OpEd by R.T. Fitch ~ president/co-founder of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
“BLM wants, and has coached, the plaintiffs to sue…”
Lovely, little Elko, Nevada has announced, according to a recent AP story, that the county will donate $10,000 to a law suit that was brought forward in December by the Nevada Association of Counties and the Nevada Farm Bureau Federation against the BLM charging that the well-known federal grazing and special interest agency is not doing its job and should round up ALL of the federally protected wild horses and burros and send them to slaughter along with the 55,000+ captured horses forced into confinement in contracted long term holding.
Ain’t that just so darn sweet and dandy.
For the past several years the BLM has been stacking their Advisory Board and multiple committees with horse hating special interest representatives ranging from hunting, grazing and horse slaughter proponents and it has been done while our eyes have been wide open and staring in disbelief.
Likewise, the BLM has been spending millions upon millions of dollars using helicopters to terrorize and capture wild horses and burros that could be better managed on the range, at virtually no expense, but that would not help to establish the artificial emergency they want to create by stuffing captured horses into every nook and cranny of available holding while screaming; ”OH, LOOK, we have no more room and housing the horses is costing too much…let’s sell all of them, (drum roll) to SLAUGHTER!”
That’s plan “A” and the BLM has been in the rancher’s ears whispering this garbage and is willing to take a dent on this suit so that it can PROVE that the horses have to go.
Plan “B” will be to use the draught as a reason to finish off the last of the wild horses and burros in Nevada, the handwriting is already on the wall.
The dark political forces that are the engine that drives the BLM may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer but they certainly are single mindedly persistent, I will give them that; but they have missed one very large gaping hole in their plan, they have miscalculated and under-estimated the positive power and tenacity of the American public.
We are not going away nor are we going to throw up our hands and call it quits, it’s just not in our blood to allow this federal grazing agency to destroy an American icon.
In fact, these Bozos don’t realize that the more that they stir the pot with misinformation, propaganda, bad math and junk science the more (i.e. many) people it draws to the advocacy and that means more eyes on their lunacy, corruption and fraud.
In a nutshell, the BLM is going to poke that sleeping dragon just one too many times and it is going to be more than just their eyebrows that are singed when the dragon steps up to the plate to play ball with a vengeance…it just ain’t gonna be pretty.
Related articles
Categories: Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
No, it will not be pretty. And if it isn’t here and now, it will be on the day they meet their Maker and are fixed with the stare of truth.
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I am very much for a united equine welfare association to confront these entities with a united front. To do this, a stop of all the infighting that is inherent in the equine advocacy world. Look at what the NRA does with a substantially smaller number of members because they are united behind ONE cause. Equine advocates could do the same if everyone got on the same page. An organizer on the same scale of Wayne LaPierre for horses is needed. Money is needed also and I think if the whole of equine advocacy in the US felt this was a single minded cause, the money would be there. I feel this is the only way a stop can be made against the BLM, roundups, horse slaughter, overbreeding, etc. Politicians do not pay us much attention because of the fragmented state of equine advocates. Just my thoughts on this issue. Anyone agree or have better ideas?
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I certainly agree with you Tim.
The Advocacy groups need to be United as One for our Wild Horses.
This is getting to a serious level that we need step up to and save our Wild Horses.
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Agreed.
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And we need to unite our two main causes – the battle against round ups and the battle against horse slaughter. I originally felt and heard one could not fight both issues, but I have come to believe and this lawsuit makes it obvious that they are deeply intertwined. The answer to polluted horse meat of domestics is clean horse meat of the wild. And the urgency of stopping the slaughter of American horses anywhere is no more urgent than the saving of our iconic NATIVE American Wild Horses and Burros. Both problems are imminent.
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well said, couldn’t agree more..we need to focus on what is best for these wild horses and burros and go forward with that intention and we will do what is right for them. There is so much we can do for them, but we have to free them first. We need to unite and get our priorities in order, and keep their freedom as the prize.
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Shouldn’t we just unite together as one create a fund for horse donations at one site , to be used to donate for all advocates, I would suggest RT would have access to this for all legal matters for the horse, right now there are so many places to donate , why not just one ?????? it is time to stop these brutal murders once and for all………………………………
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Exactly..unite Equine Advocates! Make your organization one with many experts who can go toe to toe with your government. We are having the same issues here in Alberta, Canada and hopefully will come together very soon.
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Left a little hummer of a comment on the site! Come to think of it – this is another of the AP editorial, isn’t it? There was only one other comment – against the horses.
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Reblogged this on GarryRogers Conservation and Science Fiction: #EcoSciFi and commented:
We desperately need more horse adopters.
