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The Bureau of Land Management has issued its 2007 Round-Up Schedule. Close to 7,000 horse and burros will be captured, further threatening the genetic viability of our wild herds. The absolute minimum estimated cost of these round-ups and annual containment of the captured horses exceeds 15 million of our tax-dollars. Of immediate concern is the plan to zero out horses and burros from yet more Herd Management Areas (HMAs) in Southern Nevada, leaving less than 100 horses on over 1 million acres. After this latest round, BLM will have zeroed out horses from 6 out of 9 HMAs in the area. A total of 4 HMAs will also have lost their entire burro populations. Cold Creek near Las Vegas is of particular interest, as it was the site of a mystery helicopter round-up last summer. About 200 horses are feared gone, yet BLM denies any horses were taken. Officials have failed to investigate the matter, despite repeated pleas by concerned residents who witnessed most of this beloved herd being hauled away to an uncertain fate. Please protest this gross waste of tax-dollars and mismanagement of our natural resources by contacting the following: - Karla
Norris - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV), who should be urged to revise his position on wild horse management in his state. You can email him by clicking on his name above, or write him at 528 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510-2803 - fax: 202.224.7327. - Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington DC 20240 - fax: 202.208.5048 - Please also alert Nevada to the fact that continued mismanagement of its wild horse herds will hurt tourism in the state. Contact the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, 3150 Paradise Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89109 – ph: 702.892.0711; fax: 702.892.2906, and the Nevada Commission on Tourism, 401 North Carson Street, Carson City, NV 89701 – ph: 800.638.2328. - Our Nevada supporters should also contact their U.S. Representatives to protest this eradication plan (locate your Representative at www.house.gov).
This morning the House of Representatives passed the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503) by a landslide vote of 263-146. The legislation will now move on to the Senate. Our deepest gratitude goes to bill sponsors John Sweeney (R-NY), John Spratt (D-SC), Ed Whitfield (R-KY) and Nick Rahall (D-WV).
Cold Creek near Las Vegas, NV, was the site of a mystery helicopter round-up on August 5-6. While no BLM round-up was officially scheduled, local residents witnessed two helicopters flying over the area for hours; a wrangler told one of them that 204 horses were being rounded up that week-end. Locals familiar with the herd have reported that most of the new foals are now missing, as well as many mares and at least one stallion, yet BLM will not acknowledge any horses were taken. Officials have refused to investigate the matter, despite repeated pleas by concerned residents who witnessed most of this beloved herd being hauled away to an uncertain fate.
Many of you contacted your federal legislators to express outrage over the disastrous results of the late June round-up conducted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) at the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. Well, your efforts were not in vain: on July 19, US Representative Nick Rahall wrote FWS Director Dale Hall requesting that FWS cease and desist from any further wild horse removals at the Refuge. Read Mr. Rahall's letter here. FWS has now cancelled its planned September round-up. Our deepest gratitude goes out to Representative Rahall.
Starting this Friday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will be rounding up 1,700 horses, leaving the 12-million acre Buck & Bald Complex in Nevada with only 500, if that (see BLM’s fuzzy math below). Unlike the Fish and Wildlife Service (the agency responsible for last month’s Sheldon round-up), BLM has a legal obligation to manage wild horses on public lands. For this round-up, BLM has failed to provide a current Environmental Assessment (EA - a fact-finding process required by law for each round-up), relying instead on last year’s EA. In its 2005 EA, BLM estimated that the population in the Buck & Bald Complex totaled approximately 1,286 wild horses; 795 were removed. The agency now claims the complex has a population of 2,200 wild horses. Even with a 20% increase in the population from the summer of 2005 until the present, that’s a miscalculation by nearly 1,600 animals – an error of approximately 350%. In other words, the BLM now plans to remove more wild horses this summer than they originally estimated even existed on the Complex. Something is very wrong here. Local observers tell us that range conditions currently appear good on the Complex, which contradicts BLM’s justifications for the round-up. In addition to the usual pressure from private cattle interests, oil and gas exploration seems to be a factor motivating this sudden ramp-up in population reduction. Although it appears too late to stop this round-up, we hope the media may be interested in observing the proceedings on the heels of the Sheldon debacle. Please contact CNN using this form and suggest they do a story on wild horse round-ups. Specifically, Anderson Cooper’s “Keeping Them Honest” segment would be a good venue for this topic.
