Our thanks to Representatives Dina Titus (D-Nevada), Peter King (R-New York), Jared Polis, (D-Colorado), Carlos Curbelo (R-Florida) and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-New Mexico) for their efforts and for sponsoring the House Amendments that would have stopped the slaughter of tens of thousands of our wild horses and burros.
Unfortunately, the House Committee on Rules has voted down the amendments that were introduced to stop horse slaughter and the killing of tens of thousands of wild horses and burros. The House Committee on Rules stopped these amendments from going to the House floor for a vote by all Representatives.
Our fight is not over. We need to focus on the Senate.
Please fax (your letter will get to them quickly) even a simple handwritten note and/or make phone calls to your Senators, and tell them you are a constituent and:
1) you do NOT want our wild horses and burros to be killed, “euthanized” or sterilized.
2) Do NOT remove the sales restrictions that protect our wild horses and burros from being sold into the slaughter pipeline.
3) you do NOT want horse slaughter in the U.S.
Share this message with your friends and on social media and ask everyone to take action to save the lives of tens of thousands of wild horses and burros in BLM holding facilities and on our public lands. And ask them to share this message, too.
We need many voices to save our wild horses and burros.
Also, our thanks to Representatives Vern Buchanan (R-Florida), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-California), Ed Royce (R-California), and Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), for introducing the bipartisan amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations bill that would bar the U.S. Department of Agriculture from funding horsemeat inspectors.
Categories: Horse News, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Stand up for our wild horses and our burros .We need your help God .
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Hi RT
I just met with my local Portsmouth Herald editor, Portsmouth NH, about the wild horses and the recent voting this week. They may contact you.
The committee that is deciding on the lives of our wild horses include Senators from NH, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
I am trying to get them to do a story about the east coast involvement in this multi-faceted story which is all about money.
Keep your fingers crossed.
And best wishes in DC this week!
Denise Brown 603-436-0788 Portsmouth NH 03801 windwildhorse.com raccoonstudios.com
From: Straight from the Horse’s Heart Reply-To: Straight from the Horse’s Heart Date: Thursday, September 7, 2017 at 11:16 AM To: Denise Brown Subject: [New post] Action alert: focus your fight to save our wild horses & burros on the Senate
WordPress.com debbiecoffey posted: ” Our thanks to Representatives Dina Titus (D-Nevada), Peter King (R-New York), Jared Polis, (D-Colorado), Carlos Curbelo (R-Florida) and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-New Mexico) for their efforts and for sponsoring the House Amendments that would have sto”
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Thank you!!!!
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Call members of Senate appropriations committee to ask support for Udall-Graham amendment to stop killing of our wild horses and burros .
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thank you for that beautiful speech…..SAVE OUR HORSES
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SAVE OUR WILD BURROS
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Make certain that they have the White Paper
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WHITE PAPER
on the Bureau of Land Management’s
Wild Horse & Burro Program,
with a Focus on Problems Related to Holding Facilities
Click to access White-Paper.pdf
A. Horses and Burros are “Missing” from Long-Term Holding
WHFF has assembled extensive documentary and percipient witness evidence that the BLM’s reported numbers of horses and burros in many of the long-term holding facilities for America’s wild equids are wildly incorrect. In short, thousands of horses and burros that are supposedly in long-term holding are seemingly not actually in those locations, and not obviously in the control of the BLM or any other government agency or contractor.
Somehow, these horses and burros have disappeared.
The BLM has a similar set of problems with respect to the wild horses and burros still left on the range, and this demonstrates its endemic inability to account for the animals under its jurisdiction. As the National Academy of Sciences (“NAS”) group stated in its report, this is a real problem:
“[I]mproving the accuracy and quantifying the uncertainty of
population estimates would allow the BLM to respond with data to criticism about the number of equids that it reports on public lands.”
WHFF came to, and then repeatedly confirmed, this startling conclusion about the missing horses and burros only after years of collecting documents obtained from the federal government in response to WHFF’s Freedom of Information Act requests. WHFF then validated this
documentary evidence with eyewitness affirmation of these disturbing disparities.
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Leave the our horses and burros free now.
