Comment

Comment by Shirley on July 3, 2009 at 12:10pm

www.wildhorsepreservation.org

Comment by Kat on July 3, 2009 at 11:09am

ok, i'll keep the group! i justr didn't think alot of people liked it

Comment by Dorothy McDonall on July 3, 2009 at 10:47am

Hey Kat!
It would be a real shame ifyou deleted this group. The wild horses need advocates and people like you to help raise awareness. This could be a really good educational forum on the plight and beauty of wild horses.

Please reconsider ... or I might have to start another one ...

Comment by Shirley on July 3, 2009 at 10:33am

Oh, Please don't delete the group. The wild hroses do really need us to be concerned and active for them I just got an email last night about the most recent news on the situation in Nevada. It makes me just sick!
It reads;
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced a plan to zero out 11 wild horse herd areas (HAs) from Nevada?s Ely district. BLM purports to justify the wholesale elimination of the herds by blaming the horses for environmental damage while ignoring livestock impact, past and present, and other factors. For example, no consideration is given to the role that cattle fences -- including those that deprive horses of access to water -- are playing in unnaturally constricting the movements of the horses. The 11 Herd Areas represent 1,386,992 acres and are home to only 620 wild horses, or one horse per 2,237 acres! Yet BLM still means to tell us that in these vast areas wild horses are overpopulated and destroying the ecosystem.

Please protest this gross waste of tax-dollars and mismanagement of our natural resources by contacting the following:

- John F. Ruhs, District Manager, Ely District Office, BLM, HC33 Box 33500, Ely, NV 89301-9408 john_ruhs@blm.gov
- Ruth_thompson@blm.gov
- Benjamin_noyes@blm.gov
Comments must be received by Monday, July 6, 2009. Please include your name and address and the following reference: 8560(NVL0000) - Notice of Proposed Action: Elimination of all wild horses from 11 Herd Areas.
These wonderful, beautiful, grand, freedom representatives need us to be more active for them. Our horses do so much for mankind and we need to give back.
Shirley

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Comment by Shirley on June 16, 2009 at 12:07pm

Details of BLM wild horse proposals revealed

June 16, 2009

The life of wild mustang Cloud has been documented since his birth. His herd, from the Pryor Mountains in Montana, is under threat of being rounded up and "removed".

Documents obtained from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) by a horse welfare group outline discussions and plans over ways to reduce mustang numbers.
The material was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by The Conquistador Program.

The documents reveal what it calls shocking and detailed plans to destroy healthy wild horses in government holding facilities as well as those still remaining in the wild on public lands.

BLM employees as well as a US Department of Agriculture veterinarian held weekly "Implementation Team" meetings beginning in July of 2008 in which they discussed and developed strategies aimed at reducing mustang numbers.

In October they completed a 68-page document entitled "Alternative Management Options".

The BLM team created scenarios for killing mustangs using barbiturates, gunshots, or captive bolts. Bodies would be disposed of through rendering, burial or incineration. They discussed killing 1200-2000 wild horses per year.

The document states that "the general public would be prohibited from viewing euthanasia". Additionally, it was felt that "increased support from public relations and management staff would also be needed to insulate those doing the actual work from the public, media and Congressional scrutiny/criticism".

Ginger Kathrens, filmmaker and volunteer executive director of The Cloud Foundation, dedicated to preserving wild horses on public lands, said: "Despite a huge outcry from the American public last year regarding BLM plans to kill wild horses in holding, the agency is still pressing forward with a plan to destroy our American mustangs both on and off the range."

However, division chief of the Wild Horse and Burro Program, Don Glenn, told The Cloud Foundation that "no decision has been made to move forward on a large scale with this plan, yet".

BLM meeting minutes include the following observations:


"Security at facilities and at gathers would need to be increased to combat eco-terrorism."

"Having the people that are willing to put down healthy horses at gather sites could be a problem."

"Having vets putting down healthy horses at preparation facility[ies] could also be a problem."

Meeting minutes reveal the psychological toll that employees would pay - "have counselling for employees and contractors that have to euthanise the healthy horses because it is very stressful."
The report created an option in which wild horses of all ages could be sold "without limitation". The team admitted that "some wild horses will go to slaughter".

Karen Sussman, president of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros, said: "Once they are gone, they're gone. To lose this incomparable species would be a travesty."

