Tag Archives: Horse Slaughter

Oct 17 2017

Ginger Kathrens (Exec. Dir., The Cloud Foundation) and Carol Walker, (Dir. of Field Documentation, Wild Horse Freedom Federation) with updates on wild horse roundups and the Bureau of Land Management (Wed., 10/18/17, on Wild Horse & Burro Radio)

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Wild_Horse_Burro_Radio_LogoJoin us for Wild Horse Wednesdays®, this Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017

7:00 p.m. PST … 8:00 p.m. MST … 9:00 p.m. CST … 10:00 p.m. EST

Listen Live (HERE!)

You can also listen to the show on your phone by calling (917) 388-4520.

You can call in with questions during the 2nd half hour, by dialing (917) 388-4520, then pressing 1.

This show will be archived so you can listen to it anytime.

Our guests tonight are Ginger Kathrens, Founder and Exec. Dir. of The Cloud Foundation, and member of the Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board and Carol Walker, Dir. of Field Documentation, Wild Horse Freedom Federation.

Ginger Kathrens will be calling in after Wednesday’s BLM National Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board meeting, taking place in Grand Junction, CO, and will be talking about issues discussed at the meeting. Also, The Cloud Foundation, AWHC, Return to Freedom and Virginia Hudson, recently won a lawsuit and stopped the sterilization of the Saylor Creek wild horses in Idaho.

Carol Walker has been at the roundups in Wyoming, and will be giving us the latest update on the roundups and the lawsuit regarding the Wyoming roundups (Carol is a Co-Plaintiff).  Carol’s website is http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/ and you can see her photography of wild horses at http://www.livingimagescjw.com/

Ginger Kathrens speaking in front of the recent, secretive “Slaughter Summit” in Utah

Carol Walker and friends (photo: Lewis Geyer / Staff Photographer)

This show will be hosted by Debbie Coffey (V.P. and Dir. of Wild Horse Affairs) of Wild Horse Freedom Federation.

To contact us: ppj1@hush.com

TO LISTEN TO ALL ARCHIVED WILD HORSE & BURRO RADIO SHOWS, CLICK HERE.

To find out more about Wild Horse Freedom Federation and our work to keep wild horses and burros wild and free on our public lands visit www.WildHorseFreedomFederation.org

Donate Here: http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/donate/

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Oct 17 2017

Update: Senate Appropriations Interior Subcommittee markup session postponed now indefinitely

by R.T. Fitch

Good News for the Wild Horses and Burros…

…as it gives us more time to concentrate our campaign of information and truth with the 14 associated Senators but we really have not hammered out, with clarity, what happens next.

  • On one side we have folks telling us that session was delayed due to Senator Cochran’s ill health.
  • And on the other side we hear that Udall and Murkowski canceled it and Dinky Zinke is losing his cookies, damn I love the image of that picture.

So stay tuned and we will attempt to clarify as soon as we get credabal information but keep up your good works, I think that we are beginning to get our point across.

Keep the faith.

Oct 16 2017

Day Two: Twitter Storm for the Wild Horses and Burros

TWEET now…and ReTweet!

Public lands belong to US and these are OUR horses & Burros! DO NOT KILL AMERICAS WILD HORSES & BURROS #SaveOurWildHorses

Oct 15 2017

Twitter Storm for the Wild Horses & Burros

Tonight and Tomorrow ~ in conjunction with the Cloud Foundation

Tweet everyone you know, your two Senators and members of the Appropriations Committee:

Public lands belong to US and these are OUR horses & Burros! DO NOT KILL AMERICAS WILD HORSES & BURROS #SaveOurWildHorses

 

Oct 14 2017

ACTION ALERT UPDATE! SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE TO DECIDE FATE OF AMERICA WILD HORSES AND BURROS NEXT TUESDAY AND THURSDAY: CONTACT SENATORS NOW!

Open Letter from Daniel Cordero Fernandez

Dear Friends of Equines,

The moment has finally come. We have just learned that the Senate Appropriations Committee has finally scheduled the markup sessions for the FY2018 Interior appropriations bill next Tuesday 17th and Thursday 19th.

Potential Future Carnage of our Native Wild Horses and Burros ~ this horror will be real!

