.
The costs mount for organizations, from veterinary bills, to feed and transportation costs.
Still, many organizations manage to rehabilitate the horses, often finding quality breeds among the equines which merely serve as pack mules. Some of those animals even return to the desert to be used in mounted patrols, tracking some of the very smugglers who abandoned them.

Obama Administration’s Animal Cruelty is Apparent in Wild Horse Stampede Video

Straight from the Horse's Heart

January 29, 2011

(In my most OUTRAGED Opinion) by R.T. Fitch ~ Author and Director of HfH Advisory Council

BLM’s Bob Abbey Can’t Polish this Turd

President Obama, remember the campaigning animal friendly guy, sat back idly last winter while his Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bob Abbey, directed his bunch of armed thugs and contractors to harass, stampede, capture and ultimately kill hundreds of wild horses both during and after the deplorable Calico Complex stampede and by God our country’s leader is doing the same blinking thing this year.

Bob Abbey, recently caught in a fantasticly stunning lie regarding Madeline Pickens attempt to offer sanctuary to wild horses in long term holding, has been ragging on advocates along with his PR man Tom Gorey saying that the use of the word “stampede”, versus the quaint sounding “gather”, is just more anti-BLM propaganda from animal rights activists. But get it right Bobby, if you can, it always has been and forever will be a stampede when you terrorize wild animals to the extent that they run for their lives at the cost of their health, future and for many their very breath of life. And for the record we are equine advocates and not animal rights activists you putz; hell, we tax paying Americans don’t have any rights thanks to the likes of yourself how stupid do you think we would be if we thought for a moment that animals should have rights?

Now, thanks to Obama’s main man Abbey, there is blood on the ground and cruelty in the air. The BLM shot one horse that broke it’s hip while packed into a trailer with 40 other panicked national icons and the following video is of a mature mare run right flat into the ground by one of Bobby and Obama’s highly paid helicopter stampede artists. Only into day five and lives are being snuffed out.

Bobby, I wouldn’t expect anything other than this from your cold, cruel black heart as you have been suckling on that fat government teat for so long you that have lost touch with reality but Mr. President, how could you…is this the sort of bedtime story that you want YOUR children to view and what sort of legacy are you leaving for your Presidency?!?

Watch the video; your polices and their intent are obvious, the desired conclusion is telegraphed, your odds of being reelected are evaporating. It’s time for you to keep your promises.

(And for those of you out there with a heart and soul, buckle up your seat belt and get a firm grip on the arms of your chair because you are about to see your tax dollars spent to do some of the most evil works you have seen in a while, or since the last Abbey stampede. Note the streaming sweat, the exhaustion and the puffs of exhalation coming from this terrorized treasure’s body and nose. It is sickening and turns my stomach. In the recent past, such cruelty was a catalyst for our country to pick up arms and fight to save the innocent abroad, now, the inhumanity occurs within our borders and the perpetrator is our elected government. This is not the government that I bore arms to protect, this is not the land that I remember from the past, this is not the heart that beats in all Americans, this is simply a cold and bloody travesty!!)

Nebraska Horse Eating Senator is “Out of Line”

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Commentary by Wayne Pacelle ~President/CEO of the Humane Society of the United States

The Strange Bills of Senator Larson Need to be Defeated

Wayne Pacelle ~ President/CEO of the HSUS

The bills related to horse slaughter introduced by Sen. Tyson Larson are way out of line, especially the one to require humane societies and horse rescues to accept and care for any horse that is presented to them, and to make it a crime, a class IV misdemeanor, if those groups do not have enough space or money to take in animals dumped on their doorsteps. (“Does new legislation make horse sense?” Telegraph, Jan. 16)

Senator Larson’s astonishing bill turns moral responsibility on its head, allowing reckless animal owners to casually dispense with animals they’ve acquired without proper forethought and shifting the care and cost burdens onto struggling local organizations that are already up to their ears cleaning up the messes of irresponsible parties. For the government to require these local organizations to care for every animal presented to them, and to make a crime of their inability to take them in, is akin to requiring homeless shelters to pay for hotel rooms for every person on the streets when their beds are full, or requiring conservation groups to cover the costs of every environmental polluter and to require nothing of the very polluters who create the problem in the first place.

