“BLM responds to critics of wild horse roundups with a shroud of secrecy”
I haven’t posted much about the recent wild horse news because loads of other sites are doing a great job. But this – BLM hoping it will all go away – demands as many eyes as possible.
Also recently found out BLM set up a link for people to comment about its handling of wild horses. I had read it didn’t work (go figure) … but it seems to have been fixed.
Let ’em know what you think. Here’s to exposure …
Young people are our promise and hope for the future, across many spectrums, and their role in preserving our nation’s wild horses is no different. It was the wild support of school children, led by Wild Horse Annie’s charge, that led to the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act.
Several online sites have kid-specific resources, and photographer Pam Nickoles has compiled a list of links for children and teenagers to learn more about wild horses: http://nickolesphotography.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/children-and-our-wild-horses/
And one young reader of this blog – Rochlia – is involved in an online Girls Horse Club. It’s a great resource for horse-crazy girls (like, I dare say, many of still are!) to read and write and share information about horses. They’re gearing up for “March for Wild Horses,” to learn even more about our American mustangs.
From their blog: “Beginning March 1st 2010, Girls Horse Club will host March for Wild Horses here at our virtual barn. The intent is to use our collective, creative voice to speak out for the rights of wild and feral horses on public lands, and show our support for the individuals and organizations who are their loving protectors. Throughout the month we’ll publish stories, essays, poems, and artwork created by horse girls, inspired by wild horses.”
If you’re a young reader – or young at heart – check out the link to learn more! Young folks saved this country’s wild horses once … they’ll continue to do so!
Check out this article from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel about the wild horses of the Little Book Cliffs. As Marty noted, the reporter didn’t get everything right (one example: no, PZP will not be in “pellet” form in horses’ feed any time soon), but it’s a very positive article about what’s happening on one wild horse range with a strong partnership between BLM and a highly involved advocacy group when the priority is the horses.
Don’t forget to stay up to date about the Little Book Cliffs wild horses by following Billie’s blog!
There are a lot of involved folks with the Friends of the Mustangs, and Billie and Marty are just two of them. I was very encouraged when I saw the first day of the Little Book Cliffs roundup in September 2007, less than a month after ours in Spring Creek Basin. Volunteers there are involved even with the roundup process, and as a result, the horses are treated much more humanely without the whips and plastic bags and yelling and banging and chaos. They do still use a helicopter, but family bands are kept together when they reach the pens – a much smaller setup than ours was, and they move to different areas of the rugged range so horses don’t have to run across the whole of it – and, because of their documentation, particular horses are able to be singled out, then the others are released after hours, not days. It was a much calmer atmosphere than ours, and I have been encouraged and inspired by them ever since.
If you have questions about PZP, I would encourage you to trot on over to Matt Dillon’s Pryor Wild blog and read his excellent series about this fertility control. To read it from the beginning, scroll down and click “older posts” to get to the start, which has a schedule of topics, or there’s a new schedule on the home page with links to each topic. I think you’ll find it an extremely informative series with practical information.
Involved advocates are in favor of a PZP program in Spring Creek Basin, but despite the fact that BLM is pushing PZP in seemingly every other herd area, BLM is resistant to its use here. As small as our herd is, and with 100 percent documentation, and the fact that it will keep costs down in the long run – and keep wild horses wild – I can’t figure out why, so we continue to push. With all the practical information available and the fact that Salazar himself says it can be used “responsibly and at a reasonable cost,” there’s no reason we shouldn’t be using it to prevent what I hope we all want prevented – loss of our horses in the wild.
Thanks, Matt, for putting the information together in a logical, easy-to-read way!
Meanwhile, we’re under blizzard conditions in Southwest Colorado, so while you’re cozy in your homes, think about our fuzzy mustangs hunkered down in the wind and snow … and think about all that great snow as spring runoff right into our newly dug-out ponds! BLM did get those ponds dug out last year and has promised more ponds to be dug out this year. Every little bit helps. 🙂
*Making* room? For wild horses that already have been granted homes? Decades ago?
