film by James Kleinert
Courtesy of Saving the American Wild Horse
Wild Horse Round Ups, Showing the Truth features Peter Coyote, Michael Blake (Author of Dances With Wolves) and Ginger Kathrens telling of the tragedy facing America’s Wild Horses & Burros from the Bureau Of Land Management.
Managing to Extinction is what is happening to our cherished symbol of Freedom, the American Wild Horse.
With the American mustang crisis in the news worldwide, award-winning filmmaker, James Anaquad-Kleinert brings his star- studded environmental film, Wild Horses & Renegades, featuring Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Viggo Mortensen, Daryl Hannah Governor Richardson, Congressmen Grijalva, Pulitzer Prize winning American Indian Author Scott Momaday and Raoul Trujillo to Santa Fe.
“If the public could view what’s being done to wild horses, the public would stand up and take action, this is just not a film about America’s Wild Horses this is a film about what is happening to America itself!” states Michael Blake, author of Dances with Wolves.
Anaquad-Kleinert’s documentary examines the Bureau of Land Management‘s (BLM) controversial policies on public lands, while investigating the elimination of America’s wild horses and burros. Recently, 90 wild horses died and more than 40 mares aborted their late term foals as a result of the Calico Roundup in Nevada. The BLM called the Calico roundup a success. Many more roundups are scheduled for 2011. Since 2001, the BLM has removed more than 90,000 wild horses off their federally protected land. More than 24 million acres have been withdrawn from wild horse and burro use despite the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act. 40,000 wild horses are currently in government holding facilities instead of roaming on the land designated for their use. The BLM’s roundup and removal policy is leading to the extinction of wild horses and burros in the West. This costs the American taxpayer: $120,000. Per day
“I adopted a wild horse named Voodoo, who had been rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management and adopted out to a killer buyer. The man like many or most killer buyers, played a cruel game of acquiring horses and betting that he could sell them to slaughter before he has to feed them. But the problem did not begin with the killer buyer. It began with the Bureau of Land Management,” said Willie Nelson.
Shot in high definition, Wild Horses & Renegades, centers around dramatic footage of heart- wrenching wild horse roundups and interviews with Jim Baca, (former Director of the BLM), Michael Blake (writer of Dances With Wolves), Sheryl Crow, Viggo Mortensen, Willie Nelson, Daryl Hannah, Congressmen Raul M. Grijalva, Pulitzer Prize winning American Indian Author Scott Momaday, Ginger Kathrens, American Indian actor’/advocates Raoul Trijullo and Tokala Clifford Black Elk, energy consultant Randy Udall, and scientific experts, as well as animal rights and environmental activists. The documentary examines the effects of gutting the historic 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act with the 2004 Burns Amendment—removing protections for tens of thousands of wild horses, many of whom have ended up in foreign slaughter plants. Wild Horses & Renegades documents the struggle of the West’s legendary wild horses. The film focuses on the stallion named ‘Traveler’ and the activism to release him to the wild after the roundup. Wild horses have long symbolized freedom, individualism and the free spirit of America. The documentary delves into the reasons behind the roundups and current impacts on western public lands by oil, gas, mining and corporate cattle grazing.
How are the wild horses roaming free in the way of corporate oil, gas, water, solar, wind and mineral extraction? Before a big corporation begins extraction on public land, (leased out by the BLM), an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is made. If wild horses are in the area; advocates will want to protect the wild horse environment. This would be problematic for the extractive industry land acquisition. If wild horses remain on the range then the public will want to visit the area. Energy and mineral industries don’t want the public to see any violations of safety and environmental codes, especially when they want to green wash their industries. Since America’s wild mustangs cannot speak for themselves we’re getting the word out. His short film, Wild Horse Spirit, was a pivotal part of the 2007 Emmy award- winning PBS series Natural Hero’s. Now, in Wild Horses & Renegades, the filmmaker explores how the “New Energy Frontier” public land shift is forcing the mustangs out. Big corporate oil/gas and mining companies are overtaking the vast majority of public lands in the American West. Wild Horses & Renegades explores the corruption within the Department of the Interiors Mineral Management Service. Since the tragic Gulf of Mexico oil spill the media and public are beginning to realize how deep the corruption is within the department of the Interior. As Jim Baca states in Wild Horses & Renegades: “Our Public Lands are run by the oil, mining and livestock industries and it’s their way or the highway”.
Always ready to tackle challenges, James Anaquad-Kleinert, the former World Cup competitor in aerial freestyle skiing has been hailed for both his high action winter sports films and his in-depth environmental films with a strong Native American element. “Killing wild horses, running brutal roundups and shipping them out the back door to slaughter has been going on for years. I’m grateful for people like Sheryl, Willie, Viggo, Daryl, Congressmen Grijalva and Governor Richardson for their support of my film,” says James Adaquad-Kleinert adding, “Wild Horses & Renegades” shows how wild horses are problematic for the “New Energy Frontier” —the public land grab going on right now.
“Wild horses are living things who have a right to coexist in what is a vast landscape, which is the American West,” states Viggo Mortensen in Adaquad-Kleinert’s film adding, “Let’s do something about this.”
“Wild Horses & Renegades” explains why we are seeing massive wild horse and burro roundups and why these majestic, beautiful, iconic creatures are being threatened and facing possible slaughter,” says Daryl Hannah.