In the news story about this legislation, one ally of Senator Larson made an outrageous claim about the Humane Society of the United States, essentially arguing that the nation’s largest and most effective animal protection organization doesn’t care about animals. He used a dubious 18-year-old quote in support of his absurd argument. Several years before I joined the HSUS, in 1992 or 1993, I appeared at an agricultural forum and addressed the issue of animal welfare in American agriculture. In the question-and-answer session, a question was directed to me about whether there should be an attempt to preserve all breeds of exotic livestock. I was specifically queried about so-called “heirloom breeds” (older breed variations that have been around for a while and whose continued survival may be in jeopardy) of domestic agricultural animals and their passing out of existence. At the time, I did not consider the fate of such breeds an ethically significant dilemma. I replied by saying that I did not believe that we had a moral obligation to preserve such breeds; in short, I said we did not need an endangered species act for rare breeds of livestock. It’s a tremendous leap and failure of logic to equate such a comment with a dislike of animals or to agricultural and animal ownership in general. Frankly, it’s laughable.

The outlandish claims of our critics needed to be quelled, and the strange bills of Senator Larson defeated.

Nebraska Bill Would Slaughter Horses and Penalize Rescues (rtfitch.wordpress.com)

Friday, January 28, 2011

Antelope Roundup Day 5: Tragedy Mounts

American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign

MORE..

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Revenge of the Bureau of Land Management

Las Vegas City Life

by GEORGE KNAPP

Should an agency of the federal government be able to conduct business on behalf of American taxpayers based on mood swings, capricious whims, and hissy fits? Is petulance an appropriate reaction for the head of a sprawling agency which plays a vital role in the daily life of our country? More...

Hay Airlift Successful in Saving Starving Montana Horses

Straight from the Horse's Heart

story by Jan Falstad of the Billings Gazette

First Day Proves to be a Success

Billings Flying Service airlifted about 20 tons of hay, one round bale at a time, Thursday morning to hundreds of hungry horses on a ranch east of Billings along Highway 87E.

Also on Thursday, Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office officials used a borrowed John Deere tractor and flatbed trailer to feed other bands of horses.

An estimated 500 to 700 horses belonging to James Leachman are spread over 20 miles across a handful of ranches and Crow Reservation leases.

Leachman, of Billings, was charged Friday with five main and five alternative counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty. He is scheduled to make his first appearance at 3:15 p.m. Friday in Justice Court. The Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office based the charges on five dead horses found on the ranch earlier this month.

The airlift, using a heavy-duty Bell Huey UH-1H helicopter, took a little more than two hours. A smaller helicopter flew for three or four hours to scout and gather some of the horses, according to Al Blain, who owns Billings Flying Service with his brother, Gary Blain.

“This was something that was easy for us to do,” Al Blain said. “We got the immediate need met and now they can feed by tractors and flatbeds, which will be much more economical.”

With horses spread out so far, the first step was to collect the biggest herd in the grassless 2,600-acre Tschirgi pasture.

“There was onesies and twosies everywhere, and we tried to gather them up,” Al Blain said. “I was afraid the hay wouldn’t get found. How’s the horse on the other side of the pasture going to know?”

Three mares and two colts couldn’t be moved, Blain said, adding, “It looked like they were in rough shape.”

The dropped hay will last a few days. So far, 250 tons of hay have been donated for the rescue effort, dubbed Operation Home Place.

Turk Stovall, whose family now owns the former Leachman Cattle Co.’s Home Place ranch, said Leachman’s horses have been illegally grazing on their land since July, when they bought the ranch at a federal foreclosure sale.

A.J. Blain flew the Huey and dropped the bales, while his father, Al Blain, flew Stovall around the ranch in the smaller chopper to locate the best drop sites.

“It’s awesome, the outpouring of volunteers,” Stovall said. “We’ve been feeding them for six months, and the neighboring landowners have been feeding them for years.”

Stovall estimated that Leachman’s about 500 horses each eat at least $1 per day worth of grass. Horses eat 2.5 times as much as a cow, and this herd can consume $1,600 worth of hay per day.

