BLM Investigated About Horses At Slaughter Auction |
Wild horses are federally protected and cannot be sold in slaughter auctions. Feral domestic horses are not covered by the same laws. The two groups can look identical. |
Animal advocates and Congress want the Bureau of Land Management to explain the criteria they use to determine which horse gets to live and which horse will die. |
BLM’s policy came under fire after 172 mustangs from the 2010 Nevada roundups were sent to a slaughter auction in July. The auction was attended by buyers from slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. Animal advocates say the horses are federally protected mustangs. |
Contempt of Court Re-filed Against Ken Salazar and BLM |
By ROBERT WINKLER
RENO, Nevada – On July 30th
Laura Leigh re-filed Contempt of Court charges against Ken Salazar, Secretary ofthe Department of the Interior, Bob Abbey, Director of the BLM and Ron Wenker, Nevada State Director of the BLM in regard to what BLM calls the “Tuscarora wild horse gather.” The BLM continually refers to the three herd management areas of Owyhee, Rock Creek and Little Humboldt under one umbrella name of Tuscarora. Thejudge, at the time of hearing earlier motions, recognized that Tuscarora was
three herds and not one as BLM would like people to believe. |
Adding to what seems like a deliberate move to create confusion, every day the gather schedules change. At present the BLM website, touted in BLM press releases as the only place for correct information, has two completely different gather schedules posted. If a person really wants to know the true schedule they have to contact the appropriatefield offices. It would seem to even the casual observer to be a shell game of now you see it, now you don’t. |
The judge denied the original motion to hear the case based on the parameters set forth in a statute known as the Winters standard. This is the standard by which actions seeking injunctive relief are judged on their merit. On July 28, 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals modified its position on the test used to determine the element, “likelihood of success on the merits” when granting or denying injunctive relief under the Winters decision. The circuit court reaffirmed the use of its sliding scale method, finding it consistent with Winters. |
The law change opened the door for the re-filing under the new guidelines. “We are not going away,” said Laura Leigh, plaintiff in the lawsuit brought about through the support of Grass Roots Horse, a citizen action group. Support for Laura Leigh’s court action is coming in from people all over the country. “Some people are donating to further the cause with $3.00 donations,” said Maureen VanDerStad, member of Grass Roots Horse. “That tells it all right there. People are so fed up with the mismanagement of the wild horses and burros that they want to be a part of doing something to stop it. The blatant disregard for our First Amendment rights by BLM and the cruel and inhumane treatment of the wild horses, which belong to the American people, has spurred the movement on with a vengeance,” she further states. |
Laura Leigh is an artist, author and journalist who is best known for her work in documenting wild horses. She is the founder and director of Herd Watch, a citizen group that monitors the actions of the BLM and the Wild Horse and Burro Program. Full reports documenting range conditions in herd management areas and the condition of the horses themselves are conducted by Herd Watch with a
meticulous eye for detail. |
Yesterday at the Nevada State Legislative meeting, the main focus was on the implications of the Western Watershed Organization’s multi-million dollar settlement with Ruby Corporaton, representing Ruby Pipeline. The Wild Horse and Burro Program came into the discussion and Laura Leigh was there to set the record straight. “Sitting in the audience it was really interesting to see the cattlemen bringing up the very same issues of the difficulties of dealing with the BLM that the wild horse advocates have been dealing with for years. If people do not support accountability in government, it is easy to see how that failure to demand accountability and transparency can turn against them,” Laura Leigh said. |
To read the legal filings, donate to the legal fund, or volunteer please visit www.grassrootshorse.com where there are links to the best sites with more information on the issue. |
Government Spin Machine Goes into Overdrive in Wild Horse Case |
 The Bureau of Land Management is the federal agency within the Department of Interior that is tasked with protecting wild horses and burros. |
But someone needs to tell the BLM that. |
The Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act is specific in requiring BLM to protect wild horses and burros as "components" of the public lands, free from "harassment" and "capture," and manage them at the "minimal feasible level" to maintain "free -roaming" behavior. Instead, BLM has turned the Act on its head, managing these animals primarily by rounding them up and placing them in long term holding facilities. |
Two federal judges have already warned BLM that its policy of keeping wild horses and burros in long term holding facilities may not be legal. |
This past week, Laura Leigh filed a lawsuit in Nevada federal court asking Judge Larry Hicks to order BLM to delay the Tuscarora roundup until after foaling season, and also to allow media access to the roundup.
