California BLM has 1st internet adoption of wild horses & burros

Straight from the Horse's Heart

If an internet adoption only lasts 11 days, will any horse that isn’t adopted during this very short period of time be given a strike against it that will lead to it’s slaughter?  Please go to the national BLM website for Wild Horses & Burros and ask the BLM the length of each internet adoption period.  Does the period vary state to state?   Ask them to post a copy of their written policy on internet adoptions on their website.  Also, ask what they’re doing to advertise the adoptions and how much they spend to advertise the adoptions.  (I bet this amount pales in comparison to the money spent on roundups.)  – Debbie

BLM video

ARTICLE SOURCE:  Sierra Sun Times

BLM Holds First Wild Horse and Burro Internet Adoption in California

June 9, 2014 – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will offer 45 wild horses and 6 wild burros through its first online adoption in California beginning June 16.

Profiles of adoptable animals will be available on the BLM California websitehttp://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/whb_internet_adoption.html
beginning June 9 and will be available on a first come, first served basis. The website will be updated daily as animals are adopted.

The animals are available for adoption from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday, June 16, through Friday, June 27. The adoption fee is $125 per animal. Animals can be picked up at the Santa Clara Horseman’s Park in San Jose on July 12 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., or at either the Ridgecrest or Litchfield Corral.

All animals available for adoption have been vaccinated, de-wormed and have a health certificate. None of these animals are gentled or trained.

Those individuals interested in adopting must first complete an application and be approved by the BLM. Applications can be accessed online athttp://www.blm.gov/or/resources/whb/files/adoption_application_4710-010.pdf

The BLM manages and protects wild horses and burros under the authority of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. This law authorizes the BLM to remove excess wild horses and burros from the range to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands and protect the health of the wild horse and burro herds. Since 1971, the BLM has adopted out more than 230,000 animals nationwide.

To learn more about BLM California’s wild horse program, please visithttp://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro.html

For more information about the adoption, please contact Videll Retterath, BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program Assistant, at (530) 254-6575

Urgent Action Needed to Protect Horses

The Humane Society of the United States

Proponents of horse slaughter are working to bring this cruel and unnecessary practice back to U.S. soil at the expense of American taxpayers, and now urgent action is needed to protect horses. Several bad amendments are being offered TODAY in the U.S. House of Representatives that seek to allow horse slaughter plants to open in the U.S. It is crucial for Congress to continue defunding inspections of horse slaughter plants to make sure they don't re-open in the U.S.

TAKE ACTION
Please make a brief, polite phone call to your U.S. Representative and urge a "no" vote on the Mullin amendments that would allow horse slaughter (Look up your Representative's phone number here). You can say, "As your constituent, I urge you to vote "NO" on the Mullin amendments to the Agriculture Appropriations bill that would allow horse slaughter plants to open in the U.S."

After making your phone call (please do not skip that crucial step!), personalize and submit the letter in the form below to automatically send a follow-up message. Legislators receive a lot of email, so be sure to edit your message so it stands out.

CLICK HERE to send your message!

Groups seek protection for North American Wild Horses under Endangered Species Act

Straight from the Horse's Heart

“Misclassification of wild horses as a non-native species is politically, not scientifically driven,”

photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

June 10, 2014 - Friends of Animals (FoA) and The Cloud Foundation have filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list North American wild horses on public lands as threatened or endangeredunder the Endangered Species Act (ESA) since the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act (WHBA), which was passed in 1971, has failed to protect our wild horses. Six states have already lost their wild horse populations—Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

“Misclassification of wild horses as a non-native species is politically, not scientifically driven,” said Ginger Kathrens, executive director of The Cloud Foundation. “Wild horses are severely endangered but without recognition of current scientific evidence of their native status, they could become extinct.”

In the early 1900s, two to five million wild horses freely roamed across America, says Jenni Barnes, staff attorney, FoA’s Wildlife Law Program.

