RENO, Nev.—Wild horse protection advocates are accusing the federal Bureau of Land Management of stacking a public advisory board with friends of cattle ranchers at the expense of mustangs, and warning that the panel is increasingly sympathetic to the idea of slaughtering excess animals in overpopulated herds on U.S. lands in the West.
GREENLAND, NH — A shy, soft-spoken local boy is raising his voice to tell his representatives in Concord and Washington that horse slaughter is cruel and inhumane.
Nine-year-old Declan Gregg has already testified in front of the N.H. House Environment and Agriculture Committee and next month will travel with his mother, Stacie Gregg, to Washington, D.C., to present letters to Congress as part of the Million Horse March children’s letter-writing campaign to stop horse slaughter.
Sunday is always “Special Interest Day” here at SFTHH and it is customary to publish a feel-good story to help re-charge us for the following week of equine advocacy. This weekend we shot the gun a little early with publishing Cheyenne Little’s story, yesterday, so today we would like to share with our readers an interesting and rather educational story on our domestic and wild horses’ cousin, the Zebra. Now I know that I, for one, have always wondered why flies appear to be more prevalent on one horse versus another out in our pastures. I took it to be a simple matter of perhaps scent and the fact that maybe one’s personal hygiene was better than the next (those guys can burn through the toilet paper) but a team of scientists have come up with another reason and it got me to thinking. So, sit back and relax as the BBC attempts to enlighten us on the mystery that lies beneath the stripes of Zebra, it might get those brain cells churning, today.
Six weeks ago we featured an article on the efforts of a 14 year old California girl who was attempting to stem the tide of a handful of special interests attempting to ram the concept of butchering companion horses for human consumption down the throats of the American public; said article was one of the more popular publication for the month of December here at Straight from the Horse’s Heart. Now, as the misguided few assault children and the public majority in an effort to forward their cause of eating their best friends the same 14 year old, Cheyenne Little, has brazenly offered a potential solution that, to date, has not netted her any hate mail or threats from the dark underbelly of predatory horse slaughter and reaped great praise from folks around the world. Chey’s petition, in it’s entirety, and the appropriate signature link are entered, below, along with a thoughtful video produced by Chey, herself. The young ones give us hope
COLO. SPRINGS, CO (Feb. 8, 2012) – The Cloud Foundation strongly protests the appointment of another pro-slaughter member to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. On February 5, 2012, Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, named Callie Hendrickson of Grand Junction, Colorado as the newest member of the Board. Hendrickson will fill the General Public position, replacing Janet Jankura of Ohio who applied to serve another term but was denied.
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – An anonymous author has posted a petition aimed at stopping publicity about a children’s letter writing campaign to Congress in support of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. Children’s petitions and letters have been particularly effective in moving Washington politicians when citizen action couldn’t. In fact, it was a similar movement that resulted in unanimous passage of the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horses and Burro Act.
A bill allowing the expansion of the wild horse herd that inhabits North Carolina’s Outer Banks has unanimously passed the US House of Representatives.
The bill, introduced by Republican North Carolina Representative Walter Jones, now heads to the Senate.
The bill would increase the legislated herd size from 60 to 130, after genetic specialists said a herd of at least 110 was needed to maintain genetic diversity.
A young Pennsylvania horse dealer was charged with defrauding horse owners by posing as a rescue and instead sending their animals to slaughter.
As an adult I never had the time nor the inclination to sit down and watch a group of grossly overpaid men play with a ball on a field of green grass on a Sunday afternoon; there always seemed to be something more meaningful or important to do. But never the less, regardless of what part of the world or what strange country I might be in I would endeavor to get before a computer keyboard, the following week, and attempt to find online the Clydesdale commercial that had played during the game. That has become my Super Bowl tradition and one that I look forward to with great relish.
The Humane Society of the United States cautioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a letter that the agency must comply with a 2007 ruling from the D.C. District Court prior to resuming the inspection of horse slaughter facilities—a crucial matter because such inspections could open the way to new horse slaughter plants in the U.S. The HSUS warned that it will consider taking aggressive legal action against USDA to enforce those obligations if the agency fails to follow the court’s order.
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