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2017
read more House Rules Committee Meeting on Fiscal Year 2018 Appropriations Bills, Part 2 The House Rules Committee met for a second day to consider amendments and vote on a rule for next year’s remaining spending bills. In this part, committee members considered amendments offered by lawmakers. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) chairs the committee while Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) serves as the ranking member
https://www.c-span.org/video/?433643-4/house-rules-committee-meeting-fiscal-year-2018-appropriations-bills-part-2
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Here’s the Titus transcript from the video, starts at 15.32 (they provided this in all caps):
>> THANK YOU, MR. CHAIRMAN. IT’S NICE TO BE BACK. I WANT TO ADDRESS MY REMARKS TO TWO AMENDMENTS, TITUS 54 AND TITUS 18. TITUS 54 IS THE SLAUGHTER OF WILD HORSES AND BURROS UNDER THE CARE OF THE CONTRACTORS. I WANT TO THANK A BIPARTISAN COALITION OF MEMBERS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY WHO HAVE JOINED ME IN THE FIGHT TO PROTECT THESE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES AND THEY INCLUDE CONGRESSMAN POLIS, CONGRESSMAN PETER KING, CONGRESSMAN CABELLO, AND CONGRESSWOMAN GRISHAM. I REPRESENT THE HEART OF THE DISTRICT OF THE LASING HAVE AS VALLEY. WE HAVE WILD ANIMALS THERE, BUT NOT THESE HORSES THAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. MY DISTRICT IS SURROUNDED BY ICONIC LANDSCAPES. IT’S LOT UNIQUE FLORA AND FAUNA AND CULTURAL RESOURCES THAT TELL THE STORY OF THE CONTINENT’S VERY OLDEST CIVILIZATIONS AND EARLIEST HUMAN INHABITANTS. NEVADA IS ALSO THE HOME OF THE LARGEST POPULATION OF WILD HORSES IN THE NATION. SO I AM UNDER NO ILLUSION THAT THERE ARE REAL CHALLENGES TO THE MANAGEMENT OF OUR WILD HORSE AND BURRO POPULATION AND I AM NOT ARGUING THAT WE SIMPLY STAY THE COURSE, BUT I BELIEVE THE CHANGES BEING PROPOSED BY SOME OF MY COLLEAGUES TO LIFT THE MORE THAN TWO DECADES’ BAN ON FEDERALLY FUNDED SLAUGHTER OF THESE ANIMALS IS NOT THE ANSWER TO MANAGEMENT. IF YOU COMBINE THE SLAUGHTER PROHIBITION REMOVAL WITH THE PRESIDENT’S BUDGET REQUEST WHICH CALLS FOR THE KILLING OF WILD HORSES AND BURROS AND THE EXPORTS OF HORSE MEAT FROM THE UNITED STATES FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION IT BECOMES ABUNDANTLY CLEAR THAT THE WILD HORSES AND BURROS ARE UNDER ATTACK. THERE ARE OTHER SOURCES THAT DO NOT INVOLVE SIMPLY KILLING THESE ANIMALS, BUT REQUIRE GOOD SIGN, SMART DECISION MAKING. IN 2007 WHO WE WERE CLOSEST TO THE SCIENTIFICALLY DETERMINED MANAGEMENT LEVELS, BLM FAILED TO CARRY OUT AN AGGRESSIVE AND PROVEN FERTILITY TREATMENT PROGRAM TO REDUCE NEW BURROS. AS A RESULT, WE HAVE SEEN THE NUMBER OF WILD HORSES CONTINUE TO RISE, BUT IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO DO THE RIGHT THING. IF CONGRESS WERE TO LIFT THE KILLING PROHIBITION TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WILD HORSES AND BURROS WOULD BE DESTROYED, BUT THEN WHAT? WITHOUT A PLAN IN PLACE WE’LL JUST CONTINUE TO KILL OFF A CERTAIN NUMBER OF THE CREATURES YEAR AFTER YEAR. INSTEAD, WE NEED TO INSTITUTE A REAL, SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT PLAN BASED ON SCIENTIFIC LAND USE PRINCIPLES. WE ONLY SPEND ABOUT 1% OF THE WILD HORSE BUDGET ON FERTILITY CONTROL. YET LAST YEAR BLM SPENT 67% ON A HOLDING FACILITIES WHICH MANY EXPERTS ARGUE NOT ONLY ARE INHUMANE, BUT ACTUALLY INCREASE THE POPULATION. SO NOW I SAY IT’S NOT TIME TO REMOVE THESE PROTECTIONS AND IGNORE THE SLAUGHTER OF THESE ICONIC DENISONS OF THE RANGE, BUT TOGETHER WE CAN BE SMARTER, WE CAN BE KINDER AND WE CAN BE MORE, FISHT AND SAVE TAXPAYER DOLLARS AS WELL AS THESE MAGNIFICENT CREATURES AND I WOULD URGE THE COMMITTEE TO SEND THIS AMENDMENT NUMBER 54 TO THE FLOOR AND LET OUR COLLEAGUES TAKE A VOTE ON THIS ISSUE THAT MEANS SO MUCH TO THE PEOPLE OF NEVADA AND PEOPLE FROM ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY, AND WE HAVE LETTERS AND CALLS TO SUBMIT FOR THE RECORD. SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION OF AMENDMENT NUMBER 54.
