forward by R.T. Fitch ~unopinionated president/co-founder of Wild Horse Freedom Federation/
unedited release by Tom Gorey ~ BLM
Stacked Appointed Board Members Favor Slaughter While Ignoring Public Input
“Say what you may, if you have ever attended a BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting you have probably walked away with the feeling that you, an American Tax payer, had just been treated like an idiot school child and regardless of your expertise or credentials, the horse slaughter, cattle and hunting special interest group is going to say what they want and do what they planned, anyway. It is disheartening and possibly illegal as the hand picked bunch has one thing and one thing only on their agenda, to get rid of the wild equine.
You can read their unedited press release, below, but it carries the normal spin of how the BLM “cares” and is in existence to “protect” our wild horses and burros when in reality they are stoking the coals, once again, to either kill them on the range or sell the whole lot of warehoused horses to slaughter. It’s coming, count on it and you can say that you read about it here.
So read the spin with tongue-in-cheek and plan to attend if you can; if for no other reason but to cement your anger and outrage in how poorly our wild equine are being managed, or…how well they are mismanaged, depends on one’s perspective.
Other than that, I have virtually no opinion on the subject but please remember, for your own intellectual protection, that when a BLM employee or appointee’s lips are moving…they are lying…full stop!!!” ~ R.T.
Banner from America’s Wild Horse Advocates (AWHA) with Melissa Ohlsson, Vice President of AWHA as artist
| Release Date: 03/21/14 | ||||||
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BLM Sets Meeting of National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board for April 14-15 in Sacramento |
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SACRAMENTO, CA: The Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board will meet for two days in April in Sacramento, California, to discuss issues relating to the management and protection of wild horses and burros on Western public rangelands. The meeting will take place on Monday, April 14, 2014, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Time), and on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Time).
The upcoming Advisory Board meeting will be held at the Courtyard by Marriott Sacramento Cal Expo, 1782 Tribute Road, Sacramento, California 95815 (hotel phone number: 916-929-7900). The agenda of the meeting can be found in the Friday, March 21, 2014, Federal Register (at www.federalregister.gov or https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/03/21/2014-06186/wild-horse-and-burro-advisory-board-meeting). The Advisory Board provides input and advice to the BLM as it carries out its responsibilities under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The law mandates the protection and management of these free-roaming animals in a manner that ensures healthy herds at levels consistent with the land’s capacity to support them. According to the BLM’s latest official estimate, approximately 40,600 wild horses and burros roam on BLM-managed rangelands in 10 Western states. The BLM recently announced it is seeking research proposals to develop new or improve existing ways of controlling the population growth of wild horses and burros that roam public lands in the West. The agency has issued a Request for Applications to alert veterinarians, scientists, universities, pharmaceutical companies, and other researchers of the BLM’s need to develop new, innovative techniques and protocols for implementing population growth-suppression methods. The submission deadline for applications is May 7, 2014. The public may address the Advisory Board on Monday, April 14, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., local time. Individuals who want to make a statement at Monday’s meeting should register in person with the BLM by 2:00 p.m., local time, on that same day at the meeting site. Depending on the number of speakers, the Board may limit the length of presentations, set at three minutes for previous meetings. Speakers should submit a written copy of their statement to the BLM at the addresses below or bring a copy to the meeting. There may be a Webcam present during the entire meeting and individual comments may be recorded. Those who would like to comment but are unable to attend may submit a written statement to: National Wild Horse and Burro Program, WO-260, Attention: Ramona DeLorme, 1340 Financial Boulevard, Reno, Nevada, 89502-7147. Comments may also be e-mailed to the BLM (at wildhorse@blm.gov); please include “Advisory Board Comment” in the subject line of the e-mail. For additional information regarding the meeting, please contact Ramona DeLorme, Wild Horse and Burro Administrative Assistant, at 775-861-6583. Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may reach Ms. DeLorme during normal business hours by calling the Federal Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339. The Advisory Board meets at least once a year and the BLM Director may call additional meetings when necessary. Members serve without salary, but are reimbursed for travel and per diem expenses according to government travel regulations. |
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Related articles
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
cripes… would be interesting to have a summit on the Grazing Act by horse organizations….
