The Bureau of Land Management Lays Out the Plan to Manage Wild Horses and Burros to Extinction
By Debbie Coffey and Carol Walker, Wild Horse Freedom Federation
4/30/18
The BLM has submitted a report to Congress “Management Options for a Sustainable Wild Horse and Burro Program” with recommendations on managing the wild horses and burros on our public lands as well as the 46,000 held in short and long term holding facilities.
Some of the suggestions include killing (misidentified as “euthanasia”) 10,000 wild horses and burros, massive roundups of 50,000 wild horses and burros currently on our public lands, then sterilizing 80% of the wild horses and burros that remain, and removing limitations on sale of these wild horses and burros, which exposes them to the risk of sale to slaughter. The options offered in this report would not lead to sustainability, but to the extinction of wild horses and burros on public lands, likely within the next generation or two.
Here is the BLM’s plan: http://www.wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/BLM%20Management%20Options%20for%20a%20Sustainable%20Wild%20Horse%20and%20Burro%20Program.pdf
The BLM is asking Congress for permission to proceed with these extreme measures, and yet the basis for this plan is rooted in false claims.
“Since receiving federal protection in 1971, wild horse and burro populations on public lands have dramatically increased, far exceeding what is healthy for the land and the animals.”
The BLM’s population estimates remain wildly inaccurate. Wild Horse Freedom Federation prepared a White Paper in 2017, that provided a review of the BLM’s own statistics where, according to the BLM, some herds of horses have increased by as much as 750% to 1,250% in only one year. This is biologically impossible and scientifically indefensible.
The BLM claims “The current overpopulation of wild horses and burros threatens the overall health of the western rangelands, degrading ecosystem function and limiting forage and water available for domestic and wildlife species, including game and nongame species.”
Privately owned livestock vastly outnumber wild horses and burros on public lands. Blaming wild horses and burros for all of the range degradation on our public lands and scapegoating them for loss of sage grouse habitat is at very least without any scientific basis. According to Western Watersheds Project, a conservation non-profit: “Public lands ranching is the most widespread commercial use of public lands in the United States. Ranching is one of the primary causes of native species endangerment in the American West; it is also the most significant cause of non-point source water pollution and desertification.”
Journalist Vickery Eckhoff points out that “the 2014 BLM and USFS livestock grazing receipts ($17.1 million) tell a different story: the equivalent of 2.1 million cattle outnumbering 56,656 federally protected wild horses and burros by 37:1.”
Eckhoff also states, “These privately owned livestock are allocated 97 percent of western forage on all 251 million acres. This is compared to 3 percent allocated to 56,656 wild horses and burros occupying just 29.4 million acres.”
“In establishing the “Appropriate Management Level” (AML) for wild horses and burros on the public lands, the BLM uses scientific principles of rangeland management to determine the population of wild horses and burros that the habitat can sustain.”
When Congress enacted the Wild Free-Roaming Horses & Burros Act of 1971 (16 U.S.C. §§ 1331- 1340), the wild horses & burros were to be protected in their historic herd areas. In 1971, wild horses & burros occupied 53.8 million acres managed by the BLM, but now wild horses and burros are on only 26.9 million acres. The BLM has not only eliminated half the land where wild horses and burros were to be protected, but on the remaining acres, oil and gas, livestock grazing and other uses are squeezing out the wild horses and burros.
Most BLM Land Use Plans, including Resource Management Plans (in effect for 20 years unless revised) and Environmental Assessments, do not even allow for numbers of wild horses or burros that are high enough to maintain a minimum viable herd number in their “Appropriate Management Level” (AML). BLM allows some herds to have only 15-20 animals. There are over 150 wild horses in only 27 of the 148 wild horse Herd Management Areas, and there are over 150 burros in only three of the 30 documented burro herds. If the BLM is allowed to achieve their stated goal of “achieving AML” of only 26,000 wild horses and burros then many of these herds will not remain viable and wild become extinct or be zeroed out.
