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Posts Tagged ‘Nevada’

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), friend to wild horses

Congress has begun reviewing the President’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 which includes the budget for the Wild Horse and Burro program under the Department of Interior.

Congress’ appropriations (budgeting) process is long and complex. Numerous committees and subcommittees review and modify the President’s proposed budgets for the various departments before they are ultimately approved. We want to make sure all committees and subcommittees that hold hearings on the Interior Department’s budget hear from Americans who want the broken Wild Horse and Burro program completely reformed. As the appropriations process proceeds we will continue to keep you informed of actions you can take to be sure Congress knows what you think.

Three Congressional hearings took place over the past week.

This Monday IDA initiated a 1-Day Action Blitz for Wild Horses & Burros. IDA members and wild horse advocate made their voices heard – over 6,000 faxes were sent to members of the House and Senate Subcommittees. Thanks to you, the Subcommittee members know of the intense national concern about our magnificent wild horses and burros.

On Monday, March 9, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Bob Abbey testified before the House Appropriations Committee to justify BLM’s FY 2011 budget, which includes an additional $12 million for the controversial BLM Wild Horse and Burro program, as well as $42.5 million to purchase private land in the Midwest or East for long-term holding “preserves” for wild horses taken from Western public lands.

We are working to provide a recap of that meeting. Earlier on Monday, Secretary Salazar testified in the Senate Appropriations subcommittee – this meeting focused on renewable energy and other issues were not discussed.

Last Wednesday, March 3, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing (available online here) on the U.S. Department of Interior’s budget proposal. Thanks to all of you who took action last week opposing Salazar’s proposal for wild horses and burros, the senators heard you and both Senators Murkowski (R-AK) and Landrieu (D-LA) addressed the wild horse issue at the hearing. In opening comments Vice Chair Murkoski voiced her “concern” about the direction the agency and about moving more horses to the Midwest and East and not managing on them on their Western range.

Senator Landrieu highlighted her concerns of the program and specifically asked the Secretary what was being done to restore the millions of acres the wild horses have lost over the years. The Senator went on to express her deep concerns over the inhumane roundups during winter weather of ice and snow, and she pointed out that the “horses only have a measly 31 million acres” out of 500 million acres overseen by the Department of Interior. Salazar responded (looking at Landrieu and gesturing to other senators) that he’s aware of their concerns and that he is “not wedded” to his proposal , is open to better ideas and looks forward to working together.

This is a good first step, but we have a lot of work ahead. We’ll continue to provide updates and action alerts – so please stay tuned. The horses and burros need you to keep fighting for them … and please tell a friend about their plight. We need to grow this grassroots movement and that will happen one person at a time.

More than 130 people gathered at the Capitol Complex in Carson City Saturday to draw attention to what they claim is poor range science and the Bureau of Land Management’s mismanagement of wild horses on the federal land under the agency’s jurisdiction. (Karren Rhodes/Dayton Courier)

This past weekend, hundreds of Nevadans and horse advocates took to the streets to voice their opposition to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s gross mismanagement of the wild horse and burro program. At Nevada’s state capital in Carson City nearly 150 people joined together for a hugely successful “Truth Rally” demanding that the BLM stop rationalizing its unsustainable and cruel roundup and removal policy. Click here for just one of the pieces of media coverage. IDA sent alerts to our Nevada members, inviting them to the Carson City rally and another in Las Vegas.

Some of the facts:

- Cattle given five times more public land than wild horses & burros: Currently the BLM manages more than 256 million acres of public lands of which cattle grazing is allowed on 160 million acres; wild horses are only allowed on 26.6 million acres of this – our public land – which must be shared with cattle.

- Cattle given precedence in wild horse and burro areas: In the horse and burro Herd Management Areas (HMA), the BLM allocates more grazing and resources for cattle than for wild horse and burros – often two or more times as much grazing is designed for cattle than wild horses and burros on the publicly-owned HMA. These designations are known as “Animal Unit Months,” or AUMs.

- The number of wild horses in government holding facilities (35,000) now exceeds those left in the wild (33,000 by BLM estimates). The Calico Mountain Complex roundup of nearly 2,000 horses is the turning point for the number of horses now confined in government holding facilities as opposed to those wild and free on the range as Congress originally intended. If things do not change, President Obama will go down in history as the president who allowed the stockpiling of wild horses to overwhelm the numbers of those left on their natural, historic ranges.

