Posts Tagged ‘Arizona’

President Obama: Appoint Raul Grijalva as U.S. Next Interior Secretary

Posted: January 30, 2013 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Thanks to American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign for spearheading this effort.

A Champion For Our Public Lands. Protecting Our National Treasures. A Bold Leader.
(Click) Image to Sign Petition

(Click) Image to Sign Petition

For Secretary of Interior, the choice is clear. President Obama should appoint Rep. Raul Grijalva. He’s a bold leader and a champion of our public lands who will protect our natural treasures, including American wild horses and burros, for generations to come.

Dear President Obama,

Your choice for the next Secretary of the Interior will determine the future of our public lands and their natural resources, including wild horses and burros.The individual you appoint must reflect the ideals that you campaigned upon and that so many of us supported.

The person best qualified to represent these ideals and move the Interior Department forward is Rep. Raul Grijalva, Congressman from Arizona’s Third Congressional District.

Rep. Grijalva has spent his entire career standing up to special interests and for American taxpayers and the preservation of our natural resources. As the top Democrat on the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands since 2007, he has been an outspoken advocate for conservation. He has also been a leader in the fight to reform the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) costly and inhumane wild horse and burro program.

As Interior Secretary, Rep. Grijalva will hold the BLM accountable, and he will stop the government giveaway of public resources to commercial interests that exploit our public lands.

Please nominate Rep. Raul Grijalva as the 51st Secretary of the Interior. He is clearly the best choice to protect and preserve our public lands and our natural heritage, including America’s treasured wild horses and burros.

Sincerely,

Your Name

Click (HERE) to sign the Petition
Together, let’s seize this chance to bring real leadership to the Interior Department!
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Arizona Wild Burro Roundup Remains Controversial

Posted: June 15, 2012 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Burros
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by Michelle Faust as published on Fronteras.com

“We need a little bit of a more of a hands-off approach to let them regulate naturally”

Baby Wild Burros Captured and Imprisoned by the BLM ~ photo by Terry Fitch

YUMA, Ariz. — Early morning on the Colorado River, you expect to see boats and hear a few mosquitoes; It’s rare to see boatloads of wild burros. Wranglers have driven these animals for the last several days with helicopters and on horseback, but today they are unloading the grey equine off of a barge.

Wranglers use rattles and flags to push the animals into a holding pen, from there they’ll be loaded on to vehicles that will transport them to Ridgecrest, Calif. where they will be prepared for adoption.

Since 1971, the Bureau of Land Management has been removing horses and burros from the wild across the Western United States. Burros in Arizona are believed to have been set free by miners in the 19th century.

John Hall is the Wild Horse and Burro Specialist for the local BLM.  He said the goal is to gather 350 of the 711 burros in this area.  Hall said they are a non-native species that pose a threat to other flora and fauna.

“These animals are over utilizing the native vegetation that the wildlife here depend on,” Hall said. “And when you have this overuse by the burros, it poses an immediate threat to the native wildlife.”

Conservationists dispute the number of burros the area can support and raise concerns about the use of helicopters for rounding them up in the Southwestern Arizona heat.

Congressman Raul Grijalva wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Interior requesting the animals not be gathered at temperatures above 90 degrees. This year, the policy was changed to stop corralling before temperatures hit 95.

Susanne Roy of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign said that’s a move in the right direction.

“We need a little bit of a more of a hands-off approach to let them regulate naturally. And then in those situations where they are not regulating naturally, we will then need to use a fertility vaccine to assist in that process,” Roy said. “And this will be a far more humane approach than these brutal round-ups every four years.”

Sue Cattoor is the contractor managing the roundup for the BLM.  She said the helicopters do not put as much stress on the equine as people might imagine.

“[The animal learns] to respect that helicopter, but he’s not really afraid of it,” Cattoor said. “He knows it’s back there and he’s going to keep moving away from it because they’re a flight animal, but he’s not terrified like people think they are of ‘em.”

Traditionally the wild burros have had a near 100 percent adoption rate, but this year it’s less; 900 unadopted burros are in holding facilities with the BLM.

Click (HERE) to read the article in its entirety and to Comment
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BLM Rounds Up Wild Burros Despite Heat Objections

Posted: June 7, 2012 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Burros
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BY SARAH WOMER – SUN STAFF WRITER

“The intense heat and sun of the Arizona desert can be lethal”

Baby Wild Burros Captured and Imprisoned by the BLM ~ photo by Terry Fitch

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management began rounding up burros Wednesday to maintain a healthy population of wild burros on public lands, despite opposition from a congressional representative and animal experts.

