Update by R.T. Fitch ~ author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart”
Ginger Kathrens and Terry Fitch at DC Protest 3/25/10 (Rob Pliskin in background) ~ Photo by Ann Evans
Our engaged, reading public has not heard much out of us the past several days but that is not all bad news. We have been traveling in an effort to bring you, our honorable readership, the latest up to date information on the plight of our American icons from several locations at once. Terry is in one spot and I have been traveling, internationally, to get to another. By tomorrow night, we may have some news for you, Monday for sure.
I do not advertise where I am for a variety of reasons but suffice it to say that in the past 30 hours I have put 24,000 miles under my belt with a few more to reconcile with in the morning.
Please bear with us as we move about but Terry has some interesting stories and photographs to share from where she has been situated and I will be meeting up with her, tomorrow.
Keep the faith and stay tuned as we plan to put you front row center, smack dab in the middle of this mess.
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Will be looking forward to “news at 11” Blessings in your travels, stay safe and get some sleep, you need the energy.
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Looking foward to your news.
wish we all could put our faces close together like the horses do and spread the word without saying a word, lol!!
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Thank you so much for all you are doing…I am so hoping and praying our Wild Mustang get to stay WILD in this Country!!!!!
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Can’t wait, R.T. Bless you and Terry and get some rest please.
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Thank you all, I hold my breath every day to check for any news and ultimately something positive. Take care.
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Prayers and good wishes for your travels, RT and Terry. Thank you for everything that you do – we all appreciate you both so very much!!!
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The force is with you! Thanks for all you do and for this place to come together.
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http://www.examiner.com/equine-advocacy-in-national/more-questions-than-answers-plague-twin-peaks-wild-horse-roundup
we must start organizing to go into these areas once the trap site is moved to find and examine the bodies of wild horses that have been shot or left for dead..If we cannot do this ourselves, we must fund hiring a range detective to do it..Complaining and being horrified is not enough..we must start collecting evidence of unnecessary deaths…We need hard evidence, we know they are lieing and we must prove it..killing a horse because it is missing part of an ear is not acceptable. Stallions routinely lose part of their ears in fights-foals and calves routinely lose ears to frostbite..this is not considered a survival threat in the wild as we have seen many photos of aged wild horses missing parts of the ears..I personally had a foal born outside that had frostbit ears and lost the tips…became a youth champion roping horse…Its time to really take these “Elmer Fudds” on..and anyone who doesn’t have the guts or will to fight better step back.
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sandra:
I respect what you are saying and I don’t necessarily disgree with any of your post, save for one point: what you advocate is definitely something that should not be posted here, but rather emailed directly to our leadership. In addition, I believe, depending on the numbers of equine deaths and locations, they are using rendering trucks.
But again…this is better left off a public thread.
I wish our wild equine warriors dry roads, gentle breezes, unencumbered witness and clear thinking. Thank you.
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I understand what you are saying, and the info has already gone that way..but there are few of us and much that needs to be done in the field..at some point there has to be a public call to arms for volunteers to step up..There are many people who browse these blogs that could keep this in mind and have a purpose for a camping trip on the weekend to a HMA near you…and yes we know there are BLM browsers-as well as plants in our midst. , and I have had many giggles, knowing I sent them off chasing geese across the desert landscape…devious is my middle name, ask anyone who has got on the wrong side of me…LOL
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Better yet..LOL..ask those wild geese who are still wondering what the hell they did to deserve being used for target practice….
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I know what you mean, there is a lot that can be learned even from bones. And there are plenty of experts that can be hired or even will freely share their opinions. Even the hooves of horses tell their story.
One interesting thing I did learn recently if from experts that work with fossil bones. Was a skeleton they were working on from an animal that suffered before it died or was it a flood death or fast death like lightening strike.?
well its the way the backbone arches as an animal suffers that gives the clues.
remember those pictures of the skeleton found next to the cattle guard? that poor horse suffered horrible a long and slow death. Once people are shown even a layperson can see the story.
