WSJ Serves Up Tainted Journalism On Horse Slaughter Plate

WSJ Serves Up Tainted Journalism On Horse Slaughter Plate

First the News Corp. phone-hacking scandal...now this?

Vickery Eckhoff Contributor
 
Wall Street Journal reporters Douglas Belkin and Nathan Koppel are in good company. On May 4, they published an article on horse slaughter so eerily similar to articles appearing in a variety of unrelated publications, even ol’ Rupert Murdoch himself might be left wondering.

How did they all end up using the same specific phrases and anecdotes? Twist so many of the same key facts? Quote the same people and ultimately, critically, leave out so much available data on the issue? Were journalists cribbing off a PR script prepared by the horse-slaughter lobby? Has anyone called Scotland Yard?

Origins of a Disinformation Campaign: Rebranding Slaughter

The horse-slaughter lobby represents a handful of powerful industries looking to bring horse slaughter back to the U.S.: meat packers and slaughter operators, for one thing. Cattle ranchers and the Farm Bureau. Then there’s the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and pharmaceutical companies (like the makers of  Read Premarin). Finally, there are the horse breeders and breed registries like the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) and American Paint Horse Association (APHA).

Naturally, they don’t like being identified as the “horse-slaughter lobby.” That sounds too mean. Instead, they call themselves “the horse industry.” This may sound like a generic classification for horse-related businesses and professionals, but it’s not.

You can own a racing stable, breed or show horses or run a veterinary practice, but if you’re among the 80% of Americans opposed to slaughtering horses, you’re not official “horse industry” according to “horse industry” people. They’ve appropriated that term to make their views seem mainstream, all while painting public opposition to slaughter as emotional and dangerous animal-rights driven extremism.

This is all a clever bit of disinformation, since 80% of the public is a very large group of Americans. It includes a long, bipartisan list of the members of Congress, business leaders and professionals both in and out of the horse world, entertainers and regular old Americans—all of them opposed to slaughtering horses in the U.S. or exporting them to slaughter.

Currently, horses are being exported to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. This has been going on for years, even when U.S. slaughterhouses were open. What has changed is the provision for federal horse slaughter inspections ready to lunge forward thanks to a closed-door session that took place in November, 2011.

Essentially, three pro-slaughter U.S. Congressmen removed language banning inspections of horse-slaughter operations in an agricultural appropriations bill that was signed by Congress and President Obama.

The “horse industry” is doing all it can to seize the opportunity and push horse slaughter down the American public’s throat—with the right PR and the media’s help.

The distinctions—between the pro-and anti-slaughter sides and between foreign and domestic slaughter—are important for the public to know because key legislation is being pushed at the local, state and federal level.

Please read more about this great disinformation campaign here.

 

State Officials, Humane Groups Oppose Proposed Horse Slaughter Plant in New Mexico

Reblogged from Horseback Magazine: http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/15151

State Officials, Humane Groups Oppose Proposed Horse Slaughter Plant in New Mexico

April 13, 2012

Governor and Attorney General Blast New Mexico Plant

WASHINGTON, (ASPCA —The Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), Front Range Equine Rescue and Animal Protection of New Mexico condemn plans to open a horse slaughter plant in Roswell, N.M.

The plans for the slaughterhouse were uncovered in an investigation by Front Range Equine Rescue, a Colorado-based equine rescue organization. The proposed facility would be operated by Valley Meat Co., LLC, a company in Roswell that has already applied with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service for inspection of the slaughter of equines for human consumption. According to Front Range’s investigators, FSIS officials were scheduled to conduct a preliminary walk-through inspection of Valley Meat’s facility last month. USDA temporarily suspended inspections of cattle slaughter at Valley Meat Co. in February 2012 and November 2011 due to failure to comply with humane slaughter regulations.

“A horse slaughtering plant in Roswell is a terrible idea,” said New Mexico Attorney General Gary King. “Such a practice, while not illegal, is certainly abhorrent to public sentiment, and I strongly suggest it be abandoned. I come from a ranching family but processing horses for food was never part of the plan for raising livestock. Horses are different and should be treated differently.”

“As a veterinarian and someone who has had the great good fortune to grow up with and around horses, I am very saddened and angry about the recent revelations of mistreatment of horses in New Mexico,” said New Mexico State Land Commissioner Ray Powell. “If a horse is hurt, terminally ill, or has no chance to find a loving home, then humane euthanasia is a realistic alternative. I am told New Mexico is entertaining the idea of a horse slaughtering facility in our state. Since we do not have the horses in New Mexico to make this economically viable, it means horses would be trucked in from surrounding states. This is a bad idea on every level, and I strongly oppose it. New Mexico can do much better by these intelligent and gentle creatures.”

