Source: wildhoofbeats.com
Why the Checkerboard Wild Horse Roundup in Wyoming is Personal
by Carol J. Walker, Dir. of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation
*Reminder* Please call your Senators this week to save our wild horses – more at the end of this blog post.
This roundup is personal. I have been following, photographing, documenting and observing the Adobe Town Herd since 2004 and have a very special connection to these horses, who live in the wildest and emptiest of lands. This roundup is personal because horses I know and have cared about for many years are being removed from their homes and are losing their families forever. Worst of all, with the vote on the 2018 Budget in the Senate looming, all of these horses that are removed could soon be facing mass killing and slaughter along with the 46,000 wild horses and burros in holding facilities.
A proud stallion
Mare and foal
Lots of greys
A buckskin stallion
After one of the long days of this interminable roundup, I drove in the afternoon into the area with the horses I know best because they had not yet been removed. I saw family after family, and the horses were on edge, perhaps they had heard the helicopters in the distance earlier, but i would not be surprised if they knew something was up. The horses in adobe Town tend to be more alert anyway – they are not like many herds that are used to human visitors. I will be lucky if I get to be close enough to photograph and sit for a while with any of these families.
Two mares
Strawberry roan stallion
First I saw a very colorful family, and on the other side of a fence, a sorrel stallion with a flaxen mane.
Then as I drove on, another grey stallion caught my eye. The Adobe Town Herd has a lot of Spanish blood, and grey is a dominant color among Spanish horses, so there are a lot of greys.
A grey stallion and his family
As I drove on, I was hoping I would see my mustang Mica’s father and his family. I had seen them a month ago after not having seen them for two years, and I was really worried that they might be rounded up and separated. I did find them coming up the hill, and surprised them, so they ran off a bit, then turned to look at me at a comfortable (for them) distance. I spent a while with them, then reluctantly made my way toward the highway. After leaving them I saw another family with a stallion who was very alert, but they were not concerned about my presence and only moved off when a gas truck roared by. READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE HERE.
Please call your Senators this week. Our wild horses are depending upon you to be their voice and save them from senseless slaughter and killing.
Call Your Senators and the Senate Appropriations Committee now -this week is it! Keep calling and faxing all members of the Senate Appropriations Committee –and particularly the members of the Subcommittee on the Interior- asking them to oppose any language allowing BLM to sell without restrictions wild horses in holding or authorizing the killing of healthy wild horses in holding or on the range as “management option”.
Senators on Appropriations Committee:
Phone Fax
(CHAIR) Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) 202-224-5054 202-224-5321
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) 202-224-5744 202-224-3416
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) 202-224-6665 202-224-5301
Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) 202-224-4843 202-228-1371
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 202-224-3841 202-228-3954
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) 202-224-4041 202-224-9750
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) 202-224-5042 202-228-3075
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 202-224-3041 202-228-0285
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HW) 202-224-3934 202-228-1153
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) 202-224-2152 202-228-0400
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) 202-224-6521 202-228-6966
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 202-224-2541 202-224-2499
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) 202-224-4623 202-228-0447
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) 202-224-2523 202-224-2693
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) 202-224-4654 202-228-0629
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) 202-224-5721 202-224-8149 (Pro-slaughter shill, Don’t bother with him)
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) 202-224-2644 202-224-8594 (Don’t bother with him)
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) 202-224-2651 202-228-1236 (Don’t bother with him)
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) 202-224-2841 202-228-3194
Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) 202-224-6621 202-228-3261 (He is our sponsor, no need to contact)
Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) 202-224-2551 202-224-7999
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) 202-224-5754 202-228-1015
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) 202-224-3753 202-228-3997
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) 202-224-4642 202-224-4680
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) 202-224-5972 202-224-3808 (He is also our sponsor, no need to contact)
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 202-224-4944 202-228-3398 (Pro-slaughter shill, Don’t bother with him)
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) 202-224-0238 202-224-3479
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) 202-224-2621 202-224-0238
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) 202-224-5653 202-224-9787
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) 202-224-6472 202-224-7665
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) 202-224-3954 202-228-0002
LINK TO FACTSHEET
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zt56mxu8tgohyvz/Senate_Appropriations_Staffers.pdf?dl=0
Related Posts:
Twitter Storm for the Wild Horses & Burros
READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE HERE.
