Archive for April, 2011

150 Emaciated Horses Seized from Maryland Breeder

Posted: April 30, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Horse Rescue
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Story by David Nakamura of the Washington Post

Six Month Investigation Leads to Horses Resuce

Click Image to View Video

Canterbury Farms near Maryland’s Eastern Shore is the nation’s largest breeder of Polish Arabian stallions, a place where horses “feel at home,” according to its Web site, and where a walk among the paddocks “will leave you with the feeling that you are visiting puppies in horse clothing.”

But when investigators from Queen Anne’s County arrived two weeks ago, the scene was hardly so genteel: Many of the farm’s 146 pure breeds were emaciated, including more than a dozen that each were 300 pounds underweight, officials said. Their hooves were overgrown and infected, and some of the animals had parasites.

Six horses were euthanized and seven more seized by the county; the farm’s owner was ordered to improve the care of the remaining animals, said David MacGlashan, director of the Queen Anne’s animal services department.

On Friday afternoon, however, county officials, with the help of animal rights activists, returned to the farm and seized the remaining horses in one of the state’s largest horse-impound operations.

The horses were scheduled to be taken by the Days End Farm Horse Rescue group and the Humane Society of the United States to paddocks in Hagerstown and other foster farms, where they will be fed and given veterinary care, MacGlashan said.

“We’ve been monitoring these horses over the last six months, and our assessment is that they really just took a turn for the worse,” he said. “They looked bad, and it really mushroomed and went downhill really fast.”

Polish Arabians are a popular breed among equestrians, and top-level pure breeds can sell for up to $30,000 apiece, according to Days End Farm.

MacGlashan said the Canterbury Farms owner, whom he did not identify, was a longtime breeder who had fallen on hard times and could not continue to care for the animals. Food alone could cost up to $10,000 a month for that many horses, MacGlashan estimated. Polish Arabians can weigh up to 1,200 pounds.

County land records list Marsha H. Parkinson, 66, as owner of Canterbury Farms, located on a 202-acre plot, including an 80-acre pasture, on Melfield Lane in Centreville, Md. Parkinson did not return a telephone message left at her home Friday afternoon.

Real estate Web sites show that Parkinson purchased Canterbury Farms in 2001 for about $1.5 million and placed the property back on the market in January 2008 for $6.2 million. The property was not sold, and the price was reduced to $4.2 million by 2010. It is currently delisted.

MacGlashan said the farm’s owner voluntarily turned over the 13 horses two weeks ago. The owner has 10 days to contest the county’s action in court. The state’s attorney’s office is considering bringing criminal charges against the owner for neglect, MacGlashan said.

“This is just someone who has got a really big operation and, when things went downhill, did not have people to help or resources to fall back on,” he said.

Marci D’Alessio, a board member for the nonprofit Days End Farm, said the seven horses removed from Canterbury Farms two weeks ago were so emaciated that rescue workers could “see their spine and rib cage.” The animals are being fed five to six small meals a day as they are nursed back to full strength.

The rescue center estimates it will cost $1 million to care for the malnourished horses for six months, and it is seeking donations to pay the bills and volunteers to help with the rehabilitation, D’Alessio said.

Nevada Continues War Against Wild Horses

Posted: April 28, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Video from KTVN Reno, Nevada

Nevada Legislators Want to take Water From Wild Equids

BLM, USGS Begin New Wild Horse Fertility Control Study

Posted: April 27, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Seal of the United States Department of the In...

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Unedited Press Release from the BLM

The Bureau of Land Management and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have begun a five-year wild horse contraceptive study at the BLM’s short-term holding facility in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.  The pasture breeding study will test the effectiveness of two formulations of the investigational contraceptive vaccine SpayVac® to determine if the treatment can reduce foaling rates in wild horse mares.

The goal is to see if SpayVac®, a novel formulation of a glycoprotein called porcine zona pellucida (PZP), will provide a longer-term effect than other PZP vaccines currently used by the BLM.  If the vaccine is found to reduce foaling in this controlled setting, it will be considered for use with free-roaming horses to help control population growth rates on the range.

As the primary agency responsible for management of wild horses on U.S. public lands, the BLM has a need for a long-lasting contraceptive agent to control herd growth rates. Given the protection afforded by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 and a general lack of natural predators, wild horse populations increase at an average rate of 20 percent a year and can quickly exceed the carrying capacity of their ranges.

The BLM, as part of its development of a new wild horse and burro management strategy, has been stepping up its efforts to reduce population growth rates in wild horse herds using contraceptive agents. A main limitation of the agents currently available is that they are of relatively short duration or need to be administered annually. Maximizing the duration of contraceptive effectiveness is especially important in wild horses, which in most cases must be captured in order for the treatment to be successfully administered.

