Exclusive by Steven Long ~ Horseback Magazine
FBI is Now Involved
National Icons bound for slaughter?
HOUSTON, (Horseback) –All questions regarding 47 wild horses allegedly moved from a holding pasture of the federal Bureau of Land Management and seized from a well known slaughter killer buyer are now being referred by the agency to federal law enforcement..
The probe centers on the removal and seizure of the horses in Utah by local BLM officials. The FBI is involved in the case.
However according to agency spokeswoman Megan M. Crandall, “Given that this situation involves an active investigation, we are asking all questions be directed…to the Department of Justice in Salt Lake City.
“We are still waiting for the BLM to submit its report”, said Melodie Rydalch of the Salt Lake City U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Click (HERE) to read the story in it’s entirety
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Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
OH Boy the US Dept. of Justice is on the case! Now we will see some action.
(I mean more cover-ups).
I hope that something gets done, but I have to say that I will not be holding my breath.
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I will second Will’s comment…….
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Awww, shucks…you guys think that the good ole boys cover for each other?
Rats…I R so naive.
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This investigation had better be taken out of Utah. There seem to be too many conflicts of interest there. Both BLM hired livestock contractors are from Utah, and we’ve all seen how they operate.
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There better be some Good ole American justice now !!!
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When you click on read story in its entirety says page not found
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Fixed…thanks for letting me know there was a problem.
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I wonder was the Kill buyer arrested on the spot?????
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The same justice department that has indicted no Wall St. bankers or crooks for fraud and imploding the global economy and the subsequent phony, forged documents created by those banks so they can foreclose on people when they can’t find the proof of ownership papers, but is looking into steroid use by Lance Armstrong and others (oh boy, top priority that is!) and who just sentenced, Tim de Christopher, an environmentalist to 2 years for trying to stop the wholesale sell off of our public lands to gas and oil interests? Ok.
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BLM gets to make a report? Why isn’t someone doing a report on BLM? I am sure they are but, why do they get to write a report???? Does that mean BLM keeps the FBI at arms length also??
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Well, I’m gonna hold my candle up in this hundred mile an hour wind and say that with all the press it’s getting at least more people are becoming aware of what’s actually going on and the senators that signed the letter now have their name attached to something that is becoming extremely public – and hoping they get their teeth into it as well. Blessed Be!! 🙂
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Justice?! All I know is that most lawsuits brought by advocates against the BLM are ridiculously overturned by judges (federal) in BLM’s favor. I know this is not a “lawsuit,” but… Wish the FBI could be kept in on this. Maybe then some “justice.” It is sooooo blatant the BLM was involved here sending the horses to hell. But, never know, miracles do happen ~ JUSTICE!
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I will hope for that very Miracle, the miracle of JUSTICE !!! I would say its also high time for a huge whistle blowing by the KILL BUYER>>>>>>
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You gotta admit, it is better than the BLM investigating itself. Don’t like that it is out of the US Attorney’s office in Utah, but that may be a jurisdictional thing.
There has got to be more to this story that we, the public are not privy to…gotta be.
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Well, we can only hope that the usual “went by the PR” investigation is sent by BLM and the Dept of Justice smells the same rat we do. We can only hope.
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Anyone think this might be a whistle-blower?
Hmmmm…might explain the DOI/BLM-GOREY BS machine silence.
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p.s. mumbling to self….Oh Puhleeze be a whistle-blower, please be a whistle-blower….
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When do we find out which OKLA holding facility it is?
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No dis, but does it really matter? They all suck (ST, LTH, adoptions, 3 strikes, Michigan nutbag horse hoarder, and on and on).
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Very much so. One is a generational, multi millionaire cattle rancher pocketing wild horse change on the side. I think it is important information to the public and they need their contract taken away and they need to ship the horses to Madeleine Pickens.
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The system stinks…I don’t care who has the contract for any holding, roundups, sale authority. The current system stinks. It doesn’t matter “who” to me; unless it is a shell corp with people like Reid, Boren,Wallis, Lummis, etc. And DOI is still harassing Pickens. The only “who” that matters to DOI is to be sure that “who” is a full-fleged, wild equine hatin’, land sucking livestocker.
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I think we should alert the media…and keep hammering until we are heard. Somebody out there is bound to hear us for the horses!
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As Americans we should not let up on these people. Send emails to the Justice
Dept. showing your interest in the case. Ask some of the very questions we are
asking on the blog. This could be the lightening rod that ignites the American public. We should all insist that this be news worthy for the entire country. Like it was said earlier, you have the wolf in the hen house. You know this may
bring to light and expose more than we see on the surface. I know as our Legislators hear more from us, this has had a snowballing effect. I think we
now have more Legislators on board than we did 6 months ago. The debt deal has been handled for now so they can spend more time on the issues that
we bring to them. Americans have spoken on the slaughter issue and to think that our Wild Horses and Burros are ending up there would be appauling to alot of Americans.
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It’s up to 64 now, there were another 17 horses in a corral:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52347937-78/horses-blm-warr-horse.html.csp
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Thanks for the link.
Yep, these were sale authority wild horses (as many suspected).
How this “works” out is anyone’s guess.
The fact is that sale authority horses will always wind up in the slaughter pipeline. Afterall, who buys that many horses at one time. Best chance? Maybe a riding or summer camp, but that is suspect because that’s alot of work to invest in nonbombproof horses for inexperienced riders. And even then, those camps usually dump to slaughter seasonally for their tourist cycle.