“Now there are less than 35,000 on public lands, where they are supposed to be protected,” Barnes said. “The petition states that these few remaining horses are divided into even smaller herds, whose populations are so low that they are susceptible to being wiped out completely by a chance event or change in the environment. Instead of protecting these horses, or just leaving them alone, a government agency, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), plans to remove even more horses from the range with expensive and cruel tactics, such as helicopter driving.”

BLM is obligated, under WHBA, to protect wild free-roaming horses as an “integral part of the natural system of public lands.”  BLM claims that wild horses need to be removed from public lands to protect rangeland health. However the vast majority of public lands is open to livestock grazing, which causes far more damage to the land.

“The tragedy of horse roundups exists because the BLM appears devoted to turning arid western public lands into feedlots for cows and sheep to appease cattle producers,” said Priscilla Feral, president of FoA. “Friends of Animals finds this morally and ecologically reprehensible, as wild horses are driven off lands to leave the bulk of water, forage and space for two domestic animals owned by ranchers. 

“We oppose the BLM’s scheme of privatizing wild horses and insist all roundups end.”

Most people do not realize that instead of protecting these horses, BLM has rounded up—forcibly driven off the land and put in holding facilities—more than 200,000 horses since the WHBA was passed. And this is not just an issue of importance to American’s living out west.

“Everyone’s tax dollars contribute to the animal abuse caused by roundups and fertility control,” Barnes said. “In the 2013 fiscal year, BLM spent $4.8 million on gathers and removals and spent $46.2 million on holding costs. A report by the National Academy of Science concluded ‘the continuation of business-as-usual practices will be expensive and unproductive for BLM.’” 

From the holding facilities, the horses are not supposed to be sent to slaughter. However, there have been reports that indicate that is what happens when some of them are “adopted.” There is also mounting fear, Friends of Animals says, that the government will start to kill horses in holding facilities, yet another threat pushing wild horses toward extinction.

“Every time the government restricts their habitat or takes them away from the range, it disrupts horses’ social bonds and damages the overall fitness of the herds,” Barnes said. “However, saving wild horses in North America and letting them roam freely could bring balance back to our ecosystems. For example, wild horses can reduce fire risk by eating dry shrubs and help disperse and fertilize plant seeds through their droppings.”

 Friends of Animals and The Cloud Foundation are asking their supporters to contact Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and tell her wild horses on public lands should be listed and protected under the ESA.  She can be reached at Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington DC 20240;202.208.3100; feedback@ios.doi.gov.

To read the petition, click on the following link:

Petition to List a North American Distinct Population Segment of Wild Horse (Equus caballus) under the U.S. Endangered Species Act

Horse slaughterhouse Bouvry loses a big customer

Straight from the Horse's Heart

                                                                              photo of Bouvry slaughterhouse by Animals Angels

Brandi Turner, Head of Investigations in Colorado for Animals Angels sends the following:

Migros, Switzerland’s largest retail company & supermarket chain has decided to terminate its contract with Bouvry Exports and will no longer buy meat from the Canadian supplier. The decision was made after Migros was confronted again with horrific images from the Bouvry feedlots provided by Animals’ Angels (AA) and its Swiss partner organization Tierschutzbund Zuerich (TSB). The footage obtained by AA and TSB in October of 2013 showed mares left to die and decompose inside the pen area as well as horses with apparent, contagious diseases and severely overgrown hooves.

The graphic pictures were the “straw that broke the camel’s back” – Migros had been monitoring Bouvry Exports very closely ever since AA’s 2012 exposure of substandard conditions & horses in severe distress at the company’s Canadian feedlots. This decision is a MAJOR loss for Bouvry Exports, since Migros was one of their biggest customers and it is expected to result in a significant decrease of US horses shipped to slaughter.

Ranchers Want Our Public Lands for Their Livestock, and Want the Govt. to Stick It to Wild Horses and Taxpayers

Straight from the Horse's Heart

By Vickery Eckhoff as published on AlterNet

Ranchers who graze their cows on federal lands are hellbent on taking wildlife and the public along with them for the ride.

