| Story and Photo by Laura Leigh, |
| Horseback Magazine Special Correspondent, |
 RENO, (Horseback) – I have spent literally thousands of hours on the road trying to document the hands-on care of America’s National Treasure, the wild horse by the agency tasked by Congress to manage these beings “humanely.” |
My travels have included documenting wild horses on the range, at roundups and holding facilities. |
I do this work because I am passionate about the subject. These animals speak to my soul. The convoluted process that has them literally trapped both fascinates and disgusts me. |
When I am at roundups, or facilities that house our horses, I may express my opinions but I am never “out-of-line.” I obey rules, no matter how ridiculous. |
At the Silver King roundup I was “grabbed” hard by a beautiful Albino stallion. His gaze was riveting. When he shipped we followed him from Pioche, Nevada all the way to Gunnison Prison in Utah. |
As I inquired about his adoption, to go to sanctuary with some of the others, I exchanged emails with a woman I met once. |
Dona Bastian runs the BLM facility at Gunnison. |
In the course of her emails to me she told me I had to make sure to tell them when I was coming to pick up the stallion. She informed me that they needed to notify SWAT. |
I need a application for adoption and also payment before the animals are
picked up. Do you have an approved adoption application? I know you said
you was working on it with John Neil. Also, the pickup is by appointment
only. We have to have a clearance, and also SWAT notified in advance.
Let me know!
Thanks,
~* Dona *~ |
Dona A. Bastian
Wildhorse & Burro Specialist
Gunnison Prison Facility Manager
Utah State Office |
Links for More Information - PLEASE SHARE WIDELY -
videos and scholarly articles at the bottom of list
Wild Earth Guardians (Report on fiscal costs of public lands grazing in the American West & other resources on public lands management and suggested actions to take) www.sagebrushsea.org
International Society for the protection of Mustangs and Burros www.ispmb.org
WILD HORSES ARE NATIVE: SCIENTIFIC AND SCHOLARY ARTICLES:
VIDEOS:
FREEDOM: A STALLION'S COURAGE
WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THE WILD MUSTANGS?
TRAILER TO DISAPPOINTMENT VALLEY
THE MUSTANG CONSPIRACY part I :
The government conspiracy to eliminate wild mustangs
THE MUSTANG CONSPIRACY part II:
British Petroleum and the Ruby Pipeline
SAVE OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE - WILD HORSES!
BY PATRICIA HAIGHT, PH.D. | NOVEMBER 3, 2010 |
BLM horse and burro gathering |
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently gathered and removed from their homes near Yuma an anticipated one hundred wild burros. The fate of wild horses and burros is tragic. My attorneys and I recently reviewed several thousand documents provided by the Arizona Game and Fish Department under the Arizona Public Records Law.
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| Of the records we reviewed, we are obtaining copies that provide evidence of the following: |
- The United States Forest Service (USFS) in Apache Sitgreaves National Forests failed to honor its commitment in a stipulated agreement in the US Federal Court to work cooperatively with plaintiffs, including myself, in preparing a management strategy for protected wild horses found in the Forests. The USFS has, however, worked very closely with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) on this issue even though the AGFD has only very limited authority under cooperative agreements with the USFS. The only agency who has Federal authority is the USFS
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- AGFD is pushing to obtain even more autonomous control over removal of wild horses and burros in areas where Game and Fish feels the BLM is moving too slowly, even though the AGFD has no jurisdiction under the federal Wild Horse and Burro Act and only limited input under cooperative agreements with federal agencies.
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- The Director of AGFD used his position and time paid by Arizona taxpayers to lobby to get a person appointed to the national Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Counsel who is notoriously anti-wild horse and burro and used his position and time to enlist others to write letters of support for this person.
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- A company owned by a man who was indicted by a federal grand jury on a felony for hunting wild horses from the air has been active gathering wild burros in Arizona. This person was indicted on a felony but was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser misdemeanor thus allowing the man’s company to continue to work for the BLM and other federal agencies. Pictures of helicopters very close to wild horses and burros they are gathering are available at the following link: http://conquistadorprogram.org/blm_begins_gather_of_burros_near_yuma
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At least one eyewitness account is available from an ecologist of the helicopters actually touching the animals as they drive them for miles. How would you survive being driven by a helicopter for 10 miles or more in 100-degree heat?