“Horse slaughter means tremendous suffering of horses, a proven history of environmental and waste violations, and allowing a toxic meat product to enter the human food chain,” said Hilary Wood, president and founder of Front Range Equine Rescue. “Solutions to horse slaughter include stopping irresponsible breeding practices, more gelding and euthanasia assistance programs, re-homing and re-training options, and short-term owner assistance programs. Horse slaughter has no place in the U.S. or across our borders.”

“American horses are our partners in sport, work and recreation—not dinner,” said Keith Dane, director of equine protection for The HSUS. “The entire process of horse slaughter is filled with nonstop terror, pain and misery for horses, and it is proven to have a severe negative impact on surrounding communities. It would be irresponsible for the federal government to sign off on a predatory industry that has no regard for animal or human welfare.”

“New Mexicans have a deep and enduring appreciation for horses, especially given their important role in our state’s rural way of life. It’s an affront to our citizens to suggest bringing the cruel, dangerous and polluting enterprise of horse slaughter to New Mexico as we celebrate our state’s centennial,” said Elisabeth Jennings, executive director of Animal Protection of New Mexico.
“The overwhelming majority of Americans are intensely opposed to this cruel practice, and as more people learn that we are allowing our horses to be shuttled off to gruesome deaths all for the sake of foreign gourmands, they are outraged, and opposition to this grisly practice is growing,” said Nancy Perry, senior vice president of ASPCA Government Relations. “Horse slaughter plants abuse more than just horses as they have proved economically and environmentally disastrous to communities in other states.”

In November 2011, Congress chose not to renew a ban on funding federal inspectors at horse slaughter plants in the United States, even though a similar provision has been part of the agriculture department’s spending bill for the past five years. That action opened the door for a return of horse slaughter to American soil, including taxpayer funded inspections of horse meat destined to be sent abroad, despite broad opposition in this country to the practice. A January 2012 poll commissioned by the ASPCA confirms that 80 percent of American voters oppose the slaughter of horses for human consumption.

When the last three horse slaughter plants in the U.S. closed, the surrounding communities cheered. These communities had endured water pollution, an unending stench of rotting blood and offal, and a negative stigma that caused other businesses to leave the community. The slaughter plants employed no more than a few dozen employees in low-paying, dangerous, high-stress jobs. In their quest for higher profits, the foreign-owned companies did their best to avoid paying property taxes and the fines levied against them for environmental violations.

Additionally, it is unclear how Valley Meat Co. or the USDA would address the medications, vaccines and other substances that are routinely given to American horses and are known to be poisonous if consumed by humans. Earlier this year, The HSUS announced its intention to pursue legal action if the federal government failed to follow required protocols to ensure that food safety and environmental review requirements were observed.

Last month, The HSUS joined Front Range Equine Rescue in filing a petition with the Food and Drug Administration to declare the meat of former companion, show, and working animals to be unfit for human consumption due to the risk of the meat containing toxic residues. Last week, the two groups filed a separate petition with the USDA to ban the slaughter for human consumption of such animals for the same reasons.

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Front Range Equine Rescue Discovers New Mexico Horse Slaughter Plant

Breaking News

FRONT RANGE EQUINE RESCUE DISCOVERS NEW MEXICO HORSE SLAUGHTER PLANT

April 10, 2012 (Larkspur, Colorado) -- Through its own investigation, Front Range Equine
Rescue (FRER) has discovered that Valley Meats Co., 3845 Cedarvale Rd., in Roswell, NM, has
applied for inspection of horses to be “custom slaughtered” and “processed” for human
consumption.  According to the facts uncovered, the facility has been involved in extended
discussions with the Denver office of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).  The FSIS
inspects animals and meat in American slaughterhouses under the auspices of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.

Horse slaughter for food is a national disgrace, given the iconic nature of American horses and
the especially brutal methods used to kill them.  FRER has mounted an extensive legal battle to
keep American horses from being slaughtered for food, in or out of the country, in light of last
November’s Congressional appropriation of funding for horse meat inspections.  In the last three
weeks, along with the Humane Society of the United States, FRER has filed two Petitions for
Rule-making [http://frontrangeequinerescue.org/front-range-equine-rescue-horse-slaughter.php],
asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the FSIS to enact rules and regulations
which would prevent American horses from being slaughtered.  The Petitions have gotten
significant attention, and FRER intends to continue to amplify its legal strategy for as long as it
takes to eliminate the possibility of horse slaughter in America.

