Protect Mustangs is a California-based preservation group whose mission is to educate the public about the American wild horse, protect and research wild horses on the range and help those who have lost their freedom. For immediate release
Media Contacts:
Anne Novak, 415-531-8454, Anne@ProtectMustangs.org
Kerry Becklund, 510-502-1913, Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org
Anne Novak, 415-531-8454, Anne@ProtectMustangs.org
Kerry Becklund, 510-502-1913, Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org
Breaking News:
Outrage over advisory board proposing to sterilize wild mustangs Call for Congressional investigation into conflict of interest on anti-wild horse advisory board catering to livestock and extractive industries
WASHINGTON (October 31, 2012)–Protect Mustangs strongly opposes the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board’s proposal to spay wild mustangs due to health risks including death and because no accurate independent headcount has been provided to prove alleged overpopulation is an issue despite multiple requests for such evidence. “This cruel plan could kill many federally protected wild horses,” explains Anne Novak executive director for Protect Mustangs. “We oppose spaying wild mares in the field because it’s a high risk procedure. The BLM is charged with protecting wild horses not putting their lives in jeopardy. ”
Protect Mustangs is also calling for an independent audit to determine the number of mustangs in the wild and in holding facilities.
“Show us an independent headcount and then let’s talk about overpopulation–if it’s a realistic concern,” continues Novak.
“Right now we see the BLM inflating the population numbers to justify rampant million dollar roundups, money dumped into fertility research and funds spent to warehouse 50,000 captive wild horses. Today maybe 17,000 are left in all ten western states. This could be the end for America’s indigenous free roaming wild horse.”
“We are concerned the anti-mustang advisory board is spreading disinformation about reproduction rates,” says Novak.
“Life is harsh on the range. Wild horses don’t reproduce like rabbits and many foals die before they are two. Saying the herds double every 5 years is an invented distortion to push through radical policy endangering mustangs.”
Monday during the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting in Salt Lake, the Salazar Plan was pushed into the final phase to wipe out American wild horses living on public land. The Board, stacked to favor the livestock and extractive industries–profiting off public land–recommended spaying wild horses to control an alleged but not proven overpopulation on the range. Members of the public and wild horse advocates are outraged over the proposal which has at least a 10% death rate and a pandora’s box full of complications.
“It’s a lot more complicated and the potential for complications and side effects is much greater,” said the BLM’s vet, Dr. Al Kane USDA-APHIS, during a report to the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board in 2011. “The potential effects on herd behavior or individual mare behavior are an issue.”
Protect Mustangs urges members of the public to contact their elected officials in Congress to request:
• An investigation into conflict of interest rampant amongst Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board members.
• An independent audit to determine the number of mustangs in the wild and in holding.
• They come to the aid of federally protected wild horses who are at risk of being abused by the agency charged with their care.
“The public loves American wild horses,” says Kerry Becklund, director of outreach for Protect Mustangs. “We want the BLM and their biased Advisory Board to back off and quit trying to wipe them out.
# # #
Media Contacts:
Anne Novak, 415-531-8454, Anne@ProtectMustangs.org
Kerry Becklund, 510-502-1913, Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org
Anne Novak, 415-531-8454, Anne@ProtectMustangs.org
Kerry Becklund, 510-502-1913, Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org
Links of interest:
The Salazar Plan: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2009/oct/07/us-wild-horses-100709/
October 2012 Wild Horse & Burro Meeting: http://www.slideshare.net/blmnational/wild-horse-and-burro
Advisory Board member endorses slaughter: http://rtfitchauthor.com/2012/10/30/blm-wild-horse-burro-advisory-board-member-endorses-horse-slaughter-during-public-session/#comment-68620
Citizen board recommends BLM sterilize wild horses: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121030/us-wild-horses/
Protect Mustangs: http://www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs
The Salazar Plan: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2009/oct/07/us-wild-horses-100709/
October 2012 Wild Horse & Burro Meeting: http://www.slideshare.net/blmnational/wild-horse-and-burro
Advisory Board member endorses slaughter: http://rtfitchauthor.com/2012/10/30/blm-wild-horse-burro-advisory-board-member-endorses-horse-slaughter-during-public-session/#comment-68620
Citizen board recommends BLM sterilize wild horses: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121030/us-wild-horses/
Protect Mustangs: http://www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs
Protect Mustangs is a California-based preservation group whose mission is to educate the public about the American wild horse, protect and research wild horses on the range and help those who have lost their freedom.
Nov 22, 2012 @ 09:50:01
Nov 04, 2012 @ 21:23:59
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2004/2004-09-22-insdow.html
INSIGHTS: The Truth About Wild Horses: Travesty of Justice
By Craig Downer
Craig C. Downer is a wildlife ecologist (UCalifBerk, UNevReno, UKanLawr, UDurhamUK) who has extensively studied both the wild horses of the West and the endangered mountain tapirs of the northern Andes.
To speak of the wild horse living upon the wide open, public domain lands of North America is to speak of one of the continent’s most genuinely indigenous, ecologically complementary and magnificent of species. It is also to speak of justice in its highest sense.
The horse’s return to its true cradle of evolution in North America produces a positive resonance in every alive and attuned conscious man and woman today. These horses truly enhance the ecosystem of Western public lands, evolutionarily, ecologically, and in many other ways.
For example, due to its unique digestive system, the horse 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.
Since the horse’s digestive system does not thoroughly degrade the vegetation it eats, many diverse seeds pass through its stomach undegraded and able to germinate in its fertile droppings. This is a beautiful example of mutualism among animals and plants; and, in the horse’s case, it has been established over literally millions of years upon the North American continent.
