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Front Range Equine Rescue
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Save the Wild Horses!
Also, write Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and President Barack Obama. Ask them to call for a moratorium on roundups and implementation of in-the-wild management, in keeping with the intent of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
Secretary Salazar
President Obama
I-Team Special: The Stampede to Oblivion - Segment 1
Protests Nationwide Continue!
Protests started in Las Vegas on Dec. 31st and continued in San Francisco, Chicago, Ketchum-Idaho and Longmont-Colorado last week (photos & media coverage here). People are standing up around the world to protest for America’s wild horses and burros.
Please tell everyone about the protests, arrange your own and keep working back to calling for an immediate moratorium on wild horse and burro roundups.
Calls to Obama (202-456-1111 or fax at 202-456-2461) and Senators (switchboard: 202-224-3121) need to continue too... along with media coverage. Folks can find local and national media here - http://capwiz.com/compassionindex/dbq/media/ (thanks to Animal Welfare Institute). Please request that all press cover this story. Fact sheets and other helpful information are posted at the Protest Center (http://bit.ly/91wAt8). Remember to sign the petition online.
Remember what Freedom just fought to regain and let’s continue to work for the protection and preservation of our wild herds in their homes. The updated BLM roundup schedule is online here (http://bit.ly/77Ac2z), listing more roundups to start this month and continue at an unbelievable pace. The call for an immediate moratorium must continue.
The horrible NV roundup of the Calico herd
I-Team: Wild Horses Forced into a Stampede of Death
The Calico roundup in NW Nevada began on December 28th. BLM began the roundup on private land, barring the public from watching. Now some advocates have been allowed in but the roundup is still very much clouded in secrecy and mis-information as this massive removal of 2500+ healthy mustangs continues. Once at peace in their wild habitat, these wild horses are now being trucked to a feedlot-style facility without cover or even windbreaks where they stand in the cold, separated from their families and facing an uncertain future in costly government holding.
Calico Death Toll - currently stands at 85 (count includes aborted late-term foals)
This chart is a copy from the BLM website listing the death toll from the roundup. The BLM excludes the 30 aborted late-term foals - aborted due to the roundup stress.
One weaned colt was euthanized as an act of mercy due to declining poor body condition. No miscarriages noted today.
Facility death: 1, cumulative total: 47
Overall, the stallions and weaned colts are doing well and gaining weight. Mares from Black Rock East, Black Rock West and Granite appear to be being doing well. Mares from Warm Springs and Calico are improving. Several poor condition mares are being held in hospital pens and eating and drinking and under observation. Several colts with sole abscesses are also in the hospital pens and being held for treatment and rest. One Warm Springs stallion that was declining in health and in poor condition stallion was euthanized. No miscarriages noted today.
Facility death: 1, cumulative total: 46
Overall, the stallions and weaned colts are doing well and gaining weight. Mares from Black Rock East, Black Rock West and Granite appear to be doing well. Mares from Warm Springs and Calico are improving. Several poor condition mares being held in hospital pens are eating and drinking and under observation.
One healthy stallion was found dead in the pen next to a damaged corral panel. Death attributed to a fractured neck that resulted from collision with corral panel caused by the presence of the helicopter on February 14. No miscarriages noted today.
Facility death: 1, cumulative total: 45
Overall, the stallions and weaned colts are doing well and gaining weight. Mares from Black Rock East, Black Rock West and Granite appear to be doing well. Mares from Warm Springs and Calico are improving. Several poor condition mares being held in hospital pens are eating and drinking and under observation. Several colts with sole abscesses are also in the hospital pens and being held for treatment and rest.
One mare died. Death attributed to pneumonia. No miscarriages noted today. During the late afternoon an unidentified helicopter hovered and circled the corrals. Horses panicked and milled about in the pens.
Facility death: 1, cumulative total: 44
U.S. Senator Eyes Removing Agency’s Mustang Oversight
The hasty labor day “gather” of the iconic equine star of the PBS “Nature” series, Cloud, has sparked interest and consternation from coast to coast as wild horse lovers rally to put a halt to Bureau of Land Management “gathers” on the nation’s public lands.
Several horses, including Cloud, were released lame after being chased down a 5,000 foot mountain by a low flying helicopter. The famed Mustang’s popular image has been celebrated in two best selling reproductions by Breyer. A third set of the collectables will be released in time for the Christmas shopping season.
Only 120 members of the herd will be allowed by the BLM to remain in this area of Pryor Mountain wilderness encompassing nearly 40,000 acres. The BLM currently claims to hold 33,000 horses captured in gathers in holding pens. No outside agency has been allowed to do a census.
Protests are planned for a meeting of the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board in Washington September 28-29.
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landieu, a horsewoman, said that if the BLM doesn’t change its ways and stop the gathers and helicopter stampedes she is considering supporting legislation to remove management of wild horses from the agency.
“She’s really fed up with the BLM right now and she’s thought about maybe possibly moving the (wild horse) program from them to another agency,” the Landrieu aide told Horseback Magazine. “That goes to show her frustration with how this program is mismanaged.
“The GAO put out a report last year citing the utter mismanagement of this program,” she said. “They spend three fourths of the BLM budget on this program, and as you know, they run a whole slew of other programs.”
Landrieu serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee with provides oversight for America’s public lands.
Key senators besides Landrieu who will influence the nation’s wild horse policy are New Mexico’s Jeff Bingeman, California’s Diane Feinstein, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Navada, the aide said.
Reid, an enabler of the hated Burns Amendment which removed protection from wild horses has expressed concerned regarding the Restoring our American Mustangs Act, or ROAM. In the past the senator, who polls indicate is highly unpopular in his home state, has been no friend of wild horses. He is in a tight race for re-election.
