Straight from the Horse's Heart

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1. I’ll be listening.

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2. From AMERICAN HERDS:

   http://americanherds.blogspot.com/2007/12/big-bending-rules.html
   SUNDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2007

   Big Bending The Rules….
   On December 6, 2007, a recent shocking investigative report by Sterry Butcher was published in the Texas Big Bend Sentinel outlining the cold-hearted inhumane killing of centuries old wild burros in Big Bend State Park, the corruption and cover-up of animal cruelty charges of the high-ranking State Park officials that did it and retaliation against the Parks Superintendent, Luis Armenndariz, who spoke out against the killings

   For over a year, State Parks Regional Director Mike Hill and Deputy Director Dan Sholly have been shooting Big Bend State Parks wild burros, leaving their bodies to rot wherever they fell and their drive-by death toll now totals at least 71 wild burros since the shooting spree began.

   Not knowing the wild burros were being killed by his superiors, Big Bend Park Superintendent and thirty-five year State Parks veteran Luis Armendariz ordered an investigation into the brutal shootings and decaying corpses that were found scattered around the Park since October of last year.

   In response to Armendariz request, Robert Garcia, the original investigative officer began accumulating evidence that catalogued the extreme suffering inflicted on the Big Bend wild burros by Hill and Sholly’s callous disregard, which included photographs of wild burros not receiving a humane “kill shot” but instead being shot in the hips and belly, a documented case of one burro left to suffer for two weeks before finally dying from its mortal wound and another instance where a baby burro was found still trying to nurse the now dead mother.

   Yet Texas State Park & Wildlife’s Internal Investigation report cleared Hill and Sholly of animal cruelty charges and all wrongdoing despite Garcia’s documented evidence of the abuse. Instead, officials preferred to issue a transfer to Park Superintendent Armendariz, forcing his resignation on November 30, which also led investigative officer Garcia to quit in disgust due to the magnitude of the cover up and retaliation levied against Armendariz.

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   • What a rotten shame in my state of Texas, and the Governor is looking the other way!

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   • This crime, yea, sin, against these wonderful presences, the burros, is so wrong. Marjorie and I tried again and again including in person to talk sense into the perpetrators heads, but they closed their minds and their hearts and only continued with their greed and selfishness motivated, violence!

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3. The Horses aren’t safe there either:

   http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/08/in_west_texas_big_bend_ranch_s.php
   Park and Rec
   In West Texas, a State Park Sends Horses to Slaughter
   By Eric NicholsonTue., Aug. 21 2012 at 11:00 AM
   77 Comments
   Categories: Park and Rec
   For years, Julie Caramante was a leader the fight to shutter Dallas Crown, Kaufman’s infamous horse slaughterhouse. Dallas Crown closed in 2007, as did the Beltex slaughterhouse in Fort Worth, but Caramante, a lifelong equine welfare advocate, has continued to keep a close eye on the horse slaughter industry.
   That led Caramante to the recent discovery that the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department had sold horses to a known slaughter buyer. According to documents she obtained from the agency following a tip, TPWD had sold 11 horses from Big Bend Ranch State Park to Ruben Brito, who regularly transports horses to slaughterhouses across the border in Mexico. The story was first reported in Horseback Magazine
   Included in the documents Caramante obtained is an email exchange between Dan Sholly, deputy director of Texas State Parks, and BBRSP officials.
   “Have you been able to determine if we can move forward with this process of culling the horse herd at BBRSP?” wrote Dierdre Hisler, Region 1 State Parks Director.
   “I don’t recall receiving an answer (could be lost in my e-mails) to my question about sell pricing,” Sholly responded. “Are we willing to take canner prices for our horses? Is that all they are worth? No blood lines? No high potential for more than dog food?”
   Hisler responded that the horses “are not of QUALITY,” and Sholly okayed the sale for $.25 per pound.
   Kevin Good, an assistant to the TPWD director, said BBRSP has kept a small contingent of horses at the park to do various jobs.
   “As horses do sometimes, they made baby horses,” he said. “The herd got to a size where it had to be reduced.”
   Good said it isn’t sure if the local parks staff were aware of Brito’s connections to the slaughter industry when they made the sale and, even if they were, he’s unsure whether state laws on surplus property would have allowed them to reject the offer.
   “The fact is if he’s meeting the requirements of a state bidder, we can’t exclude him because we may or may not like what their business is,” Good said.
   That said, TPWD is now reviewing its policies to see if there is a way such a sale could be disallowed.
   Caramante is less forgiving, particularly given the way the same state park culled its burro population earlier this year.
   “First the park shoots the burro’s and now sends the horses to directly to a killer,” she wrote in an email. “Guess they don’t like anything equine.”

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4. SICK, EVIL employees. all the way to the top.. The Governor. Pregnant, nursing, whatever.. they show no respect for life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These “evil acts,” are in the open now……Prayers that the organizations can stop this senseless killing!!!!!

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5. This is enough to make you sick! What the hell’s going on with these people?! No respect shown for the animals or the taxpayer to whom they belong. How can this be happening?! Enough is Enough!

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6. They are truly evil people that could kill innocent burros and donkeys. This is truly sad and makes me feel even more disgusted with the ones in power giving the orders.

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