Brutal captures and deaths of American wild horses are occurring on the range. This is not a fictional western gone bad but federal policy. The government tries to justify this cruelty with junk science and is sheltered in its actions by procedural barriers and judicial deference. For nearly four decades, federal contractors have been capturing wild horses and burros across the western United States under the guise of “management” pursuant to the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.[1] The horses are often chased down by helicopters, sometimes for miles through rough terrain in the heat of summer, lassoed, and forced to the ground and then into trailers.
Not highly publicized but on Friday we filed a Temporary Restraining Order and attempted to stop the Bureau of Land Management’s deadly Piceanse- North Douglas roundup as the BLM’s contractor had choked down and killed a mare on Thursday, the preceding day. The court issued a stern warning to the BLM but allowed them to proceed while on the very same day of our filing the BLM killed a 7 month old foal and 3 year old mare bringing their murder count up to 3 which is a total mortality rate of 10% of all horses gathered up until that date.
Today, Director Bob Abbey, Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a statement which in a nutshell says that the “BLM’s goal is to enable healthy horses and burros to thrive on public lands”. In the real world I would love to believe those words but the reality of the matter is that the statement is as far from the truth as is the freedom of 38,000 wild horses held in pens with no hope of living out their normal lives.
We are writing to you today on behalf of the Equine Welfare Alliance and its members regarding your article in the JAVMA entitled, Mexico, Canada increase horse slaughter production [http://www.avma. org/onlnews/ javma/may10/ 100515o.asp].
The number of deaths continue to grow as the captured Calico Wild Horses slip away one by one; there has been a death every day for the past three days.
HOUSTON, (Horseback Magazine) – If stealth legislation attached to a catch-all senate bill passes in the Missouri legislature, Europeans should beware. Poison tainted meat could be heading their way.
Only weeks into serving his sentence, Jason Meduna has been denied an appeal bond on his 145 felony convictions for allowing wild horses and burros on his 3 Strikes Mustang Ranch to starve to death.
I swear, there’s just no winning for losing. Only hours after we heard that the BLM had postponed the highly controversial Eagle round-up we learn that another assault is being planned at the Twin Peaks Management area in southeastern California. Same bad numbers, same junk science and twisted interpretation of the law.
By MAUNETTE LOEKS BRIDGEPORT — A Morrill County District Court jury deliberated six hours before returning a guilty verdict in the case against Jason Meduna. Meduna was accused of 149 counts of animal abuse, a Class IV felony. The jury found him guilty of 145 counts. Seven initial […]
An Opinionated Update on the Woman that every Horse Loves to Hate by R.T. Fitch – Equine Advocate and author of “Straight from the Horse’s Heart“ Over the past several weeks the bulk of the world celebrated the birth of new beginnings and entertained nostalgic visions of festive […]
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
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