- The wild horse population today is smaller than in 1974 when the BLM conducted its first census after Congress protected the horses in the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Members of Congress mentioned “extinction” multiple times during the floor debate of the Act, which passed unanimously due to grave concerns about these magnificent icons.

- Wild horses comprise a minuscule fraction (0.5 percent) of grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by cattle at least 200 to 1.

Just two of the dedicated protesters in Las Vegas . . .

Yesterday and today, President Obama was greeted in Las Vegas by wild horse advocates calling for a halt to the roundups and reform of the Wild Horse & Burro program. With much hard work and determination, the wild horse advocates were able to get four up close encounters with President Obama in his motorcade. Each time, they were holding different versions of the awesome banners that organizer Arlene Gawne produced and they are certain that Obama and his aides saw them and registered the message.

Yesterday, Gina Griesen of Nevada Voters for Animals and her daughter held banners as the Obama motorcade entered a housing development where the President was attending a $35,000 a plate fundraising dinner. Gina and her daughter stayed late and also caught the motorcade on its way out.

Today a number of advocates tracked Obama around Las Vegas catching up with the motorcade twice. On at least one of these occasions, they were in close proximity to the President’s limo, which was traveling very slowly and they could see him look straight at them holding their mustang freedom banners.

Advocates have also done numerous media interviews over these past few days.

These folks have worked really hard this week to bring the plight of wild horses to the President’s attention – and their hard work has paid off. Special thanks and kudos to Arlene for organizing this spectacular effort and to everyone who took to the streets to help the horses!

This photo taken from video shot by Deniz Bolbol, shows just how close the helicopters get to the horses when stampeding them into traps.

As IDA gears up for 2 Nevada demonstrations this weekend, (Las Vegas on Thursday, Carson City on Saturday), the BLM announced on February 12 that beginning February 21^st, the wild horses rounded up from Nevada’s Calico Mountain complex can only be seen on guided tours of 10 people per week during a two-hour window on Sundays. So much for BLM’s promised transparency!

The BLM announced in a news release that the strict new visitation policy is necessary “due to horse preparation for adoption activities (freezemarking, vaccinations, blood tests, deworming, aging and recordation of animal descriptions).” IDA is dismayed that humane observers such as Craig Downer will be restricted from performing their legally-mandated duties. The humane observers are the only eyes on the ground for the horses, and now they’re being told they must close their eyes for most of the week. But we have confidence that they will keep their eyes open and continue to reveal to the world the BLM’s inhumane policies.

The BLM also released a report claiming that 18 horses who have died or been euthanized since being captured in the Calico roundup “came off the range in poor condition” and those euthanized received “acts of mercy.” But astute observers such as award-winning investigative reporter George Knapp dispute the BLM’s claims that the wild horses were in “poor condition” before they were chased by helicopters, stampeded for miles and held captive in holding pens. Such cruel helicopter stampedes constitute much of BLM’s so-called “management.” IDA has little doubt that the Calico death toll will continue to rise during their inhumane internment, which even BLM admits can cause stress, disease and injury in captured wild horses.

Calico stallion interred at BLM Fallon holding facility Photo credit: Wild Horses of Nevada Photography

Wanted to share a terrific investigative news segment on the consequences of the Calico Mountain Complex. Kudos to George Knapp,  chief investigative reporter with KLAS I-Team (Las Vegas), for asking good questions and exposing this story. (note: in the piece you may some images of a downed mare which were taken by an IDA observer at the Fallon, NV holding facility)

I-Team: Wild Horses Forced into a Stampede of Death ( be sure and check out the video )
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=11979541#

Calico horse losing his freedom; Eagle horses spared for now. Photo Credit: Elyse Gardner

After receiving 9,000 public comments, the BLM announced yesterday that it is postponing the roundup of nearly 500 horses living in the Eagle Herd Management area in eastern Nevada.The announcement came just three days after IDA’s attorneys notified the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that they would sue to stop the helicopter stampede and capture, which had been scheduled to begin February 15.

Despite issuing an Environmental Assessment detailing a capture plan scheduled for mid-February, the BLM now states “there is not adequate time to safely conduct the proposed Eagle Herd Management Area (HMA) gather prior to the beginning of foaling season.” The agency states that it is currently seeking a solution for 50 horses who have wandered outside the Eagle HMA.

The decision comes days after the BLM ended the Calico roundup, in which, to date, 39 wild horses have lost their lives and an additional 20-30 pregnant mares spontaneously aborted.

