"The love for a horse is just as complicated as the love for another human being... If you never love a horse, you will never understand."
~ Author Unknown
Government Lawyers Mislead Federal Judge on Wild Horse Water
July 21, 2010
By Steven Long
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.”
Leigh has filed briefs charging the BLM with contempt of court.
Ike has passed on by, and I guess Galveston is still there - part of it anyway. If you've never been to Galveston you can't truly appreciate what's been lost. Galveston is/was a lovely city. I'd love to live there if it weren't for the hurricanes.
I'm sure it will be pouring rain in my home town of Dallas as well. There will be street floodings, but it will still be nothing like Galveston. I was still living in Dallas in the 1960s when Carla hit about the same area. It seemed it would never stop raining in Dallas that time.
We here in Indiana had some heavy rain and gusty wind from the remains of Ike yesterday afternoon. We could have used the rain a couple of weeks ago. Now, it's too late to help the farmers, and the yields of soybeans and corn will likely be hurt from the weeks of no rain we had. Well, as far as us personally, we weren't planning on a third cutting of hay anyway - good thing because there isn't going to be one - and this rain will perk up the grass enough so that Indy and Ami will have something to nibble on over the winter.
Since this post is pretty much off topic anyway, I might as well get into deeper water - no pun intended, believe me. It's just that I have a rule to keep politics off this blog. It's totally off topic here. This blog is about Indy, and he's about the most apolitical being I know.
Actually, I'm apolitical myself. As a somewhat conservative independent, I usually don't want to have to admit I voted for either of the bozos that are on the presidential ticket. Over the years though I've tended toward the Republican party because of my conservative leanings. But, things have changed.......
In recent years - and especially under George W. Bush - the Republicans have begun pandering to a sliver of a sliver of religious extreemests who want to turn our country into a Theocracy - their Theoracy of course - and then take us back to the Dark Ages by declaring war on the basic tenets of virtually all branches of science in favor of their particular version of the creation story. I find this terrifying.
In spite of these strong misgivings, I was at least considering McCain until he selected Sarah Palin as his running mate and then started well, lying about practically everything.
For McCain to choose Palin after accusing Obama of being inexperienced would be funny if it weren't so serious. It was especially incumbent upon McCain to choose a running mate who would be able to run the country in his absence because, let's face it, McCain is 71 years old plus having had a run in with an extremely virulent form of cancer. Like it or not, he's much more vulnerable than Obama in this regard.
If McCain chose Palin because he honestly thinks she is a good choice, this throws his judgment in serious doubt. If he chose her because he thought she could grab votes that he otherwise would not have gotten, this throws even more serious doubt on his integrity. I'm really sorry to have to say this, but the truth is the truth. As far as I'm concerned, a McCain/Palin victory is unthinkable.
Even if I agreed with her views - which I do not - I would still realize that she absolutely cannot be ready to take over the most important, most difficult, most complicated job in the world. It's simply not possible.
Besides, as I said earlier, I've lost all faith in John McCain. I had previously thought that probably either one of them could handle the job, come right down to it. Now?
I plan to do everything in my power to see to it that Barack Obama is our next President.
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.
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