GOV'T ROUNDUP KILLS MORE WILD HORSES AS HELICOPTER CONTRACTOR RUNS FOAL SO HARD HOOVES DESTROYED AND FOAL KILLED
- Friday, January 22, 2010, 16:45
- Breaking News, Horses
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BLM Accused of Secrecy, Denying Full Public Access To Roundup And Gives Only Glimpse of Deaths & Suffering
Washington, DC – January 22, 2010 – The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is now revealing that two more wild horses have died and up to 25 are under treatment for injuries as a result of the helicopter stampede and roundup currently underway in the Calico Mountains Complex in northwestern Nevada. In response, In Defense of Animals (IDA) is calling for full investigation of these deaths and full and ongoing access for public observers to all aspects of the highly controversial roundup and capture operation.
The latest victims of the BLM roundup include:
* A small colt was run so hard and long that he was killed due to “multiple hoof sloughs from the capture.”
* A mare who went down in the trailer transport truck after being stampeded by helicopter for miles into capture pens and loaded onto a trailer. No help was available for this downed mare on the 4-5 hour drive between Calico and the Fallon holding facility. She was still down on arrival and died shortly thereafter.
* 20 to 25 horses at the holding facility who are receiving “treatment for various injuries or lameness.”
“These latest tragic and unnecessary deaths document beyond doubt that the BLM helicopter stampedes violate federal requirements for humane and minimally-intrusive management of wild horses,” said Elliot M. Katz, DVM, president of IDA.
“In Defense of Animals is calling for a full and independent investigation of these and other fatalities and injuries caused by the Calico roundup,” Katz continued. “Further, we reiterate our request for full and continuing access for public observers to witness all aspects of the capture operation. Only then can full transparency of BLM’s activities be achieved.”
BLM is tightly controlling public access to the roundup and the Fallon feed lots where the horses are being held, thus no independent verification is available to document the conditions surrounding the continuing fatalities and injuries of horses in the roundup.
In November 2009, In Defense of Animals, ecologist Craig Downer and noted children’s author Terri Farley, represented by Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney and lead counsel William J. Spriggs, filed suit in federal court to stop the roundup. In December, U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled that the BLM’s plans to stockpile the majority of horses at holding facilities in the Midwest likely violated federal law. The BLM proceeded with the roundup, despite Judge Friedman’s suggestion that it be postponed.
Wild Horse Facts:
- The Obama Administration plans to remove 12,000 mustangs from their Western ranges in FY 2010. Most of these horses will end up in government holding facilities.
- The number of wild horses in government holding facilities (35,000) now exceeds those left in the wild (33,000 by BLM estimates).
- The wild horse population today is smaller than in 1974 when the BLM conducted its first census after Congress protected the horses due to their dwindling numbers.
- Wild horses comprise a minute fraction (0.5 percent) of grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by cattle at least 200 to 1.
- The BLM manages more than 256 million acres of public lands. Cattle grazing is allowed on 160 million acres, while wild horses are restricted to 26.6 million acres of land that is shared with cattle.
- Since 1971 when Congress protected wild horses as “living symbols of freedom” and important parts of our national heritage, the BLM has removed over 200,000 horses from the range and taken away 20 million acres of wild horse habitat.
- The BLM frequently increases livestock grazing allotments after removing wild horses. Horses are also displaced for the benefit of other commercial users of public lands, including mining, oil/gas and other extractive industries.
- The Obama Administration proposes to spend up to 500 million tax dollars to purchase private lands in the Midwest and East to warehouse wild horses removed from public lands (which the taxpayers already own) in the West. In response to IDA’s lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled that these holding facilities are likely illegal.
- The mustang has spent hundreds of years acclimating to the arid, rocky terrain of the west and their presence on that landscape is part of our national heritage. Not only are they ill-suited to the wet, lush Midwestern climate but their absence from the west is an affront to our cultural history.
For Immediate Release
Contacts: Suzanne Roy, 919-697-9389, Deniz Bolbol, 650-248-4489
IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS • 3010 KERNER BLVD. • SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901 • 415-448-0048
21 Comments on “GOV'T ROUNDUP KILLS MORE WILD HORSES AS HELICOPTER CONTRACTOR RUNS FOAL SO HARD HOOVES DESTROYED AND FOAL KILLED”
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Thank you so much for publicizing this. YES! An investigation into all aspects of the Calico and Nevada round-ups is essential. BLM is lying about livestock numbers out there, they have increased cattle numbers and cut into the small amount they “allocate” to the horses, and exaggerate cattle vs. horse impacts.