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
I follow these amazing horse’s and you get to know them by name and band they are in. Heartbreaking to see what is happening to our wild horse’s. These horse’s were free and don’t deserve to be treated in the cruel and unethical practice set by the BLM .. please leave these horse’s free.. there are humane ways to keep the numbers down without running them to extreme lengths of exhaustion and even death. Putting them in small holding pens seperated from there bands they cannot get to shelter and crowded unsafe conditions young foals taken from there mothers this is just disturbing and insane.
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Our wild horses are precious. Precious to us and precious as part of the ecosystem they have lived in for many generations but most of all they are precious to each other. They are families. Families who are being literally torn apart for the sake of horrendous greed.
Listen to them cry … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl11RvVYvTM
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*Were any of the below considered in the mis management of the Wyoming herds?*
*see goals 6, 9 * Wyoming Fish and Wildlife 2000: A Summary – Google Books https://books.google.com/books/about/Wyoming_Fish_and_Wildlife_2000.html?id. .. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming State Office, 1992 … *Wyoming Fish and Wildlife 2000: A Summary*, *Volumes 53-56*
* https://www.starvalleyindependent.com/2017/06/14/wyoming-to-receive-18-million-from-1-1-billion-wildlife-fund/ *
https://www.animallaw.info/statute/us-funding-state- pittman-roberson-act-chapter-5b-wildlife-restoration#669a
*United States Code Annotated. Title 16. Conservation. Chapter 5B. Wildlife Restoration *
Popular Title: Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act
– Primary Citation: 16 USC 669 – 669k
*Summary:*
The Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to cooperate with the States, through their respective State fish and game departments, in wildlife-restoration projects. However, no money shall be expended until the state in question assents to the provisions of this chapter and has passed laws for the conservation of wildlife, which includes a prohibition against the diversion of license fees paid by hunters for any other purpose than the administration of the fish and game department.
*Statute Text*
§ 669 . Cooperation of Secretary of the Interior with States; conditions
§ 669a . Definitions
c) Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Account
(1) Amounts transferred to the Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Account shall supplement, but not replace, existing funds available to the States from the sport fish restoration account and wildlife restoration account and shall be used for the development, revision, and implementation of wildlife conservation and restoration programs and should be used to address the unmet needs for a diverse array of wildlife and associated habitats, including species that are not hunted or fished, for wildlife conservation, wildlife conservation education, and wildlife-associated recreation projects. Such funds may be used for new programs and projects as well as to enhance existing programs and projects.
(2) Funds may be used by a State or an Indian tribe for the planning and implementation of its wildlife conservation and restoration program and wildlife conservation strategy, as provided in sections 669c(d) and (e) [FN2] of this title, including wildlife conservation, wildlife conservation education, and wildlife-associated recreation projects. Such funds may be used for new programs and projects as well as to enhance existing programs and projects.
(3) Priority for funding from the Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Account shall be for those species with the greatest conservation need as defined by the State wildlife conservation and restoration program.
(6) the term “wildlife conservation and restoration program” means a program developed by a State fish and wildlife department and approved by the Secretary under section 669c(d) of this title, the projects that constitute such a program, which may be implemented in whole or part through grants and contracts by a State to other State, Federal, or local agencies (including those that gather, evaluate, and disseminate information on wildlife and their habitats), wildlife conservation organizations, and outdoor recreation and conservation education entities from funds apportioned under this title, and maintenance of such projects;
(7) the term “wildlife conservation education” means projects, including public outreach, intended to foster responsible natural resource stewardship; and
(8) the term “wildlife-restoration project” includes the wildlife conservation and restoration program and means the selection, restoration, rehabilitation, and improvement of areas of land or water adaptable as feeding, resting, or breeding places for wildlife, including acquisition of such areas or estates or interests therein as are suitable or capable of being made suitable therefor, and the construction thereon or therein of such works as may be necessary to make them available for such purposes and also including such research into problems of wildlife management as may be necessary to efficient administration affecting wildlife resources, and such preliminary or incidental costs and expenses as may be incurred in and about such projects.
*What is a “Species of Special Concern”?* *https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/SSC*
*for the purposes of this discussion, “animal” means fish, amphibian, reptile, bird and mammal
A Species of Special Concern (SSC) is a species, subspecies, or distinct population of an animal* native to California that currently satisfies one or more of the following (not necessarily mutually exclusive) criteria**:
– is extirpated from the State or, in the case of birds, is extirpated in its primary season or breeding role; – is listed as Federally-, but not State-, threatened or endangered; meets the State definition of threatened or endangered but has not formally been listed; – is experiencing, or formerly experienced, serious (noncyclical) population declines or range retractions (not reversed) that, if continued or resumed, could qualify it for State threatened or endangered status; – has naturally small populations exhibiting high susceptibility to risk from any factor(s), that if realized, could lead to declines that would qualify it for State threatened or endangered status.