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My question is why such a vehement effort to remove wild horses and burros from Arizona ranges they have lived in peacefully since the Spanish arrived in the 16th century?
Certainly, pictures of the animals and forage show that no one is starving. The AGFD, BLM and USFS argue that the horses and burros are depleting forage but historical documents clearly show that the horses and burros have been here for hundreds of years and everyone did just fine. I am happy to provide a list of references of these documents to anyone who might be interested. If you want your heart torn out, watch the video of little burros driven for miles by helicopters and crying out when they are separated from their families or watch the video of wild horses driven for miles, sometimes with their babies, until they almost drop. The historical documents indicate that there was a very peaceful
co-existence of wild horses and burros with everyone else until the early 1930’s when federal agencies took over grazing rights and “management” of wild horses and burros.
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The wild horses and burros of Arizona go back to the early explorers including Coronado and Father Eusebio Kino. They are a precious natural resource. Many scholars even show evidence that these kind and gentle creatures date back to prehistoric times. Is the federal government’s quest for grazing lease money or energy so great that it will jeopardize our children’s right to see a magnificent wild horse whose ancestors may have carried Coronado, Father Kino or legendary cavalry officer General George Crook or to see a wild burro herd with their close family ties in the wild? When is enough, just enough?
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Fight to Save our Wild Horses Progresses |
It’s been a tough month for Wild Horse Advocates, even tougher for the horses. Months of legal planning had been mapped out by the HfH Advisory Council in an effort to stop four, specifically targeted BLM roundups from occurring. Two of those were postponed by a year, one directly due to our efforts. But the other two went forward, one struggle even made it to court. Did we make any progress? Were the horses helped in anyway? To put it mildly; “You bet ya!” |
The year delay of the West Douglas stampede happened with very little fanfare and in what appeared to be a blink of an eye, mostly due to the fact that we held off on public notification until the TRO was filed. The intent was to give you the full story and the culmination of our efforts but by the time we issued our press release it was only hours later that the BLM backed away and said that they would reconsider the attack on the horses the following year. We filed our contempt of court paperwork one day, our preliminary injunction order the next day following up with the TRO the next and within hours the BLM stepped back. Was that a win? Once again, “You bet ya!” Even though not ordered by the court the horses of West Douglas certainly gave it a big “hooves up” as they get to live like God intended them to live for at least another year and we have additional time granted to us to better prepare to defend them. |
This past Thursday a New York Judge failed to find in our favor for our effort to stop the North Piceance roundup in Colorado. With all of the time, money, blood, sweat and tears spent was it a success for the horses? Once again a resounding; “You bet ya!” |
I’ll put it into the whispered terms of a loving women who I held, crying, in my arms upon hearing the news of the court’s denial. |
“The horses of North Piceance made a sacrifice that other herds well benefit from,” whispered my wife Terry as we both struggled with tears upon hearing the news, “it’s like a new born foal taking its first steps, one at a time. We took several little legal foal steps that the BLM will never be able to erase.” |
Although the horses of the North Piceance herd will now slip away into the BLM’s cloud of mysterious equine disappearances and obscurity their ultimate sacrifice allowed us to win several combative, legal skirmishes against the BLM. |
Although it might seem like a very small victory it will prove to be huge in the future and that little foal step was the issue of “venue” or where the suit was filed. We landed this case far from the ranges of the west and right in the middle of Central Park in New York City. Why? We did so in hopes of finding a judge that was fresh, new and untainted by the influence of Ken Salazar’s special interest driven BLM. The BLM wanted out of NYC, badly. They wanted to be either back out west or in a D.C. court where their cronies had more influence but due to the New York based ASPCA being one of our volunteer plaintiffs, the judge let us stay thus setting a precedence for seeking out favorable venues for additional cases in the future. Thank you ASPCA for the win and do you think we will use this in the future, “You bet ya!” |