If it is allowed to open, the Roswell plant would be the first U.S. horse slaughterhouse opened
since horse slaughter in the U.S. ended five years ago.  A recent poll shows at least 80% of
Americans oppose horse slaughter. Valley Meats and any other horse slaughterhouses must be
stopped, and the USDA and FDA must see the danger and illegality of producing horse meat
from American horses.  FRER calls on all concerned citizens and groups, in and out of New
Mexico, to support its efforts by contacting state, local and federal officials and voicing your
strong objection to the resumption of this horrific practice in America.  For more information on
how to help, contact info@frontrangeequinerescue.com.

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• Congressman Patrick Meehan : Latest News : Meehan Calls for Action to End U.S. Horse Slaughter

The Last of the Real Cowboys

 

 

Indy Grazin'

This post originally appeared in Jerry Finch's "Habitat for Horses" blog. Habitat for Horses is one of the most highly regarded rescues in the country, giving homes to not only horses but other animals as well. In his blog, Jerry regularly writes articles of this caliber. Go see for yourself ~

The Last of the Real Cowboys

21 Jan

I’ve known a lot of ranchers in my life; good, honest men with a work ethic born of pride in the job they do, men who think nothing of rolling out round bales of hay in minus 20 degree weather, who would go out in a rainstorm and bring an abandoned calf into the barn and bottle feed it for days on end because, “he deserves a chance.” On the flat plains of north Texas, life on the range could destroy the weak, but for those who persevered it could turn them into the very best of the human race. 
 


Cowboy's way of life

Back in the early days of my youth, I thought that all real men held those values. I was proud to ride horses beside them, to be considered one of them, even if it meant an occasional joke about me being just a kid. I’m sure there were bad guys, I just didn’t know them. I knew there was horse slaughter back then, too, but the cowboys I knew would have nothing to do with it.

One hard, thin old man called me over one day and, holding a horse, said, “Look at this horse and tell me what you see, boy.”

I’m sure I said something half hearted, but his response is still with me. “If you have a clean heart, when you look into his eyes you will see the face of God. You respect what’s inside that horse, boy, and the horse will always respect you.”

A few weeks later, when school was out for the summer, he offered me a job. Being a new teenager, I thought I knew a lot, but the bottom line on horses is that talking doesn’t account for anything. It’s the doing that gets the job done.

The first day I walked up and met the ranch foreman. He was a weathered old cowboy that could cuss more in 30 seconds than most sailors could do in a lifetime. The day I started he pointed to the corral holding about 10 horses and said, “Whatever horse you catch is the one you ride.” Nine other cowboys walked out with me to the corral, each caught a horse within a few minutes, saddled up and headed out to work the cattle. I was left alone with a mare that had absolutely no love for humans.


Trying to catch a horse

The old man did nothing more than stand on the porch, watching. Not a word escaped him as I followed that horse around the corral for what seemed like two hours. Once I sat down, fed up with the horse, mad at myself and disgusted at the world.

“I guess you think that horse is gonna’ put the saddle on by herself?” he said, leaning against the porch post. I stood up, dusted myself off and started again. Another two hours passed and, to my complete surprise, the horse walked over to me and stood still as I put the lead rope over her neck, put on the halter and led her to where I had the saddle. Another five minutes and I was sitting on her, fully expecting to hear the old man laugh at me and tell me that he didn’t need me anymore.

He didn’t. Instead he opened the gate to let me through and said words that I carry with me to this day, “You didn’t give up. That’s the kind of person we need.” That was the first day of my first real job at age 14, a cowboy, working with men who had been doing it their whole lives. I value those memories as if they were gold. And those men? They are rare today. I’m sure a few still exist. I might see one or two a year, but it’s a dying breed, replaced by the white hats, white starched shirts and bolo ties of citified “cowboys” who work at the American Quarter Horse Association, headquartered in Amarillo, the town where I grew up. What few still exist gather on occasion at the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raiser’s Association, an organization designed to “Honor and Protect the Ranching Way of Life.”

Both of those organizations promote the commercial slaughter of horses. Neither organization ever polled its members to see if they agree.