The BLM’s Yuma Field Office launched what is being called the largest burro roundup of 2012 in hopes of collecting a target group of 350 burros from the Cibola-Trigo Herd Management Area north of Yuma. The roundup took place amid letters from Congressman Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., in addition to an Arizona equine veterinarian and other experts, who were urging the BLM to postpone the operation until the fall because of the heat.

“I ask that the BLM postpone the Cibola-Trigo roundup at this time,” stated Grijalva in a letter to Ken Salazar, secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. “When the temperature surpasses 90 degrees Fahrenheit, roundups of wild horses and burros should be suspended. The intense heat and sun of the Arizona desert can be lethal. It can be equally hard on BLM staff, contractors and the viewing public.”

Michael D. Hutchison, a practicing equine veterinarian in Tucson, echoed Grijalva’s sentiments.

“As an established practicing southern Arizona equine veterinarian who serves on the board of the Arizona Coalition for Equines dedicated to abolishing animal cruelty, I am compelled to raise an objection to the round-up under these extreme weather conditions.”

BLM officials said they have revised their plan to round up the animals in temperatures as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit and reduced it to a 95-degree maximum instead.

They also stated that all animals gathered will be examined and, if needed, treated by an on-site veterinarian.

Wednesday, the BLM gathered 62 burros in the local area, said Lori Cook with the BLM, noting that the number was their target for the day. “We finished the gather operations around 10:30 a.m. and the temperature was 87 degrees.”

Cook added that the burro roundup is not expected to last the expected two weeks as previously estimated. It is open to the public for viewing, she said, noting that they are meeting at 6:30 a.m. at Fisher’s Landing Store at Martinez Lake for the next week.

“All attendees must drive their own four-wheel-drive or high-clearance vehicle,” stated BLM officials. “Also, observers should dress in accordance with weather conditions and bring plenty of food and water.”

Click (HERE) to visit the Yuma Sun and to Comment
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Arizona Rag Promotes Death to Wild Burros

Posted: August 20, 2011 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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(The News As We See It) by R.T. Fitch ~ President of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Nameless Editorial Author Shows Ass

“We try our best not to promote stupid, hence we have not written about “Slaughterhouse” Sue Wallis as of late, but every now and then a written piece of trash blows by that just screams out for attention and this morning one blew in with a gust of smelly air from Lake Havasu City, AZ.  An editorial was printed, without even giving away the author’s name for good reason, that placed the blame for a burro‘s death in an auto collision squarely upon the ‘invasive’ burro…it shouldn’t have been there so now there is a need to get rid of all those potential impediments to traffic, forth with.

We are going to talk about the State of Texas’ war against the burros in Big Bend State Park a little later, but this article below just frosted me in the middle of two weeks without temps dipping below 100…it rankled me that badly. It kind of makes you wonder if they still teach reading in schools and compassion in the home…from an outsiders take, apparently not.” ~ R.T.

A couple of days ago, an article and photo in this newspaper described what happens when a burro and an automobile try to occupy the same space in the road at the same time.

The outcome was bad, damaging the vehicle, slightly injuring the driver and killing the burro. Anecdotally, these accidents occur quite a bit in the area, though this one was rare, in that it occurred just north of Lake Havasu City.

The car had every right to be there. Did the burro? It’s kind of hard to figure that one out, mostly because of federal policy on burros and wild horses. In one respect, burros are treated as a non-native invasive species, which they are. Yet they are also regarded — and managed — as a proud symbol of the American West.

It’s hard to have it both ways, yet that seems to be the historical approach by the federal government to both wild horses and burros. Funny, we don’t see that ambivalence toward other invaders, with the quagga mussel being a great example.

About a year ago, the Bureau of Land Management issued a new policy handbook on horse and burro management that aimed to set specific guidelines for 179 different herd-management areas. As best we can tell, the current law and policy is intended to balance the damage done by wild horses and burros and the need for healthy rangelands with policies that recognize the animals’ cultural importance to the West.

A BLM representative said it would like to eliminate the population of burros just north of our city.

That would be good, as would getting rid of a seemingly large herd on the California side of the Parker Strip.

Interior SecretaryKen Salazar proposed establishing preserves for wild horses and burros, a notion that has done little to settle the problem.

It may be awe-inspiring to watch a herd of wild mustangs race across the wide open desert of southwest Wyoming. It’s something altogether different to meet a burro on the hood of your car.

These collisions are yet another reason to aggressively seek to reduce these non-native species both on delicate lands and around population centers. The covered wagon is another proud symbol of the West, but it sure doesn’t belong on the roads.

— Today’s News-Herald

Click (HERE) to visit Rag and to Comment

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