We are sad to report that a foal that had been trampled during the Sheldon round-up and later rescued by a couple of good Samaritans did not make it after all. He died of internal injuries last night. On a more positive note, the Fish and Wildlife Service is facing a barrage of angry protests and having to answer questions from Washington D.C. After adamantly denying that any horses had been killed during the round-up, FWS had no choice but to acknowledge the deaths in a “progress report” issued after the release of our incriminating report.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has done a very good job of convincing the public that last week’s controversial round-up at the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge went smoothly and that no horses were killed. That could not be further from the truth. Granted, all round-ups are traumatic events for horses chased by helicopters, torn from their family groups and getting their first taste of confinement; injuries are common. However, nothing could prepare our investigators for what they witnessed. In total, over 330 horses were captured, including very young foals; reportedly, one adult and at least seven foals died, mares aborted their fetuses, and several foals were injured. Some captured mares still had their foaling placentas attached to them, with their newborns unaccounted for. Some foals were simply left behind in the chaos of the round-up. Wranglers could only locate eight of them: three, aged four to six weeks, were rescued after spending days as orphans on the range; the five others were already dead. Supposedly due to security concerns following public outcry, FWS had law enforcement set up a two-mile security perimeter. In spite of the secrecy, our investigators were able to document the process up close. Their report, including some very disturbing pictures and a corroborating vet report, can be found here: www.wildhorsepreservation.org/sheldon.html (WARNING: some graphic pictures) Throughout this process, FWS showed no consideration for public concerns and chose to ignore pleas by humane groups and Members of Congress. All they had to do was postpone the round-up by a month so that days-old foals and heavily pregnant mares would not have to endure such conditions. All in all, a gross betrayal of public trust. Please forward the above link to your federal legislators and to the media. Tell them that you expect public servants to be held accountable for their actions. Dale Hall, Director of Fish and Wildlife Services, should be made aware of his agency’s misdeeds: email him a link to our round-up report using this web-contact form; you can also voice your protest by Phone: (202) 208-4717 or Fax: (202) 208-6965. Many of you have inquired about the status of the Sheldon round-up denounced in last week’s alert. Despite Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) being inundated with calls and emails protesting its plan, it went ahead with the round-up on Monday and Tuesday: over 330 horses were captured, including heavily pregnant mares (some foaling at the round-up site) and orphan foals, some only days old. Please note however that your efforts were not in vain: FWS is facing a massive public outcry; the media has picked up on the story; two federal legislators sent stern letters of protest; and Governor Schwarzenegger even contacted Nevada authorities to inquire about the matter. The fact is that, over the past year, wild horse advocates have generally been recognized in Washington D.C. as the most efficient grassroots group. This was confirmed again just recently by several Members of Congress to the Institute for a Democratic Future, who called us to congratulate wild horse advocates on their grassroots efforts. So please do not let placating responses from government officials shake your confidence. FWS staffers have been very diligent in responding to concerned citizens. Unfortunately, they are not doing so in an honest, truthful manner, spreading lies and misinforming the public. We would like to take this opportunity to address some of their statements:
These public servants' salaries are paid by our tax-dollars. The least they owe us is the truth. Please alert the media and your federal legislators.
The Amendment, introduced by Representative Rahall and co-sponsored by Ed Whitfield (KY), John Sweeney (NY) and John Spratt (SC), passes without opposition toward preventing funding for the sale/slaughter of wild horses for fiscal year 2007. The Amendment still needs to go through the Senate. When an identical amendment reached the Senate last year, Senator Conrad Burns (MT), who happens to chair the Senate Appropriations Interior subcommittee, simply, in his own words, "threw it out". Will the Montana Senator choose once again to subvert the democratic process and ignore the will of the American people?
