Open Letter from Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation
“Wild Horse Freedom Federation is in total alignment with TCF’s “on the range management” recommendation. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Ginger and company!” ~ R.T.
“The Soul of Cloud” by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
Dear Friends of Cloud, his family and herd;
Comments are due on September 6th regarding the more effective use of PZP for mares in the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Herd. View our comments, which were sent to BLM this week.
In a nutshell, we advocate on the range management for all our wild herds to prevent removals as much as possible. Our goal: reproduction + natural mortality = 0. Of course there will be years when mortality is higher than reproduction and vice-versa, but over time, births and deaths will average out.
What we are proposing for the Pryor mares will achieve this goal. What BLM is proposing will come close, but there will still removals, probably in 2015. However, when a removal happens, it will likely be smaller than in the past.
In 2012, 46 young Pryor horses were removed from their families and their home (including 7 foals). Some would have gone to BLM short-term holding corrals had it not been for TCF, our adopter friends, and particularly Lisa Friday & Legacy Mustang Preservation in Virginia. In all, we accounted for over half of those adopted.
But, we can’t continue to this as most of us have as many mustangs as our properties can sustain. And, TCF also rescues Pryor horses from previous adoptions which is an on-going process. Currently we have three horses looking for good, forever homes.
Adoption demand for mustangs is weak across the country. On the range management is the fiscal and humane solution—keeping wild horses on their ranges with their families where they are the safest. Of course, predator protection is what we continue to push for.
Nature is a better manager than we humans can ever be. But, in the meantime, the reversible vaccine, PZP, is the logical tool. It has proven to be safe, effective 90% of the time, and it is reversible. So, when predation or extreme killer storms occur, the field darting can be put on hold.
We hope you’ll take time to read our comments and then formulate your own.
Comments can be mailed or emailed. The address for mailing is:
Jim Sparks, Field Manager
5001 Southgate Drive
Billings, MT 59101-4669.
Email is blm_mt_wildhorse@blm.gov. (Please note: spaces are underscores)
Thanks for making your voices heard on behalf of Cloud and all the Pryor Mustangs!
Happy Trails,
Ginger
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Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
In my opinion, the use of PZP by dart is a stop gap method and not a long range policy. It is short term and is needed to stop the removals and now is needed to prevent inbreeding in non viable herds of under 150 adults. Only it does not stop the removals and Little Book Cliffs will have a second roundup soon, since their long use of PZP. Using PZP because BLM wants it used does not guarantee they will stop roundups. Little Book Cliffs will lose their youngsters, just as Pryor did. And they will be down to 100 horses and still using PZP.
The sinister demands of BLM continue and the horses die and the captives are all in constant danger.
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Buying time is not even working. We need to stop BLM so we need to be behind the fastest way to do that; Moratorium. It can change everything to favor our wild horses and burros. It would not tie our hands at continuing to uncover the intentions and law breaking of BLM… but we could do that with out the fear of reprisals from BLM. Time is running out. We need research in the field and we need the horses to settle long enough to learn their behavior and their affect on their lands.
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Wonder how the wild horses are doing on BLM land where Fracking leases are available, you know the land where there isnt enough water for the horses. Well seems there is enough water to Frack. and since it has polluted water and killed livestock, really wondering if this is the reason for the hurry up push to destroy all the wild horses? With all the watch groups if a whole herd near Fracking turned up dead, then the truth about how much damage to our water is occurring. They can pay cattlemen for dead cattle, something like 172 that I know about so far, how many do we not know about? You know, and they know advocates of wild horses they could not stop from reveling the truth about water pollution.
They even have pundits saying all the wild horses escaped from settlers. Excuse me, but they are on cave walls and very early native American artifacts. The wild Appaloosa exists no where else on earth, except on early Chinese figurines, and in domestication. Believe the same is true of the Grulla, but not positive. In other words they are driving to extinction animals that should be just as protected as the Grizzly, Cougar, and Wolf, more so really, as they are a major part of our heritage…I really believe this is another dirty big oil plot..get rid of them before the truth comes out…..We have to stop this and the rest of the destruction of our country by these lunatics. Have you seen the cutting off of the tops of Appalachian mountains of West Virginia, for dirty coal, take a look on YouTube. John Denvers Country roads is one of the most popular songs in the world, and this is the place they are destroying.
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I’m so thoroughly sick of the petroleum industry that I can no longer see straight. The article yesterday about the fossils being found…did you see the landscape (Where the fossils were discovered) being dug up by some oil company
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Germany just announced it will be closing down some fossil fuel energy sources because their solar program has been so successful. This is one of the cloudiest of European countries yet the solar has succeeded so well they can eliminate part of their fossil fuel grid. We can do this, too. But we are , for now, at the mercy of a desperate, continued corporate take over of our government and public lands and our moral ethic. Corporations once were helpful and generous towards our land and wildlife conservation. Now we need to face Safari International and their 1 and 2 % membership as they also help wreak havoc on our wild life and influence hysteria against wolves and wild horses. What do they not understand about ecology? Apparently a great deal.