He makes some good points, does Salazar. Unfortunately, for those few, he follows up with gobbeldy-gook and double-speak … just what we’ve come to expect from government, I guess. And he completely, totally misses the mark. Wild horses HAVE homes, and Americans want them to stay on their home ranges. *Make room* for the other crap, somewhere else. The arrogance (among other things) is astounding.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-salazar14-2010jan14,0,5245332.story
In January 2008, with much inspiration from Matt Dillon (Pryor Mountain) and Billie Hutchings (Little Book Cliffs), I started this blog as a way to share all I learn about the wondrous, complex, amazing, simple, fascinating, ever-dynamic lives of the wild horses of Spring Creek Basin. Two years later, your nearly 30,000 visits have proven to me what they already know: People want to know about the lives of wild horses IN the wild.
And so, on grateful behalf of the horses we’ve gotten to know so well these past years, this is a thank YOU for reading! Thank you for your questions, your comments and, most of all, for your appreciation of these (especially) and all wild horses. The more we know, the more we find to love. 🙂
From the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign:
“BLM has postponed its proposed roundup of wild horses from the Confusion Mountains Herd Management Area in Utah, after the agency received thousands of protest emails from AWHPC supporters.
“Eric Reid, Wild Horse and Burro specialist at BLM’s Filmore field office, confirmed that he had just received an email today from the Washington office that handles the roundup schedule, saying the Confusion roundup was being removed from the schedule.
“BLM had planned to conduct this roundup without public comment nor a current environmental assessment. The roundup would have left behind only 70-100 horses in the 235,000-acres public land complex, or less than one horse per 2,000 acres.
“On behalf of the horses, thank you so much for your support,
“The AWHPC Team
“American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign”
www.wildhorsepreservation.org
For you folks in Colorado and/or close to Denver:
January 4, 2010
For Immediate Release
Denver Demonstration to Stop Wild Horse Roundups as Calico Roundup Continues
Denver, CO (January 4, 2010) – American wild horse and burro advocates are organizing a protest Thursday, Jan. 7, in downtown Denver. The public will assemble at 12 noon in front of Senator Mark Udall’s office building (999 Eighteenth St., North Tower) asking the senator to help halt the Bureau of Land Management’s massive roundup of wild horses currently living in the half-million-acre Calico Mountain Complex area in northwestern Nevada. The roundup started Dec. 28, and horses are currently being rounded up and several are already injured or dying in the harsh winter conditions.
Despite U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman’s suggestion that the BLM postpone the roundup of more than 2,700 wild horses, the BLM is proceeding with the roundup under harsh winter weather conditions that will most certainly result in many unnecessary injuries and deaths to the wild horses as they are run by helicopters over rough terrain to capture sites. The roundup is expected to cost the American tax payer over 1.7 million dollars.
On Dec. 30, the BLM invited members of the national press to view the roundup operations. Photos taken by a BLM contract photographer showed frightened horses in holding pens with sweat-soaked coats generating clouds of vapor in the frigid air. The photos caused a storm of criticism from horse experts and were quickly removed. Current photos and a report from the roundup can be found here: http://humanitythrougheducation.com/
Public outcry to stop this roundup has been unprecedented, with the BLM receiving more than 10,000 letters from the public requesting that they refrain from proceeding with the roundup. But once again the BLM is proving deaf to the American public’s wishes in its plans to reduce wild horse numbers in the wild to an unsustainable level.
Concerned Americans continue to contact the White House and their elected officials with no response. The protest in Denver, along with others in cities across the country, seeks to bring public awareness to the growing outrage over the BLM’s plan to exterminate our wild horses and burros, and also to the lack of response from our government.
More than 190 organizations including the Cloud Foundation and artists and celebrities from all over the country are calling for an immediate moratorium on wild horse roundups until the American public works with Congress to formulate a sustainable plan that protects and preserves wild horses in their homes on public lands in the West.
Contact: Carol Walker 303-588-4749 email: cwhills@earthlink.net website: www.wildhoofbeats.com
Don’t miss this beautiful and moving video set to incredible music – photos by Pam Nickoles, music by Mary Ann Kennedy. A heartfelt plea for our mustangs.
http://nickolesphotography.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/dont-take-my-home/
“They said the population in the five Calico herd management areas is three times what the range can handle.”
Too bad the article doesn’t say anything about all the cattle grazing that range.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 