Kill the Bills: HB 318 and HB 302, Not the Buffalo
Buffalo Field Campaign is appealing to all of our supporters to send messages against HB 318 and HB 302 to kill the bills – not the buffalo – in the Montana Legislature. You can watch the action on both bills in the House Agriculture committee at 3 PM (MST) Tuesday, February 16.
HB 318changes the legal definition of wild buffalo or bison – redefining the wild, migratory Yellowstone bison herds as domestic or feral. Under HB 318, wild buffalo would no longer be recognized as wild, and the wildlife species would – by definition – be extinct in Montana. HB 318 would also stop the reintroduction of wild buffalo because the legal definition precludes the species from ever being recognized as wild.
HB 302 interferes with Montanan’s constitutional right to participate in decisions to reintroduce wild buffalo by giving a board of county commissioners veto authority over the state’s decision. Reintroducing wildlife is the responsibility of wildlife biologists entrusted with ensuring wild American bison, our National Mammal, are protected for future generations.
I am at the viewing site for the Red Desert roundup – it will be the last day for this area in Antelope Hills. It is a balmy 31 degrees this morning. Yesterday they captured 107 wild horses and I thought they were done here. They only plan to leave 60 horses in this HMA of 159,000 acres. They will release 25 horses.
I saw a colorful family run on top of the hill near the trap. They came down followed by a group of four black horses who waited on the hill while the helicopter went after a big group of about 12 pintos buckskins, grullas and bays who looked so tired – moving slowly, I am not sure how far they had been pushed. It took a while for the helicopter to get the four blacks to meet up with the big group and get pushed in. They are using only one trap for this area which is absolutely huge. More
A week ago, I was touring Montana public lands with my 13-year-old daughter. As we approached Yellowstone National Park, I explained how the slaughter of bison was largely to appease the livestock industry, pushed by a handful of ranchers who didn’t want bison migrating out of the Park. Bison, as it turns out, eat the same grass as cattle, and can carry the livestock disease brucellosis. Even though there has never been a documented case of cattle catching brucellosis from bison – not even one – in the Yellowstone ecosystem (all known cases were traced back to elk, according to the National Academy of Sciences), cattle producers fear losing “brucellosis-free” status which would make it harder for them to market their cattle. “It’s always the ranchers,” my daughter exclaimed.
She’s right.
Earlier in the week, we had visited the Thunder Basin National Grassland to see prairie dogs, a rare and sensitive native wildlife species and also the very linchpin of grassland wildlife diversity. Instead, we looked out on empty prairie dog colonies, decimated by lethal poisoning and sylvatic plague. The disease borne by fleas, was kept in check for years by conservation nonprofits who dusted the burrows with a flea-killing powder. But in 2017, the Forest Service started denying dusting permits to the conservationists, and stopped authorizing the non-lethal relocation of prairie dogs away from private land boundaries.
Recently, the Forest Service caved even further in to politically-connected ranchers with an anti-prairie dog plan amendment for the national grassland that includes expanded prairie dog poisoning programs and more recreational shooting of the animals. The livestock boosters want prairie dogs killed by plague, poisons, and bullets – so their non-native cattle would have more grass to eat.
On January 22, 2020, a federal judge struck down the nation’s oldest “ag-gag” law, the latest in a series of victories against these laws and in favor of the First Amendment right to seek the truth about how animal agribusinesses treat the animals in their care. Kansas’s Farm Animal and Field Crop and Research Facilities Protection Act, passed in 1990, criminalized a wide range of conduct related to animal facilities, most importantly, entering an animal facility not open to the public with the intent to take photographs or recordings.
Across the U.S., many states seeking to conceal the inherent cruelty of animal agriculture from the general public have passed laws like the Kansas statute targeting whistleblowers and undercover investigators. These laws, commonly known as “ag-gag” laws, prevent us from gaining access to and exposing the widespread cruel (yet standard) treatment of farm animals. Without these critical undercover investigations, the public would effectively be kept from learning about the cruelty involved in daily factory farming practices.
Together We’ll Light the Sky with Love for the Animals
Animals’ Angels will celebrate our 11th annual Light the Sky eventon November 16, 2019. I was inspired to hold this year’s event just before the Thanksgiving holiday since the season of gratitude is the perfect time to honor the animals in our lives who have given us so much joy and love. And there’s no better time to remember and honor the innocent animals that have touched our hearts during this year’s many investigations.
