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
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Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
OK….Man your Battle Stations. We have PLENTY of ammunition. Get those faxes and phones calls rolling.
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tragic. tragic and criminal.
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Who remembers the scene in Soy lent Green when before being executed at 65 to become food for the rest of the world you get a video of the world as it was. Why are we trying so hard to make that a reality?
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For me the wild ones have never had a chance. Whatever we can do for them will be part of a new world for them to live in safely. They have never been safe!! I see going forward as the path to all we need to do and have never done to completion. We should not want things to be as they were! The future is unknown even if we have a plan.
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BLM, This time we will be watching and aware. This time you may capture the attention of the country again but what else goes on out there on the ranges will be just as important. Every horse out there is Cloud. Every horse has as much to lose. We love all our wild ones and fight for all of them to be free!! BLM will chase the symbol and we will pursue justice for the un-named and the non-famous and pray the symbol lives on and flourishes despite yet another attack!
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Amen!
Sent from R.T.’s iPhone
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You have got to be kidding me!!! How much more insult can the BLM add to the injury they cause every day than to AGAIN devastate this world renown and loved herd of wild horses? This is backwards thinking. Saving and allowing this particular herd could have been one of the biggest feathers in the cap of the BLM WH&B “management” program … but instead they are doing the opposite and by doing so are throwing it in our faces to tell us that these animals and their land (our land) do not belong to the American taxpaying people – that the animals (horses, burros, predators) and the land belong to THEM and they will do whatever they
#%^@* please with them. Sick… sick… sick…
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What can we say???? The DIRTY, LOWLIFE SOB’S, REALLY WISH EACH & EVERY ONE INVOLVED WOULD JUST DROP DEAD!!!!! Since I feel this will not HAPPEN, So now what do we do?????? How do we help Ginger???? I love every thing she does….THE CLOUD FOUNDATION HAS TO REMAIN THE SAME FOREVER!!!!!!
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This smokescreen they are using Cloud for will only anger a larger number of citizen wild horse lovers who are more informed and aware of the constant double dealing we get from BLM! BLM says; “Hey, look at this!! We can do this!!” We say; “Look over here, people. Look at this Other action being taken against your wild horses while they chase our symbol!”
We are on to you, BLM. We know what this portends. This is your way of driving the nail deeper into our hearts and the heart of the wild horses’ range across the West. This is meant to be a deadly blow! You are all right!! You will have to deal with all of us as you throw your arrogance in our faces!!
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“Dear Interested Party”??? Seriously?
Rather covert, this one, eh. No day, date, month, year. Each and every round up sickens me to my very core…this one, well, it’s like they are saying “In your face, America, we’re going after Cloud”. I think every Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public that owns a television might even speak up on this one. Perhaps that’s why they haven’t ‘published’ this letter (Thanks for it, by the way.) and why they are making it difficult for the uninitiated to comment.
Thanks for the latest sucker punch, Mr. Sparks…back atcha.
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Unfreaking believable! Last year bunch of volunteers put in catchments just to try to get water to the horses year round. I don’t know what has happened in terms of them accepting the catchments but geez give the horses a chance!
We have just come out of a really crazy winter–one that made Jaredhave to helicopter up to see the horses.
One horse in particular they will go after is the chestnut mare that some bozo turned loose. Don’t know if all of this is because of this horse but what a freaking waste of money.
The Forest Service is also to blame. They replaced that stupid fence last year cutting the horses off from summer grazing lands.
When and if this happens I’ll be there to help witness for Cloud and all his family that lives on the Pryors.
In the meantime Cloud know that I’m thinking of you and I am so sorry that others can’t and won’t leave you alone.
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That wasn’t just the Forest Service’s fence. When I called Forest Service last fall, they said it was totally a joint project with the BLM–now that they’ve cut off part of their historic range, this is an easy way for the BLM to remove more horses.
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Yet, the land beyond the fence was never part of the range area the horses officially occupy. The loss of it will not account for a smaller range available. I see no reason for this roundup after the heavy use of PZP!! BLM needs to step back.
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R.T. – are you or anyone else able to get this information to Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (and he can share with the other senators who signed on to his letter to Salazar this past week)? He seems to be in the horses’ corner (and since all the congress members have finished peeing the table in DC today and zipped up their pants) he might be able to start a fire there about this! Just wondering….
