Please, if you cannot afford your horse any longer...please do not just turn loose...please
contact me and I will try to help you. Karen mailto:wildhorse7@sbcglobal.net
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recently proposed ‘EUTHANIZING”
tens of thousands of our wild horses – once deemed ‘America’s National Heritage.’
BLM has created it’s own monster by rounding up 33,000 wild horses instead of
properly managing them on the wild ones’ designated herd areas throughout millions
and millions of acres in the Western United States.
These are OUR public lands and OUR wild horses, not belonging to BLM, the overseers, but to
YOU,
the citizens of the United States.
Now, our American Mustangs could pay for BLM’s mismanagement
with their lives.
We are asking concerned American citizens to
CALL MONDAY
MORNING, July 7, 2008,
to express your concerns
at this critical
hour. PLEASE DON’T WAIT! THEIR LIVES COULD BE IN YOUR HANDS.
Secretary of the Interior Dick Kempthorne (202-208-3100)
Director of the Bureau of Land Management Jim Caswell (202-208-3801)
Thank you.
The Alliance of Wild Horse Advocates
WWW.AOWHA.ORG
‘The Wild Horse Is Us’
An advocate of the American West's mustangs blasts a proposed government policy to cull the herds.
After surviving the ice age, the industrial revolution and the slaughterhouse, America's wild horse population
is facing a new threat: the U.S. government. The Bureau of Land Management announced this week that it is considering euthanizing wild horses to curb the population on the range and in federal holding facilities. There are an estimated 33,000 wild horses living in
10 Western states, and another 30,000 living in government corrals. The BLM is billing euthanasia as a way to cope with looming
budget cuts, while still maintaining the mustang as a living symbol of the American West. But critics say that the herds have
already been thinned to the edge of extinction with periodic roundups and auctions. A century ago, there were around 2 million
wild horses roaming the West; now the BLM wants to cut that population to 27,000. In "Mustang," her new history of the wild
horse in North America, Deanne Stillman explores why America is destroying the horse it rode in on. She spoke about the government's
new proposal with NEWSWEEK's Tony Dokoupil. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: How surprised are you by this proposed alteration of federal policy? Deanne
Stillman:It's shocking. Then again, there's been a move to dismantle the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which enshrines mustangs as a protected symbol of freedom, since it passed in 1971. And the move is reaching its peak under
the Bush administration. For the past eight years, the president has wrapped himself in the flag and now, three days before
the Fourth of July, his administration announces plans to exterminate our greatest icon—the very horse we rode in on.
What are the biggest threats to the wild horse population? I think it comes down to mismanagement.
Study after government study, dating back to the Teddy Roosevelt administration, shows that it's livestock grazing that does
the most damage to the range, not wild horses. You can't say that 20-something-thousand horses are doing more damage to the
land than 4 million cows. Yet the Bureau of Land Management claims that wild horses are overrunning the West and that there
is an "overpopulation" problem. It's simply not true. The only place there is an overpopulation problem is in government corrals—because
the horses shouldn't have been removed from their home turf in such great numbers to begin with. Then what's spurring
the BLM to cut herd sizes? There are a number of factors. The livestock lobby regards mustangs
as pests, animals that steal food from cows, and since members of the lobby lease federal land for ranching, they pressure
the BLM to curb the wild mustang population. There are also a lot of other things happening on public lands these days: increased
oil and gas drilling, mineral leases, development. The BLM is supposed to determine how many wild horses as well as cows and
sheep the range can support with range studies, but these are not always up to date. What this all comes back to is mismanagement:
The fox is guarding the henhouse.
Historically, how has the BLM managed the mustang population? Federal management of our wild horses
has been plagued from the start. Over the years, there have been various disasters. The first one that I know of was in 1977,
when about 200 wild horses in a government holding facility in Nevada died because agency personnel failed to clean out their
corrals after a series of storms and the muck froze and the animals couldn't move. The horses were buried in mass graves and
it was only when photos surfaced in newspapers that the story became known. There have been others since then. To be fair,
many horses have been successfully placed through the government's adopt-a-horse program, making their way into partnerships
with the right people. But now there are more horses in BLM pipelines than on the range, and they ought to be returned to
their home turf, where they belong, rather than a trip to the gallows. Does this mean I am saying there should be no management
of wild horse herds? No.
Where does the public stand on this issue? People across the board—right wing,
left wing—aren't happy about our stripping away the wild horse population and the American heritage that goes with it.
We're a country that was born in the hoof sparks of Paul Revere's famous ride on a horse. The horse is our great icon of freedom
and the open road, and that's why our greatest road-trip car is the Mustang, with the galloping pony on the grille, and that's
why we drape horses with flags on July 4th and ride them down Main Street.
