(In My Humble Opinion) by R.T. Fitch ~ author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart” A Turning Point in Wild Horse Advocacy It was a year ago today, September 7th, that myself, Terry, Ginger Kathrens, Makendra Silverman, Ann Evans, Pam and Tom Nickoles, Carol Walker, Elyse Gardner, Sandy […]
With stampede operations allegedly shut down for August 28th at the Twin Peaks location Terry and I decided to head in one direction while Herd Watch Coordinator, Laura Leigh went in another. We had visited the Litchfield Holding Facility everyday for almost a week so we packed up the rental SUV and headed to Palomino Valley north of Sparks, NV. Palomino Valley is where the remainder of the captive Twin Peaks horses will go now that Litchfield is full. As of Friday, 909 wild souls had been captured and stripped of their freedom and futures, we wanted to see what the fate of the remaining captives would look like and we are sorry that we did.
TWIN PEAKS, CA (Horseback) – A heavy, armed police presence protected America and the Federal Bureau of Land Management wild horse stampede contractor from four journalists and no anti-BLM activists at the “gather” held today at Twin Peaks, according to Horseback Magazine’s R.T. Fitch at the site. There were two reporters and a photographer representing the Texas based magazine, as well as a videographer working for the New York Times, a paper which was provided unfettered access earlier this week while other media organizations and citizen observers were kept at bay.
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – When Horseback Magazine asked the federal Bureau of Land Management for a report on the number of horses suffering from laminitis after being stampeded by a roaring helicopter, we actually expected an answer. What we got instead was a tap dance.
Our friend George Knapp called me over the weekend to inform me that the BLM is at it again. As we covered in our ATSNews Video series, the BLM has been rounding up the Federally Protected Wild Mustangs because they claim the range can’t sustain them.
In April of 2010, acting Inspector General of the Department of the Interior (DOI) Mary Kendall issued a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar summarizing the findings of an evaluation report entitled “Interior Lacks a Scientific Integrity Policy” (Report No. WR-EV-MOA-0014-2009). The report outlines the objective of determining whether “… codes of conduct [for scientific research and publication] exist and in what form.”
Washington, D.C. – The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), along with leading Members of Congress, numerous wild horse advocacy organizations and the majority of Americans, is exceedingly frustrated with the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) gross mismanagement of America’s wild horses and burros. In a recent ad in the Washington, D.C., newspaper, The Hill, AWI called on Congress to take swift and decisive action to prevent the BLM from “managing” our nation’s wild horses into extinction.
CHICAGO, (EWA) – The National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) has passed a resolution calling for the reinstatement of USDA inspectors for horse meat.
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The BLM cleared up the issue of ownership of water in a desert waterhole near a stampede area where almost 20 horses have died.
Washington, D.C. (July 23, 2010)—On July 21 the Colorado-based Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue and author/advocate Carol Walker filed an amended complaint in Federal District Court to add the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to their current suit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The suit challenges both agencies’ rejection of a Natural Management Approach for the herd and the planned construction of a two-mile long fence which would cut off the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Herd from crucial summer and fall grazing lands they’ve used for centuries. This small herd is the world’s most famous and the last remaining in Montana, sometimes called “Cloud’s herd” for the now-15-year old band stallion who TCF Director and plaintiff Ginger Kathrens has documented for the popular PBS Nature series. The herd traces its history back to the horses of the Spanish Conquistadors, the Lewis and Clark expedition horses, and Crow Indian War ponies. Plaintiffs contend that the USFS and BLM are engaging in illegal treatment of these federally-protected mustangs and that the Pryor Wild Horses are entitled to use lands in the Custer National Forest, currently not included in the designated range.
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