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I will forward it but if everyone would/did it would have more impact, for sure.
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Reading about the environmental rally planned by the Biological Diversity Center (see below) and reading elsewhere about Tim DeChristopher’s brave act of civil disobedience makes me wish that wild-horse advocates from around the world could, in a massive show of civil disobedience, come to Cloud’s defense, standing arm-in-arm to prevent his herd from being further molested by badge-wearing outlaws. I also wish the $300,000 fencing wiped out by a natural “disaster” — sort of like the walls of Jericho fell after a faithful band marched around the perimeter seven times, prayed, and played trumpets.
You can click here’s for information on the upcoming anti-tar-sands rally: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/action/events/index.html#tarsands
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Does they BLM not have one brain cell all together? It is public land yet in one article I read the other day the BLM claim that THEY own it? It is public FREE (key word) land. Leave the horses alone for Petes sakes! The BLM wants to destroy every single wild horse out there. They carefornothing but lining their pockets with the blood of these magnificent horses. Too bad if they do round up every single wil horse they can’t just move them all to Mustang Monument. They’d be free still and have their lives like they should. NO ONE owns those mustangs so let them be the way God intended them to be. Wild, happy and free.
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Laura, I shuddered when read about the plans for public/private “eco-sanctuaries” removing land from the HMAs, and the fact that the BLM is going to “help” by providing grants. I immediately thought of ways individuals and corporations could literally destroy the HMA system, and wipe out the Mustangs and burros in a fairly short period of time. Then the land would become available for other, more profitable uses like extraction, alternative energy, water transfers, and general development.
Mar, you’re right about a smokescreen. The Wizard of BLM commands, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” IMO, putting Cloud IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN is a distraction. Any two-bit magician knows distraction makes a “trick” work. In this case, the trick is making other Mustangs disappear while everyone’s upset about Cloud.
Yes, we should be concerned about and fight for the Pryor Mustangs, but don’t forget there’s always more in the BLM’s “bag of tricks” than meets the eye!
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This is a long speech, but it is by the young man, Tim DeChristopher, who has gotten more national press for trying to stand up to the BLM than any wild-horse advocate has yet, and is powerful and gripping, so I thought I’d share it: http://www.peacefuluprising.org/tims-official-statement-at-his-sentencing-hearing-20110726
The name of the website that has publishing the speech gives me hope. I wonder if these activists would want to be involved in our fight for Cloud?
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WOW! This is the kind of person that confuses these corrupt people and scares them. They can’t fathom doing something that isn’t for money, that doesn’t profit in some way and are risking jail to do the right thing, even though they don’t like the idea.
No wonder they don’t understand the idea that the Mustangs are an American Heritage. They don’t even remember America BEGAN with civil disobedience and revolution.
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I AM OUTRAGED, OUTRAGED, EXTREMELY OUTRAGED. LEAVE OUR PRYOR MUSTANGS ALONE, NO MORE DESTRUCTION OF THIS PRECIOUS HERD. WE WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THIS GD INSANITY OF OUR LUNATICS IN GOVT. ALL OF YOU RESPONSIBLE WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY US AND GOD. YOU WILL BE JUDGED BY THE HAND OF GOD. DID YOU DESTROY OR DID YOU DO YOUR BEST TO HEAL THE SANDS OF TIME? YOU WILL NOT ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. JUDGEMENT DAY, WE WILL REMEMBER THE ANGUISH UPON THIS LAND FOREVER. OKAY WARRIORS TIME TO RISE UP, SPEAK AND HOLD OUR HANDS TOGETHER TO STOP THIS. I WILL FLY OUT THERE AND WILL BE ONE WITH ALL OF YOU, I AM READY TO REACH OUT MY HANDS AND HOLD YOURS. TOGETHER WE CAN STOP THIS HOGWASH. WE MUST FOR OUR HORSES ARE TO PRECIOUS. IT IS UP TO US TO SAVE ALL OF THEM NOW. WE MUST SAVE THEM. WE ARE THEIR VOICES. THINK, ACT, SPEAK, DO, SAVE OUR HORSES, SAVE THEM ALL. WE MUST.
