Oklahoma City, OK (R4H) – While last year the two conferences representing opposing sides of the explosive Horse Slaughter Debate took place in Las Vegas, this year’s Equine battleground was set to play out in Oklahoma City no farther than one city block away from each other.
In March 2011, Lisa Friday’s video camera made a difference. On a late winter day, Friday visited a herd of wild horses penned at the Bureau of Land Management’s Butterfield/Herrimen holding facility in southwest Utah. What she saw there, and what she lawfully recorded, was appalling. “Never in my entire life have I seen animals in such squalor,” she said this past weekend from her home in Virginia. “There was no place for any horse to escape.”
It is rare that we can look back over a week that has passed and find more good news than bad but in reviewing the past week, there have been a lot of good things that have occurred for the wild horse and burro advocacy that should not go recognized.
I know many of you have already sent in your comments to the BLM regarding the planned permanent removal of 30 young Pryor mustangs, but I’d like you to consider adding a special plea for Echo, Cloud’s little grandson (BLM name is Killian).
In April 2010, Bolder’s black mare, Cascade, gave birth to a pale colt. It was early May before Makendra and I could get up on the Pryors to look for the colt that supposedly looked like Cloud. We spotted Bolder and his family far out on a still snowy, finger-like ridge on Sykes. We could see a little colt lying in the snow under a juniper tree. He looked snow white but, on closer examination, I could see his stockings and the blaze on his face. On the tip of his nose he had a pink snip, just like his great grandpa Raven, his grandpa Cloud, and his father, Bolder.
The BLM is proposing another significant removal of wild horses on the Pryor Mountains. I know. Just when you thought it was safe… they’re back!
BLM’s recently released Environmental Assessment (EA) seeks to remove via bait trapping and potentially water trapping, 30 young Pryor mustangs, ages 1-3 years. Bait and/or water trapping could begin as early as mid-January. Comments are due by January 6, 2012. We urge you to comment and to support the NO Action Alternative, the only alternative that keeps a viable population of horses on the mountain.
Washington, D.C. – Last night, November 14, 2011, a Congressional Conference Committee tasked with reconciling differing House and Senate versions of the FY 2012 consolidated appropriations for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science and Transportation, issued a report failing to recommend de-funding of inspections of equines for slaughter for human consumption. This means for the first time since 2006, and in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, Americans would be required to subsidize a foreign owned industry that exports horsemeat served as a delicacy in fine restaurants in some European and other countries.
The BLM Billings Field Office mailed a Scoping Letter to interested parties on July 28th, stating their intent to reach an “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) of 90-120 adult wild horses, one year of age and older in the Pryor Mountains. If they carry out this plan 45 to as many as 75 horses would be removed in 2012. We cannot allow this to happen.
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – Within hours of an adverse ruling for wild horse advocates attempting to halt a Navade “gather” and stampede in the heat of summer, a federal appellate court has granted a temporary restraining order. The federal Bureau of Land Management will be unable to proceed with it’s planned roundup, according to the Chicago based Equine Welfare Alliance, a consortium of more than 800 horse advocates and scores of equine welfare organizations.
Second Chance for the Wild Horses? RENO, Nev. — A federal appeals judge on Friday night granted a temporary injunction to halt a government roundup of about 1,700 wild horses from the range in Nevada. Judge Richard Paez of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the […]
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