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If proper management is applied with the use of PZP and the herd numbers are dwindling, why the continuing need to roundup horses? I understand the NAS report indicates the low numbers may be far too low …the gene pool is already low. The aggressiveness of the many roundups are very concerning, which begs to question their true interest in preserving our icons of the West. I certainly agree with Ginger, where she makes a lot of viable points on protecting and preserving the existing herds, which appears doable. I can only hope they continue to work with her for the good of all.
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I have a feeling that the BLM wants all of the wild horses gone. This will give way to the big oil companies and all other mining companies can deplete the land of their natural resources. In other words rape the land.
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E-Mail sent, although it won’t do any good…..
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Why can’t we just Geld them and let them stay free.
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Not to worry Oh, Supreme Knowledge Knower Dawn…they are being gelded and spayed as we speak. But you know what?…..the mutilators don’t know how many, where and what happens to them….’cept many go to slaughter. And even to slaughter the killers ignore, deny and deflect with their Burns’ dusters.
Somebody with more patience ” please enlighten” Dawn (pun intended)….since she has thought this out so well; just like the killers.
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AND…even when they are gelded, PZP’d, sterilize female (spay in the field)…………………
THEY CONTINUE TO REMOVE THEM FROM THEIR LANDS AND REDUCE THEIR DESIGNATED LANDS.
So…it doesn’t matter if they are spayed, zapped, neutered (castrated)….DOI/USDA/States still lie about their (wild equines) overpopulation, condition and reality.
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email sent and sharing
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These letters should be sent to the committees and personal reps/Senators of letter sending individuals PRIMARILY with a courtesy copy to BLM.
I still don’t understand this incessant need to communicate with DOI or USDA as the primary agents. SEND LETTERS TO CONGRESS AND THE PREZ WITH COPY TO DOI, USDA.
p.s. at this point, don’t know why any population “control”, especially with PZP is even reality with regard to wild equine populations as they are false, fraudulent and manipulated. In fact, agreeing to PZP says we as advocates agree with DOI/USDA/States that there IS an overpopulation problem. NOT IN MY BOOK folks. We are feeding the killing machine…unless it is a delaying tactic.
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Yes, and there is a danger to this Public Partnerships also. BLM is not good at keeping their word to us. Little book Cliffs is the perfect example. hey have the longest running PZP dart program and they did it with the understanding their horses would not be rounded up. But they were in 2010 (or 2009, sorry) and at the time they defended their commitment to PZP. Now, with a full herd of 150, which means not all are adult, they face another roundup very soon and they will lose 50 of this small herd. Adult population is way below viability. PZP now becomes what keeps the horses from inbreeding. This is a terrible way to lose a herd. Pressure from cattle and sheep in this very dry corner of NW Colorado is succeeding altho it is written in the 71 Act the cattle and sheep are to be moved back and allow the horses to have what will sustain them. This is not about forage. It is about decimation and gradual removal until the final act of zeroing them out because they are not viable. And BLM has controlled this decline intended to reabsorb this public land back into their fold without the horses and burros they despise. What has this got to do with Management practices? These are goals set by suits in DC who have just enough info to play this their way and the cattle mentality out here is quite helpful in and out of the ranks of the Wild Horse and Burro Program employees
I don’t think Little Book Cliffs or Ginger have had any choice since the 71 Act is not being enforced. Now ROAM comes out of the woodwork again? Have you read the once introduced bill? It is not what we need! It calls for removals and euthanizing more than the 71 Act does. And we would not get it through anyway. We have been BILL SHY in DC because of what is happening with the slaughter issue. This is wild horses. We need a MORATORIUM, the longer the better. 10 years to start. This is not unusual for a species to need time for studies and new management to be based upon it and put into practice.
A moratorium stops BLM in their tracks and would over time allow us to detach them from the program. Who needs BLM? Our wild horses and burros sure don’t. They need us, science and preservation of their land and their freedom and the release of the majority of the captives. We do not have an overpopulation problem We have a serious recovery to get underway and lives to save not destroy any longer!
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Leave them be . No pzp,castration,or spaying. Period.
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I am just heart sick at the unjust way our animals are cared for…I read about these horses and other herds it is soo sad that we the people are unable to get the government to listen these horses are our life line to the old west…RT always posts the sadness these horses live everyday in fear of the death choppers above and cruel hands of man down below…I want so bad to wish evil on all that hurt our poor animals…I just cant believe what our world has come to… This sadness has even hit our family I see posts of family members taking pictures of their small children standing beside a kill…
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None of the read your comments work all say server not found , would like to read before I comment
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To Arlene , you must have satellite happens to me all the time
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