Horse News

Shady Tactics Surround Obama’s BLM Roundup of Famous Kiger Wild Horses

Information supplied by The Cloud Foundation

Typical Underhanded Operations Still the Main Theme of BLM

Using Multiple Stampede Choppers on Day 1 at Kiger ~ Photo by Laura Leigh WHE/WHFF

Click (HERE) to read Laura’s Day One Report

PORTLAND, Ore. —The Cloud Foundation is outraged at the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) lack of transparency and avoidance of public input pertaining to the Kiger/Riddle Mountain roundup happening now outside of Burns, Oregon. The herds are famous for their Spanish Conquistador ancestry as well as Disney’s hit movie, Spirit: Stallion of the CimarronThe Foundation asks Congress to stop the illegal roundup now in order to save these herds from being destroyed. BLM’s plan would reduce the two herds to grossly non-viable populations of less than 50 animals each.

To the Foundation’s knowledge, no pro-wild horse interested parties received the Environmental Assessment (EA) within the allotted 30-day comment period. The only public notification appears to be a March 16, 2011 blurb in the local Burns Times Herald newspaper saying “the proposed action will begin in September, 2011.”

“I was shocked to learn that the Kiger and Riddle Mountain herds were going to be rounded up in early July,” states Diane Pinney, Kiger wild horse adopter and Wild Horse and Burro Representative, Southeast Oregon’s Resource Advisory Council (RAC). “I never received the EA or a notice that it was available, and I can’t find anyone else who did.”

BLM typically receives thousands of comments from concerned members of the public protesting their wild horse removal actions. Despite this, BLM Three Rivers Field Manager, Richard Roy, indicated the agency received “no public comments pertaining to the EA.”

As soon as The Cloud Foundation realized they had not received the EA, nor had anyone they knew, they alerted Portland Attorney, Geordie Duckler. He quickly filed a request for a temporary restraining order. It was denied by District Judge Hernandez and this denial allowed the roundup to begin today.

“This is one of the sleaziest BLM tactics I’ve seen in 16 years of documenting wild horses and dealing with the agency,” states Ginger Kathrens, EMMY Award-winning filmmaker and Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation. “BLM’s actions appear to be a carefully designed strategy to keep the public in the dark and subvert the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process which promotes public involvement.”

“If BLM succeeds in flying under the radar, the wild horses and American taxpayers will pay the price,” explains Kathrens. “We want this roundup to be put on hold right now so we can have at least 30 days for public comment.”

The Cloud Foundation, Wild Horse Freedom Federation, Equine Welfare Alliance and many other reputable equine advocacy groups believe that BLM’s actions are a violation of the public trust and they vow to continue to fight for the rights of America’s wild horses and burros to roam freely on their legally designated ranges. They encourage members of the public to contact their U.S senators and representatives and request intervention on behalf of our nation’s wild horses and burros before they are managed into oblivion.

Click on Image to View Laura’s Day One Report ~ photo by Laura Leigh

32 replies »

  1. Why was the TRO denied? BLM didn’t issue the EA or allow for public comment like they are required to.

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  2. UNDERHANDED LIARS, JUDGE HERNANDEZ SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM THE BENCH AND BLM SHOULD ALL BE PUT IN JAIL, THEY WILL NEVER STOP TORTURING THESE INNOCENT ANIMALS. MAKES ME SICK.

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    • I’m with you, Sharon! If there is anyone willing to sue these creeps, I’d like to be in on it. I’d like to see them get the same treatment that they dish out to the animals.

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    • Sharon, putting them all in jail is too gentle even if they got thrown bodily into the cell. It would be interesting to see them enclosed a few at a time in a small dusty horse trap they could not escape from then run some wild stallions in with them and just watch. They are self-proclaimed equine management specialists so I wonder how well they would “manage” up close and personal with stallions that were desperate to excape. Surviviors could then be hauled off to jail and of course the stallions would immediately be set free.

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      • I meant to say ‘hauled off to jail’ crowded into a horse trailer being pulled over rough dusty trails in one hundred plus degree heat.

