Update from our Good Friends at The Cloud Foundation
BLM Conducting a Bloody 2000+ Mustang and Burro Roundup
BLM's Stampede to Extinction ~ Photo by Craig Downer
California doesn’t have many wild horses and very few wild burros left but that, along with a public outcry, has not stopped the Bureau of Land Management from rounding up thousands more of California’s wild equids.
California has lost 16 of the original 38 wild horse herds designated for protection in 1971 and over 2/3 of the public land tagged for wild horses and burros has been taken away from these celebrated icons of the West. Now BLM is working fast to remove 1855 mustangs and 210 wild burros from the Twin Peaks area, just north of Susanville, California. The roundup is scheduled to last 45-60 days and BLM aims to leave only 450 mustangs and 72 burros on this 1250-square mile range, larger than the state of Rhode Island.  Almost all the mares returned would be given infertility drugs and a mere 72 burros is not a genetically viable population in this beautiful area designated principally for their use . Over 32,000 privately-owned cattle and sheep are permitted to graze annually on the Twin Peaks area. Revenues generated yearly from livestock grazing fees are estimated at $120,000 while the cost of rounding up/processing of 1,980 wild horses and burros would be 35 times the annual grazing revenues -over $4 million. Over 38,000 wild horses are in government holding while less than half that remain on the range and BLM plans to complete the removal of 12,000 wild horses and burros this fiscal year alone.
California’s Wild Herds Need You- What You Can Do
- Call and email and meet with staff of U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (ph. 916.448.2787) and Dianne Feinstein (ph. 415.393.0707), Governor Schwarzenegger (ph. 916-445-2841) , and your Congressperson & state legislators too! Message: High cost to the taxpayers; loss of our last big California wild horse herd; loss of potential for eco-tourism in area; loss of freedom and family for the wild horses; likely death toll at least 99 animals (.05% average deaths according to BLM)
- Write letters to the editor of your local paper.
- Tell your friends about Twin Peaks & roundups planned across the West; visit your CA herds in the wild and work to protect them for future generations to come. Observation of the Twin Peaks roundup is being allowed 7 days per week- please come and bring a reporter with you.
Learn more at www.thecloudfoundation.org
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- BLM Helicopter Stampede to put 50% of California’s Wild Horses and Burros behind Bars Forever (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- Nearly 300 wild horses pulled from Twin Peaks area (horsetalk.co.nz)
- BLM’s Abbey Escalates Wild Horse Propaganda (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- OIG Launches Review of BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program Amid Escalating Controversy (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Go back to this date and pull up this article. Send this information out to all outlets:
The BLM’s Snow Job About Water on the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area
June 21, 2010 by ppjg
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Thanks, Louie. This is the link to the original article. Took me a while to find it.
http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/the-blm%e2%80%99s-snow-job-about-water-on-the-twin-peaks-herd-management-area/
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Linda, good going! This needs to be made PUBLIC.
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I live in Southern CA been writing and calling for a very long time, I finish one round and then start all over again. We should have wild horses by the plenty here in So Cal but nowhere to be found.
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Morgan, I know there is a strong horse community in Norco..are they involved as a group in working to save the mustang???
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I have no contacts in Norco at all. I don’t own horses so I don’t hang with a lot of horse people. I’ll try to find out though. If I could find some kindred soul to erect a banner in a very public location I would pay for it.
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OK, they must have a local horse newspaper there..the town is all about horses, I should be able to get an article there. Its time to start getting horse groups involved in this protest.
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Morgan this is the answer I got from the Gov’s office.
Thank you for writing to Governor Schwarzenegger. The Governor appreciates hearing from people like you who care about the future of our great state.
The issue you have written about is federal in nature and falls outside of the Governor’s jurisdiction. Our office suggests you contact U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein on this matter at the following address:
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
One Post Street, Suite 2450
San Francisco, California 94104
(415) 393-0707
http://feinstein.senate.gov
You may also wish to contact your U.S. Congressional Representative. To find out whom your local Representative is, please visit http://www.house.gov/writerep.