BLM and PLC have sent 15,000 letters to public lands ranchers and are broadcasting radio ads in cattle country urging ranchers to purchase horses at ten dollars a head. This marketing program covers 7,000 mares and geldings ten years of age and older. BLM urges the ranchers to purchase these horses so as to make room for more horses to be rounded up from public lands. In a Casper Star Tribune article published today, Niels Hansen, chairman of the Wyoming State Grazing Board, clearly states he doesn't see a problem with selling “old, unusable horses” to slaughterhouses. His only concern is whether, under BLM’s bill of sale, the horses can legally be re-sold to slaughter; but, as BLM Director Kathleen Clarke testified before Congress in March of 2005, "Once the bill of sale has been effectuated, then we have no control over what the buyer does."
In what could be its most absurd and cynical move yet, the Bureau of Land Management is partnering with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the American Sheep Industry and the Association of National Grasslands (represented by the Public Lands Council), in a campaign that promotes the purchase of wild horses and burros by public lands ranchers. View their joint press release at www.beefusa.org. The very people who lobby tirelessly to remove wild horses from our public lands at taxpayers’ expense are now urged to purchase these same horses at bargain basement prices. Ranchers did not want to share their public land allotments with these horses in the first place; do we really think they are now going to let them graze these same allotments out of the goodness of their hearts? Who better than the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association to funnel wild horses to slaughter? In fact, it is interesting that this announcement should come on the heels of the USDA's decision to allow horse slaughter to continue despite Congress overwhelmingly passing an amendment banning such practice for one fiscal year; the horse slaughter ban was vehemently opposed by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Without independent oversight and incentives to ensure the ranchers will provide long-term care for these horses, we can’t help but see something sinister at play in this latest maneuver by the BLM and the cattle lobby.
In direct contradiction with the clearly expressed will of Congress, the USDA has decided to circumvent the recently enacted one-year horse-slaughter ban by allowing three foreign-owned horse slaughter plants to conduct their own private pre-slaughter inspections. This in effect allows the plants to bypass federal legislation and continue slaughtering American horses for human consumption abroad. Slaughter is our wild horses’ greatest threat once they have been removed from the range.
BLM has implemented an internet adoption program through www.horsetopia.com which allows potential adopters to bid on horses remotely and avoids shipping horses cross-country before they have an adopter. This is generally considered a good idea.
A preliminary injunction is preventing the U.S. Forest Service from rounding up hundreds of wild horses in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest (Arizona). Rounded-up horses would likely have ended up at the slaughterhouse. According to a federal judge, the Forest Service failed to prove that the horses had strayed onto the forest after the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire and were domesticated. Three advocacy groups argued that the horses could be traced back hundreds of years and were in fact wild, triggering federal wild horse protection. The preliminary injunction will remain in force until a full trial is held or the case ends with a summary judgment.
Officials at the U. S. Bureau of Land Management are working with veterinarians to determine what has caused the deaths of 18 wild horses that were being held in the agency's Litchfield Corrals near Susanville. The animals died over the past two weeks, including the Labor Day holiday weekend. A veterinarian has examined the animals and sent blood samples to a laboratory to help determine the cause of death. In the meantime, BLM has suspended planned horse gathering operations in the High Rock Canyon area of northwestern Nevada, and suspended wild horse and burro adoptions from the corrals. The affected horses were gathered over the past month from herd areas in the Devil's Garden region of the Modoc National Forest, and from BLM-managed rangelands near High Rock Canyon in northwestern Nevada. They were being held with approximately 300 horses and burros awaiting public adoption. "We are working closely with veterinary experts to determine what happened to these animals," said Linda Hansen, manager of the BLM's Eagle Lake Field Office in Susanville. While no causes have been ruled out, the BLM said there has been no evidence of foul play.