With his cows calving and needing the coming spring grass, Stovall said his family can’t continue to let the horses graze on their land indefinitely. And Stovall said his family has spearheaded the effort to get help for horses they don’t own.

“These horses would never have had a chance if we hadn’t said, ‘We need some help out here,’ ” Stovall said.

As of Thursday morning, the Northern International Livestock Exposition had pledges for 350 tons of hay from Montana and Wyoming and cash donations of more than $10,000.

“I had a mom call from Alaska and her daughter wanted to donate her birthday money,” NILE Executive Director Justin Mills said.

Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder, who drove the loaner tractor, pulled the bales off the trailer he borrowed from his neighbor and dropped the hay into the nets bound for the Tschirgi pasture two miles away.

“We’re lucky we live in this community,” Linder said. “I spent three hours on the phone, and in three hours the hitch was being built, I had the tractor and the helicopter lined up.”

Because the ground is too muddy now for pickups to haul heavy flatbeds, Berkley Equipment & Machine Works built a special hitch so the tractor could pull the gooseneck trailer. Pacific Steel donated the steel. A Billings implement dealer, which wanted to remain anonymous, loaned the tractor.

More hay will be given to the horses Saturday.

“We’re doing all we can to get all the hay to as many horses as possible. Hopefully, it’s enough,” Linder said.

Airlift of Hay Underway to Save Starving Montana Horses

http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/airlift-of-hay-underway-to-save-starving-montana-horses/

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Oklahoma Senator tells BLM to adopt or kill Mustangs to save money

Tuesday's Horse

Posted on Jan 26, 2011 by Vivian Grant

One of the arguments used against the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) gross mishandling of the Wild Horse and Burro Program is how the federal agency is hemorrhaging millions of taxpayer dollars.
Well, it did not take one politician in Washington long to exploit this argument to the detriment of America’s wild equines.
Instead of calling for a halt of excessive and unnecessary roundups and an investigation into the BLM’s failed and costly policies, U.S. Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma suggests that the BLM either adopt them out or kill them.
In a report filed by Amy Lester for Channel 6 News, it states:

The cost to keep horses in government run short term corrals is much higher, around $5.50 a day or more than $20 million a year. Senator Coburn said that’s too much money. He insists the law tells the agency to either adopt extra animals or kill them.
“When you have an excess of animals, not humans, animals, above and beyond your capability to care for them, what you have to do is destroy that herd down to a level that we can manage it,” said Sen. Tom Coburn.

And this sounds like typical BLM accounting.

“There’s not many things you can do in agriculture to change up your cash flow so this was a good program for that,” said Ladd Drummond, a rancher in northeastern Oklahoma.
Drummond has 2,200 horses on his land. The government pays him $1.30 per horse, per day. That’s $1.04 million a year. Drummond said less than 10 percent is profit, or close to $100,000. He has to dedicate seven acres to each horse. He gives them supplemental feedings in the winter and puts out salt and mineral in the summer.
“You have a lot of expenses that go into it, but, there’s definitely a little profit built in too, it’s hard to do anything without making a little profit,” said Drummond.

Wow, $900,000. Those must be some pretty expensive supplements.
Read full report here >>

Obama Administration Issues Statement on BLM/Pickens Put Down

Straight from the Horse's Heart

BLM Press Release (Unedited)
BLM Statement Regarding the Prospectus Submitted by Saving America’s Mustangs Foundation to Build and Establish an Eco-Sanctuary for Wild Horses