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  3. What is this? The BLM betraying the public trust? Unbelievable! When did this sqeaky-clean, honorable federal agency start doing that? Say it isn’t so and let the people go back to sleep.
    I have witnessed a lot of corruption and abuses of power by people running numerous agencies of our government in my long years on the planet. The decades-long cruelty and inhumane desecration and depletion of the animals they were charged by law with protecting and PRESERVING is right up at the top of all I have ever seen. Now this district judge hernandez that refused to grant the injunction has joined the elite of the sub-human residue conducting these criminal operations against living beings that cannot defend themselves from the onslaughts of evil men. What level of “district” does the “judge” sit? Whether county, state or federal it could surely be appealed. Such a ruling is difficult to understand because no harm would have been done by stopping this action to at least afford an additional period for public comment that the BLM had no intention of paying any attention to anyway.
    I find myself wondering if someone got “compensated” in some way for this ruling. The odor of corruption continues to rise and pollute the air around this agency and all that have dealings with it. No gas mask ever invented will filter it to protect from the stench reaching the nostrils of people that care.
    Even though all this seems to have no end please don’t give up. Keep being a PITA to your representative as congress appears to be the only hope of stopping the criminal rogues running the BLM short of physically interdicting their activities. If we give up then the people lose along with the horses. With every passing day our herds are decimated further and the BLM along with its cronies in ranching, mining, and horse slaughter get closer to accomplishing their final goal of “managing” OUR WILD HORSES to extinction.

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  4. Whoa!!!! That picture, multiple helos, covert ops…wth?!!!!??

    Is this about managing protected wild equines or bin Landin’s posse?

    Wow…just wow on how low these low-life humans can go.

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  5. Obama, you are something else!

    Something that can not be said here!

    Someday, you will pay for all these innocent lives that have been destroyed!!!

    As the saying goes, what goes around, comes around….

    As for me, I will vote Republican to get your sad influence out of Washington!

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  6. The Repubs are no better when it comes to the horses or to any wild animals. The BLM is simply appalling. I know it is not Christian to hate but I do hate the BLM and the greedy politicians and the cattle barons. The horses do no harm. I am sickened by this latest report on these inhumane roundups. God bless the horses.

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    • Arlene,
      As RT says, this is not about right or left, but right and wrong. I haven’t done a detailed study, administration by administration, but it does seem like historically, each party has done it’s fair share of damage. The 1971 Act was passed and signed into law under the Nixon administration (but we all know that he had some other issues).

      Since 2009 under the current administration which is President Obama’s to own, wild horses and burros has been swept up in unprecedented numbers. Further more, I do not remember ever hearing of any administration since the law was passed that acted in open cooperation with the Department of Interior,the Bureau of Land Management, and them Fish and Wildlife Service to ignore the rule of law, I.e. The 1971 Wild and Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act, with apparent impunity. As far as I am concerned, the United States government is as guilty of animal cruelty as Michael Vick was…only I think Michael is sorry for his role in the dog fighting operation. I believe Ken Salazar and Bob Abbey are guilty of felony animal cruelty, fraud, mismanagement of federal funds, lying to Congress, malfeasance, willingly and knowingly breaking NEPA laws….If Bob Abbey’s tongue were any more formed, his tail would rattle.

      Back to the point about political parties, I just want to say that there are good and honorable men and women in the democratic party as well as the republican party. I do not believe for one minute that what is happening to our wild horses is happening because the President is a registered Democrat. Our wild horses and burros are on the road to extinction because of who he is and is not—as a man. It is not his fault he is where he is. The responsibility lies with all of us who voted for him, and for those of us who had questions about his many abstentions in the Senate who allowed ourselves to get swayed by his charm. That will never happen again.

      The antithesis of Obama is Senator John Lewis from Georgia. Senator Lewis first ran against fellow civil rights activist silver tongued and fancy threaded Julian Bond. Senator Lewis was badly beaten during one of the civil rights marches and his speech is a little slow and thick, but the citizens of Georgia knew which man was the true hero who risked his life for their freedom and they elected Senator Lewis. President Obama’s leadership mettle had never been tested, we chose him; we got him, but so did our horses. No, he isn’t shooting the rifle out of the cock pit, or driving the double decker bus to the slaughter plant, but since he has the power to stop these massacres and has chosen not to, he is an accessory to the crime at least, or perhaps he is even the master mind. His silence speaks for itself.

