D.C We Have a Problem ! Wild Horses Harassed and Abused by Government Hired Helicopter Contractor

A problem. Yes, I'd say we do have a problem. The problem is that no one is doing anything while the BLM and their contractors - this being Sun J - have repeatedly injured, harassed and tortured our wild horses, and will most certainly continue to do so until someone with authority steps up and says, "ENOUGH!"

These sadists are being paid thousands of OUR tax dollars to harass and kill OUR Mustangs. This entire stampede and all the others are being paid for with OUR tax dollars.

Not only that, how can these horses they are removing in such a cruel manner possibly be "excess" when the contractor has had to move the trap site several time because they can't find any horses! Clearly, this cannot be excessive population, and the BLM has no right to remove horses that are not contributing to overpopulation.

Amplify’d from blog.grassrootshorse.com

Monday, January 31, 2011

D.C We Have a Problem ! Wild Horses Harassed and Abused by Government Hired Helicopter Contractor

Calls need to be made immediately: Dean Bolstad 775-861-6583, Alan Shepard 775-861-6500, Bob Abbey 202-208-3801, Tom Gorey 202-912-7420 anyone and everyone you can think of to pull this pilot and this contractor off this roundup. Call your legislators now !  These pictures were taken today by journalist Laura Leigh. Copy the pics and send them to congress. There are 8 pictures and details follow.

Today when no information on the location of yet another new trap site location is given, journalist Laura Leigh traveled to the old trap site and made her way as the crow flies to find the new trap site. What was happening out there in the range to the Antelope Complex wild horses will turn your stomach. Photos of extremely skittish and obviously exhausted wild horses have surfaced since the early days of this round up and the public needs to get very loud regarding what appears to be not only the questionable ability of Sun J helicopter pilot but his blatant abuse and harassment of these horses as well. While Laura was searching for the trap location she came upon the trap site from a different angle that afforded her a full view of the gruesome happenings. (And plenty of grazing cows also) The blm goes to great lengths to deny the public access to view the roundups, especially at the point of capture. Here is further proof of the reason for such gymnastics.  It appears to me and to a great many other people that these horses have not only been run over great distances but they are being sadistically harassed and abused as well. This helicopter contractor, Sun J has brought in 2 helicopters and while only one helicopter is visible the other can be heard but out of sight, for a very long time and only a mare and a foal are brought in. What are they doing ? more of this ? And before anyone tries to say the second helicopter is “unknown” we know they are both Sun J helicopters, we have proof.        . Laura Leigh, supported by Grass Roots Horse is engaged in a lawsuit demanding access to view and report on the welfare of the wild horses from capture throughout their life in the “government system”. This lawsuit is critical and I hope you will visit our website to read the legal filings and make a donation to this fight. Prior to our first lawsuit the blm was attempting to close off public lands to the public. We prevailed on a First Amendment rights argument and the judge ruled the blm could not bar the public. It would seem obvious by these pictures why they would want us off public lands while this behavior, which appears to be sanctioned by the blm is held from view of the public.   We are committed to having eyes on the ground and to educating and training others to be effective advocates as well. As you can see from these photos, which are the tip of the iceberg, this is critical as well. Please support us as we bring these atrocities and abuse of power and authority by the government agency, the bureau of land management who acts under the direction of the Department of the Interior.       The wild horse roundups at Antelope Complex in NV continue today. The blm has still not updated their “hotline” which is by blm accounts, the “latest” and “most accurate” information nor have they updated their website which claims the same accuracy. Journalist Laura Leigh is reporting back to us from this roundup which intends to remove 2,000 wild horses from their home range even though only small, scattered family bands have been seen. This same observation has been verified by Ben Noyes, the blm Wild Horse and Burro specialist. Congress, we have a serious problem and congressional intervention and investigation is warranted. Immediately.

Read more at blog.grassrootshorse.com

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SOMEONE PLEASE HELP! STOP THE BLM! STOP THE ROUNDUPS!

This is your tax money at work!

Antelope Complex - Day 5       January 27, 2011

The BLM had to search for the few horses left on this HMA. But, they finally found them - population obviously out of control with serious overpopulation on these thousands of acres. If they manage to find any horses at all, they are over the population limit - as set by the BLM - and must be removed at all costs!