Privately owned welfare cattle being herded onto public land and wild horse habitat ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

June 6, 2014  |  For months, ranchers in Utah’s Iron and Beaver counties have been pressuring the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to remove 697 out of 777 wild horses from public rangeland called the Bible Springs Complex.

What prompted them was a BLM request seeking voluntary reductions in livestock on public land suffering damage during the long drought. Faced with the loss of cheap forage for their cattle and sheep, the ranchers found a way to deflect the blame and economic burden.

Wild horses make an easy target; but that’s only as long as the BLM’s and the ranchers’ case for removal goes unexamined. The news media so far has done little probing into the issue—not in Utah, nor elsewhere ranchers lobby to get rid of wild horses.

Instead, the ranchers and BLM simply assert that the mustangs—and not privately owned livestock—are “overpopulating” and “overgrazing.” This claim is made without any scientific proof. Overgrazing as compared to what, exactly? Cattle and sheep? Neither the BLM nor the ranchers will provide data.

What is known is that the ranchers have nearly two million acres of grazing allotments in Iron and Beaver counties that overlap eight herd management areas (HMAs) where wild horses are protected. The four HMAs making up the Bible Springs Complex are just a fraction of the more than half-million acres where the wild horses (and private livestock) graze together under “multiple use” land policies. Another nearly million and a half acres of public lands provide further forage exclusively for cattle and sheep…(CONTINUED)

Click (HERE) to read the rest of the story on AlterNet

Wild horse advocates fighting government roundups to cull overpopulated herds

Habitat for Horses

Posted: 5:24 pm, June 2, 2014 by Posted by Habitat for Horses

Once again, cattle owners look to misinform the public placing wild horses in direct competition for land and water when they are not – both legally and literally. Overall, the numbers of cattle are far more and do much more damage to the land’s their owners lease from the government than the wild horses. And those leases, in some instances, violate the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. Of course no one in the media wants to talk about the pressure on water availability being placed on the Western BLM lands by energy concerns. The BLM makes millions off of leases for fracking and other Big Energy deals in the West. And those projects use water. The wild horses get the short end of the stick in all of this and the cattle ranchers are not far behind. ~ HfH

From: ABC 15 Arizona

By: Associated Press

wildhorsesRENO, Nev. – Wild-horse advocates fighting government roundups across the West are citing past rulings that shot down their own legal challenges in urging a U.S. judge to throw out a lawsuit by livestock interests seeking the removal of thousands of more mustangs from the range.

Although somewhat successful in a few isolated cases in Nevada in recent years, horse groups routinely have been turned away over the past decade by federal judges who say the courts lack the authority to overrule the expertise of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

They point to a series of such rulings in a motion filed this week in U.S. District Court in Reno to dismiss a lawsuit by the Nevada Farm Bureau Federation and Nevada Association of Counties.

The rural groups argue more roundups are necessary to cull overpopulated herds competing with livestock for water and forage. The suit filed in December seeks to force BLM to sell older horses deemed unadoptable without the usual prohibition on resale for slaughter.

The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign and others said in requesting dismissal of the suit that the plaintiffs “seek to overhaul the entire program through litigation” but fail to cite any specific agency action that violates the law, including the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

It’s “the latest attempt by ranchers to create a legal facade to give the BLM an excuse to cave in to their interests and remove more mustangs,” said campaign director Suzanne Roy. She called the suit a “meritless legal assault on federally protected wild horses and burros by ranchers who view these national icons as competition for cheap, taxpayer-subsidized grazing on our public lands.”

BLM estimates there are 40,600 wild horses and burros on federal rangeland in 10 Western states — 14,000 more than the agency maintains the land can sustain. About half of the mustangs are in Nevada.

BLM removed about 8,000 of the animals in 2012 but only about 4,000 last year, due in part to budget constraints.

The Farm Bureau argues the overpopulation “has severe impacts on the health of the horses as well as the ecological health and sustainability of Nevada’s rangelands.”

“Loss of use of public lands as well as the cost of services associated with the health and safety impacts … decreases tax revenues and yet increases the costs that counties must bear,” the county coalition said.