      The President is wrong because he is wrong, not because he is a democrat.

      We need to focus on specific people and their political agendas as it relates to equine issues. Ideological issues won’t help us here.

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  7. Bob Abbey’s tongue is forked (not formed–although I guess we could say it is in the form of a forked path.

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  8. Take my own helo out there ARMED and chase those POS out of there! To some that may sound OVER THE TOP well I say to them NO ONE ELSE WILL! IT IS TIME FOR THIS LAW BREAKING HORRIFIC INHUMANE TREATMENT TO STOP NOW!

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  9. “The President is wrong because he is wrong, not because he is a Democrat”…

    That is absolutely right!

    However, he is MORE than wrong, he is an accomplish to the destruction of protected wild animals protected by OUR country’s law and the continual and unnecessary loss of life and imprisonment of lives that should be preserved and revered along with his ignoring of public demands and wishes… he has PERMITTED this to take place and on the intensified, relentless, inhumane level that it has! His noncompliance and unlawful permissiveness, allowing this extreme wrongfulness and multitude of cruel and immoral actions, is only payback for his winning run for the Presidential office!

    I can NOT vote again for a con artist… I have never voted anything other than Democrat, but he, in my opinion does not deserve to be reelected!

    What ever it takes to remove him and his neglectful, uncaring, unlawful permissiveness and blindness and deafness, I will only strive to help in this accomplishment!

    Forgiveness is not deserving of this betrayal of the American public nor of lives that America has chosen to protect!

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    • Typo: ACCOMPLICE! : one who helps another commit a crime…. does this not describe this Office of the President of the United States of America, together with the Department of the Interior and the Department of Land Management, working in the benefit of oil, corporate cattle farming, foreign interests, open pit mining, public land sales, water privileges and black market horse slaughter?

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      • Jill do not forget the #1 BIG INTEREST here, the GREEN ENERGY MOVEMENT along with already mentioned greedy Cattle corps (Ken Salazar)! But the GREEN ENERGY MOVEMENT and Big Cattle4 corps are the NUMBER 1 causes atm! The obama administration is sucking up 5,000 to 15,000 acres at a time of wild horse land for these massive solar power planets! They need the land and water supplies!

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  10. and Todd: please Don’t Kid yourself! most people involved in the true “GREEN ENERGY MOVEMENT” would not, 4 one moment—Agree with what DoI and BLM are Destructively DOING to our Wild Horses!, much less to Our Public lands !

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  11. WHY? WHY? Is this so-called ‘Agency’ ABOVE the Federal LAW ? over and over again? There is NO Use in contacting the U.S. Congress or Senate about this!! ~~the Members of both the Congressional and Senate Subcommittees that Directly OVERSEE the BLM and DOI have (repeatedly) –DEMANDED– immediate Accountability, immediate INVESTIGATION, immediate Moratorium, immediate Transparency, immediate Answers !! from them……and even They have repeatedly been totally and rudely DISMISSED!!
    –and these were Far, far beyond “polite letters of ‘would you please’ or ‘could ya’ll consider sometime’? from them”, including the Honorable Grijalva and Rahall, and late Senator Robert Byrd, from my state of WV !
    I don’t Get it ……..IF their DIRECT Oversight committees Demand! (yes, Demand!) that the Agency/Agencies DO anything—-then HOW CAN they –just Not Do it at all ?? How is that Possible ??
    and both Senator Byrd and Congressman Rahall have Forwarded TO ME, in the past, copies of cookie-cutter, obviously rude and dismissive Letters !! that were sent back TO them in Answer to their Formal questions, FROM the BLM ! You think the so-called Answers, full of pure Deceit and Lies that You have received are ridiculous??
    Then I’m here to tell you: ;-( these ‘Formal answers’ that were Sent directly to a highly-influential Senator and a Congressman—were every bit as bad ! It is Way way beyond Incredible…..a total Abomination!
    (and even IF President Obama listened, or gave a s**!!, I’m in extreme Doubt that it would make 1-Whit of difference to them, at ALL!?)
    Truly, something Much more Sinister and Hidden stinks here….far below/beyond that which We will ever be told…..
    as someone so eloquently said above;
    “if Bob Abbey’s tongue were any more Forked….he would rattle !”
    —(Got to be the Quote of the day, huh?) –but Oh! so SAD for our once-honorable country.
    I become more and more Ashamed to be called HUMAN… 😦

