A Guest Editorial by Valerie James-Patton ~ of the Equine Welfare Alliance
“It’s our job to disburse those horses so we do our best to get rid of as many as we can.”
“On Saturday we published an OpEd that raised a few eyebrows and, thankfully, increased a few folks awareness regarding inconsistencies within the advocacy that attempt to utilize trauma and drama to drive personal agendas and most importantly that we have been aware of and almost had the chance to verify that the BLM sells “sale authority” wild horses to kill buyers who run them across the boarder for slaughter and a fast buck. Our installment today takes it one step further to the point where the BLM actually plays a shell game and juggles the numbers of wild horses captured so…well, read on.
This article was written July 29th, 2010 and it is just as relevant, if not more so, as it was then. The BLM is just an election date away of declaring a fiscal emergency where all horses in holding will be declared “sale authority” and tens of thousands will be hauled off to slaughter, hence the reason we wanted the now botched investigation to succeed so that we had a chance of heading this massacre off. None the less, the editorial below will shock and inflame you so if you are sitting down, buckle yourself in as this is going to be a very bumpy and painful ride.” ~ R.T.
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photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
We keep hearing the upsetting stories from our wild horse advocates living in Nevada near the BLM wild horse holding facilities about wild horses being hauled in the middle of the night and disappearing. We hear it often.
We’ve been told by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), that’s to prevent the horses from getting overheated during the high temperatures in the hot summer months, but that doesn’t fly when we hear of it happening during the cold winter months.
When numbers from BLM reports don’t add up, and large numbers of horses are missing from the charts, all those stories of night-time hauls come to mind.
So does the story from a BLM informant, who anonymously gave his testimony to a special agent from the Department of Justice back in 1994, and was exposed in the 1997 PEER Review Report: Horses to Slaughter – Anatomy of A Cover-Up.
Sure, it’s an old document from the past, telling how BLM escaped a grand jury trial over BLM’s decades long horse theft program, which was concluded to be so vast and wide spread throughout the BLM Wild Horse and Burro program that no one could be held accountable, but has anything changed? Or has BLM just gotten better at covering the trail of disappearing wild horses?
In a condensed version from 3 pages of testimony from the PEER report by a BLM informant in the horse theft program, he explains that, 50 head out of 65 horses would be reported at a location, the excess 15 horses would be transported to satellite ranches which are actually holding pens. The ranch receives money to hold the horses for a certain time until they’re picked up again. They may be hot-branded with different brands, or transported as “slicks”, meaning they have no brand at all. Most of them over a time period will go to the killers. Sometimes the horses are transported during working hours, but “most of the time it’s been at night, after the count’s been jimmied around. You strictly drive down to a certain location, open a gate and dump those horses in with a bunch of other horses. The BLM guy goes home around 4:30 and guys would load up the stolen horses, take them to satellite ranches and be back by the next morning for business as usual.”
Double-booking or black-booking is when more than one horse is branded with the same brand, and one set of legitimate paperwork is filled out to go with one horse, and depending on how many horses are wearing that same brand, a fake set of paperwork is made for them. “They are sold as legitimate horses, and sold within a week to sale barns or… The odds of you ever being checked are 100 to 1, and I’ve never seen a title on a wild horse.”
When asked if this was a pretty good organization, the informant replied that it’s very well set up, and “nobody that participates in it isn’t well known, and it can’t be done without the BLM guy standing right there.”
He further explained that “You can’t enforce a common practice that’s been going on for years and years. You can’t stop everybody that’s in it. You catch one guy, so there’s 50 more out there doing the same thing.”
The informant justified and summed up the operation by saying, “It’s not actually stealing in our way of looking at it. It’s just a way of life, you know. It’s been a common practice for numbers and numbers of years. There’s never been any paperwork ever required. If we wanted to trade horses, move horses, you know, it’s just a way of life. You’ve got ranchers out there that are paying the permit fees on grazing, and then they have a bunch of wild horses move in, they’re losing money because they’re paying for that grass. These wild horses come in and are eating up the grass, so sure they’re pissed off. It’s our job to disburse those horses, you know, so we do our best to get rid of as many as we can. I don’t really consider it stealing”.
