Update: SFTHH has just received a phone call that the Nevada Legislators did not pass the controversial bill AB329 which would have stripped wild horses and burros of their “wildlife” classification and left them without access to water in the one of the country’s most arid states.
The Bureau of Land Management announced today that it has made selections for three positions on the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. The BLM has selected Robert Bray, Ph.D., as a new appointee for the category of Wild Horse and Burro Research, James Stephenson as a new appointee for the category of Natural Resource Management, and Julie Gleason as a new appointee for the category of Public Interest (with knowledge of equine behavior). These individuals will each serve three-year terms as members of the Advisory Board.
In my opinion, one of my biggest concerns is that this Environmental Assessment is based on flawed reasoning and for reasons listed below is, basically, fraud against the American public, no matter what “authorizations” it hides behind.
The Bureau of Land Management and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have begun a five-year wild horse contraceptive study at the BLM’s short-term holding facility in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. The pasture breeding study will test the effectiveness of two formulations of the investigational contraceptive vaccine SpayVac® to determine if the treatment can reduce foaling rates in wild horse mares.
Recently a federal judge dealt another blow to “welfare” ranchers by reaffirming his late-February decision to halt grazing of private cattle on 17 Bureau of Land Management allotments covering some 450,000 acres in southern Idaho.
It is no secret that BLM’s program for the wild horses and burros is to round them up, remove them from the range and warehouse them in holding facilities. What is a mystery is why taxpayers would foot the bill for managing wild animals in this way.
Coming in with a first place ribbon was wild horse advocate Terry Fitch’s photograph of “Dueling Band Stallions” capturing the top honors for the People’s Choice Amateur award. The photo was actually placed in fourth position by the judges in the category of “Extreme Action” but public demand and interest rocketed it to a solid first in “People’s Choice”. Dueling Band Stallions was shot last year in the Pryor Mountains of Montana where Fitch was visiting the herd of wild horse stallion “Cloud” made famous by Emmy award winning cinematographer Ginger Kathrens.
Come on Advocates, this is one message that needs to be spread around to anyone that you know or who you have met. If Wild Horse Annie did with school children writing letters to Congress we can SURELY do with the high tech tools that we have at hand. Make a difference, hit the buttons below and spread the word for the sake of the horses and burros.
Many wild horse advocates made their opinions perfectly clear, in person, to the Bureau of Land Management’s Advisory Board, during their mid-March meeting, on the issue of the BLM’s “new direction” in how the agency will mismanage the remaining few wild horses and burros that remain on their federally protected public land. Now, for those of you who could not attend, you have the opportunity to speak your mind.
BLM video of public comment session at March 10-11, 2011 Advisory Board Meeting
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