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Over one hundred years of wild horse headlines
Wild
Horse, Burro Chief Admits Convictions Scarce
1997, Las Vegas Review Journal
Reno, NV, Aug. 14 - A key federal employee acknowledged Wednesday that his agency
has not secured [as claimed] 125 convictions of people who violated federal wild
horse and burro laws. Congress members inquired about the agency's commitment
to upholding the law after the Associated Press quoted Pogacnik on Jan. 6 that
as many as 90 percent of the wild horses adopted through the program end up in
slaughterhouses.
Feds Slaughtered Wild Horses: Probe, Documents Show
1997, Associated Press (Martha Mendoza)
March 23 - A federal grand jury has collected evidence that shows
U.S. government officials allowed the slaughter of hundreds of wild
horses taken from federal lands, falsified records and tried to prevent
investigators from uncovering the truth. The chief prosecutor and
grand jury foreman in the investigation wanted to bring criminal
indictments against officials of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management
(BLM), but the case was closed down last summer after federal officials
in Washington — including officials outside the investigation
— intervened.
Agency “Loses” Horses: 30,000 Animals Fall
Through BLM Cracks
1997, Associated Press (Martha Mendoza)
Jan. 29 - A federal program to protect wild horses and burros has
lost track of more than 30,000 animals placed in adoption, allowing
people to neglect, abuse and even slaughter some of them for profit.
In addition, officials of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
may have falsified records to cover up the problem and ignored warnings
that thousands of adopters have not been checked and have not received
titles to their animals, according to documents obtained by the Associated
Press.
Wild Horses Killed Illegally, BLM Official Approved 3
Executions
1997, Las Cruces Sun-News
New Mexico - An official of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
in New Mexico approved the execution of three federally protected
wild horses with a high-powered rifle in 1992 in an apparent violation
of federal law, according to a confidential document obtained by
the Las Cruces Sun-News. Steve Henke, currently the BLM’s Taos
area manager and previously director of the agency’s New Mexico
wild horse program, decided in the spring of 1992 that three stud
horses at a sanctuary in Oklahoma should be shot to death as a cost-cutting
measure.
Trail’s
End for Horses: Slaughter
1997, Associated Press (Martha Mendoza)
Jan. 5 - A multimillion-dollar federal program created to save the
lives of wild horses is instead channeling them by the thousands
to slaughterhouses, where they are chopped into cuts of meat. Among
those who might be profiting from the slaughter are employees of
the Bureau of Land Management, the agency that administers the program.
These are the conclusions of an Associated Press investigation of
the U.S. Wild Horse and Burro Program, which has rounded up 165,000
animals and spent $250 million since it was created by Congress 25
years ago.
Horse
Abuse Alleged at BLM
1996, New York Times
In a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, current and former employees of the
Federal Bureau of Land Management have accused bureau officials of falsifying
financial records, taking part in schemes to sell wild horses to slaughterhouses
and obstructing federal investigations. The nine-page letter alleges numerous
areas of wrongdoing at the agency, which oversees millions of acres of government
land and billions of dollars in federal mineral assets. The letter, mailed on
June 18, was signed by five current or retired bureau law-enforcement.
In Idaho, Plan To Protect Wild Horses Causes Furor
1996,
New York Times
December 8 - The Owyhee Mountains encompass an area three times
the size of Rhode Island. Nearly all is public land, with the exception
of scattered ranches in small valleys. Wild horses have always been
given short shrift in the Owyhees, in the view of Mr. Maggard, who
faults the Government. ''The Government is supposed to manage the
forage and recreation to protect wild horses,'' he said. ''But when
ranchers start screaming and hollering that there's too many horses
out there, the B.L.M. holds a roundup. I've opposed every reduction
they've ever made.'' In the agency's latest attempt to set new standards
for the Owyhees, officials are trying to do a better job of protecting
the horses. The plan has angered cattle ranchers, motorcyclists and
snowmobilers. In three public meetings on the plan in November, officials
of the Bureau of Land Management were overwhelmed by 900 irate people,
a huge turnout in these parts.
Investigation Is Dropped In Plan to Sell Wild Horses
1996, New York Times
July 28 - Citing a lack of evidence, the US Justice Department has
dropped an investigation based in Texas into allegations that James
D. Galloway of the BLM participated in a scheme to sell federally
protected wild horses to slaughterhouses. The Justice Department
notified the Interior Department of its action in a letter on July
5. But the letter raised the possibility that the Justice Department
might pursue allegations that had arisen during the inquiry of wrongdoing
in other states. In addition, the Justice Department said it would
look into allegations made by former and current employees of the
bureau in a recent letter to Attorney General Janet Reno. The letter
accused bureau officials of having taken part in plots to sell wild
horses to slaughterhouses and repeatedly obstructing Federal investigations
into reports of irregularities in the wild horse program.