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Habitat for Horses is a 501.c.3 nonprofit equine protection organization supported solely by donations. We have around 200 donkeys and horses under our care, plus one ornery, old mule. Most of them are here because law enforcement removed them from their previous owner. Our ability to rehabilitate and rehome them comes from the financial support of people like you. Please support us by making a donation for the horses we all serve.

Click HERE to donate.

Video: Wild Horse Advocates Save Corolla Foal

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Source: WTKR.com

“What better way to kick off a ‘Feel Good Sunday’ than to share a story of rescue, care, love and hope (that occurred last ‘Feel Good Sunday’).  Please enjoy and many thanks to our good friends at Corolla Wild Horse Fund.” ~ R.T.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Corolla, N.C. – Vivo is a five-day-old horse, saved by the Corolla Wild Horse fund.

He was walking on his tip toes, which would have led him to be crippled later in life.

“It was just a recipe for disaster in the wild, so now he’s going to have a great life,” said Karen McCalpin, the executive director at the Corolla Wild Horse fund.

Vivo was spotted on the Outer Banks by rescuers with the Corolla Wild Horse fund over the weekend. Monday he was taken in to be treated on the mainland.

Vivo is on antibiotics, which will relax the muscles in his tendons allowing them to stretch out.  This will help him to walk like a normal horse eventually.

He can be domesticated pretty easily since he is so young.  In six months, Vivo could be put up for adoption.

Related articles

Two More Wild Horses Killed; BLM Goes Silent

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Wild Horse Shootings Swept Under the Rug?

May 14, 2014

Emails from 2 BLM employees:

 1)    Winnemucca confirms they have been investigating:

“We have been investigating the two horses killed along Highway 447, MM 49, for the past week. Doing a lot of outreach with the community and local law-enforcement but still no leads.”

2)    From the John Maurer, BLM office:

“I am the investigator looking into the deaths of the two horses … I am particularly interested in what those two individuals had to say…”

Since May 14th … and still not a peep out of BLM about this?

At two recent North-Eastern BLM Stewardship public meetings, the illegal killing of wild horses was advocated by two separate public speakers. During the meetings, a local rancher said that he was a former military man and said that there were plenty of remote canyons up there and the people in the area could take care of the [wild horse] “problem” themselves … and that was what he had done while in the military.  And … another local rancher said that she would shoot any animal, whether it was a horse, wild horse or otherwise that came on to her property and ate her cows’ grass.

The members of the committee as well as numerous members of the public heard the illegal suggestions about killing/shooting our wild horses. BLM employees at the meeting did not speak up and tell the speakers that what they were advocating was a federal crime – until a member of the public brought it to the BLM’s attention.

And this was not the first time our wild horses have been found killed in that same area!

April 2012The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is investigating the shooting deaths of nearly a dozen wild horses in four separate incidents in California and Nevada since the beginning of the year. http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/04/30/10k-reward-for-killing-of-wild-horses-in-nv-ca/

February 2006 The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Washoe CountySheriff’s Office received a report Tuesday afternoon, February 14, that some wild horses had been found shot to death along State Highway 34 about 40 miles north ofGerlach. Investigation confirms that three wild horses, two mares and a stud, were shot and killed. One of the mares aborted a foal after being shot. The foal is also dead.http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_information/newsroom/2006/02/horses_shot_to_death.html

Comment: BLM Bible Springs Wild Horse EA; Bogus

Straight from the Horse's Heart

An Open Letter and Comment form Grandma Gregg

“True to form, the BLM is attempting to hoodwink the American public and justify their efforts to rip wild horses from their rightful land by conveniently “forgetting” to mention in their Bible Springs Complex Environmental Assessment that wild horses have ALREADY been removed.

Our own Grandma Gregg has responded with true form and grace as she outlines the facts in her response, below. 

We have also made her complete response available for download (HERE) but there are a few flaws and inherent errors in all that Grandma Greg says; it makes sense…she states fact and uses appropriate figures and research to back up what she says.  That will never fly with the BLM as honesty, truth and integrity are traits unknown to those who work for us in the BLM and Department of Interior.  Science is a foreign language to these alleged servants of the public and without considerable pounding and beating the truth will just roll off their backs like water on a duck.