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Thanks, Icy.
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Thanks for all who’ve kept the phone lines buzzing and for posting Rep. Titus’ speech on introducing her amendment. In rejecting the Titus-Polis-King etc. amendment on a 9-4 party line vote, House Rules leaders showed they fear that our “right to wild equid life” supporters can win on the Floor. Time to step up the pressure.
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These magnificent animals were the means for this country to be colonized from the east coast to the west coast. They were the lifeblood of this country. How dare anyone take away that heritage. They harm no one, they simply range in peace and take care of their individual herds. I have seen our wild horses here in Arizona and have never seen a skinny starving horse. They are beautiful animals. PLEASE leave our heritage in the form of our wild horses and burros alone.
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I am so sick and tired of our government thinking they have the right to destroy every bit of the heritage that made this country great. Horses and burros were the means used to bring people from the east coast to the west. They hurt no one. They simply are. They don’t destroy the land by overgrazing the same way cows or sheep do. They are social animals who stay within their individual herds and they take care of each other. Please LISTEN to the people who voted most of you in and save these magnificent animals.
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All of their pictures posted on billboards would be a nice idea.
The Public needs to know the legislators that are responsible for the killing of their Wild Horses & Burros.
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I think any Congresspeople who vote for horse slaughter (domestic or wild) should thereby be required to personally and publicly witness the killing of at least 1,000 animals (including pregnant mares) IN PERSON. They should NOT be allowed to vote without getting any blood on their hands, period.
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Also any Congressman/Congresswoman who votes for Horse slaughter should be required to live next to a Horse slaughter plant
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“The Earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.”
– Utah Phillips
SLAUGHTER: 3,600 wild horses shot down in mass animal cull because they ‘damage nature’
RANGERS have shot down roughly 20 per cent of the wild animals of Kakadu Park, a Unesco world heritage site in the Australian Northern Territory, because the animals could cause ‘damage’ to the region.
By Vincent Wood and Maria Ortega
PUBLISHED: Mar 21, 2017
Some 3,652 wild horses were shot from a helicopter by a team of rangers in the Australian national park.
A further 1,965 buffalo, 294 pigs as well as some donkeys were slaughtered in the ariel culling.
Much of the land, which was fully listed as a UNESCO site in 1992, is still owned by aboriginal Bininj and Mungguy people who have been rooted in the land for tens of thousands of years.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/782035/Kakadu-Park-Wild-horses-animal-cull-helicopter-Australia-northern-territory-buffalo
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THE HORRORS OF HORSE SLAUGHTER/ Former Mayor Paula Bacon Kaufman, Texas
Dear State Legislator:
You will soon be asked to vote on … legislation regarding the commercial slaughter of American horses of which you probably have very little firsthand knowledge. No doubt you have heard from lobbyists and organizations who want you to support the practice, but before you do, you should ask yourself why the residents of Texas and Illinois worked so hard to rid their states of their horse slaughter plants. The answer may surprise you.
As a mayor who lived with this plague in her town for many years, who knows what the horse slaughter industry really is and what it does to a community please allow me to tell you what we experienced. The industry caused significant and long term hardship to my community which was home to Dallas Crown, one of the last three horse slaughter plants in the United States.
All three plants were foreign-owned, and since the market for horsemeat is entirely foreign, the industry will always be dominated by these foreign interests. The corporations involved in this industry have consistently proven themselves to be the worst possible corporate citizens.
The Dallas Crown horse slaughtering facility had been in operation in Kaufman since the late 70’s and from the beginning had caused problems both economically and environmentally. I have listed some of the specific issues below.
I will gladly provide you with detailed reports from my former City Manager, Police Chief, and Public Works Director regarding odor and wastewater effluence violations at the Dallas Crown horse slaughter plant in the City of Kaufman.. The reports reference “decaying meat [which] provides a foul odor and is an attraction for vermin and carrion,” containers conveyed “uncovered and leaking liquids,” there are “significant foul odors during the daily monitoring of the area,” and “Dallas Crown continually neglects to perform within the standards required of them.”
Therefore, in August of 2005, our City Council decided by unanimous decision to send the Dallas Crown issue to the Board of Adjustments for termination of their non-conforming use status. In March of 2006, the Board of Adjustments voted to order Dallas Crown closed, but the plant was able to tie the enforcement up in the courts until they were finally closed under state law in February of 2007.