Dr. E. Gus Cothran, an equine geneticist used by the BLM for decades, has consistently stated that wild horse and burro herds need a minimum of 150-200 members, with at least 150 breeding age adult animals, to sustain genetic diversity in the herd and maintain a viable population.
The BLM harps on the cost of warehousing the 46,000 wild horses and burros purported to be in holding facilities. However, Wild Horse Freedom Federation investigations revealed that only about 1/3 to 1/2 of the wild horses the BLM and their contractors claimed were on many of these facilities were actually there. Wild Horse Freedom Federation’s White Paper detailed this, and we notified members of Congress. All of these wild horses and burros that the BLM claims are in holding, aren’t all there. The missing horses have likely already ended up in the slaughter pipeline. And the wild horses and burros were grazing at no cost on public lands.
Regarding the BLM the BLM’s proposed actions, none of them are in the best interests of wild horses and burros. The BLM wants to reduce the time that it takes for adopters of wild horses and burros to receive title, from 1 year to 6 months. They want to designate any horse over 5, instead of over 10, as a “Sale Authority” horse, subject to sale without limitation, and they want to pay anyone who wants to adopt or purchase a horse or burro $1000. All of these proposals are geared toward making it easier for people to sell their wild horses and burros to slaughter.
Killing the wild horses and burros that the BLM currently holds in both long and short term holding is not euthanasia. Euthansia is putting a suffering animal out of its misery. The BLM would be killing healthy wild horses and burros, and it would most likely be in the ugliest way possible. There would be mass shootings and possibly even aerial shootings, and burials in mass graves. Many could be shipped to slaughter plants in Mexico.
The sterilization of 80% of wild horses and burros that are left on public lands would be inhumane, cruel, dangerous and a guarantee of extinction. Methods that were being considered in 2016 for spaying wild mares included methods that were untested and extremely dangerous, in unsterile environments with no or minimal post operative care and would lead to many dying of infection or trauma. Here are respected Veterinarian Don Moore’s comments on the proposed methods of spaying wild mares:
http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/DonMooreCommentsOregonSpayProposal.pdf
The BLM is proposing “partnerships” with state and local agencies that would allow them to transfer wild horses and burros in large numbers and strip them of any protections from sale or slaughter or other forms of mistreatment. The public needs to be concerned about these, particularly when the wild horses and burros are to be shipped overseas. One proposal that seems to be gaining momentum is to ship thousands of wild horses to Russia to be used as prey (food on hooves) for Siberian tigers. As if this wasn’t ridiculous enough, they are asking that U.S. taxpayers to pay for shipping them to Russia.
The BLM’s failure to manage wild horses and burros on our public lands and their willingness to continue to round up and remove wild horses and burros and then warehouse them leaving far more in captivity than on public lands where they belong is a direct result of pandering to special interest groups, such as grazing and oil and gas exploration. The “crisis” if there is one, is of the BLM’s own making, with decades of mismanagement and lack of responsiveness to wild horses advocates who have many solutions and also volunteers to help keep wild horses wild and free on our public lands, where they belong.
Wild horse Freedom Federation has recommendations on wild horse and burros management which we have sent to Congress, and you can view these recommendations here: http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/news-alerts/recommendations-wild-horse-burro-management/
What can you do to help?
Take, Mail, email or fax this document http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/BLMLaysOutPlantoManageWildHorsestoExtinction.pdf
plus the WHFF recommendations above to your Senators and Congressmen. plus the WHFF recommendations above to your Senators and Congressmen http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/news-alerts/recommendations-wild-horse-burro-management/
Tell them you oppose all of the BLM’s Plan.