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HUMMM Some things don’t change until you demand them too !!!! with FORCE IF NECESSARY !!!!
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http://www.kolotv.com/news/northernnevadanews/headlines/Elko-Okays-Up-to-10K-for-Wild-Horse-Lawsuit-245846001.html
3 items:
1. One link to the AP story is above.
2. BOYCOTT! This is the time for Wild Horse Protectors (since the agencies mandated by law to be protectors, aren’t) to send THOUSANDS of emails to Elko and the mayor boycotting tourism to that part of NV. No…not going to come to the Cowboy Poetry Festival anymore….no, going to cancel my Scout’s camping trip….no, not coming to dude ranches anymore….and even write to specific venues, like the Western Folklife Center, no…not supporting you anymore…. BECAUSE in a relatively isolated, self-contained location with a narrow based economy, this response might be effective.
3. The comments about a United Equine Advocacy Organization ARE FANTASTIC! ***But what you have to do is contact the leaders of the organizations you support, in a groundswell of concern, and tell them to come out from behind their differences and do it! Do it in deed, not just in name! There is so much science now and public opinion growing about humane, economic, and ecologically appropriate management, there is no reason for them to balk! The science and rising public concern should be uniting them! BUT you are going to have to drag them together! Unified in speech is one thing — unified in action is another! And you don’t have to ask anymore, what is it time for now, do you?
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Rob this has been a HUGE sticking point for me for the past several years. I travel through NV every summer on my way elsewhere. Elko is a good place to stop since its about halfway to my destination.
HOWEVER
I HATE AND ABOR Elko’s position on the horses. From BLM to listening to whiners complaining about how horse tripping is their culture and way of life–it disgusts me to stay in Elko. The problem is Battle Mountain is a TEENY TINY one horse town and Wells isn’t any bigger. There just aren’t too many choices.
And Madeleine’s is way way out of my price range. I was beyond hoping that she would have reasonable camping cabins for rose advocates like myself that we’re traveling, that needed a place a to stay, didn’t need spiffy accommodations. Honest I was hoping that she’d put up a KOA on her property–make them all Kamping Kabins. With aprice range similar to a hotel stay in Elko. Maybe you wouldn’t get the finer offerings–like hay wagon rides or dinner.
Think I may have to go to back the long way thru Salt Lake so as to avoid the cattle rapists in Elko.
If anyone has any suggestions feel free to leave them here. I HATE STAYING ELKO BECAUSE OF THEIR INTOLERANT STAND ON THE HORSES.
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Oh good grief my iPad did it again! Rose? iPad. Rose really! horse–iPad 1 really has a mind of its own…
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Margaret, write the emails anyway. Tell them exactly what you think, like you did us. Just tell them you are working hard to choose a different destination so as NOT to have to even go thru Elko. The big thing is to write the email and then do your best!
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Rob last night after posting I went and looked on the map. By traveling via Utah it will add about 125 miles–give or take. And I can camp in Wendover on the State line. Cheap! I like cheap!
I’ll have to fill the tank at Costco in Reno and then again in Battle Mountain. I know Battle Mountain has been embroiled in some pretty heavy horse disputes. But the first responders there saved my life in my car accident 2007. So buying gas there bothers me less than shelling out money in Elko.
Note to travelers–my experience is gas is MORE expensive in Elko than in Battle Mountain. Not sure why but this has been my experience.
I think I’m pretty comfy with this back to basic plan. I use to drive this way until a trucker told me I could shave some time going up 93. While that’s true it presents an obstacle that I haven’t been able to find a workaround for.
Nevada’s horse hating attitude deeply bothers me. I no longer shop in Elko or buy food when I stay overnight. I plan quick easy meals that I bring along from both directions. Now I’m more content NOT to stay in a place where I heard grown men crying about how they couldn’t trip horses anymore.
Thanks Rob for posting and making me scout things out a bit.
PS if Madeleine lowers her fees I’d be willing to stay there…I just need a place to rest my head without a lot of luxuries.
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Try Wendover, next time. It’s small, but with world-class accommodations & entertainment far better than anything offered in Elko. Drive a few miles west on 93, you’re apt to see real mustangs in their natural habitat (unlike anything at “Mustang Monument”).
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This isn’t about the health of the range. This is about MONEY….BIG MONEY.
