Posted in AmmoLand ~unedited
Hunting Club Shows Disdain for Native Wild Equines
SCI has a “thing” against wild horses and burros
Washington –-(Ammoland.com)- Safari Club International (SCI) defeated the animal rights group In Defense of Animals in a major court battle over management of feral populations of horses in accordance with federal law.
On November 15, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California rejected the horse groups’ claims that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) gather of the excess wild horses and burros violated federal law.
The case focused on the Twin Peaks Horse Management Area (HMA), located on the northern border of California and Nevada. The BLM conducted the gather during August and September 2010, after SCI joined the BLM in defeating the horse groups’ emergency request to halt the gather.
Before the gather, the horse and burro populations on the Twin Peaks Horse Management Area (HMA) were approximately four times higher than scientifically established appropriate management levels. The excess horses and burros were damaging the ecosystem and harming resident wildlife, including game mammals and birds.
Without management action to lower the horse numbers, these detrimental ecosystem impacts would only escalate. The overpopulation problems at the Twin Peaks HMA are symptomatic of conditions on public lands throughout the American West. SCI and other conservation advocates are working on strategies and regulatory policies to rationally address the problems.
“For the third time in a wild horse case, SCI has represented the interests of hunters in this thorny issue,” said John Whipple, President of Safari Club International. “The BLM must take action when horses threaten to seriously degrade the range and harm other wildlife, including game animals and birds. As ardent hunter-conservationists, we cannot allow horse zealots to use the courts to foist their single-minded agenda on land managers in the West.”
“We are extremely pleased that the court has upheld BLM’s ability in the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area to responsibly manage horse populations based on sound science. Responsible herd management is a vital component to the health and sustainability of our land and wildlife habitat for the future,” stated Gene Schmidt, President, National Association of Conservation Districts.
“As it has done in other wild horse cases, SCI intervened as a party to defend the gather and subsequent relocation of the excess horses and burros to long-term holding facilities. SCI would like to thank all of our coalition colleagues who advocate for ecosystem wide conservation goals on public lands,” concluded Whipple.
In ruling against the plaintiffs, the Court heavily relied on an argument made solely by SCI to reject one of the horse groups’ primary legal claims. SCI’s briefs and arguments at the hearing on the case enhanced the excellent defense offered by the BLM and its attorneys. The plaintiffs now have 60 days to decide whether to appeal their loss to the Ninth Circuit.
Contact: Nelson Freeman Nelson Freeman Safari Club International – D.C. 501 2nd St, NE Washington, DC 20002 Office: 202-543-8733
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Categories: Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Is the judge in this case a SCI member? probably got a rhino or something out of the deal. scumbags.
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I guess they can expect even more fires out there in Cali without the horses to graze down the deadly brush….
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Is this actually really happening? I just can’t believe it. You are right the judge must be an SCI member. They want to get rid all of the wild horses for sport. They are some sick people to harm innocent wild horses that have rights to the land. Something is very wrong with this picture.
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They are so proud of themselves…thumping their chests like they did the right thing when in fact all they did was to promote the lies and abuses of the BLM. They have no clue about conservation. Hell they don’t even know the definition of ‘feral’. Ignorant fools!
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They sure enjoy slinging that “F” word around, now don’t they?
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You got that right..
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Using that “F” word proves their one-sidedness and ignorance. I pray that IDA files an appeal, and I pray the next judge is a little less biased. Absolutely shameful, and frustrating.
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I hope for the same. And I agree.
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Anyone know if IDA is appealing this decision? Sick Hunters run it all, they put themselves in political positions while the public was naieve to their intentions to do anything to hold onto their right to kill, Horses, Wolves, Coyotes, Rhinos, Tigers, Lions, Bears, and whatever, whomever..
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I watched their video of the roundup. It showed the helicopter physically pushing a Palomino horse. Then I guessed it lost it as later three cowboys rode out and roped it. There was ine very young weanling. All the horses were in good flesh. So so horrible to read of this.
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Who’s pockets were getting padded or this decission to be handed down? Appeal this horriffic decission. No more horses need to be taken and murdered from the land that was once there’s not the federal goverments. Shame on the SCI and the judge and advocates that supported this and defended this decission. My heart bleeds for these poor horses. Maybe some one should round up the killers and put them through the same tramatic events they put these innocent horses through.
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Now that sounds like a plan.(wink)
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The Safari Club has deep pockets, lawyers and lobbyists. Safari Club International isn’t just any special interest. It is a powerful international organization of wealthy trophy hunters that is fighting true wildlife conservation efforts on many fronts.