You can also download Wild Horse Freedom Federation’s White Paper here: http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/white-paper/
How to Contact Congress:
Contact Your Senators:https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/
Contact Your Representatives:https://house.gov/representatives/find/
To find out more about Wild Horse Freedom Federation and our work to keep wild horses and burros wild and free on our public lands visit: www.WildHorseFreedomFederation.org
To find out more about Equine Advocates and their work on equine welfare and horse slaughter issues, visit: www.equineadvocates.org
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Who received this from the BLM, the entire Congress, or various committees, or??? What is the process going forward, who will be making any decisions, (if any) and when? It doesn’t help to contact elected representatives who will not see and will not vote on anything related to this. We need better targeting to expect to make any difference.
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Every member of Congress will receive this report. You can help by sending our response, and our recommendations, to your Congressional representatives.
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What is the process going forward, who will be making any decisions, (if any) and when? Darkness does not equal Democracy.
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He’ll no stand up AMERICA for our wild horses now.Stand strong. Ask God to help.
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This has been in the works for a very long time and where many of US came in.
Many of the same BLM employees involved are still there.
June 11, 2009
BLM’S SECRET PLANNING DOCUMENTS “ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENT OPTIONS”
Documents obtained by the Freedom of Information Act:
BLM Alternative Management Options Draft Plan + Markup
BLM Implementation Team minutes + markup
BLM Implementation Team minutes + markup
Click to access alternativemanagement_optionsblm10_2008_markup.pdf
Click to access blm_implementation_team_minutes_2008_markup.pdf
http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/news/press-releases/archived-press-releases/350-blm-s-secret-planning-documents-alternative-management-options
Documents Reveal BLM Secret Plan to Destroy Wild Horses
Documents obtained from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) via the Freedom of Information Act by a Phoenix-based non-profit, The Conquistador Program, reveal shocking and detailed plans to destroy healthy wild horses in government holding facilities as well as those still remaining in the wild on public lands.
BLM employees as well as a USDA veterinarian held weekly “Implementation Team” meetings beginning in July of 2008 in which they discussed and developed strategies aimed at ridding BLM of thousands of mustangs. In October they completed a 68 page document entitled “Alternative Management Options”. Tactics included in this document are reminiscent of those used to wipe out Native American tribes in the 1800s.
The BLM team created scenarios for killing mustangs using barbiturates, gun shots, or captive bolts. Bodies would be disposed of through rendering, burial or incineration. They discussed killing 1200-2000 wild horses per year. The document states that “the general public would be prohibited from viewing euthanasia.” Additionally, the Team felt that “increased support from public relations and management staff would also be needed to insulate those doing the actual work from the public, media and Congressional scrutiny/criticism.”
“Minutes from these meetings as well as the Draft Plan reveal what amounts to ‘the final solution’ for the American mustang,” states Ginger Kathrens, filmmaker and Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation. “Despite a huge outcry from the American public last year regarding BLM plans to kill wild horses in holding, the agency is still pressing forward with a plan to destroy our American mustangs both on and off the range.”
Division Chief of the Wild Horse and Burro Program Don Glenn told The Cloud Foundation that “no decision has been made to move forward on a large scale with this plan, yet.”
BLM meeting minutes speak for themselves. “Security at facilities and at gathers would need to be increased to combat eco-terrorism. Having the people that are willing to put down healthy horses at gather sites could be a problem. Having vets putting down healthy horses at preparation facility[ies] could also be a problem.” Meeting minutes reveal the psychological toll that employees would pay-“have counseling for employees and contractors that have to euthanize the healthy horses because it is very stressful.”
The report created an option in which wild horses of all ages could be sold “without limitation”. In other words, horses could be sold directly to killer buyers in unchecked numbers. The Team admitted that “some wild horses will go to slaughter”.
Team Members formulated ways in which they could circumvent the National Environmental Policy Act, asking “How many (wild horses) could be euthanized during a gather (roundup) without having NEPA?” BLM discussed ways to circumvent the federal carcass disposal law (43 CFR 4730.2). Conversations included how many wild horses could be rendered at the Reno Rendering plant or “disposed of in pits”. The Team concluded that “there will not be large numbers of horses euthanized during gathers or in the field. This is due to state environmental laws.”