I don’t see anything wrong with digging up the bodies and who cares if the blm knows people will do such a thing. I guess its why they now use a renderer and have reports of doing their own rendering in the field. They don’t want those bodies dug up. Well BLM ya pick-up all the bones from the millions of wild horses you have killed over the past 40 years? Bones are all over the range the horses USED to roam free. Sometime in future those bones are going to come back at you!!
will anyone ever FOI the numbers sent out to local renderers before the blm buys their own portable renderering thing?
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That is an excellent point laura, and details like that are important, where could I go to find a good source for this kind of information..I have spent alot of time being an ameteur tracker, and working with animals that can’t tell you what is wrong so have become pretty good at reading sign, and putting puzles together.
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Waiting RT and Terry…and thank you. I’m sure it won’t be pretty. Godspeed.
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Internationally. Wow!
Stay safe and keep us fighting.
White light to you all.
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RANGE DETECTIVE–GOOD IDEA!
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Just wanted you all to know about something I saw today.
I went to a very swanky horsey area in my neck of the woods and was looking at the latest newspapers…lots of them like the NYTimes, WashPost, Financial Times, etc (this is a rural area). But they also had a hard copy of the latest Federal Digest (Federal Jobs Digest).
They don’t have the hard copy completely on line. Anyone have a subscription?
Maybe you could provide the link with the photo that about made me throw-up in the Safeway. Here is the link without photo:
http://www.jobsfed.com/fjdpaper/Jumps4_11_03/JumpLatest2_4_11.htm
What is missing from this seemingly nicey, patty-cake plea for applicants at BLM is the photo…you guessed it…mustangs being stampeded by a low scooping helo. Wonder if it’s Cattoor???? Wanna bet!?
And these morons use it as a job advertisement!!!!! What a bunch of deadhead, sick ****s. Yeah. That’s where I want to work!
It was disgusting!
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Denise, anyone that would apply to that job based on that photo would be weeded out if it were a regular law enforcement agency. Why didn’t they just have a pic of them pointing a gun at an advocate to really entice all sickos? So they are admitting that their primary purpose is terrorizing horses? What a bunch of a**hats.
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Honestly…people have GOT TO SEE THAT PHOTO!!!!!
Thank fates that I went to the grocery store restrooms before I saw it because not only would I have tossed my cookies….I would have needed a change of undies.
The cruelest, most insensitive, stupidest job promo I’ve ever seen….and they wonder why they can’t get hires?????
Good gravy! Hey, DOI…(1) you MUST HAVE a culture of depression and job dissatisfaction at your shop or people would be blowing down your doors to get hired in this economy, or (2) you just can’t find the right kind of dumbass sickos like Cattoor, et al.
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I also wanted to add that as far as I am concerned that helo photo is exactly the same as a BLM troll with a rifle or pistol.
Such a stupid piece; akin to creating a recruiting poster of the veteran’s at the VA hospitals with missing limbs, etc and asking for new recruits. Insensitive AND just plain arrogantly DUMB!!!!
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glad you posted this…thats a hoot, 194 jobs available…toliet cleaner ect..they seem to be in need of real estate people..is that because they are selling off our lands?? so the next time some BLM employee trys to intimidate you remember..”you need no special skills or experience””…I am just now picking myself up off the floor..yes and what do we always hear from the WH&B people..we are the professionals and we know what we are doing…was Debbie doing toliets before she became their information dispenser???
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USDA, especially food inspection is experiencing the same problem(s).
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I thought that Park Ranger was under Forest Service which is NOT under BLM.
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National Forests fall under USDA (confused?…think raping the trees for profit).
National Parks belong to DOI.
And then there is the mix of the “state” and “county/local/city” parks in addition.
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What “laundry” is being done? Hard to imagine what need there is for someone to do laundry in any of those jobs.
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Well, Louie…maybe DOI or the subcontractors DO bathe and need their laundry done. Who the hell knows…least of all…BLM. Maybe Abbey and Gory are going into the laundry business on the side.
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BLMs” dirty laundry”…must be acres of it…they are doing sue’s there too
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maybe its money laundring???
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sandra…you know, if this extermination of the wild ones and our natural resources wasn’t so tragic, that would be very funny. Oh WTH…that was funny….dirty and money laundering! LOL!
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And Larry Johnson’s too…BLM Advisory Board member, horse hater, finally gone after 10 years! A true Evil one.