Dallas Crown repeatedly described itself as a “good corporate citizen.” I will be straightforward in asserting that they are the very antithesis of such.
• Dallas Crown had a very long history of violations to their industrial waste permit, ‘loading’ the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant.
• Dallas Crown denied the City access to their property for wastewater testing beginning October 1, 2004 until July 6, 2005 , despite requirement by city ordinance, city permit agreement, and court order.
• City staff reported that a $6 million upgrade to our wastewater treatment plant would be required even though the plant was planned and financed to last through 2015.
• Odor problems resulting from the outside storage of offal and hides over several days persisted not only in traditionally African-American neighborhood known as “Boggy Bottom”, but at the nearby Presbyterian Hospital , the daycare center, and surrounding areas.
• Transport of offal and fresh hides on City and state thoroughfares is conducted in leaking containers without covers.
• City documents reveal an extended history of efforts to have Dallas Crown address various environmental issues. Reports include descriptive language including such as “blood flowing east and west in the ditches from your plant,” “It has been over 45 days [it had been 59 days] and no apparent cleanup has occurred,” “Your system has not improved and subsequently it has gotten a lot worse,” “Words cannot express the seriousness” of recent violations and the “adverse effects on the wastewater treatment plant,” and “Please be sure trailers are secured before leaving your premises to prevent spills,” noting also “bones and blood laying in front of the facility,” problems with bones and parts in neighboring yards and the attraction of “dogs and other animals.”
• In response to 29 citations for wastewater violations, each accompanied by a potential fine of $2,000, Dallas Crown requested 29 separate jury trials, potentially causing yet another economic strain to the City’s budget. We could, of course, not afford to litigate in order to extract the fines
• Dallas Crown took 11 months to submit a mandatory “sludge control plan” to assist efficient operation of the wastewater treatment plant though City staff requested it orally and in writing many times.
• The City Manager advised me that the City would have to spend $70,000 in legal fees because of Dallas Crown problems, which was the entire legal budget for the fiscal year.
• During this period, Dallas Crown paid property taxes that were less than half of what the City spent on legal fees directly related to Dallas Crown violations.
• Generally, Dallas Crown has the economic ability to prevail, to exceed the constraints of the City’s budget.
Dallas Crown had a negative effect on the development of surrounding properties, and a horse slaughter plant is a stigma to the development of our city generally. I have since learned that these problems were mirrored at the other two plants. Fort Worth’s Beltex horse slaughter plant also violated Ft. Worth’s wastewater regulations several times, clogged sewer lines, and both spilled and pumped blood into a nearby creek (San Antonio Current, June 19, 2003 ). Texas State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, whose district includes Beltex, and Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, fought hard against legislation that would have legalized horse slaughter in Texas in 2003.
The horse slaughter plant in DeKalb , IL had a similar pattern. It was destroyed by fire in 2002, and rebuilt in 2004. It was charged and fined by the DeKalb Sanitary District almost every month from the reopening until its closing in 2007 under a new state law for consistently exceeding wastewater discharge guidelines. I can provide you with the documentation of those violations. Like Dallas Crown, Cavel refused to pay their fines for years.
During this time, I learned that an estimated $5 million in Federal funding was being spent annually to support three foreign-owned horse slaughter plants! And when the Dallas Crown tax records were exposed in the city’s legal struggle, we found that they had paid only $5 in federal taxes on a gross income of over $12,000,000!
Moreover, the parent company of Cavel has since moved its operations to Canada and continued to slaughter American horses. In Canada they have apparently become even more blatant, dumping huge untreated piles of entrails onto open ground and even using a tanker truck to discharge blood and refuse into a local river.
I have mentioned only the pollution issue, but this is but one negative aspect of horse slaughter. I have subsequently learned of a USDA document containing 900 pages of graphic photos that show the horrors that the horses were subject to. Behind the privacy fences of these plants, trucks arrived continuously and on those trucks was every form of inhumane violation one can imagine from mares birthing foals to horses with eyes dangling from their sockets and legs ripped from their bodies.
The more I learn about horse slaughter, the more certain I am: There is no justification for horse slaughter in this country. My city was little more than a door mat for a foreign-owned business that drained our resources, thwarted economic development and stigmatized our community. Americans don’t eat horses, and we don’t raise them for human consumption. There is no justification for spending American tax dollars to support this industry at the expense of Americans and our horses.