The BLM is committed to improving the management of the Wild Horse and Burro Program by working together with people and organizations that care about these iconic symbols of the West. However, recent inaccurate information from one such organization has been widely distributed, and the BLM would like to set the record straight.
The BLM has been working with the Saving America’s Mustangs Foundation, founded by Madeleine Pickens, for more than two years in an attempt to place wild horses gathered from Western public rangelands into a private sanctuary. Some of the information distributed in the Foundation’s recent media campaign requires some clarification and context; other information that is being distributed is just plain false.
The Foundation has stated that the BLM will spend $85 million to remove 10,000 wild horses from public lands this year. This is not true. The BLM’s Fiscal Year 2010 total budget for the program was $65 million, of which $37 million went to caring for animals in short- and long-term holding facilities, $7.7 million went for gathering animals to keep the animals and the range healthy, and $6.8 million went for adopting out wild horses and burros to the public. The requested 2011 budget for the program is $75 million. However, under the existing Continuing Resolution, funding for the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro program remains at the FY 2010 level.
BLM managers, staff, and specialists have invested substantial time to accommodate and consider ongoing and evolving ideas from the Foundation. However, despite numerous requests from the BLM, the Foundation has not provided a formal and detailed proposal so that the BLM can properly analyze and determine its feasibility. This would be required from any individual or group proposing ideas involving public funds, public lands, and wild horses and burros.
The Foundation has indicated that it will be prepared to provide holding services on land in Nevada by next fall and that it would result in a “significant cost savings.” Without a written, detailed proposal, the BLM cannot determine whether this is true. However, Mrs. Pickens in her prospectus has suggested a stipend of $500 (adjusted to inflation) per horse, per year, for the life of each animal. This would exceed the BLM’s existing cost per animal in long-term holding of $475 per year. Her prospectus, as presented, does not demonstrate an obvious cost savings to the American taxpayer.
The Foundation has asked the BLM to postpone an upcoming Nevada wild horse gather in the Antelope Complex Herd Management Area until its facility is built. In our December 17, 2010, response, we explained that the number of wild horses in this area is significantly above the capacity of the range’s ability to provide adequate forage and water to sustain them. If we postpone the gather until the Saving America’s Mustangs Foundation completes a facility, the BLM may well face having to conduct an emergency gather – more costly and potentially more difficult for the horses, which would likely be weakened by a lack of water and forage.
The Foundation’s information states that 30,000 wild horses remain on public lands. The BLM’s census numbers put the wild horse and burro population at more than 38,000, according to the agency’s latest official count.

Actions needed to move forward with the Saving America’s Mustangs idea

To implement the Foundation’s concept as presented, under existing law and regulations, the BLM would be required to transfer title of wild horses through sale or adoption to Mrs. Pickens and change the class of livestock authorized on several Nevada allotments from cattle to horses. This would require a land-use plan amendment and additional site-specific environmental analysis (under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA). All such environmental documents require a period for public review and comment before being finalized.
Existing law would need to be changed. The BLM does not have the legal authority to reimburse a private party for grazing titled horses (i.e., formerly government-owned horses now privately held) on either public or deeded land; reimburse a private party to graze untitled (that is, still government-owned) wild horses on public lands; or manage wild horses on public lands outside Herd Areas that were legislatively created in 1971.
To ensure the American taxpayer receives fair value, the Saving America’s Mustangs Foundation would need to submit a formal proposal in response to a BLM solicitation that would be open to the public for private-partner preserves. The BLM is developing such a solicitation.
The BLM is concerned that in some of the areas proposed for the Nevada sanctuary, forage and water exist to support a maximum of 970 wild horses, far below the 10,000 the Foundation has indicated it would like to support.

American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign

Two very important reads:

Antelope Complex Roundup Begins; Daily Reports Here

BLM Director Bob Abbey’s Rejection of Eco-Sanctuary Catapults Madeleine Pickens’ Plan for Mustangs to Center Stage

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Humane Observer

New post by Humane Observer: Elyse Gardner

For the wild horses, captive and free, and their humble burro friends,
and in memory of all those lost, and you, precious little Mouse,
Elyse Gardner
Humane Advocate Observer

DIRECTOR ABBEY'S MOVES BACKFIRE AS CONGRESS RESPONDS BY CALLING FOR A CUT TO BLM'S WILD HORSE AND BURRO PROGRAM BUDGET; and THE HUMANE OBSERVER REBUTS BLM NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON TOM GOREY'S FALLACIOUS STATEMENTS IN THE PRESS

Has Director of BLM Bob Abbey grown too big for his knickers, which recently appear to have been in a twist? BLM's lack of accountability is finally getting on Congressional nerves. Here Indiana's Representative Dan Burton speaks out about the mismanagement of the Wild Horse and Burro Program purse. Thank you, Representative Burton. MORE...