In this video, a band of eight horses enters the chute after being chased for a long distance. They run for a distance before an older mare collapses in the snow, her legs buckling beneath her, utterly exhausted from the long, terrifying run. She lays there helplessly as the helicopter hovers over her. She is too exhausted to move. Two wranglers run toward her waving whips with plastic bags tied to the ends, forcing her to struggle to her feet. Incredibly, the helicopter continues the chase. The spent mare tries to escape, breathing hard, puffs of steam billowing from her nostrils. The helicopter comes within feet of her as she summons her last strength to trot and then run to escape it. To those of us watching, the chase of seems to go on forever; we are shocked that BLM allows it to continue. Finally, the helicopter gives up and the mare is left dazed, her sides heaving. She stops for a moment, then walks off, away from the trap where her family is confined, and out onto the range. Alone.
This mare’s ordeal exemplifies the inhumanity of the roundups, which indiscriminately stampede the elderly, the infirm, the crippled and the very young along with the able-bodied, subjecting them to extreme, and sometimes fatal, terror, trauma and exertion. Even a local, pro-BLM rancher observing the roundup remarked on the chase of the elder mare, “that shouldn’t have happened to that old sister.”

NO, it sure as HELL shouldn't have happened to any horse, let alone an older one. But the BLM contractors get paid by the head - dead or alive, preferably dead. Even a person completely unfamiliar with horses would be able to tell this mare is in serious trouble. How could anyone be so chillingly callus as to do something like this to an innocent old horse?

Please share this video with your Senators and Representatives! Not only is this unconscionable cruelty, WE are paying over a MILLION DOLLARS for this roundup alone. Let's stop the BLM before they do this to even one other horse.

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The Place To Be To Help Wild Horses – Public Welcome

If you can help, PLEASE contact us at the email address below! This is very important to our horses and indeed, the entire western ranges.

Amplify’d from blog.grassrootshorse.com

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Place To Be To Help Wild Horses – Public Welcome The "Resource Advisory Councils" are the place to be if you want to know the decisions being made for public lands, wild horses, ranching, mining, energy, recreation etc.

This is the meeting where the agenda for 2011 is set for the year. We need people on these committees and this is a good place to introduce yourself and familiarize yourself with the process that we need to be involved in. The big meeting for all three regions and Recreation subcommittee is called the Tri Rac Meeting. It will be held on January 20 and 21, 2011 at John Ascuaga Nugget Hotel Casino, Sparks, NV It begins Jan 20, Thurs 8 am when the agenda for the year will be set. The 3 RAC's will meet seperately on Jan 21 at 7:30 am The agenda and contact info is posted online at blm website - google TRI RAC 2011 If anyone can commit to videoing for Grass Roots Horse live stream or attending the meeting to report for us, please contact me Mo@grassrootshorse.com Subject line: TRI RAC We want to have all meetings and full days covered and this is a priority.  Posted by GrassRootsHorse.com at 5:50 PM Read more at blog.grassrootshorse.com

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I've been yelling about this for so long I'm almost too hoarse to yell any longer. Finally, the BLM, in the person of BLM chief Washington spokesman, Tom Gorey, officially

Amplify’d from horsebackmagazine.com

Wild Horses Routinely Treated with Chemicals Prohibited For Humans

January 11, 2011

By Steven Long

HOUSTON, (Horseback) – BLM horses are treated with drugs prohibited by the FDA for humans. Last week about 200 proponents of making horse processing legal again in the United States met in a sparsely attended conference in Las Vegas. It was billed at the Summit of the Horse.

The conference opened concurrent with President Obama signing a new law that gives the federal Food and Drug Administration authority over all U.S. food.

Domestic horses are routinely given chemicals dangerous to humans such as phenylbutazone (bute) and chemical wormers as well as a host of other dangerous substances. Some at the conference asserted wild horses could bypass stringent rules against human consumption because they had not been handled by humans or treated with veterinary medicines in the wild.

Not so, says BLM chief Washington Spokesman Tom Gorey.

“All wild horses and burros are routinely de-wormed in BLM short-term holding facilities while being prepared for adoption or transfer to long-term pastures,” Gorey told Horseback Magazine Monday.

“Horses do not routinely receive phenylbutazone (bute) or other anti-inflammatory medications, but may on occasion receive this type of medication when indicated to relieve pain and inflammation,” he said.

The FDA strictly prohibits the use of bute in humans.

Read more at horsebackmagazine.com

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A Miracle for the Holiday

What an incredible story. These horses were on their way to Hell, but now they are safe thanks to Jill Starr, President, Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue and the incomparable Madeleine Pickens. And so much for those cynics who have cast doubt and disbelief on Ms Pickens' sincerity. Hopefully, this will shut their mouths permanently.