In the BLM-USGS study, 90 mares have been treated with either one of two formulations of the vaccine or a placebo.  The mares will be followed for five years to measure anti-PZP antibody levels and compare the foaling rates between treated horses and controls.  Although breeding is not usually allowed to occur in BLM facilities, a clinical trial in this controlled environment will provide critical information on how well SpayVac® works as a contraceptive.

The mares and stallions enrolled in the study were selected from horses already in BLM holding facilities.  They are being housed in three 30-acre pastures and will be together during the next five breeding seasons.  Foals that are born during the study will be offered for adoption each fall after they have been weaned. At the conclusion of the study, all adult horses will be returned to the BLM’s Adopt-A-Horse Program or placed in long-term pasture facilities.

The BLM has an interagency agreement with the USGS for research and scientific support, and this study is a collaborative effort with scientists from the USGS, veterinarians with the Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and TerraMar Environmental Research LLC.

Contacts:   Paul McGuire , 405-794-9624  
    Heather Emmons , 775-861-6594  
    Tom Gorey , 202-912-7420  
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100 Captive Wild Horses Moved From Squalid BLM Facility

Posted: April 26, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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(The News As We See It) by R.T. Fitch ~ Author/Director of HfH Advisory Council

BLM clings to “No Wrong Doing” on its part!

Multiple news reports indicate that more than 100 wild horses have been moved to a short-term holding concentration camp at the Utah State Prison in Gunnison. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allegedly moved the captive mustangs to a BLM corral at the prison after the agency’s Butterfield Canyon facility near Salt Lake City incited national outrage.

True to form, the move of 108 horses does not mean that the BLM is accepting any accountability. Mouthpieces for the agency insist the horses are well-treated and the national attention — triggered by a professional video of muddy, filthy corrals and a documented written report — are without merit.

“We’ve always had mud issues, but not like this year’s,” said Jared Redington, who manages the corrals for the BLM. “The reason we shipped those horses out was to make a little more room here at the facility.”

Last week Redington sang a different tune when he reported that everything was “Okay” for an initial Salt Lake Tribune article on the incident.

“With all the rain that’s projected we’re going to have,” Redington said, “we thought it was best to move those horses out of the facility to give us a little more room so we can rotate the horses into drier pens.”

The controversy began on March 15 when a potential horse adopter,  Lisa Friday, had the misfortune to visited the facility. Obviously concerned by what she saw at the filthy facility, she recorded video and wrote a detailed report that she submitted to the Cloud Foundation, a world-wide recognized mainstream  wild horse advocacy organization. The video was professionally edited and narrated by Emmy award-winning cinematographer Ginger Kathrens.  Ms. Kathrens carefully and accurately states, in the tape, that, “Lisa was unprepared for what she saw, animals that had no dry place to lay down, or those that had trouble walking in a urine-soaked quagmire of mud and manure.” Then, as a scene unfolds showing a motionless mare lying on the ground, Friday herself is heard on the video, saying, “That horse has been laying down since we got here. Hasn’t moved.”  The video on its own merits is extremely compelling.

The exposure of the wanton conditions at the facility generated heated criticism of the BLM, but Redington continues to cling to the concept of misrepresentation.

“Yes, there was some things in there where they didn’t tell the whole story,” Redington said. “But that’s their given right to come out and look at the facility. But what the video doesn’t show is the straw that we have out for the horses. And where the mare was actually laying down was on dry ground.”

In addition to raising criticism about muddy corrals, the video suggested inadequate medical attention. In one scene, the video shows a mare with a gaping shoulder wound, surrounded by flesh or hair that has a ghastly purple color. The tape’s dialogue indicates that the wound may be infected while equine owners from across the country could clearly see that it needed to be sutured at the very least.

Redington said the discoloration actually came from a purple antibiotic medicine sprayed on the wound. “What they were interpreting as an infection was actually a treatment,” Redington said. “The veterinarian that was on site said the horse is fine.”  A statement that is rebuffed by credentialed veterinarians.

Redington continued to crawfish by saying that the movement of horses did not directly result from the controversy. He said a potential movement of horses had been under discussion anyway, but he acknowledges the controversy may have sped up the decision.

As usual, the ultimate fate of the captive wild horses is unclear. The BLM’s broken policy of removing federally protected and healthy wild horses from their rightful natural habitat has resulted in a log-jam of more horses being held prisoner in short and long-term holding than are free on the public lands of the west.  Said mismanagement all but assures that the moved horses will enter into the BLM’s system of obscurity where they will either be shipped off to long-term holding centers in the Midwest, at taxpayers expense or mysteriously disappear at auction for destinations unknown but assuredly not in the best interest of America’s national icon; the wild horse.

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Basic “Rules of the Road” for Horse Keeping

Posted: April 25, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Horse Rescue
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Article by Jerry Finch ~ Founder/President of Habitat for Horses

A little “Horse Sense” goes a long way!