Recommendations include the creation of gelding herds, and sterilization of mares to create non-reproductive herds in the wild in place of natural herds. The team recommended changing the sex ratio from the normal 50% males and 50% females to 70% males and 30% females. Then the experimental two-year infertility drug, PZP-22, would be given to all mares that are returned to the wild. Plans call for rounding up the wild horses every two years to re-administer the drug.
“Mares on the drug will cycle monthly and, with the altered sex ratio, the social chaos will be dangerous and on-going,” Kathrens explains. “Any semblance of normal wild horse society will be completely destroyed.”
Kathrens has spent 15 years in the wild documenting mustang behavior for her PBS television documentaries which chronicle the life story of Cloud, the now famous pale palomino stallion she has filmed since birth. “Even Cloud and his little herd in Montana are in serious danger if BLM implements these options,” she continues. “The BLM plans a massive round up in Cloud’s herd beginning August 30, 2009.”
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Yes it has been in the works for a long time. The BLM just needs Congress to approve their horrible plan, and now with this administration and this Secretary of the Interior they figure the time is ripe. They have failed entirely in their mandate to manage our wild horses and burros according to the 1971 Act, so they seek to destroy them.
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Scroll back even further….
Breaking Through Del Rio
The four-year grand jury investigation of the Wild Horse & Burro Program and the over 3,000 pieces of evidence it accumulated that was slammed shut in 1996 (without any of this evidence ever being heard) is often referred to in wild horse circles as “Del Rio”.
Does anyone remember what the final straw was that broke the back of the Del Rio grand jury’s investigation? It was a subpoena issued to BLM demanding an “inventory” of a 1,200 capacity long-term holding facility in Osasge County, OK, – a legal subpoena BLM refused to grant.
Let me repeat this so it is crystal clear…
Because a subpoena demanded an accounting of the number of wild horses in a BLM holding facility, the BLM successfully shut down a grand jury investigation of the United States of America rather than comply and allow independent law enforcement to verify the number of wild horses BLM said they were holding in the facility. (To be fair, this wasn’t the only reason BLM didn’t want the mountain of evidence assembled against them to ever be heard but it was the subpoena that forced their hand to dismantle the investigation through a variety of tactics).
The key word was inventory – meaning numbers – and anyone who takes a little time to research this issue quickly realizes this is a “numbers game”. As the lives of America’s wild horses and burros continue to tip precariously closer to execution and/or slaughter, the future they are facing is a result of only one thing – numbers.
If a truly independent census count was conducted today on America’s remaining free-roaming wild horse and burro populations after their massive cleansing campaign during the Bush years, could BLM continue to plaster posters at their holding facilities professing wild horses and burros are “not an endangered species”? And if an independent census found BLM had removed most of America’s wild horses and burros after all, can we really just dump domestic horses on public lands to replace the American mustang and burro and their unique adaptations?
Or would a serious, independent “inventory” of the numbers break Del Rio’s back again and show the American public what BLM really thinks of the laws or our herds they are charged with to protect and preserve….
http://americanherds.blogspot.com/2009/03/breaking-through-del-rio.html
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So….this would be the same University of Wyoming that “partnered” with BLM to capture and radio collar our Wild Horses?
CASPER STAR TRIBUNE
University of Wyoming board ‘swept’ more than $100 million from various campus accounts
Seth Klamann
Apr 29, 2018
The University of Wyoming’s board of trustees swept as much as $140 million that was under the control of various departments and units across campus into its own series of accounts last year, a move that frustrated faculty, prompted the board president to apologize and eventually led the Legislature to strip $15 million from a school funding request.