In minutes of meetings of BLM managers secreted out of the agency earlier in the year, discussions of the euthanasia of thousands of horses captured in gathers were held. The talks were prompted by an agency running out of funds to operate its wild horse program. In the discussions, the prospect of psychiatric counseling of veterinarians who would perform the killing of innocent horses was discussed. The disposal of thousands of horse carcasses was also studied by the agency.
When news of the planned equicide leaked it provoked a tidal wave of anger at the agency among horse lovers and the general public prompting the agency to put the killing on hold.
Critics say wild horses have lived off the land just like moose, elk, antelope, big horn sheep, and deer without serious depletion of the herds for hundreds of years because of natural selection. Yet despite their wild status in fact and American lore, the agency doesn’t classify the equines as wildlife which would enjoy protection.
The aide, who declined to be identified, said the likely agency the senator would target for new management responsibilities for wild horses should Landrieu move in that direction would be the National Park Service because of an excellent record handling a limited number of wild horses that agency already oversees.
The BLM, along with the U.S. Forest Service, is currently required by law to manage wild horses on public land.
Cloud, once free, now behind bars - watch youtube video of roundup
Click here to see photos of Cloud’s herd/round up.
Cattoor Federal Indictment Court Document - this is one of the contractors BLM relies on to do the dirty work. Cloud’s herd was unfortunate to have Cattoor as their captor. View document.
The Capture of Cloud's Herd - watch youtube video
The United States Senate has passed a tough new bill that orders the Bureau of Land Management to institute a new plan for its management of wild horses. The legislation was introduced by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D), La.
“Sen. Landrieu continued her efforts to protect wild horses by championing bill language to prohibit the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from using taxpayer dollars for the destruction of healthy, un-adopted horses and burros,” the senator’s office said in a press release.
The agency has one year to comply should the House pass a similar bill. It would then go to the White House.
“At Sen. Landrieu's urging, the Senate directed BLM to develop a new comprehensive long-term plan for wild horse populations by September 30, 2010.” Read more...
Our lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service continues. The Court has ruled that our claims against the Forest Service are barred by the statute of limitations. The Forest Service issued its Forest Plan in 1987, limiting the geographic areas of lands under its jurisdiction in which it would legally recognize the right of horses to occupy. The Forest Service claimed that since suit was not brought within 6 years of 1987, these claims cannot be heard. Besides the fact that none of the plaintiff organizations were even in existence in 1987, much less affected by the ruling then, we also argued that the Forest Service failed to recognize additional areas of wild horse historical use at the passage of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act and that, since the agency has failed to act, the statute of limitations should not bar this suit. Our claims against the Forest Service can be reviewed on appeal, at the conclusion of the case.
What remains pending is the portion of our suit against the BLM. The government has submitted all the documents that were before the BLM when it made its decision. Included in this are charts showing exactly how each wild horse has been affected by PZP. The government and plaintiffs are submitting legal memorandum supporting their positions and referencing these documents. These will be filed by mid March.
"Managing for Extinction" at this link: http://www.awionline.org/legislation/wild_horses/managing_for_extinction.htm
On July 7, 2006, The Cloud Foundation and Front Range Equine Rescue filed a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service with regard to protecting America's most famous wild horse herd ("Cloud's herd") in the Pryor Mountains of Montana. continue reading press release...
Update: The U.S. Forest Service filed to be dismissed from the complaint. A judge has yet to hear this argument. The entire complaint has been held up in the (lack of) judicial process.
In spite of protests from wild horse advocates to preserve Cloud's head - below are excerpts from a letter, dated 6/29/06, from Sandra Brooks, Field Manager, BLM:
"In order to manage for healthy horses on healthy rangelands, I have made the decision to use fertility control vaccine on all mares 11 years of age and older (24 mares in 2006) on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range (PMWHR). Seven mares 16 years of age and older have already been treated with the Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) vaccine and would continue to receive annual boosters for the remainder of their lives. Thirteen mares 12-15 years of age have also been treated and would continue to receive annual boosters throughout 2010. All mares that are 11 years of age would be added to the treatment program each year. Fertility control applications are scheduled to begin no earlier then July 10th, 2006, and may continue through September 30th, 2006." continue reading excerpts...
Update: 19 horses were captured and put up for adoption through a sealed bid process. FRER was able to adopt two of the yearling colts. Five bachelor stallions, including Cloud's half brother, were unadopted. But through efforts by FRER and The Cloud Foundation, these 5 stallions have been adopted between the two groups and another individual in 2007.
Visit the Wild Horse Preservation Organization for more details.
FRER's investigator sent us photos and reported the following, from witnessing a roundup in Nevada during September - witnessed at the holding pens:
"...here you will find the frightened, traumatized horses I had just witnessed being rounded up a few hours before. They had been transported many miles from the site to Litchfield. No vet was there to care for them. continue reading report...
On Febuary 14, a woman trapper and her son came upon a grisly scene near Gerlach, NV. They had noticed a thrashing out in the sagebrush a few hundred yards from the road. Upon investigation, they found two wild horses in extreme agony and in their death throes. A white mare had aborted her foal, then died after thrashing in the sagebrush. A stallion struggled to get to his feet, but death also overtook him. The mare had been shot several times in the head, bleeding profusely. The small creek nearby ran red with the blood from the horses. Another mare had also been shot and was located hundreds of yards north of the other two. The small band of remaining horses risked their lives by not fleeing the scene; they stood nearby watching their family members die.
For a brief time a reward was offered for information on this crime. To date it remains unsolved. In 2006 and 2007, reports of wild horses being shot and left to die in Arizona and Utah have been reported.
Evidence of the slaughter - photos of the mare that aborted her foal and the stallion - these photos are graphic and disturbing - click here to view.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
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Roundup Protests in U.S. and Abroad: Call to Action!