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Vicky, this is a good idea! What if one could be held at the same time in SF… it would at least generate some news headlines and possibly some equal exposure for both conferences and their views. Anyone in SF who can organize this?
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oops, sorry, SACRAMENTO, root word SACRED?
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A very good idea indeed! When I lived in Idaho, The Gazing Act (in its previous incarnation) was the most disturbing and confounding piece of special interest regulations that there was. It deserves to be “dissected” in public for the members of the American voting public to recognize it for the pork belly piece of legislation that it is. It should definitely happen.
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I perish the thought of such a lackluster panel of neerdowells giving advise to the Bureau of Louts and Mongrels. I’m sure their remarks have been scripted so the outcome will be as planned.
Again they are pushing a fictitious number of those that remain in the wild…at least they had to balls to say it was an ‘estimate’. I’m hopeful that our brothers and sisters in California and Nevada will overwhelm the venue. Some civil disobedience may be in order to get the local news media on the story and possibly stream to the national media outlets. I for one would not mind an arrest record noting my complete disdain of the BLM’s criminal abuses of the past, the present, and the future. Let the ‘film at eleven’ show the cops arresting fired up protesters carrying signs that tell the American public what it is they are paying for with their hard earned tax money. Get a few celebrities to show up! How about Bo Derek, Ellen, Robert Redford…there are a plethora of stars on our side.
The coverage of the BLM’s press release is limited so R.T. may I suggest you put out a press release to all the major media outlets in the neighborhood. Use words like ‘butchers’…I don’t have to tell you how to make it sound morose. You’re a master!
I’ll be watching the video stream, you can bank on that! And looking forward to Brian Williams reporting on the ‘riot in the streets’! LOL
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I agree wholeheartedly with Steve re: civil disobedience. I wish I still lived in Sacramento to attend and raise a ruckus! However, peaceful protests do not seem to work anymore. I’m thinking about the protest in front of the White House re: Keystone XL Pipeline.
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The BLM needs to be put out to pasture with no food, shelter or water! They are completely worthless! They do no help the horses and burros. The only help themselves and the horse slaughter people!
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I’ve been there. I have spoken and was ignored. It is not only RANCHERS & HUNTERS. It is CORPORATE INTERESTS IN FRACKING FOR OIL & GAS. GOP just announced plans to remove National Parks from Federal Management & turn them over to private corporate management. Nothing is scared to them. Only the money to be made now from fossil fuels..before the world turns away from them for good. We invade countries and kill people over it. Why would a few wild horses or sage grouse be allowed to prevent the greed here.
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I am so appalled at how for 20years watching the BLM absolutely DESTROY OUR MUSTANGS , THE BLM are a LAND Management Agency for CRAPS SAKE, they know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about HORSES, I am sick of their lies , maiming and murdering , what we all should be CHERISHING !!!!!We need to appoint an Agency ourselves and OUST the BLM Ourselves , THE BLM IS NOT WHAT THEY THINK THEY are INDISPENSABLE…
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In 1993 President Clinton signed the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity. After the treaty was not ratified, UNEP’s experts wrote Article 8 (h) into the 1997 International Plant Protection Convention. During an April meeting in Rome, the experts agreed to include animals as a type of plant pest. The experts rewrote parts of the treaty to use language that was synonymous with UN CBD Article 8 (h) to prevent, control, and eradicate alien (non-native) species. In a somewhat contradictory move, as part of this provision that outlawed our native horses in their native land, the IUCN made genetically engineered or genetically modified organisms an exception to the rule. VIA international treaty. Rather than risking Congressional and public scrutiny, the Clinton administration put the repeal of the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act up for public debate, they put it in two internatonal treaties and Executive Order 13112. Some people recognize that the horses are being managed as an alien species, but they have not connected these E.O. to the International treaties that are the statutory basis for it.