Please comment, please pound on them and let us all put the honesty impaired BLM back under the rock from whence they crawled.  Their actions are outrageous!” ~ R.T.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May 20, 2014

BLM attacking wild horses in Nevada ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

BLM Cedar City Field Office
176 E. DL Sargent Drive
Cedar City, Utah 84721
Attn: Cedar City Field Office Manager
blm_ut_biblesprings@blm.gov
Attn: Juan Palma, State Director
jpalma@blm.gov
Attn: Elizabeth Burghard, Field Manager
eburghar@blm.gov

Re: Public Comment on Bible Springs Complex Wild Horse Gather Environmental Assessment
UT-C010-2014-0035

As an American citizen, environmental researcher and a life-long visitor to the state of Utah, I appreciate the opportunity to provide input on the proposed Bible Springs Complex environmental assessment. The federal government does not own land in the West. These are not “state lands” and not “federal lands” and not even “government lands”.” They are public lands. The American people own the public lands in the West and they are administered on our behalf by the national government under laws and regulations. This land belongs to all citizens of the United States, not the federal government.

The 1971 Congressional Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, (Public Law 92-195), declares that the land where wild horses and burros were found at the time of the passing of the Act, is to be devoted principally but not exclusively to the wild horses’ and wild burros’ welfare in keeping with the multiple-use management concept of public lands.   Definition of principally: First, highest, foremost in importance, rank, worth or degree, chief, mainly, largely, chiefly, especially, particularly, mostly, primarily, above all, predominantly, in the main, for the most part, first and foremost. It is the law of the United States of America and any policy or regulation or memorandum of understanding or environmental assessment or Record of Decision or Finding of No Significance that BLM or other governmental agency writes or proposes or agrees to or takes action on that does not come under the umbrella of the law is therefore illegal.

Extortion and Conspiracy

Extortion (also called “shakedown”) is a criminal offense of obtaining money, property, or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. The actual obtainment of money or property or service is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of forcefulness which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property or service to halt future violence is sufficient to commit the offense. If the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) caves into the bullying tactics and threats of illegal action, by ranchers and local county officials in Utah who want to keep ranges open for cattle grazing for private or corporate profit, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the citizens of the United States of America have fallen victim to extortion. This shows a very, very sad state of affairs for our great nation.

The actions stated in the BLM’s environmental assessment propose a massive wild horse roundup in the Bible Springs Complex. Iron County Utah commissioners and ranchers recently and publically gave the BLM an ultimatum: Come up with an immediate plan to capture and remove wild horses from the area or residents will do it themselves. Ranchers are scapegoating federally protected wild horses for the damage of the range when in reality millions of cattle are permitted to graze on our public lands.

As an example, take a look at one cattle ranch with a public grazing permit as discussed in the below news article. This rancher’s private 7,000 acre property could support about 30 cattle on a year round basis, using BLM’s own 240 acres per horse per year estimate for comparison.http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/prog/wh_b/rangeland_health.print.html Because the rancher has a grazing permit to use public land, he runs 300 mother cows and calves. In other words 90% his cattle operation is subsidized by his use of the public land. This exemplifies the reasoning behind BLM’s current proposal to capture and remove the wild horses from their legally designated land – pressure from local privately owned domestic livestock owners. And to add to the illegal actions, this rancher proposes to amend his personal ranch management problems by shooting the federally protected wild horses. If this ranch owner cannot manage his own land and livestock sufficiently enough to provide the lifestyle he wants, then that is proof that he is an incompetent ranch manager and he deserves the results of his deficient management. Instead this rancher is refusing to follow the law and BLM’s request to reduce his privately owned domestic livestock on public land. As proven by the BLM’s announcement to capture and remove wild horses from their legally authorized land the agency is cowering to his demands. This is illegal and known as extortion and must be stopped…(CONTINUED)

Click (HERE) to download the entire letter