Posts Tagged ‘BLM’

BLM Releases Environmental Assessment of Three Area Wild Horse Water Bail Trapping Roundup

Posted: May 17, 2013 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Source: Elko Daily Free Press  (Unedited) – less byline

1.8 Million Acres and an alleged 1,500 horses are too many?
(120,000 acres per horse)
BLM already attacked the Antelope herd 2011~ photo by Terry Fitch

BLM already attacked the Antelope herd 2011~ photo by Terry Fitch

ELKO — The Bureau of Land Management is planning a wild horse roundup in the Antelope Valley using water bail traps.

The project area for this gather and removal of wild horses is from within and outside the Triple B, Maverick-Medicine, and the western and central portions of the Antelope Valley herd management areas. The gather is expected to begin after June 13, though specific dates have not been determined due to budget constraints and other higher priority gathers.

Total acreage within the project area is more than 1.8 million and the 2013 estimated population is 1,504 horses. The appropriate management level for the area is between 548 and 1,115 horses. With the lack of needed precipitation this past fall and winter, BLM expects there will be a lack of available water for the wild horses in the summer and fall months ahead.

This action is based on limited water and forage availability to adequately support the current population of wild horses and the result to range resources caused by a concentration on site specific areas.

Scoping began June 14, 2012. On Sept. 4, 2012, the BLM released a preliminary environmental assessment analyzing the impacts of this proposed horse gather to the human environment for a 30-day public comment period. The Wells and Egan Field Offices in Elko and Ely districts released a final environmental assessment finding no significant impact and decision record for the gather recently.

Click (HERE) to visit the Elko Daily and to Comment
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BLM Offers Free Wild Horse Manure to Public, Really

Posted: May 11, 2013 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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It’s Da Real Thing!

horse-manureThe Bureau of Land Management has been verbally dishing mega-tons of wild horse and burro manure to the American taxpayers for decades but now they are actually putting our money where their mouths are, literally.  Now the U.S. Public can actually lay their hands on the real thing from the equines that should not be captive but free on their rightful range.  That BLM is so very, very clever!

Horse Manure

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New Interior Secretary Sally Jewell Waiting for Study on Wild Horses?

Posted: May 8, 2013 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Source: By Allison Sherry ~ The Denver Post

Mainstream Article, once again, skewed against wild horses and burros…
BLM Antelope attack in 2011 ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

BLM Antelope attack in 2011 ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

WASHINGTON — New Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday that she is still undecided about how to handle a burgeoning? wild horse and burro population that is eating more than half the horse budget at the BLM and sparking outrage among wild horse advocates.

Jewell said in an interview with The Denver Post that she is awaiting a National Academy of Sciences study, slated to come out in early June (and directed by the BLM not to look at the millions of welfare cattle grazing on the same land), to determine how best to handle the horses.

“It’s going to help identify what’s the sustained capacity of our public lands to handle our wild horses, what is the effectiveness of things like birth control methodology to try and deal with the issue,” Jewell said Tuesday. “So we appreciate their help and we look forward to that response.” (How about the millions of private cattle?)…(CONTINUED)

Comments needed and rest of the story located (HERE)
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Horse deaths at BLM’s Palomino Valley facility more than twice as high as reported, rendering receipts reveal

Posted: May 2, 2013 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Source: Written by Mark Robison as published on RGJ.com

The discrepancy seems to come about mostly from the counting of baby deaths.

The number of horse deaths at the BLM’s Palomino Valley wild horse facility is vastly underreported, according to rendering receipts uncovered by a Freedom of Information Act request made by the farm animal advocacy group Animals’ Angels.

Animals’ Angels sought the Palomino Valley facility’s rendering receipts for the services of Reno Rendering, whose legal name is Nevada By-Products. Rendering is when animal carcasses are hauled away and processed into other usable materials. (Possible uses: Cartilage, tendons and hooves are turned into gelatin used in such products as Jell-O and Altoids; stearic acid is used in car tires; blood and bone meal can be used for fertilizer; and some tissue is used as “byproducts” in animal feed.)

Animals’ Angels found:

According to the contract paperwork, Nevada By-Products  was chosen over landfill disposal due to cost effectiveness and the fact that “Due to the sensitive nature of the public to the wild horse and burro program, it is necessary to dispose of these large animals as quickly and discretely (sic) as possible and Reno Rendering fulfills these requirements.”

In addition to the contract itself, our FOIA request obtained all records of deceased horses and burros sent from the BLM holding facility to the rendering plant from January 1, 2010 through May 31, 2012.

During that timeframe the BLM itself reported in the official Palomino Valley Mortality Detail Report that only 241 horses and burros died at the Palomino Valley facility and 50 at the Fallon facility. However, the records from the rendering plant tell quite a different story. According to the Nevada By-Product invoices for that same time period, a startling 577 dead horses were received from the Palomino Valley Facility. This is a shocking difference of 286 animals (336 horses if Nevada By-Products does not render the horses from Fallon), a number simply too large to ignore.

The BLM’s Heather Jasinski was asked for comment. She responded:

As for Animals’ Angels and their posting about the discrepancy of numbers of deaths: as stated in my earlier response, the National WH&B Program is currently reviewing its reporting procedures for all aspects of the program and will modify them to correct any identified discrepancies. Until any modifications are identified as being needed, we will continue to respond to any requests based on the current recording procedure.