NEVADA ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES
http://nvnaco.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=18
Associate Members
Bank of America
Barrick Gold Corporation
ING
Regional Transportation
Commission of Washoe County
Las Vegas Valley Water District
NewmontMiningCorporation
Nevada State Bank
NV Energy
Western Insurance Specialties
Willis Pooling
Swendseid & Stern
Hobbs, Ong & Associates
Lumos & Associates
GE Energy
Southwest Gas Corp.
CenturyLink
The Hartford
Nevada Public Agency Insurance Pool & Public Agency Compensation Trust
Summit Engineering
Union Pacific Railroad
BEC Environmental
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My computer was hacked this morning , hummm I wonder why, it is fixed and secured now !!!!
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American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign .
The BLM in Nevada is asking for public comments on its draft Environmental Assessment for 73 parcels that have been nominated for a gas and oil lease auction. MORE THAN HALF OF THE REMAINING PARCELS OVERLAP
THREE IMPORTANT WILD HORSE HERD MANAGEMENT AREAS (HMAs)
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/info/newsroom/2014/january/elko__blm_seeks_public.html
BLM Seeks Public Comment on Public Lands Nominated for Oil and Gas Exploration and Development
ELKO, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Elko District is making available for
public review an Environmental Assessment (EA) for parcels of public land nominated for lease within the Elko District in the 2014 Competitive Oil & Gas Lease Sale. These parcels have the potential for future oil and gas exploration and development. The 30-day public review period concludes Feb. 10, 2014.
The BLM received nominations for 214 parcels of public land to offer for leasing, totaling more than 435,880 acres. The BLM deferred several of the nominated parcels to protect sage grouse habitat. Other parcels were removed because of cultural and Native American concerns. A detailed listing of deferred parcels is available in the EA and online. The remaining 73 parcels (125,220 acres) have been analyzed for potential impacts in the EA, in accordance with the Oil & Gas Leasing Reform mandated in 2010. Lease stipulations identified in the Elko (1987) and Wells (1985) Resource Management Plans are attached to all parcels to help protect resources.
The EA is available for public review at: http://www.blm.gov/rv5c.
The Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale will be conducted on June 24, 2014.
Additional information about the sale is available at
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/prog/energy.html.« less
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OUR Public Lands…OUR Wild Horses
NOBLE ENERGY/FRACKING
“The oil and gas leases sold for $1.27 million to six different companies.
The auction drew the highest BLM bid — $152 per acre — for a Nevada oil and gas lease since June 2008.”
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada-and-west/elko-county-gas-oil-lease-sale-heralds-first-use-fracking-nevada
By HENRY BREAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
It’s too soon to call it a boom, but federal regulators had no trouble Tuesday selling off 29 new oil and gas leases in Elko County, not far from what could be Nevada’s first fracking site.
It took the U.S. Bureau of Land Management about an hour to auction parcels totaling almost 36,000 acres . The oil and gas leases sold for $1.27 million to six different companies.
The auction drew the highest BLM bid — $152 per acre — for a Nevada oil and gas lease since June 2008.
“That project would mark the first use in Nevada of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which uses pressurized fluid to smash oil and gas from previously untapped shale deposits.
The BLM is conducting an environmental review of Noble’s proposal to drill as many as 20 exploratory wells more than a mile deep on public land in northeastern Nevada. The energy giant hopes to secure the permits and start drilling by year’s end.
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Louie, how long is the term of these leases? It’s hard to believe the paltry $152/acre, and barely over $1million for 36,000 acres to be more or less permanently disturbed. Where can any other U.S. citizens get so much for so little? I doubt you could even re-seed one acre for $152…
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Newmont Mine
Interested Party Letter
Master Surface Use Plan
Exhibits
• A – Project Map
Click to access LongCanyon_interestedpartyletter_508compliant.pdf
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Re: Elko BLM District
Yesterday was the due date for public comment on a revised Elko drought management plan that included the following strategy to ZERO OUT THE HERD MANAGEMENT AREAS.
Page 92 Complete removal of all animals in an HMA (excerpt below)
“The decision to remove all animals would be made after analysis of the environmental and animal data, and only done in order to prevent suffering of animals due to the absence of forage and/or water and reduce negative impacts to rangeland resources. The consequences of such a removal could be the need to revert the HMA back to a Herd Area.”
If the BLM has so badly managed the public’s land that it cannot support a few thousand wild horses on 7,400,000 acres of which 1,884,365 acres (plus Herd Management acres not included here) are legally designated as wild horse habitat, then it is due to the complete incompetence of the BLM agency, mainly by its highly questionable disposal of the public’s land and public’s resources to the private sector (private/corporate domestic livestock, mining, geothermal, gas and oil extraction – including fracking) and ignoring its responsibility to the American people to manage their land as the mission of the Bureau of Land Management states, “to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.” The BLM is in violation of its own mission statement and its legal and moral responsibility to the true public land and resource owners – the American people.