Beyond any doubt, there are those who know far more than I’ve even thought about in relation to the care of horses, but there are a few things that over the course of years of operating an equine rescue have become “rules of the road” in horse keeping.

Having witnessed far too many ripped and torn bodies from barbed wire, the “no barbed wire in areas less than 5 acres” rule is basic in our adoption application. We all know better, or at least I hope we do, but I still hear people tell me, “I’ve had barbed wire around my horse’s pens for years and he knows to never touch it.”  It takes just once to maim or kill a horse. By then it’s too late.

Another rule – never tie a horse in a trailer. The rule is proven when some drunk nobody runs into the side of your trailer, flipping it over. What might have been a minor accident for your horse can easily turn into a horse with a broken neck – because he was tied. Saw it, tried to help, but the horse never had a chance.

Tying a horse to a tree is just plain dumb. Sure years can pass and nothing happens, but on that hot afternoon when no one is around, here comes that dog that has to nip at the horse’s feet, the horse runs around the tree trying to escape and… you don’t even want to picture the end result.

Result of halter left on ~ photo by Jerry Finch

This weekend another rule of good horsemanship was broken by an owner that should have known better. The rule – never leave a halter on an unattended horse. I’ve seen the broken rule end up in a couple of very ugly deaths. The rule breaker this weekend didn’t lose the horse – yet.

It’s in our hospital, the result of using a hind foot to scratch his head, something most horses do quite often. This time the hoof got caught in the halter, the horse fell down and stayed twisted up and struggling for hours on end before someone finally came outside and saw what was happening.

His head is swollen to almost twice it’s normal size. Because the horse could barely breath, Doc Jenkins did an emergency tracheotomy and inserted a breathing tube. He’s been on IV fluids since Friday.

So just another example of horse owners not thinking. There was no reason to leave that halter on. The horse is a pocket horse – loves people. An act of laziness and while the result didn’t kill the horse – yet – there will be thousands of dollars in medical bills and the horse may never again be the same.

Jerry Finch
Habitat for Horses, Inc.
PO Box 213
Hitchcock, TX 77563
409-935-0277

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Obama’s BLM Can Be Sued for Wild Horse Roundups

Posted: April 25, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Article by Barbara Leonard of the Courthouse News Service

A Dent in BLM Armor brings hope to Nonprofits

Twin Peaks wild horses being stampeded by BLM's Cattoor contractor ~ photo by Terry Fitch

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) – A federal judge refused to dismiss wildlife groups’ lawsuit over the federal roundup of more than 1,500 wild horses and burros in northeast California and northwest Nevada.

After the Bureau of Land Management concluded in September 2008 that there was an overpopulation of wild horses and burros in the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area, it proceeded to conduct a roundup under the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

Before the roundup, the bureau estimated that there were about 2,300 wild horses and more than 200 burros living on the Twin Peaks range, which covers 789,852 acres. The agency felt that the population exceeded appropriate management levels by 1,800 horses and 200 burros. If left alone, the bureau felt that the increasingly unsustainable population would seriously degrade the surrounding environment.

Using helicopters, federal agents extracted 1,637 horses and 160 burros from Sept. 19 to 25, 2010. They later returned 58 horses and one burro to the range, and transferred the remainder to corrals. From there, the animals can either be adopted or transferred to long-term pastures on private lands.

In Defense of Animals, Dreamcatcher Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary and three individuals sued the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management and three officials, alleging violations of the Wild Horse Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act. The groups have been entangled in litigation over the roundup since 2009.

They claim that the government captures and releases animals indiscriminately and pays little attention to demographics, such as age and disability, or familial bands.

Another 180 horses were returned to the Twin Peaks, including mares that had received fertility-control treatment, but 15 died, the Eastern District of California found Wednesday.

The government tried to dismiss the complaint, claiming that the plaintiffs lacked standing and that the claims were moot since the roundup had concluded.

“Defendants argue that Plaintiffs’ claimed injury is merely an alleged personal sadness at the effects of Defendants’ actions,” according to the 30-page ruling. “Plaintiffs claim that they have a legally protected right to view horses on the Twin Peaks range. Defendants maintain that neither of these assertions is a legally protected right that would give rise to a viable claim.”

U.S. District Judge Morrison England disagreed, however. It is enough to survive summary judgment that the plaintiffs claim that they have suffered an injury by losing their ability to watch wild horses and burros on the Twin Peaks, and the defendants have yet to prove that the animals were in excess.

“Were this Court to accept Defendants’ proposition that Plaintiffs have no right to view any ‘excess’ wild horses, no plaintiff would ever have standing to challenge Defendant BLM’s removal of ‘excess’ horses, regardless of how flagrant the violation in making that decision,” England wrote. “Defendants have provided no authority for such a proposition.”

