Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

“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 …

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.

*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

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

http://blog.taragana.com/science/2009/12/24/sheryl-crow-other-wild-horse-advocates-ask-obama-reid-to-stop-mustang-roundup-in-nevada-1928/

“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.

http://www.americanherds.blogspot.com/

Special report by Peabody award winner George Knapp — A hard-hitting and eye-opening investigation into the wild horse issue and BLM’s management practices. This is a must see! Please circulate far and wide.

Watch the 5-part series (Video Gallery, upper left on the page): http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=11285225

The AWHPC Team
American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
www.wildhorsepreservation.org