After a workshop held in Santa Fe, NM, November 29 and 30, 2005 on wild horse fertility control, the Humane Society of the United States and the Bureau of Land Management have agreed to develop an Memorandum of Understanding to co-operate on:
"The BLM sees this as a way to reduce horse removals, to place fewer horses in short- and long-term holding facilities, and to achieve budgetary savings," said Don Glenn, Acting Group Manager of the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program, Washington, DC. *** AWHPC supports the use of fertility control methods on wild horses solely to the extent population control is necessary in certain areas. In using these methods, we can only hope that BLM will respect the intent of the 1971 Act and allow our wild horse herds to thrive on their legally allocated herd areas. For more information on wild horse management solutions advocated by AWHPC, please visit our Solutions page.
Congress has given the National Park Service permission to increase the size of the wild horse herd on Shackleford Banks, North Carolina. The mandate is meant to maintain the herd's genetic diversity without straining the resources of the grassy barrier island where they live, part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore. The herd's base size will increase to 110 and will periodically be allowed to expand to 130 or more, under a bill approved by unanimous consent Wednesday by the U.S. Senate. The House already approved the measure. “Numerous studies by world-renowned scientists ... have confirmed that in order to maintain the herd's long-term viability, its optimum size is around 120 animals,” said Representative Walter Jones (R-NC), who sponsored the bill. The same concerns regarding herd viability should dictate herd management decisions on BLM lands in the West. Unfortunately for our Western herds, when cattle interests are at stake, policy-makers tend to disregard “studies by world-renowned scientists.”
Sales Summary as of mid-September: Number of
horses sold -- 1,445 Twenty individuals and two Native American tribes seeking a total of 427 wild horses canceled their purchases after the BLM revised its sale contracts to impose criminal penalties for selling the animals to slaughter.
Source: Bureau of Land Management
Eureka, NV, July 8: herd of 390 reduced to 60 Fish Lake, NV, July 24: 819 horses removed Buck and Bald Complex, NV, August 11: 795 horses removed Spring Creek Basin, CO, August 21: herd of 90 reduced to 40 Adobe Town, WY, August 24: 600 horses removed Salt Wells Creek, WY, September 5: 300 horses removed Sandwash Basin, CO, September 28: herd of 360 reduced to 160 Green Mountain, WY, this week-end: BLM plans to remove 490 wild horses, i.e. 90% of the herd, and use fertility control on most of the remaining mares. Spring Creek round-up testimonial (from local Coalition member WindFlyers Mustang Sanctuary): There were some round-up injuries - mostly puncture wounds to legs from being run through sage and oakbrush. A yearling colt was injured sufficiently for a veterinarian to pull him from the adoption. He is now at our Sanctuary where we are working with him to overcome his terrible fear of people due to rough treatment he endured while in the stocks at the adoption facility. One fatality did occur - a 2-year-old colt was used in a training demonstration. Ropes were used in the round pen session and the colt suffered from a spiral fracture of the pastern. He was euthanized, but not until he endured standing on three legs for an entire night and day in a small pen with three other 2-year-olds. A local vet said the herd looked in excellent condition, weight wise, and that reflected good range conditions. This begs the question: if these horses are healthy and well-fed, why cull more than half of this already small herd?
The Ensign/Byrd Amendment passes in the Senate toward preventing funding for the slaughter of horses for fiscal year 2006. Click here for a voting summary. The amendment, which prohibits the use of Federal funding for the slaughter of horses, will go into effect on October 1, 2005, protecting ALL horses in the United States – both wild and domestic –from the brutality of the slaughterhouse.
The Department of the Interior just issued a press release further misrepresenting the facts and issue through the media, and urging Americans to save wild horses by buying them from the government. The truth is that BLM continues to round up too many horses at PUBLIC expense and then asks for the public to bail them out by pulling at our heartstrings.
