Source: By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times
“The U.S. Forest Service has decided to postpone the removal of horses on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada tomorrow (today)”
~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
The advocates said the Forest Service failed to give proper public notice of the roundup and was using an agreement with an Indian tribe to “launder” the horses so they could avoid public scrutiny and send the horses to slaughter.
After the threat of a lawsuit from the horse groups and questions from The Washington Times and other media outlets, the Forest Service relented.
“The U.S. Forest Service has decided to postpone the removal of horses on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada tomorrow in order to allow for better coordination of the process,” the agency said in a statement from its office in Carson City, Nev.
It’s the latest hiccup as the federal government battles with horse enthusiasts, who also are fighting to stop the government from resuming inspections of horse meat slaughterhouses. Without the inspections, the meatpacking plants cannot process the meat for human consumption.
Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack, whose department oversees the Forest Service and the Food Safety Inspection Service, said earlier this year that there should be a better way to treat horses than to have them slaughtered — though he didn’t offer any specific changes.
Advocates cheered the Forest Service’s decision to put off the roundup…while the Forest Service was tight-lipped with information.
The Times had requested a budget estimate of the cost
of the roundup and a copy of the agency’s agreement with the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone tribes to transfer the horses to them for disposal, but neither was provided.
The activists said the tribe planned to ship the horses to an auction in Nevada that is frequented by slaughter buyers, and pointed to a special auction notice that advertised it would be selling horses from the Fort McDermitt reservation.
But the Forest Service, in its brief statement Thursday, seemed to deny that.
“The Forest Service had planned the removal of 400 horses in remote parts of the forest to transfer to the Fort McDermott Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, who owned the horses. The removal was being conducted to prevent further damage to the delicate rangeland ecosystem and to return the animals to their owners,” the agency said in its statement.
On its website, the Forest Service says its preferred solution to overpopulation of wild horses on its lands is to have private citizens adopt them. It also says animals that are not adoptable “are sent to federally funded sanctuaries or long term holding facilities in Oklahoma and Kansas where they live out their natural lives on the prairie.”
The Forest Service said horse populations double every five years without population controls, and can strain the environment. Horses have no natural predators in most areas, so human efforts are needed to limit the population, the service says…(CONTINUED)
Click (HERE) to read the story in it’s entirity and to comment at the TImes
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
For the life of me, I can’t understand why people can’t leave the Wild Horses and Burros alone. There is NO over population of them. And if you are worried about the drought, take them WATER and HAY!! Use the money you’d spend on the roundups to take care of Americas heritage and history. America owes her life to the horses….where would we be today with out them!?!?! Let the horses be wild and free….as God intended them to be! Or let the people who have land and want them…. Give the horses to them instead of sending them to slaughter! What’s wrong with you people???!!???99 percent of the people are against this and against slaughter. We don’t want our tax payer money spent on roundups and slaughter!
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Mary, I believe that too. God made the heavens and earth and one of his animals is the noble steed. He wouldn’t put them here if there was not enough room. BLM has been dishing out to the public a lot of BS! We know better. They seemed to have forgotten the 1971 “Wild horse and Burro Act”. What is the point in voting? The bottom line is it’s HUGE $$$$$$$ to slaughter our horses…I believe within the BLM is pocketing or the employees the dollars. Think about it they can’t seem to remember how many horses were sold and trying to get the natives to give them their horse. Look how much they pay the helicopters to round up our ponies, with that money why use it to give birth control to either the mares or stallions? Personally I think it’s a simple solution, and BLM is making a big deal because of the $$$$$$$$. God is watching!
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Mary McLaughlin – you are making way too much sense. Spending our tax dollars wisely by taking food and water to wild horses instead of expensive round-ups!!!!! It would undercut the argument that horses are dying in the drought as an excuse pro-slaughterers use on the gullible. Bless you!
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Oh, it’s easy to figure. It’s a simple case of greed. I’ve been watching a bunch of old westerns (Gunsmoke, etc) and to my shock saw the same thing in the old stories…and it was based on reality. It hasn’t changed one wit from those old westerns. Greed. Land wars in disguise.
And this is the same government without enough tax dollars to keep open things like the post office and other important programs…but they can spend it on unwanted roundups!
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Amen!
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arleneorlando
• 2 minutes ago
Every Horse that is sold at a Kill Buyer Action in America is nail in the coffin of All that America has ever in its History stood TALL and PROUD FOR OR ever BELIEVED IN !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ……………. GIVE TO OUR HORSES WHAT THEY GAVE TO US FREEDOM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Posted this to the Times:
One can only guess where you got your misinformation from…most likely from some advocates that got caught trying to stir up a reason to ask for donations. This was not a wild horse roundup because the horses in question are not wild horses. They are branded, personal property of known members of the 2 tribes that live on the local reservation. In an effort of unity between the two governments the USFS had agreed to foot the bill for the roundup as the natives are very very poor but the horses needed to be removed from the public land. The animals eventually will be delivered back to the reservation and their owners given the opportunity to keep them and care for them or they may opt to sell at auction because they cannot afford their keep.