Again, thank you for writing and voicing your concern on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Lauren Thurston
Office of Constituent Affairs
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Heard this morning on the polital sunday program…Barbra Boxer is in trouble and may lose in Calif..I am in oregon and cannot vote for her but sent a donation, Californians need to support this fine lady and any of us that can need to help her..She had the courage to speak up in a forceful way to Salazar and we should show our appreciation with our support…or you are going to end up with a “corporation mistress” to replace her.
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Yes that’s my fear to. Boxer can piss me off, heck can’t they all but she would be better than if Meg Whitman and Carlie Fiorino got in IMnonHO. I’ve been trying to support her too and of course I am in frequent contact 😉 .
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Governor Schwarzenegger needs to be MOTIVATED. He loves a challenge
CHALLENGE HIM.
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Let’s get real here…that guy isn’t going to do squat.
I sent him (and know of several others that contacted him and his wife) an email through is website (most of my family still lives there, as I used to) and I didn’t get so much as a thank you for the email letter or phone calls.
Again, Arnollll has much bigger problems and won’t WASTE his time on the issue. I can’t stand his wife. I think she is a hypocrite…my opinion and really not relevant to the plight of the wild equines. Unlike Nevada, the CA wildlife authorities aren’t as sadistic as the NV ones. However, they also don’t enforce their antislaughter laws.
It is also a matter of Feds doing what they want; not much the states can do in the long run.
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So how do we get to him or Maybe Maria
Thank you for writing to Governor Schwarzenegger. The Governor appreciates hearing from people like you who care about the future of our great state.
The issue you have written about is federal in nature and falls outside of the Governor’s jurisdiction. Our office suggests you contact U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein on this matter at the following address:
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
One Post Street, Suite 2450
San Francisco, California 94104
(415) 393-0707
http://feinstein.senate.gov
You may also wish to contact your U.S. Congressional Representative. To find out whom your local Representative is, please visit http://www.house.gov/writerep.
Again, thank you for writing and voicing your concern on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Lauren Thurston
Office of Constituent Affairs
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You can call or write but make sure it is on a day when you were going to do something really fun like clean the toilet. After talking to Arnold’s office who will inform you ad nauseum that this is a Federal problem and there is just nothing our little ole Governor could do you know his hands are tied but he understands. You’ll wish you’d cleaned the toilet instead.
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Good I will call the office tomorrow when I amsure they have arisen. These Ca. guys sleep late.
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Reid’s in trouble (not that he is a real supporter of wild equines), but the opponent Angle is going to be worse (if that is possible). Same thing across many voting areas….people are p o’d at Congress and the job situation.
No. Our problem is that no one is listening and the Obama administration has decided to focus on BIG issues (healthcare, finance reform) and is not going to chase after teeny-tiny issues like wild equines.
Big mistake Mr. President. The ecology, cap and trade, unemployment are all highly interconnected. This is about keeping the big money business people somewhat satisfied.
Sadly, Mr. President you have forgotten the basic idea that to let injustice and immorality thrive, you jeopardize EVERYTHING noble you hope to achieve.
There are some things a person with ethics, morales and integrity just can’t stand by and let happen….but maybe you are too busy on your, what third vacation this summer? Must be good to be the King.
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We need to make it so they can’t ignore it. The Nurses got his attention. They weren’t about to be ignored.
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well, he is not running for re-election so it doesn’t matter at this point who he pisses off…wish that could work in our favor….California has always been known as a progressive state, but like oregon they are struggling in this economy..and their majority of constinuents are demanding answers to big problems and only WE and the wild horses see this as life altering..sad to say..in different times we could make the frount page..too many people worrying about whether they will have a job and food to put on the table..The must remember, god has a way of answering your prayers when you are praying for someone else..at least thats the way its always worked for me..I have always had an angel on my shoulder-just sometimes its the arc angel…
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Louie…I understand your points. But you will NEVER get relief from one individual, especially a politician. I agree that it is important and necessary to file, post, email, fax and phone all the government entities. I just believe, since we are talking about animals…they really don’t give a SH*T! After all horses, bison, wolves, etc don’t vote. And frankly, that is the ugly truth. There ain’t no white knights in this world anymore at the elected level. Why?….because idiots that do vote and special interests stack the process.