The lighting of candles is always an emotional event for me and the Animals’ Angels investigators and board members, who care so deeply about the animals we seek to help. Seeing all the candles sponsored by our dedicated supporters means the world to us; the flames are a powerful reminder that we aren’t alone in the dark as we work to end the suffering of the animals.
This year I hope you, as one of our most ardent supporters, will let us light a candle in gratitude for your contributions and offer a loving tribute to the special animals in your own life. With a donation of $10 or more we will light a candle for an animal you’d like to honor and add their story and photo to our Tree of Hope, which proudly stands as a tangible testament of our love and compassion for all the animals that touch our lives.
One of the many messages on our Tree of Hope
We invite you to make your donation in the name of a beloved pet who lives in your home, or a dearly missed animal who continues to live on in your heart. Your gift to Light the Sky will honor your special animal while supporting our on-going investigations on behalf of all the horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, and puppies that so desperately need our help.
One hundred percent of your donation to the Light the Sky event will be used in the coming year to help Animals’ Angels investigate and expose the abusers, hold criminals accountable, and work to create and enforce laws that stop the suffering of the animals.
I hope you’ll make a gift today and add the flame of another candle to our Light the Sky event. We’ve set a goal of lighting at least 3,000 candles and raising at least $30,000, and we need your help.
And, as a special “thank you” to our donors during this season of gratitude, we will also be giving away an original work of art. For every $50.00 donated to the Light the Sky event, you will receive one chance to participate in the drawing for the stunning 20 x 24 inch oil on canvas titled “Mare & Foal”. The lucky winner will be announced the evening of the event.
Mare & Foal Painting
Our work on behalf of the animals is made possible by the ongoing support of kind-hearted and compassionate people like you. I hope you’ll join us by sending in your candle request. Together we can “Light the Sky” with love for the animals!
On behalf of the animals, thank you – from the bottom of my heart,
Letter from USDA’s Forest Service informing us that they had no records of the Devil’s Garden wild horses for almost a 4 month period of time (Click on each page to enlarge or print)
Wild Horse Freedom Federation has been working diligently, over many years, trying to find out the truth about what is happening to America’s wild horses & burros.
We currently have 9 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits filed for violations of FOIA law by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). More
by Debbie Coffey, V.P. & Dir. of Wild Horse Affairs, Wild Horse Freedom Federation
In my humble opinion:
Return to Freedom (RTF) continues to add insult to injury in their efforts to boondoggle the American public with a controversial proposal, by recently claiming “We understand that there has been considerable misinformation spread online about this proposal to Congress. If you wish to delve deeper, please contact us to schedule a call. We’re also planning a webinar for RTF supporters.”
If you are one of their supporters, you should ask them direct questions, like “What, specifically, is the supposed misinformation?”
Every other major wild horse & burro advocacy organization, along with many knowledgeable advocates, have come out against their proposal. All of these organizations have been very specific in the disastrous aspects of this proposal and have backed their concerns with facts.
American bison a Species of Conservation Concern is a collaborative project dedicated to securing protection for the wild species and their habitat on National Forests.
June 6, 2019 is the final day to submit public comments for American bison on the Custer Gallatin Forest plan revision
MAIL TO:
Custer Gallatin National Forest
Attn: Forest Plan Revision Team
P.O. Box 130 (10 E Babcock)
Bozeman, MT 59771
The Custer Gallatin National Forest is revising its’ forest plan that will determine how American bison and their habitat are managed for decades to come.
Please write comments in support of strengthening Alternative D (Word, PDF) by setting strong standards to achieve the “desired condition” of viable, self-sustaining populations of American bison on the Custer Gallatin National Forest.
Listing American bison as a species of conservation concern, reintroducing fire as a natural force in expanding habitat, removing barriers to migration, securing habitat connectivity, are a sample of comments to advocate for.
We will post updates to Buffalo Field Campaign’s comments here (Word, PDF).
Your comments – written in your own words – are invaluable! Tell them you support American bison’s freedom to roam National Forest habitat. Thank you!
Place a call into Representative Nita Lowey, the House Chair of the Appropriations Committee and a supporter of wild horse protection, at (202) 225-6506and say:
“Please reject the request for appropriations language to require the BLM to remove 15,000-20,000 wild horses & burros from our public lands. Please make sure America’s wild horses & burros are allowed to maintain viable herd numbers on public lands. “
Place a call to your own Representative at 202-225-3121 using the script above.