I believe our wild horses and burros were always the main target of this alien, invasive, animal pest of plants species business because their ancient homelands are also the places that were once swamps with large leafed plants that endured glaciers and geological forces that compressed the peat into fossil fuels. President Clinton sold the U.S. Naval Oil Reserves to Occidental Petroleum, the company that senior Senator Al Gore’s father worked for (in the coal division) in 1997. Since the VP was the executor of his mother’s estate he did not have these holdings in a blind trust, but was actually managing them. The senior Senator Gore received support from the owner of Occidental Petroleum that operates in the West. The fact that this transaction took place in the largest sale of public land in history from the President to the Vice-President’s source of family wealth, including a trust fund from coal profits makes it quite likely that both the VP, the President, and those that supported them were very aware of the natural resource wealth that lingered under the hooves of our ancient and native wild horses and burros.
These people have every intent of harvesting the oil, natural gas, and coal energy in the West no matter what they have told the Sierra Club and their other NGO partners. So all this stop the tracking, stop toxic coal, stop drilling for tax sands is just a distraction and serves the administration with a reason to delay until they get even more control over the natural resource wealth on public lands.
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There are no countries only corporations with flags. The real terrorists, protected and coddled by those who once represented us but now owe allegiance to the flag of greed. Protesting against terrorism isn’t protesting it’s survival. We are being killed by pipelines, pollution, modified food, fracking and now they are after our very souls. The American Wild Horse.
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HD, how I wish you were wrong but your words are true.
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Reblogged this on Pass the SAFE Act!.
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Wasting more tax dollars on hotel bills, food and travel expenses to lie to everyone. They already know what they should be doing from the report they choose to ignore, because it doesn’t satisfy the greed of corporations,ranchers, and the horseslaughter industry.
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Reblogged this on Horsedrag’s Blog and commented:
BLM
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Well for the past couple of days there is a new commercial touting how fracking is safe. Really? This started appearing before I heard about the board meeting last night. Stil I’ll go because it’s practically in my backyard. And I have to represent a whole bunch of you that can’t make it.
And RT isn’t the only one is spreading this. I got my message via fb last book and then started sharing it out. I asked others to share.
I can’t deliver any letters from anyone. BLM made this rule after Wild Mustang Robin tried to deliver her all her signatures from her petitions that they wouldn’t accept them any longer. What are they afraid of? But you can write them directly and let your feelings be known.
Robin did one better. After that fiasco everyone went back to the hotel, separated out all the petitions and HAND DELIVERED all the appropriate to each state congress person. Talk about learning how our government works?! I thought it was a great civics lesson if nothing else.
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for every positive there is a negative..and every negative a positive.
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Three of the WH&B board members’ terms end next week before the April meeting but the new members have still not been announced to the public. I believe at least three true wild horse and burro advocates applied who actually KNOW something about the wild horses and burros. Anyone want to take odds on those three being selected?
Recent communication from BLM’s Debbie Collins, “The approval process is still moving forward at this time. Until the White House and both the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture have signed off, we won’t know the final selections. We can’t share who applied, only the final selectees. The selections start with recommendations from a BLM-FS team and moves up from there. The White House and DOI/DOA have the final say. The BLM-FS team members change based on the needs of the team.”
Public Interest
Ms. Julie Gleason
Term expires: 3/28/2014
Natural Resources Management
Mr. James Dale Stephenson
Term expires: 3/28/2014
Wild Horse and Burro Research
Dr. Robert E. Bray
Term expires: 3/28/2014
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GG, do they define what the “needs of the team” are in any detail?
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Icy
Not that I know of and imagine they “can’t” dislose THAT to us either … but WE already know .. don’t we.
And why won’t they disclose the nominated persons? Is that a breech of national security? BS as usual.
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Hmm; oddly complicated and secret criteria for approvals for a group of ‘advisors’ supposedly representing the interests of the Public, isn’t it?
