Tag: The Cloud Foundation

Wild Horses Symbolize U.S. Freedom

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The image of hundreds of wild horses freely roaming the open terrain in the American West is reminiscent of times past and our country’s trailblazing heritage. However, on July 10, the 200 wild horses galloping frantically across a breathtaking Nevada plain, with dust swirling around their sweaty bodies, were running in fear. With dry summer heat reaching 95 degrees, these horses were forced to run for miles over rough volcanic rock in an attempt to escape the government’s low-flying helicopter in pursuit. It is foaling season and many of the mares and foals were weak from their recent pregnancy or from giving birth.

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The Cloud Foundation Expands Lawsuit to Protect “Cloud’s” Wild Horse Herd

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Washington, D.C. (July 23, 2010)—On July 21 the Colorado-based Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue and author/advocate Carol Walker filed an amended complaint in Federal District Court to add the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to their current suit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The suit challenges both agencies’ rejection of a Natural Management Approach for the herd and the planned construction of a two-mile long fence which would cut off the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Herd from crucial summer and fall grazing lands they’ve used for centuries. This small herd is the world’s most famous and the last remaining in Montana, sometimes called “Cloud’s herd” for the now-15-year old band stallion who TCF Director and plaintiff Ginger Kathrens has documented for the popular PBS Nature series. The herd traces its history back to the horses of the Spanish Conquistadors, the Lewis and Clark expedition horses, and Crow Indian War ponies. Plaintiffs contend that the USFS and BLM are engaging in illegal treatment of these federally-protected mustangs and that the Pryor Wild Horses are entitled to use lands in the Custer National Forest, currently not included in the designated range.

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Opposition Grows for California Roundup of 2,500 Wild Horses and Burros

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San Francisco, CA (July 7, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation opposes and is calling for a stop to the proposed roundup of over 2,500 mustangs and burros from one of the last viable herds in California. To avoid conflicting with deer hunting season, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to unleash contracted helicopters in the August heat to round up 2,500 mustangs and burros, including their young foals, from the Twin Peaks Range near Susanville. Vastly outnumbered by thousands of corporate-owned destructive livestock, the public’s wild horses and burros are the BLM’s scapegoats for damage on the range. Over 2,000 are now slated for removal despite healthy range conditions and an outdated census.

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The BLM’s Snow Job About Water on the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area

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When we were on the June 14, 2010 public tour of the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA), the BLM said the BIG REASON they had to round-up our wild horses was because there WASN’T ENOUGH WATER. They took us by a spring east of Observation Peak, which was fenced off because it was on PRIVATE PROPERTY. The BLM said this spring fed Smoke Creek, which went south of the area. Aside from the actual spring itself, most of the creek/water runs south on public lands through the Twin Peaks Wilderness Study Area to the Smoke Creek Resevoir. The BLM took us to a cow-poop laden riparian area, showed us what looked like a puddle of water and talked more about how there was hardly any water and how all the creeks dry up in the summer.

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Cloud Foundation: Video of BLM Workshop and Meeting Online

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The Cloud Foundation, with thanks to Xtomic and our website creator, Jay Ferguson, live-streamed the Department of Interior Public Workshop (June 14) and the BLM Public Advisory Board Meeting in Denver, Colorado (June 15). We felt that the public workshop was an excellent start and look forward to future workshops and conference in which the DOI (and specifically BLM) begins to work with the public to manage our wild herds. Step one is to enact an immediate moratorium on the ongoing roundups.

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Two Plead Guilty to Killing Wild Horses in Nevada

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Reno, NV (June 16, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation has learned that Todd Davis and Joshua Keathley have changed their pleas this morning from not guilty to guilty, waiving their planned trial in the case of shooting five free-roaming horses in northwestern Nevada (about 40 miles southeast of Cedarville, California). The pleas were made in Federal Court in Reno before US Magistrate Judge Robert McQuaid.

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Spin Doctors Hired for the Destruction of America’s Wild Horse and Burro Herds

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Denver, CO (June 14, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation has learned that the San Francisco based public relations and public affairs firm, Kearns and West, with ties to big energy and offices across the country, has been hired to push the Salazar Plan for Wild Horses and Burros through Congress in Fall 2010—despite public outrage. Kearns and West has expertise in crisis management as well as accomplishing policy and regulatory goals. Their clients range from Mineral Management Services (MMS) and PG&E to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Department of Interior (DOI) has enlisted the firm using the Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (ECR) as the go between. Senior mediator of Kearns and West, J. Michael Harty will facilitate an unprecedented public workshop in Denver, Colorado at the Magnolia Hotel, 818 17th Street, on June 14th followed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Public Advisory Board Meeting on June 15th. Both days will be live-streamed and viewing available on http://www.thecloudfoundation.org. The public and members of Congress are encouraged to watch. The public will protest on June 15th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with a press conference at noon.

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The BLM Distorts Truth but the Facts Speak: The Calico Herd is GONE

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How does one express what is going on. It is a scientific fact that the wild horses are a benefit to the range land and its biodiversity based upon there physiological makeup, grazing habits, and over all free roaming behavior. It is just as much a scientific fact the detrimental effects of cattle on the range land and its water sources, yet the BLM have raped the land of its horses and continue to increase cattle grazing in the area, at the taxpayers expense, all under the guise of establishing appropriate management levels of wild horses. Yet nature has been establishing what are considered appropriate management levels of all forms of wildlife including the wild horses for thousands of years, based upon environmental and predatory conditions, and doing an excellent job of it. Yes, there are continual fluctuations of numbers of varying species but all in ecological balance based upon natures mandate.

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The Group that Cried Wolf

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If there is one thing you learn as an equine welfare advocate, it is perseverance. You learn that change never happens overnight. You learn to accept change with little victories. You learn that weeks turn into months and months into years. You learn that for change to occur, you must stay steady on your path. You learn that you cannot do it alone and that you must work with and engage people that may have differing opinions on the road to a mutual goal. You learn which battles to fight and which battles will draw you closer to your goal

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