The discrepancy seems to come about mostly from the counting of baby deaths. They aren’t tracked because they haven’t reached the age where they would be branded and enter “the system.” A controversy is over whether their deaths should be counted in general but also whether they should be counted as negative fallout from roundups, with the thinking being that they may have survived if born in the wild and their mothers hadn’t endured the stress of roundup, confinement and unfamiliar food…(CONTINUED)

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Wild animal (Horse) birth control: politics vs. science?

Posted: April 18, 2013 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Source: By Brett French of the Billings Gazette

“Good Info from Dr. Kirkpatrick, Skewed view given by reporter!”
Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick speaking at the 2011 International Equine Conference ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick speaking at the 2011 International Equine Conference ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

“The management of wild horse herds and flourishing urban deer populations is so politically charged that science often gets pushed aside, said Jay Kirkpatrick, of the Billings-based Science and Conservation Center.

Kirkpatrick, one of the founders of SCS, spoke to the Conservation Roundtable on Tuesday at the First Interstate Operations Center. His company, a nonprofit, creates a vaccine called PZP that acts as a contraceptive in wild animals.

Burgeoning wild horse populations on Western federal lands — including the Pryor Mountain and McCullough Peaks wild horse ranges — have led to controversial roundups and trapping of the horses to keep herds from growing unchecked…”

HUH?

“What could have been a great educational piece about the work of Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick is immediately hijacked and murdered by Mr. French, again, with his skewed view and opinion of free roaming wild horses and burros. 

I would add that the only thing that is “BURGEONING” on our western public lands is private cattle who outnumber the legal horses by hundreds to one. 

Federally subsidized welfare ranching is what takes the toll on our public lands, not the eco-friendly wild horses. 

How can wild horse herds be BURGEONING while the BLM actively, aggressively and cruelly “zeros-out” (totally removes/destroys) the bulk of the few wild herds that remain.

I am so very tired of the press giving inaccurate numbers and twisting the truth in an effort to cause public confusion over the plight of our wild horses and burros…it is all akin to a conspiracy of epic proportions.

Please click the link below to read Dr. Jay’s comments and to leave YOUR comment for Mr. French.” ~ R.T.

Click (HERE) to read the story in it’s entirety and to comment
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Be There for Your Twin Peaks Wild Horses and Burros

Posted: April 10, 2013 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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The Twin Peaks HMA court case is “alive and well” and the hearing has been set for August 29th, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. in Pasadena, CA at the 9th Circuit courthouse located at 125 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena CA.  Directions can be found on the 9th Circuit website http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/information/locations.php

The Twin Peaks wild horses and burros need you there!

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was unanimously enacted in 1971 to protect wild horses and burros in the West “in order to enrich the lives of the American people”, mandating that they are to be “protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.” 

photo by Linda Hay

photo by Linda Hay

This Twin Peaks Stallion “ACE” was captured at least three times by the BLM in 2002, 2006 and again in 2010. He has been both branded and harassed by the BLM.

This photo was taken of him in 2009 in the Twin Peaks HMA before he was captured for the last time during the 2010 roundup.  Today he is alive and well and is willing to be the first horse, of the 1,791 Twin Peaks Wild Horses and Burros which were illegally removed by BLM, to be returned to their home land …  when this case is won.

Please attend the hearing on August 29, 2013

 

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Convicted Wild Horse Murderer is Back Behind Bars

Posted: April 6, 2013 by R.T. Fitch in Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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Source: Disputed

Jason Maduna, documented killer of wild horses, back behind bars for violating parole due to possessing horses
One of Dozens of Wild Horses Starved to Dead by Meduna

One of Dozens of Wild Horses Starved to Death by Meduna

“Stupid is as stupid does; if you take one cup of Jason Meduna, mix in equal parts of his wild horse trading buddy Ray Field with just a dash of Sue Wallis and a garnish of Dave Duquette you would have a horse killing cocktail of epic proportions.  Convicted criminals (we have the records) and alleged sociopaths seem to be a magnet for one another and horse blood is their bonding element.  You decide who is who but none of them deserve to share, consume, waste and pollute the same air that the innocents breath.” ~ R.T.

In April 2009, Morrill County authorities had arrested Meduna after authorities serving a search warrant found 211 neglected horses, burros, mules, foals and a pony at Meduna’s 3-Strikes Ranch near Alliance. Authorities found a total of 74 horses and burros dead at the ranch.

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

We have pulled the post of this article because a small town newspaper writer considered it to be an insult for us to promote her article.

What she does not realize is:

  • it is already out there 20 times over
  • your readership could boost her from being a small town writer to something just a tad larger
  • her motives are NOT about helping the horses
  • we had the details days before she did but were too busy with other issues to give it notice

Here is the deal, Meduna is back in jail for not only living underneath a fraudulent name but for violating his parole by doing EXACTLY what he was told not to do, possess horses.

Watch for updates but I can assure you that they will not come from the backward small town newspaper that issued this original article.  When you have the Atlantic, Forbes, Huffington Post and more writing to YOU to let you know of a new article we surely don’t need to be bogged down with stigmatized, small town rhetoric.

Disappointing and disturbing!

Read the SFTHH History of Meduna by clicking (HERE)
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