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    • You are wrong!!!!!! The GREEN ENERGY MOVEMENT IS the number ONE cause (with the greedy cattle corps right behind as a close 2nd) and if you think for one moment it is not you Sir/Ma’am are TRULY MISINFORMED!!! The EVIDENCE IS ALL AROUND and IS VERY CLEAR! You should do the IN-DEPTH RESEARCH I HAVE AND YOU WILL SEE THE TRUTH!

      Also calling, writing and e-mail Washington D.C./Senators/Congress DOES WORK! Late last year and earlier this year the BLM had its budget SLASHED by the Senate after DEMANDS AND PRESSURE from the American people from that the BLM had to cancel some and scale down other roundups! You seem to be informed on somethings but please do not tell me my business, I have been researching and fighting for our Equines for 5 years heavily and 20 years in total!

      The key to us winning the battle for our horses is PRESSURE and EDUCATION! The American people have said over and over that the slaughtering of our horses is a NO GO (military terms – I am retired Army), and once the American people are FULLY informed about the CRIMINAL acts of our Government our Equines WILL BE SAFE both wild and domestic!

      In 1971 the America people spoke LOUDLY and our Mustangs were safe but in true Washington D.C. fashion they left a loophole in the law! RIGHT NOW WE ARE THIS >I< close to stopping the International transportation of our equines and stopping the round ups of our Mustangs! We if can get the Senate to pass S. 1176 The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011 this will close the borders FOREVER and effectively stop 80% of the rounded ups! Once the LOOPHOLE is closed there will be no place for Washington D.C. to send the Mustangs to and D.C. will see that the American people are "ON TO THEM" and will CEASE their ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES!

      You sound like the kind of person who gives up easy and has allowed Washington D.C. to win! This is STILL America where WE THE PEOPLE RULE (barley but we still do) and I for one WILL NEVER GIVE UP Protecting our Constitution, (I can't I swore and OATH pledging my life, my fortune and my scared honor) and I pledge the same to our Equines! These horses are OUR HORSES, not Washington D.C.'s! We have said we want them to run FREE on OUR public lands!

      NEVER GIVE IN AND NEVER GIVE UP!

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  12. Your only hope would be to establish the Sovereignty Platform in your state and take back what the feds have taken illegally. go to sovereigntyplatform.com and or contact me at kim.w@pccoh.com to illustrate how forming a coalition of states to stop the federal disaster is our only hope. Individually we are mere dust, but collectively in a United effort with the use of this platform we can rein in government! go to pccoh.com and subscribe so you can find out how. Thank you. Don’t just spew, and vent, we have sound solutions.

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  13. I was not totally clear about Congressman Rahall, Congressman Grijalva’s, and Senator Byrd’s alleged roles are in this disaster. Only Congressman Rahall and Senator Byrd are from WV. ROAM pased the House of Representatives.Unfortunately, Senator Byrd was in his 90’s and in failing health in August 2009 when the Restore Our American Mustangs Act was passed from the House to the Senate. He became ill and died about the same time Senator Kennedy died. There was an additional co-sponsor, but she (Senator Kathy Giltenbrand D. NY) was not listed in public documents as a co-sponsor. I don’t think we advocates quite knew what to do—by that time we realized ROAM again placed our horses in the hands of the devil and his handmades.

    We need a real law with a penalties for anyone, especially those entrusted with our national treasures, to serve prison time for breaking the law and abusing our wild horses and burros.

    You can blame this on whomever you like, but the devil is in the details, and you don’t need a searchlight to find him.

