HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A grass roots movement is gaining momentum on a state tourism site on the social media network Facebook. There, wild horse lovers are urging tourists to boycott the state as the legislature considers a bill that would deny water to wild horses.
We are asking all available wild horse advocates to attend this hearing. DON’T LET OUR LEGISLATORS DO THIS TO THE HORSES. AB 329 will be heard on Friday May 13 . The Senate committee on Natural Resources meets in room 2144 in the legislative building. NOTE: The normal meeting time for this committee is 3:30. However, this meeting is to begin upon adjournment of a different committee meeting, but no later than 3:30. We suggest we arrive at the legislative building no later than 2:00. You need time to park and get to the hearing room. The address and parking instructions are at the bottom of this message.
Save for the wolf, few animals living wild on what’s left of the West’s ‘wide open’ spaces engender as much contention as wild equines. To some, they are iconic, tough and unfettered living anchors to our past, worthy of respect and preservation. To others, they are competitors for scarce rangeland resources, to be stringently controlled through mandates and policies and inevitably, removals. Procedural documents outline reasons for proposed removals of Wild Equines from a home range; most allude to the lack of available forage or limited water resources. Nearly all cite the absence of predators and the vast proclivity toward over-breeding of these long-lived species as compelling cause for removals.
A few years back I wrote an article about the threat to America’s wild horses in general and the small herd of Mustangs on the Blackjack Mountain preserve in Oklahoma in particular. At that time I laid the blame for the mismanagement of one of America’s greatest natural resources at the feet of the Bureau Of Land Management (BLM) and their close ties to corporations buying leases on public land to run livestock. The BLM is supposedly responsible for the stewardship of all wild lands not currently national parks owned by the federal government in trust for the people of the United States. The acts which govern the terms of their stewardship spell out they are supposed to treat them in manner sensitive to the existing ecosystems. One of the pieces of legislation which applies to these territories is the Wild Free-Roaming Horse And Burro Actpassed in 1971 that was designed to preserve existing populations of wild horses and burros on all government owned lands.
In my opinion, one of my biggest concerns is that this Environmental Assessment is based on flawed reasoning and for reasons listed below is, basically, fraud against the American public, no matter what “authorizations” it hides behind.
You too can submit your own comments regarding the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the White Mountain and Little Colorado Herd Management Areas (HMAs). There are gross inadequacies and faulty data utliized in the scope of this EA that need to be addressed and rectified before a roundup of these two herds should be allowed. If a roundup is conducted this summer, the two herds will be decimated to a total population of 274 horses on over 1 million acres! The Cloud Foundation’s comments for this EA are available online HERE. Read on for a sample format!
On April 29, the Bureau of Land Management issued a press release announcing that its Wild Horse and Burro Long Term holding facility near Tulsa, OK would be open for one day for a public visit in June.
Interesting that this announcement comes so closely on the heels of The Cloud Foundation’s release of this viral video which graphically illustrated the horrible living conditions of wild horses at the Lake City Short Term Holding Facility near Salt Lake City, UT
Last November the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) opened up two of their privately owned long term wild horse holding facilities to the press and public and Horseback Magazine’s Chief Photographer, Terry Fitch, attended and rendered a compelling article which can be read (HERE). SFTHH has just learned that the BLM will host another day for taxpayers to view once free roaming wild horses held in same sex herds on private land at great expense while waiting to die as their natural lives and families have been totally destroyed and subverted.
March 2011 – I have been crying for the wild horses and burros since my daughter called me on her way back from the Twin Peaks Roundup last summer – after she saw for herself what REALLY happens to the horses and burros during the BLM stampedes. This week however, my tears were of joy … it’s about time something GOOD happened … even if it is just a small step in a gigantic tragic story.
Nevada Legislators Want to take Water From Wild Equids
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