HOUSTON, (SFTHH) – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) tasked with protecting our public lands and wildlife has been doing exactly the opposite; they have been killing wild horses, deer and other species by selling off public water rights to private interests and allowing fences to be erected for private purposes so that the natural wildlife dies of thirst.
GREEN RIVER — In 2008, federal officials said they would have to consider euthanizing wild horses because of rising numbers and the high cost of caring for the animals in long-term holding facilities.
But in early 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reversed course and said the agency would instead pursue shipping horses to holding corrals and pastures in the Midwest and East
The death toll rises, as per the BLM’s own stats:
Total for the Calico Massacre = 158
Total for the Tuscarora Farce = 22
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.
by Rob Pliskin ~ EAGALA Equine Specialist (Editor’s Note: BLM volunteer Rob Pliskin has taken his dissatisfaction with the BLM’s destruction of our wild herds to the streets, in a very subtle way. As one very quite man, he stands alone in front of Cleveland, Ohio‘s Federal Building […]
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – When Laura Leigh, an author, artist, journalist, and litigant chased the BLM into the desert to observe wild horse capture after a federal judge told her she could do so, she wasn’t allowed to see horses – but she did see water.
HOUSTON – (SFTHH) At 1900 hrs, US Central Time, we received a personal phone call from Artist and Wild Horse Advocate Laura Leigh that she and her undisclosed travel partners were safe and not in harm’s way. Ms. Leigh disclosed that she had not been to the trap site, today, as she her progress had been impeded by the local Sheriff’s Department and her name, despite the Federal Judge’s order, did not appear on the BLM’s approved attendee listing.
Update July 16, 2010: Nevada U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks has lifted the injunction prohibiting BLM from proceeding with the Tuscarora roundup.
The judge has also denied plaintiff Laura Leigh’s motion to delay the roundup until August, after the foaling season, particularly as to the Owyhee Herd though she can seek “further relief” as to the planned round ups in the Rock Creek and Little Humboldt herd management areas.
The BLM is accepting public comments through Monday, July 19, 2010, for the planned removal of the entire West Douglas wild horse population. Click Here to review the Preliminary Environmental Assessment.
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