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Government Lawyers Mislead Federal Judge on Wild Horse Water |
 HOUSTON, (Horseback) – When Laura Leigh, an author, artist, journalist, and litigant chased the BLM into the desert to observe wild horse capture after a federal judge told her she could do so, she wasn’t allowed to see horses – but she did see water. |
Judge Larry Hicks lifted his temporary injunction and permitted the federal Bureau of Land Management to capture horses in the fierce July desert heat of Nevada. As in previous death chases, the result was predictable. Horses dropped after being relentlessly stampeded by a roaring helicopter owned by BLM contractor, Cattoor Livestock Roundups out of Nephi, Utah. The federal agency had lied to the judge, telling him that death by thirst was imminent if they weren’t removed. |
Thus far, 21 horses and foals have died after the latest high summer stampedes. |
Hicks granted the plaintiff, Leigh, a first amendment stake in the chase. He told her it was unconstitutional for the BLM to ban her from observing the horses. In reply, the agency pulled off a cowboy hat trick of sorts in the desert. They moved the trap, the pen where the wild animals were to be driven, onto private land in a mountain canyon out of sight and then told the sheriff’s cops to arrest trespassers, including the litigant who had just won the right to see what BLM was doing in their “gather” first hand. |
While Leigh didn’t get to see the objects of the BLM chase, North American Mustangs, she spotted something equally important and precious in the desert – water at the fenced off Desert Ranch Reservoir. |
“While the reservoir is located on BLM public land, the water in the reservoir is privately owned (i.e., the private owner holds the water rights in accordance with State of Nevada water law),” said BLM’s Washington spokesman, Tom Gorey. “The reservoir is mostly fenced, but the fences are constructed in a manner that allows wild horses access to the privately owned water in at least three locations. As a result, wild horses are able to move freely to and from the water using the large gaps in the fencing. In short, access to the reservoir water by wild horses is not blocked.” |
If access to the water hole was open in three places, Leigh had caught the BLM lying to a federal judge. |
“Desert Ranch Reservoir on public land is less than 5 miles from the trap site,” Leigh told Horseback Magazine late Monday. “BLM has the authority to utilize resources on private property to deal with emergencies. (BLM Director Bob) Abbey declared this issue in Owyhee an emergency.” |
Gorey acknowledged late Tuesday that there is water available to the horses that are being stampeded by the BLM contractor. |
“In general, water within the Owyhee Herd Management Area (HMA) is provided primarily by unfenced public land reservoirs (water catchments),” he said. “There is also one spring, called Bookkeeper Spring, which is located on unfenced private land within the HMA. This spring is normally adequate to water a small number of wild horses, but because of drought conditions, there is very little water available for use this year.” |
Claiming extreme drought conditions, the BLM has delivered more than 30,000 gallons of water to the horses in the Owyhee HMA since Monday. |
By admitting that water on public land is privately owned, Gorey raised a significant issue. What was the federal government thinking when it privatized an asset as precious as desert water, selling it out of government control? Moreover, when was it sold, for how much, and to whom? |
“My assumption is that the BLM has never held the right to this water,” Gorey said. |
It the government doesn’t own the water on federal land, who owns it? |
Gorey has promised to research the ownership issue of water BLM lawyers claimed was nonexistent, so scarce, the deaths of hundreds of otherwise healthy horses and foals was imminent. |
“Why did the BLM choose to press a stressed population through the round up instead of stabilizing the situation and waiting?” Leigh asked. “The claims made in the report given to a federal judge outline a population so fragile that BLM projected would be dead in three days (if the agency was not allowed to round them up.)” |
“In the event of an emergency (such as one declared by Bob Abbey in this case, |
the BLM can utilize resources on private land (not just public) and reimburse |
the landowner,” Leigh said. “If the horses were gong to die off at the rate of 75 percent they had the authority to open gates.” |
"From my earliest memories, I have loved horses with a longing beyond words." ~ Robert Vavra