Neither has the American Veterinarian Medical Association or the American Association of Equine Practitioners. No votes, no poll, just those in power taking the position that they know what this country needs more than the membership and thus will dictate what is to be believed.

The Cattleman’s Association spread the word that giving in to those “damn animal activist” and stopping horse slaughter is the start of a “slippery slope” that will lead to the end of all animal processing in the US and the total and complete destruction of the “American Way of Life.” Ignoring the fact that 80% of the population is against horse slaughter and could thus be considered as “animal activist,” and that the vast majority of that 80% of the American population drives the market for beef, pork and chicken. The ranchers somehow bought the story because the Association told them so.

Same with the “personal property” argument. “Those horses are your personal property. Are you going to let those left wing sickos tell you what you can and can’t do with your own property?”

And the reason they spend so much time and energy trying to convince the ranchers and the rest of the public that horse slaughter is necessary is because ….

… neglect and starvation are increasing because the slaughterhouses closed down and we need horse slaughter again.

… massive numbers of horses are being abandoned all across the nation.

… old horses are left in pastures to starve to death.

… the trip to Mexico and Canada is too long and they are concerned for the welfare of the horses.

… too many horses are untrained and dangerous and we need a way to get rid of them.

… no one wants old, sick, injured horses so the best way to dispose of them is to send them to slaughter.

… the American public needs our help to rid ourselves of all the unwanted horses.

One after another, the stories continue. Without any factual basis, stories made up in the boardrooms and promoted throughout the network to end up as facts in newspapers and magazines and discussed in the annual meetings.

Don’t dare dig too deep, don’t disturb the cover story, because under all that glitter of authority is something very ugly, something that doesn’t do well in daylight, something never even whispered. It crawls through the slaughter industry like fat maggots, feeding on the putrid lies and deceit of pure evil.

The face of horse slaughter is uncontrolled abuse, naked hatred of living animals, lust for money no matter how much it is soaked in blood and guts.

Here’s something you should listen to, the words of a trucker who got stuck hauling horses to the border to be slaughtered.

A quote from a killer-buyer, ““We shoot them full of steroids to beef them up so we can get more for them at the slaughterhouse.”

From another killer-buyer, “If they start kicking, we poke their eyes out. That calms them down real fast.”

“We don’t need paperwork. We have a ton of it.”

“We travel at night so we don’t get stopped. We’re suppose to have health certificates going into Texas but hell, they never stop us.”

“The reason you see skinny horses wandering around? We dump them on the way. They only want fat, young horses. Taking something old or skinny is a waste of time.”

So this is the best that the horse slaughter industry has to offer. These are the only logical, valued, bold statements the industry can produce, and that I’m sure they make one proud enough to stand up and say, “I believe in horse slaughter!” in front of the kids, in public.

In the darkness of the night the horses are crammed into trucks – shocked, beaten, terrified. We trained them to respect us, to trust us, to believe that we will protect them, yet in their final hour we betray them, we turn our backs to their screams. In the horror of their death, we count the bloody dollars we’ve crammed in our pockets. This is what the American cowboy has become. All for the love of money.

Now I ask you this – who is destroying the “American Way of Life”? Is it the 80% of us who are against horse slaughter because we value an animal that is so unique in God’s world? Or is it those who value the crumpled dollars in their pockets more than they value any connection to another living creature?

Is it the politicians who support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, who have ignored the pledges of the lobbyist and the pats on the back of the big organizations who want a way to dispose of their horses, or those politicians who accept the “donations” and agree that horses need mercy killing and do everything they can to kill the bills in the Senate?

A few months ago I was at the vet clinic with one of our horses. There was a stereotypical old cowboy before me, weathered face, worn-out body, bowlegged, holding on to an aged horse that was obviously in pain. Doc did the usual, but the belly was swelling fast, a sure sign that the intestines just ruptured. Doc looked at the cowboy and shook his head.

That old cowboy heaved over in tears. He loved that horse. It was his friend, his best buddy, his partner, and letting go was just as hard as it would have been letting go of a child. That was one of the last real cowboys I’ve seen.



The Old Cowboy

As the old saying goes, “Real cowboys don’t eat their horses.”

If you want to rant and rave about how horse slaughter is necessary because of X, Y and Z, face up to the fact that we both know the truth. It’s only about money. It’s about the 1% of the horses in this country that the wealthy in Europe want to eat and for which they are willing to pay, and it’s the very small number of people in the US who are hell-bent to provide the horses and feed the slaughter machine, all for the love of money.