    If anyone is feeling impatient about having to wait for another year and a half before we can inaugurate a new President, remember that there are impeachment forms that citizens can download, fill-out, have notarized, and mail to your Congressional Representative for any official elected or appointed that the citizen deems guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. This idea was presented by Michael Blake and were listed at the international Fund for Horses site.

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  14. Remember that the House of Representatives must charge the official and the Senate actually tries the official. So that is why we would want to send these to the House. However, if you think your Senators would take your concerns more seriously, I would contact them

    Other ideas, contact Representative Issa who is in charge of Congressional oversight. Contact the justice Department, the FBI, the GAO IG. Donate to the Wild Horse Freedom Fund. Send articles, press releases, to your local TV stations, newspapers, drive time radio.

    We can not each do everything, but to paraphrase A quote, just because I can not do everything, does not mean that I should not do the thing that I can do. Our cause is right and just. It is right for the horses and the land that we love. It is right to fight so that the laws of our country are applied fairly to all, especially to those who think they are above the law.

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  15. BLM AND THE GOVT JUST CAN’T LEAVE OUR NATIONAL TREASURES ALONE. THIS JUST MAKES ME WANT TO PUT ALL THE PERSON’S RESPONSIBLE IN JAIL THIS VERY MINUTE. WE WILL REMEMBER THESE DAYS WHERE EVIL MAN’S NATURE WILL NOT HAVE REIGN ON OUR BELOVED WILD HORSES. THEY ARE NATIONAL TREASURES TO BE PROTECTED AND LOVED AT ALL COSTS. WE WILL NOT GIVE UP ON OUR BEAUTIFUL WILD HORSES AND BURROS. LISTEN UP YOU CRONIES AND BUREAUCRATS WE WILL, I REPEAT WILL WIN THIS FOR OUR WILD HORSES BECAUSE WE DO NOT FEAR INJUSTICE, WE FIGHT BACK AS AN ARMY TEN FOLD. WE WILL WIN THIS BATTLE TO SAVE OUR BELOVED WILD HORSES AND BURROS. YOU WILL BE HELD TO THE HIGHEST COURT OF THE LAND AND YOU WILL HAVE TO ANSWER TO YOUR WRONG DOINGS VERY SOON. GOD. SO LISTEN TO ME IF YOU DON’T WANT TO ROT IN HELL. YOU HAVE A CHOICE AND YOU WILL HAVE TO ANSWER TO ME, SPIRIT WILD HORSE. TO ENTER THE GATES OF HEAVEN WHAT WILL YOU BE REMEMBERED FOR? HAVE YOU DONE GOOD FOR ANIMALS AND MANKIND OR HAVE YOU PLACED HATRED AND ANGUISH IN THE HEARTS OF ANIMALS AND MANKIND? YOU WILL HAVE TO ANSWER TO ME GOD. SO WHERE IS YOUR HEART IN THIS MATTER? I KNOW WHERE MY HEART IS. SAVING AMERICA’S AND THE WORLDS WILD HORSES AND BURROS FROM EXTINCTION, PROTECTING AND DEFENDING EACH ONE BECAUSE THEY ARE SO SPECIAL TO US IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. FROM YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER.

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  16. This is just getting to be way too much to bear!! Obama, Abbey, Salazar, & the entire BLM are like a parasite, like a deadly plague, like an aggressive fatal cancer to America’s wild horses!! There is no cure, no vaccine, no preventative, only US, YOU & ME, THAT CAN & MUST GET BETWEEN “THEM” & OUR WILD HORSES!! WE are the only thing that might stop them. All the suing, letters, phone calls, protests, pleading, crying, petition signing, & emails in the world can not, & will not stop them! I think it actually back-fires on us & the horses we all love, & makes them move even quicker, more relentlessly, they’re probably laughing their ass’s off right now, as we speak, as we write. This is going to take physical involvement, maybe roadblocks, human roadblocks. The only way to stop a parasite, plague or disease, is to DESTROY it!! (P.S. It would be a great thing, but, laws don’t work when people think they’re above them, keep breaking them, or make up new ones as they go along, it’s time they listen to OUR LAWS!)

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