As you likely already know, last July, acting at the request of the Trump administration and specifically Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the pro-slaughter lobby led by representatives Chris Stewart (R-Utah), Mark Amodei (R-Nevada), Ken Calvert (R-California), Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Adrian Smith (R-Nebraska) moved to remove from the FY2018 House Agriculture and Interior Appropriations bills long-standing bans preventing BLM from killing and selling at will without restrictions (including for slaughter) wild horses and burros in holding and freshly captured, as well as banning USDA from conducting mandatory pre-slaughter inspections of horses at slaughter plant, hence preventing new horse slaughter plants from opening up in the US.

With such move, both the Trump administration ( which takes advice directly from horse slaughter lobbyist and anti-animal activist Forrest Lucas) and Congress’ horse meat and welfare ranching lobbies, attempt to bring horse slaughter back to US soil and, particularly, to kill by whatever means possible (most likely gunshot) all the federally-protected wild horses held at BLM corrals or those freshly captured that are deemed “in excess” arbitrarily by BLM. The intention behind this hideous move is to make room at BLM facilities for all remaining wild horses in the range to be rounded up, institute a mass extermination mechanism using tax-payer funds to get rid of them as new horses come in BLM facilities and, ultimately, eliminate all wild horses, releasing the resources for welfare ranchers like Cliven Bundy to allocate more cows and for the ultraconservative, anti-animal lobby to make an ideological point about the place and value of wildlife in our society, which according to them is none. If Trump, Zinke and Stewart get their way, approximately 75,000 wild horses , counting the 45,000 in holding plus the remaining 30,000 in the range, will be murdered in the coming years, resulting in the largest massacre seen in US since the extermination of the buffalo. This is, indeed, Trump’s “final solution” to his wild horse and burro “problem”.

Regrettably, the House of Representatives turned a blind eye to this travesty and passed their FY2018 omnibus appropriations bill without the languages preventing new horse slaughter plants from operating in the US and prohibiting BLM from killing healthy wild horses and burros and selling them for slaughter at will.

Fortunately, Senators Tom Udall (D-Colorado) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) are aware of this travesty and are attempting to reverse the situation. Last July, senator Udall inserted back in the Senate agriculture appropriations bill the language preventing horse slaughter plants to operate in the US (by withholding funds for mandatory pre-slaughter inspections). Now, it is time for the Senate Appropriations Committee to markup and the Interior appropriations bill, which will decide the fate of America’s wild horses and burros.

Next Tuesday 17th at 09:30 EST, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, chaired by senators Tom Udall and Lisa Murkowski will hold a markup session in which they will present the draft text of the FY2018 Senate Interior appropriations bill, allow debate for the introduction of amendments and then vote it to present the approved text to the full committee. Then, two days later, the full Appropriations Committee will hold a markup session at 10:30 hrs on the bill text presented by the subcommittee, allowing the introduction of further amendments shaping the final language of the bill that will be referred to the full Senate for a vote.

The Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies can decide whether to carry the language banning BLM from using funds to kill and sell without limitation wild horses and burros in its care from the last Interior budget bill that was passed into law or insert it again as an amendment. Since the last Senate Interior bill contained the wild horse protection language, the former is the most likely outcome. Similarly, if the language is not carried over from the previous budget or inserted by the subcommittee, it will have to be inserted during the full committee markup by means of an amendment . Similarly, even if the language is carried over, it may be removed by pro-slaughter forces by means of an amendment. In either case, this is the last chance to save wild horses and burros from being slaughtered or shot to death by Bundite cowboys. If the wild horse protection language is not present in the bill’s committee report referred to the full senate, it is over for wild horses and burros.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Keep calling and faxing all members of the Senate Appropriations Committee –and particularly the members of the Subcommittee on the Interior- asking them to oppose any language allowing BLM to sell without restrictions wild horses in holding or authorizing the killing of healthy wild horses in holding or on the range as “management option”. Tell staffers that you don’t want government to shoot and slaughter wild horses and that all arguments put forward by those wanting to slaughter wild horses like as Stewart and Amodei, such as that wild horses are starving and killing them “is the right thing” are completely false. There are tools available for BLM to manage wild horses and burros on the range but BLM always refused to use them, stating privately during the infamous “Slaughter Summit” that they will only consider slaughter and shooting. The move by the House to authorize the mass killing and slaughter wild horses and burros is just a handout to welfare ranchers for purely ideological reasons.