Rancher Ken Salazar must be removed from Interior, and the BLM Good Old Boys moved into retirement as well. They show a seething hatred for horses today that didn’t exist even 5 years ago. As a public lands advocate, i have become increasingly disgusted by it – AND this typifies how the Salazar Interior and BLM treats everything to do with public lands – as Disposable for Industry – cattlemen who are often fronts for industry, oil and gas men, destructive “renewable” developers that are trying to tear apart the Great Basin – and are a particular favorite of the Salazar Good Old Boy network, and the SNWA (Las Vegas Pat Mulroy water grab) water miners.
The horses are being removed because of “welfare public lands ranchers” greed for grass on our lands – and to make room for energy, water mining and other development.
What is happening now is unprecedented – and it is deeply corrupt and evil and must be investigated -Salazar, Abbey and the entire BLM horse, grazing and energy porgrams all need to be investigated.
What can I do to make a difference so that this practice is stopped?
I wish someone could tell me why federal judges make statements saying what their doing is likely illegal, but don’t issue injunctions stopping it. Or why there isn’t a jurry trial.
The Bureau of Land MisManagement is nothing but a bunch of incompetent bureaucrats that couldn’t manage a school lunch. They have the mistaken belief that the land is theirs and the animals on it are theirs…they no longer believe it belongs to the American people as is evidenced by their cloaking the roundups in secrecy.
I’ve written my congressman and senators about it, and don’t even get replies or if you do, it’s no more than a form letter thanking me for contacting their office. Gov’t has simply gotten ridiculous….and that I’m afraid is our fault.
It seems that government has set a real heavy hand against these animals. To allow so little grazing for them in deference to something we- in this country- consume as beef, is an affront to the natural order of things. Bovines have never run free on the open range except for a stampede. Horses have been used throughout history as beasts of burden and for man’s pleasures. And that they are so few now is absolutely appalling. More, the thought that these most wonderful gifts of this planet are being herded in for their “last roundup” is unacceptable. They should be runnning free as is their nature.
Disgusting. BLM butchers. The horse has been the most useful beast God has ever blessed us with. This on top of the fact that we humans can form a bond of friendship with, and/or be inspired by them. If I chased a baby horse with a machine until its hooves fell literally apart and it died in agony I would be arrested for animal cruelty. I would be in even more trouble if it was a mustang since they are a protected.
I am sickened by this latest report of a foal being run until it’s hooves were worn off. If any private livestock owner herded animals by running them for miles and miles, down moutainsides, over very rough terain, in the middle of winter they would likely be charged with felony aggravated animal cruelty. Why is it okay for the government to sponsor this? Is it sort of like the torture of Iraqi prisoners? I am deeply disappointed and ashamed of the direction our government has gone in its treatment of both animals and people who have no defense or escape. I don’t believe this is what our parents and grandparents fought to protect.
It is high time that our goverment quit riding high in the saddle and got their boots muddy by taking a good long look at what they are doing to what used to be a great nation. What they are doing to both the wild horses and to it’s people are quite the same. They are riding roughshod and trying to force both the wild horses and ourselves to live as they see fit.
America has been over run not by wild horses but corporations. Politicians and judges are but the grooms that stroke them. BUT ultimately capitalism will succumb to the diminishing energy supplies it’s so desperately pursuing by displacing our horses. No energy, no growth, no capitalism, no corporation. 100 years ago we had no oil and horses. 100 years from now we will have no oil or horses. Part of our future may be found by looking back to a time before oil.
I pray for those horses that are being driven in pain, blood, exhaustion and death away from the natural life they know, It reminds me of the Holocaust! It is fortunate that God has a safe place for them in heaven and in our hearts forever safe, beautiful and free!!! I am not proud to be a part of this time in history, it discusts me that we have come so far yet really we are the destroyers of our own future!
The colt’s hind feet developed abscesses and the pressure from that made the outer hooves came off despite being given antibiotics. They were not run off as is being portrayed here. I live and routinely work around wild horses and can assure you their numbers far exceed what the feed is capable of supporting. One case in particular ranchers have for years abandoned entirely an area which used to be grazed by cattle. That area now is very over grazed and the horses are very poor.
Do any of you live in Nevada? These public lands are our backyards and the wild horses are turning it into a dessert. Wild horses are NOT natural. They are a domestic animal that got loose, like a wild dog. They have no predators. Growing up we had (owned) what we called a “Stud Bunch” – basically wild horses. There was 1 stud and 20 mares. Each year we rounded them up, took off the yearlings, halter broke them and then either used them for our ranch or sold them -YES for profit. It worked because there was no inbreeding and yet they were able to “run free” . Leaving horses unmanaged causes major genetic problems and deformations. Also, cattle GRAZE, BUT horses tear plants up by the root so it doesn’t grow back, leaving us with more desert than we already have. The ranch where I was raised in 1980’s and 1990s had 3500 cows grazing the BLM land. Now there are only 500 head of cows allowed on the land and all you see is deformed wild horses, and as so well said by an environmentalist. who visited, no vegetation for miles.