Bottom line is the sale authority wild equine management tool is flawed.
This investigation will not result in a positive way for the advocates and most especially, the wild equines….for those 64 horses? Maybe.
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This may be a naive question but where are those horses right now?
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Didn’t they say they were taken to Herriman, south of Salt Lake???
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jrstark’s link says they went to Herriman.
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They did and we all know how nice Herriman is…sigh.
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Good Question!
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The fox in charge of the chicken coop!
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Should someone go and see them and also find out if they were freeze branded and where there origins are??? And photograph them???
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The Plot thickens !!! Yes where are those 47 horses right now????? And if those horses came from the BLM in the middle of the nite, stands to reason they (BLM) are caught red handed…….. I would bet this is going on all the time !!!!too many horses are unaccounted for , where are they??? The BLM had better just come clean about all that secrecy……………I certainly hope they are not going to get away with this,last Wednesday In conversation I said to Dean Bolsted and dont think for one minute we dont know that horses are disappearing from the BLM at nite in trucks, thats when he deemed a stalemate in our conversation…………………….Wow and now this???????
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I recall seeing a blog Pioneer Woman–Oklahoma LTH that showed photos of foals born to mares that had been brought to LTH pregnant. The weanlings were being taken away by (I suppose)BLM–didn’t see any brands on them. There needs to be accountibility and audits of numbers of horses going into and coming out of LTH by an “independent” outside auditing firm with a representation of wild horse advocates included.
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I was told the foals belong to the contractors. None the less, foals are highly trainable and are a great source of wild horses for those who don’t want the “wild” but want a good trainable mustang.
The foals should be made available to the public by sale or adoption because they are from our wild herds. They still belong to us!! Allowing the LTH contractor to disperse them is just another way we are losing our wild horses.
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Agree.
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Maybe it is time for an extremely organized campaign to make sure the right contacts at the top are aware of all this and that this is NOT some obscure occurrence. Some well thought out comments via calls and emails to the top DOJ contacts would surely help. IMHO it is time to email or call and make sure that they have all of our opinions and FACTS at the DOJ main office in Washington, DC. There is a Public comment line, and an email link. It is critical that it is professional and factual……..I want some answers!!!
By Phone Department of Justice Main Switchboard – 202-514-2000
Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line – 202-353-1555
To call component officials, see the Directory of Department Officials below:
http://www.justice.gov/dojofficials.htm
http://www.justice.gov/enrd/index.html
http://www.justice.gov/oipl/
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One aspect in the long term holding contract is to be able to receive and to load horses at any time. Pens and chutes. The horses that are taken away from LTH are those sold by Sale Authority and are only bought by the semi trailer load.
Horses loaded onto a double decker at any BLM facility at any time are only going to slaughter and this method of shipping horses is not acceptable and is illegal in some states. BLM seems to be helping to clean up this kill buyers act. This double decker trailer is too obviously what it is. Not much will come of this because the horses were seized, possibly to prevent a worse incident on the Mexican border?
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Does anyone remember the Horseback Magazine article from February 2011 which reported that California Congressman Elton Gallegly, in a letter to a constituent, was said to have written, “I believe that the commercial sale and slaughter of free-roaming horses is a horrible and unnecessary practice. However, the BLM claims this slaughter is necessary due to overpopulation in holding pens and the rising cost of care for the animals.”?
Wonder if this will be looked at during the “investigation”?
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Thanks for the quote, and here is the link for referencing in cutting and pasting in letters and emails: http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/6826
—-and Tom Gorey’s response: “The BLM’s position — that we do not sell or send any wild horses or burros to slaughter — is stated clearly on our Quicks Facts page(http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/wh_b_information_center/Fact_Sheet.html) and on our Myths and Facts page http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/national/about/myths.html).”
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Robin,
This should be cut and pasted along with the date accessed, forwarded to FBI, DOJ, DOI IG, GAO IG as well as to the media. What a cynical lot we’ve come to be!
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We can see this happening from England and are doing everything we can to help stop this.
I was told by the BLM they do not send their wild horses to slaughter – WHAT A LIE! They sell them to kill buyers who then slaughter them. The foals have very little chance – they are so young. They didn’t say what happens to the older horses i.e. over 10 or 11 but we know anyway. They say (in writing) one thing on their web-sites but do something else in reality.
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Here is a list of horse killer buyers: http://www.aowha.org/documents/killbuyers.pdf
They are way to many of them. Recently heard of another horse killer in Meeker Oklahoma, don’t know the name yet. See investigation reports at http://www.animalsangels.org of killer buyer actions at auctions, on trailers, at slaughter, those brutal beings aren’t human. The poor horses are horrified, tortured and robbed of their lives.. The horses killer buyers need to experience the same torture they inflict on the poor defenseless animals. There must be a shortage of horses because the killer buyers are buying beautiful trained horses from private owners and farms probably lying to folks that they are resale dealers, take a look at these beautiful horses bound for brutal slaughter to mexico few days ago, according to the photographer they are already gone, makes me sick! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?
fbid=181886695210453&set=a.181884885210634.45448.100001673725225&type=1
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There is not a shortage of horses for the kill buyers… but they have been buying very healthy horses for slaughter all along. The horses are sold by the pound; muscle weighs more than fat. EWA says the majority of horses taken to slaughter are healthy and trained. They bring the highest dollar for the KB. The lying to buy is very normal and if there are good horses to be bought they want them.
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