Enclosed at the bottom of this message you can find a list of all members of the Senate Appropriations Committee with phone and fax numbers for their DC offices, plus a link to a template fact sheet (courtesy of Linda Loman) you can use when faxing them to follow up with your call in order to support our position. Faxing is best since it forces them to take down your comment, name and address and log it. You can use a free online faxing service to send them, such as FaxZero (https://faxzero.com/) or GotFreeFax (https://www.gotfreefax.com/), this is the cheapest and fastest way to do it. Since there is a limit on the number of faxes you can send per day, combine any of the services described at https://www.lifewire.com/free-fax-services-2378048 to reach all members of the Appropriations Committee. The template has been optimized to only 3 pages-long, hence being possible to be sent through the FaxZero service at no cost.

Right after calling and faxing try to follow up by posting messages in their Twitter and Facebook accounts. You can find their accounts by looking for the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee at https://www.contactingcongress.org/ (select Senate Appropriations from the drop down menu on the upper right corner).  You may also follow up by calling or emailing their staffers in charge of animal welfare issues

Again, I cannot stress any stronger how important is to get the language banning BLM from killing wild horses included in the bill text passed by the appropriations committee. This is the last thing that stands in the way between mustangs and their death at the hands of BLM and the welfare-ranching lobby. If we fail to get this amendment passed, it is game over and you better start kissing wild horses goodbye. We will post further updates, including live ones during the committee ‘s markup sessions in the next few days.

Thank you.

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

Phone                     Fax

(CHAIR) Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)       202-224-5054        202-224-5321

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)             202-224-5744        202-224-3416

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)             202-224-6665        202-224-5301

Sen. John Boozman (R-AR)               202-224-4843        202-228-1371

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)           202-224-3841        202-228-3954

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)               202-224-4041        202-224-9750

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE)                202-224-5042        202-228-3075

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)                202-224-3041        202-228-0285

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HW)               202-224-3934        202-228-1153

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)                202-224-2152        202-228-0400

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS)                202-224-6521        202-228-6966

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)            202-224-2541        202-224-2499

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)               202-224-4623        202-228-0447

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)              202-224-2523        202-224-2693

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)           202-224-4654        202-228-0629

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO)                  202-224-5721        202-224-8149             (Pro-slaughter shill, Don’t bother with him)

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT)                 202-224-2644        202-224-8594         (Don’t bother with him)

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT)               202-224-2651        202-228-1236          (Don’t bother with him)

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)             202-224-2841        202-228-3194

Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM)                  202-224-6621        202-228-3261               (He is our sponsor, no need to contact)

Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND)                202-224-2551        202-224-7999

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK)             202-224-5754        202-228-1015

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)               202-224-3753        202-228-3997

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI)                  202-224-4642        202-224-4680

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)             202-224-5972        202-224-3808              (He is also our sponsor, no need to contact)

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)            202-224-4944        202-228-3398          (Pro-slaughter shill, Don’t bother with him)

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)              202-224-0238        202-224-3479

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)               202-224-2621        202-224-0238

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)              202-224-5653        202-224-9787

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)       202-224-6472        202-224-7665

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)                202-224-3954        202-228-0002

LINK TO FACTSHEET

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zt56mxu8tgohyvz/Senate_Appropriations_Staffers.pdf?dl=0

photo – horsetalk.co.nz

Update:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tjvlhpow10a65me/Senate_Appropriations_Committee_staff.pdf?dl=0

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Oct 6 2017

Advocates File Suit to Stop Illegal Removal of Wild Horses in Wyoming

Equine Photographer, Carol Walker – by R.T. Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Cheyenne, WY (October 6, 2017) . . . The American Wild Horse Campaign and wildlife photographers Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl filed suit today in U.S. District Court in Wyoming to stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from illegally rounding up hundreds of wild horses in a helicopter capture operation currently underway in southwestern Wyoming.

The lawsuit charges the BLM with violating three federal laws by rounding up hundreds more horses than previously disclosed by excluding foals and weanlings from its official count of horses removed from the range. It also challenges the agency’s shipment of captured mustangs to two privately-owned feedlots that are not open to the public for viewing and adoption.

According to attorney William Eubanks of Meyer Glitzenstein and Eubanks, “BLM’s action of permanently removing hundreds more horses than it determined to be excess animals, and which the agency never disclosed to the public nor analyzed in any fashion under relevant environmental laws, is not only unlawful but completely unconscionable in light of the Tenth Circuit’s strongly worded ruling last year telling BLM to comply with federal law when removing horses from these public lands. In some ways, BLM’s new approach is even worse for horses than the old approach that the Tenth Circuit invalidated; BLM is trying every technique possible to remove horses from the range in these HMAs except for following the laws Congress entrusted to the agency.”