What explains America's strange relationship with the horse? I think it's something very deep and
primal. We love the wild but want to tame it. The lone survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn—that's how he was
billed at the time, in 1876, on the country's bicentennial—was a horse named Comanche, described by the army as "our
great silent witness" in his retirement citation. He had seen many terrible things and continued to do so, including the massacre
at Wounded Knee, watching it from the pack train, even though he was no longer on active duty. And that's what these horses
are. They are our witnesses. They've been on the front lines with us since day one; they know our deepest darkest secrets,
and there's a part of us that can't take it.
What needs to be done? I have a solution: The BLM keeps complaining about the "expense"
of managing wild horses. Its annual budget of $39 million dollars is not much these days, but if money is really an issue
for the agency, then the government should ask Americans to donate to the cause of preservation, and put a box at the end
of IRS forms, just like they do with various other funds and even the presidential election, asking taxpayers to check off
a box and the amount of the donation. It would raise hundreds of millions of dollars. After all, the wild horse is us.
BLM Confronts Challenges in the West's Wild Horse and Burro Program
The Bureau of Land Management is facing a number of difficult challenges in the National Wild Horse and Burro Program. Our
goal in the West is to manage healthy, free-roaming herds on healthy rangelands; however, it is becoming increasingly difficult
to do so.
Wild horses and burros in the West have virtually no natural predators and their herd sizes can double about every four
years. As a result, the agency must remove thousands of animals from Western public rangelands each year to ensure that
herd sizes are consistent with the land’s capacity to support them. As of June 2008, there are more than 30,000
wild horses and burros that are fed and cared for at short-term and long-term holding facilities. It is essential to
keep the BLM’s wild horse and burro program in balance. Right now, the cost of keeping these animals in holding
facilities is spiraling out of control and preventing the agency from successfully managing other parts of the program. For
example, this fiscal year, holding costs will exceed $26 million, more than three-fourths of the BLM’s congressional
appropriation of about $37 million for this program.
In addition, rising energy prices have increased costs. In one year alone, energy costs for transportation and feed have
increased almost $4 million. It is clear the agency cannot continue current removal and holding practices under
existing and projected budgets. Neither can the BLM allow horses to multiply unchecked on the range without causing an
environmental disaster. That's why the BLM is exploring options to exercise its legal authority to (1) sell older and
certain other unadopted animals “without limitation” to any willing buyers and (2) euthanize those wild horses
and burros for which no adoption demand exists. We know this is not a popular option, but we are at a critical
point where we must consider using the legal authorities allowed us.
The BLM welcomes your input as we work to improve the program and the welfare of the West’s wild horses and burros
within our budget. To leave feedback on this program, please click here or call 1-800-710-7597.
Passed House (89% of Democrats supporting, 58% of Republicans opposing.)
Last
Action
Apr 26, 2007: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
DOCUMENTARY
CHANNEL SLATES U.S. PREMIERE OF
JAMES KLEINERT’S
“SAVING THE AMERICAN WILD HORSE”
FOR MONDAY,
JULY 7, IN PRIMETIME
Viggo Mortensen, Grammy® Award-Winner Sheryl Crow
And
Emmy®Award-Winner Peter Coyote Are Featured In
Documentary Short
Spotlighting The Current Plight Of America’s Wild Horses
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 19, 2008) – Documentary Channel
will showcase the U.S. television premiere of "Saving the American Wild Horse" -- a poignant documentary directed by Emmy®
Award-winning documentary filmmaker, James Kleinert -- on the network’s “Primetime Premieres” programming
block Monday, July 7, at 9 p.m. ET/PT.Produced by Moving Cloud Productions,
the film features Viggo Mortensen and Grammy® Award-winner Sheryl Crow and is narrated by Emmy® Award-winner
Peter Coyote.DOC is available on DISH Network (Channel 197), and several broadcast
stations in major markets including NYC TV (Channel 25) throughout the greater New York metropolitan area.
Kleinert’s 27-minute documentary short examines the
politics behind the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) controversial policies regarding wild horses on public lands and questions
the fate of America's wild horses and burros, whose very existence is in jeopardy.The
original score features music by Rick Allen (drummer of Def Leppard), singer-songwriter Lauren Monroe, Craig Sutter, Keith
Secola, Robert Mirabel and Preston Pope.