Ask President Obama to Support Protection for Horses

Straight from the Horse's Heart
by Laura Allen from Animal Law Coalition
Your Voice Can Make a Difference

Today, Tuesday January 25 at 9 p.m. EST, President Obama will deliver his 2011 State of the Union Address, which will be streamed live on YouTube. We have submitted a question to President Obama for an exclusive YouTube Interview that will take place just two days later, on January 27. Votes are needed in order to have this question considered and addressed.

We want to know…

“Will you support a ban on slaughter of American horses for human consumption and begin protecting wild horses by ordering a moratorium on round ups and a full investigation and reform of the Wild Horses and Burros program?“

Watch and Vote here: (Sign in, search for “horses” and when you find the question, vote!)

http://www.youtube.com/worldview/?utm_source=changeorg&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email

Courtesy of Saving America’s Horses, A Nation Betrayed

Rep Dan Burton on the House Floor!

Watch this!

You can thank Rep Burton on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#!/RepDanBurton
OR call his Washington office (202) 225-2276

Breaking News: Senior Congressman Blasts BLM for Mismanagement of Wild Horses

Saving America's Mustangs | Madeleine's Mustangs

Senate Asked to Rein in BLM Over Huge Wild Horse Roundup Underway in NE Nevada

American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign

January 25, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment

Fed’l Agency Criticized for Proceeding with Costly Mustang Removal Despite Cost-Saving Alternative
For Immediate Release – Washington, DC (January 25, 2011) . . . The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC), a broad-based coalition, is asking two U.S. Senate Committees with oversight over the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to direct the agency to halt a massive mustang roundup currently underway in the Antelope Complex in northeastern Nevada. In a letter sent yesterday, AWHPC urged the Appropriations Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to hold the BLM accountable for forging ahead with the costly mustang roundup despite a cost-saving alternative offered by philanthropist and businesswoman Madeleine Pickens and her Saving America’s Mustangs Foundation. MORE...

Antelope Roundup: Day 2

American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign

Photo of Antellope Mustang at Temporary Holding by Laura Leigh

TRAP SITE REPORT (By Deniz Bolbol):
Captured & Removed today: 13 mares, 26 studs, 5 yearlings = total of 44 horses
TOTAL REMOVED TO DATE: 87 horses
The Antelope Complex roundup continued in the Antelope HMA in the southern portion of the complex. I arrived at the trap site at 7:35a and the helicopter was already looking for its next victims. When I arrived at the trap, the temperature gauge on the truck read 13 degrees; it was a sunny day and temperatures probably reached the high 30s to low 40s (when I left the trap at 4:25p it was 35 degrees). MORE...

Monday, January 24, 2011

Fears mount over fate of 450 Montana horses

Horsetalk.co.nz - International horse news

A Viable Solution to Eliminating Equine Slaughter

The Stable Woman Gazzette

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 10:30PM

A WHITE PAPER ON ELIMINATING EQUINE SLAUGHTER
(Please share with every horse person you know!)
December, 2010
By Allen Warren – Horse Harbor Foundation, Inc.
Poulsbo, Washington
IN COLLABORATION WITH THE FOLLOWING LEADING EQUINE RESCUE SANCTUARY OPERATORS FROM ACROSS THE UNITED STATES: Jerry Finch, Habitat for Horses, Texas; Hilary Wood, Front Range Equine Rescue, Colorado; Grace Belcuore, California Equine Retirement Foundation, California; Teresa Paradis, Live & Let Live Farm, New Hampshire; Katie Merwick, Second Chance Ranch, Washington, and Melanie Higdon, Hidden Springs Equine Rescue, Florida.
THERE IS A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO THE CONTINUED SLAUGHTER OF U.S. HORSES IF THE COMMERCIAL EQUINE INDUSTRY PARTICIPATES MORE...

