Breaking News: BLM’s Wild Horse Advisory Board Just Voted To Kill All 44,000 Captive Wild Horses In Holding
September 9, 2016Two Wild Horse Appeals Argued at the 10th Circuit Court in Denver
September 21, 2016
With amazing public outcry beginning in April of this year, with 50,000 emails and letters sent and three legal actions filed, the BLM finally got the message that the American public would not stand for the barbaric sterilization experiments they had planned for 225 wild mares in a filthy holding facility in Burns, Oregon. The BLM called off the Wild Mare Sterilization Project at 3 am on Friday, September 9, 2016.
I personally want to thank all of you who wrote, emailed and called, some of you every day, Oregon State University to try to discourage them from participating in this inhumane butchery that the BLM had planned for 225 wild mares. Thank you to those of you who wrote articles in magazines and newspapers, who told your friends, and who spread the word. Thank you to the three groups/organizations who filed legal actions: Front Range Equine Rescue, The Cloud Foundation, American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign and Citizens Against Equine Slaughter, Oregon Wild Horse & Burro Assn., Central Oregon Wild Horse Coalition, and Wild Equid League of Colorado.
We do make a difference and we can make a difference.
When in late June this year, Republicans on the Federal Lands Sub-Committee launched a full out assault on wild horses on public lands in the West we found out what the plan was – to eradicate wild horses on our public lands using sterilization, and to euthanize the 45,000 wild horses and burros in holding facilities.
We have stopped the first part of the plan, now it is time to work on stopping the second. When the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board voted to recommend on Friday, September 9, 2016 to euthanize (actually the correct word is kill) all 45,000 “unadoptable” wild horses that have been stockpiled over decades in BLM holding facilities, (the lone “no” vote being Ginger Kathrens of the Cloud Foundation) the gauntlet has been thrown down, the challenge is on for the second part of the plan.
Hundreds of people have been writing me “what can I do to help?”
Here is my answer.
Write, call and visit your Senators and Representatives. Call the White House. Any action like this on the part of the BLM is going to require Congressional Approval.
Here are the ways to contact them:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
http://www.house.gov/representatives/
Contact the press. Tell them what is happening, give them information, give them my contact info I am happy to be interviewed. Get this out in from of as many people as possible.
Petitions – usually a waste of time. People sign them and think they have helped – no – we need you to start talking to people.
Spread the word with your friends, family, groups, schools.
Educate yourself. The issue is NOT that there is an overpopulation of wild horses and burros on our public lands – 70% of our wild herds have below 150 horses, which is below the level needed to maintain genetic viability.
The BLM has been rounding up and stockpiling our wild horses and burros for decades, and they are continuing to round them up this year and even this fall! This must stop immediately. Wild horses need to be managed on the range, in their homes, with their families. They should be managed as the principle species in the Herd Management Areas on our public lands.
What about the 45,000 wild horses and burros in holding? they should be returned to the 22 million acres that have been taken from our wild herds, that belonged to them at the time of the passage of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, and they should be allowed to live our their lives in peace and dignity, and freedom.
These are OUR horses – they do not belong to the BLM, and we must take action to save them.
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10 Comments
I am not able to share your articles to facebook! We are being blocked!!!!! Something must be done so we are able to get the message out there!
I’m seconding this. We are being blocked by FB security. So much for not censoring.
Thats a long list when I click on the Senator/House representative link. Do we only contact ours or others too? I have noticed some on this antiquated website they have literally only let you contact if local to them.
I think the only thing petitions do is spread the word. I’d be shocked if most of us thought they’d work by themselves. (Well. They do work on some things but since BLM is determined to be blind, deaf and dumb, definitely not on them.)
Defintaely yours, and as many others as you have time for.
Okay now senate wants an issue…not sure if its wildlife and environment or animal protection. (I think its both..)
For those of you wanting a petition, Return to Freedom has one here: http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/51439/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19610
I wrote to all of the people listed in the article before, since I am unable to call any senators because I’m not from the US. I really hope that they reconsider their idiotic decision. I don’t know how else to help, but thank you for educating others.
As part of your call to action, you state
“Wild horses need to be managed on the range, in their homes, with their families. They should be managed as the principle species in the Herd Management Areas on our public lands.”
What do you mean by the term “managed”?
While beautiful to watch, and although they have been around since brought over by Spanish explorers, they are, in a sense, an invasive species, not native to the West.
They can become overpopulated for their locale and they do compete with native wildlife. They are an expensive luxury to maintain as we would like for them to be able to roam free and multiply with few enemies to control their numbers. They live in areas of fragile environment, often, subject to harsh conditions, including drought. There has to be some middle ground in management that allows for the animals to be free, but somehow their population has to be controlled.
In case you wonder, my family has adopted about 15 of the horses through the years and love them dearly. I have to be practical about this situation, though.
In over 70% of the herd management areas there are less than 150 horses, less than the number necessary to ensure genetic viability. In those herd management areas I would absolutely not use birth control. The Appopriate Managent Levels for these herds need to be increased so that they can stay geneticall viable – 10, 20, 40 horses are a ridiculous AML.
In the larger herds, some are being “managed” with birth control. In some areas they are not. But the overgrazing that is damaging so much of the land in the west is from overgrazing of livestock. The BLM can retire grazing leases in herd management areas. Let predators live instead of issuing permits to kill them. It is not that it is not possible to manage wild horses on public lands it is that it is too much trouble for the BLM and they don’t want to maintain the horses there anyway.
The very best of news – this from Reuters, an announcement from the White House:
http://www.inforum.com/news/4115243-after-uproar-us-government-says-does-not-plan-kill-wild-horses