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Keep an eye on this round up The BLM is proposing water trapping. I have read through the original law and subsequent additions and alterations. Although the BLM acquired powers to use aircraft including helicopters and motorised vehicles to round up the horses in 1976 and 1978 they did not I repeat DID NOT get the ban on using water traps lifted, Nowhere in the laws can I find a referral to water trapping other than in the Original Annies law which specifically bans use of water trapping. If the BLM uses water traps ARREST them Make complaint to the local sheriff and state prosecutor as its a fedral law the FBI as well.
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The BLM has broken the memorandum of understanding with HSUS countless times and here will be another case. Roundups and removals were to have decreased with increased PZP use. Instead the roundups and removals have increased also.
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I believe the BLM won’t stop until there is nothing left…
How sad that our grandchildren may not see a mustang in the wild, that they may only read about them in textbooks…
The BLM needs to be stopped.
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Retribution plain and simple!
Let me tell you how I feel about them…….
BLM is out to scalp anyone–horse/human/elk/fish–that stands in its way–they are ruthless/godless/inhuman/unholy–a scourge in the biblical sense.
Evil– right out of hell.
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I think they are increasing the round ups this year because next year they see that their hard won funds might be lowered or cut off. They want to do as much damage as they can this year before the money runs out.
If anyone saw the article about how much a rancher makes per horse, I do not understand how this program can go on. They will be giving these horses to the ranchers who now care, LOL, for them, and they will get to do whatever they want with them. Some of these ranchers make $500,000 per year and one guy makes more. This is what Congress should be cutting out of our out of control budget.
I got one of these letters yesterday and wondered why it was not public. Also, I’ve learned that no matter what you say in it, your letter goes to a pile that says “No New Ideas” and then trashed I’m sure. This is what our government is coming too.
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The show “Morning Joe” on MSNBC has a link for feature suggestions:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28544273/ns/msnbc_tv-morning_joe/
3000 words or less, easy send and they would like video and links. This is an important show for DC. Any ideas on what to say, video, best rep to educate the media and America about the fraud, waste, abuse and extermination of our Wild Equines by DOI/USDA?
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I just sent my copy of this page and the one to fire Ken Salazar and the one to demand justice for Ole Sister.
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Here’s what sent to MSNBC (and no, people not listed are certainly qualified to guest speak…just didn’t hear from anyone here re: suggestions):
To the Morning Joe Crew:
You need to do a week long feature on Dept of Interior and Dept of Agriculture (public lands issues). Why? Because it highlights the debt problem to it’s simplest form; government debt, poor spending choices, improper revenue collection and destruction of natural resources for leases that are controlled by corporate, frequently foreign, controlled interests.
There are individuals and orgs trying to get this issue to the forefront and are repeatedly stymied by states, Feds and courts (and media). I suggest looking into the Tim DeChristopher case, contact Western Watersheds Project, Madeliene Pickens, American Wild Horse Preservation, Huffington Post, Ted Turner, Ginger Kathrens and you’ll find that we in the US are having a public lands “fire sale” exacting huge tolls on wildlife, vegetation and more importantly…water. Can you spell fracking? It is no coincidence that the crazies in Congress are trying to neuter EPA and holding up court nominations.
One week, just one with a few segments dedicated to domestic resources and failed and/or controversial Fed and state policies with a pittance in compensation, sloppy environmental oversight and dwindling open space, particularly the West for vegetation, wild equines, wolves, buffalo, too much livestock and extraction and the WATER WARS!
Don’t go the traditional environment/animal “expert” (HSUS, PeTA, etc) route for your speakers…think outside the box.
In closing, I don’t what Secretary Salazar has over Obama but that guy should have been fired after Deepwater Horizon. Don’t have much problems with Vilsack at USDA…but they have subsidy problems…especially corporate ag like Tyson, Cargil, etc.
Thanks for your consideration.
Denise
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Is that really a Take Pride in America logo on their letterhead? I may be ill. Why can’t anyone stop this agency? Why on earth are they worrying about 90-100 horses? Do they have so much money they don’t know how to spend and squander it?
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I have little time to blog these days – I use my time searching news sites for opportunities to talk wild horses – but just had to comment on this one:
First – in the upper left hand corner the use of the buffalo as BLM’s emblem – Fruedian slip? Or, a bully-like in your face (“whit ‘ya thunk ‘ya ‘gonna do ’bout it?”) admission?