It’s the third time the plaintiffs have filed suit to challenge the BLM’s illegal actions in this area known as the Wyoming Checkerboard. Last year the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals handed the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign two precedent setting legal victories related to the BLM’s actions in Wyoming. (More on the Tenth Circuit Decisions hereand here.)

“The BLM has found a new way to wipe out Wyoming’s wild horse herds by pretending that young horses don’t count,” said co-plaintiff Carol Walker, a highly regarded wildlife photographer who is also Director of Field Documentation for the Wild Horse Freedom Federation, a wild horse advocacy organization based in Texas. “The BLM’s stunning lack of concern for the welfare of the wild horses under its care and lack of transparency to the public of its treatment of these horses has never been more evident than during this roundup, “

Walker first learned of the BLM’s plan to remove close to 2,000 wild horses instead of the 1,560 previously disclosed as an observer onsite at the roundup, which began on September 26 and is expected to last 4-6 weeks.

“The BLM just asked Congress for permission to slaughter America’s mustangs over the opposition of 80% of Americans. Now the agency is rounding up hundreds more horses than authorized and sending them to private feedlots in Idaho and Utah where they will never be seen again,” said Suzanne Roy, Executive Director of the American Wild Horse Campaign. “By filing this lawsuit, we’re again taking a stand against this agency’s blatant lack of transparency and total disregard for the will of the American people, the welfare of our wild horses, the federal laws that protect these national icons on our public lands.”

Background

AWHC has led a years-long legal battle against over the BLM’s plan to eradicate wild horses from a two million-acre area of public and private land at the request of the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA). The RSGA owns or leases the private land blocks in the Checkerboard and views wild horses as competition for taxpayer subsidized livestock grazing on public lands. The legal battle has spanned three separate legal actions (RSGA vs. DOI, AWHC vs. DOI (2014), AWHC vs. DOI (2016). 

Less than a year ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued a landmark decision that stops the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from wiping out wild horses from over one million acres of public land in the Wyoming Checkerboard.

This roundup comes on the heels of other roundups, including the removal of approximately 100 horses from the range near Bible Springs, Utah last month. In all cases, the BLM is mum on the impacts of this unprecedented roundup activity on the thousands of wild horses who will be captured and removed from public lands.

These horses are in grave danger of being killed or sold for slaughter if Congress grants the BLM’s 2018 budget request to lift the current prohibition on destroying healthy wild horses and burros or selling them for slaughter. A provision that would allow this practice passed out of the House Appropriations Committee in July and is awaiting action in the Senate.

Oct 6 2017

Horse Slaughter Proponent “Dinky” Zinke Caught Raising Political Funds During Taxpayer-Funded Trips

 By Lorraine Chow as published on EcoWatch

Crooked to the Core, Corrupt Horse Hater “Dinky” Zinke Can’t Keep His Hands Off From YOUR Wallet!!!

“These Fried Filly Fillets are Friggen Lip Smacken Good!”

Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke, who is being investigated for his use of private planes on the taxpayer dime, is under fresh scrutiny for “mixing political gatherings … during official business.”

According to Interior travel records and other documents seen by POLITICO, the secretary has met with GOP donors and political groups more than a half-dozen times while on taxpayer-funded department trips, including a local Republican Party fundraiser in the U.S. Virgin Islands where donors paid up to $5,000 per couple for a photo-op with Zinke.

“Ethics watchdogs say Zinke is combining politics with his Interior duties so frequently that he risks tripping over the prohibitions against using government resources for partisan activity,” POLITCO reports.

Zinke’s trips do not appear to break the law. For instance, his visit to the U.S. Virgin Islands from March 30 to April 1 was an official trip related to the Interior Dept.’s role overseeing the U.S. territory.

But House Democrats criticized the secretary in a letter sent Tuesday that stated that Zinke’s travels “give the appearance that you are mixing political gatherings and personal destinations with official business.”

Zinke has spent about $20,000 on three charter flights since taking office in March but has dismissed the criticisms as “a little B.S.”

Meanwhile, the former Montana Congressman has also been on blast by whistleblower Joel Clement, a senior official at the Interior Dept. The climate change expert, who was reassigned by Zinke to a completely unrelated office that oversees fees and royalty checks from oil and gas companies, has resigned from his position.

In a resignation letter shared with the Huffington Post, he called out Zinke and President Donald Trump for their “poor leadership.”