Please, share this and help care for these horses if you can. If you want to make a donation go here: http://www.wildhorserescue.org/donatefallon.htm  or here: http://www.savingamericasmustangs.org/

May everyone have a Merry Christmas thinking about these horses that were saved from Hell and are now in Heaven thanks to some Christmas Angels.

Amplify’d from www.wildhorserescue.org

A MIRACLE FOR THE HOLIDAY

Just hours away from being loaded on to double decker cattle trucks and heading north on the Highway to Hell that would take the 235 little wild mustangs from their Nevada home to the horrible fate of a Canadian Slaughter Plant, Mrs. Madeleine Pickens, a well known and highly respected wild horse advocate made an incredible offer that turned out to be the "stay of execution" these horses must have been praying for. I was having a conversation late in the evening on Dec. 22 with Mrs. Pickens about the terrible fate that the Native American horses were facing.  So many of the rounded up mustangs had already been sold and shipped to slaughter. As I was talking with her about the group of foals I am trying to save from the same herd that have not been sold yet, she asked me if we could save any of the horses that were bought by the killers before they get shipped off. Admittedly I was caught off guard by that question, but I was quite happy to make a phone call and see if any of the auction purchased mustangs were still in the killer's feedlot.  I quickly found out that there were still 235 horses on the ground being readied to ship out on Friday, Christmas Eve.  When the killers said sure we'll sell them to you for the same amount of money that we would make off of them at the slaughter house I called Mrs. Pickens back and told her the high price they demanded. She reeled temporarily by the large figure, but quickly rebounded with "we have to do it, we can't let those horses go to slaughter". We both hung up with our respective jobs to do...I had to make the arrangements to receive another 235 horses at our temporary holding facility in Fallon, and she had to raise the funds. By early morning Thursday, Dec. 23, all the pieces were in place and the horses now have a new lease on life.

All 235 horses will be housed along with Lifesavers other Fallon rescues until their long term sanctuary is ready for them. I have to say that I am amazed by and have much admiration for Mrs. Madeleine Pickens.  Her compassion is boundless and her determination is a force of its own. I am honored and grateful to have had the opportunity to partner with Saving America's Mustangs & Madeleine Pickens in this blessed holiday miracle that saved 235 precious lives.  I hope there will be more miracles to witness in the days to come. May all your hearts be bursting with the warmth of this season of giving... Many blessings, Jill Starr, President, Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue

See more at www.wildhorserescue.org

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These beautiful, gentle horses were torn from their legal, Congressionally designated range by the BLM over the protestations of many Wyoming citizens.

What's ahead for them now? For the lucky few, adoption by people who will support them in one of the sanctuaries where they can live as close to the wild as possible. Others will be adopted by people who - HOPEFULLY! - will train them into the wonderful personal horses that they can be. They won't be wild, but they will be loved.

For the unlucky, Long Term Holding by the BLM. They will spend the rest of their lives in BLM Prison - sterilized, separated by gender, all under the tender mercies of the BLM on land from which the public is forever barred. They will disappear into the void, never to be heard from or accounted for again.

For the really unlucky - such as the sale authority horses - who can be sold "without limitation" (that means sold to anyone) the future holds nothing but a long, terrifying trip to a Mexican slaughter plant unless advocates can raise enough money/adopters to support them, and there are 255 of these innocent creatures. Don't they deserve more than a Mexican slaughter house? There is a killer buyer in Texas already trying to get them.

If you know of a place where these horses can go and be safe, PLEASE, contact Carol Walker at the links below. There is a link in this post where you can see pictures of these majestic horses.

We CAN save our precious wild horses IF we work together!

Amplify’d from www.wildhoofbeats.com

Wild Horses: The Adobe Town Wild Horses in Prison

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Carol Walker

One of the stallion pens

On Friday, I went to the BLM’s wild horse and burro facility at the  East Cañon Correctional Complex near Cañon City, Colorado. I was there to visit and to photograph the 1000 wild horses from Adobe Town and the 170 horses from Salt Wells Creek that were rounded up in October and November. These horses are in jail, separated from their families, their homes, and yet they are innocent of any wrongdoing. They are simply guilty of living on our public lands.