“It’s screwed us up,” said Faculty Senate chair-elect Donal O’Toole, who teaches in the Veterinary Sciences Department. “If you want a technical answer, it screwed us up. Real bad.”
http://trib.com/news/local/education/university-of-wyoming-board-swept-more-than-million-from-various/article_eee73953-2078-50f0-8e70-a20866add622.html
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From PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)
Horses to Slaughter – Anatomy of a Cover-up within the BLM (April 1997)
The BLM began a crackdown on wild horse-to-slaughter operations in 1993 under former director Jim Baca. BLM investigators began compiling evidence documenting:
Theft of wild horses during BLM sponsored “gathers” or captures;
“black booking” or phony double branding of horses so that duplicate branded horses could disappear without a paper trail;
Manipulation of wild horse adoptions where one person holds the proxies for a group of supposedly separate adopters and the horses all end up at slaughter;
Use of satellite ranches to hold horses for days or weeks as stopping points on the way to slaughter;
Fraudulent use of wild horse sanctuaries-ranches subsidized by the federal government to care for unadoptable wild horses deemed excess and removed from the range as fronts for commercial exploitation.
Baca’s campaign on behalf of wild horse protection worried top interior officials and, according to Baca, played a major role in his abrupt removal from office in 1994 by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.
Click to access 1997_horses_to_slaughter.pdf
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Wow, very discouraging to see nearly a decade later so very little has changed in the BLM’s management strategies. It seems ten years of public opinion carries little respect from those whose paychecks come from taxpayers. How can these people be held accountable to the public good, and the public purse? We have to do better than this, and soon.
We need a national referendum on the right of wild horses and burros to remain wild animals, in the wild, on the public lands, and in their few remaining legal areas they should not be required to compete with for-profit livestock as a “management” method.
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Draft – For Internal Use Only
BlM Wild Horse and Burro Program
Alternative Management Options
Under this option, any facility could become a focal point for public, media or Congressional attention. Increased levels of security would be needed at all locations, or the activity may need to be moved off Site to a more appropriate and secure facility. Increased support from public relations and management staff would also be needed to insulate those doing the actual work from public, media and Congressional scrutiny/criticism.
Sales would not be limited to the continental U.S. Sale-eligible wild horses or burros could be made available for sale to anyone interested without limitation.
Click to access alternativemanagement_optionsblm10_2008_markup.pdf
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Implementation Team Conference C all
July 29, 2008
Jim said the Burns takes them to a pit, but they have always used it as many as they had died.
Alan will talk with Rock Springs on how many they can take out to their dead animal pit
Sally had an e-mail from a person in Canada who wants 10,000 horses that he would slaughter the horses and send them to a third world country. Don is going to send the email
Click to access blm_implementation_team_minutes_2008_markup.pdf
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Reading that FOIA makes me wonder if that information ever got through to Congress? Did none of our so-called representatives ever see that FOIA? Also am really impressed with the ignorance factor shown by their questions AND the fact that no one seems to know the correct word for spayed! Really, SPADED? None of them seemed to have ANY concept of the workings of the wild horse program – where, I might add, they were employed.
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Maggie, it’s probably an entire new Congress now and they DO need to see those FOIAs from 2008 as well as the previous Congressional investigation along with Wild Horse Freedom Federation White Paper.
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Hmmm. Mitch McConnell has been in Congress 27 years now, and John Dingell for 57 years, but maybe they’ve got better glasses as they’ve aged, and will read rather than rubber stamp slaughter legislation. For reference, V. Putin has held power less than 20 years.
Bottom line is get everyone out and voting this November, from the smallest to the largest offices in our land, and ask them the hard questions about our wild horses and burros, and the public interest in our public lands. Make them earn your votes!
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McConnell goes back to his hometown and finds surly voters
“We need a town hall!” yelled someone in the audience, before McConnell was escorted out through the ballroom’s kitchen to the next event, which was not open to the public.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article134351239.html
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Reblogged this on Wild Voices.
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I refuse to stand by and watch this nation be turned into a boring, dull and ugly sameness. Concrete, asphalt, tacky strip malls, same little houses and routine every day, fast food restaurants.
I just read the headline of an awful story about 200 horses killed. I need a mind cleanse. Thanks for the story on the goats!
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Our Collective Vision and the reason we are all here, at this place in time.
