Archive for August 1, 2011

BLM Plans Attack on Cloud’s Herd AGAIN

Posted: August 1, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Commentary by R.T. Fitch ~ President of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Unposted BLM Letter Appears in Advocate’s Mailboxes

Dollars to doughnuts that besides the idiot stampede of 2009 and all the PZP being used this new attempt at destroying Cloud’s herd is only an excuse to go in and take the last of Cloud’s lineage; the Spanish Palominos will be the ones to go as the BLM does not want another new face in the Pryors to go as public as has the story of Cloud.

Ginger Kathrens, unknowingly, gave a name and a voice to the wild horses of the United States by chronicling the life of one striking wild stallion, Cloud, and in so doing the whistle was blown on the BLM’s plan to manage our national heritage right into the dirt without the public even being aware of it.  The colt is out of the bag, now, and one of the methods that this out of control federal agency plans on defeating the wild horse advocacy is to destroy and eliminate one of the true showcase herds in the United States, the Pryor Mountain horses.  An attempt to deflate and wound the movement is the BLM’s way of striking back at the American public for taking a stand against a rogue agency that is violating the spirit and intent of Federal law.  In their little pea-picking brains they don’t have a clue as to the hornet’s nest they stirred up back in ’09 and they will be shell-shocked at the reaction they will get if they go through with Jim Spark’s plan to dilute and ultimately destroy what is left of a once proud and beautiful herd of wild horses.

Click (HERE) to visit Carol Walker’s, charter WHFF Advisory Board Member, site for additional information on the underlying reasoning used by Sparks for the further harassment of Cloud and his family.

Click on the document below to download it in it’s original form

Click on image to download document

Related articles

Texas Prison Horse Auction Nets $31,155

Posted: August 1, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Horse Slaughter
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Story and photo by Steven Long ~ Publisher/Editor of Horseback Magazine

Is Prison Catering to Kill Buyers?

Texas Prison Horses

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – In documents obtained by the animal advocacy group, Animals Angels, and provided to Horseback Magazine,61 Texas prison horses sold for between $102 – $852 each at a Huntsville, Texas auction.

One buyer and his son bought 37 of the horses and took them to his holding pasture near Waco. It is unknown if the horses have been transported to Mexico for disposal. The buyer has served time in a Texas prison operated by TDCJ, a prison official confirmed. Other horses were bought by a handful of other indiciduals and some are being advertised for sale on the open market.

The horses sold for a total of $31,155, with an average sale price of $510 each.

Last year the TDCJ equine program had an annual budget of almost $1.5 million managing at least $1,600 horses to serve their mounted guards who oversee prisoners in the fields and take part in manhunts. The horses are a majority three quarter Quarter Horse mix crossed with Percheron draft horses. The horses are bred stout to eaily support 300 pound prison guards during an eight hour shift in the fields.

In a 2004 story in Texas Horse Talk, prison officials said the 1,600 horses serve 76 mounted corrections officers. Asked last week to confirm that figure, a TDCJ spokesman said he was unable to provide Horseback Magazine with the exact number of uniformed prison guards routinely mounted on TDCJ horses for guard duty.

Horseback has asked for a detailed budget summery of the prison horse program but only totals for 2009, 2010, and part of 2011 have been provided. Those numbers include only salaries, the cost of feed and forage, and “other operating expenses.”

Forty of 61 horses owned and bred by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s tightly controlled equine breeding program were sold to two longtime kill buyers for the slaughter industry. The sale took place July 11, at the Huntsville Livestock Auction near a TDCJ concentration of prisons near the East Texas college town of Huntsville.

Click (HERE) to download sales receipt