By Rosalie Rayburn / Journal Staff Writer on Sat, Oct 6, 2012
“BLM has said the horses don’t fall under the protections of the Wild Horse and Burro Act…”
A federal judge has dismissed a case filed by a group of Placitas wild horse enthusiasts against Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, the Bureau of Land Management and an Algodones man the suit claimed was working with the BLM to round up the horses.
Members of the Wild Horse Observers Association filed the lawsuit last year, claiming Salazar and the BLM violated a 1971 federal law designed to protect wild horses because they have never recognized horses that roam around Placitas as wild.
The group later amended the lawsuit to seek an injunction preventing the BLM and Al Baca from capturing, transporting or allowing the sale of the horses except as permitted by the Wild Horse and Burro Act. It claimed Baca was working with the BLM and planning to capture and sell the roaming Placitas horses.
Late last month, U.S. District Court Judge Christina Armijo denied the association’s request to further amend its case and granted Baca’s request to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning that it cannot be refiled.
In her order, Armijo granted Baca’s request because the Wild Horse Act does not provide for an action filed by a private group or individual. It also said the law the association sought relief under did not apply to a “non-governmental defendant.”
Wild Horse Observers Association is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and preserve horses that roam freely in Placitas and their habitat.
The lawsuit claimed removal of the horses would harm association members who enjoy observing, photographing and writing about the horses.
BLM representatives have said the horses don’t fall under the protections of the Wild Horse and Burro Act because they belong to San Felipe Pueblo and were not therefore classified as wild.
The lawsuit disputed that position, saying the pueblo has never made efforts to claim the horses and the BLM is breaking the law by not recognizing them as wild and protecting them.
San Felipe Gov. Anthony Ortiz recently disagreed with the BLM position in a letter to Association members and its President Patience O’Dowd.
“Contrary to statements made by others, neither San Felipe nor any of its members claims the wild horses as private property or views them as livestock,” the Sept. 5 letter stated.
Related articles
- BLM Sets Date for National Wild Horse & Burro “Special Interests” Advisory Board (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Assateague Strives to Keep Wild Horses, Wild (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Money, Ego and the Failure to Save Wild Horses and Burros (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Wild Horse Advocates Call for Halt to 6 State Roundup Assault (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Dismay Over “Premature” Report on Wild Horse Slaughter Sales (rtfitchauthor.com)
- Wild Horse and Burro Bait-Trapping: Going … Going … Gone (rtfitchauthor.com)
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
This is why we need legislation. We need to include them all. Many of us know wild horses on lands not ruled by BLM and we worry about them. When attention is brought to bands of wild horses not on BLM/public lands we are not supposed to see wild horses. Even when they are. And many wild horse herds are just as historically old and connected as any that are on BLM lands. So we worry. We don’t want to bring undue? attention to them in case we wake up the removal machine; BLM.
I cannot call a wild horse (with history on the lands and ancestors firmly recognized by local people also going back generations) a feral astray horse. That is a recently run loose horse with no family history on the lands. They rarely remain running free. Real wild horses remain free on both public and non BLM lands. They deserve protection. But, are any wild horses or burros protected right now? I do not agree with the judges decision or her description of who can file a suit against BLM in this manner and that our 1971 Act cannot be questioned by a ‘non-governmental’ person.
What the heck do you think a lawsuit is for? It is to crack the toughest armor! Why is this judge a part of the BLM armor telling us that our 1971 Act cannot be pierced?
The 1971 Act is a subtle document that does have room for interpretation but not room for denial.
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It’s all a word game anymore in our judicial system. It’s no longer about justice, or what’s right or wrong.
ANOTHER epic failure on the governments part, and our judicial systems part!
I have a SERIOUS question……..
WHY do we have government or judicial systems to begin with??? They serve NO PURPOSE anymore to protect citizens or animals, either one!!
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Judges only protect capital. Nothing else matters it’s the economy stupid. We sell our air, water, freedom and souls for growth and development.
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Well said, Shelly!
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Shelly “hit the nail on the head!!” Perhaps a change
with “those who are in charge,” will help!!
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This really stinks , vote every one of their sorry asses OUT !!!!
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It’s the same “good ol’ boy/buddy” system at work in the judicial system. These people need to be voted out and their e-mail boxes flooded with the reasons they will not get re-elected.
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What are the names of these people so we can flood their email and remind them they are elected and can be voted right out.
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Poor horses…they just can’t seem to get a break!
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Oh great. Anothrr damned judge bought out by the BLM.
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The decision which was made by this Judge, made no sense!!!!! Grrr…..
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Dear Jane , thats the point none of this makes sense , it is beyond all commonsense, in fact it defies commonsense !!!!! Devoid of any rational thought of any kind……………..
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Why do these people “hate” horses? My immediate impression is and always will be “FOLLOW THE MONEY!” And, might I add, follow it each and every time. Some people just think they have the right to take what is NOT theirs, kill whatever and whomever they want while calling it sport or a governmental right. It will take massive amounts of money to fight this killing machine along with relentless bloody ads on television and the Internet, class curriculums, and a decisive refusal to eat horse meat all over the world. I don’t say roll over, but we need a miracle.