Featuring interviews with scientific experts, ranchers,
historians, wild horse owners, animal rights activists, environmentalists and others, “Saving the American Wild Horse”
examines the origins and effects of the recent “Burns Bill,” which gutted the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro
Act of 1971 and cleared the way for slaughter and removal of a vast majority of the wild horse herds.The film exposes the current massive Western land grab by oil, gas and mining corporations exploiting more
than 30 million acres of natural Western lands in the areas of New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and others.As a result, the current land exploitation is affecting all wild life species including the American wild
horse.
“My interest in documenting American’s wild horses began while working on my film ‘Spirit Riders’
about the birth of an American Indian peace movement, as well as learning about the removal of these beautiful wild animals
while living in Wyoming,” says Kleinert.“I’m excited for the
opportunity to share my five year journey on Documentary Channel, and I hope this film will not only educate viewers about
the disturbing, massive removal of our horses but to inspire change to the future of these precious animals.”
-more-
“We’re pleased with the opportunity to bring James Kleinert’s compelling work on the state of our
diminishing wild horse population to a primetime television audience for the first time,” says Tom Neff, founder and
CEO, Documentary Channel.“With the help of several talented entertainment
stars, Kleinert’s film is a remarkable effort to bring this issue to the forefront of the American consciousness, and
we believe our viewers will be astounded by his dramatic footage.”
About Moving Cloud Productions: Moving Cloud Productions is a multi-media organization that produces state of the art visual/audio programming.Founded in 2002 by producer, director, cinematographer and Emmy® Award-winning
filmmaker James Kleinert, the programming intent is to empower the human spirit, mind and body in a harmonious nature. Moving Cloud Production’s Web site is located at www.movingcloud.com and “Saving the American Wild Horse” is located at www.theamericanwildhorse.com.Kleinert also has founded the Spirit
Riders Foundation -- www.spiritridersfoundation.org -- a non-profit organization working to provide Lakota (American Indian) youth educational
opportunities and to create educational awareness for America's wild horses and burros.
About Documentary Channel™:Documentary Channel (DOC)
is the USA’s first 24-hour television network exclusively devoted to documentary
films and is the Voice of the Independent Documentary Filmmaker.DOC seeks out
and showcases independent, cutting-edge and international non-fiction programming rarely seen in the U.S., and often then
only in film festivals or other special venues.Many of DOC’s programs
are U.S. or world premieres on television.DOC is the television viewer’s
round-the-clock opportunity to see fascinating, eclectic and award-winning documentary films of all lengths and genres, from
classics to cutting-edge.
DOC has created partnerships and relationships with world-renowned
organizations and festivals to bring the world’s greatest documentaries to television, often for the first time.These organizations include The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, The
International Documentary Association, The National Film Board of Canada, Los Angeles Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Hot
Springs, HotDocs, Durango Film Festival, Reel Women, and many others.In addition,
DOC has teamed up with distinguished educational institutions including USC School of Cinema and the Academy of Art in San
Francisco, among others, to introduce young, future documentary filmmakers to the viewing public.
Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., with offices in New
York and Los Angeles, Documentary Channel was founded by CEO and Oscar®-nominated documentary filmmaker Tom Neff.DOC launched on DISH Network (Channel 197) in January 2006, and now reaches over 21
million homes nationwide. DOC is carried by several broadcast stations in major television markets including NYC TV (Channel
25) throughout the greater New York metropolitan area.DOC’s Web site is
located at www.documentarychannel.com.DOC was recognized after its first year as co-winner of the Emmy for
Best Feature Documentary at the 28th Annual News & Documentary Emmy®
Awards for the film, “Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire.”
Also please visit my two myspace pages dedicated to the wild ones...
NetPosse.com Idaho Alert - TX - Missing AQHA Black
Reining Stallion - Van Zandt County - June 3, 2008
Colonel's
Might "DOC" - Missing in bad divorce. Suspect husband is hiding him in the se Smith/ne Cherokee counties area. Doc belonged
to wife prior to marriage, and she is afraid she will never see him again.
This horse is on medication for ulcers
and will become sick without them. Husband could contact local vet to treat ulcer or even to geld him, so please post in all
local vet offices, feed/tack stores, etc.
Please keep an eye out for this stallion, and email Claudette and let her
know you have her support!
reply:
stolenhorse@netposse.com Home of Idaho Alerts for Missing Horses --Join NetPosse - Never underestimate the power of one! Purchase
microchips and farm security signs at SHI --Proceeds help continue SHII's educational and victim support programs.
NetPosse.com Stolen Horse Alerts for Stolen/Missing
Horses and more ...
A stolen horse could be a long distance in a short
time period. Please pass this to your associations, list groups, council members, friends and ask them to do the same.