Second – the desecration of the United States flag in the stylization on the upper right hand corner – that I find offensive. May be acceptable as an art form today – but NOT on USA government letterhead. Take Pride – really?
I know, I know, BLM to Roxy: “Whit ‘ya thunk ‘ya ‘gonna do ’bout it? Who’da ‘ya tink ‘ya are anyways, a tax paying citizen or sumthin’?” (scratching head, rolling eyes)
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This question would be best answered by Laura, R.T. and/or Terry (since they are thankfully in the field as our reps). Would it be at all possible to have LIVE VIDEO from this (or any other) round-up?
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Thanks for the reply- So if I understand the “Scoping Notice” and comments, the round-up may not occur if the horses go (graze) where the government wants or thinks they should? Would it be feasible to make pledges in Cloud’s name toward a live-feed fund? When you say “expensive” how many zeros?
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Presidents that want to be re-elected should take heed. This agency an albatross with a long, sordid past:
http://prfamerica.org/speeches/10th/RICO-ActionBLM.html
RICO ACTION — RANCHER STOPS BLM ACCESS EXTORTION
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What a disgusting proposal of BLM’s. This must be stopped.
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http://www.irs.gov/compliance/enforcement/article/0,,id=213778,00.html
Examples of Public Corruption Investigations – Fiscal Year 2010
Former Bureau of Land Management Official Sentenced to Prison
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http://www.pogo.org/investigations/
Natural Resources
POGO’s Natural Resources Investigations are aimed at making the federal government more accountable to Western states, Native American tribes, and the U.S. taxpayer.
The federal government has failed in its role as a steward of public natural resources. The tremendous influence exerted by oil and gas companies and other special interests has resulted in industry-friendly political appointments and legislative initiatives, and cozy relationships between the government and industry. The result has been a veritable fire sale on the nation’s oil, natural gas, and other resources.
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America, & “her” STUPID government are the biggest joke in the entire world!! We are a country in debt up to who knows where in the trillions, & our stupid elected officials want to add further insult to injury by announcing possible cuts to many much needed programs, such as social security, medicare, & the like, instead of cutting all the unneeded, wasteful spending on harassing, rounding up, removing, & otherwise destroying what’s left of all that America USED to be, FREEDOM, OUR wild American mustangs (& burros!!), the very spirit of what America once proudly stood for! And, yes! EVERY wild horse is, in effect, Cloud, every wild horse is as important as the other, every wild horse also represents us, you & me!! If those IDIOTS go after Cloud & his families again, I think the entire WORLD should rise up & REBEL!! America is out of control, & needs to be “reined in”. Our government is destroying our wild animals, our environment, our basic human rights & needs, & eventually, if not stopped, the world! I may sound a little dramatic, but it’s the truth. Let’s man our battle stations, indeed, but let’s do it in PERSON, we all know phone calls, emails & letters alone, are NOT enough.
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Has anyone done a head count of the wild horses in the Pryor Mtns? Why do they even mention wanting public comments? They don’t care about public comments, the brutal idiots do what ever they want? I bet you they sit there an laugh at us claiming their victory, they win, the horses lose. This has been going on for too long folks, talk is just getting cheaper, those heartless 2 legged beings do not care about the horses or us, physical action is needed. Each state should have organized rally of many people go to the trap site and stop blm in their tracks, only way.
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It worked for the Tahrir Square protestors in Cairo, didn’t it!
No one would even have to make a fraudulent bid at an auction, like civil disobeyer Tim DeChristopher did to get the BLM to back off (see his eloquent sentencing hearing speech linked above, in case you haven’t had a chance to read it, and note that the BLM’s auction turned out to be illegal!).
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I think 150 horses is about accurate. They left 125 adults after that round up in 2009. I think there were 10-15 foals and now the’d be 2. Then we have last years foal crop–not sure of those numbers. I know of 4. And Matt says about 15 foals for this year.
Those numbers do not reflect the increase use of PZP nor do they reflect losses due to this very hard winter the horses went through. It also does not include the loss of Admiral and his son Climbs High.
