Commentary by R.T. Fitch, co-founder/president of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
“I didn’t make it, but that does not mean we are not paying attention.
Our sympathies go out to Ginger Kathrens who is stuck sitting amongst a bunch of special interest anti-horse/burro bigots who allegedly advise the Federal government’s most corrupt and vile agency, the BLM. Horse haters all!
The meeting was being streamed live at (http://www.blm.gov/live/) and conveniently went dead JUST before public comments were about to be made. Imagine that…but one of our readers did manage to snag the bulk of comments in form of a transcript (https://app.box.com/s/n1kqhbtihpeny8d2kk07q5opdi9wpnyf)
Most troubling was Dean Bolstadt talk where he misrepresented the facts and as usual, lied about the numbers:
67,000 on the range March 1st
9,000 foals born since March 1st
= 75,000 in the wild today
plus 44,000+ in holding.
Bolstadt is “alluding to” having Congress change the law – i.e. Congress giving $ to kill them.
And that is what he wants his legacy to be, he can almost taste it…he wants them all dead. They all do.
Below is a local news article that fans the flames of destruction for the wild horses and burros and brings to light how serious our fight for the future safety and welfare of the wild ones really is. It’s all hands on deck as the lying continues, today!” ~ R.T.
State vet: Declare horse population an emergency
BLM Advisory Board – Ginger Kathrens (left) stuck in a very painful purgatory – Elko Daily Free Press Photo
ELKO — Public comments at the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board addressed contraceptive efforts as well as what was described as the disastrous effects of the animals on the rangelands.
“No, folks it’s an emergency today and it will be a disaster tomorrow,” said State Veterinarian Dr. JJ Goicoechea.
He used the example of over 250 horses that were in desperate need of water Thursday, referencing an earlier phone call resulting in the horses receiving both care and water.
The spring, surrounding range and the horses will not come back, he said.
“It’s an emergency today and I encourage this board to please ask the director to declare it an emergency,” said Goicoechea, explaining if there is a concern about funding emergency appropriations can be sought to complete the work.
He said both fertility control and the removal of excess horses is necessary. The former is not going to fully alleviate the situation until the appropriate management level is achieved.
Goicoechea also said he wanted to discuss the Bureau of Land Management’s issues with fertility control because of branding problems.
The veterinarian expounded upon the fact the State is willing to work on identification efforts and not keeping the agency from conducting fertility control in that manner.
“Dr. Goicoechea couldn’t have hit it any better on the head. We’ve got a disaster out here on the open range,” said Assemblyman John Ellison. “People should be arrested for the shape these horses are in.”
Ellison also discussed the state of the range, claiming ranchers are being pushed out with the water levels from the drought and more wildland fires are started due to an increased fuel load by taking cows off the land.
“What you need to do is find a place to move these horses,” he said.
If the photographic evidence were to be looked at, it would be seen the horses are pushing away cattle and elk from riparian areas, said Ellison, encouraging members to look at different areas around Nevada to get first-hand knowledge.
“With no water and no vegetation out there, this is getting to where it’s critical. Either you can sit here and do nothing and let them die, or make the decision this board needs to make,” he said, discussing how what is being done is not working.
Ellison brought up a point made by many commenters that these are feral horses, not mustangs, with 90 percent of the horses being wild.
Dr. Boyd Spratling restated the cost these animals are having on the resources, such as the potential of an entire generation losing a watershed or habitat.
On behalf of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, Spratling said, it will support “any safe manipulation to reduce population growth.”
Transcript: https://app.box.com/s/n1kqhbtihpeny8d2kk07q5opdi9wpnyf
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Isn’t Goicoechea that welfare rancher guy that spoke at that Subcommittee hearing? And I wonder what horses John Ellison was referring to. Was he referring to the horses of Cold Creek or are they different? If the latter, what challenges have these animals faced that have caused their condition to decline as much as he claims? Obviously, they can’t be the Pryor Mountain Mustangs. Neither can they be the Salt River wild horses, the Mustangs of Sandwash Basin, the Onaqui wild horse herd, the Cerbat Mustangs, etc. Most herds are reportedly healthy, or like Tom Davis said: “fat and shiny” so if they are trying to compare just one or two herds to the entire wild equine population, it’s absurd if not laughable. I’m sorry if I am missing something. I’m unable to stream videos with my current wifi connection.