To learn more and view the Trailer for Wild Horses & Renegades please visit: theamericanwildhorse.com
Related Articles
- Madeleine Pickens to Join Wild Horse Advocates and Celebs at Mustang Rally (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- Video Shows BLM Contractor Targeting Pregnant Wild Horses (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- BLM Calls Abrupt Halt to Deadly Winter Wild Horse Roundup (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- Event: Wild Horses and Burros Need Your Voice (thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com)
- “Welfare” Ranching is the Great BLM Lie (ppjg.wordpress.com)
- The BLM’s big “fire sale” of our land (ppjg.wordpress.com)
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
This film was ” Disappointment Valley”…….name is changed now…be very careful about sending donations to support this film……I know from experience….I wanted to further the information to the public to save our wild horses, not support the filmmaker’s lifestyle. After personally spending thousands of dollars on this film, and being associate producer, at one time, I am not even kept appraised of the progress of the film, nor have my inquires to the film maker and his “foundation” been answered. Be cautious where you send your donations.
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If Peter Coyote is in this film, I hope this film ends up being shown on Link TV. Unfortunately, not everyone gets Link TV. Link TV is great – it’s better than PBS! Link TV gets not a penny of federal funding. It is 100% veiwer supported and I have seen some of the most incredibe, truthful pieces of journelism on LinkTV.
Is there any chance documentaries like this can be marketed to NatGeo, or Animal Planet or PBS? There is a lot of good written and video information out there, but how to get it out to the general public? I didn’t get a chance to go, but did anyone set up a non- profit booth at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo to hand out information and flyers to al those city folks and their kids? I don’t have that kind of money (because even non-profit booths can cost thousands of dollars) but the exposure would be incredible. But I would have gladly driven the 60 miles one way as many nights or days as needed to volunteer to staff and talk. Since the HLS&R is already underway for this year, how about a booth at the Denver show or even Cheyenne Frontier Days? Besides calling your congressman, I think the best way to get the word out to the rest of the American Taxpayer is to stage a campaign of non-profit booths at local arts&crafts festivals and events around the country. Believe me, you can reach a HUGE amount of people that way. Expenses would be booth fees and liturature. The tables and canopies can be donated by the volunteers, as well as the time to operate the booth. Start with big shows like Austin (TX) Pecan Street, 4th Street in Tempe (AZ), Capitol Hill People’s Fair (Denver), Veiled Prophet Faire (St.Louis)….there are thousands of festivals in big and small cities and towns around the US. Just about every town has an annual festival. I am sure all the readers here would be happy to help out if there were a set of literature they could have for free(collectivley) produced by the advocate organizations, and help when needed with booth fees. From Bangor ME to San Diego CA you could have school kids and adults blanketing the country with information. And I believe the American people are angry enough right now – even with all the other probems – that they will stand up and shout about this. If we can’t get the oil companies to do what’s right, people will turn to other injustices to make right and fight, because it will make them feel like they can at least do SOMETHING.
(so why am I ranting here instead of on my own blog?) 😛
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Could there be, perhaps, another more subtle and ominous reason behind these round-ups? Corporations have spent mega-millions on researching consumer psychology. The Wild Horse is a true symbol of American Freedom. To target them, as has been done, is pretty much the same as desecrating the Flag.
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As the final minutes of the game tick away, the predator CAN become the prey.
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Erin Brockovich has re-entered the battle. Does any of this sound familiar?
HINKLEY, Calif. – At the end of “Erin Brockovich,” a housewife sick from toxic chromium weeps with joy as she’s handed her portion of a historic $333 million settlement between residents of this small desert town and the utility that poisoned their drinking water.
In real life, that woman is Roberta Walker. She still lives in Hinkley, using her share to buy a new home in what she thought would be a safe four-mile distance from the toxic plume of chromium.
Earlier this year, she and other residents learned that the pollution, which Pacific Gas & Electric was required to clean up, was once again moving and had seeped into their groundwater.
Now, Brockovich has returned to the town that made her famous and is once again rallying residents, sampling the water and at a water board meeting on Wednesday is expected to announce that the contamination may be worse than the utility says.
Brockovich and Bowcock expect to share some of these details at the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board meeting.
At the meeting, Hinkley residents will also get an update on PG&E’s cleanup effort. Lauri Kemper, the board’s assistant executive officer, said they have asked to see the data, lab results and sampling procedures.
“We are always open to look at folks’ data,” she said.
One troubling discovery, Bowcock said, is that there is contamination well beyond the original plume boundaries.
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The OP says this is a wider issue – look at what is happening to America.
I agree and IMO we are now living in a fully “loaded” police state.
Government and its enforcers are predatory not only upon wild animals but also on household pets, if the multitude of media reports on the deliberate horrific slaughter of shelter animals – recently in South Carolina but hundreds of thousands killed inhumanely prior to that – and the same multitudinous reports of people’s own pets being shot in cold blood even in front of children; predatory on people – just read even some of the volumes of newsprint and broadcast film on cops predatory on homeless and mentally ill, on old people and children (teens being a favorite target), on students and even (in Wisconsin recently) on actual state law makers.
I look around and what I see is an untrammeled descent into chaos with no stopping the thugs. I fear for my animals, I fear for myself, and mostly I fear for this sad, sad country which has seemingly completely lost its moral compass.
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This film was ” Disappointment Valley”…….name is changed now…be very careful about sending donations to support this film……I know from experience….I wanted to further the information to the public to save our wild horses, not support the filmmaker’s lifestyle. After personally spending thousands of dollars on this film, and being associate producer, at one time, I am not even kept appraised of the progress of the film, nor have my inquires to the film maker and his “foundation” been answered. Be cautious where you send your donations.
LikeLike