There is nothing else involved.

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More Roundups Planned Despite Pleas from Congress

This is it, people. If the BLM is allowed to continue the roundups scheduled for this year, it will mark the end of the line for America’s Wild Horses. In the unprecedentedly aggressive roundups so far this year, the BLM has taken has taken every herd they’ve “gathered” below the level of genetic viability - in short, they left so few horses that the gene pools in the herds are too small for long term survival.

Craig Downer, the famed wildlife ecologist, has warned of this for years, and here it is. The BLM knows exactly what it is doing - make no mistake. They want the horses off the range. ALL of them. Then they can expand existing mining operations, start new mining on pristine land and start blasting the way for the Ruby pipeline - carrying BP gas, among others - across five states.

If the BLM is not stopped - NOW - our Wild Horses will be extinct. And we will have paid for it with OUR taxes. Is this really what America has come to?

Amplify’d from www.8newsnow.com

Chief Investigative Reporter George Knapp and Chief Photojournalist Matt Adams

I-Team: More Roundups Planned Despite Pleas from Congress

I-Team: More Roundups Planned Despite Pleas from Congress 3:36

LAS VEGAS -- Government contractors have fired up their helicopters for yet another roundup of Nevada wild horses. The latest gather targets a remote area north of Ely, Nevada.

Four more roundup operations are on the schedule in our state this year. They will not only thin the herds, but wipe them out altogether.

2010 already ranks as one of the most aggressive in the history of Bureau of Land Management horse roundups, with a lot more to come. Operations which proved deadly for the herds have already scooped up thousands of mustangs from public ranges, but with no commensurate reduction in the number of private cattle allowed to stay.

The next round seems are designed to wipe out the horses altogether.

See more at www.8newsnow.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/aaZUhJ

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The National Academy of Science Field Studies-Environmental Effects of Wild Horses

Now the BLM is asking for an "independent study" on their management practices by the National Academy of Science, supposedly to start on January 1, 2011. Well, why not. After the BLM finishes their blitz on the horses this year, there won't be enough horses left in the wild to worry about. 

Even if the NAS were to tell the BLM to cease and desist rounding up these horses, suggest an on-the-range-management plan, and the BLM actually implements such a plan-which I'll believe when I see it-are enough herds left that are genetically viable enough to secure these horses' future? Not if the BLM can possibly prevent it, no there will not be enough left with large enough gene pools to survive long term. This was the whole idea after all. If it weren't, the BLM would STOP the roundups until the study was completed. Instead, they are moving at an ever increasing pace to eradicate the horses before someone steps up and stops them.


The NAS can criticize the BLM's management practices for the last 40 years to their hearts' content, and it won't bother the BLM at all. If the horses are gone, they're gone, and not all the hindsight in the world will bring them back.

So, I have a question. The report below has been around for quite a while, and I want to know why it seems to have been completely ignored by the BLM, and everyone else for that matter. Why wasn't this enough to at least consider stepping back-just temporarily!-to look at the other options that have always been at the BLM's discretion.


Shall I answer my own question or is there any need?

 This area of "Wild Horses" is reserved for posting research papers or reference materials that have been approved by the administrators. Please add any comments about this information to Wild Horses' "Wall" rather than this "Notes" section. Thank you!

----------------------------------
Wild Horses -- National Academy of Science field studies do not support the majority of claims that wild horses damage the environment. Responsible advocates understand that areas suffering from verified overpopulation are a different matter. Alberta's wild horses endure a relatively low survival rate among foals. The climate is challenging and predators are abundant.

Cows have no upper front teeth, only a thick pad: they graze by wrapping their long tongues around grass and pulling on it. If the ground is wet, they will pull out the grass by the roots, preventing it from growing back. Horses have both upper and lower incisors and graze by "clipping the grass," similar to a lawn mower, allowing the grass to easily grow back.

In addition, the horse’s digestive system does not thoroughly degrade the vegetation it eats. As a result, it tends to “replant” its own forage with the diverse seeds that pass through its system undegraded. This unique digestive system greatly aids in the building up of the absorptive, nutrient-rich humus component of soils. This, in turn, helps the soil absorb and retain water upon which many diverse plants and animals depend. In this way, the wild horse is also of great value in reducing dry inflammable vegetation in fire-prone areas. Back in the 1950s, it was primarily out of concern over brush fires that Storey County, Nevada, passed the first wild horse protection law in the United States.

