Reporter: Terri Russell of KOLO News 8
“My 8 year old daughter has lovingly named one Rosie, and now Rosie is gone,”
RENO, NV – About 60 wild horse advocates showed up to the scheduled meeting of Nevada‘s agriculture board Wednesday morning.
They had their signs and their buttons and waited patiently for the public comment to start. At issue: the Department Of Agriculture’s practice of trapping horses on private property, and then sending them to auction in Fallon.
“A poorly managed auction process is nothing more than a quick dirty solution that aims to recoup costs with little concern for the fate of the animals,” testified Henry Kimbell from Spanish Springs.
“My 8 year old daughter has lovingly named one Rosie. And Rosie is gone,” said Mary Ann Olsner from Steamboat..
Just two weeks ago, three wild horses were killed near Steamboat on old U-S 395 early in the morning after a convertible collided with them.
The driver got away with minor injuries, but the Agriculture Department and others believe this is just the first of many accidents as the horses work their way down from a parched Virginia Range.
While some in the area are actually feeding and encouraging the horses to stay in neighborhoods, other homeowners want the horses to leave because of property damage.
“I thought that the Virginia City Range horses were safe. The cooperation agreements before with the state and with the advocates were superior in every way,” said Terri Farley, an author of wild horse books for children.
The agriculture department worked with wild horse groups until 2009.
That’s when the director at the time Tony Lesperance believed the unions were non-productive.
The current director Jim Barbee has decided not to re-negotiate with the fewer than a dozen groups.
We don’t know if Wednesday’s testimony will make any difference.
The board was instructed to simply sit and listen, and with this controversial issue, some believe that may be a good start.
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Boycott NV.
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The citizens of the State of Nevada should be ashamed of their public officials right up to the Governors Office. The treatment of our wild horses across the nation has become a hot button and people will not stand for them being sent to slaughter. Director Jim Barbee acts like a spoiled brat. He refuses to accept phone calls, has no public email, and worst of all no conscience about the fate of the animals. I feel sorry for the ladies that have to answer the phone calls because they have the duty of telling folks they can’t talk to their government. The people they pay.
What an embarrassment it must be to live in a State with so much Western Heritage yet your own public officials will not step back and let volunteers work to save the Wild Horses from the Mexican Slaughterhouses. A very generous offer was presented to Mr. Barbee to do as he said he wanted to do and that was to “get out of the wild horse business”. But something got his nose out of joint and he has decided to take the arrogant route of “don’t even talk to me” “I don’t want to hear it”.
I know that the advocates in your state have nothing but Great Big Hearts and do everything they can to help. Advocates and volunteers have compromised with developers in Virginia City and together they are building the fence the State should have built.
The problem becomes money. The State picks them up and sends them to auction where the advocates, as mentioned, have spent $45,000.00 to keep the animals out of the hands of known kill buyers. Maybe you didn’t know it but on the black market an average size horse with good weight will produce about $16,000.00 worth of meat. You probably also do not know the terror and brutality the horses suffer once they cross the border. It is heinous.
The advocates rely on donations. Children across the country offer the contents of their piggy banks, or school projects to help save the wild horses. Now rather than that money going to feed and care it has to be spent buying horses that would be headed South of the Border otherwise.
Governor Sandoval, Directer Jim Barbee…get your heads on straight. It affects your reputations and your tourism dollars.
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It was the Home Owners Association, Steve, NOT the Developers!! And the local people and advocates who were behind the Fence Project… and they are still raising money for a cattle guard at a road entrance. This will have rebar welded into the grid as Wild Horse Annie had them do all over once upon a time!!
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I see lip service with no action on their part..
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Policy comes from the Governor’s Office. The people of Nevada unfortunately voted him in.
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I’ll not visit Vegas or Nevada again if the states treatment of the horses continues. What the state doesn’t realize are the horses are a tourist draw. The only reason I would go to Nevada again would be to see the wild horses.
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The people that moved and invaded the wild horses’ space need to be ashamed of themselves and go back where they came from.. The state allowed this invasive human construction that destructed the wild lands for the wild horses, they need to put up fences to protect the wild horses from those people and highways, or relocate the wild horses to a better grazing area away from highways! Get your common sense out of your butt Nevada! The animals need free access to food and water to survive. If you do not want to deal with it, then allow the advocates, sanctuaries or rescues to relocate to keep the wild horses safe and free.
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This is just another “money buys” situation. Anyone that has the bucks and contact government about getting rid of our wild horses because “they are invading their property” is nuts. The horses belong to all the U.S. citizens, as well as our ranges. THey do not belong to a chosen few. That is why big government and big “bucks” citizens need to be properly put in their place that they do not own everything in sight just because they have the money. The advocates need to get a lot of publicity with newspapers, tv stations, and radio stations to get the word out that our wild horses are our country’s icons and they need to be protected and kept on the ranges with their families. We also need to protect our domesticated horses and donkeys from being sent to slaughter. These animals are used to being part of a family and they need to stay as part of a family. This is disgraceful and we need to force the killer buyers to find another way to feed their stomachs. Come on folks, let’s get all the needed newspapers, tv and radio stations to continue to bombard their viewers with the atrocity that is happening to our horses, donkeys, as well as, our dogs and cats. It has become too easy to “kill” these animals and something has to be done to STOP IT NOW.
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In addition, stop going to Nevada for vacation and gambling. Once the Nevada govenments see that we, the citizen, will not stand for the brutality of Nevada on our wild horses, they will have to make a decision, run their government the right way or stay with their chosen few and see all other U.S. citizens go elsewhere to vacation. Hopefully, all the casinos would dry up and these people would see we MEAN BUSINESS. Boycott Nevada and never go there on vacation or for any other reason. Let the State of Nevada wallow in the bad decisions.
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Reposting for anyone who doesn’t have this information:
Lee Chesterfield says:
December 13, 2012 at 7:50 AM (Edit)
Navada Tourism , Carson, Nev phone 775-687-4322 Fax 775-687-6779
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CASINOS:
http://www.nevada-casinos.net/
Nevada Casinos and Pari-mutuel
U.S. Casinos :: Nevada Gambling :: Nevada Casinos
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Because?????
Sorry, but the land rape is a total separate deal.
No income tax state…the rape of the land is way, WAY different.
The rape of the land is also about the wild equines and the land.
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