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Public Outraged Over BLM’s Anti-Horse Appointee on Wild Horse and Burro Board

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Guest OpEd by Bonnie Kohleriter

Spokesman Gorey Slams Public Rather Than Addressing Concerns

Biased Appointment puts America’s Icons at Risk ~ photo by Terry Fitch

The BLM recently appointed Callie Hendrickson to the BLM National Advisory Board. The American public opposes and rejects this appointment.  Tom Gorey, spokesman for the BLM, chose to attack and insult the public over its concerns rather than convey the extremist thinking of Callie Henrickson to which the public takes exception.(See the Atlantic Monthly article: The Lasso Tightens Around America’s Wild Horses by Andrew Cohen) Callie Henrickson is to assume the position of “General Public” advocate on the BLM National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, but do her views represent the opinions of the public or for that matter, of the Congress, BLM employees and contracted employees?

So what are Ms. Henrickson’s  views?  In 2011 she presented a paper to the National Advisory Board.  Subsequently, she sent this paper along with a paper done by the United Horseman to her constituents.  She urged her constituents to follow the ideas in these papers and write to the BLM commenting on the BLM’s Strategy for Reform.  The ideas in her paper as well as in the United Horseman’s were as follows:

1)    Support fertility control treatment only if it is done annually and only if the financial commitment is available.  As the treatment is costly and difficult to perform on skittish, skeptical horses on an annual basis, suggested was, forget fertility control treatment.

2)    Perform sex ratioing of 70/30% male to female rather than the 60/40% currently performed by the BLM though neither plan has been researched  as to its effect on the health of the wild horses.

3)    Sterilize the wild horses and burros on the range though again, this plan has not been researched as to the health of the wild horses. (This idea was not presented in her paper to her constituents but to the recent NAS Committee members in their meeting in Spokane, Washington.

4)    Don’t trade cattle permits for horse permits.  Horses are the “most destructive ungulate on the range due to their tooth and hoof structure.” If trades are made no government help should be extended (though government help is extended to cattlemen using public lands).

5)    Excess horses, upon removal,  should be sold to the highest bidder.

6)    Government funding should not be given for long-term pastures or ecosanctuaries.

7)    Slaughter of tribal, wild and domestic horses is to be sanctioned and performed. (While she did not advocate this position in her paper, she has aligned herself with the United Horsemen who take this position.)

The opposition to the appointment of Ms. Henrickson on the BLM National Advisory Board is not due to the public opposing the removal of the wild horses on the range as suggested by Tom Gorey in his vitriolic rants in the Atlantic Monthly article.  Rather the opposition to her appointment is due to her extreme ideas in the handling of the wild horses and burros both on and off of the range.

Bob Abbey, in his speech to the first Slaughter Summit Conference, said the wild horses are not available for slaughter.  Yet Ms. Henrickson continues to press it in the second Summit conference soon to be held.  The HSUS and others are continuing to work with the BLM to try to get a 2 and 3 year fertility drug with the goal to stabilize and maintain the wild horse and burro population on the range.  They have gone beyond the use only of the one year drug.  The Mustang Heritage Foundation is working to train and adopt as many horses as possible. Congress has said the wild horses are not available for slaughter and 80% of the American Public in a recent well respected poll done by Lake and Associates is opposed to slaughter.

The BLM has so many problems it is addressing and should be reforming and refining from appropriate rangelands management, appropriate horse and burro management on the range, humane gathering,appropriate corral management, securing of long-term pastures and ecosanctuaries.  Does the BLM and public really need to deal with the views of an extremist and of a minority at this time?

Ms. Callie Hendrickson is the Executive Director of the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts in Meeker, Colorado.

Links of Interest:

http://www.michiganhorsecouncil.com/Assets/Files/Index/BLM_Proposed_Wild_Horse_Strategy.pdf

http://wildhorsecoalition.com/images794/GatherListLetter.pdf

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Categories: Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs

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20 replies »

  1. Judging by BLM’s past record and the 22 Plus Million Acres that have been taken from America’s Wild Horses and Burros, why would there NOT be cause for Public Alarm?

    Ms. Callie Hendrickson is the Executive Director of the White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts in Meeker, Colorado.

    http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA569.html
    Conservation Easements: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
    by Dana Joel Gattuso
    EXCERPT:
    Problems with Conservation Easements
    Stewards of Land or Stewards of Government?
    Any chance conservation easements have in being effective stewards of land is lost when land trusts cease to work as independent, private organizations obtaining easements through purely voluntary means and become agents of government aiding in public land acquisitions. Yet land trusts, particularly the larger organizations, are changing their focus from independent and private approaches to working in tandem with government agencies in an effort to assist government in obtaining private lands.