“Retaliating against civil servants for raising health and safety concerns is unlawful, but there are many items to add to your resume of failure,” Clement wrote to Zinke.

Those failures include “muzzling scientists and policy experts,” an “arbitrary and sloppy review of our treasured National Monuments,” targeting an Obama-era conservation plan for the greater sage grouse, and compromising tribal sovereignty.

“Secretary Zinke, your agenda profoundly undermines the [Interior Department’s] mission and betrays the American people,” he wrote.

https://www.ecowatch.com/zinke-political-fundraising-2493247480.html

Oct 2 2017

Government Watchdog Probes Wild Horse Hater Ryan Zinke’s Use Of Private Planes

By Chris D’Angelo as published on The Huffington Post

Perhaps the controversy is more than “a little BS.”

“See this finger, it ain’t no BS!”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s use of private planes at taxpayers’ expense — a controversy he’s shrugged off as “a little BS” — is being investigated by the Interior Department’s watchdog group, Politico reported Monday.

Interior’s Office of the Inspector General launched a probe late last week after receiving “numerous complaints,” office spokeswoman Nancy K. DiPaolo told Politico.

Last week, it was revealed that Zinke and several staffers had chartered an oil company plane for a flight from Las Vegas to Montana in June, costing taxpayers $12,375. The Washington Post reported that the flight followed a “motivational speech” Zinke gave to the Vegas Golden Knights, the city’s new National Hockey League team. The team is owned by Bill Foley, chairman of Fidelity National Financial. Employees and political action committees affiliated with the company reportedly donated nearly $200,00 to Zinke’s two congressional campaigns.

The Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit government watchdog group, was among the groups that requested OIG look into whether Zinke violated the Hatch Act and conflict-of-interest laws.

“Interior argues that by speaking to a group of highly paid — mostly foreign — athletes, Sec. Zinke was reaching ‘a key audience of people we are trying to target to use our public lands,’” Daniel Stevens, the nonprofit’s executive director, said in a statement Friday. “Shouldn’t Sec. Zinke be more focused on American families and how they can benefit from our national lands? Rather than putting America first, Zinke is putting a top donor first.”

During an energy speech Friday at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Zinke acknowledged using a private plane on three separate occasions, including the trip from Las Vegas to Montana, as well as flights to the Arctic Circle and to the U.S. Virgin Islands. All of those flights, he said, occurred “only after it was determined by multiple career professionals at the department that no commercial options existed to meet the promulgated schedule.” He characterized the media and public’s response as “a little BS.”

“Using tax dollars wisely and ethically is a greatest responsibility and is at the heart of good government,” Zinke said Friday. “And there are times, however, we have to utilize charter services because we often travel in areas and under circumstances that we don’t have other fight options.”

Zinke added he would “always be honest and upfront about my travel,” but plans to continue flying chartered flights and on military planes when necessary or when invited on official duty.

Neither DiPaolo nor the Interior Department immediately responded to HuffPost’s request for comment.

A growing list of Trump administration officials are facing backlash over their use of private or military aircraft for government business.

Tom Price resigned Friday as President Donald Trump’s secretary of health and human services amid investigations into his frequent use of such flights, which have costs taxpayers over $900,000, according to a series of reports by Politico.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt have also traveled lavishly. Pruitt’s non-commercial airfare has cost taxpayers over $58,000, according to reports.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/investigation-ryan-zinke-private-planes_us_59d28d14e4b0f962988929d6?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

Oct 2 2017

Fabulous Fake Facts About American’s Wild Horses and Burros

By Charlotte Roe

“PLEASE call your Senator and share this Misinformation with them before they vote on the Appropriation Bill.  Let them know that you will NOT tolerate the murder of federally protected wild horses and burros.  AND if money is the issue, why in the hell are horses being rounded-up as I type.  It is pure insanity.!” ~ R.T.

http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/white-paper/

3 HMAs destroyed, wild horses gone forever ~ photo of Antelope Complex taken by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

FAKE: Wild horses and burro populations are exploding on the range.

The BLM’s claims that free-roaming equine populations double every four years is not backed by evidence (even their own version of such). Real world population rates are context-specific. They vary widely depending on management techniques, climate, forage, water resources and predation. The BLM’s population estimates are notoriously sketchy, often contradictory, and in many cases biologically impossible. It manages the vast majority of herd management areas at levels below the minimum (150-200) population size for genetic sustainability. The 2013 report of the National Academy of Sciences stated that BLM’s population targets (“appropriate management levels”) are arbitrary, unreasonably inflexible, and not science-based.