If you put information on your website please link the info to NetPosse.com. SHI will be updating information and has the
only flyer ready to print and post for those who want to help. The Internet is great for spreading the
word but success stories show that most horse are found from a flyer. Thank you very much for your generosity in helping these
victims. -- Debi Metcalfe , President--Stolen Horse International.
Please watch the below film, there have been many stories told from the back of a horse, this film tells one from the
heart of one. Please help save the american mustang...before it's too late.
Spirit: Stallion of The Cimarron
Wild horses aren't free
Failure to enforce a 1971 law endangers the mustangs it was supposed to protect.
By Deanne Stillman June 2, 2008
It's not news that America is a cowboy nation, but it may surprise many that we are destroying
the horse we rode in on.
Since the early 1970s, mustangs -- wild horses -- have been protected under the Wild Free-Roaming
Horses and Burro Act, spearheaded by Velma Johnston, a.k.a. Wild Horse Annie. In 1950, she saw blood spilling out of a truck
on a Nevada highway, followed it, and then witnessed injured and dying mustangs being offloaded at a slaughterhouse. She led
a battle to stop the cruel roundups, resulting in the passage of federal protection signed into law by President Nixon in
1971.
Under that law, horses are to be "considered in areas where presently found as an integral part of the system
of public lands." Their management falls to agencies inside the Department of the Interior, primarily the Bureau of Land Management,
which culls the herds based on the land's grazing capacity and what's required to sustain the wild horse population. But the
government also balances the needs of horses against other uses of the range -- and that means corporate cattle ranching.
Today, instead of being protected, mustangs are in danger of being "managed" out of existence.
At the beginning of
the 20th century, there were about 2 million mustangs in the wilderness; according to the government, there are about 23,000
on public lands in the Western states now, and more than half are in Nevada. Wild horse advocates, however, say the number
is much lower. Because the animals have been "zeroed out" from at least 100 of their 300 official herd areas (contrary to
the 1971 law's provisions), they may be on the brink of no return.
Many cattle ranchers have long regarded wild horses
as "pests" that steal food from their herds. The livestock lobby has tried to dismantle the wild horse and burro law through
four U.S. administrations, and it has the political clout to push policy toward a mustang-free America.
In 1990, the
Government Accounting Office looked at the situation: "Wild horses are vastly outnumbered on range lands by livestock. ...
Wild horse removals have taken place in some areas not being damaged by widespread overgrazing." Since then, cattle have
continued to flourish on the range. Today, at least 3 million cattle graze on the same public lands where mustangs make their
living.
One of the stockmen's victories has been a rollback in the 1971 law. When mustangs and burros are culled from
wild herds, they are warehoused by the government and offered for adoption. In 2005, the rules were changed. Now, if horses
aren't adopted on the third try, they "strike out," becoming eligible for sale to the lowest bidder along with mustangs more
than 10 years old (not old for a horse). This means an eventual ticket to the slaughterhouse.
This policy is aggravated
by federal grazing studies that, because of a lack of funding, are often out of date in terms of horse populations and favor
the livestock lobby's version of "appropriate management levels."
"AMLs are frequently inaccurate and not determined
in accordance with the law," says Patricia Fazio, an environmental historian who has monitored the mustang situation for more
than two decades. "Where oh where has scientific management and substantive public input for federal lands gone?"
Wild
horse populations also endure other stresses, such as unscheduled "gathers" during drought. (No other animal is rounded up
under such conditions, and the horses aren't returned to the range after being given a drink.) And none of this is helped
by media that parrot the view that the mustang is an invasive species.
In fact, mustangs are native to this continent,
linked by DNA to horses of the Pleistocene. They evolved in the North American West, crossed the Bering land bridge to Asia
and Europe, and then died out on their native turf in the Ice Age. They returned with the conquistadors in the 16th century,
and for the next 300 years, roaming free or put to work as trailblazers, Indian ponies or cowboy transportation, they were
an essential part of the West.
By the end of the 19th century, mustangs, along with the rest of the Wild West, were
heading toward anachronism. A hydra-headed horseflesh industry arose. Mustangers ripped into the herds, trapping horses and
selling them for chicken feed, or dinner in France, or service in foreign wars. So many were taken from 1920 to 1935 that
the era is known in some circles as "the great removal."
Today, the roundups continue under cover of what is left
of the law. Mustang posses are tax subsidized (although lone operators with guns hunt horses illegally as well). Federal contractors
hunt "humanely" by helicopter. During the last eight years, about 75,000 wild horses have been taken from the land. There
are now more wild horses in government custody than on the range.
Eighteen years after the first GAO investigation
of the wild horse and burro program, a new one is underway. Perhaps it will uncover the absurdity of protecting wild horses
and burros by reducing herds in unwarranted numbers, allowing them to languish in government corrals and making it ever easier
to send them to slaughter.