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This is a disaster!!! They are a bunch of thugs out there wasting our tax dollars and bringing our Wild Horses and Burros to extinction! It’s just unthinkable and shocking to think that these veterinarians think these surgeries and this mad scientist contraceptive plan is humane. Our best hope is a President who will fire and dismantle this destructive network of inhumane idiots! The BLM caused the problem and I believe the intent all along was to slaughter the majority leave a few and then come back for the rest. Please 9,000 foals..where in the hell to they get those figures. I will be in Washington for the big march and have scheduled meetings with my Legislators. I just can’t believe that this is happening.. And what was to be a voice for the horses was turned into a pawn position with NO Voice what’s so ever! Damn them!! Some way some how they are going down!!
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Yes, we DO have a disaster out here on the open range … and it is entirely the fault of the welfare ranchers and other freeloading resource extractors and the fault of the corrupt employees of the Bureau of Land Management who facilitate the use of my public land as a domestic livestock feedlot and a garbage dump . And yes, people should be arrested for this … and some of those people who are responsible and should be imprisoned were sitting in that meeting room yesterday.
As for photographic evidence … I have personally and numerously witnessed welfare livestock standing inside a water trough on public land and I have more than once witnessed hundreds and hundreds of welfare sheep inside a dried but still moist lake bed and yes I have photographs and witnesses.
If there are wild horses dying on public lands in Nevada it is because the domestic livestock have depleted vegetation and the ranchers have turned off, used up, fenced off or contaminated the water supply that nature gave to ALL wildlife. Example: last year BLM required ranchers to turn off water and remove troughs in fenced “pastures” … yes, pastures where wild horses lived and were to be protected and yet where these supposed free-roaming wild horses were fenced into pastures on their own legal herd area… and their water taken away on the orders of BLM.
As for Assemblyman Ellison knowing anything about wild horses or anything about the laws of Nevada … the horses are NOT feral: “569.008. “Feral livestock” defined means any formerly domesticated livestock or progeny of domesticated livestock which have become wild and are running at large upon public or private lands in the State of Nevada, and which have no physical signs of domestication. The term does NOT include horses or burros that are subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Government pursuant to the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1331 to 1340, inclusive, and any regulations adopted pursuant thereto, or any other federal statute or regulation.
Click to access nevada.pdf
Welfare ranchers need to take ALL of their non-native, domestic, for private/corporate profit livestock home and keep them there. They do not belong on my land.
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“Ellison also discussed the state of the range, claiming ranchers are being pushed out with the water levels from the drought and more wildland fires are started due to an increased fuel load by taking cows off the land.”
This same argument supports KEEPING wild horses on the land!!!
One supposes they will argue to ADD MORE cattle to “protect” the range, while exterminating horses who graze “fuel load” areas cattle won’t. Orwell would be proud.
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“…if the photographic evidence were to be looked at…”
Well, hell; where is it? I’d be interested in seeing it.
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First off, this is very reminiscent of language used in this document by retired BLLM employee agency called Public Lands Foundation (which I have included several docs for your review) which states in part:
“….Our organization recently prepared a Position Statement (enclosed) on the subject of wild horses and burros. In summary, we believe that major changes need to be made in the Free Wild -roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 and in the way that wild horses and burros are maintained as an integral part of the public lands. PLF would like to see the wild horse, livestock and wildlife interests work out an acceptable solution to the current dissatisfaction that they share. These interests should seek agreement on the number of wild horses and burros that should be the focus of the federal management requirement in a system of legislatively established Ranges dedicated to wild horses, burros and wildlife with the exclusion of livestock. All wild horses and burros should be removed from public lands outside the newly established Ranges, and Herd Management Areas (HMA’s) outside of the new Ranges should be eliminated.. This position was presented at the recent Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting in Denver. (Copy of testimony enclosed)…”
So if they have their way, most if not all of the equines in holding would be eliminated, along with the HMA’s, and then create a “newly established Range” So I am to assume that only the best of the best would be saved, the rest shipped.