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You’re right, grandmagregg. One can read about SCI 27th annual convention in Matthew Scully’s book “Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and The Call to Mercy.” (I just now reread the 40-page second chapter, “The Shooting Field,” and feel sick to my stomach.)
Reliably, in this press release, SCI hits all the “right” buttons to win sympathy to its side: conservation . . . sound science . . . sustainable . . . responsible . . . appropriate management levels . . . excees population . . . zealots . . . and the “F” word.
If SCI were really serious about ending the degradation of the land, it would courageously take on an industry of equal power and clout — namely, the ranching business. But the so-called “hunter/conservationists” are obviously buddy-buddy with the cattle and sheep ranchers — or, more likely, they ARE ranchers.
Such greed. Such gall. Such deception. Such disregard of life. Such death and destruction of all that is innocent, good, noble, worthy in this world.
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A bunch of rich canned hunt fanatics. Not honest hunters if there’s any such thing. Mass murderers… That’s my definition..
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IDA needs to appeal this decision to the next court, but before the court date they need to find the data showing that the “wildlife” don’t necessarily “graze” on the same type of forages that the wild horses do. I have an 86 acre farm and I have “ALL” types of wildlife on my farm. We’ve watched the deer jump fences into our pastures to eat the grain with our horses. We’ve seen our local fox family eat the grain out of the feeders with our horses. We have a bobcat family here as well as a black bear family. We also have doves, bob white quail, etc. living here. I have my own Private Herd of horses–13 of my own, and my daughters’ 2 are here as well as there isn’t a place up in VA where she can keep them cheaply, so they stay here as well..Oh, and I almost forgot, I have 1 minature cow. So I know that horses don’t do as much damage to the Environment as the SCI and the BLM want you to believe. We just can’t give up hope yet. I’m sure that IDA can find people if they just look and we help look as well and most of all–We Pray!!!
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This is what I posted over at “Ammo Land
of a “hunting preserve” at taxpayers expense..period..wheras “we” wild horse advocates equally want to preserve public lands for use of all americans and ALL wildlife. Safari Club brings home body parts and heads to commemorate their visits to public lands..whereas we bring home photos of wild horses still living in peaceful co-existence with other wildlife
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Why the hell should we have to subsidize hunting? I don’t believe in it.It goes against every grain in my makeup..
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I wonder how many violations of the WFRH&B Act are contained within this? I needs to be addressed as an example of the stacked deck we deal with all the while.
What Sound Science can they present here? Aren’t studies done only on other subjects and the horse being but a minimal portion of that study? This has nothing to do with independent research and this makes BLM motion and intentions invalid until such studies are done and real data used that represents the wild horses and burros. This displays constant conflict of interest. The field data that is available from independent research is by some of our best wild horse field biologists and geneticists.
The NAtional Academy of Science study is their; BLM and DOI and AG. It is for them even if it points out inequities. The horses are to them all a minor player in the scheme of things. So we must save those we can.
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Interesting..I have personally observed 2 does with their newborn fawns in the midst of horses that they were moving with and a group of coyotes dogging them..the does were using the herd to protect their fawns..simular stories were told in a 5 part series put out by Canadian National Geographic several years ago..when they killed of the wild horses there..the herds of deer/elk diminished
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Beautiful. They have had a mass die off here from contaminated water. Yet they don’t even limit hunters from taking their trophies…so much for one of the hunter’s myths.
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I happen to think Safari Club is peeved because wild horses and burros are the ONLY wildlife they cannot get a “tag” to kill…and that s really ..all..they are about…If they could use them for target practice..they would be salivating over preserving wild horses
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SCI – they of the ‘wildlife preserves’ and ‘canned hunts’ and conservation through the eye of the gunsite – the ONLY attachment to Twin Peaks I ever saw squeak out of their tiny little faces was in support of the 2010 roundup through the EA comments (and my, how my heart did swoon, seein’ they was interested in supporting a roundup…gag me with a pitchfork).
Twin Peaks was my first observed roundup, so I’ve sort of adopted the HMA as my Home Range. Some of the most important people and wild horses in my life right now have come about because of Twin Peaks. I’ve attended several hearings in support of the original Twin Peaks litigation, and never saw a trace nor heard nary a whisper of a whine coming from this group of Burly Manly Men.