Sincerely,
Former Mayor Paula Bacon
Kaufman, TX
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Some of you may have seen already, but I just saw it…I’m so mad, who said these yahoo’s could do this!?
http://protecttheharvest.com/wild-spayed-filly-futurity/
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ALERT posted by
coltswesternshop
September 17, 2017 @ 1:58 PM Edit
46 wild horses caught from Piceance herd
Thursday, September 14, 2017
The Bureau of Land Management on Thursday rounded up 46 wild horses as it began work on trying to remove up to 100 horses that have wandered outside the designated Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area.
The BLM is primarily using a helicopter to drive horses into traps from private lands in the Cathedral Creek area south of Rangely.
A private landowner had asked the agency to move wild horses that have been damaging resources and causing harm to domestic animals on the landowner’s ranch.
The BLM says the gather hasn’t received a lot of interest from activists or protesters. Boyd said there was no last-minute legal challenge, and no activists or protesters were on the scene Thursday.
The roundup activity is difficult for the public to watch because it’s on private land, and only minimally visible from BLM land.
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/46-wild-horses-caught-from-piceance-herd
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My name is Susette Gaghagen,
I am writing this in prayers, and hope that are United States Senate. Take a stand to save are Wild Mustangs. Fore they are not the reason of there so called over population.
The true reason is expanding cattle. Men expanding there use of Public Land. Are land the people’s of this great Country.
I beg you to please spare these Mustangs that have helped to build this great Country. Thank You 10 22 2017
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Trump is anti-American because he doesn’t hear out voices…only big business. He wants to cash in on our living treasures to make our country “great again”. Dirty money is the only thing he understands and our wild Equines are sure to lose. We can’t hope that he will do something ethical here. Now is the time to demand justice before it gets worse. He made a deal with china, just months ago, to buy our beef. They also want to kill and “pill” our wild burros, then eat them and our horses too. Trump sees big profits here, so our tears won’t phase him as he goes in for the kill. Our Senators are taking advice and kick-backs from ranchers, who have visions of horse steaks dancing in their heads too.The blm is counting our petitions as one and ignoring us completely. They won’t tell you that we have the right to decide the fate of our wild Equines through public hearings, as written in the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burros Act of ’71 (WH&BA). The amendments to it have all but destroyed and contradicted the original Act. Reading it is weird. You’ll find one sentence that explains the protections of Equines and another that calls for their slaughter. The burns amendment was the most damaging of all. It was rushed thru Congress without being read by most senators and without meaningful public hearings. The power to protect our Equines was given to the public, yet we are kept in the dark about public hearings. If these would have been afforded to us realistically, no amendments would have been added, simply because the majority of us want protection for wild Equines. A secret summit was recently held, barring any equine advocates from participating. When will these political criminals be stopped? Charities and other advocates are confused and divided with all of the changes made and all of the lies being spread… just what the crooks want. Some advocates claim mismanagement by the blm, while the blm says it’s all “legal beagle” as they hide behind their corrupt amendments. They can quickly finish the extermination of these animals in the most bloody and horrific ways possible as they continue to lie about them. They’ve skewed the counts of each herd to falsely claim an overpopulation crisis and starvation. On the other hand, they have reduced their range to 5,000 acres per equine, while limiting them to tiny portions of the vast expanses of land. Usually, a few acres per horse is sufficient. So which is it: too many equines or not enough? Can’t they get their lies straight? The horrifying truth is that most herds are below genetic viability and the remaining ones are being converted to non-repoductive herds. These unique and perfected animals are actually headed for extinction. The advisory board consists almost entirely of ranchers, instead of qualified environmentalists with knowledge of wildlife. This has become a holocaust, with innocent equines suffering the worst torture, beyond what most can imagin. These animals are caught in a world that doesn’t give them the rights of wildlife or domesticated animals, so they needed special protections, all their own, which have been illegally destroyed, leaving them in absolute danger with little help.
There are five important things to do now as our wild friends are pushed down the slaughter pipeline. We can save them, but who will do this:
Sue the crap out of trump (hitler), along with all criminals involved as far back as we can investigate. The criminals have become more aggressively predatory and immune to our objections as they have remained relatively unchallenged for decades.
Chose vegan to end our support of the slaughter industry. They are beyond powerful and are above the law. Just think of how much money the average person throws their way each day.
Demand our public hearings on the matter. Take our power back.
Place an immediate moratorium on the harm of wild equines and demand the release of all in holding and transport to places of harm. There’s no time left for wild Equines. They will burn while the slow wheels of justice turn. The burns will come from steam or scalding water at slaughter.
Restore our (WH&BA) to it’s original language during the moretorium.
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I am so angry with God we can stand up and fight for our animals. Do not give up never.
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