Horse roundup near Pickens sanctuary criticized

Chron.com AP Texas News

RENO, Nev. — Animal rights activists are lashing out at plans to remove about 2,000 wild horses from the range near two northeastern Nevada ranches that the wife of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens purchased to serve as a mustang sanctuary.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management planned to begin rounding up the horses Sunday near philanthropist Madeleine Pickens' ranches, which are in the 1.3 million-acre Antelope Complex near the Utah line, roughly 70 miles southeast of Elko.
Pickens' Saving America's Mustangs, the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and other groups urged the BLM to postpone the roundup, saying it makes more sense financially to leave the animals on the range in Pickens' sanctuary instead of shipping MORE...

Antelope Complex Roundup Begins

American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign

January 24, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment

Ely, Nevada (January 24, 2011) Despite a cost-effective alternative on the table, the BLM commenced the massive Antelope Complex roundup began yesterday morning. BLM reports that 43 horses were captured during the first day of the roundup. Over the next six weeks, over 2,000 wild horses will removed from this 1.3 million acre public lands area in northeastern Nevada.
On Saturday, photographer and wild horse advocate Laura Leigh captured the last day of freedom for this beautiful band in the Antelope Herd Management Area.

MORE...

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Legally Troubled Wyoming Politician Slapped Down Twice This Week

Straight from the Horse's Heart

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

Wallis Cannot get Traction with Extremist Policies

HOUSTON (SFTHH) – Wyoming House Bill 51 sponsored by Rep. Sue Wallis, currently under investigation for alleged fraud, ethics violations and battery charges, died a quiet death in the house committee last Wednesday. Dubbed the “Industrial and Energy Development Protection Bill” it would have required taxpayers and organizations that wanted to question an industrial or energy development permit to post a bond to satisfy any delays or loses that the defending company might incur during the legal challenge.
The concept of this bill was not original on the part of Wallis as it was crafted to quite closely match the Montana Horse Slaughter bill supported by her pro-slaughter associate former Rep. Ed Butcher of Montana back in 2009. Butcher’s bill required any challengers to companies building horse slaughter plants to put up a bond in Montana, a controversial measure questioned by legal authorities.
The failure of this bill brings Wallis’s weekly tally of political loses to two(2) as her “Wyoming Food Freedom Act” was voted down by a majority in the Wyoming state Ag Committee this past week, also. This act was touted to be an act which would allow the sale of homemade foods without any requirement for proper inspection. Many allege that this was a thinly veiled attempt, on Wallis’ part, to circumvent current inspection regulations regarding the transport of meat so that she could profit from her proposed horse slaughter plant.
Wallis has drawn international ire over her said plans to build a horse slaughter plant in the state of Wyoming while ignoring U.S. federal law and regulations. Her growing list of political failures continues to underscore her disconnect with the will and morals of the taxpaying public and her total disregard for the true pressing issues which confront voting Americans today.

Obama Administration to Begin “Largest” Wild Horse Stampede of the Winter

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Story and Photo by Laura Leigh written for “Horseback Magazine“

Despite Pleas and Plans the BLM moves forward with Deadly Stampede

ELY, NEV (Horseback) – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is preparing to begin the Nevada’s Antelope Complex roundup as early as Sunday, January 23. This roundup is the largest “gather” on the schedule for the winter season. Located in Northeastern Nevada the roundup includes three separate Herd Management Areas (HMA). The Spruce and Goshute HMA’s lie in the Elko district and the Antelope is split between the Ely and Elko district offices.
On January 20 an interview with Ben Noyes, the Wild Horse and Burro specialist Ely district, confirmed much of what this reporter has seen on the range. Noyes confirmed that the horses were in small bands scattered in the HMA and not in numbers expected. He said that this was unusual.
When asked to physically take this reporter out to demonstrate the reasoning for the roundup I was told the request was not likely to be granted as the roundup was pending and the staff was busy. Instead I was provided with three photographs of “range conditions” and a logical explanation for each photograph. A request was made for pictures of horses taken at the same location at the same time to illustrate that these photos represent distressed populations, those photos have not been received.
Of the photos I was given one demonstrates an area where a water source was not operational and the horses actually dug down to open up a space where water was available, not only for themselves to drink but other wildlife. This demonstrates a vital role the horses play on any range.
As the request to be shown BLM’s justification was not met extensive exploration of the southern portion of Antelope was undertaken. Small scattered bands that were not congregated into a small section creating any detriment was observed. The bands observed demonstrated body condition expected in this part of the state at this time of year. Allotment fences were present and cattle were on the range. Forage was noted and water was found in abundance.
A portion of the interview with Noyes covered plans to increase forage on the range. Noyes discussed the possibility of being able to increase Appropriate Management Level (AML) in the future.
Recently the Clan Alpine roundup in Central Nevada was suspended after a pre-roundup census was concluded finding that the previous census was inaccurate.
The observations made personally in the southern portion of Antelope begs the same question as in Clan Alpine. Critics and wild horse advocates ask, could the prior census have been inaccurate? If cattle can currently graze shouldn’t the few bands in Antelope be able to exist undisturbed as the forage projects get underway? If horses only exist on approximately 10% of public land and the current system of warehousing horses has created such a fiscal nightmare… shouldn’t these roundups be held to higher scrutiny before more tax payer dollars are thrown after bad?