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The powers behind this are hoping that everyone will just give up and go away.
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Many moral causes had masses that didn’t give a rat’s butt and those that gave their hearts in counter insurgency efforts NEVER gave up.
We will not give up.
The pain is knowing how our American Icons are being brutalized, murdered and thrown on the human decided dump heaps of this life. That is hard to live with because we know the truth about the evil.
NEVER GIVE UP!!!!! But we do need some VERY, VERY SMART LITIGANTS!
If you or anyone else has ideas…send them private email to RT. No more showing our hand to the wild equine butchers. (Sorry for the public “contact RT” plea…but we have to take serious information, ideas off the public forum). You got info…give it to RT and let’s find some more lawyers.
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we are already working on that!
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Being that he is NOT running for re-election, he has NOTHING to lose. He could really do some grandstanding with this.
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Louie, we MUST turn over every rock in our quest to save the horses..even pebbles..no one knows where that gold nugget is hidden..or we would have hit on it by now..so no effort is a waste…more likely than not it will be a combination of things that add up to success..It takes years to work a court case through the system..the horses do not have that time..If there are things we can do..lets try them!
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Please dont talk about how much money the grazing fees bring in without also mentioning what it cost to administer the grazing program. While fees may bring in $120,000 (that is, IF and when they are actually paid) the cost to taxpayers to administer the grazing program is, all tolled, nearly a billion dollars a year. It is also important to remember that these “welfare ranchers” produce less than 3% of our nations meat.
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Spot on, CJ, the system is a gross money loser for the U.S. taxpayer. I am by no means anti-cattle as many of our neighbors are cattle ranchers but THEY own their own land, pay taxes on it and maintain it…why should others be subsitized by them/us so that they can let thier cattle run free on our land? It is not equitable.
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I do not think anyone has figures to show how much land destruction and water pollution there is by the mining ‘leases’. There are no EAs done for the leases and there is no one inspecting in the field. BLM has stated that they cannot afford to do these things.
Fees for leases to mines need to be raised to cover the Environmental Assessments and the ongoing inspections needed. This could be done but simply us not. The taxpayer loses out again and public lands are stripped and water polluted. mar
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The BLM got caught on the Barrick-Cortez gold mine expansion out of Elko, because they showed a finding of no significant impact-to the loss of 58 springs and water seeps and 1 perrinial stream and did not address mitigation for the dust and particles from the mining…so there is a paper trail-the BLM just does a rubber stamp on all these projects ‘of no impact” and many of these do not get challenged and so they quietly slip thru..and unless challenged in court-become part of the landscape..What the BLM is doing to the land is as woeful as what they are doing to the wild horses..the fact that everything they do has to be challenged in court, is a statement of their incompetence to manage anything. Just like helicopter stampedeing of horses over thousands of acres of land has “no impact”
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please save all the wild horses , from the beginning .
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Free roaming thoughts:
Every time I open my e-mail, some group is asking me to donate–Save the turtles, save the polar bear, save the grouse, save the salamander. I think that now the Wild Horse should be named an Endangered Species.
How does BLM get away with killing wild horses? A kid ran over some domestic ducks–he got 5 years or some such sentence. How does BLM get away with killing wild horses? I can’t pick a Lady-slipper without getting fined. BLM just rounds up the horses and burros–says it’s for their own good– and gets away with it.
Where are those 54 people who sent the letter–what’s the next action? Where is Obama?? Oh yeah–on vacation. Fight on, horse advocates— there is so much rottenness in our government—-
I suppose Salazar will be a hero when he re-introduces “wild horses” into the mountains–after he’s killed them off. Horses in holding pens are not wild any more.
A sad and bitter fight–but fight on for Cloud and Freedom and all the others.
It is wrong that the citizens of the USA have to fight a federal agency!
Where are HSUS? ASPCA? etc.
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