Feeding time for the horses

Cañon City is the largest BLM short term holding facility in the country, and it is a unique situation – the BLM has the help of 55 trained prison inmates to feed, water, care for and train the horses at the facility.  It is a situation that helps both prisoners and horses, and on my tour of the facility I was impressed by the efficiency and quality of care provided for these wild horses.  If these horses have to be in jail, this is the best possible place for them to be. I saw horses in individual pens that had come in thin, and were given a much better chance to get enough food so they could fatten up.  I saw prisoners working with wild horses, getting them ready to be border patrol mounts.  They were being slowly introduced to and led over obstacles on horseback.

The mare pens - mares as far as you can see

And then I was able to see my beloved Adobe Town horses. Pen after pen with horses – mares in one area, stallions in another, and weanlings, yearlings, and mare/foal pairs.  It was when I was standing in front of the fourth pen full of weanlings, and realized that there were hundreds of them, that I was hit by a wave of despair.  How could all of these horses possibly find homes? It is always the youngsters and the trained horses that are best able to be placed in adopted homes, but who was going to take HUNDREDS of youngsters? How could they have removed all of these horses when the adoption market is at its very lowest? How could 55 prisoners possible train all those horses?  It cannot be done. Most of these horses will go to long term holding.

One of the weanling pens - blue tags mean "Wyoming"

The weanlings were the most approachable and the most curious.  I had a few following me as I walked along the fence of their pen.

a curious weanling comes close

One of the weanling pens

The stallions stayed far away, and were extremely flighty still, not yet reconciled to their captivity.  As the feed truck came through with copious amounts of hay, they ran and stampeded, running with fear in their eyes.

Stallions running from the feed truck

The large stallion pen - over 100 horses

Those stallions – I have always had a soft place in my heart for them – so magnificent, some with gorgeous long manes, proud faces, all colors, red roan, many greys, bays, sorrels, and one lone gorgeous cremello.

Grey stallion with long mane

I found the older gray stallion who had put up such a valiant fight at the roundup.  He was in a big pen with many other gray stallions, so it was only the distinctive hoof- shaped scars that had him stand out in the crowd.

Older grey stallion

I looked in vain for the red roan stallion who had waited for and called for his family – and hope that he was released.  I did see his pinto palomino mare in the mare pen.

Pinto palomino mare that was with the red roan stallion

The stallions have not yet been gelded – that will happen in February. The horses have not been sorted yet by age, so there are young and old faces together in the mare and stallion pens.

Grey mare and foal

Mare and foal in the pairs pen

When I approached the mare/foal pair pens the mares were protective and kept their babies far from us.  But when we drove through the mare pens, the mares did not seem disturbed, in fact a couple of young mares came right up to the truck, curiously looking at us.  We discovered a newborn foal in one of the mare pens – a bit of hope here for the future!

Newborn foal!

The weanlings - "pick me!"

I spent quite a bit of time with the weanlings, taking photos as I know they will be the most easily adoptable.

Mica

I also was glad (and sad) to see that pale palomino colt with dark legs was indeed the one I had followed in the wild, with his gorgeous sorrel father, who I believe was released.  I had decided that I would adopt him, and bring him home to my herd of two other mustangs.  It seems like such a drop in the bucket- there were 8 other horses adopted that day.  I wanted to take them all, put them in a sanctuary where they would be free to live out their lives with their families………….maybe someday I can do that.

Until then, I am getting the word out about the next adoption in Cañon City – Friday, December 17th.  They are offering an unprecedented free delivery within 150 miles. Contact the BLM if you are interested in attending and adopting, and want to have a wild horse for the holidays like I do. Here is a link to my photos of many horses there:

http://www.livingimagescjw.com/CLIENTS/AdobeCanonCity/

Two stallions

There was no way in one day to do justice to all of them, but you can see how beautiful they are, and larger in size than horses in many other herds.  This herd has been blood tested and found to have a high percentage of Spanish blood in them. Steve Mantle, who has probably trained more of these wild horses for the BLM than just about anyone else says the Adobe Town horses are his favorite to work with.  Please spread the word.

About Carol Walker Carol’s images illuminate the relationship between horses and their people, as well as showcasing the beauty of horses at liberty. View all posts by Carol Walker → Read more at www.wildhoofbeats.com

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Fact Checker: Mustangs - Return of the Native or Invasive Species?

FRANK MULLEN • FACTCHECKER@RGJ.COM • NOVEMBER 23, 2010

THE CLAIMS

1) Wild horses didn't become extinct in North America and remnants of the ancient herds were still present in this hemisphere when Columbus landed in the New World in 1492.

2) Mustangs on public lands are a feral, invasive species, introduced into an environment where they are not native and should not be allowed to roam.