In addition, cattle are managed, they are not allowed to multiply year after year, unchecked. Ranchers must keep their herd numbers within the limits of their permits, while wild horse numbers are allowed to grow astronomically each year. Government can’t manage wild horses, who are we kidding. In the mean time, billions of your tax dollars will be thrown at trying to save these deformed creatures who are destroying the land. This is as insane as me going to New York and proclaiming that RATS were native there once and when I visit, I would like to see some rats so I go on a mission to re-populate New York with rats, a place I only visit. I challenge anyone to come live here, take a good look at these horses, and see what they are doing to the land.
Thanks Amanda, I was feeling a bit out numbered here. I think for the most part people outside of the area who have not seen the damage horses do to grazing lands fail to see what problems they create by interfering with management of horse herds. Of all the wildlife: elk deer, lion, coyotes etc why horses somehow became sacred and immune to management is amazing to those of us who live here. If any other creature is found to be eating itsself into starvation there would be no question of reducing their numbers. Good grief, we have enough horses to feed an African country.
BLM ( our federal government ) has mismanaged our Horse & Burro program for many years and our government will not stop the brutal round-ups. Ken Salazar proposed slaughter for our horses moving them Eastward bound. How can the American people have faith in our government to protect our horses? we can’t!
Amanda and Ray – I have seen no photos of the inbred, deformed wild horses. Why aren’t people like you and the cattle barons, publishing photos of all these poor deformed creatures? And what is the benefit for people who are fighting for the horses and the wolves and coyotes? There is no direct benefit for us. But for the cattle barons there is a very direct financial benefit in obliterating all wildlife from Public Lands they want to use for free to feed their cattle. Quite frankly, I am becoming dissillusioned with Obama’s misguided choices for his cabinet. Ken Salazar and Company have, on 2/04, created the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council, giving hunters a forum for input on what will be done with wildlife that belongs to ALL of us, on lands that belong to ALL of us.
i have seen no photos of deformed or starved horses.if you will show us all of these deformed horses. it would definitely be a eye opener.however i do agree there has to be herd management. but this is definitely not herd management.this is a disgrace.and it is unacceptable.that land belongs to all of us whether we live there or not.we all pay for it.so we have a say in how it is managed.this a horrible act of terrorism and animal abuse.i will not stand by and be feed this bull crap about 1.3 million acres that can only support 471 to 788 horses.we are not that stupid.this land was put aside for the horses and burrows.there has to be a better way of managing the herds.
Ray and Amanda: You offer not one single humane method to control the horse population. The BLM’s methods are NOT acceptable and I reject the notion that ANY abuse the horses are subjected to is okay for the sake of controlling their numbers. I also reject Amanda’s very ignorant assertion that only locals can way in on this issue. Horses cannot speak for themselves, so people must do so on their behalf, regardless of their home state. The concern you claim to have regarding the ‘deformed’ horses would have some credibility if you suggested a humane manner to control the population. However, you are clearly in favor of the eradication of the horses with no regard for their well being.
STOP PUTTING OBAMA’S NAME IN THIS!
Nice tactic, holding our President responsible for
this wild horse tragedy. Is that necessary. I mean,
maybe if he had a minute to breathe between
the wars and our tanked economy, he could
tend to this. It’s really not fair.
Ray and Amanda if that is actually your real names. I question your posts and what you are doing on a ‘defense’ of animals page unless it is to try and create questionablity of the issues at hand. Sorry but your ploy doesn’t hold water with me. I do live in NV, I do visit HMA’s, have been involved with saving and protecting wild horses for over 40 years, and you are both blowing hot air. You so called reasoning is so totally counter clockwise you do nothing but give creedence for the reasons me must continue to fight.
Amanda, Nevada IS and always was-a desert..LOL…the horses had nothing to do with that..Really ,its the only reason the horses were allowed to live there by law….because it was useless for anything but bombing ranges, military exp, and casinos…Like the indians, and the buffallo they have been given the hardest peices of ground to try and eake out a living…and they have done it…so now you want it…well sorry but that land and those horses belong to all citizens of the united states-no matter where they live..the land does not belong to the state of nevada..most of your state belongs to us..you want us to subsidise private business interests…and quite frankly-we are tired of it…I pay for every cow a rancher grazes on that land-1.35 a head doesn’t come close to covering it..and yes they overload allotments and don’t use good grazing management on it as has been proven by The Western Watersheds Projects winning legal battles with the BLM and getting allotments removed-by proving the damage cattle are doing…So with the coming of the internet-we are disproving your propaganda you have spred for years..There are alot of videos and pictures online to disprove your “theories” of deformaties…quite the opposite-BLMs own science dept does genetic testing to determine if the inbreediing is significant..the only cases found -were in herds that are isolated or when numbers fall too low in a HMA to allow for diversity-which means we need more horses -not less..LOL