Press Release from The Equine Welfare Alliance – 01/04/10

Foal orphaned in the controversial Calico wild horse roundup - photo by Sharon Lamm

CHICAGO, (EWA), – The perfect storm of protests spurred by Bureau of Land Management’s clearing of horses from its Calico Mountain complex will continue into the first week of the new year.

Wild horse advocates have been outraged by a federal plan to remove most of the horses from the area driven in a snow blinded stampede from their natural habitat. A protest demonstration is planned for Thursday, January 7 from 11am to 1pm in front of the Capital Building in Albany, NY. Additional information is available at www.equinewelfarealliance.org. Protests are also planned for Denver and Lexington next week, as well.

The EWA urges citizens concerned over the planned extinction of our wild horse heritage, to attend these demonstrations.

Despite a federal judge’s recommendation to cancel the Nevada Calico Complex round-up and the discovery of testimony showing the agency is knowingly distorting the impact of wild horses on the environment to justify their removal, the BLM is moving full steam ahead with the controversial round-up of 3,000 horses. As reported in Horseback Magazine, director Bob Abbey gave the go-ahead to proceed with the round-up. One horse and one foal have already died.

Concerns have also been raised by academic veterinarian Nena Winand of Cornell University regarding a condition known as metabolic syndrome when horses are removed from their native habitat and placed in more nutrient rich pastures. She said, “Once I addressed this with the BLM wranglers that auction horses here every year or two when I suggested that they mention this syndrome in their presentation to potential adopters so that they would be better prepared to manage their horse’s needs. They looked at me like I was an alien – they had no clue.”

On December 30^th, the BLM invited members of the national press to view the round-up operations. Photos taken by a BLM contract photographer showed frightened horses in holding pens with sweat soaked coats generating clouds of vapor in the frigid air. The photos caused a storm of criticism from horse experts and were quickly removed.

The BLM spokesman exaggerated to the media saying said that 600 to 800 of the horses were to be returned to the wild when in fact, their official written plan calls for the return of only about 380 to their natural habitats. This statement comes on the heels of a statement attributed to BLM on National Public Radio that claimed the overall goal was to remove 25 percent of the horses during FY 2010, when the paper trail left behind by BLM’s Nevada managers indicates the agency intends to remove 45 percent, a whopping 20 percent discrepancy.

The demonstration was organized after learning of BLMs, Glenda Eckel’s May 13, 2009 testimony, which was ignored and buried by BLM. “Eckel’s testimony,” said EWAs Cindy MacDonald “reflects that despite the wild horse population being over BLMs “established levels” by 500%, monitoring objectives were being met.”

Ms. Eckel testified that she was surprised at the number of horses after a fly-over because the significantly larger population was not evident in their forage consumption.

The test for appropriate wild horse population levels is whether they achieve and maintain a thriving ecological balance on the public lands. The law does not require BLM to maintain specific numbers of animals but does require specific research and analysis for determining removals.

Based on Eckel’s testimony, there was no justification to reduce the wild horse population at Calico.

Concerned Americans continue to contact the White House and elected officials with no response. The Albany protest hopes to bring increased awareness to the growing outrage over the BLMs obvious plan to exterminate our wild horses and burros and the lack of response from our government.

www.equinewelfarealliance.org