| Wild horse was driven over rocks to his death during recent Owyhee roundup |
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. |
| "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. |
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. |
| BLM reports of wild horse deaths during Tuscarora roundup are laced with contradictions |
Newly captured Owyhee mares and foals huddle at Palomino Valley, photographed by Cat Kindsfather |
In an apparent effort to rebut the arguments put forth by advocate Laura Leigh in her motions for Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs) against the Owyhee, Rock Creek, and Little Humboldt portions of the Tuscarora "Gather" in north Elko County, Nevada, the BLM has falsely attributed some of the mustang mortalities to dehydration issues when in fact, other factors were at work. |
For example, on Tuesday, July 20th, BLM reported that "two animals were euthanized due to pre-existing water starvation/dehydration related complications." But when the Owyhee Veterinary Reports for these horses were released, they told a very different story. One of the horses who was shot was a 25-year-old sorrel mare, who was put down "for a pre-existing condition that was a severe LF (left front) lameness attributable to a poorly healed old fracture injury," and the other was an 18-year-old bay stallion who had a "severe enlargement of the RF (right front) fetlock, producing a chronic and incurable lameness." |
Really? How were these "lame" horses able to survive, and thrive, on the range for so many years, and then gallop at a breakneck pace over unforgiving ground to flee the BLM-hired helicopter that chased them into waiting traps? Would it be more accurate to surmise that in fact, both horses were crippled by the chase itself, and that in spite of BLM's protestations to the contrary, their deaths were very much "gather-related?" In the absence of independent observers, it's hard to know the truth.
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The Owyhee roundup has been the direct conduit to the deaths of at least 25 horses (that we know of), in spite of BLM's repeated insistence that most of the fatatlities were not "gather-related." The agency's long-strained credibility is continuing to erode, as a nation of horrified spectators begins to raise its voices in protest against what looks more and more like a deliberate effort to eradicate wild horses from America's public lands. |
| "Pushing the animals, having been driven via helicopter over the distances they traveled, at a more rapid gait than they would otherwise travel in such environmental conditions, in environmental conditions which included elevated summer temperatures, and where the condition of many of the gathered horses improved rapidly following the gather, all lead me to compellingly conclude to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that the deaths and injuries to these horses were substantially due to the gather itself, the manner in which the horses were driven during the gather and in their having to negotiate the environmental conditions existing there at the time. |
| And it my further opinion to the same degree of reasonable medical certainty that the conditions existing on the range prior to the gather, were not causative in injuring and killing those horses who perished on the dates of the gather. The uncontroverted fact remains that nearly all horses who reportedly perished, did so during the process of the gather itself or immediately thereafter while the horses were in the custody of the BLM, but not before." |
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.” |
Many people have asked me how this grassroots supported lawsuit to stop the Tuscarora roundup in Nevada cam about. |
I would like to share that and say this is just the beginning. |
| Geographical location is not a hindrance to making a difference in the fight to save our wild horses. I took action right from kitchen counter. |
Last week, when it came to my attention that no lawsuits were being filed to stop the Tuscarora roundup ( I just can’t call it a gather) grassroots activism took a stand. Through networking, regular people were able to bring a lawsuit to stop the Tuscarora roundup and to make an argument that our First Amendment Rights are being violated by barring the public from witnessing and documenting what the government was doing to the horses on our public lands. The argument that really got me fired up was the one that the BLM would be rounding up during foaling season. |
| Many newborn horses and pregnant and nursing mares would be stampeded along with the others. Babies and young horses who could not keep up would be left to die in the desert as the helicopters stampeded their mothers onward to capture pens. |
| All the horses would be driven over razor sharp volcanic rock. |
As if what is being done to all our wild horses isn’t bad enough, this was too much to bear. |
In record time we hired our own attorney to bring the suit with Laura Leigh, as a plaintiff with standing. Within 24 hours the papers were filed. Read more at blog.homehorsehound.com |
"From my earliest memories, I have loved horses with a longing beyond words." ~ Robert Vavra