But we do. And we currently have a large number of horses missing. Flash forward to June/July 2010:
As we explained in our EWA press release, (7-27-2010), it appears we have at least 2,282 horses missing from the BLM wild horse holding facilities, and no rocket science is needed to add and subtract the numbers in the BLM population facility reports and compare those to horses removed from the range along with the reported deaths, adoptions and sales of the wild horses.
Even though there are questions on BLM’s math skills, it’s important to remember we’re not just questioning calculations on paper, but we’re questioning the lives of horses that have disappeared. There’s a huge problem taking place in BLM’s wild horse facilities and the horses removed from the range than just what paper work reveals, and much more than what BLM is willing to tell.
One can only wonder if they became “slicks” quietly hauled away in the night.
Even a rocket scientist adding the numbers up would not be able to give us an answer to that question.
Contact:
Valerie James-Patton
Vice President, Equine Welfare Alliance
EWA Research Subject Matter Expert (SME)
valerie_jamespatton@yahoo.com
http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/
Click (HERE) to download this article in it’s original format from EWA
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, The Force of the Horse, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Grrrrr. Does the BLM have a conscience!!!!
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You know that they don’t
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No, Salazaar is a rancher. He wants the public land for the cattle to graze. Too much competition. And the horses lose.
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BLM is nothing but a bunch of criminals!
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Yes they are and always have been..
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You’ve got ranchers out there that are paying the permit fees on grazing, and then they have a bunch of wild horses move in…
Exactly. Hasn’t anyone informed the ranchers that all public lands are subject to “multiple-use” policy? If they lease land in an HMA they can expect to share that land with horses.
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And WHO is enforcing that law? The BLM?
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They used to hang horse thief s didnt they ????? I wonder if this is really off the documents over there in the West , if its still there . Hummmmmm ……….This is and has always been a vicious agency !!!!! Their Job is to Preserve and Protect the Mustangs, any actions other then that are to be considered Criminal actions and should be addressed by the Ruling Authorities, they steal our Mustangs and in the dead of nite ship off to be slaughter for that fast easy buck !!!!! They have been caught doing this ?????What part of this action is not Criminal??????? and should be the grounds for Complete dismissal of all involved with this Crime ??????
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Arlene I was with you all right up to your last statement. In a case like this ‘dismissal’ is not a punishment but a slap on the wrists. The fed would simply find them a job in another agency. The felonious acts that apparently many past and present employees of the BLM are guilty of needs at the very least a lengthy prison sentence. We all remember Michael Vick and the dog fighting incident. He served a couple of years and wasn’t even convicted of actual participation but only complicity.
If I had my way every employee of the DOI would be in jail right now awaiting trial.
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agree with you. Michael Vick is now back in the NFL making millions again.
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Dear Steve Stapp, Thank You !!!!!! I dont really care how they get rid of the BLM, but clearly they are Criminal , and should be tried for their heinous crimes they perpetrated against the Wild Mustangs and to America…………. By any means that is befitting their Criminal behavior !!!!!
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If you remember, a few of us have been screaming about this since the 33,000 back in November 2008. The MP fiasco….. The way I look at this, Burns and Ried planned to get rid of the wild horses since 2004 and they are, any way they can. The BLM don’t know how many are on the ranges. They don’t care how many they round up, because they are told by our government to do it. Letters, phone calls, faxes, petitions …they are ignoring us. We should do one last pitch for them in Washington and make it more than 150 people.
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I don’t give a rats ass about the people to be honest. The courts are useless in this or have been so far. WHY are we NOT UNITING for the big picture? The horse slaughter prevention act would end all of this! While you’re farting around with these paid off judges in the system and spending all the money on attorneys who fight for the bones and scraps that these BLM judges throw your way, over a hundred thousand horses die a year in slaughter houses. And all of this infighting between rescues has got to stop. United we stand, divided we fall. The government is all about big business not the people so 80% of us means nothing to them where money is concerned. Have you heard back from our President? What gains have been made? Anything concrete?