Several weeks ago, the Rahall-Whitfield Interior Appropriations Amendment to stop federal funding of the sale/slaughter of wild horses for fiscal year 2006 won by a landslide in the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, the Amendment was not introduced in the Senate version of the Interior Appropriations bill and was ultimately removed by House and Senate negotiators from the final version of the bill. So Senator Burns got his way, despite overwhelming opposition from the House of Representatives and the American public. Meanwhile, we are still working toward passage of the Rahall-Whitfield bill (H.R. 297/S.576), which would permanently repeal the Burns Amendment.
BLM is conducting a round-up in Nevada (Buck and Bald complex) of 1,300 horses in 100 degree heat (780 are being removed while the rest are given birth-control). Although the land area affected is 1.7 million acres, BLM blames a 5,000-acre forest fire and lack of forage for the removal. We eagerly await the day when BLM removes cattle from 1.7 million acres because it had a 5,000-acre wildfire! In fact, claims of limited forage directly contradict a local BLM Manager‘s recent statement to one of our supporters that “there's a lot of feed out there." This round-up is particularly ironic in that the local BLM office increased grazing allotments for private cattle this year, based on "extra" forage due to all the rain last winter. BLM issued a Full Force and Effect decision for this round-up, which means it went into effect immediately, without the possibility of an appeal.
A bill introduced today by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) in the U.S. Senate, with a companion introduced by Representatives John Porter (R-NV) and Shelley Berkley (D-NV) would reduce minimum horse adoption fees by 80% to $25, eliminate the limit of four horses per adopter per year, and establish a one-year waiting period for buyers to receive titles to wild horses purchased through the Burns Amendment’s sales program. Without a limitation on how many horses can be titled to an adopter/purchaser each year, the one-year limitation becomes meaningless because large operations will now be able to obtain very cheap horses in unlimited numbers, keep them for a year in large pastures and turn a handsome profit at the slaughterhouse after a year. The bill would also extend the Burns Amendment’s sale mandate to ALL “excess” wild horses, i.e. the 22,000 animals currently in government holding, giving the government a quick and dirty way to dispose of all rounded up horses. This new provision, dressed up by the Nevada legislators as a nice solution to the Burns Amendment debacle, is yet another blow to the wild horse cause, with 22,000 horses now in jeopardy.
As announced a month ago, the Bureau of Land Management has resumed sales under the Burns Amendment, with restrictions on buyers to prevent the horses from ending up at the slaughterhouse. Our initial reaction was that the restrictions announced by BLM would do little to protect the horses. BLM’s own National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board recently validated our concerns: during their last board meeting, they found not only that the restrictions are unenforceable, but also that BLM had no legal authority to impose such restrictions in the first place. In a glaring example of BLM’s failure to properly screen potential buyers, it has now come to our attention that BLM recently sold a load of horses to an ex-con who has been under watch by BLM's special investigators due to past misdeeds…
BLM laments “poor range conditions” to justify its current aggressive removal campaign, with 10,000 wild horses in the process of being rounded up for this fiscal year alone. Yet, in a stunning display of double standards, BLM announced today it would ease restrictions on permittees – mainly large corporations such as Anheiser Busch and Hilton Hotels - grazing their private cattle on our public lands. The new rules will make it harder to crack down on overgrazing and other harmful practices, and limit public comment on grazing decisions made by the government. Range biologists have long blamed cows for range degradation, rather than the few remaining wild horse herds (see Wild Horses and the Ecosystem). Still, the horses are the ones coming off by the thousands.
The Sweeney/Spratt Amendment passes in the House toward preventing funding for the slaughter of horses for fiscal year 2006. Click here for a voting summary. The Amendment will go into effect on October 1, 2005, protecting ALL horses in the United States – both wild and domestic – from the brutality of the slaughterhouse. The Amendment still needs to go through the Senate, but we can be sure that Congress is getting the message that Americans care about their horses and do not want to see them on foreign dinner tables.