THE BACKGROUND

The two claims are at opposite extremes of an ongoing debate that surrounds the federal government's wild horse roundups in the West.

It's generally accepted that horse species evolved on the North American continent. The fossil record for equine-like species goes back nearly 4 million years. Modern horses evolved in North America about 1.7 million years ago, according to researchers at Uppsala University, who studied equine DNA. Scientists say North American horses died out between 13,000 and 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, after the species had spread to Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Horses were reintroduced by the Spanish explorers in the 16th century. Animals that subsequently escaped or were let loose from human captivity are the ancestors of the wild herds that roam public lands today.

That's the theory, but revisionists point out that some sources, including the Book of Mormon and Native American cultural tradition, say horses have been continually present on the continent long after the last Ice Age. Some folks contend the original Appaloosa horses of the Nez Perce tribe, which were distinct from other horses, were a remnant of the original equines of the Americas.

Over the years, the horse extinction theory has changed.

Many scientists once thought horses died out on the continent before the arrival of the ancestors of the American Indians, but archeologists have found equine and human bones together at sites dating back to more than 10,000 years ago. The horse bones had butchering marks, indicating the animals were eaten by people, according to "Horses and Humans: The Evolution of Human-Equine Relationships," edited by Sandra L. Olsen.

So it appears that humans and horses coexisted in the New World prior to 1492, but did they continue to survive in North America over the last 100 centuries?

The claim that wild horses in America are as invasive as Asian clams in Lake Tahoe or rabbits in Australia also is made in the wild horse management debate. Some ranchers call mustangs "long-legged rats" and reader comments on RGJ stories about roundups always include opinions that the mustangs are feral interlopers and should be dealt with as vermin.

Federal law makes the argument academic.

In 1971, Congress declared wild horses and burros to be "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; (and) that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the nation and enrich the lives of the American people."

Lawmakers unanimously decided the free-roaming equines be "protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death, and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found as an integral part of the natural system of public land."

Federal officials are charged with managing the free-roaming herds to achieve an ecological balance, and disagreements about the wisdom and quality of that management is the source of current debates.

THE VERDICT

By definition, horses are North American natives because most of their evolutionary development took place on this continent. They are "native" rather than "livestock-gone-loose," because they originated here and co-evolved with the American habitat, according to Jay F. Kirkpatrick, director of the Science and Conservation Center in Billings, Mont.

DNA research by molecular biologist Ann Forsten of Uppsala University concludes the ancient horses and the modern domestic horses are the same species. That finding contradicts critics who maintain the original North American horses and the ones that were reintroduced aren't the same animals.

No one is certain why, at the end of the last Ice Age, equines vanished from the hemisphere. Theories of the cause of the extinction include drought, disease, or a result of hunting by humans.

The submergence of the Bering land bridge prevented any return migration from Asia. There's no proof any horses escaped extinction in the Americas. If horses survived in the New World up to the 15th century, then no one has ever been able to find the physical evidence to prove the theory.

But, as horse advocates maintain, modern horses evolved here and that's an adequate reason to consider them native American species, and not "invasive" or "introduced feral animals."

The horses were "reintroduced" to the continent, unlike the Asian clams in Tahoe or the rabbits of Australia, which were inserted into regions where Nature never put them and where they could disrupt the ecological balance.

Truth Meter: 1 Given what we know about the history and evolution of horses in North America, both claims are false.

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Pine Nut - Part Two

Oops! Now the BLM has decided to release the foals with their mothers after all. After a firestorm of protest of course.

But, is everything really as it seems?

Amplify’d from blog.homehorsehound.com

Thursday, November 25, 2010 Read more at blog.homehorsehound.com

Report from Pine Nut Wild Horse Roundup #TWO

Grass Roots Horse will have more info also

This mare, along with 111 other horses were rounded up yesterday in the Dayton area of the Pine Nut Range. This morning the Bureau of Land Management's plan was to release all the mares and leave all 22 foals behind. Foals were transported from the Lohanton temporary holding area to Palomino Valley Center. After public outrage plans were changed and the wet mares have been transported to Palomino Valley to match up with their foals for release early next week. Alan Bitner of the Carson BLM expressed his concern along with many community members about this mornings plan. He seemed relieved as he informed the public that the foals would not be permanently removed from their mothers. the mare before this one fell jumping off & this girl said I'm gonna make it Pine Nut while BLM says that is all the horses to be released, after they leave, another trailer shows up !

Posted by Maureen at 7:40 PM Read more at blog.homehorsehound.com

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