We have a Mission
Photojournalist – Journalist
A Simple Moment In Time – Wild Horses (excerpt)
I stood on a small knoll, but high enough to overlook a large valley basin. Looking back toward the three horse trailers still hooked to the trucks, complete with three wild horses in each trailer, my heart beat fast; which, my gut told me everything was okay.
The friendly sun, high in the blue sky complete with a few white clouds around, shined its light directly upon us. The slight breeze smelled of fresh rye in the vast basin fields to my front.
Mother Nature has blessed us this day, as we return her children to their rightful home. We placed no chemical or other methods derived from human-perception, within their bodies – we will leave them with how we helped them, with pleasant memories, and know that a proper respect was taken and given, from living souls, one to another – human to horse, horse to human and each in our way.
We setup block-transmitters, to block GPS, so our final unload-destination, or telemetry, was not recorded, anywhere. The wild horses finally safe from the mediocrity, from the lies, from the deceit they experienced from humans. Oh yes, they understood the abominations and the plight they faced. They understood all right, it was in their eyes, in their jerky and stressed reactions to every movement, when we first picked them up.
https://prophoto7journal.wordpress.com/
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I believe you will all be glad to read what this man wrote on his blog. It is inspirational.
What he and his friends did for these wild horses goes far beyond just a good deed. Having been involved with saving a few wild horses too, I have felt the love that radiates from this kind of experience. Words can’t really explain it, although reading his story caused a tear of pure joy to run down my cheek. I thank him and everyone else who understands and doesn’t give up and the wild horses thank you and most of all Mother Nature gives her sincere gratitude.
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Dear Friend,
Thank you for contacting me regarding your desire to increase the Bureau of Land Management’s accountability and to protect America’s wild horses and burros from slaughter. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with me.
The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 requires the BLM to manage and protect the wild horse population to make sure population numbers are consistent with the capacity of the land and sustenance available. This is an important issue since the wild horse population doubles every four years. Current practice is to corral horses from overpopulated areas and offer them up for adoption or place them in government-funded pastures.
In 2016, The Bureau of Land Management announced that it would care for over 45,000 wild horses after a public outcry over an advisory board’s recommendation to kill or sell all 45,000 horses that cannot be adopted. The BLM has said that ongoing overpopulation is impacting the ecological balance of these areas and poses a threat to a wide range of plant and animal species in the region.
I support science-based solutions that are cost-effective and humane for these herds. The use of humane fertility control – as the National Academy of Sciences recommended – seems like an option worthy of consideration.
I expect future debate regarding wild horses and burros to continue during the Appropriations process. Let me add that – like you – I don’t believe horses should be slaughtered for human consumption. Since FY 2006, Congress has maintained a provision in its annual legislation to fund the government that blocks funding for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to inspect horse slaughter facilities, which effectively prohibits horse slaughter for the purpose of human consumption within the U.S. I am hopeful that this year, Congress will again pass funding legislation that will include this provision. In addition, I’m a cosponsor of the Safeguard American Food Exports Act to explicitly outlaw the domestic slaughter of horses for consumption, as well as prohibit their sale and export for slaughter.
Last century, Mahatma Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” I believe our nation strengthens itself when we work to ensure that all living things are treated with dignity.
I encourage you to continue to share your views with me on this topic or any other issue. Thank you for reaching out. It is an honor to serve as your representative.
Sincerely,
Derek Kilmer
Member of Congress (Committee on Appropriations)
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We HAVE to make it abundantly clear to Congress that Wild Horse & Burro populations do NOT double every four years.
In addition to Wild Horse Freedom Federation White Paper, we need to send Congress ACCURATE population reports…many have been posted here
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For starters…
Congress should have this information
WILD HORSE POPULATION GROWTH
The BLM bases their management decisions on environmental assessments that cite inflated population estimates. As shown in this study and previous research, the BLM’s assumption of a 20% annual wild horse population growth rate is not based in science; leading to unsubstantiated population estimates with no evidence of excess wild horses.
https://app.box.com/s/n4anbas6y43ugb1rr5sk
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What state does the honorable Mr. Kilmer represent? Kudos for at least one elected official who will take a stand for sanity.