But if it pleases them to make mountains out of dust bunnies, so be it. I have a difficult time with ‘sport’ hunters anyway and in particular, ninnies who profess to do it out of a sense of ‘preservation’ (there’s that gag reflex again.) Shoring up their sense of pride in this dismissal by spoutin’ off about baggin’ a judge is not the only Tooting of the Horn by this group of rifle-totin’ loons – who miss being labeled ‘psychotic’ only by virtue of their economic niches, who must hunt in packs because the very notion of going ‘mano y’ anything scares Holy Hell out of them and can apparently only kill the ranch-raised, captive-bred, preserve-bound or ground-dwelling.
But really – nobody with an IQ above a soap dish gives a sh…..
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Thanks RT. Nice to know who our enemies are.
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With the passing of the Sportsmen’s Bill sponsored by a Montana Congressmen they just might start to tag wild horses for hunting. That bill gives hunters a lot of additional freedoms and will give them more rights to hunt on federal ranges. Why do people hate the wild horses so much?
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Because they hate any and everything that represents freedom. Because they don’t want anybody or anything disrupting THEIR backwards way of life yet when they’re in trouble they want US to bail them out. Because they’re a bunch of welfare ranchers who want everything handed to them and GIVE nothing back.
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I guess the SCI doesn’t have a problem with the **millions** of privately owned domestic cattle and sheep degrading public lands and national forests though……
SCI is only interested in killing and hanging animal heads on their walls, not conservation.
And the problem is that word “excess” which is in the Act, unfortunately the BLM is in charge of unscientifically determining what is and isn’t “excess.” I think they use the ‘pull a number out of a hat’ method.
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Pure insanity beyond my comprehension…..
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R.T., what are the legalities of just taking whatever horses any volunteers could capture and place in Sanctuaries that again (be able to find enough volunteers with land) are willing to care for with continued fundraising? Just throwing ideas…
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Best hope is that the 9th circuit is as liberal as in past. Although, with Obama as President, they may be afraid to go against him/BLM. They need to file for appeal & get really good appellate lawyer.
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http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/south-africa/110323/africas-lions-endangered
Africa’s lions under threat
Erin Conway-SmithMarch 24, 2011 06:37
Tourists pay upwards of $22,000 to shoot a male lion, plus safari costs and the expense of shipping home the trophy.
It is usually the dominant males that are killed by trophy hunters and this has a huge impact on other lions, sparking battles for dominance in the pride. The new male in charge will often kill the offspring of his former rival, said Dereck and Beverly Joubert, filmmakers who are also explorers-in-residence for National Geographic.
“I think most hunters don’t know that when they shoot one male lion they are signing a warrant for death of 20-30 lions in a pride,” said Beverly Joubert. “For one male lion, many others are killed.”
But the petition has been challenged by SAFARI CLUB INTERNATIONAL, an international hunters’ group, which said that listing lions as endangered would “effectively end hunting” and its economic benefits to African communities, leading to more human-lion conflict by devaluing the animals.
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Maybe we could propose a similar challenge – that SAFARI CLUB INTERNATIONAL can continue to hunt these animals, pay their 20 large BUT – they must do so without guns, without bows or other artificial enhancements and totally nude.
THAT would separate the men from the boys.
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You just put a huge smile on my face 🙂
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Too bad there wasn’t an open season on hunters, especially the rich canned safari type..(curse word that I won’t inflict on this group..maybe even a few of them)…
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Exactually! Nothing ever got accomplished with animals in a court of law. It’s the actions that speak loudr then words, this is why were called activists because we don’t sit on the side lines waiting for a corrupt system to be kind and understanding to one of the last of our natural resources and hearts that beat and blood that is spilt over greed not need.
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And then there’s the Polar Bears….
http://www.polarbearfacts.org/
SCI Condemns U.S. Fish and Wildlife Decision to List Polar Bear as Threatened Under ESA
SCI Files Lawsuit to Reverse Ban on Polar Bear Imports
Washington, D.C. — On May 23, 2008, Safari Club International (SCI) filed a federal lawsuit challenging the ban on the import of polar bear trophies from Canada. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) claims the import ban was required when the Service listed the polar bear as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). SCI’s lawsuit asks the Court to confirm the right under current law of U.S. hunters to import polar bear trophies into the United States under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Sustainable sport-hunting of polar bears and subsequent importation by U.S. citizens advances polar bear conservation and supports remote native communities in the Canadian arctic.
Dennis Anderson, President of SCI, said, “Fourteen years ago Congress determined that permitting the importation of sport-hunted polar bear trophies from Canada promoted conservation. Congress built safeguards into the Marine Mammal Protection Act to protect the species. For an import to be permitted, the animal must have been hunted from an approved population, meaning that the FWS has found that the hunting is sustainable.