The ASPCA, HSUS, Return to Freedom (RTF), American Mustang Foundation (AMF) as well as ranching groups are authors of this proposal. It is known the public land ranchers want as few horses as possible on our public lands because of the competition for forage, but the ASPCA and HSUS are well known animal rights groups, supposedly supportive of wild horses.*
However, the ASPCA has been mainly involved with cats, dogs, and domestic horses with no experience in BLM wild horse corrals and pasture operations, no experience with on the ground PZP programs, no experience with on the ground adoption-purchase transactions, and no experience in operating sanctuaries.
Likewise, the HSUS is comparatively the same in no experience as the ASPCA though they have participated in two failed large herd sized PZP delivery operations… the Sand Wash herd and the Cedar Mtn. herd…and they have two sanctuaries holding various animals, not exclusively mustangs.
Return to Freedom is just one of the nation’s horse sanctuaries in Lompoc, California, is full, doesn’t have room for one California wild horse or burro, and operates in the red according to Guidestar. The American Mustang Foundation is a new organization supposedly a lobbying organization about whose activities little is known to date and shows no known experience in housing wild horses.
In spite of their lack of any or of any successful experience with the solutions proposed for the wild horses and burros, these groups want to speak with authority as to what should be done economic, humane and feasible wise after quickly removing 50,000 animals from 27 M acres of our public lands. There’s no cost analysis in this report, humane is dubious for both those left on the range and those off the range, and feasible, providing no substantive evidence of proof and with providing already failed trials, presents an invalidation of much of the usefulness of this report as a way forward.
OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROPOSAL
The objectives of this proposal are to develop an economically viable, humane, and feasible long-term management plan for the BLMs wild horse and burro program.
PRESENCE OF WILD HORSES AND BURROS ON OUR PUBLIC LANDS
This report appears to accept the following:
27,000 wild horses and burros are only able to be on 27 M acres of our public lands called AML or Appropriate Management Levels.
87,885 animals are currently on those public lands as of 2018. (updated from 2017)
To return to 27,000, a three or ten year plan of removals is endorsed…3 years of 20,000 and 5 years of 12,000.
The 27,000 number is an arbitrary number. The 1971 law did not specify an allowable number. No recorded evidence of 27,000 wild horses and burros allowed is recorded around 1971. The BLM says it uses “scientific principles of rangeland management” to determine the population of wild horses and burros that the habitat can sustain.
In chapter 7, Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences debunks the idea scientific principles are used to determine populations and suggests it has more to do with values and politics.
The BLM claims it has 177 HMAs or Herd Management Areas. A closer look reveals some HMAs have no horses or burros in them, some are double counted, some have been combined, and some are not managed by the BLM. The BLM actually appears to have only 160 HMAs. (See addendum)
Dr. Gus Cothran of Texas A & M, the retained geneticist for the BLM, has said 150-200 wild horses with 50 effective breeding animals need to be in a herd for genetic variance and diversity and for viability over some time. (See BLM Handbook) Some herds have only horses or burros in them and others have both.
138 horse herds exist with only with only “38” of them having AMLs above 150 and 30 burro herds exist with only “3” of them having AMLs above 150. (See Addendum 2) So if the numbers are brought down to 27,000, 78% of the horse herds and 90% of the burro herds will be at risk for loss of fecundity, at risk for anomalies or deformities, and at risk of ultimate extirpation.
Add to the removals the use of suggested PZP on all the mares, sterilization of some of the mares and sex ratioing of 70% stallions to 30% mares. That will lower even more the number of breeding animals heightening even more the threat of the continuance of the herds. Is this acceptance of numbers on the range and the use of PZP on all of the mares, sterilization and sex ratioing “humane” knowing the risk to extirpation as a herd or extinction as a group of herds. A loss of 78% and 90% and more isn’t feasible long term management. It is devastation of the herds.
In this proposal, ASPCA, HSUS, Return to Freedom, Humane Society Legislative fund and American Mustang Foundation didn’t ask for viable herd numbers to be established or for the return of captured wild horses & burros to millions of acres of public lands that have been taken away from them.
These organizations completely capitulated to the signatories representing the interests of the powerful livestock grazing industry: National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, Society for Range Management, Public Lands Council, National Horse and Burro Rangeland Management Coalition (organizers of the secretive 2017 “Slaughter Summit” in Utah that was co-hosted by the Utah State University and the state of Utah), Eureka County Nevada Commissioner Office (headed by J.J. Goicoechea, a past President of, and a current Executive Committee Member, of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association), Beaver County Utah Commissioner Office, and the Utah Governor Office (Gov. Gary Herbert, who delivered the welcome at the 2017 “Slaughter Summit”).