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IcySpots, he represents Washington’s 6th District
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HAVE YOU TRIED TO BALANCE YOUR WILD HORSE AND BURRO “CHECKBOOK” LATELY?
Guest OpEd by Grandma Gregg
“…only about half of the foals survive to become yearling age…”
https://rtfitchauthor.com/2016/08/30/have-you-tried-to-balance-your-wild-horse-and-burro-checkbook-lately/
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The 22.2 million acres of Herd Areas that the BLM took away from wild horses & burros
SOURCE: Animal Welfare Institute
“AWI has repeatedly questioned the decisions to permanently remove all wild horses and burros from the range – decisions that continue to be made – without an area-by-area analysis it is impossible to verify the scientific, land use, legal, or other evidence relied on by the BLM to support its decisions.“
https://rtfitchauthor.com/2017/10/26/the-22-2-million-acres-of-herd-areas-that-the-blm-took-away-from-wild-horses-burros/
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Surely not only happening in Montana:
“Many conflicts involve the Ted Turner emulators now snapping up ranchlands throughout the West. In 2014, for instance, Dan and Farris Wilks — fracking tycoons from Texas who own more than 300,000 acres in Montana — approached the Bureau of Land Management about a land swap that would have transferred prime elk-hunting acres into the billionaires’ hands. After hunters protested, BLM rejected the deal, although a modified version of the swap remains on the table.
‘What’s bothersome to me is the effect that big money is starting to have on our land and wildlife resources,’ says Mike Penfold, BLM’s former Montana director. ‘There’s a concerning and constant pressure to cut out the public.’”
https://www.hcn.org/articles/quack-attack-ducks-unlimited-fires-writer-over-stream-access-fracas
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RADIO SHOW NEEDS TO HEAR FROM US
Sunday night, Ian Punnett (guest host) stated that wild horses are over-populated, there is a breeding explosion and they are starving,
Coast to Coast radio show needs to be contacted and this information needs to be corrected as it is world wide.
George Knapp hosts the show a couple of nights a month
COAST TO COAST.
It’s by far the most popular overnight show in the country. And it’s probably the most successful program of its kind ever aired. But just what kind of program it is, no one can quite say.
THE ATLANTIC
Coast to Coast Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/coasttocoastam
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Ian Punnett
@deaconpunnett
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George Knapp Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/georgeknapp8
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As if the enormous criminal behavior of the BLM towards our Wild Mustangs &Burros isn’t enough of an outrage, the Native American tribes of our nation are also complicit in the sale for incomprehensible slaughter of our precious ones.
The Ft. Mcdermitt tribes are the latest in taking a projected 500 from Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest in No. Nevada, maintaining that some will be returned to tribal members, while those unclaimed will probably go to the kill buyers always present at these auctions. No one can guarantee that horses from the bordering HMA will not be included in this Roundup.
This has happened in the past over many states, and is always a shocking reminder of how little reverence these Native American tribes have remaining for the plight of all the equines involved.
My Sioux and Cherokee ancestors would be sickened at the actions of these people.
Shame, shame on those who send these herds to slaughter.
One would think that they, of all people in this nation, would remember.
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To amend my comments above, I should include that it is the good ol’ USFS heading this gathering up, with cooperation from the tribes involved. Again, as in California, the tribes have no problem with selling horses to horrific slaughter.
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Reviewing this very poignant and informative post now that we are entering a new era in Congress…
It would be wonderful if a coalition could come together to propose an independent agency to truly uphold the 1971 Protection Act, and take the’management’ of Wild Horses and Burros AWAY from the BLM idiots entirely.
Would it be possible? To create a ‘Council for the Stewardship and Protection of Wild Mustangs and Burros’ ?
Many people would be delighted to support it, and a major comprehensive lawsuit is just what the BLM deserves.
We need a plan… and soon.
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