Archive for August 4, 2012

Wild Horses: Hazards From Humans on the Pryor Mountains

Posted: August 4, 2012 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Report by Carol Walker (Advisory Board Member of  WHFF) as published on Wild Hoofbeats

BLM Hardware Puts Cloud’s Herd at Risk of Injury or Death

Photo by Carol Walker

Last month, I was on top of the mountain spending an idyllic few days with Cloud’s herd in Montana.  I have been making the trip twice a year up the mountain in the summertime every year since 2004, and it is one of the highlights of my year.

On this beautiful summer day, I was sitting at the waterhole near Penn’s cabin, waiting for horses to come down to drink.  This is usually one of the best opportunities to observe and photograph wild horse behavior, because I can watch the families interact and the bands interact with each other.  More senior stallions get priority, bringing their families down to the water first, and staying as long as they wish, before they move out and another band comes down.  Some foals fun and play as they run to the water, and many horses roll in it to cool off.

I was not alone this day – Ginger Kathrens and her intern Briana Foisa were there, and so was Tony Wengert. After at least 12 bands came down to drink, we started to wonder where Cloud and his family were. I joked that Cloud might be waiting to make an entrance, something is good at doing. Finally we could see Cloud up on the hill, running over to a bachelor stallion, but he and his family did not come to drink.  We had been waiting about 1 1/2 hours for him to come down at this point.

Suddenly Jan Liverance came running down the hill to us.  She told us that she had spoken to a family from Lovell, who had come up for the day, and they said they had seen a colt, running up and down behind a fence, unable to get to his mother, who was running up and down on the other side of the fence calling to him.  The family asked Jan if she knew anyone who could help the colt.  We all jumped up and stowed our gear quickly, and headed for our vehicles.

We were not sure where this colt might be, so our first thought was the FENCE , the hated fence erected by the Forest Service, that cuts the wild horses in the Pryor Mountains off from their historic summer and fall range.  We arrived there, and there were no horses in sight.  Luckily, the family drove up to us just then and explained where they had see the colt.  We headed back down the road, and stopped just above a barbed wire fence “exclosure,” and sure enough, there was a foal trapped inside, and it was Cloud and Feldspar’s baby.

He trotted up and down the fence, calling to his mother.  As we approached, I saw Cloud chasing bachelor stallions away from his band, and finally moving his band away to keep them together.

This fence was falling down in places, old rusted barbed wire, and it became clear how a foal could take a nap near it and possibly roll under it, and find himself trapped when he got up.

The priority at that point was to get the foal out and back to his family.  It was a holiday weekend, the BLM office was closed, and there was no cell service in the area anyway, so it was up to us to help him.  With no access to water or to his mother, the foal would most likely die. We moved very quietly and slowly, not wanting to panic him and cause him to run into the barbed wire, and injure himself.  At this point he was bright eyed and active, and watched us as we worked.

Finally Ginger and Tony and Bree got the bottom strands of the barbed wire pulled on top of the T- posts in a long enough area so that the foal might go underneath it and out of the trap.   We watched and waited for him to move out of the exclosure.  Finally he saw the opening, and ran out.  But his adventure was not over at this point.

Cloud’s family was nowhere in sight, as he had had to move his family away from the bachelor stallions harassing him.  The colt ran to the first family he saw, who happened to be Garcia’s band.  Garcia began chasing him, and we were terrified that Garcia might hurt or even kill him, and helpless to do anything about it.  Finally he stopped, and the colt saw Morningstar’s band. This family was a familiar sight, as Cloud and Morningstar’s families had been spending quite a bit of time near each other this last year.

He ran up, realized it was not his family, and then moved on, determined to find Feldspar.  As he disappeared down the hill, I headed to my vehicle, and Ginger, Bree and Jan followed the colt, and Tony headed to find Cloud’s band.  By the time I drove down the road, they had watched him come out on the hill above the waterhole, spot his mother, and carefully pick his way down the rocks to her, and then immediately begin nursing.  He was finally reunited safely with his family.

We were all incredibly relieved.  But this was not the first time a foal had become trapped in this “exclosure” and will not be the last unless it is removed. When I was up there last week, I was disgusted to see it still there, despite letters to Jared Bybee and Jim Sparks.

What is an “exclosure?”  According to the BLM it is a historical reference for monitoring range conditions – in other words, they fence off a portion of the range, keep the horses off it, and then can compare to the range that the horses are using to see how the horses impact the range.  But they are not using this exclosure any more.  They use small, portable “utilization cages” to do studies and monitor range conditions. They said they have no plans to dismantle and remove this dangerous range hazard, despite the fact that it is just above one of the two main waterholes on the mountain, directly in the path of horses traveling to water, and also despite the fact that if foals get caught in there, they can die.  Older horses and foals could become entangled in the downed barbed wire, or could impale themselves on the t-posts.  If the BLM is not using this exclosure, then they need to remove it, barbed wire, posts and all.  Why not remove it NOW before any other horses are harmed, and while they have trucks and equipment up on top of the mountain anyway for the bait trapping?

Please write or call Jim Sparks, Montana Field Manager, jsparks@blm.gov

Phone: 406-896-5013, fax 406-896-5281

and Jared Bybee, Wild Horse and Burro Specialist, jbybee@blm.gov

Phone: 406-896-5223

Ask them to tear down and remove this dangerous wild horse hazard.  If enough people speak up, perhaps they will listen.

Click (HERE) to view this story through Carol’s Pictures at Wild Hoofbeats

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Equine Welfare Alliance Counters Horse Eater Propaganda to USDA

Posted: August 4, 2012 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Tags: , , , ,
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Update provided by Vicki Tobin ~ VP of Equine Welfare Alliance

One Deranged Sociopath against Truth and 80% of the American Public

Wallis Method for Improving Horse Industry – Kill and Eat Them

As promised, we are providing information should you wish to contact the USDA to correct the misinformation in Wallis’ communication to the USDA. If you need clarification or have questions, please reply to this email and either John or I will respond.