These organizations representing livestock grazing interests have been rabidly pushing for the slaughter of America’s wild horses & burros for years.
How did the ASPCA, Return to Freedom, HSUS, Humane Society Legislative Fund and the American Mustang Foundation lobbyists sell out America’s wild horses & burros? More
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Land of Hope and Glory UK Earthlings Documentary
Surge (2017)
Film Review
This is a documentary about the brutal conditions under which factory farmed animals are raised in the UK, Australia and the US. This type of footage is extremely rare because Food Inc makes every effort to conceal the disgusting conditions under which our meat is produced.
Factory farmed pigs and chickens seem to fare the worst. Even though pigs are as intelligent and emotionally complex as dogs, they are raised in extremely confining cages and forced to lie in their own feces, as well as being routinely tortured and beaten by their keepers. Pigs, like most other factory farmed animals, are fed massive doses of antibiotics (contributing to antibody resistance and the rise of “superbugs”) while continual exposure to feces makes factory farmed meat a major source of food borne illness.
Chickens and more than 90% of ducks and turkeys are also crowded into pens. In chickens raised for meat, 45% suffer painful fractures because their specially bred bodies are too heavy for their skeleton.
What seems most consistent among all factory farmed animals (besides their continual exposure to feces) are the inhumane conditions under which they are killed. Although most jurisdictions require them to be asphyxiated or electrically stunned prior to slaughter, abattoir personnel are rushed and poorly trained. As the film clearly shows, many animals are still alive when they’re butchered.
Putting it mildly. A female buffalo expresses her people’s sentiment towards the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service.
Buffalo Field Campaign’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit continues to divulge more evidence of how unfit the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is in having any role managing our National Mammal, the wild buffalo. Thank you to attorney Daniel Snyder and our legal team at the Charlie Tebbutt law firm who have been of tremendous help in disclosing the public’s business.
APHIS’s offensive statements (provided here, APHIS’s Bastard Bison,PDF, excerpted below) show a callous disregard for buffalo. At the same time APHIS sought Yellowstone National Park’s help in taking more buffalo for their birth control study using GonaCon, a chemical sterilant, they didn’t want any obligation placed on them to get rid of the “bastard” buffalo under their care.
APHIS’s GonaCon study was shut down by their higher ups in the bureaucracy for running afoul of agency rules (See our article Good news for wild buffalo in Gardiner basin.). The buffalo taken from the wild under permit from Yellowstone National Park were killed or shipped to Colorado for more “study.”
However, APHIS remains entrenched in buffalo management through the taxpayer moneys they annually dole out to the Montana Dept. of Livestock. APHIS Funding MDOL Bison Operations 2018 (PDF).
Ask them to cut-off taxpayer moneys and axe APHIS’s on-going cooperative agreement with the Montana Dept. of Livestock to fund their buffalo management scheme.
APHIS has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to the Montana Dept. of Livestock to remove all wild buffalo that migrate into the state. The spigot of American taxpayer funding has been running nonstop for two decades.
There’s an action we can take to stop it! The U.S. Congress has the power to cut-off the free taxpayer funding pipeline that is destroying our last wild buffalo in Montana. Please contact the U.S. Congress today!
Thank you for taking action on behalf of our National Mammal, the buffalo.
From: Rhyan, Jack C – APHIS Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 3:21 PM To: Clarke, Patrick R. – APHIS Subject: RE: Conference call about GonaCon (2nd rendition) ? Elk study at Brogan’s? Off the top of my bald head: I like the bastard question best. I think with those we donate their little bastard carcasses to the food bank, as they have no special value for conservation. Jack PS: we might should delete these emails.
Tell Washington Gov. Inslee there is no need for his wolf slaughter. There are simply places in Washington where cows should not be.
The picture above was taken in the core territory of the Profanity Peak wolf pack, which Washington wildlife managers destroyed in 2016 after a rancher dumped his cows to graze near the wolves’ den and rendezvous sites. As you can see, the terrain is essentially indefensible. It is rugged, forested and remote. It is no place for cows.
Seventeen of the 22 wolves killed to date in Washington State were killed on behalf of this one rancher, Len McIrvin, who refuses to follow science-based, common sense measures to protect his cattle. Other ranchers have had great success in preventing losses. For starters, they are not dumping them in the heart of wolf territory.