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I misread one of the job titles as REALITY aides. Now THAT is a job that is needed at the DOI!
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Checked out that site a bit further. This is how they hire citizens to police other citizens:
Annual Leave
An employee may use annual leave for vacations, rest and relaxation, and personal business or emergencies. An employee has a right to take annual leave, subject to the right of the supervisor to schedule the time at which annual leave may be taken. An employee will receive a lump-sum payment for accumulated and accrued annual leave when he or she separates from Federal service or enters on active duty in the armed forces and elects to receive a lump-sum payment.
Accrual Rates
Accrual Rates for SES, SL/ST, or Equivalent Pay Systems
Creditable Service for Leave Accrual
Advance Annual Leave
Annual Leave Ceilings
Restoration of Annual Leave
Lump-sum Payments
Annual Leave to Establish Retirement Eligibility
Sick Leave
An employee may use sick leave for-
personal medical needs
care of a family member
care of a family member with a serious health condition
adoption related purposes
Sick Leave Accrual
Full-time Employees 1/2 day (4 hours) for each biweekly pay period.
Part-time Employees 1 hour for each 20 hours in a pay status.
There are no limits on the amount of sick leave that can be accumulated. Unused sick leave accumulated by employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System will be used in the calculation of their annuities.
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How many taxpaying citizens in our country are getting those kind of benefits?
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And with all of that–they can’t clean up the BARBED WIRE off of the range?
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Louie:
There are alot of employees that get those benefits, fed or private.
The issue isn’t that they get those benefits…it’s that they don’t fully do their jobs (uphold the equines freedon and care, among other issues) and STILL get those benefits.
SES is Senior Executive Service. That is an entirely different animal and just about one step below political appointee. Difference? They have job protection rights after the President gets elected OUT of office.
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I too have been traveling again this weekend. This is an amazing story. I’m really tired so I’ll be brief here and when the whole story is ready I’ll tell you where to go to read it. You’ll understand in a moment what I mean.
This weekend was Terri Farley’s big huge weekend with her horses–Ghost Dancer (aka Medicine Hat Stallion, aka Medicine Hat Woman) and Sage. A large private sanctuary in Northern CA is their new home. Steep hills, volcanic rock and more trees than Carter has pills consists of their new home. Oh and lots of other wild horses too.
Yesterday was the annual open house and this morning was RELEASE DAY!!!! I’m telling you I don’t know who was more excited–Terri or me?????!!!!!! I’m so incredibly joyful for Terri cause I know she fell head over heels in love with Dancer last winter. I was so excited to be there. It was huge. It was truly overwhelming. The moment Terri had so long sought and I got to be a witness to the most incredible moment.
This is being written some 5 hours later and I’m still floating.
They opened the gates and Dancer and Sage just kinda walked out into this big field. A big herd (I think it actually consisted of several smaller herds) was having breakfast. D&S walked then trotted to the hay. They hung out while Mom Terri was being interviewed for a local tv segment. They even came within 15 ft of me!!!!!! I couldn’t believe it. I had just met them yesterday. We had been out there for maybe 15-20 mins and they willingly came that close. It feels magical.
I am so very happy for Terri, Dancer and Sage. I am so happy that they are now free to be horses. They’ll live on 5000 acres, come and go as they please and they’ll have lots of other horsie friends to teach them about the local land.
I took lots of photos but I have to resize them. Please be on the lookout for them at Terri’s site. You will be so inspired.
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SPECTACULAR!!! So thrilled for everyone involved, especially the horses!
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Margaret, thank you for sharing that wonderful brilliant silver lining. And thank you and Terri for all you do.
This gives me hope and desire to continue on in my little ways through all the bunk.
A little positive reinforcement can over come mountains.
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That description of Dancer and sage really gives us a GOOD feeling. Thank you. Eager to read more.
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I guess I just know a lot of people who don’t get benefits and are fighting just keep going. Having benefits and a retirement would mean a lot to them. So many of the good paying jobs with benefits have been taken overseas. It seems that the only ones left are government jobs.
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Margaret, THANK YOU! That is wonderful to hear. NOW–to get the rest of them out of Auschwitz.
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B ~ BULL$HIT
L ~ LIE$
M ~ MURDER
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