These are very hardy animals that have learned to make do with nothing. The catchments were put in to try to help the horses to entice them to use the whole range. If they can do that then according to someone at the Pryor Center from last year–there won’t be as many round ups.
I still root for LEAVE THE HORSES ALONE
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This is so frustrating to see the horses rounded up again and again when we have all voiced our thoughts against the practice.
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You know what really ticks me off is the government SPENDING OUR MONEY ON THIS KIND OF CRAP. Cutting funding for education, SS, and military! Congress persons have NO accountability for their spending, don’t even have to keep records! Why are they not required to submit expense reports to us… their employers? Do they know what a PER DIEM is? The A*holes ruining this country no longer live with or understand the folks. Their sense of reality and evidently their intelligence ended at the Washington DC line. I want to scream (and often do) HOW DARE THEY!!!!????
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Laura,
I took your advice and sent several reports to the FBI. They responded to each one, but said that what I reported was not under their jurisdiction and that I should report it to the IG DO. In my second report, I tried to emphasize the fraudulent management. Again, I was asked to forward to IG DOI. (I actually think in acronymns now.)
Sometimes I think that the biggestmopen secret in Amerrics is that DIO bleeds corruption from every corner. When I talk about it with politically savvy people whom I think could provide direction or when I blogged on the Jon Stewart site, it was just like “oh yeah”.
If youndo not mind, I would appreciate it if you could provide me with an email or other off blog address where I could reach you. I have an idea or two I’d like to run by you.
Christie
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From Carol Walker’s website:
There is no mention of how many horses they plan to remove, nor is there any mention of when this removal is supposed to take place, this year or next year.
The timing is very interesting and not at all surprising given the presence of the new fence which now cuts this herd off from its historic and annually used summer and fall range, onto the Forest Service Lands. If the BLM does do their Environmental Assessment this late summer while the horses are milling around, trying to find a way to their normal range and not being able to, and then grazing down the Herd Management Area on top of the mountain, it will be easy for them to prove that there is degradation of the range – degradation that they have caused by erecting this monstrosity of a $300,000 fence.
“The public is encouraged to participate throughout the EA process.”You may make comments in writing to:
Jim Sparks
Field Manager BLM –
Billings Field Office
5001 Southgate Drive Billings, MT 59101
Fax 406-896-5281
“Questions should be directed to: Jared Bybee, Wild Horse and Burro Specialist: 406- 896-5223.”
They make a note that “submissions in the form of petitions are not considered comments. Submission of form letters or talking points is typically considered as one comment, since they repeat the same thing and typically originate from the same source.”
In other words, the BLM is making it as hard on the public to comment as possible – no document posted on the website, no email address for comments, just mail and fax. This will not stop the public from commenting against this proposed action.
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The BLM has already done unrepairable damage to all the herds they have invaded, How long are we going to sit back and write letters that do nothing but make them do more unrepairable damage,……..They are toying ,all at the Mustangs are being tortured and making examples of their power not to be stopped by any Letters, faxes , Law Suits………….They have been ——– on the Mustangs and us for far to long , we need to make a collective stand or they will continue their vicious assaults on all the Mustangs, why ??? because they can ……. We must stop them before its to late………………………………….I will fly there …..at a moments notice……………………………for the Mustangs honor and lives…………… I am sick of these SOB s…………….and their assaults on the Wild Mustangs, I WILL STAND FOR THEM…………just as they have done for us………………………..
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Arlene, ultimately most of us will be willing to stand for the wild ones, and between them and BLM. But the how and where would have to be known as trying to do something secretly could very well be taken the wrong way. This is to confront BLM. It is not to interfere with BLM but to bring attention to what they are doing and have already done. Where can this be done successfully and effectively??? How do we get many supporters there? I think we need to think about this, too.
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Sorry Mar, Just found your post this morning! The Blm is not infallible , there must be a Achilles heel there………….. The of Criminal Acts perpetrated by the BLM are documented ,,,,,,, Yes, there seems to be no other viable way,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, A stand a wall of people , who say no !!!!! Enough is enough…………..We will not allow anymore innocent deaths………………………….because of a Agency that is a total fail……………………………….. No more lives can be lost out of stupidity………….or Lack of respect for the Law that protects them………………..
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Where on Site……………………
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