This finding ensures sound management of polar bear populations. The FWS’s recent listing of the species as threatened — based on reports that attempt to predict speculative impacts 45 years from now — should not be used to undermine Congress’ plan to support polar bear conservation.”
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Just when you thought it was safe to back in the water…..
http://www.gssafaris.com/blog/tag/elephant-hunt/
During the 2011 SCI Convention in Reno, an announcement was made that Zambia, the Safari Club International Foundation and the USFWS had reached an agreement to allow the importation of up to 20 bull elephant into the US from Zambia in 2011 (and beyond on a year-by-year basis). However, considering that elephants in Zambia are still listed as a threatened or endangered species under Appendix I of CITES, the Service must first make an Enhancement finding before allowing the importation of any legally taken elephant trophies. This finding must show that the hunting of elephant in Zambia will “enhance” the survival of the species in Zambia and an action is required before the Service can make such a finding. At the time of the SCI Convention, the Service had not received any formal applications for the importation of legally taken elephant parts and/or ivory in 2011 from Zambia – so while an agreement in principle has been reached, the final approval for importation is still contingent upon a positive Enhancement finding by the USFWS.
We are now advised that a number of permit applications have been submitted to the Service seeking approval for the importation of elephant taken this year and we are also advised that the USFWS Division of Scientific Authority has prepared a positive Enhancement finding and forwarded said finding on to the Division of Management Authority for review and approval. Now, based on the agreement reached between the USFWS, the government of Zambia and SCI, it is inconceivable that the Service would agree to allow the importation of legally taken trophies from Zambia if they didn’t intend to approve the Enhancement finding necessary to allow said importation. But, strictly speaking, importation can not occur until that finding has been approved by the Service. Once the positive Enhancement finding has been approved, the Service should begin issuing the individual import permits for sport-hunted elephant on a case-by-case basis.
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What is this? The murder capital of the world? My mom was right..We are the destruction of this planet..mankind…baaaah humbug!!
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Home of the brave land of the free. Free to hunt, round up our free American Mustangs, graze cattle, Hmm, can’t seem to find the brave among them.
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Thankfully the video wouldn’t play for me so I was spared getting my outrage up this early in the morning.
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In response to this maybe it is time to call on all of our wonderful wild horse photographers to contribute their photos of wild horses co habitating with wildlife on public lands..I have seen such photos posted on FB…you win cases by not only proving your case but equally disproving your opponents theories…we have evidence..they have theories and that is how you win
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Speaking of the “F” word, see comments filed under this article on a new controversial study (by a University of Wyoming professor) which concludes that all grazing’s gotta go on Western public lands: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/university-of-wyoming-professor-helps-write-controversial-grazing-climate-change/article_1731ca73-2989-564b-8e32-a2c42106e2c9.html?comment_form=true
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http://www.humanesociety.org/news/news/2009/06/federal_court_captive_hunt_endangered_062209.html
Federal Court Blocks Captive Hunting of Endangered Species
June 22, 2009
In a blow to trophy hunting groups like Safari Club International, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today struck down a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule allowing sport-hunting of endangered antelopes at “canned” hunts, also known as captive hunts.
Safari Club and other trophy hunting advocates intervened in the case, and argued in favor of legalizing the shooting of endangered animals trapped in enclosures.
The court rejected the Safari Club’s arguments, and declared the rule to be contrary to the requirements of the federal Endangered Species Act.
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I don’t believe they abided by the law. I believe they feel they are abve any court handed down rulings and most likely continued the canned hunts despite the law. I believe they think what goes on behind high walls, thick fences and closed mouths is there secrets and none of our buisness. There going to kill despite any ruling by any courts. These people and this sick society the call a club need to be dismantled and disprused for ever. Since this ruling was handed down has any one ever checked to make sure they are complying or has the law once again turned a blind eye?
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The SCI is nothing but a bunch of trash who must doubt their manhood as are most hunters IMO.They have high powered rifles with scopes so the animals have no chance and most are even baited and they call thet a SPORT. Recently a doctor who hunts for trophies shot and killed a pet cat here that was out walking with the owner. Most hunters even hate cats because they claim they kill “game” birds and rabbits when the truth is the lack of habitat and the use of herbicides and pesticides has killed them . It would be different if hunters needed the meat but they spend a small fortune on guns , etc. instead of food just so they can brag about their “kill”.
Now even some young girls are hunting and we wonder why violence has increased so much and there is no compassion.
“, Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.” Albert Einstein
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