Horse News

Letter to an Editor: ‘Abducting’ Wild Horses Diminishes Way of Life

By  as published in the Albuquerque Journal

“This wild equine advocate puts our collective thoughts and feelings into words like no other.” ~ R.T.


Editor:

I would like to express my feelings about the abduction of many, and now I say most all, of a very unique herd of wild horses, the Placitas horses.

"Expectant" by David Cramer

Expectant” by David Cramer

Yes, they are indeed wild horses that live in family units. Ten years ago when I celebrated my 70th birthday, a friend invited me to his home where I saw a band of wild horses for the first time in Placitas.

The lead mare led the family across the way, followed by the stallion protector. These horses have, for years, provided a “way of life” for most Placitas residents and for other people like me who love to see horses living free like the horses that totally evolved only in North America.

As an artist, I find these horses very inspirational, colors never seen before — for example, the black and red. Professional photographers like David Cramer, Lynne Pomeranz and many others, have enjoyed seeing and documenting the many antics of wild horse behavior. Poets and writers have told their stories.

“A way of life,” which has been and still is treasured. Even after lengthy meetings this summer, Placitas residents all agreed on one thing: No Placitas horse should go to slaughter.

The last straw for me is that a most famous and loved “white band” of 12 horses was abducted and taken by the Livestock Board with the intent of taking them to slaughter. A beautiful baby black foal died during the transport, and the famous white stallion, documented by David Cramer in his photograph “Expectant,” which shows the stallion tenderly comforting the white mare shortly before the mare gave birth, was gelded in preparation for slaughter even before being sent to the auction.

I hold all the people who are causing these atrocities accountable. They are not only taking away an important part of one’s daily life in Placitas, they are stealing from the next generations.

Betty J. Pritchard

Bernalillo

22 replies »

  1. The foal DID NOT die!!! Betty is very close to the founder of WHOA, so it’s hard to understand why she didn’t know it. This was posted under her letter on the NMAHS page this morning:

    “Note: The foal presumed dead is alive, Brownie. All horses were rescued by WHOA and Placitas Animal Rescue AFTER having been maliciously sold to a known KILL BUYER, rather then sold to the rescue. Placitans quickly raised a large $$$$ offer for the horses to the kill buyer and got them back.

    “The foal was only 4 DAYS OLD when seized and forced into the trailer w/ the others and hauled to the notorious SW Livestock Auction, then hauled all over the state w/ the kill buyer and back, before finally being rescued. THIS COULD HAVE EASILY KILLED THAT FOAL.”

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    • Linda and sue you two are ridiculous pro slaughter carpet bagging thugs. You actually know nothing about wildlife.i it would be laughable if you two weren’t pathetic thugs.

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  2. All of Our Precious Mustangs were Born Free, it is Our Job to Make sure they remain FREE, Obviously the people appointed to do so are a FAIL !!!! They must all be removed from their Job , they have abused mained and removed OUR MUSTANGS sent them to slaughter,chased them with helicopters and got off on terrorizing them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!! These people have been ignoring FEDERAL LAW , and must be brought up on criminal charges and face what they are doing , their heinious crimes against FEDERAL LAW protecting OUR MUSTANGS !!!!

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    • The Placitas horses don’t roam federal lands, and have no relationship to the BLM or FS. An HMA was never established, because the ranch land was overwhelmingly private and the rest of it was either part of pueblo tribal lands or the village.

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  3. The Placitas horses are San Felipe Tribal horses. They were looked at by BLM back in 1971 and not included as Wild but ruled to be San Felipe. The ONLY place they are safe from the Livestock Board is on Tribal land. Placitans may wish bLM would agree with them and confer “Wild” status but, seriously, do you think BLM would, now, 43 years later, reverse their opinion? I think, not.
    Fortunately, Marty Clifton of Placitas is stepping in and bringing some sanity to the situation and working towards getting the horses back under Pueblo control.

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  4. Good for these people -‘—-http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2014/08/14/passions-and-tempers-flare-over-wild-horses-in-new-mexico-town

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  5. man , gary king is still sending e-mails him for governor . i live in texas. why would i cast a vote . i know nothing about the man ,maybe that would be an avenue to look in to. hey, how lucky for that little group . so why did they round them up anyways the a–holes and why take them there ? is it just me or is there some conspircey going on here . what is the push to get rid of the horses ?why does it seem that this has got to be done by yesterday ? or am i the only one who feels like this? sick people with an agenda , living on the greed in their veins !

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  6. This story puts into words, as RT said. the passion a lot of people have for our wild horses. Many horses have some meaning behind them, some more then others. But, they all have the right to run free, as they have given to us of themselves to make our country what it is today.

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  7. Wild. They use the term like it needs vivisected and cross sectioned to apply….strangely its used on All other creatures in America FREELY…however…a cattle butts spitting chew and talking scuttle butt want a few bucks out of horses they collect for free wont allow them to be free like any other wild creature. A kitten nearly died that we had from a barn cat and I told her she needed to drink from a bottle to live. I stroked her tiny head and paws all the while saying come on your a tiger…you have the heart of a lion and just when my family gave up hope she latched on and has since outgrown all the other littermates….heart of a lion….inspiration? Of course. So the very same is true of the wild horses…but for a few unnecessarily unsavory people they are stripped of all that is wild.

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    • Colt—love your stroy, and very true whether they were thrown away, got away, we’re turned loose or born free, they are survivors and since they survived should be considered WILD (after all if an illegal can come here, be born here or be brought here and be called a legal citizen) our Wild Horses are more precious than people from some other country to us——– leave them WILD and FREE.

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  8. these are un=caring people- That like to do as they please, and what they please no matter the cost to any one else or the animals they selves, selfish ass holes who can’t stand for any thing being free .
    Let h horses alone, go make money some other way, horses aren’t food, never have been.

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  9. They gelded him? Hmmm. Clinton, Gore, & IUCN strike again. We must get APHIS and FWS to list the horse as native or returned native. Otherwise, we must overturn the IPPC based on corruption and fraud. If a treaty is made based on fraud, lies or corruption it can be rendered void.

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  10. On August 14, 2014 The FAO announced that the International Plant Protection Convention is a biological diversity treaty. Knowing that Senator Byrd and other Senators were scrutinizing their use of international law through treaties, their ties to the FAO managed to get the FAO to agree to add synonymous language to UN CBD to include Article 8(h).

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  11. The treaty left which species to include as plant or animal pest species up to the nation to decide. DOI Sec. So when President Clinton created E.O. 13112, The Invasive (Alien) Species Act, he created the presidential advisory council of cabinet level positions for the National Invasive Species Council of all the agencies that would be involved in the prevention, control, and eradication of those species on the list. But 30 citizen stake holders that served as the citizen’s advisory council is the group that did the real “dirty” work. It appears that this group stayed in place when the transition from Clinton to Bush occurred. Of course, except for the fact that then VP Gore’s home state didn’t even support him in the Presidential race of 2000, it is possible that President Clinton thought that this group would work under President Gore, not President Bush. But at any rate, one of the reasons this is hard to unwrap is that President Clinton appointed the horse fraud creator to the NSF. And if they could suppress and control that information about the origin of the horse so that anyone in the world can find it but APHIS and FWS, who knows what else is hiding in the layers of our corrupt agencies created to inform Congress about what policies to follow?

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