Footnotes:
Rangeland Management: Improvements Needed in Federal Wild Horse Program RCED-90-110 August 20, 1990

Public Land Management: Observations on Management of Federal Wild Horse Program T-RCED-91-71 June 20, 1991

Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros: Final Report. Committee on Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros, Board on Agriculture and Renewable Resources, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 1982

 

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Wild Horse Driven Over Rocks To His Death During Owyhee Roundup

This unconscionable callous cruelty to our American Mustangs must end. The BLM has killed so many and lied about it. They misled a Federal Judge in order to continue driving horses down mountains in the heat of a Nevada summer, leaving the ones that went down to die where they fell - except for the few that they shot. Now the BLM claims the deaths they DO admit to were due to "preexisting conditions" of one kind or another.

These horses were fine - healthy and HAD WATER before the BLM and Sue Cattoor, their helicopter contractor, started their "gather."

Please! Go to Maureen's article to learn more and how you can help!

Amplify’d from www.examiner.com

Wild horse was driven over rocks to his death during recent Owyhee roundup

August 1, 5:50 PM Equine Advocacy Examiner Maureen Harmonay

An independent observer who recently returned from scouting the Herd Area in north Elko County, Nevada where the Owyhee portion of the Tuscarora Gather took place has photographic evidence that one of the wild horses appears to have been driven to his or her death over rocky cliffs, presumably by Cattoor, the BLM's helicopter contractor.

Though no such fatality was ever reported by the BLM, Katie Fite, a Biodiversity Director for the Western Watersheds Project, was able to document it during her visit to the area on July 25th and 26th.  Her photograph depicting a horse lying dead on the rocks near the Owyhee River was submitted in support of Laura Leigh's legal motions against the BLM on the Tuscarora matter, the most recent of which was filed on Friday, July 30th.

Ms. Fite explained:

"I noted evidence that horses had been driven down the river bed and held in temporary corrals.  Also noted a horse that appears to have been driven onto the rocks."

Ms. Fite's photographs were taken at the South Fork of the Owyhee River, north of the Owyhee roundup trap site, where she observed four places at which wild horses have access to water, contrary to the BLM's prior assertions that because no water was available to the mustangs in this Herd Area (HA), an "emergency rescue gather" was justified and necessary.

Another observer, wild horse advocate Sandra Longley, also visited the Owyhee roundup area on July 16th and 17th, to document forage, water sources, cattle, and gates.  She reported:

"I stood there on the Owyhee on July 17th amidst fields of wildflowers, water pouring out of the sides of mountains, and springs with water running down and alongside of roads.  There was nothing but cattle, but over a few hills, many wild horses were dying. . .No horses could be documented except an ecosystem littered with the dead bodies of horses, who had suffered heat stroke at the hands of Sue Cattoor, the helicopter contractor.

There is so much more to come.  We have yet to get the total of horses who died or were 'rescued' with a bullet out on the desert where they were stumbling around suffering from heat stroke from being pushed by the helicopter.  Many of those would have been foals. . .By not counting those horses as 'gather' deaths, but due to drought, the BLM is allowed to escape being blamed for the largest massacre during a roundup."

It is true that the BLM has never acknowledged, or reported, the deaths of the fallen horses Ms. Longley describes, but their stories must be told.  In a press release issued today, the agency admits that 34 wild horses have died as a direct result of the Tuscarora roundup, but it's clear that the actual number who have perished at the BLM's directive is much, much higher.

Read more at www.examiner.com

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Contempt of Court Re-filed Against Ken Salazar and BLM

Here we go again, folks. The BLM is clearly in contempt of court and we have another chance to prove it. Please help support Laura! The only place you can donate to Laura Leigh's legal fund is at www.grassrootshorse.com.

Amplify’d from thedesertinde.com

Contempt of Court Re-filed Against Ken Salazar and BLM

By ROBERT WINKLER

The Desert Independent

July 31, 2010

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.

Read more at thedesertinde.com

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The BLM is totally out of control, killing and brutalizing the Mustangs they are supposed to protect. They spin their way out from under the law, doing only the bidding of Big Cattle and Big Energy.

Let's stop them NOW!

Amplify’d from animals.change.org

Government Spin Machine Goes into Overdrive in Wild Horse Case

by Laura Allen

July 19, 2010

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.

Stop government roundups of wild horses and burros Read more at animals.change.org

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