R.T. Fitch’s life has been anything but ordinary. Straight out of high school, he joined the U.S. Air Force Band during the Vietnam era, and while stationed in Hawaii, he spent weekends at Sea Life Park training penguins, sea lions, and whales. His path through life has taken many unexpected turns—including more than a few lessons in love—until meeting his wife, Terry, brought a lasting partnership and a shared passion for animals.
Over the course of his adult career, R.T. worked internationally in multiple countries, gaining a broad, global perspective that colors both his worldview and his writing. Now rooted in Texas, he and Terry live on a small farm surrounded by four-legged companions with paws, claws, and hooves. Together, they have devoted years to equine rescue and wild horse protection.
An ordained volunteer chaplain and professional Santa Claus for a local historical society—with Terry by his side as Mrs. Claus—R.T. brings warmth, wisdom, and joy to every season. His work reflects a life of service, wonder, and connection to both people and animals.
He is the author of Straight from the Horse’s Heart, a moving collection of true rescue stories and spiritual reflections, and Fangs of Light, a supernatural tale steeped in symbolic and metaphorical storytelling. The first in a planned trilogy, Fangs of Light blends myth and mystery to explore themes of identity, redemption, and the power of empathy—offering readers not only suspense and intrigue but a deeper look at the light and shadow within us all.
It’s Sunday, May 30, 2010 and thousands of barrels of oil are continuing to gush into the Gulf of Mexico while tens of thousands of native, wild horses are languishing and dying in concentration camp style pens out west. What do these two disasters have in common; Secretary of Interior (DOI) Ken Salazar and Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bob Abbey.
The question was asked about how we at EWA feel about our progress against horse slaughter this year.
Please understand that we regard this whole process as an analogy to war. It is not fought on a single front or with a single strategy and there are many operations that we cannot talk about without giving away our advantage. Sometimes we can divulge things later, and sometimes not at all. For example, you probably now know that we worked hard to get the town of Harding access to the pollution and sewer records from Cavel, Dallas Crown and NVF. We did not go to them and say “please don’t build a plant that kills our beautiful horses.” We showed them that a plant would be bad for the community and we also showed them that there was no pot of gold.
Washington, D.C. (May 28, 2010)— Currently being questioned by the House Committee on Natural Resources regarding the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar has come under fire for his lack of oversight on offshore drilling. Wild horse advocates contend that the mismanagement extends not just to an unparalled ecological disaster at sea, but a humane, environmental and fiscal disaster on our public lands. Wild horses and burros are being rounded up off their legally designated homes on Western ranges while extractive industries are allowed to monopolize public lands at enormous expense to the American taxpayer and the environment.
Story by Laura Allen of the Animal Law Coalition The shocking oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has prompted the Center for Biological Diversity to issue a notice of its intent to sue Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, and the Minerals Management Service (MMS), which is […]
Washington, D.C. (May 25, 2010)— Solely on the basis of standing and mootness the lawsuit brought against the Department of Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) by In Defense of Animals (IDA), wildlife ecologist and Cloud Foundation Board Member Craig Downer and author Terri Farley was dismissed by the Honorable Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. on May 24th. The Cloud Foundation continues to call for the return to the wild of the beleaguered Calico horses now in holding pens. To date at least 90 horses have died, 40 or more mares had spontaneous late term abortions due to stress and an unknown number of young foals have died in the privately-owned feedlot-style pens in Fallon, Nevada where the majority of the captured horses are held without windbreaks, shade or cover.
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A federal judge who spent part of his career working as a government lawyer today found in favor of a controversial Obama Administration agency. Judge Paul L. Friedman dashed the hopes of lovers of wild horses when he dismissed a lawsuit challenging the legality of housing thousands of Mustangs in huge holding pens in the American West.
Image via Wikipedia Commentary by R.T. Fitch – author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“ DOI Mismangement Continues to Result in Death and Destruction It seriously frustrates me to sit here and attempt to dig up something good, something encouraging that will enlighten and/or enrich the day of […]
Fallon, NV (May 21, 2010)—On Sunday, May 16th, visitors and humane observers to the government holding pens in Fallon, Nevada found injured wild horses and photographed a starving, emaciated colt among the 2,100 mustangs. The young colt had clearly been struggling for multiple days and was not placed in a hospital pen with his mother. Advocates alerted Bureau of Land Management (BLM) staff to the colt’s poor condition. After the facility closed the only veterinarian, responsible for the care of over 3,000 horses at two BLM facilities, was called in and euthanized the colt. The Washoe County Sheriff is currently investigating multiple incidences of animal abuse at the Fallon Facility.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officials compromised the integrity of a BLM study by removing scientific concerns about the effects newly relaxed grazing regulations would have on public lands. Millions of acres of public land in the western U. S. are protected by BLM grazing rules, which regulate when, where, and for how long cattle may graze there.
WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity today filed suit against Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar over his continued approval of offshore drilling plans in the Gulf of Mexico without environmental review. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeks to overturn Department of Interior policies exempting oil drilling from the environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
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