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Senator Reid and his imaginary friend stand between any legislation that will better the lives of horses anywhere. He is a plague against our country. He could be impeached or recalled by the people of Nevada. There were rumblings that he had been helped to win the election in 2010 by bus loacs of people who were brought in to Nevada to vote. I don’tknow whether there is any truth to this, but we are talking about a state where the Senator is so unpopular that his own son ran for Governor without using his father’s last name. However, since there is apparently insufficient evidence (I don’t know what sufficient evidence would be), we could ask our Democratic Senators to consider removing him as President. However, he would still be there and he could still prevent legislation from coming to a vote according to Senate rules.
If there are citizens in Nevada concerned about the role Senator Reid is playing in the economic and moral failure of our nation, there are mechanisms in place for Nevadans to remove him.
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Just sad, just so sad
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“It’s just a way of life.” This is the way Davis talks to Phillips. They do not think of it as stealing. So many people would have been subject to arrest in the investications in Jim Baca’s time that the Justice Dept dropped the investigation. This is what we are dealing with. Davis is only one… but we must be sure he is prosecuted.
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Excellent video from Anne Novak at Protect Mustangs. Please watch. It is very short and has very strong message that fits this article of Valerie’s like a glove!
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Short Film Huge Message , Thank You !!!!! Sending everywhere !!!!!
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They say they don’t sell them to slaughter but they steal them and sell them to dealers who send them to slaughter and they know it or they sell them by the truckloads to dealers.This is not directly doing it but indirectly and is against the law all the same. They have no honor or morals .
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Yes, it is really doing it. It’s just semantics. It’s like Bill Clinton saying that it depends on what your definition of is is.
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But what can I do to remedy the situation? If I am not part of the solution that means I am part of the problem. Help me help you.
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When will this stop when they are all gone!!!!!!!!!! Stop the round-ups and stop sending them to slaughter it has to STOP!!!!! SOMEHOW SOMEDAY SOON!
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Last comment to this site. The west was invaded by WASPs, the proponents of manifest destiny who believed they had the right to kill MILLION’s of bison so they could eliminate the main sustenance for the Native Americans and for the pure joy of killing. They did the same to the first peoples who still live in long term holding pens.
Fast forward to the present, the same damn thing has been going on with massive killing and torture of horses and burros. This time for blood money and the joy of killing.
You will never stop this carnage just by documenting this carnage and milqtoast comments.
Stop eating beef, hit the cattle industry where it would hurt. Recall what they tried to do to Ophra WInfrey when she went against the industry. She won.
Talk and legal court action takes to long, there is no time left.
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A boycott of beef will not help the wild horses and burros. 97% of American beef is grown without the use of public lands. If you achieve enough of a boycott to drop the price of beef, you will only hurt the cattleman who raised cattle on land he owns and private land he leases from his neighbors.
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Not sure about your stats, but do agree about the boycott effect. The land the wild equines are on doesn’t have squat to do with where you $hit burger comes from. And Cargil, IVP, et al control both funnels.
Last I heard most beef eaten in the US is a result of cull dairy and beef breeding stock with some sends by way of weather (droughts), markets with some high end, organic niche market, etc purveyors surviving…more importantly…the cattle/sheep that graze the West do not survive DOI’s own multi-use test…but the wild equines keep getting butchered. The grazing is a ruse…this is about control of resources like water, minerals, energy products etc.
IOW…many beef/meat producers don’t get the bennies that the land lease hogs of the West get…however, they ALL get USDA/state ag program “funding” options and certainly TAX benefits.
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I am not pointing my finger at this person – only using his situation as an example.
Here is one way they “get rid” of BLM employees who are involved or know what is going on behind the scenes with our WH&B:
(Keep in mind this was about 15 years ago)
“Asked about the AP’s findings,” she wrote, “Tom Pogacnik, director of the BLM’s $16-million-a-year Wild Horse and Burro Program, conceded that about 90% of the horses rounded up go to slaughter.”
http://www.igha.org/BLM11.html
Current job title:
Tom Pogacnik
Deputy State Director
Division of Natural Resources
California State Office
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/employee_profiles/tom_pogacnik.html
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Hmmm. Tom Pogacnik is a SYMPTOM…NOT the disease. The disease is agencies like DOI, USDA, the State Ags, etc….you cut a tumor like Slaughterczar out and and another cancerous, malignant dead and diseased human literally fills the rotten flesh.