I want to stress that you need to stay focused on the financial issues and detrimental impact to our meat industry. I know how difficult it is to remain level headed when refuting something from Wallis. She pushes everyone’s buttons but you need to take every ounce of restraint and turn off the switch.

We have gone through what we feel are the pertinent points of her communication and provided responses below her drivel. Pick whatever you feel are the most important and in your own words, let your voice be heard. If you have a different take or slightly different way of presenting a particular point, go with what you feel comfortable with. If you choose to call rather than fax, you may be asked questions so it’s important to use what you feel comfortable discussing. Stay professional and keep it short. If you feel several points need to be addressed, bullet points are a great way to make your statements with few words. They are probably receiving a lot of comments so the chances of anyone reading more than one page are slim.

Here is the contact information to call or fax. EWA will also be preparing a statement that we will share with you after it is sent.

Secretary Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Fax: 202.720.2166
Phone: 202.720.3631

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On behalf of the International Equine Business Association and the horse businesses of the United States I am writing to urge your agency to immediately provide the inspection necessary to humanely and safely process horses in facilities that are ready to do so in the United States. The horse industry is already severely damaged because of the lack of market and options, and now with wide spread drought and wild fire damage, the situation is truly dire.

The horse industry does not produce meat. The horse industry is not suffering from lack of slaughter but for the same reason every other industry in this country is suffering; the economy.

Attached please find an urgent petition, and background information supporting this letter.

USDA stands squarely in the way of enterprises that could offer some relief and a humane option for many of these horses. It has come to our attention that USDA is promulgating directives to states that indicate the agency has no intention of providing the inspection they are required by long-standing U.S. law to provide, and are actively discouraging state departments of agriculture from implementing any kind of state inspection. This singles out one class of livestock owner for economic harm and persecution that is extremely detrimental-leaving many with no option except to destroy valuable animals, or to sell them at pathetically low prices and allow them to be hauled to other countries out of U.S. jurisdiction. In the face of widespread natural disaster, some would say this is the height of hypocrisy and completely counter to the mission of the USDA to promote and responsibly regulate agriculture in this country.

Horses are being singled out because they are not food animals in the US. Calling horses livestock does not make them food animals. Food animals are determined by how they are raised and regulated. Accordingly, US horses are non-food animals. They do not meet food safety laws by any stretch of the imagination. US horses are hauled out of the country with or without plants on US soil. According to USDA statistics, 775,474 horses were exported from 1989-2006 when all three foreign owned plants were operating on US soil.

Wallis is asking for a government handout rather than working on programs that would actually help horse owners during difficult times. US tax payers do not need valuable tax dollars funding yet another welfare program that will compromise our current meat industry. There is no reason the government should be spending millions of dollars we don’t have to benefit owners of less than 2% of the horse population. A welfare program of this type promotes over breeding and does nothing to fix the core problem that perpetuates producing excess horses every year. Slaughter is symptom, not a cure.

Wallis is not getting the message that the US does not dispose of animals into the food chain. No animal should be sent to slaughter that was not raised or regulated as a food animal.

Since the US horse industry does not produce meat, this welfare program will not help the horse industry. It will not put money in consumer’s pockets so they can afford to buy and care for horses, fill the seats at race tracks or attend equestrian performance or sporting events. A program such as this will only perpetuate over breeding and ensure there are more excess horses produced for years to come. History has proven this over and over again. Slaughter does not control the population nor does it prevent abuse, neglect or abandonment.

Several horse processing facilities are ready to offer horse owners a fair price for the animals they desperately need to sell – or could be within days – to provide much-needed emergency relief. Markets for the product are ready to accept it domestically and internationally if the meat is USDA-inspected exactly as it was in 2007.

The inspections done in 2007 do not meet today’s food safety laws in the US or EU. The newly released 2013 requirements for third countries exporting horse meat into the EU clearly require full traceability at the farm level. There is no traceability in US horses and no way to guarantee horses are drug free. Horses must be proven drug free before going to slaughter, not by random testing on the back end. Slaughter is not a disposal service for emergency relief.

Slaughter is as available as it was when the US plants were open. If the Mexican and Canadian slaughter plants are rejecting horses, they are ineligible for export to the consuming countries no matter where they would be slaughtered. The US takes food safety seriously and slaughtering horses for human consumption will do nothing but give our meat industry a black eye that it can ill afford.

In addition to the two EU reports that revealed banned substances in US horses and falsified paperwork, Belgium issued a notice¹ on high levels of phenylbutazone and clenbuterol recently found in horse meat exported from Canada.

USDA should not stand in the way of much-needed, humane options for horses. Horses and horse people are uniquely suffering as a direct result of federal government inaction, and the Department’s refusal to provide the inspection services federal law requires USDA to provide.

Across the nation, states, tribes and private citizens are working hand-in-hand with the federal government to provide relief to every other breed of livestock, and every other kind of business, yet USDA stands directly in the path of the same relief for the horse industry.

Slaughter is not an option, it is for food production. The USDA is doing their job by not issuing permits for horse slaughter inspections. Federal law provides for inspections of food animals. US horses are not food animals and we commend the USDA for acting accordingly. As it stands now, the USDA would be issuing permits to slaughter animals that are known to be unsafe for human consumption. With no traceability in US horses, they should not be considered a food source under any circumstance.

This is a moral and ethical imperative that USDA must address without delay.

It is morally and ethically wrong to send meat to any country that is not safe for human consumption.

1 http://tinyurl.com/bp73tw6

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