In the meantime, our heritage is being stripped from the land, with roundups scheduled
through the year. Now is the time for an immediate moratorium on wild horse removals, at least until population studies are
brought up to date.
"We need the tonic of wildness," Nixon said, quoting Thoreau when he signed Wild Horse Annie's
legislation. "Wild horses merit protection as a matter of ecological right, as anyone knows who has stood awed at the indomitable
spirit and sheer energy of a mustang running free."
Deanne Stillman's latest book, "Mustang: The Saga of the Wild
Horse in the American West," will be published June 9 by Houghton Mifflin.
Eight Bells for Eight Belles
A petition urging Churchill Downs to honor Fox Hill Farms' deceased filly Eight Belles by ringing eight bells:
Bob Richter: 'Horse slaughter on the border' tells a difficult story
Web Posted: 09/28/2007 06:02 PM CDT
The front page of Sunday's Express-News is dominated by a disturbing report and a horrendous photograph of something that
I'd guess most of us never have seen, nor want to see.
Lisa Sandberg's story, “Horse slaughter on the border,” illustrated by Jerry Lara's graphic photos of horses
being hacked to death in a Mexican "killing box" and then strung up to bleed to death, dramatizes the usually untold story
of what happens to Black Beauty when she gets old or can't run.
It's a vile situation that was set up when a federal court ordered the closures this year of the last three U.S. slaughterhouses
for horses: two in Texas, one in Illinois. While hailed by animal rights groups, the ruling didn't end the butchering; it
just moved the process across the border, to Mexico and Canada.
After you've read the piece and seen the photographs, you might be wondering what purpose is served by writing about a
process that occurs, albeit under the radar, daily in U.S. meatpacking houses where barnyard animals are butchered and processed
to become main courses on U.S. dinner tables.
There's a distinction, Express-News Managing Editor Brett Thacker contends:
"Yes, we slaughter cows, pigs and chickens by the millions every year in this country, but the practice of butchering and
eating horses induces a certain cringe factor. Thanks to their special place in American lore, horses have earned a status
similar to dogs and cats as companion animals, not beasts to be killed for consumption.
"The fact that it's socially unacceptable is a big reason the government shut down the slaughterhouses in Texas and Illinois.
Now, some entrepreneurial sorts have found a way around the ban and are making a few dollars by trucking the horses across
our borders. By shedding a light on the practice with this story, maybe Congress will follow through and close this export
loophole."
That justification notwithstanding, Lara's photos taken inside a Ciudad Juarez slaughterhouse were particularly lurid.
Several were published with Sandberg's story, making it easier for her to describe the process. About 30 more photos, shot
the same day, are here on MySA.com.
Lara, whose long body of work here at the Express-News includes scores of sensitive, artistic photographs, said officials
were "very accommodating" to his wants and "took pride in the facility," but he was troubled by the Juarez shoot.
"As kids growing up in the U.S., we are bombarded with images in movies, paintings and photographs of the majestic horse.
Seeing it reduced to a step in the food chain was trying. Seeing the animal stabbed, at times repeatedly, was tough."
Pam DelaBar is a bona fide local animal lover – a trained animal abuse investigator, horsewoman and president of
the World Cat Congress. She disagreed with the closure of the Texas slaughterhouses where, she says, horses were killed humanely
and the meat was shipped to places where it is legal and desirable to eat, including zoos.
"This is the fallout, this is the other side of that legislation," DelaBar said, "that horses won't be humanely slaughtered,
or they'll be starved to death."
Animal welfare advocates who lobbied to outlaw horse slaughter in this country now are lobbying Congress to outlaw the
shipment of horses across the border for slaughter. As Sandberg wrote: “No one disputes that slaughter-bound horses
have it far worse today than they did before .....”
While editors here expect an outcry, “Horse slaughter on the border” is an important story, and the newspaper
is justified in publishing it. However, my gut tells me that even if Congress bans shipment of U.S. horses across international
boundaries, the law won't work any better than current U.S. law does in stopping immigrants from illegally crossing our borders.
What do you think?
Bob Richter is the Express-News public editor. His opinions are his own. Contact him at (210) 250-3264 or brichter@express-news.net.
Read his blog at MySA.com, keyword: publiceditor.
H.R.249 Title: To restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and
burros. Sponsor: Rep Rahall, Nick J., II [WV-3] (introduced 1/5/2007) Cosponsors (17) Related Bills:H.RES.331 Latest Major Action: 4/26/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and
referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. House Reports: 110-93
Please go to the BLM Mustang page to see how you can help.
>