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Yes you are completely correct.
The disease IS the problem but the “cells” of the disease need to be removed not promoted.
The diseased agencies are backed by “the greedy ones” and money and power are their reward and as I am sure you know, THAT is the disease.
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Yes, the system that has been hijacked and is the problem, albeit in a diseased fashioned by virtue of states, Congress, courts and special interests is the ultimate problem.
What freaks me out (or should that be “frak’s” me out?) is that every law and reg in the book is being broken by everyone in charge…and no one, save the advocates attempts to talk about the land rape…Tim DeChristopher tried with the BULL$hit that is public lands auctions and his A$$ is still in jail courtesy Eric Holder and Slaughterczar….ultimately the Prez….NOT GOOD.
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Yes, how can this be, yet it is the truth?!
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I feel sick to my stomach……how can those people who kill these horses live with themselves?! They are not worthy of life if they are going to deprive so many innocent and sacred beings of theirs!
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The Farm Burea and the Cattlemen’s Association both support horse slaughter. That is why we don’t have our insurance with Farm Burea and why I will not eat beef. A boycott of beef might hurt farmers but it might get the attention of those 2 organizations. Cattle eat the hay and grain horses need , drink copious amounts of water and cause erosion and water pollution. My dad raised cattle and I know what they do, and they suffer going to slaughter too. Farmers need to raise other things rather than livestock but no GMO crops.
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I wouldn’t eat beef because it is basically a self regulated industry and essentially (like pork, lamb and poultry) not something to eat EVERY day. FB and NCBA are profit, animal torture trolls that I could care less about EXCEPT they own most of Congress…then I CARE.
I will also say that produce is actually more dangerous than meat because of the treaties and lack of oversight and inspection of same.
Herbivores don’t NEED grain…they need grass/forage and specifics for sure; it is a human expediency method of nutrition, mostly for slaughter to “grain”…I don’t grain my horses any longer for many reasons.
You race or trail ride or exercise your equine at severe performance levels?…then grain, but always be careful.
Last I checked…wild equines do just fine without “grain”…and survival with Mother Nature involved is the essential authority to me.
Ironic a species in the millions less than 150 years ago is dying and in need of assistance from humans. Who exactly is the A$$ in this mathematical equation, now?
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I would suggest that everyone on here send a copy of the 30 page PEER report to Congressman Moran and in your cover letter explain what is suspected of going on at the BLM. When he gets all of these copies with a suggestion he investigate just where the millions of Taxpayer dollars went that was supposed to go toward feeding and caring for these horses. That money went in someones pocket or pockets. I don’t know how much clout the congressman has but its damn well worth a try.
He might stir up a hornets nest. All of congress has left until after the election but their DC offices are open. If anyone lives in the state or city where Moran lives drop the report off at one of his offices.
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Talk to Rep Moran (good guy) is reasonable…but he GETS IT!..annoy the killers or the stupids of Congress.
Send the PEER report with a demand to fix the public land rape and cessation of wild life massacres to your Rep and both Senators and a letter to the White House.
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Dear Denise , Where can I get this report ???? I will send to everyone !!!!
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Arlene…it is referenced and as such linked by RT in the main story, but here is the link for quick click:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxhbWVyaWNhbmhlcmRzNHxneDo1ZTMzMWRhMDE2YTZkNzg5&pli=1
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Thank You Denise !!! I will get this to all in Ohio
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What I think we need to do is enlist our representatives and senators to sponsor legislation making the violation of federal law becomes a felony. Government employees enjoy protection from law suits if they break the law in performance of their duties. Well, given the millions tax payers are forced to pay for government attorneys to protect guilty public employees from suffering the consequences of their actions which should land them in prison. If Congress is serious about cutting the deficit, after cutting the BLM off the pay roll, the next place it could cut is the career criminals we tax payers have to pay for because someone is too lazy or incompetent to perform oversight.