Last month, the BLM also postponed the roundup of 200 horses in the Confusion Mountains HMA in Utah. IDA’s federal lawsuit challenging challenging the legality of BLM roundups and long-term holding facilities continues in federal court, with a hearing scheduled in late April.

Read IDA’s full news release here.

Horse struggling in trap pen at Calico on January 2, 2010. photo credit Craig Downer.

The BLM announced today that it has ended the Calico roundup, with 1,922 horses captured. This is 600 fewer horses than the BLM had targeted in its capture plan, which had estimated the horse population in the five Herd Management Areas (HMA’s) at Calico to be 3,040.

According to its press release, the BLM now estimates that 600 horses are left in the Calico Mountains Complex. If correct, this means that the BLM’s original population count was off by over 500 horses, raising serious questions about the validity of the horse census data upon which the agency is basing its management decisions.

The death toll from the roundup is 39 horses and counting, as the fatality rate at the Fallon holding facility has risen sharply in the past two weeks. Deaths not reported before in this blog include a four-year old sorrel mare who was kicked in the head while being transported from the trap pen. According to the BLM gather activity updates, her “eye globe was ruptured with complete prolapse of the iris. This eye could not be saved and would remain a serious physical defect. She was euthanized as an act of mercy.” Other deaths include mares euthanized at Fallon due to injuries to spine and pelvis, and failure to adjust to feed.

An additional 20-30 pregnant mares spontaneously aborted. Although the BLM has claimed that poor nutritional condition of the mares led to these miscarriages, equine veterinary sources disagree.

“Nutritional deficiencies have not been associated with abortion in mares. In general, if mares are in good condition (body condition of greater than 2 on a scale of 0 to 5, where 5 is very fat), they will carry a foal. Mares that are too thin, however, will not cycle or conceive.”

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/05-061.htm

Equine veterinarian Don Hoglund states: “20-25 abortions in captivity are not likely due to range conditions. Infections, vaccination reaction, but most likely stress is the cause. In fact, that many abortions are cause for concern, anywhere.”

Thanks to the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign for these resources.

The Calico roundup has taken a terrible toll on the horses who have lost their lives due to the trauma of the helicopter stampede and capture, and on the horses who survived the capture but have forever lost their freedom. The legal case over the illegality of the Calico roundup continues in federal court, and the Department of Justice has agreed that the Calico horses will not be moved from the Fallon holding facility until the case is resolved. In addition, lead counsel William J. Spriggs of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney has notified the Department of Justice that he is ready to sue again if the BLM proceeds with plans to round up 495 mustangs living in the Eagle Herd Management Area in eastern Nevada. Stay tuned.

Downed mare struggling to rise at Fallon 1/26/10 Photo Credit – Craig Downer

Mare who had spontaneous abortion that day at Fallon. Photo taken 1/26/10 by Craig Downer

Since we posted this item, the BLM has reported the deaths of four more horses at the Fallon facility, bringing the total number of deaths to 26 horses. In addition, several people have raised questions about some of the horses looking very thin in the video below. Here is what a wild horse expert has to say about this situation:

“A horse’s condition is more compromised in the winter, especially older horses, pregnant horses or those nursing foals. The additional stress of roundup, capture and separation only adds to their fragile condition. What is so sad is that not only do many of these horses have to endure a helicopter chase, capture and transport…some will be euthanized in the end. Some horses are too stressed out to eat hay or drink out of troughs when they are in corrals. These free ranging herd animals suffer more than we can see. They are wild horses, they are not even ‘tamed’ wild horses. They are born, live and die on the range and I am sure if they could speak they would prefer to live out their lives…season to season, on their range with their herd”

Neda DeMayo
Founder, CEO
Return To Freedom, American Wild Horse Sanctuary

News of brutality and suffering  continues to stream from the BLM’s wild horse holding facility in Fallon  Nevada, where the death count from the Calico Mountains Complex roundup  now stands at 22 horses. New deaths include a mare who crashed into  a gate and broke her neck, and more horses — including a stallion and  a 12 year old mare — found dead in the Fallon holding pens. Many of  the latter deaths are being attributed to “failure to adjust to  dietary change,” raising the likelihood that these horses suffered  horribly due to colic before dying, separated from their families, at  the Fallon holding pens. (See complete fatality summary below.)

According to John Neill, the BLM employee in charge of both the Fallon and Palomino Valley holding facilities, 15-20 mares suffered from spontaneous abortions. The trauma and terror that the BLM has subjected these pregnant horses to is likely to have played a role in many or most of these miscarriages.