On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 8:09 AM, Straight from the Horse’s Heart wrote:
> debbiecoffey posted: “Source: wildhoofbeats.com Why the Checkerboard > Wild Horse Roundup in Wyoming is Personal by Carol J. Walker, Dir. of Field > Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation *Reminder* Please call > your Senators this week to save our wild ” >
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They are doing this because they believe they have the Senate bought and paid for.
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WILD HORSE FREEDOM WHITE PAPER
Click to access White-Paper.pdf
This documentary evidence is supplemented by sworn percipient witness testimony. WHFF first obtained maps of all of the long-term facilities. WHFF personnel then drove the public roads that go through and around select long-term holding facilities and did their own careful counts of populations, and the results are significantly different from those reported by the BLM.73 After viewing the perimeters and/or driving down roads in the middle of almost half of the facilities, and using comparisons and confirming conclusions with GPS, photographic, and videographic evidence, including GPS overlays of the travel path over the map of the long-term
facilities, WHFF has evidence that in some cases less than one-half of the horses supposedly on the grounds of the facilities were actually there.
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WILD HORSE FREEDOM WHITE PAPER
Click to access White-Paper.pdf
The pregnancy and foaling issue raises another cogent question for the agency and the public: what is the effect of the gathers on wild mares’ pregnancy? There is little data available to the public online regarding nonroutine veterinary care of the gathered horses, and there should
be documentation of any problems with pregnancies and other complications from birth, miscarriages and the like. In order to obtain this information, members of the public will usually have to file a Freedom of Information Act request.
The problems described above are well established in the documentation collected and summarized in additional documents included in the Appendix provided with this White Paper.
By way of a few examples:
1. WHFF obtained documents supposedly describing all horses and
burros captured in the period of 1980-1999. There were 131,559
entries, but on other BLM records, the BLM claims that in this time
period, 168,627 equids were captured. With this document alone, some
37,068 wild horses and burros were somehow left out of the BLM’s
Wild Horse & Burro Program System Database. (Exhibit 3.)75
Exhibit 4 consists of the pages 1 and 4 of the U.S. Department of the
Interior, Office of Inspector General Investigative Activity Report
(“Report”), with respect to the case of Tom Davis, BLM Wild Horse
Buyer (Case Number OI-CO-13-0004-1). Davis was of course the
individual who bought close to 2000 horses from the BLM and sold
them to slaughter.
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That vile poisonous snake in the WH and his minions are causing this pain and fear for the horses as well as for the people living here in this country! You know that the money has not gone to care for these horses. It has been spent for cattle lobby by their caretakers! I saw this coming by patterns they set up. The horses have been cared(?) for like they were short term feeders going to slaughter. What other alternatives do WE have? Talking to brick walls that are deaf to the “will the people”. So what’s next?
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Privately owned livestock are allocated 97 percent of western forage on all 251 million acres currently managed by the BLM ……This is compared to 3 percent allocated to wild horses and burros occupying just 29.4 million acres in Herd Management Areas…… How is this “primary use”? ……. After all the wild horses and burros are eliminated, the public lands grazing program will still cost the U.S. taxpayer a reported 500 Million dollars per year…..Lawmakers don’t care that we love them, or that they live in families, but they should care that the Public Lands Grazing program sucks taxpayer money with no benefit to the country….. Who can get this message to Congress? http://protectthewolves.com/five-hundred-million-dollars-thats-what-21000-ranchers-who-graze-their-livestock-on-americas-iconic-western-rangelands-are-estimated-to-have-cost-us-taxpayers-in-2014/
……In a NACO meeting in August, discussing how to get the wording out of the Appropriations Bill, Mr. Norris noted they are “having challenges with the language removal (that restricts sale) and “Best case scenario is to keep the language out of the original draft” because they would have trouble convincing members to vote to remove it.. …. In other words, just hope no one notices that the language that restricts sale has been removed. “They are working on “educating” members of Congress.” ….Amodei suggested the word “slaughter” be left out…… Is there no one “educating Congress” about the Grazing Program?
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The judge that ruled for a temporary delay in the roundup here in Wyoming is the wife of the ex governor and good ole boy Gov. Freudenthal. They have ties to the big cattle organizations here and she might make a show of doing the ‘right’ thing but ultimately that bag will side with the blm. Without a doubt. Here in Wyoming it appears that corruption is the name of the game.
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