Article and information supplied by Jeff Hudson of the Equine Welfare Alliance
Categories: Equine Rescue, Horse Health, Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Article and information supplied by Jeff Hudson of the Equine Welfare Alliance
Categories: Equine Rescue, Horse Health, Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
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R.T. Fitch’s life has been anything but ordinary. Straight out of high school, he joined the U.S. Air Force Band during the Vietnam era, and while stationed in Hawaii, he spent weekends at Sea Life Park training penguins, sea lions, and whales. His path through life has taken many unexpected turns—including more than a few lessons in love—until meeting his wife, Terry, brought a lasting partnership and a shared passion for animals. Over the course of his adult career, R.T. worked internationally in multiple countries, gaining a broad, global perspective that colors both his worldview and his writing. Now rooted in Texas, he and Terry live on a small farm surrounded by four-legged companions with paws, claws, and hooves. Together, they have devoted years to equine rescue and wild horse protection. An ordained volunteer chaplain and professional Santa Claus for a local historical society—with Terry by his side as Mrs. Claus—R.T. brings warmth, wisdom, and joy to every season. His work reflects a life of service, wonder, and connection to both people and animals. He is the author of Straight from the Horse’s Heart, a moving collection of true rescue stories and spiritual reflections, and Fangs of Light, a supernatural tale steeped in symbolic and metaphorical storytelling. The first in a planned trilogy, Fangs of Light blends myth and mystery to explore themes of identity, redemption, and the power of empathy—offering readers not only suspense and intrigue but a deeper look at the light and shadow within us all.
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Straight from the Horse's Heart
Happy birthday to Jeff & Virginia Hudson who save many horses from slaughter and abuse. Their contributions to equines are priceless. Many happy returns.
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I invite all of you to stop by this FB page. Our number 1 goal to be rid of Ken Salazar. Sign the petition! https://www.facebook.com/RestoringAmericasWildlife?ref=hl
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I went to your facebook page, however I don’t see the petition.
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Steve, I followed the link to Restoring Americas Wildlife, but I hesitate to sign the petition at Change.2 for reasons that are too complex to cover sufficiently in this post. But briefly, there is strong evidence that wildlife groups oppose land being provided for “native” or “returned native” horses. Before I realized that the author of an article entitled the “Perils of Speaking the truth about feral cats and horses” at the Wildlife Society’s Blog, I got into a discussion with the CEO of the Wildlife Society, who had in fact just concluded testifying before the House Committee of Natural Rescources Committee hearing on the Corolla (NC) Wild Horse Protection Act.
Essentially, Mr. Hutchins position is that wild horses are feral. This is not a surprise because the the word as well as the concept of “feral” is at the heart of how the DOi rationalizes its illegal removals of federally protected horses. However, Mr. Hutchins appears to use the word feral to mean two different types of horses. First, he uses it to claim that the horse is a non-native, invasive species, and therefore, not entitled to any forage or water that would be provided to native species or those introduced to provide food like cattle. Second, he uses the term feral to refer to domestic horses that have escaped from captivity. DOI has aggressively used the label feral to attach to any of its wild horse programs other than that of the BLM.
However, the most alarming comments about horses were not in the context of wild versus feral, but when he commented about how he personally enjoys and loves cats and horses, but horses are simply not sustainable. There were comments in this blog as well that acknowledged that humans are the least sustainable of all species, but….I find this particularly alarmng knowing that the Wildlife Society was chosen by the DOI to provide testimony that would support Interior’s anti-wild horse position. The problem DOI during this particular hearing is that members of the House Committee seemed to find his assertion that horses that had survived for 500 years on their own had less right to area in a North Carolina located National Wildlife Refuge Center than some species than other exotic specifies. He was asked how many hundreds of years a species needed to be in an area before it was no longer considered “feral”?
H. R. 306 passed the House in Februrary, but was not introduced in the Senate until July 27 prior to the August recess and the later election recess. This bill as bipartisan support and was expected to pass the House easily. Nonetheless, FWS was able to rouse Ducks Unlimited to oppose the Corolla Wild Horse Act. DU claims it is a conservation group that preserves wetlands habitat for waterfowl. It is composed of people who enjoy hunting waterfowl who apparently do not want to share the grasses at FWS with the wild horses.
According to Karen McAlpin in a recent interview, all the horses currently living in the herd descend from one mare line which means action on this bill needs to occur in this session of the Senate in order to introduce mares from the Shackleford Herd that shares the Spanish mustang traits with the Corolla horses for genetic diversity. DOI knows very well that herds must be maintained at a certain level for genetic diversity because there repeated removals of the same herds based on their ruse of a birth rate in the West has reduced herds to below viable levels, and DOI has then removed these “non viable” herds.
If you visit the Wildlife Society’s page, you will get a better idea of why I personally support the enforcement of specific species protections, I am not going to sign any petitions to protect wildlife until I can sort out which groups are working to deny our wild horses from their rightful place on public lands. Other than WWP, no other environmental or wildlife protection group has ever supported the protection of wild horses, but have instead insisted, that horses are non-native and invasive, having no right to forage or water.
Furthermore, the language that states that horses are not native and not sustainable should send shivers down your spine because the groups of wildlife/environmental groups affilitated with the Wildlife Socienty and environmentalists also opposing Secretary Salazar as Interior Director want someone who is much more environmentally protective than Secretary Salazar is. At least they got a meeting that Secretary Salazar actually attended—we couldn’t even get Bob Abbey to one of ours. The whole idea that the government or a wildlife society has the right to decide which species are sustainable and which are not, despite society’s clear choice to protect wild horses and love for horses in general, is a frightening prospect. Given the adaptability of the horse, the government should be studying them instead of killing them.
A link to this blog is here: http://wildlifeprofessional.org/blog/?p=3734
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When the Cloud Blog began we found that the Forest Service considers wild horses to be a returned native. I have to wonder if that information is still online.
Great research, HH!! And I have to stand by you on this one. With respect, Steve.
I strongly believe if we want to save the wild ones we need to write the legislation that will take their management away from BLM and get it passed ASAP! Then we can still maintain them on their ranges plus cover more of them than was done in ’71.
What have we been waiting for? Extinction? We need to have a Wild Horse Conference where advocates come together and WORK until they have something to show for it!
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The names of the PHD’s, scientific studies and copies of the studies that have been done numerous times on the fossils found that belonged to the horses that roamed North America 10,000 and 12,000 years ago need to be sent to this organization and any others that contend that horses are feral. From what I have read about the hunter gatherers that roamed North America during that time period having spears with sharpened stone spear points I have a good idea that is why the horses went extinct along with all of the other large animals that were hunted for food by these groups. You add that in with all of the other predators that preyed on them and the horses wouldn’t have stood much of a chance once man turned up on this continent.
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Yukon Horse is about 7,000 years old. MAny scientists not affiliated with ‘groups’ and politics do recognize this find as caballus and that is the horse we ride today.
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Please start planning to attend the IEC conference in 2013. Information on location and date will be forthcoming shortly.
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I believe the wild horses need their own conference. And we cannot wait until next fall. We need to be acting on work by Springtime.
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