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GG and Lisa, are these paid positions? If so it makes sense they would withhold names, as any employer would do. If these are voluntary (and presumably somewhat prestigious) even nominees would be proud to say they were on the short list.
I’m very curious to learn what their designated “needs” are vis a vis education or background. Somewhere this is surely written down, and should be public if this board is serving the public. Will it take a FOIA to find out even this minimal information?
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Duquette has probably been stroking the BLM. Proslaughter claws are pulling at the wild herds. Amazing whats hidden behind the scenes.
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Did anyone catch this in the New York Times yesterday? It’s from THE ETHICIST blog.
My thought? Please let’s all have at it…this “logic” deserves a poke with a pointy stick.
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Many good comments there, hope everyone chimes in.
I was disturbed to see this, though. The online article headline is “Should we Protect Wild Horses?” but the print version will carry this title: Goodbye, Horses.
One is an open ended ethical question, the other is a declaration.
“A version of this article appears in print on March 23, 2014, on page MM11 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Goodbye, Horses. Order Reprints|Today’s Paper|Subscribe”
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Susan, I posted several comments at the NY Times article, but they haven’t been published so far.
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Can you imagine that the author refers to himself as the ethicist? We have a number of major breeches of scientific integrity that are supported by our government and are harming the American people and the environment. But this. . . .
According to the best information that I have based on timelines found in official U. S. Government and university publications, Barnes and Noble biographies, international treaties and Conferences of the Parties that happen after the treaty, our horses and burros are classified as alien, invasive, animal “pest of plants” species that threaten agriculture, animal, and human health per the 1997 International Plant Protection Convention. At signing, the U. S. added three reservations. The second one stated that the IPPC would not interfere with nations’ programs on invasive species.
The IPPC did not list animals as a potential plant pest until he was rewritten in Rome during April 1996, Other changes to the law which has always been about protecting agricultural products have to do with using synonymous anguage and common purpose.
Under the IPPC the authoritative agency is a country’s agricultural authority, which is why both UN CBD Article 8 (h) and the 1997 International Plant Protection Convention are listed as federal invasive species law. A 2007 report by USDA APHIS, WS “Managing Invasive Terrestrial Vertebrates” continues to list both Equus caballus and Equus asinus are listed under ungulates, but instead of using the common name burro, the authors use the word donkey. The reference page includes the 1993 OTA Report on Harmful, Non-Indigenous Species to the United States. This is the original document that is also referenced by the World Bank’s Report on its participation in the Global Invasive Species Programme.
The Nature Conservancy, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the International Food and Agricultural Organization, the Center for Agriculture and Bioscience International as well as the World Bank and the Bank of the Netherlands (WB’s partner) funded the educational propagandaizing of this false and irrelevant human construct between 1996—2009. Wonder why the program ended in 2009?
We, the American people, have been defrauded by people we elected to office and that swore to uphold and protect the Constitution. They did not announce that they intended to run rings around the Constitution, but that is exactly what they did while we were occupied with more important issues like whether or not OJ killed Nicole or the Ramseys knew who killed Jon Benet. And then there was Monica, the blue dress, and which definition of is you want to use.
How far we fall.
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Abraham Lincoln is rolling over in his grave …
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”
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Capitalism is totally dependant on energy to survive. Fracking, is being used to extract natural gas that will be used to heat the Canadain tar sands and get the oil which is finite and reaching its peak. Sooner or later after we finish destroying everything mankind may very well need the use of horses again. 100 yeas ago we had no oil and horses 100 years from now we will have no oil or horses.
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Volunteer appointed positions with travel expenses paid by the taxpayer.
Go to link – then bottom right gives Board Documents (Charter and Bylaws).
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/Advisory_Board.html
(page 3 gives a list of what category the appointees are to be from – including Wild Horse and Burro Advocacy Groups … mmmmmmmm)
You can also look at the board meetings and the list of board members and their biographies on that link.
