SUPPORT GROWS FOR TOMORROW'S WILD HORSE PROTEST IN SF

MEDIA ADVISORY

EVENT COINCIDES WITH PRO-MUSTANG RALLIES IN CHICAGO, COLORADO, IDAHO AND LONDON

San Francisco, California (December 29, 2009) – The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, a coalition of 50 conservation, horse advocacy and animal welfare organizations, and renowned author Terri Farley, whose Phantom Stallion book series for young readers has sold over a million copies worldwide,  will join In Defense of Animals and The Cloud Foundation at a protest tomorrow in San Francisco to oppose the ongoing roundup of thousands of wild mustangs off public land in Nevada.

Similar rallies will be held Wednesday in Chicago, Colorado, Idaho and London.

The events take aim at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and its destructive wild horse and burro management policies, which threaten the very existence of this iconic American species. Of particular concern is a massive roundup that commenced this week in the Calico Mountain Complex in northwestern Nevada. The BLM intends to permanently remove 80-90 percent of the wild horse population living in the 500,000 acre public lands complex. At the same time, the agency has increased the number of privately owned livestock allowed to graze those same public lands.

Last week, a federal court judge ruled that the BLM plans to transfer horses taken from the Calico Mountains to holding facilities in the Midwest is likely illegal and suggested that the agency postpone the planned roundup.  Complaints are also pending with the Department of Interior and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Despite this, the BLM has not only proceeded with the roundup, but also has commenced the action on private land from which the public is barred.

“The BLM knows that its latest assault on wild horses is so shameful that it cannot stand the light of day,” said Elliot M. Katz, DVM, IDA president, who noted that the brutal helicopter stampede of the horses over treacherous winter terrain will result in injury and death to some horses, particularly the old, pregnant and the young. Foals will be separated from their mothers, and close family bonds will be forever shattered, he said.

Lise Stampfli Torme, a wild horse advocate and Cloud Foundation volunteer stated: “We are outraged that BLM is proceeding with this roundup under a cloud of controversy and against a US District Court judge’s recommendation. The agency has moved the capture points to private land where the public cannot see how their contractors are treating our living legends. An immediate moratorium on all wild horse roundups must be implemented until the BLM’s broken wild horse management program can be reformed.”

“An immense amount of tax dollars are being spent on the removal of wild horses while less intrusive and less costly ‘in the wild’ management alternatives exist,” says Neda DeMayo, founder of the Return to Freedom American Wild Horse Sanctuary and member of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign. “Americans want their wild horses to remain free and protected on the ranges where they currently exist. We are asking that the original spirit and intent of the Wild Free Roaming horse and Burro Act be upheld so that our grandchildren’s children will know the herds, who are a vital link to our western heritage”.

The BLM intends to remove up to 12,000 horses from their western ranges each year for the next three years and place them in Midwestern holding facilities, where they will join the 33,000 wild horses already being warehoused by BLM at taxpayer expense. After three years, the number of horses in the BLM’s Midwestern warehouses will far exceed those left on the range.

For more information, see www.idausa.org and www.thecloudfoundation.org, and www.wildhorsepreservation.org.

Contacts:
In Defense of Animals:
Elliot Katz, DVM, 415.448.0048 x 225, emk@idausa.org
Hope Bohanec, 707.540.1760, hope@idausa.org

The Cloud Foundation:
Anne Novak, 415.531.8454, annenovak@yahoo.com
Makendra Silverman, 719.351.8187, makendra@thecloudfoundation.org