The horses belong to their owners who have every right to do whatever they desire to do with their personal property.
This information has been confirmed by 2 separate sources within the USFS. You should have verified your ??facts?? before publication.
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Steve either works for the BLM or owns a slaughter house. I don’t know who else whould try to sugarcoat the slaughter of 400 horses. The BLM made a deal with the poor Indian tribes to launder the horses right into the slaughter houses. I doubt it was their idea. The BLM is just using their poverty as a vehicle for getting rid of another 400 horses. The land is public land which belongs to all Americans. I would rather see 400 native horses there than a herd of imported cows eating every plant on the “delicate rangeland.” Who issued the decree that all horses and burros must be evicted from public land? Those are our animals on our land. If we are going to evict anyone, let’s evict the ranchers and their cattle! They are the ones that are complaining about horses and wolves and sending them to their deaths. The BLM is as corrupt as any other government agency. Keep the pressure on so their war on native wildlife backfires and destroys those responsible for murdering our national icons.
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Poor Native American Tribes in Nevada?? The casino & gambling capital of the country – who are you kidding? Such “creative” thinking could only come from a kill buyer or the BLM who supports them!! Nice try, though.
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It is only ‘postponed’
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“The Forest Service had planned the removal of 400 horses in remote parts of the forest to transfer to the Fort McDermott Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, who owned the horses. The removal was being conducted to prevent further damage to the delicate rangeland ecosystem and to return the animals to their owners,” the agency said in its statement.
On its website, the Forest Service says its preferred solution to overpopulation of wild horses on its lands is to have private citizens adopt them. It also says animals that are not adoptable “are sent to federally funded sanctuaries or long term holding facilities in Oklahoma and Kansas where they live out their natural lives on the prairie.”
The number of wild horses the Forest Service said would be taken was 700. And I believe they were going to take horses from several of the small HMAs South of Owyhee HMA; Snowstorm Mountains, Little Owyhee and Humboldt. I doubt that any horses would have been native owned or branded. This is the heavily industrialized area I visited and photographed with Craig Downer in 2010. The dust from huge trucks leaving the mines and the buses bringing employees and the slag and polluted ponds have driven the wild horses off their lands. I also believe BLM is complicit in this little plan to deceive us.
Where is the article from ‘local concerned advocates’? I submitted one myself in hopes of getting a heads up on this area. We need more information. What 501c3 has the money to put some people out there? We need a grant and we need observation and reports. We need this from competent
observers whose only agenda is the wild ones.
This was a huge plan to defraud us and steal our horses. Maybe this time we can negotiate their placement on nearby wild horse designated range? We already have the goods on BLM and their
intentions and since we disagree what they are doing with removals and holding for ‘life’ it is time we find where horses can live safely who have left their protected lands because they are overrun with mining activities, air pollution from dust and water polluted from mine runoff. Our horses need to be represented as necessary to remain in the wild and end this cycle of removals and land grabs.
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I used to be a big fan of the native American, probably because white eyes tried to wipe them out and steal all their lands and they were so glamorized as the underdogs, but come on…Very disturbed at the modern Indian and their prospective disposal of THIER HORSES. I know lazy habitual drunks are always looking for ways to make money without actually WORKING like regular decent people make a living, and I guess casinos and gambling money and alcohol profits aren’t enough for these poor bastards. Now they must pick on horses to sustain themselves as they mooch off the American public with their food stamps, healthcare and welfare claims. I also know that they used to eat horses and dogs back in primitive times, but this is the 21st century and those behaviors are not acceptable any more. Wake up INDIAN NATIONS, AMERICANS DON’T EAT HORSES AND WE DON’T EAT DOGS! If that is your desire, then move to China where they eat anything that lives, including babies.
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Technically, if any human gets starved enough….they will probably eat anything and have been documented to eat human flesh for cultural domination/victory rites or survival.
Given a choice, the Peoples of the Horse (although, supposedly it is closer to a spiritual dog nomenclature as no word existed for “horse”) wouldn’t eat their horses….their enemies might; not really the point here anyway.
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In my first (above) comment I had the email address spelled wrong, so I have reposted it with corrected email address Sorry for the confusion..
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Isn’t USDA/USFS the same group of bureaucrats that constantly torture Cloud and the Pryor Mountain Herds? The ones that put up barbed wire fencing directly in the path of migratory Pryor Mountain Mustangs and killed more than a handful during the first winter post fencing?
Lying sacks of taxpayer funded……fill in the blank!
You know the maimers and killers have really locked onto the Native American thing, haven’t they?
Ironic that a People subjected to similar exterminative treatment and disassembling would support a government agency (ies) that massacred them with the same greed, incompetence, exploitation and lies.
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Dear Denise, Bravo , Ironic that a People subjected to similar exterminative treatment and disassembling would support a government agency (ies) that massacred them with the same greed, incompetence, exploitation and lies. Great Question why would these people buy into anything that the the same Government that massacred their people said???????
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