These meetings are live-streamed so you can watch/listen to them and past meetings transcripts and videos are available online here: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/Advisory_Board/advisory_board_minutes.html
Or email and ask BLM’s Deborah Collins at:
blm_wo_wild_horse@blm.gov or dacollin@blm.gov
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Have you guys seen this? Cowardly bullies.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/21/peta-steve-asmussen-animal-cruelty-investigation_n_5001756.html?utm_hp_ref=green
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If I am not mistaken RT and Craig Downer have both been recommended for the board positions. Do you want to take a bet as to whether either is appointed?
I still think we must find pro-bono attorneys to file a lawsuit. And I still think a class action might be possible on behalf of the American Public. Please I have had no luck finding someone, do you have any ideas? At this time I am pretty much unable to do much in looking for personal reasons, but there has to be a horse loving or two out there who would take on the legal work if we fundraised for fees and discovery costs.
We cannot stand by while they slaughter OUR HORSES and BURROS.
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Elaine, what if people could choose to donate $1.35 (maybe even per month) to a fund to pay for a class action suit to be undertaken. Say there are 30,000 people willing to pitch in… that’s over $40k. If a suit could be won the fees would probably be paid by the loser (in this case still us, but in capitals: US).
RT, any ideas here? Mr. Wagman perhaps?
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Super great Idea Icy , sign me up !
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National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Member List
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/Advisory_Board/member_list_and_expiration.html
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Nevada Board of Agriculture
Click to access nboa_minutes111206.pdf
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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Interesting, Louie. These 2011 minutes show a discussion about selling captured horses to slaughter, then in the next paragraph discuss keeping it relatively easy on livestock owners to kill Mountain Lions. They mention 33 were “taken” that year. With a single lion’s range between “10 and 370 square miles” (www.defenders.org) taking out 33 in one year would seem to make a pretty big hole in the ecosystem.
I wonder if anyone has ever studied the environmental impacts of taking out so many predators at once, since it will undoubtedly increase not only wild horse herd populations but also deer, elk, sheep, cattle etc.
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And the “Shoot, Shovel and Shut-Up” method is widely used – and don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s not.
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GG, I grew up and still live in the west, so I’m very familiar with the SSS principle, sadly.
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i do believe they knew about that all along that was the plan ,icy and every one invovled with gov. offices knew this was coming . i think we should get every school kid in america to send letters and cards to the president and have them presented to him from dump truck . make a big fiasco so it needs to be reported correctly and then with a protest right behind the trucks.
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Monsanto lovin’ “Conservation” Cowboys push to kill wild horses
http://ppjg.me/2012/10/28/monsanto-lovin-conservation-cowboys-push-to-kill-wild-horses/
Debbie Coffey
When representatives of Conservation Districts with ties to Monsanto attended the last Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting, they not only pushed for the roundup of wild horses & burros, they pushed to have the wild horses & burros sold for slaughter.
Wait a minute, these organizations have the word “conservation” in their titles, don’t they? So what’s going on?
Right before the last Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board meeting in Reno, the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) had their big annual meeting in Las Vegas. The NACD meeting was sponsored by Monsanto, Bayer Crop Science, DuPont, Sygenta and Pioneer, the biggest producers of the genetically engineered crops on the planet.
At NACD’s meeting, Monsanto sponsored a radio broadcast on Agritalk and NACD President Gene Schmidt and First Vice President Earl Garber were interviewed. (So was Rick Cole, Director of Weed Resistance for Monsanto.)
For NACD’s live auction, Monsanto donated four 30-gallon containers of Roundup Power Max.
At the NACD meeting, Callie Hendrickson, appointed by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to represent the general public (is Monsanto the general public?) on the National Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board, gave a presentation. She made unsubstantiated claims regarding wild horses & burros, including the statement that wild horses “degraded resources for all.”
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Reblogged this on Donkey Whisperer Farm Blog and commented:
Please read and re-blog
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