Colorado inmates train wild mustangs to help guard the nation's rugged borders

Denver Post

It is, to say the least, an unlikely alliance.
The horses arrive without names or manners. They are taught to behave by Colorado inmates serving time for robbery, burglary and other crimes. The horses are then deployed along the nation's borders to stop crime — helping catch 500 illegal immigrants in one stretch of the Mexican border alone. MORE...

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Roku.com-The Little Black Box That Streams Thousands of Films! Dept. of Interior Gets 106 Million $$ Raise to Store Captured Horses

The Desert Independent

By Grass Roots Horse
To The Desert Independent

January 22, 2011

The Department of Interior has received a 106 million dollar increase in this year’s budget to purchase land to store wild horses it has captured and removed from the wild lands of the west to make room for cattle and other interests. This brings their budget to a total of 445.4 million dollars. At the same time, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has just rejected a money saving proposal to the taxpayer by Madeline Pickens. She had offered to take a substantial number of wild horses into her eco-sanctuary in northern Nevada.

In 2011 the Department of Interior is proposing a list of land acquisitions to advance their projects. The BLM’s request of 83.7 million dollars includes 42.5 million for the proposed planning and acquisition of a Wild Horse Preserve, which is part of the Department’s Wild Horse and Burro National Management Strategy.

These wild horse preserves are not slated for family bands of wild horses but for non-reproducing herds. What will they use the “treasured lands” for in 20 years when the non-reproducing herds die? The plan mentions alleviating the numbers of wild horses in short term holding but what about the horses in long term holding? As BLM continues to remove wild horses at an alarming rate, they estimates the number of captured wild horses in government holding will be 45,955 by the end of FY2011 and the holding costs are expected to be 47.8 million dollars.

In the Wild Horse and Burro Program overview in the FY2011 Budget Justification, among the program components list, one of the BLM’s responsibilities is stated as “Determining whether AML (appropriate management levels) should be achieved by removal or destruction of excess animals, or other options such as sterilization or natural controls of population levels”

It is noticeable that in the 2007 – 2012 Strategic Plan for the Department of Interior there is no mention of the wild horses or burros at all, even where the plan lists specific programs administered by the BLM. This carries on throughout the Strategic Plan for 2011 – 2016 where the only mention of the Wild Horse and Burro Program is on page 8, under BLM programs, listed after Renewable and Conventional Energy and Mineral Development, Forestry Management and Timber and Biomass Production.

“I was thinking of all the places BLM/DOI could hide things in a budget and of course the management of lands and resources came to mind.” said Maureen VanDerStad of Grass Roots Horse. “Hidden within 600 pages of the FY 2011 DOI Budget Justifications were clues hidden among the layers of what I would call deliberate and willful actions by these agencies to mislead Congress and the American people as to their true intentions, which is to get what they want at all costs.”

Within the FY2011 Budget Justification set forth by DOI/BLM, regarding the Wild Horse and Burro Program and statistics there are many fallacies and untruths, many of which are found, not in the section called Reforming the Wild Horse and Burro Program but in the Management of Lands and Resources, in various sub activity sections.