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Thats just it these people look at the horses and all they can see is Dollar signs ,EXPLOITATION of the INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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The judge & Salazar…BLM r ALL wearing blinders. Its all about $$$$$ & cattle. Shame on u judge…Shame!!!
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Perhaps this group should re-word the lawsuit since it was dismissed with prejudice and can’t be filed again the way it was, (or they can appeal it probably to a hgher federal court) and this time they should enjoin the JUDGE as in collusion with the BLM, the State, the BLM and Ken Salazar as the head of the BLM, and Al Baca, the man working with the BLM on capturing the horses (and it would be very interesting to find out if Al Baca is RELATED to any of the players in this scenario and/or is friends with which would be a conflict of interest and/or was awarded the contract to capture without any competitive bidding for the contract!). They need to also try and find out WHO is paying Al Baca…….if it is the BLM, then it IS the taxpayes, and the taxpayers own those horses right along with the federal government. If it is the State, then the citizens of the State own those horses along with the State and should not have to pay since they don’t want them removed.
At some point, the BLM (or even the State in which we live in the case of State horses) cannot be forcing we as taxpayers to pay salaries, pay for contractors to capture horses, pay citizens to “steal” the horses off federal and/or state land, and then keep all the money from the sale of the horses and/or split it with the slaughter dealer Al Baca, but then claim they are not federal wild horses and/or not State horses but are actually “estray” or turned-out domestics that no one claims…….seriously, thats like a neighbor having 100 acres privately owned unfenced property patchworked with BLM land (or State land), and when they want weed control done on BLM property around their property because of fire hazard, they get the BLM or State out to do it on ALL the land and the peoples tax dollars pay for his private land getting de-weeded along with the federal or State land….IOW, the reason NO ONE steps up and claims so-called “estray” horses as theirs (even if they are not their horses) is because then that person would have to PAY for the captures on their own horses and then PROVE the horses were theirs…..thats why the slaughter guy Al Baca isn’t just going out and capturing them himself; he’d then have to prove they were his……if this group can find documentation that Al Baca has been communicating and working with the BLM regarding capturing these horses, or perhaps there are public documents that are required to be filed (like permits for capturing) that proves who that guy is working with and for, then maybe a money trail can be followed that will connect him to the BLM and if the BLM claims the horses are estray’s, THEN HY would they be paying (or forcing the taxpayers) to pay him? These people can probably file for documents through the Freedom of Information Act and get a “stay” on any captures until that info is revealed……I’m beyond tired of private citzens/taxpayers being forced to pay for federal and/or state horses being captured, and THEN the federal and state agencies are the ones making the money and the taxpayers are without their wild horses. Perhaps it’s also time to call in the ACLU because these taxpayers rights are being trampled by someone, whether its the federal BLM or the State.
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A civics lesson from Merry Old England:
Judge Gets Arrested pt1
” British Constitution Group ” Roger Hayes arrests the judge for refusing to produce his oath of office over illigal councle tax Fraud comited by the local councle with the help of citizens from the uk. Roger & Raymond Sinclare also talk about the ”corrupt courts”. ”court officals” ”arrest the judge” ”illigal councle tax” plus ”corrupt councles” ”lawfull bank” ”freeman on the land” ”strawman” ”legal fiction” ”lawfull rebellion” ”uk strawman” ”uk constitution group” ” uk sovereign”
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After the revelation that Tom Davis who bought at least 1700 sale authority BLM wild horses and most likely shipped them to slaughter has been family acquaintances with Ken and John Salazar for years and years (and really interesting that Ken Salazar is the Secretary of the Interior and John Salazar is the head of the Colorado Department of Agriculture—talk about total conflicts of interest from familial ties), it won’t srprise me one bit if their are familial ties here and/or conflict of interest business or friendship/acquaintance ties.
Another issue I thought of is whether federal or state horses, I’d want Al Baca investigated for any animal abuse convictions, I’d want his vehicle insurance inspected and make sure he has commercial vehicle insurance with higher limits of at least 1 million on liability per occurance, I’d want to find out if he is operating legally as a contractor so would need general liability insurance with liability limits of at least 1 million dollars, find out if he needs a State and a County license to operate in the county he’s in, find out if he has a commercial drivers license depending on what vehicles he’s driving, etc; in other words, make sure he is 100% legal by state and/or federal laws and that ALL premiums are paid, are licenses are current and paid, he is not driving with a suspended and/or revoked license and/or driving under a license that doesn’t allow for commercialpurposes. Seriously, I run two businesses in the State of Nevada and I am constantly dealing with insurance renewals, state and county licensing, new permits and licenses that come up, etc, but since we operate LEGALLY, we jump through all the hoops, pay all the fees and for the correct insurance, etc….thats why we get so aggravated when other contractors bid lower than we do and get jobs, but when we check with the Secretary of States office and see they are not even licensed (so in other words, they probably don’t have insurance either, and they DON’T have the overhead we do annually) and then turn them in, that makes officials get off their often lazy asses and do THEIR jobs because citizens force the issue. It also makes the businesses operating illegally either become legal, or they stop operating. Oh, and if Al Baca is actually working with the BLM (a Federal agency) then he NEEDS to have had a background check performed on him and it is REQUIRED that he be finger printed as well. I just had to PAY AGAIN for another new license in the sector our business is a part of, and had to PAY again for a background check and fingerprinting, so this group needs to investigate what requirements there are for Al Baca to be doing the type of contracting he is doing.