Let’s get these horse killers behind some bars of their own. It all gets to back to leadership. When an organization has an ethical leader at the helm he signals multiple ways that he will not tolerate specific illegal or unethical behaviors from his employees nor will he tolerate the appearance of impropriety. When they tell an employee that if they see x, x, or x, that employee will never set foot again into the building. However, the DOI has been so corrupt and unmanageable for so long, that it is almost as if fixing it is too much, too over-whelming.
Well, this is not acceptable. One of the best things that could happen would be for all activities on public lands, fisheries, forests, etc. to be frozen until an independent review is held by some private organizatio such as Fed EX, Am EX, or so firm that is clearly free of government influence. If permits need to issued to do drilling or provide some necessary public service, then bring in a firm that does permitting and hire a few engineers with expertise in deep/shallow water drilling, and get these companies that this administration has put out of business back in business.
The Department of Interior cannot outrun its reputation as a scientifically ignorant organization run by stockmen. It has brought harm to our land, to our water, to our wildlife, to ranchers, to miners, to our wild horses, and to us as citizens. There is no justification for this corrupt science defiant organization to continue to be funded by tax payers.
Buy them all a one-way ticket to the tropical island of Alcatraz, CA, where there are no living things these guys can harm.
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Didn’t finish the column. Didn’t read all the comments. Got the initial message, and the dates from the past. So I ask, what are WE doing that is DIFFERENT? When are WE going to change, beyond asking the govt. the same things, saying the same things, and doing the same things?
If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got.
Horses are STILL being rounded up and sent to LTH. What are WE doing that is different? So that can be different.
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Dear Rob, you are so right , what we have been doing in the Past Made no Difference , in fact for the Mustangs things couldnt be worse, their lives and Families relentlessly shattered !!!! This Agency had made a mockery of the Laws, they dont even abide to their own Laws?????? Clearly they need to be dissolved and a new agency formed !!!!!! I have been at this for more years then it should have taken to stop the BLM……………………
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The BLM has been getting away with this for years. Why haven’t they been stopped before now? They are breaking the law.
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Will “advocates” threatening those with differing opinions about certain other “advocates” actions PLEASE QUIT!!!
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I have been at this a long time too, as one poster stated, back to the ’60’s when mustangs were rounded up, shipped to slaughter houses in the West, and used for dog food, glue, bone and blood meal, etc. Wild Horse Annie in Nevada worked tirelessly to protect the mustangs and stop the slaughter. So, here we are 50+ years later and things do not seem better. I don’t have to say the BLM couldn’t manage an ant mound – that has been said very well by just about everyone. Just my opinion, but what I have seen that does work is people that either have land or buy land, save the mustangs and put them on it. They may be either just wealthy (i.e. Ted Turner,) or have eco-tourists who want to see the West and the wild mustangs running free or run bed and breakfasts – whatever. The cost for grazing permits is so low, the loss to the taxpayers for the misuse of our public lands is staggering both in the raping of the land and in the loss of our wild creatures. Cattle are a problem for prairie land because of the type of animal they are. They devastate the land and cause oxygen loss to the climate. Buffalo were designed to graze the vast plains of North America. Another solution is many ranchers have given up the problems with cattle and turned to raising buffalo. Buffalo meat not only tastes better, it is healthier not being marbled with fat. There is plenty of info on the web. People in the U.S. do not like the idea of eating buffalo – those with conscience already feel the heavy guilt of the past wrongs to Native Americans enough without the idea they are killing the buffalo – again. People raising buffalo are already of an enlightened mind set and do not want to harm mustangs (that I have heard of.) Boycott the bad guys, support the good guys. I spent all day on the phone and writing letters again when I promised I would take a break. I have six rescued horses, one dog, one cat, two parakeets, three ducks and a rooster. On my budget I do not have to boycott beef – I cannot afford it. Thank goodness I have a garden and a fondness for potatos, brown rice, cheese and eggs. Keep up the good fight – future generations will thank you for it.
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