Wild horses were chosen by the Nevada public to represent their state - home to more than half of our Nation’s free-roaming wild horses - on a quarter to be minted in January next year and distributed nationwide. Nearly 60,000 people voted in the contest to choose one of five designs for the state's quarter. The wild horses were a clear winner, gathering 18,900 votes or 32 percent of the people who cast ballots.
In a move that defies common sense, BLM has increased the number of horses it plans to round up this fiscal year from 9,800 to 10,335, while projections for the number of horses that will find adoptive homes have been lowered from 7,150 to 6,676. With adoption pipelines saturated and 8,400 horses already up for sale under the Burns Amendment, these numbers are extremely disturbing, both ethically and fiscally. Once this summer’s round-ups are completed, there will be officially more wild horses in captivity than in the wild.
When the amendment reaches the Senate, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations interior subcommittee, plans "to throw it out." Senator Burns’ allegiance became clear when he stated: "I'm in the livestock business, and I've bought and sold horses all my life, Basically, the marketplace works." Senator Burns’ infamous rider, surreptitiously included in the 3,300 page federal budget last November, allows the government to sell wild horses at livestock auctions, freeing up subsidized public land grazing for private cattle. Maybe Senator Burns needs to be reminded he is now in the U.S. Senate, not in the livestock business.
The Rahall/Whitfield Amendment passes in the House toward preventing funding for the sale/slaughter of wild horses for fiscal year 2006. Click here for a voting summary. The Amendment still needs to go through the Senate, and will not go into effect until November ’05. However, this floor vote helps demonstrate that Congress has heard the people’s voice loud and clear: Americans want their wild horses protected. With a recorded, up or down vote, Representatives knew their constituents would be watching… And so the horses won.
In a last ditch effort to derail the Rahall/Whitfield Amendment, BLM came out this morning with the news that sales of wild horses under the Burns Amendment would resume today, but with limitations to prevent the horses from ending up at the slaughterhouse. Representative Richard Pombo (R – CA) used this piece of news to urge his colleagues to vote “no” on the Amendment. The fact is that the restrictions on buyers announced by BLM will do little to protect the horses: when BLM Director Kathleen Clarke testified before Congress in March, she stated that, "Once the bill of sale has been effectuated, then we have no control over what the buyer does." No changes, no tightening of language, and no amount of rhetoric will change that fact. A sale is a sale. Under the changes announced by BLM, 35 of the wild horses that went to slaughter in recent weeks would still have gone to slaughter, and there would be absolutely nothing that anyone could do about it. No liability. No recourse. All a buyer has to do is to sell the horses to a middle person and then there are NO PROTECTIONS in place against a sale to slaughter.
BLM announces
a partnership with the Ford Motor Company and Take Pride in America to
raise funding through the newly created “Save the Mustangs”
Fund. The purpose of the Fund, which looks to the public for donations,
is to facilitate placement of the Burns horses with good homes. We encourage
Ford, the BLM, and Take Pride in America to thoroughly investigate any
potential sanctuaries/tribal lands before placing horses in these situations.
History has proven that many well intended rescuers have been unable to
care for these animals who then ended up neglected, abused or slaughtered.
Celebrities are speaking out en masse on behalf of America’s wild horses. Click on the links to read Robert Redford’s letter and an appeal by Willie Nelson, signed by the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Gere, Carole King and Richard Pryor.
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on Thursday, May 19, on an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill that ensures that no tax dollars can be used for any sale of wild horses that could lead to their slaughter. By introducing this amendment to the Interior Appropriations Bill, Representatives Rahall (D-WV) and Whitfield (R-KY) have once again stepped forward to counter the Burns Amendment. Unlike H.R. 297/S. 576, the Rahall/Whitfield Amendment does not rescind the Burns Amendment, but simply prevents funding for its implementation for fiscal year 2006. This means that if the amendment passes, the BLM will not be able to spend any money on implementing Burns’ sale mandate. This also means that H.R. 297/S. 576 will still be needed for a permanent reversal of the Burns Amendment. The vote on May 19 will be a floor vote: every Representative’s vote will be recorded, giving the public a chance to know where their Representatives stand on the slaughter of wild horses.