As West Booms, Suburbanites Ask If Wild Horses Make Good
Neighbors
1996, New York Times
March 12 - For longer than anyone can remember, wild horses have
come down from the hills here every fall. The horses' winter home,
Hidden Valley, has in recent years turned into a residential enclave
southeast of town, by the dry Virginia Range. Here, residents have
long enjoyed the seasonal migration, some feeding carrots and apples
to the animals, others counting and naming members of the herds,
watching them grow, play and start their own families. But the valley
is no longer so hidden. As fast as sagebrush can be bulldozed, thickets
of houses are rising up and suburban instincts colliding with feral
ones. Those not so enamored of the horses, which nibble at lawns
and stomp on sprinklers, have chased them off the country club in
golf carts, thrown rocks at them and even fired guns into the air
to frighten them away.
Federal
Workers Slaughtering Horses?
1995, Houston Chronicle (Martha Mendoza)
Albuquerque, NM, Sept. 20 -- Corrupt federal workers are slaughtering
wild horses and burros and pocketing profits rather than offering
the animals for adoption, animal rights activists charged Tuesday.
At a news conference, the activists alleged that Bureau of Land
Management staffers are selling thousands of wild horses and
burros to slaughter- houses for $400 to $500 each and keeping
the money. As proof, the activists in Albuquerque offered a letter
from Reed Smith, who retired as New Mexico's BLM deputy state
director for resource planning, use and protection in October
1994. Smith's letter says he came under "full-attack" by
the BLM after speaking out about problems in the agency.
Inquiry to See Whether Officials Helped Sell Protected Horses
for Slaughter
1995, New York Times
Over the last 22 years, Federal land managers have culled tens of
thousands of wild horses from the open spaces of the American West,
rounding them up as part of a popular Government program that offers
the animals for public adoption. Now, according to Government documents,
some employees and officials of the Bureau of Land Management are
under investigation in connection with a profit-making scheme to
divert adopted horses to slaughterhouses. While many people see the
wild horses as living symbols of the American West, and applaud the
program as a way to help save and preserve them, the roundups were
initiated at the behest of Western ranchers to help rid them of what
they regard as a nuisance. While the investigation has yet to yield
indictments, a criminal investigator for the Bureau of Land Management
said last month that bureau officials tried to obstruct justice in
a case now before a Federal grand jury in Texas.
Drought Kills Wild Horses
1994, New York Times
July 17 - More than 100 wild horses have died on this 3,200-square-mile
military reservation after a brutal dry spell withered their grazing
land. The first 20 carcasses were discovered on July 6. By Friday,
104 horses were dead, some of starvation and others shot by military
officials to end their misery. Officials estimate that White Sands,
the site of the first nuclear explosion, 49 years ago today, has
about 1,400 wild horses.
Roundup
cuts area wild horse herd - The capture reduces by more than
half the number of horses and burros in the Spring Mountains.
1993, Review Journal
Dec. 28 - A federal contractor last month rounded up about 300
horses and burros from the Spring Mountains, leaving 106 animals
in the herd that roams west of Las Vegas. JoLynn Worley, a spokeswoman
for the bureau's Reno office, said the contractor who conducted
the roundup, Dave Cattoor of Nephi, Utah, was used by the agencies
even though he pleaded guilty and was sentenced for hunting wild
horses with aircraft during a 1990 wild horse capture near Duckwater Indian Reservation,
80 miles west of Ely. "While convicted, that does not preclude the fact
he does excellent work for us,"
Worley said.
Deaths of Wild Horses Brought to Jersey Prompt U.S. Review
1993, New York Times
August 22 - A federal sale of wild horses and burros here was called
off last Saturday after three mustangs died of an unknown ailment
hours before the event. Then, when a fourth horse that became ill
shortly afterward had to be destroyed, officials started a review
last week of the transportation and boarding procedures for the wild
horse program and are already making some changes. The BLM is investigating
the possibility of a connection between the deaths here and those
of five wild horses in May at a similar sale at Cornell University
in Ithaca, N.Y. Autopsies last week determined salmonella to be the
cause of death for one of those horses and for the first of the horses
that died in Allentown. Bureau officials said that under stress some
horses had less resistance to bacterial infections like salmonella.
6
Indicted for Selling Nevada's Wild Horses
1992, San Francisco Chronicle
March 13 - Six men, including [a BLM contractor], have been
indicted on federal charges of selling 77 wild horses to a Texas
slaughterhouse after capturing the horses in a helicopter roundup
in 1990. The six face misdemeanor charges of conspiracy and use
of an aircraft to hunt wild horses. The charges carry a maximum
penalty of six months in jail and a $500 fine. Those indicted were
Raymond Yowell, chief of the Western Shoshone National Council;
Allen Moss and Ian Zabarte, who sit on the Western Shoshone Wildlife
and Plant Resource Commission; Richard Hicks and Cliff Heaverne
of as Nevada; and Dave Cattoor of Utah.
Wild Horse Plan Is Called Costly
1990, New York Times
August 22 - A Government program offering wild horses for adoption
is becoming increasingly costly, with no evidence that Federal rangeland
has benefited, a Congressional study has said. The Interior Department's
''Adopt-a-Horse'' program is aimed at removing wild horses from Federal
rangeland so that herds do not exceed what the land can support.
About 60,000 wild horses have been adopted under the program in the
last decade. But the General Accounting Office, an investigative
arm of Congress, questioned in a report Monday whether the program
was needed. ''Range conditions have not demonstrably improved and
the number of wild horses removed has exceeded the capacity of the
program,'' the report said.
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