See http://www.publicland.org/08_current_past_news/2010/100810_horse_burro.html
Click to access doc_1400_hist_record.pdf
Secondly, has anyone researched the people that sit on the board and exposed a conflict of interest? Taking subsidies would exclude them from sitting on this board and should be reported to regulatory board that creates advisory boards should these ethics be exposed.
Lastly, is there a reason that advocates have not formed their own Advisory Board? Instructions are here. http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/101010
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Here is the ethics statement for Federal Advisory Committee. Clearly, some of these members do have a “conflict of interest” due to their federal subsidies they accept from the govt.
“Federal Ethics and Conflict of Interest Laws
Agency officials must provide prospective advisory committee members with information regarding any applicable standards of conduct-including those imposed by federal conflict of interest statutes. In some instances, members may be subject to special limitations during the course of their service on an advisory committee. For some members, these restrictions also may apply (for limited periods) after their committee assignments have ended.
Some agencies may impose additional administrative requirements as well. To avoid potential conflicts, each advisory committee member should assure that he or she receives adequate information from the sponsoring agency and completes any required appointment papers and disclosure forms prior to service on a committee.
Oral briefings and other explanatory material may be obtained through the sponsoring agency’s Committee Management Officer, Designated Agency Ethics Official, or from the Office of Government Ethics, which has government-wide jurisdiction on federal ethics issues.”
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Along these lines I’m wondering why the state veterinarian for Nevada is weighing in on the wild horses in what seems to be an overreach? Where are the countering vet opinions, including from HSUS etc.? If water sources have been cut off and fenced out, why aren’t the vets screaming about this and holding people responsible? Shipping horses “somewhere else” has never been a good answer, and still isn’t. The law mandated they be managed “where found” in 1971 and not “someplace else” period.
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This agency was mandated to protect these animals, so it would make sense that part of their job would be to make damn sure these animals have the ability to get to water and food when needed. Instead, they round them up rather than cut fences and demand that these public welfare ranchers allow these protected, priority animals get what they need immediately. Again, making a complaint against a federal agency that is putting these animals in danger should be again reported to USDA/APHIS as clearly, keeping animals away from water and food is a welfare issue. Since this is a federal agency, I would venture to state that APHIS should have jurisdiction over another federal agency in making them compliant. If not, then they can advise us where we should be filing complaints in this situation. I hope they get sick of hearing from us.
“APHIS’ Investigative and Enforcement Services (IES) personnel investigate alleged violations when licensees or registrants have not taken corrective measures to come into compliance with the AWA, individuals and/or businesses are conducting regulated activity without a license or without being registered with USDA, or the noncompliance presents (or presented) a direct risk to the health and well-being of the animals involved. IES investigations may lead to the issuance of a regulatory compliance or enforcement action. For more information on the investigative and enforcement process, as well as on what actions may be taken to enforce the AWA, please visit IES’ website.”
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalwelfare/complaint-form
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WHO WANTS OUR WILD HORSES AND BURROS TO VANISH FROM THEIR LEGAL LANDS? For the past 40 plus years the BLM management appears to be politically driven by financial stakeholders, i.e. livestock permittees, mining and energy corporations, large lobbying trophy hunting “clubs” and many more. But let’s face it … the only persons that have worked for 40 plus years for the extinction of wild horses and burros are those with a financial interest. This has been and continues to be unacceptable.
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A full disclosure of whether any member of the BLM management team for any project, including the Advisory Board members, has any personal or financial interest (including any interest in any grazing allotment) in any proposed plans. It is imperative that the BLM ensure that there are no conflicts of interest and that it has established high scientific standards before spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on this proposal. (see regulatory captured agency) Any and all BLM employees and associates (including the board) shuold declare their financial interest in the outcome of any plans and step-down from being any part of the decision making factor if there is any conflict of interest what so ever.
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I agree, but it seems only Congress can rein in these people, and they failed to even prosecute Ken Salazar or Tom Davis. We need to vote new people into Congress this fall to have any chance for meaningful change.
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Yes, but it is a round-robin situation with BLM lying to Congress about the actual populations etc etc (i.e. there is no excess BUT congress is told it is WAY over excess) and congress could care less about these animals and leaves the “management” to BLM who is a regulated agency. Regulatory captured agency is a form of political corruption that occurs when a regulatory agency (BLM), created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure; it creates an opening for firms to behave in ways injurious to the public (e.g., producing negative externalities). The agencies are called “captured agencies”.