But McIrvin, who has been overheard expressing his hatred for wolves, apparently doesn’t believe they deserve a place to live in peace, except perhaps in zoos? He does believe his cattle should be able to graze on and destroy our public lands, lands for which he pays a fraction of market rate. And he obviously doesn’t care about healthy ecosystems, which require the presence of wolves, or the fact that thousands of people want to be able to see wolves in the wild and could bring tourism dollars to struggling rural economies.
Alberta’s Free Roaming Horses Society and have just begun legal action against the Alberta Provincial Government for, what appears to be, a violation of their Statutes and Regulations with regards to capturing and removing the wild horses from Public Lands. They have been gathering documentation from Freedom of Information Requests for 4 years. The Action was filed on August 31st, and they are waiting for a response.
The Originating Application and the Affidavit and Exhibits are HERE.
In 2011, the world’s population reached 7 billion and is now 7.6 billion. Many stressed ecosystems leave larger mammals vulnerable like elephants, giraffes and both African rhino species. Serious trophy hunters seek quarry like black maned lions and rare African elephant tuskers. Genetic viability can be impacted coupled with demand for body parts in traditional medicine.
Widespread corruption plagues Zimbabwe and South Africa with little or no jail time for most offenders. My 2003 investigation on allegations of illegal lion hunting in Zimbabwe revealed their poorly written laws prevented federal prosecution of suspect U.S. trophy hunters, including a similar instance like Cecil the Lion.
Lesson in extinction
In the early 1800’s, Passenger Pigeon numbers were several billion and by 1900 none survived in the wild. History does repeat itself with extinction.
Larger Species Vulnerable
Lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards, and hippo parts are exploited in the global online black market of illegal wildlife. Large social media companies profit from the illicit wildlife trade of rhino horn, elephant ivory, including lion and tiger claws. Stephen Kohn, renowned whistleblower attorney documented extensive illicit trade through sting operations detailed in this month’s WIRED Magazine. These social media companies are reportedly at the center of the global trade in endangered species.
Trafficking in illegal wildlife parts is akin to taking a stolen vehicle and selling the parts individually that are worth more than the whole.
Growth of illegal wildlife trade
The illegal wildlife trade estimate ranged from $10 billion annually in 2011 to $23 billion in 2014 and now $115 billion after a recent month long crackdown in 92 countries.
Overnight parcel shipping venues have been a platform for decades that support trafficking a host of illegal wildlife parts and products including live reptiles shipped overnight from around the globe.
Wildlife Crime supports Transnational Criminal Syndicates and Terrorism
In 2015, my colleague, Bryan Christy in Nat Geo’s “Warlords of Ivory” chronicled the elephant ivory trade to transnational criminal syndicates and suggested evidence of ivory trafficking used to forge links between several African based terrorist groups. Other independent reports support his assessment.
Think Globally Act Locally
With Jane Goodall’s support of SB-1487 and the supporting evidence of 21st century impacts on the illegal wildlife trade, California legislators have an opportunity to make a difference with this key legislation in a proactive unified effort.
Thank you all kindly for the opportunity to speak in support of this critical legislation.
In late June, I was humbled when asked to testify before the California State Assembly in Sacramento in support of the above critical legislation initially proposed by Senator Henry Stern. I am very thankful for Judie Mancuso, Founder, CEO and President for Social Compassion In Legislation (SCIL) who believed in me and asked me for my support in SB-1487.
Nicholaus Sackett, a Sacramento attorney who is instrumental in SCIL’s continued success with legislative issues also provided key testimony for SB-1487.
Two opponents who represented interests of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Safari Club International (SCI) also testified.
For years I have felt like a voice in the wilderness echoing concerns based on my professional expertise and opinion of the illicit wildlife trade’s continuous and unabated expansion across the globe. More
This is a wild family in the Green Mountain Herd in Wyoming. For the past three days the BLM has been chasing hundreds of horses with helicopters and rounding them up and yesterday two foals died of what the contractor calls “capture shock.”
Here’s the BLM’s story in their Gather Reports: “Summary: BLM euthanized a captured horse with a pre-existing condition. Two colts were treated for capture shock during sorting at the holding corral. One colt died shortly after being treated and the other died while being transferred to the veterinary hospital in Lander”
Here’s our opinion: It was very hot. These foals likely ran as hard as they could to keep up with their mothers while being chased by a helicopter. The BLM ran them to death. So while the BLM attempts to put lipstick on a pig by blaming the deaths of the foals on “capture shock,” we place the blame directly where it belongs – on the BLM.
If the foals were treated, where are the vet reports?
The PPJ Gazette 