With no advanced commentary or notice my wife, and talented photographer, Terry and I have arrived at the Twin Peaks stampede. I flew directly from the other side of the world to meet Terry in Denver, who had just been in the Pryor Mts., and then on to Reno to tag up with Laura Leigh, Coordinator of Herd Watch.
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.
Babies screaming for their mothers, lame horses, horses down and this is all for the good of the wild horses?!?!?
Arriving at the Litchfield Holding Facility at around 6:00 a.m., just before dawn, we were briefed by ‘Jeff’, a uniformed BLM representative on the rules of conduct. Most pointed: Disruptions or jeopardizing of safety would discontinue regular observation day. This was punctuated by 3 armed Law Enforcement officers; one, wore a Kevlar vest.
California doesn’t have many wild horses and very few wild burros left but that, along with a public outcry, has not stopped the Bureau of Land Management from rounding up thousands more of California’s wild equids. The BLM, responsible for managing most of the remaining wild horses and burros in ten Western States, are now running horses ten miles or more over rough volcanic terrain with helicopters. Horses bleeding from their noses in the thick dust, very young foals separated from their mothers, a mare with a broken leg and a colicking mare have been observed by a dedicated team of advocates observing the Twin Peaks roundup.
A lawyer at the center of several legal challenges to wild horse roundups has written to the United States Attorney General asking him to ensure that the federal agency behind the roundups meets its legal obligations.
HOUSTON – (SFTHH) The BLM’s much contested Twin Peaks stampede began amidst a cloud of controversy on August 11th in Northeastern California. The aerial assault is scheduled to last 6 weeks with a total of 2,000 wild horses and burros set to be placed behind bars to endure a lifetime of imprisonment and potential sterility. Setting the stage paranoid BLM officials over reacted by calling in county Sheriff Deputies and Federal Rangers in the advent that a passive equine welfare advocate might “do something” to disrupt the roar of helicopter blades and stampeding horses. Much to their chagrin, nothing happened.
HOUSTON (SFTHH) – Yesterday, a federal appeals court rejected a plea to stop a planned Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundup stampede of thousands of wild horses and burros in Northern California.
Investigative journalist/author/editor/publisher Steven Long of Houston, Texas has uncovered yet another glaring, corrupt distortion of truth and regulation by controversial Secretary of the Department of Interior (DoI) Ken Salazar’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Within a recent article in Horseback Magazine Long exposes the fact that the BLM’s secret “No Fly Zones” over their aerial attacks on native wild horses is a figment of their own imagination, proving that America has been duped for years by the malevolent federal agency.
SACREMENTO – Attorney Stuart Gross of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy on behalf of In Defense of Animals et al., will file an emergency stay Friday morning (August 6) to prevent next Monday’s (August 9) scheduled helicopter roundup of over 2,000 of the last wild horses and 200 burros in California from the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area north of Susanville. This afternoon Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. denied Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction.
Click-on book cover to learn more
Terry & R.T. Fitch Featured
Follow R.T. on Facebook
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Most Recent Comments