Representatives Rahall (D-WV) and Whitfield (R-KY) held a press conference today to address the slaughter of 41 wild horses sold by BLM under the Burns Amendment. Mr. Rahall called the slaughter a "wake up call" for Congress to re-examine a law it passed last year relaxing sales of the animals. Several celebrities provided signed statements and quotes denouncing the slaughter: Willie Nelson, Richard Gere, Richard Pryor, Nicollette Sheridan, Mary Tyler Moore, John Fusco, Patrick McDonnell, Peter Max, Tony Curtis, and Bo Derek.
After more horses slip through the cracks, the Secretary of the Interior's office suspends indefinitely all sales of wild horses under the Burns Amendment. Here is what happened: A Native American tribe, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, who had purchased 200 animals from the BLM, exchanged these older animals with younger animals with a horse dealer, whose intent was to send them directly to slaughter. Of the two loads (a total of 87) that were slated to be shipped to the slaughter plant in DeKalb, Illinois, only one (containing 51 animals) actually arrived at the plant. Unfortunately, 35 of those animals were slaughtered before BLM could intervene. The remaining animals from the first load are currently being held safely at the DeKalb plant, and the second load of animals is being held safely at the horse dealer's. Law enforcement has been involved, and BLM will be buying back all of the remaining horses, with financial help from the Ford Motor Company.
Multiple sources have confirmed that on Monday, April 18th, six wild horses were slaughtered at the Cavel International facility in DeKalb, Il. The horses, sold by the Bureau of Land Management pursuant to the Burns Amendment’s sale mandate on Friday, April 15th, had been purchased in Canon City, CO, for $50 each by Dustin Herbert of Meeker, OK. Mr. Herbert, a former rodeo clown, had claimed that the horses would be used for a church youth program, and would not be sold for slaughter. But by Monday, less than 3 days after he purchased the animals, all six were slaughtered so that their meat could be shipped overseas to end up on foreign dinner tables. The six animals had been rounded up from the Antelope Hills Herd Management Area, WY, on October 11, 2004.
The Bureau of Land Management says it is selling wild horses to Native American tribes for the first time. The BLM has sold 141 horses to the Rosebud Sioux in South Dakota and 120 horses to the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota. More sales are planned in the next several weeks, bringing the total to more than 500 horses.
In a new development that confirms our worst fears regarding privatization of wild horses, Wild Horse Wyoming, LLC (see February 22 news item) announced its intent to sell foals from its breeding program to Mexico and third-world countries: "There's a viable agri-product that will come out. These foals will be marketed, and we've got some tremendous marketing ideas that we'd like to do. We'd like to get some sponsorship dollars to place these foals down in third world countries or in Mexico where a little village may need some horsepower to clear a field or to run a pump and produce water. What an honorable thing for these horses to provide their own care down the line." Click here to read the full article.
Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), introduces S. 576, a companion bill to H.R. 297, which would restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses and burros. In his moving speech, Senator Byrd quotes from British Poet Ronald Duncan’s Ode To The Horse: "Where in this wide world can a man find nobility without pride, friendship without envy or beauty without vanity? Here: where grace is laced with muscle and strength by gentleness confined. He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent; there is nothing so quick, nothing less patient. England’s past has been bourne on his back. All our history is his industry. We are his heirs; he our inheritance. The Horse."
Spearheaded and hosted by the American Horse Defense Fund, the National Capitol Hill Day for Horses brought us to DC to lobby in favor of H.R. 297. AWHPC representatives met with staffers from Senators Burns and Reid’s offices to convey the public’s overwhelming dissatisfaction with BLM’s new sale mandate. We also met with numerous Representatives to urge them to co-sponsor H.R. 297. We are happy to report that the co-sponsor list is growing rapidly, with a new total of 34 co-sponsors. Finally, Representatives Rahall, Sweeney and Whitfield joined us for a press conference to close the event. Carol King was also present and spoke in support of the horses; actor Viggo Mortensen contributed his voice to a moving PSA. Our heartfelt thanks to all of them for their support.