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  3. Great, we win in Court on Tues to have to this bag of estrogen. She’s a disgusting piece of filth. Sorry for my bluntness.

    I’m happily watching a brand new filly who was born an hour and a half ago. We’re she out in the wild Ms. Ericsson would obviously be seeking her nearest rifle to shoot the baby.

    She brings new definition to the meaning scumbag!

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  5. Isn’t it amazing how a few can make it devastating for so many?! She and Sue Wallis make quite a pair…a pathetic pair, at that!! Hendrickson’s appointment should be appealed!

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  7. If anyone thought Slaughter House was done..think again..She is only getting craftier..staying out of site and quiet …but in the back rooms is actually building her forces…She mite look and sound out of touch…but is a very strong force to be contended with…Our horses will never be safe with people like her and her kind in the governments of the US and Canada…And these kind of government people will always be elected into power..The cattle barons are the ones with the money to insure this….

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  8. BLM STILL isn’t listening. What part of NO does this agency NOT understand?

    George Knapp is a 14-time Emmy Award-winning journalist. His other awards include the Associated Press’s Mark Twain Award for news writing and the Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting. George is an anchor and reporter for the CBS affiliate KLAS-TV in Las Vegas and he also writes a weekly column for a Las Vegas newspaper.
    http://www.8newsnow.com/story/12842393/i-team-more-horses-die-in-gather-public-not-allowed-to-observe
    CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER GEORGE KNAPP AND CHIEF PHOTOJOURNALIST MATT ADAMS
    I-Team: More Horses Die in Gather, Public Not Allowed to Observe
    ELKO COUNTY, Nev. — A deadly government roundup of Nevada’s wild horses during the hottest month of the year has led to new accusations in federal court.
    Wild horse advocates have accused the Bureau of Land Management of contempt, because the agency went to extraordinary lengths to keep the public from being able to observe a horse roundup over the past few days in which 21 mustangs died.
    We would like to report that members of the press and public were able to get in and see the roundup, but that did not happen because of gamesmanship and subterfuge on the part of the BLM. The agency clearly does not want outside eyes to watch what it is doing.

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  9. I do think that Tom Gorey’s attack on US was a compliment to us in many ways. He could not adequately defend the person who was appointed based on our assessment of the facts, so the only way that he had to go was to attack the messengers.
    I, like Margaret, believe that we should start a petition aimed at removal of Hendrickson from this panel. It should tie her to the Cattlewomen/men associations as well as the pro-slaughter advocates. I beg that Steve, or RT, or Laura or someone with knowledge and writing skill write the petition, and trust us to circulate it and get it signed.
    And while I’m in this mode, I believe that we should focus our efforts on a very few well-written petitions that are acceptable to the general public, and get us the number of signatures that get attention.
    So, who volunteers to do the writing?

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  10. WHAT excess Wild Horses? WHERE? These removals are POLICY, NOT LAW.
    We MUST keep repeating the TRUTH, again and again and again

    160 Herd Areas have been “ZEROED OUT” SINCE 1971.

    WHERE did that land go?

    Compiled by Carla Bowers, 10/26/11, Revised 11/6/11
    For NAS/NRC Study Panel of BLM Wild Horse & Burro Program
    All numbers above are verifiable

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  11. Thank you to HORSEBACK for posting this:

    With 245 Million Acres, Just One Question. Why?

    http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-news/2012/02/17/blm-mustang-facilities.aspx
    Bureau of Land Management seeks publicly accessible land for free-roaming mustangs
    Bids will be accepted from land owners through April 10, 2012.
    BLM Press Release
    February 17, 2012
    The Bureau of Land Management (BLM)is soliciting bids for new, publicly accessible pasture facilities located in the continental United States that provide a free-roaming environment for wild horses and burros. The solicitation is for one or more long-term pasture facilities accommodating 400 to 2,000 wild horses. Each pasture facility must be able to provide humane care for a one-year period, with a renewal option under BLM contract for nine one-year extensions. The BLM may require one or two public and/or media tours hosted by BLM staff and the contractor during the life of the contract. The solicitation is open until April 10, 2012, and is 100 percent set aside for small businesses under the North American Industry Classification System.

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  13. I’ve been thinking about DOI/USDA, their sp called “management” of wild equines and the 1971 Act.

    I realize the Act has become useless with regard to the equines, but can anyone explain to me with all the manipulation, lies and rogue killer amendments to the Act, they are allowed to reclassify the land (too) to keep wild equines permanently off that land?

    As I say, it is one thing to remove the wild equines, it is way, way more serious to permanently re designate lands that they were once on to keep them out forever in direct violation of multi-use..

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