Utah State University Wildland Resources Professor Terry Messmer
by Debbie Coffey, V.P. & Dir. of Wild Horse Affairs, Wild Horse Freedom Federation
The National Horse and Burro Rangeland Management Coalition, chaired by The Wildlife Society (TWS), concluded their secretive, closed-to-the-public “Slaughter Summit” co-hosted by the Utah State University and the state of Utah. The organizer of this Summit, Utah State University Wildland Resources Professor Terry Messmer, is heavily associated with The Wildlife Society, an organization that is pushing for the slaughter of wild horses and burros.
In a news article in The Salt Lake Tribune titled “Utah State University hosts wild horse summit, but excludes key advocates and the public,” it states:
“While closed meetings are sometimes considered anathema to scientific debate, Messmer defended the secrecy as a necessary precaution in the face of threats against some of the participants, including filmmaker Ben Masters. Other speakers regarded as anti-horse partisans are Beaver County Commissioner Tammy Pearson and attorney Frank Falen, whose Cheyenne, Wyo., law firm has repeatedly sued the BLM over horse management and other issues on behalf of ranchers.
‘We’ve got over 50 organizations represented, including three leading horse advocate groups that are part of the registration,’ Messmer said. He named the American Mustang Association, the American Mustang Foundation and the Wild Mustang Foundation.”
While we don’t know who is connected to the “leading horse advocate” groups that were invited to attend Utah’s secretive “Slaughter Summit”, we did find out that an “American Mustang Foundation” was formed only 9 months ago by Washington D.C. lobbyists. (The only other organization we could find with a similar name was The American Mustang Foundation, registered in California, but it’s current status is listed as “suspended.”)
American Mustang Foundation
American Mustang Foundation filed as a Nevada Domestic Non-Profit Corporation only 9 months ago, on Nov. 16, 2016. (File Number: E0505462016-6)
Allen D. Freemyer is listed as Director. His address is listed on K street in Washington D.C., and you guessed it, he’s a lobbyist. His company, Freemyer & Associates, PC, has lobbied for energy companies, mining companies and the state of Utah.
Linkedin describes that Allen Freemyer served as senior staff for nine years on the Committee on Resources in the U.S. House of Representatives. “While serving on the Committee, Mr. Freemyer established himself as an expert legislative strategist with hundreds of Public Laws to his credit…. As Chief of Staff, Mr. Freemyer had a unique opportunity to work with House and Senate Leadership, as well as many outside groups in the formulation of policy, appropriations, and legislation.
Mr. Freemyer currently represents clients with federal legislative, appropriations, administrative, and regulatory issues. This representation includes issues before the House and Senate as well as several Administrative agencies.
Mr. Freemyer was born in Vernal, Utah and grew up in Greeley, Colorado and is a graduate of Utah State University (1986) and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Utah (1989)…. Mr. Freemyer resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife Windsor and their family.”
Windsor L. Freemyer is listed as the Treasurer. Per Linkedin above, Allen D. Freemyer’s wife. She has also been registered as a lobbyist in Washington D.C.
James H. Sadler of Missoula, Montana is listed as the Secretary. Sadler ran for the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees. He was an attorney. The following quotes were cited from a news article in the June 13, 1984, Missoulian, “Former Missoula lawyer faces five theft charges.” “In 1983 Sadler voluntarily surrendered his license to practice law after unspecified charges were brought before the state Bar Association. “
“Former lawyer James Sadler of Missoula was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with stealing almost $80,000 of his client’s money.” “The five count charge filed in District court Tuesday by Deputy County Attorney Ed McLean accuses Sadler of taking money from clients in real estate deals and in his role as manager of an estate.”
“The counts range from $58,900 allegedly stolen in a real-estate deal to a $12,000 banking transaction, to “more than $300” from Sadler’s guardianship of an elderly man.” “The thefts allegedly occurred between 1976 and 1982.”
Andrew J. Lesofski of Washington D.C., is listed as the President. Andrew (AKA Drew) is the son of James H. Sadler, and at one time was a lobbyist for the lobbying firm District Strategies, a company that lobbied for the State of Nevada. He is also a past vice president of Big Game Forever. Andrew’s wife, Emy Lesofski, worked as a Senior Policy Advisor for Sen. Dean Heller (2011-2013) and is currently listed as a professional staff member to the Subcommittee on the Interior and Environment and Related Agencies and also the Committee on Senate Appropriations.
| It seems that American Mustang Foundation does not have a website. |
This same group of people also filed for a domestic Limited Liability company in Nevada on the same date of Nov. 16, 2016, for American Mustang, LLC.
Ginger Kathrens, Pres. of The Cloud Foundation and member of the BLM’s National Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board, was not invited to attend the secretive National Horse and Burro Rangeland Management Coalition Summit in Salt Lake City, where Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management officials were speaking and in attendance.
As an interesting aside, the news article in The Salt Lake Tribune titled “Utah State University hosts wild horse summit, but excludes key advocates and the public,” also states “Messmer denied state money is being used for the summit, whose costs are covered by registration fees. However, most of the presenters draw a government paycheck and the science teams hail from public universities.”
However, in the AP news article, “Critics: Utah horse meeting is secretive ‘slaughter summit’,” it states that “Utah is spending up to $50,000 from money set aside for horse and burro programs to co-sponsor the summit. Utah Department of Natural Resources Director Mike Styler said Wednesday that the state is paying to record the summit and the recordings will be posted online in a few days.”
