We have the opportunity to stop the cruel and senseless killing of wild horses. The federal government is accepting public comments on its new policy for wild horse management until August 3, 2010. Please speak out now
Yesterday I asked you to contact Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in response to the reported plans to kill more than 150,000 geese in New York state (please do call 202-720-3631 if you haven’t done so already). Today, I need your action on another urgent concern—urging the Bureau of Land Management to stop the cruel and senseless roundups of wild horses and instead to develop humane, sustainable programs for managing the herds, such as fertility control through immunocontraception.
CHICAGO, (EWA) – As controversy swirls over the aggressive removal of horses from the range by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a more fundamental question has arisen over what is happening to the horses it already has in holding. Over the past several years, equine advocates have been scrutinizing the BLM’s horse population counts. Once again, the numbers don’t add up to their claims.
Ken Salazar, quite possibly one of the most insidious characters to occupy an appointed federal office since maybe, Donald Rumsfeld, has just topped his own high measure of malfeasance. Heading up what has become notorious for being one of the most grossly mismanaged agencies of the federal government, the Department of the Interior (DoI), Salazar has set into motion some of the worst plans and policies ever implemented by the DoI. Among these policies is the eradication and zeroing out of herds of wild horses and burros all supposedly protected under the 1976 Wild Horse & Burro act.
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
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mike Enzi, John Barrasso and Representative Cynthia Lummis, all R-Wyo., are working to allow Wyoming stakeholders more time to give their input on changes to the wild horse program being developed by the Department of the Interior (DOI).
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) – 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.
ELKO COUNTY, Nev. — A deadly government roundup of Nevada’s wild horses during the hottest month of the year has led to new accusations in federal court.
Wild horse advocates have accused the Bureau of Land Management of contempt, because the agency went to extraordinary lengths to keep the public from being able to observe a horse roundup over the past few days in which 21 mustangs died.
We would like to report that members of the press and public were able to get in and see the roundup, but that did not happen because of gamesmanship and subterfuge on the part of the BLM. The agency clearly does not want outside eyes to watch what it is doing.
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.
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