The major win of the case comes from the quiet and sincere Colorado Veterinarian Dr. Don Moore. Dr. Moore was first taken to the North Piceance area to view the horses by his father over forty years ago. Dr. Moore has grown up with those horses and the court agreed that Dr. Moore has suffered irreparable harm by this herd being destroyed. The BLM’s argument was that Dr. Moore could just go somewhere else to see wild horses, what’s the difference? The difference is gigantic and the BLM’s indifference in court outlines their failed understanding of their primary job to protect these horses instead of destroying them. To tell Dr. Moore to go somewhere else to see other wild horses is like telling Ginger Kathrens that she does not need to see Cloud, the wild stallion of the Pryor Mountain herd that she has been following for over a decade and a half. The BLM can simply stampede Cloud and his family into the mystery concentration camps and Ginger can just go somewhere else to see a wild horse. How asinine is that for a defense in federal court? It’s your tax dollars hard at work trying to defend a failed and perverted policy of systematically exterminating all of the publicly owned wild horses on publicly owned land. The court agreed so that from this day forward, it is on the record that for future cases Americans are irreparably damaged and injured by the BLM’s insidious action of cruelly and inhumanely stripping our federally protected wild horses from public lands. Will we use that angle in future cases when attempting to save our wild horses from extinction? “You bet ya!” |
Over the last several weeks we have accomplished what our good friend and fellow wild horse crusader Laura Leigh from Grass Roots Horse has said, |
“We laid another brick, just one more legal brick in the foundation of the major case to forever stop the BLM from violating local, state and federal laws.” |
One brick at a time, one little foal step at a time we move forward and forward we did move. |
I am a man driven by a wet tear on the side of my face, a woman softly sobbing in my arms and the soft yet stinging words, |
“We didn’t stop the killing of the horses, R.T. The mares, that little foal, we did not save them.” |
And for that I bleed, and because of that we stand strong. |
For all those who have perished; we will press on to stop the massacre of the mustangs, even if it is only one little foal step at a time. |
| AGAINST WILD HORSE & BURRO ROUNDUPS and HORSE SLAUGHTER |
Protesting and calling for a moratorium on all roundups of America’s wild horses and burros. |
Protesting horse slaughter and demanding an immediate vote on HR 503 and S 727, The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, banning the slaughter of America’s equines. |
BOSTON, Massachusetts DONE!
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| Friday, October 8, 2010 at 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. |
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| Massachusetts State House, Behind the Boston Common in front of the State House |
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| STAMFORD, Connecticut DONE! |
| Saturday, October 9, 2010 at 2:00 pm |
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| Downtown Stamford on the Ferguson Library steps |
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| Monday, Columbus Day, October 11, 2010, 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm |
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| Horseman’s Park, 5800 E. Flamingo Drive |
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| Friday, October 29, 2010 2 PM to 5 PM |
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| Jeanne – hilbiljean@yahoo.com |
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| Saturday, November 13, 2010, 1 PM to 3 PM |
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| Columbus Circle, 59th Street, Manhattan, at the south end of Central Park and Broadway – near the statues (also referred to as the north side of Central Park South). |
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| Jo De George – jo@degeorgedynamic.com; Linda Berardo – Lin817@aol.com |
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There are more rallies and protests being organized for IA, GA, MD, VA, NH, ME, SC, WY, CO, TX, FL and VA. Also New York City in November. We will post details as soon as we have them. Read more at tuesdayshorse.wordpress.com |
BLM/Cattors covertly loading and shipping wild horses from Sheldon ~ Photo by Leslie Peeples |
Plaintiff in several suits against the BLM for lack of transparency and violation of First Amendment Rights, Laura Leigh of GrassRootsHorse, was tipped off that there was illicit activity taking place at Sheldon as many roads were closed due to a “wild horse gather”. |
On September 22, 2010 Ms. Leigh discussed this situation with wild horse advocate Leslie Peeples, who was already on the road to visit another wild horse herd, and Ms. Peeples immediately changed plans and headed to Sheldon to investigate as no such “gather” was indicated in any public records. |
On the morning of Sept. 23, 2010 Ms. Peeples phoned the Lakeview office of the USFWS and when asked if a wild horse gather was being conducted she was told, “yes”. |
Cattoor Truck at Sheldon ~ Photo by Leslie Peeples |
Ms. Peeples headed out to Sheldon on back roads when she encountered an oncoming semi-truck with a livestock trailer being towed behind it at a reasonable speed. Ms. Peeples intended to ask the driver where the stampede was taking place so she pulled her car over to the side of the road and stepped out into her lane of traffic to flag the driver down for information. Upon seeing this, according to filed court documents, the truck driver aimed for the center of the road, speeded up and missed running over Ms. Peoples by only inches. |
"From my earliest memories, I have loved horses with a longing beyond words." ~ Robert Vavra