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Reblogged this on nk4g2.
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If the count is inaccurate by government officials i.e BLM employees and some members of this advisory board then how can an accurate count be conducted that would be acceptable to all government officials? These numbers need to be disproven because they are repeated constantly by news sources, the mustang foundation that runs the TIP training and makeovers. I feel this is key.
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You hit the nail on the head.
The easiest and most cost effective method of proving the BLM’s population count would be the use of a Go-Pro (or other video device) attached to the helicopter during aerial surveys. These cost about a hundred or so dollars. Why don’t they use them already? Because it would prove that they are lying about their population counts.
For example (but there are many many examples) the BLM published population increase on one herd area was 775% increase in ONE year. These animals biologically only produce one off-spring a year so how can 40 burros have 310 offspring in ONE year??? Mathematically and biologically impossible. This is only one example of BLM lies and this is then funneled to Congress and the media etc. and as you said, this is the key.
By the way, any BLM or other government employee that provides false information or conceals information is in violation of title 18 which includes both monetary fines and prison time. Therefore it is the BLM employees who lie that belong behind bars … not our wild horses and burros.
Title 18 (18 U.S.C. § 1001). Making false statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001) is the common name for the United States federal crime laid out in Section 1001 of Title 18 of the United States Code, which generally prohibits knowingly and willfully making false or fraudulent statements, or concealing information, in “any matter within the jurisdiction” of the federal government of the United States, even by mere denial 18 U.S. Code § 1519 – Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations Current through Pub. L. 114-38. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.) US Code Per the US Department of Justice, the purpose of Section 1001 is “to protect the authorized functions of governmental departments and agencies from the perversion which might result from” concealment of material facts and from false material representations.
More information: https://rtfitchauthor.com/2016/08/08/who-wants-our-wild-horses-and-burros-to-vanish-from-their-legal-lands/
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Great idea. And how about drones? They are getting better and cheaper and they don’t require gasoline if I’m not mistaken. SHARK has been using drones to capture animal abuse years before most stores started selling them. The federal government would most likely cover the expenses to pay for them if the BLM requested the funds.
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It is my understanding that drones have already been approved by the government for sage-grouse population research but from what I understand they are limited in their distance and time limit so would have very limited effect in wild horse and burro herd areas. A Go-Pro camera can be placed on a plane or helicopter and have lengthy time and distance capabilities and they don’t lie. Please watch this video.
https://rtfitchauthor.com/2013/12/07/counting-wild-horses-an-aerial-tour-of-twin-peaks-wild-horse-and-burro-habitat/
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Did anyone just hear the BLM TIP trainer just say that the wild horses have no value (except those trained and sold/adopted)? Maybe I didn’t hear that correctly – but if that is what he said then he needs to be educated about nature and wildlife and WILD horses and WILD burros in the WILD.
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Somebody sent me this:
Email of Kristin Richmond, Secty for House App. Comm. Feel free to send her any compelling documents that will counter this big push to have our wh & b’s further removed and at a very large scale. She will share with all subcom. members. kristin.richmond@mail.house.gov
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Just as you are, I am very concerned about this “big push” to blame the wild horses. That is why in my testimony I brought up the pumping down of water tables throughout the West that has devastating effects on wildlife, including returned native wild horse and burro habitat. There were a lot of prejudiced views expressed at the meeting yesterday, and too much selfishness and blindness toward our wonderful wild horses and burros and what they can do to help the world we share with them. Was sorry to hear pro wild horse testimonies were blacked out.
I just commented on this slated article in the Elko paper.
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It appears that they are experiencing “technical difficulties.
A complete video of the meeting and transcript should be provided for Public review
Up Next on http://WWW.BLM.GOV/LIVE...
BLM Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board Meeting
http://www.blm.gov/live/
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WOW – so the no. 1 thing on their list is to make all unadoptable horses sale authority! Blows my mind! But I already sent an email to the board – for all the good it will do.
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Killing our beloved wild horses and burros is genocide. Are we really going to continue to “live” in more and more blood?😂
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You are right about the BLM, they are horse haters, all they want is money from the cattle men, and anyone who will lease the land , so they can make a profit, they are pigs. And need to be stopped
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