Conversations in the minutes included how many wild horses could be rendered at the Reno Rendering plant or "disposed of in pits". The team concluded that "there will not be large numbers of horses euthanised during gathers or in the field. This is due to state environmental laws."

Recommendations include the creation of gelding herds, and sterilisation of mares to create non-reproductive herds in the wild in place of natural herds.

The team recommended changing the sex ratio from the normal 50% males and 50% females to 70% males and 30% females. Then the experimental two-year infertility drug, PZP-22, would be given to all mares that are returned to the wild. Plans call for rounding up the wild horses every two years to re-administer the drug.

"Mares on the drug will cycle monthly and, with the altered sex ratio, the social chaos will be dangerous and on-going," Kathrens explains. "Any semblance of normal wild horse society will be completely destroyed."

Kathrens has spent 15 years in the wild documenting mustang behavior for her PBS television documentaries which chronicle the life story of Cloud, the now famous pale palomino stallion she has filmed since birth.

"Even Cloud and his little herd in Montana are in serious danger if BLM implements these options," she continues. "The BLM plans a massive round up in Cloud's herd beginning August 30, 2009."

The BLM will not guarantee that Cloud and his family will remain free.


The BLM documents referred to above and photos of wild horses are available from www.thecloudfoundation.org
Horse slaughter in the news

Comment by Shirley on April 30, 2009 at 1:42pm

Dear friends, I thought you'd want to know the progress being made to help save the wild horses that have been in danger of a mass slaughter.

http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2009/04/183.shtml

Comment by Lexi on April 25, 2009 at 1:05pm

I agree that wild horse slaughter is a very horrible thing. I did a report on horse slaughter and what they do to kill them is sickening. It did the report in french(as I go to a french emersion school) but Iwill try to translate it some time and post it on Barnmice. Horse slaughter is horrible and should be stoped periode. In the US I think there is only 1 or 2 slaughter farms, in Texas and Ilinois. In Canada there are quite a few more. But even though horse slaughter is illigal in the US, many meat buyers send all of the horse they get at auctions to Canada or Mexico. Horse Slaughter must be stoped everywhere, as it is a much bigger problem than we think!!!

Comment by Shirley on April 24, 2009 at 12:35am

I am just starting to figure out why we are having trouble finding wild mustangs. They are being captured and kept in holding pens. They are now trying to get clearance to do away with these wild horses. Any of us that are interested in helping the mustangs remain 'alive' and free must get active in checking this out and helping to get information to people so they can stop the slaughter of these animals. So far the best information that I've found is on u-tube by Madeline Pickens. Please go there and ck it out. Something has got to be done! It would just be so WRONG if the thousands of mustangs in holding pens were slaughtered.
Please send letters and help others know about the work that is a MUST!!!!

Comment by Karen McLain on April 16, 2009 at 9:43am

I live in AZ and know quite a few people who have adopted BLM horses. I would love to find some place that is close where I could watch htem. I would like to draw and paint them from life.
Gene Prage has wonderful photos. Also, Madaline Pickens is working with the BLM to have some land set aside for the wild horses. If anyone knows of herds in AZ, UT, or NM, please let me know.

Comment by Gloria Hager on April 16, 2009 at 8:36am

We saw a wild mare and foal out in monument valley in Utah years ago. All by theirselves in the middle of nowhere. Couldn't even tell what they were without binoculars. BLM brings the mustangs here to the Lexington Horse Center in Va. every year to auction off. It is heartbreaking to watch. No one bids on them and they practically give them away. But, no takers.Some of them are just gorgeous, and they are all just worn out , misereable and filthy from traveling in those stock trailers. Especially the little babies. You can actually go to their web site and buy one and they will deliver it to any place near you that there is going to be one of these auctions.
The BLM is supposed to care for them, but the lands they oversee are all rented out to cattle farmers, so they are removing the mustangs supposedly because there is not enough grazing for them and the ranchers cattle. Seems to me if the ranchers don't have enough land to support their cattle, maybe they shouldn't have so many cattle, if they are going to remove all the wild animals on the Gov. land so their cows can have it. Has the BLM forgotten what they are supposed to protect? It boils down to money, and the mustangs can't pay the rent for their own land and lives. This is just my opinion.

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