SOURCES:
https://qcnr.usu.edu/directory/messmer_terry
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=JC7trHfVrepL3IqnLmIwUg%253d%253d&nt7=0
https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000067580&year=2010
https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=24670
https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-freemyer-05972010
https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=71156
http://missoulaschoolswatchdog.blogspot.com/2012/05/misssoua-county-public-schools-trustee.html
http://prescottschoolmissoula.blogspot.com/2014/
June 13, 1984, Missoulian, “Former Missoula lawyer faces five theft charges”
https://www.corporationwiki.com/p/2y80ul/andrew-lesofski
https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientlbs.php?id=D000037809&year=2008
http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/us/article/Critics-Utah-horse-meeting-is-secretive-11953506.php
http://congressional-staff.insidegov.com/l/4125/Emelyn-Faulkner-Lesofski
https://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=0S74D86Z%252f7FVpleK96pfkw%253d%253d&nt7=0
https://www.corporationwiki.com/p/2y80a9/american-mustang-llc
https://www.ca-registry.com/C3159701-the-american-mustang-foundation-inc
http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Drew-Lesofski/1255064979
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Totally illegal!!! Public funding with no access by the public. I would say this violates the Open Meetings Act. Again in secret so no one knows what’s going on! And Ginger not invited. Sounds like a law suit could be filed. Again, get this slaughter bill out of committee. Again, its all about the money!! If you call Washington the liers will tell you no horses are sent to slaughter. Elections are rolling around and the only way to defeat them is by putting people in office who support the Wild Horses and Burros. Organize a trip to DC. Too bad we couldn’t have organized a massive sit in at the summit. Again, has the American people ever been given a total accounting of the Wild Horses and Burros removed from the range? Let’s get a group of citizens to file a law suit denying public access to this meeting. I sure would sign on. How about the hundreds if not thousands who read the website and get emails. These are very dangerous times for people and animals with the Dumpster and all the worker Deplorables he has around the country. They are all loose cannons and are doing anything they want courtesy of the Mad Man in Washington! Disgusting!! We can never give up the fight for our Wild Horses and Burros!
LikeLiked by 2 people
EMPEROR MESSMER HAS NO CLOTHES!
And have to wonder if Ben Masters needs so much security and secrecy in all the rest of his very public life?
Nothing at all here passes the smell test, and it all smells of death.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck … it could very well be a duck!
LikeLike
Boasting about three apparently unheard of “leading” horse advocacy groups is pretty cynical. Consider also that 3 out of over 50 is only about 5% pro-horse representation… for a summit presenting itself as credible and objective, and cloaking itself in the mantle of a University.
No scientist with a shred of integrity would or could present reliable results starting from such an evident bias and preordained conclusions.
‘We’ve got over 50 organizations represented, including three leading horse advocate groups that are part of the registration,’ Messmer said. He named the American Mustang Association, the American Mustang Foundation and the Wild Mustang Foundation.”
LikeLike
RT, Iâd love to run this, but the printing is so light I canât subject my readers to the eye strain. I have to assume that some of them are elderly horse owners and aficionados. I love running your stuff. Any chance you can change to just a standard Times New Roman font?
Steve
LikeLike
Hi Steven, RT change the blog format months ago so that it is black type on a white background. Is there possibly a problem with your monitor?
I’d be happy to email you something that you can use. Deb
LikeLike
FWIW, the pages show up as dark grey type on a light yellow-grey background on my monitor, but visibility did improve with RT’s changes a while back.
LikeLike
Welcome to the Monkey House. Smell the coffee folks. NOW GO OUT AND PAINT THIS ALL OVER EVERY SOCIAL MEDIA AND MAINSTREAM MEDIA YOU CAN ACCESS. I am going to get these people’s name on my FB page, for example. See if they have logos, like for the K Street lobbyist, to put on a post. CONTACT UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY — send them this article! Ask for proceedings based on the SUNSHINE ACT! Now is the time! Go! Go! Go!
LikeLike
So, using the $10 per head that Tom Davis paid the BLM to buy semi loads of wild horses and haul them to slaughter, if $50,000 was taken from the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program for this “fake summit” then the true cost may be this: 5,000 horses paid with their lives for this secret summit to be held, whose purpose seems to be yet more of a death cult management model.
(Not to mention all the other costs borne yet again by unwilling and excluded taxpayers).
SAD!
LikeLike
Icy, the $50,000 wasn’t taken from the BLM Wild Horse & Burro Program, the $50,000 was from the STATE OF UTAH itself.
LikeLike
Icy, however, it is likely the BLM & DoI (our tax dollars) paid for transportation, hotel and meals for the DoI and BLM personnel who attended the Slaughter Summit.
LikeLike
Oops, sorry, I misinterpreted this sentence: “Utah is spending up to $50,000 from money set aside for horse and burro programs to co-sponsor the summit.” and assumed it was the Utah BLM budget.
Here’s one source indicating some financial ties between Utah and the BLM regarding wild horses and burros, though:
“Utah Wild Horse and Burro Program: The objective is to involve the use of mustangs or wild horses in programs that promote the BLM’s Wild horse & Burro Program and increases the number of animals placed into private ownership. BLM wild horses will be used in the rapidly growing field of health science known as Equine Assisted Therapy (EAP).”
It would be interesting to learn how (or if) successful wild horses were in therapy sessions, but no results are shown for this over $1M grant funding.
http://www.federalgrants.com/Utah-Wild-Horse-and-Burro-Program-8252.html
LikeLike
When does the state of UT have funding for wild horse and burro control? Why have they been sitting on their freakin’ thumbs all this time when they could have paid for PZP for every freakin’ horse in UT????
LikeLike
Top industries re[resented by this lobbyist.
https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/indus.php?id=24670
LikeLike