FAKE: Wild horses and burros must be removed to prevent range degradation.

Abundant studies document the severe impacts of cows and sheep upon fragile western ecosystems. Environmental damage cannot credibly be blamed predominantly on wild horses and burros. They occupy a fractional part of the ranges lawfully designated for them by the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WFRHBA). Since 1971, the BLM withdrew 22 million acres from federally designated wild horse habitat for commercial uses: taxpayer subsidized corporate ranching, gas, oil, and mining. The ecological footprint of wild horses and burros is supremely light compared to privately owned cows and sheep, which outnumber free-roaming equines on public lands by at least 60 to one. The BLM has never acknowledged or tried to understand the positive impacts of the free-roaming single-hoofed animals which the WFRHBA calls “integral to the range ecology.” They spread seeds. They blaze trails, break ice and open watering holes for other wildlife. They consume fire-prone vegetation and underbrush.

FAKE: Maintaining wild equines in holding bankrupts the BLM.

It costs nothing to maintain wild horses and burros on the range. The BLM says their warehousing costs $50,000 over the lifetime of each captured animal. They claim 46,000 wild horses and burros are held in short or long-term holding facilities. The system of paying long term holding contractos upwards of $39 million annually to keep horses off their rightful ranges and mainly out of public view encourages corruption and fiscal mismanagement. The BLM’s management model is a manufactured crises based upon unprovable numbers. An independent study released in July 2017 found less than half of the wild horses and burros the BLM claims to be underwriting could be accounted for: http://www.wildhoofbeats.com/news/bureau-of-land-management- breaks-rule-of-law-making-extinction-all-but-inevitable-for-wild-horses-and-burros

FAKE: Fertility control is ineffective and costly; the BLM has run out of choices.

In Congressional hearings, Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke and Utah Rep. Chris Stewart and other proponents of killing off thousands of America’s wild horses and burros have stated that birth control doesn’t work and that PZP costs “thousands of dollars a dose.” The PZP fertility control vaccine costs $30 a dose. The longer-lasting PZP-22 vaccine costs $270 for the first injection and $30 for the second. Equine birth control has proved successful in every herd where volunteers or scientific researchers have applied the technique over time. Yet the BLM’s line item for fertility control in FY17 was zero. The Agency prefers tying up its money and staff time to plan roundups and pay millionaire helicopter contractors, in full knowledge that disruptive removals result in increased reproduction rates. Federal land managers have failed to implement key recommendations of the BLM-commissioned 2013 National Academy of Sciences study. For decades, they’ve ignored publicly proposed solutions such as: repatriating geldings and older mares in holding to emptied (zeroed out) herd areas; allowing predators to coexist on the range; supporting public-private partnerships to implement long-range fertility control programs; and raising AMLs to meaningful levels.

FAKE: Because wild horses are starving, euthanasia is a humane option.

The dictionary defines euthanasia as “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (such as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.” Yet wild horses and burros living free on the range are predominantly healthy! Permitting wholesale killing of healthy horses because of special interest pressure is not euthanasia, it is murder. The starving and overpopulating myth is a fabrication of those set on ridding the range of wild horses and wild places. In one example, the BLM circulated old photos from a Nevada herd situation it had enabled by ignoring a foretold drought and refusing to collaborate with local advocates. The BLM has never allocated forage fairly and in accord with the 1971 Act. It is not uncommon for areas emptied of mustangs and burros under the ruse of “starvation and rangeland health” to subsequently be filled with more cows and sheep.

FAKE: Wild horses are an invasive species.

Horses originated on this continent while cows and sheep did not. Their ancestral roots in North America span millions of years, far longer than the “American” bison, whose roots go back only 125,000 years. Scientific evidence demonstrating the horse biologically evolved in this environment is not credibly argued. (Questions simply remain about whether or not the continent had horses when the Spaniards arrived.) Regardless, those brought over by the Conquistadores some five centuries ago are examples of a returned native species. Like the Tahki horse of Mongolia, they are correctly understood as a successful native species reintroduction, not an hostile invasion (i.e. feral pigs). Equine physiologist Jay Kirkpatrick wrote that “the non‐native, feral, and exotic designations given by agencies are not merely reflections of their failure to understand modern science, but also a reflection of their desire to ….keep alive the conflict” between wild horses and ranchers.

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