This is why I’ve written a long list of requirements for ANYONE dealing in horse slaughter that should be implemented immediately; believe me, if the scum bags that deal in horse slaughter had to jump through all the hoops I’m proposing and PAY all the fees, we’d have a lot less people running the racket of horse slaughter because they couldn’t afford it and/or would not want to have their backgrounds exposed because of convictions, warrants, on probation, etc.
We as citizens need to investigate every, single person that is involved in the capture of our Federal and State horses and when that starts happening, then we will probably see more people being forced to play by the same rules and laws us law abiding citizens play by. Its not as hard as people might think to investigate someone and find out some fairly significant things about them.
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That judge should be ashamed of himself….ANYONE WHO WANTS TO HARM AND CAPTURE INNOCENT HORSES SHOULD BE ASHAMED!
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Why can’t I file a suit against a Federal Agency if I feel my rights are being stomped on??? That isn’t right. That means the agency can continue to stomp on me and I have no legal recourse.
A year or so back I had a boss that was being physically abusive to me. The first time she hit me in my arm that I had just had had surgery in. I grabbed my arm, she apologized, seemed like she meant it. But then it happened again just a couple of weeks later. When I went to quit they sent her out to speak to me (don’t ask me cause I couldn’t even begin explain that one). A few days later her boss came back from being out of town. Boy was she steamed. My supervisor had lied to me about where this incident to place and how no one had seen it–I had no witnesses. I knew otherwise.
We were separated. But my last month there was VERY uncomfortable. She gave me dirty looks every time she passed me. Her fault she got into trouble and had to do some fast talking to keep her job.
If this Native American Land that could explain things. But then those tribe members need to speak up and their owns laws should superseed ours on their lands. (Much like in Alaska)
Maybe this will sound stupid or something but perhaps having Mr. Cowan assist with crafting lawsuits would help other lawyers. To date he and Laura have had the most success making in-roads with Brutal Lies and Monsters.
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Margaret…you have to be smarter than the law (know the holes and wrongs of THAT law based on precedent or setting NEW precedent), and the adjudicators (know the court and the judges).
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Just goes to show how really fubarr’d the 1971 ACT is and explains why so many advocates HATE IT!
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Just thinking….Maybe we should have BIG BIRD do a public announcement to protect innocent horses from going to slaughter……and protest the insane round-ups…..
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I think that the only way we are going to call attention to this outrage is to do an all outright major protest. I’m not talking about just 12 people but how about 12,000 or 120, 000 or how about a million? Everyone who talks about saving the wild horses has got to show up for a major protest. Take a day off work and get there. We need the leaders of ALL Wild Horse Protection organizations to get together and set a huge protest. We need to let the government feel our power. We all need to speak up and be noticed if we are going to stop the BLM and save our American wild horses and burros from slaughter. We all know that is why the BLM is pushing the gathers so their pens are overflowing and they can tell Congress they need their blessing to send the horses, ALL of THEM, to slaughter. If you don’t stand up this is what is going to happen.So either stand up or say a pray and turn your back. The BLM will KILL them!
Oh, then I woke up. What are the chances that we could get more then 12 or 25 people to show up to a protest. A couple years ago in Chicago I thought we’d have 1 or 2 hundred. Well 12 showed up. So if your going to be outraged then do something. No protest then make a call or two to the BLM at least just to say you did something.
Sorry all but this constant manuvering by the BLM is just plain sickening. They have all of our money to pay the lawyers who are fighting us. We only have donations to a few who will stand up with us. Can you beleive that they are using our own money against us and preventing us from doing the right thing and saving our American wild horses and burros from certain death at the hands of the BLM?This is just getting to be too much for me. My heart is breaking and I can’t take all the lies that the wild horse haters keep telling. Geezzzz.I need a new cause. Saving America from socialism maybe? Another lost cause.I’m going to bed!
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These horses belong exclusively to God….we know by reading Scripture how God feels about His horses> The fact that the judge ruled against those who understand respect and keep love for all creation will take comfort in the knowledge that the judge who ruled against the horses will one day have to explain why God’s statutes concerning compassion and justice were abused and dismissed.
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What a shameful judgement against the wild horses and shows BLM’s complicity in eliminating them. Keep up the brave and honorable work, Patience!
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