In Section DH-38 of DOI budget 2011 in a segment called Treasured Landscapes, is the news that Ken Salazar has achieved his goal of getting millions of dollars to fund what is known as his “Salazoo Plan” created ostensibly to bring relief to the BLM’s failed Wild Horse and Burro Program.

The wild horse preserve plan refers to “partners”. Who are these “partners exactly ? Foreign countries ?

“The program has failed and continues to fail not because of the reasons stated by BLM or DOI but when looked at in terms of the plans DOI has for public lands, the wild horses and burros who have a Congressional right to live free roaming on those lands, just don’t fit in to the plan. A great many things do not add up in the budget justification that DOI/BLM has set forth. Statements presented as fact by DOI/BLM to Congress are not even matching up with the DOI/BLM’s own previous statements or actions. The ramifications of this apparent mismanagement of both public lands and a federally protected American icon are mind blowing” concluded VanDerStad.

American Herds Update

American Herds

REPORT TWO CONGRESS

Last month, Congress received two reports about the Department of Interior (DOI), Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. One report was compiled by advocates and one report was compiled by the Office of the Inspector General’s Office (OIG), Department of the Interior division (yes, that means the DOI/OIG answers to the Secretary of the Interior).

Report To Congress Regarding:
The Wild Horse and Burro Program, BLM/DOI,
Refuting FY2011 Budget Justifications and
Request To Defund Roundups and Removals
Through Appropriations for FY2011 and FY2012

MORE...

CNN Wild Horse Round-up

CNN

Madeleine Pickens Responds To Obama’s BLM Slap In the Face

Straight from the Horse's Heart

From Madeleine Pickens Saving America’s Mustangs

Pickens Calls Bob Abbey out for what he is – a LIAR

On behalf of America’s wild horses, American taxpayers, and my Saving America’s Mustang Foundation, I would like to express my deep disappointment in the BLM’s late Friday (January 21st) evening press release announcing its rejection of my proposal to create a eco-sanctuary for wild horses in Nevada. MORE...

Obama Administration Names Wildlife Rookie to Sensitive Wild Animal Post

Horseback Magazine

January 22, 2011

By Steven Long

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The federal Bureau of Land Management has named a 30 year agency bureaucrat with virtually no wildlife management training to head the delicate Wild Horse and Burro Program. Karla Bird has drawn fire in the past for her support of secret closed door BLM meetings where the press is excluded.
“By not having the public there, we don’t have anybody feeling weird that their comments are taken out of context or misconstrued,” Bird, field manager for the Worland BLM office spun the Billings Gazette. She told reporters such meetings were “pre decisional,” using what must be a new term in the BLM lexicon for secrecy. The bureau sometimes holds such meetings among its managers. On occasion their discussions leak to the press causing the BLM embarrassment, as happened with the draft of a plan to kill tens of thousands of wild horses which was leaked in 2009 to the Associated Press.
After a firestorm of protest about the proposed mass euthanasia, the BLM is now capturing wild horses by the thousands in helicopter stampedes in which record numbers have died. The animals are then held in giant pastures. The stampedes have been held in bitter cold and searing summer heat. They have also been conducted during foaling season. The program has gobbled up virtually the entire budget of the Wild Horse and Burro Program.
Bird replaces Don Glenn, whose tenure in the posts ended after a quiet retirement announcement late this week. There is speculation he was forced out after intense media scrutiny of the program.
Karla Bird is the Field Manager at the BLM’s Worland Field Office in Wyoming
“She will be on a 90-day detail as the Acting Division Chief of the Wild Horse and Burro Program,” said BLM Chief Washington Spokesman Tom Gorey. There is no hint whether her new job replacing the controversial Glenn will be made permanent.
Bird previously served the BLM in various capacities in Rawlins and Rock Springs, according to a 2009 press release announcing her installation at Worland.
“She began her career with the BLM 31 years ago as a range conservationist in Alturas, Calif. In addition to Wyoming, Karla worked for the BLM in Coos Bay, Ore. and Barstow, Calif. She has also worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a natural resources, timber and fire staff officer in Oregon. Most recently, Karla was the acting chief, Division of Planning and NEPA, in BLM’s Washington, D.C. office,” the release said.