BLM is also reporting that 20-25 horses are being treated for injuries and lameness caused by the roundup.

Read the rest of this entry »

On the heels of a news report indicating that Freedom, the proud stallion who escaped the BLM’s trap pens, may have been recaptured, comes the news that two more horses have died as a result of the Calico roundup. One, a colt, who should have been cavorting in the hills with his mother, someday having a chance at being a proud band stallion, was instead terrorized and stampeded by helicopter so long and hard that his little hooves were bruised to the point of sloughing off.  He died in the cold, in pain and alone in the BLM holding pens.

Another foal at BLM Fallon feedlot where Calico horses are being held.

According to the BLM, the little colt, stampeded for miles at top speeds from the only home he had ever known, forcefully separated from his mother and other family members, confined in trap pens, crammed onto trailers loaded with other terrorized horses, trucked four to five hours to the BLM holding facility at Fallon — suffered for two weeks before the BLM “euthanized” him (likely by rifle) and sold his body to a rendering plant.

The vet report below confirms that his death is a direct result of the roundup:

January 22, 2010

Black Rock East

History and Report on Sloughed Hoof Foal

This foal was received at the Indian Lakes contract holding facility from the Calico complex gather around 1/6/2010. He was fed and watered for a day and when noticed to be lame was removed from the general population and placed in a hospital pen. On 1/8/2010 this horse was treated with phenylbutazone (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) and penicillin (an antibiotic) for presumptive sole bruising and abscesses. No abscesses were noted at this time but there was some foot swelling suggesting hoof trauma. During the next 5 days the colt which was nine months old was fed and watered in the hospital pen and observed for body condition and lameness. He was retreated on 1/13/2010 with phenylbutazoneand penicillin. Sole abscesses and potential hoof sloughs were noted. Both hind feet were flushed with betadine (an antiseptic) and bandaged with gauze, antibiotic ointment and tape. The colt was slightly improved after treatment but over the next couple of days spent more and more time lying down. On 1/18/2010 the 2 hind feet were examined again. Multiple hoof sloughs were noted and the foal was euthanized for humane reasons. The cause of these hoof abscesses/sloughs was most likely hoof trauma from the gather operations. (Emphasis added.)

Richard Sanford DVM

NV #565

Also dead is a mare who went down in the trucks transporting frightened horses between their Calico homeland and the Fallon holding facility. No help was given to this mare on the four to five hour journey; she died shortly after arriving at this newest BLM feedlot.

At the same time it announced these latest fatalities, the BLM also revealed that it was treating 20-25 additional horses for injuries and lameness suffered in the roundup, where helicopters are chasing horses for up to ten miles or more over treacherous terrain at full gallop speeds.

If a person were to chase a horse with a truck so long, hard and fast that his hooves were bruised and damaged, that person would be put in jail on animal cruelty charges. If a private citizen were to transport a horse from one barn to another in a trailer where the horse went down, was afforded no assistance, and died, that citizen could be brought up on charges of neglect. But the BLM considers this blatant cruelty an acceptable side result of its capture operations, which it claims are done in the best interest of the horses!

Clearly the vast majority of American citizens find this treatment of our nation’s beloved wild horses unacceptable. Amidst growing public outrage, the BLM’s days of business as usual may be coming to an end.
Please do your part in stopping this cruelty by taking action here and here.

IDA, in collaboration with The Cloud Foundation and other organizations held a rally for wild horses and burros on January 21 in Sacramento, CA. Despite the cold and rainy weather, we had a great turnout of about 35 people. We had local folks from Sacramento and the Placerville area as well as people from the San Francisco Bay Area, a lady all the way from Monterey, and Craig Downer, author and wildlife specialist from Nevada. We gathered on the capitol steps under canopies with signs and large, beautiful pictures of horses running free. Some of the media that came out was Sacramento radio station KFBK 1530 and one from the Sacramento TV station KCRA 3.

We congregated inside the capitol for a press conference at noon and listened to experts express their passionate pleas to stop the round ups. Tawnee Preisner from NorCal Equine Rescue spoke of the reality that many of these magnificent animals will in up in slaughterhouses. Wildlife ecologist, biologist and author Craig Downer, who has been a humane observer of the round ups in Nevada, told the story of Freedom, a beautiful black stallion, and his escape from his captors. Freedom was determined to escape and jumped a six foot fence just to be caught in a second barbed wire fence. He somehow stomped out of the wire and galloped to the mountains. The observers, with tears in their eyes, cheered him on.

Click Here for more information on what you can do for Wild Horses.