The BLM has announced the sale of 200 wild mares to a Wyoming company, the first transaction under its new sale mandate for wild horses and burros. The 200 mares were sold to Wild Horses Wyoming, LLC, a southeastern Wyoming for-profit company. Ron Hawkins, ranch operations partner in the company, said, “I'm very pleased and proud that Wild Horses Wyoming is the BLM’s first buyer of wild horses under the legislation recently passed by Congress. Our company is committed to the long-term care of these historic animals, and I urge the public to support us in our efforts to ensure good homes for those horses facing an uncertain future under the new law.” Wild Horse Wyoming’s business plan includes breeding the mares.
Click here
for an update
from the BLM. We appreciate BLM’s efforts to find good homes for these 8,400 horses, but the fact is that the market is already saturated. Thousands more are getting rounded up as we speak and will soon take their place in government holding facilities. The government cannot expect wild horse advocates and humane groups to continue cleaning up its mess. We need to keep up our efforts to reverse the Burns Amendment and send a clear message that we want our wild horses managed in the wild.
Out of the 1,916 horses captured, only the 440 too old to be easily adopted out but too young to be sold under the Burns Amendment, will be released back into to the wild. All horses over nine years of age are being removed and will be sold without limitations, pursuant to the Burns Amendment. A total of 1,476 horses will join the 22,000 animals already in BLM pipelines. Click here to see pictures of a Nevada round-up.
While AWHPC wholeheartedly supports H.R. 503, it is critical that we keep up our efforts in support of H.R. 297, which would reverse the Burns Amendment and address the immediate threat currently faced by our wild horses.
Wild horses roaming across our public lands, a symbol of the American West, would no longer be doomed to certain slaughter under legislation introduced today by U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV). Rahall is the Ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over wild horse policy on federal lands. "Very few icons of the West remain, and wild horses are certainly a symbol of the frontier era and our nation’s spirit. To allow them to be slaughtered without exhausting all other options, such as adoption, is an affront to our history," declared Rahall. Rahall’s legislation addresses a provision inserted in a must-pass appropriations bill last year that allows the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service to essentially turn a blind eye to individuals or corporations who buy these animals with the clear intention of cruelly slaughtering them for profit. The Rahall legislation would restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros. "It has been illegal for the past 33 years to sell or transfer wild horses and burros for processing into commercial products because many Americans abhor the thought. They would be aghast to know that these animals now can and will be slaughtered so their meat can be offered on menus in France, Belgium and Japan," stated Rahall. The current slaughter policy does not acknowledge the fact that humane alternatives exist and federal agencies have the authority to carry out such actions as adoption, sterilization, relocation, and placement with qualified individuals and organizations. "To suggest that an acceptable solution to a federal agency’s management dilemma is commercial slaughter is an irresponsible approach to our public lands and the wildlife that roam them," said Rahall. The federal government has a mediocre record in enforcing wild horse and burro protection laws. But instead of addressing these long-term and widespread management problems, the recent change is simply a quick and dirty fix. Under the guise of "managing" these living symbols of the American West, the agency is now permitted to allow the slaughter of animals that they had been previously charged with their protection. "A public outcry has again begun across the United States over the change in law that now allows this disgraceful deed. We need to act before it is too late for thousands of these animals," concluded Rahall.
While a BLM
official assured us there is no immediate plan to sell wild horses to
slaughter, he conceded that over 8,400 horses have already been identified
by the BLM as subject to the Burns Amendment’s sale mandate. By
law, these horses are no longer available for adoption and have been pulled
from BLM’s adoption listings. BLM officials will be meeting in Phoenix,
AZ (Jan. 20-30) to determine logistics for implementation of the new sale
mandate.
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© 2004-2008 AWHPC. All rights reserved.
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