Nov 04, 2012 @ 21:03:32
Excerpts:
Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife
by Jay F. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. and Patricia M. Fazio, Ph.D. (Revised January 2010)
© 2003‐2010, Drs. Jay F. Kirkpatrick and Patricia M. Fazio.
http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562
Thus, based on a great deal of paleontological data, the origin of E. caballus is thought to be about two million years ago, and it originated in North America. However, the determination of species divergence based on phenotype is at least modestly subjective and often fails to account for the differing ecomorphotypes within a species, described above. Purely taxonomic methodologies looked at physical form for classifying animals and plants, relying on visual observations of physical characteristics. While earlier taxonomists tried to deal with the subjectivity of choosing characters they felt would adequately describe, and thus group, genera and species, these observations were lacking in precision. Nevertheless, the more subjective paleontological data strongly suggests the origin of E. caballus somewhere between one and two million years ago.
Reclassifications are now taking place, based on the power and objectivity of molecular biology. If one considers primate evolution, for example, the molecular biologists have provided us with a completely different evolutionary pathway for humans, and they have described entirely different relationships with other primates. None of this would have been possible prior to the methodologies now available through mitochondrial‐DNA analysis.
A study conducted at the Ancient Biomolecules Centre of Oxford University (Weinstock et al. 2005) also corroborates the conclusions of Forstén (1992). Despite a great deal of variability in the size of the Pleistocene equids from differing locations (mostly ecomorphotypes), the DNA evidence strongly suggests that all of the large and small caballine samples belonged to the same species. The author states, “The presence of a morphologically variable caballine species widely distributed both north and south of the North American ice sheets raises the tantalizing possibility that, in spite of many taxa named on morphological grounds, most or even all North American caballines were members of the same species.”
Nov 04, 2012 @ 03:29:19
Yes you are a fiasco……..horses have been here for far longer than you like to think. What is damaging to the environment is all the cattle and sheap tearing the land up and causing environmental devastation. Calen
Nov 03, 2012 @ 20:56:12
Wild horses are a contaminant to the North American environment. They were artifically introduced by European settlers hundreds of years ago. To restore the environment to its natural state, the horses have to go. It is that simple.
Nov 02, 2012 @ 03:30:27
http://prophoto7journal.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/a-short-note-to-wild-horse-herd-advocates/
Here is a short-agenda to approach the BLM / DOI Drones. To start make them prove their EA’s; Demand Accurate Horse Head Counts and prove within the context of the EA; Demand and have them show “Provable Science” and “Valid Data Range Research” within the EA that shows beyond a doubt the harm done to the exact Range area discussed, supposedly by the horses, and where the correction is required (via provable range research and non-bias data).
More and more outright Felony situations
The highlights of current violation foreshadow previous investigations – ALL FELONIES:
BLM Management personnel have authorized the transportation of wild horses to group adopters at the expense of the government;
BLM management personnel have authorized the fee waiver and/or fee reduction of wild horses without delegated authority;
BLM management failed to inspect and prepare written reports for group adopter facilities and property prior to receiving adopted wild horses;
BLM personnel publicly and openly promoted the commercial us of wild horses, i.e., bucking stock and slaughter house;
BLM personnel in concurrence with BLM management, entered false information regarding the wild horse documents into BLM DPS-8000 (i.e. or current updated facility) data base;
BLM personnel through their government positions, arranged for special privileges and allowances pertaining to wild horse adoptions;
BLM personnel and management knowingly converted to the use of another, wild horses belonging to the United States;
Many, many more “lack of document” charges, especially in regard to the Wild Horse Herd Counts and the financial income and expenditures mandatory at each BLM facility, were not completed, lost, or unavailable for confirmation – in order to appropriate funding for each facility;
Several more listings expressed concern toward illegal activity, and lack of following directorial and mandated training and compliance of Inspectors, Wranglers, and Field Level Administrators of the Wild Horse and Burro Program.
Nov 02, 2012 @ 03:27:18
http://prophoto7journal.wordpr…
Legal Violations cost the taxpayers money
I speak with my neighbors, they have never heard of some of this stuff. But I will tell you here and now, when they find out they are pissed. Another Advocate has been born.
James Sebastian, accountant/CPA, generated the following from a perusal of BLM expenditure, precisely the Wild Horse Roundups, holding corrals, and shipping:
1. $2.6 Billion Dollars BLM Horse Herd Management of Taxpayer Money Spent;
2. Benefits to Taxpayers while spending taxpayer money = $0;
3. Benefits to Local Area Ranchers/politicians/oil industry accumulative, pay-offs and continuing profit = $12.4 billion dollars and rising.
“This is significant,” Mr. Sebastian states, “. . . as this becomes, and has been, a slice of our public debt, and unfortunately hidden from the public at large. Taxpayers should know where their money is going, it should not be hidden. Right now it is hidden in the BLM, with no credibility or attempt to show the tax paying public the real figures and costs of the roundups. This compared to simply leaving the Wild Herds alone, at an approximate cost-field-management amount of perhaps $852,000.00 per year, for grassland management, horse management, and cattle grazing management.” (i.e. Grassland Management Principles) et al.
Conclusion
This is not meant as an article as such, rather a short synopsis of a few laws and policy situations for information only. It is up to the individual Advocate to explore the variety of things and options available to everyone. This is also meant to give the Advocate a slight understanding of the legal-speak required when filing a complaint with the FBI or other government agencies. Further research is required before making a complaint. More to come, as Note to WHHA, so this is not the definitive list, simply a short list, version 1.