More information:
Environmental Assessment DOI-BLM-NV-E000-2013-0003-EA (dated 02/01/2014)
Click to access Drought%20EA%20Revised%20with%20triggers_Posted%20to%20web.pdf
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They are wasting $10,000, just like that guy in New Mexico wasted his money on a lawyer. I was thinking we need to make a push to release some of the long term holding back into the wild, not send them to slaughter. I’m ready to blockade all roads to Mexico, even if we have to lay in the road.
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Posted a comment on the KOLO news site. It’s under moderation. We’ll see whether they publish it.
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I think this dragon should start stoking the fires now. The FB has not been a friend of the farmer/rancher for several years.
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IcySpots, here is more of the article.
“LEASES SOLD ARE FOR A PERIOD OF 10 YEARS”
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada-and-west/elko-county-gas-oil-lease-sale-heralds-first-use-fracking-nevada
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
The leases sold Tuesday are for a period of 10 years. Once a lease is producing, a royalty of 12.5 percent is charged.
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IMHO this stinks of corruption to the hilt. We need to boycott all NV tourism and let the officials know why. This needs an investigation also.
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We need to encourage media to report the Fracking problem stories. Rachel Maddow reported tonight on earthquakes which are increasing rapidly in Oklahoma and parts of Texas as well as air pollution in Eagleford, Texas (Think I remember the name right.) She indicated that these are indicative as being caused by injection wells as in Fracking.
The dangers of Fracking are beginning to hit the mainstream and we need to help promote their attention. These leases above are for Fracking in many cases and the numbers of wells already on private lands are horrendous. Think what they will do to our public lands. The wildlife and WH&Bs will succumb to the pollution of Fracking even if allowed to stay.
This is it. We must muster all we can to stop these maniacs.
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Elaine, you are right. Now Joan Guilfoyle has issued a memorandum to euthanize wild horses on the range due to drought according to what Debbie Coffey found out. Just how much of the drought has been caused by fracking and how much water is already polluted.? The ranchers and hunters who hate our wild horses so much need to wake up and all of us join together to stop fracking, mining and drilling before all animals and plants are dead everywhere. In KY we’re fighting the Bluegrass pipeline and now the TN gas pipeline is planning to use it for NGL’s( natural gas fluids used for fracking that are pure poison). Lies are told on TV about how safe natural gas is and Obama is for it as long as it’s done safely. There is no way and we are all being betrayed IMO . BTW a gas pipeline blew up recently in an adjoining county. If this wasn’t so serious it would almost be a joke as it’s so preposterous.
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Yes, and the Ruby pipeline that will stretch across Western America to Oregon is there why? Because it is going to take that gas gotten through use of our potable water and by polluting earth, water, and air to ships headed for Asia. We will not even benefit from a better supply of natural gas. This must be brought to a halt.
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Adjoining White Pine County has thrown in another $5,000 to aid and abet. Commissioners voted unanimously to contribute local tax dollars to the suit, ostensibly as being a benefit to recreation and tourism. IDIOTS!
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OMDFB! Save a place for me in the middle of the road, Redhorse.
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Don’t poke sleeping dragons, for you are just one tasty, crispy critter to them.
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Boycott Elko! Wildhorses are here forever, council people come and go!
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The horse was the animal which help man civilizes the world and now man thinks the only thing a horse deserves is death so someone can make a buck. The wild horses are part of our wildlife and should be allowed to be free. Its very sad that the US is the richest country with lots of land and claim there is no room for a few thousand horses which eat grsss.
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Click to access nboa_minutes111206.pdf
Nevada Board of Agriculture
Boyd Spratling: Financial strategy on getting slaughter house
going because that is when the river is going to meet the road
is when they slaughter the first horse. Think looking at
putting facilities on Indian reservations which takes
legislature and everybody out of the equation.
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UNITED WE STAND FOR THE HORSES TOGETHER< I AM READY !!!!!
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Elko Area Chamber of Commerce
1405 Idaho Street
Elko, NV 89801
(775) 738-7135
Tell them how they have destroyed there own tourism,
with one action , giving $10.0000.00 donation to the horse Slaughter fund, no one will want to go there now, the only thing worth while there were the Mustangs,
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THE RANCHERS/FARMERS, ETC. MAY GET A SURPRISE IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS WHEN THEY FIND OUT THEIR LEASES MAY COST THEM MORE MONEY THAN THEY THOUGHT.
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