The wildlife activists claim that the roundups would have been far more limited, and fewer animals removed from Twin Peaks in the first place, if the government did not violate the laws in question, which they claim prohibit use of long-term holding facilities.

“This Court need not decide at the motion to dismiss stage whether long-term holding is in fact prohibited under the Wild Horse Act,” England wrote. “Assuming, as this Court must, that Plaintiffs are correct in their allegation that long-term holding is statutorily prohibited, Plaintiffs have established the injury-in-fact and causation elements of standing.”

There is also a viable option for relief, since the government can, as the plaintiffs propose, relocate the horses and burros to public lands in the western United States, as opposed to long-term holding facilities in Oklahoma or Kansas.

Mootness is also not an issue since there remains some question as to whether the government has actually concluded the roundup. Litigation may also enable the plaintiffs to enjoin the government from sterilizing the horses and reach other goals

Click (HERE) to read legal documentation

“I attempt to shy away from discussing money and donations in public but I would like to make our readers aware that HfH Advisory Council, Habitat for Horses, the Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue, the ASPCA and several private citizens are engaged in a legal wrestling match with the BLM over the above very issue.  Right now the West Douglas herd runs free, for the time being, because of these suits but a concise win would force the entire “roundup” issue to be addressed and you can be a part of that victory.  Please visit us at www.hfhadvisorycouncil.org to learn more about our fight with the BLM and how we are attempting to put a stop to these illegal roundups, once and for all.  Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.” ~ R.T.

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BLM to Move 200 Captive Wild Horses from Foul Facility

Posted: April 23, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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(The News As We See It) by R.T. Fitch ~ Author/Director of HfH Advisory Council

Public Outcry Pushed Proper Buttons to Assist Horses

Approximately 200 captive, wild horses currently imprisoned at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Salt Lake Regional Wild Horse and Burro Center in Herriman, Utah, will allegedly be relocated according to recommendations made by an investigative BLM appointed team who visited the site earlier this month.

The well respected and world renowned Wild Horse advocacy organization, the Cloud Foundation, issued a stunning video and carefully written report on April 9th outlining and documenting the abuse suffered by the captive wild horses as observed by wild horse adopter Lisa Friday as she visited the Salt Lake facility in mid-March of this year.

The video clearly displayed “suctioned-in” horses that could not move in urine soaked mud knee deep to the adult horses.  Several horses remained in frozen positions during Ms. Friday’s visit as they were unable to move.  When local facility personnel were notified of the horse’s plight a piece of heavy equipment was run towards the horses in an effort to scare them and make them move yet they remained stuck in place during the duration of Ms. Friday’s visit.

After a deluge of calls local newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune, published a biased and lopsided report that everything was “Okay” as reported by Tribune reporter Brandon Loomis.  Loomis indicated that fault erred with the Cloud Foundation and with Ms. Friday as the facility’s manager, Jared Redington was interviewed, by phone, as saying;

“We don’t have anything to hide,”

Also quoted in the dubious article was dog and cat investigator for the Humane Society of Utah, not to be confused with the Humane Society of the United States, John Fox postulating that he did not observe any violations of animal cruelty laws and that wet conditions are to be expected this time of year while the animals appeared to be in good health.

Since the above article was published both its author and the newspaper have been publicly spanked as the report does not clearly reflect the actual findings of the investigative team.  To the contrary, 200 wild horses will be removed to the BLM’s Gunnison facility about 125 miles to the south of Salt Lake under the recommendation of the team’s investigation and it has been further recommended that a agricultural engineer familiar with large animal holding facilities be hired to evaluate the site for improvements.

Where the report falls short is on the issue of abuse and neglect as the internal team stated that more than 90 percent of the captive horses displayed body conditions of between 4 and 6 on the Henneke Body Condition Scale. Inspectors said tooth eruption probably contributed to the condition of a three-year-old mare described in the Cloud report as ‘thin.’

“The cause for her weight loss was unknown but thought to most likely be due to shedding incisors, a molar, or retained cap causing a decrease in appetite or feed conversion efficiency,” the report said.

“We are pleased that they are improving the conditions for this facility, but we hope they use the money Congress has approved for good use such as water improvements and plan treatments rather than roundups,” said Ginger Kathrens, founder of the Cloud Foundation.

“Disgruntled taxpayers are taking to the streets to demand BLM stop costly roundups and lifelong incarceration of the last of America’s wild mustangs,” continues  Kathrens, “The immediate solution is to release wild horses back into zeroed out herd areas originally designated for their use by Congress. BLM admits this is an option, but has failed to move on it—perhaps fearing reprisal from extractive users, many of whom are large multi-national corporations trying to enlarge their profits at the expense of taxpayers.”

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