Freedom Lost & Hell Begins (Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)
Please send comments today to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who “manages” our wild horses and burros. Email them at CBCwildhorses@blm.gov with “Cancel Buckhorn, Coppersmith and Carter Roundups” in the subject line.
In your comments ask them to cancel the three roundups (Buckhorn, Coppersmith and Carter Reservoir) on the northern California-Nevada border because there is no proof that the indigenous wild horses are ruining the thriving natural ecological balance. There is no exact head count and therefore no “excess” wild horses.
Let them know you don’t like the BLM wasting taxpayer dollars on animal cruelty, nor for the government to spend money on environmental assessments for roundups when, according to the PEER report, the livestock is causing range damage.
Also mention the government should not remove native wild horses to warehouse them at a cost of $1.30 a day ($39 a month) when livestock grazing permittees pay only $1.35 a cow/calf pair per month to graze on public land.
Remind them that removing wild horses puts them at risk of going to slaughter after only 3 adoption attempts. Also, if they are over 10 years old they can be sold without limitation according to BLM regulations.
If you have seen them and enjoy taking photos of them, tell the BLM that removing the wild horses and burros will affect you negatively, and let them know how it will.
Remind them at the last National Academy of Science public meeting it was proven that mountain lions are hunting a lot of foals and are managing the population as nature intended so the drug PZP and other forms of contraception are probably not necessary. We all know darting isn’t going to work–the roundups will continue in order to give wild horses and burros contraceptives.
And how many are really out there?
These animals are being managed to extinction. Cancel the roundups! We don’t have many wild horses and burros left in California.
Ask them to respond to you in writing with the questions you have about why they would justify a roundup and ask for their scientific proof to back up all their claims.
Do you want to know what “multiple use” BLM serves on the Buckhorn, Coppersmith and Carter Reservoir Herd Management Areas (HMAs)? Who is getting permits for these HMA’s? Do you have questions about lease sales, energy development, water rights and grazing issues for the three HMA’s?
Please don’t copy and paste this because then the BLM won’t count your letter. It’s better if you write your own email–even if it is a one-liner.
Anyone can comment. Comments are due by midnight P.S.T. tonight. Please share this with your friends so they can send in a comment too.
Feel free to cc us on your comments or forward a copy separately to us at Contact@ProtectMustangs.org so we can keep track of comments.
Thank you for taking any action you can to save our wild horses and burros!
Below is the BLM Scoping Notice which requires your comment to them:
BLM Extends Scoping Period on Wild Horse Roundup Environmental Assessment |
||
| The U. S. Bureau of Land Management is extending the issue scoping period for receiving public comments on issues that should be addressed in an environmental assessment (EA) for a proposed roundup of excess wild horses in northeast California and northwest Nevada.The BLM Surprise Field Office in Cedarville, Calif. is considering roundups for the Buckhorn and Coppersmith herd management areas (HMA) in November 2012 and for the Carter Reservoir HMA in July 2013.Issue “scoping” comments should be sent to Bureau of Land Management, PO Box 460, Cedarville, CA, 96104, or sent by email toCBCwildhorses@blm.gov. While scoping comments will be accepted well into the development process for the EA, they would be most helpful if received by May 24, 2012.The Buckhorn and Coppersmith HMAs are in Lassen County, Calif., and Washoe County, Nev. The Carter Reservoir HMA is in Modoc County, Calif. and Washoe County.The EA will analyze the environmental effects of gathering excess wild horses and consider the effects of several management alternatives, including not gathering the animals. The EA will not establish population levels, called appropriate management levels (AML), for these HMAs. These were established in the Surprise Field Office Resource Management Plan completed in 2008. The plan is available at http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/surprise/propRMP-FEIS.html.The roundups are being considered to bring the wild herd populations to levels that the rangelands can sustain in balance with other authorized users including wildlife and permitted livestock.The appropriate management level for the Buckhorn HMA is 59-85 wild horses; the BLM estimates the current population at 172. The AML for the Coopersmith HMA is 50 to 75 wild horses, with the current population estimated at 75. At Carter Reservoir, the AML is 25-35 wild horses, with the current population estimated at 55. Additionally, there are an estimated 123 wild horses roaming outside of the HMA near the Carter HMA.The BLM will consider public comments in development of the EA which will be released for public comments this summer.
# # # BLM Scoping Notice: http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/newsroom/2012/04/NC1256_whbscoping.html |
For all the reasons that we have given you, the wild horse 1) does not belong to BLM but to the American people 2) Over 80% of the American people do not want roundups and horse slaughter 3) the only reason for these roundups is to provide the horse slaughter industry with horses to slaughter 4) all the foals that you remove are not counted and are sent to slaughter and the money is paid out in subsidy to cattlemen who have over ran the public lands, are not put under strict control as to the number of herds and when the foliage and water is in short supply the number of cattle on these public lands are not counted and they over run, fence off and falsify the federal documents when filing false claims against the wild horse 5) you can not continue to remove these horses and blame them for the damage to the land, your bureau, BLM, has the responsibility of moving herds, planting and reseeding, maintenance of the public lands, PROTECTION of wild life, and the further development of better ways to provide quality care of all wild life on public lands, including the wild horse which you have systematically designed ways to zero out and to slaughter at will 6) you are going against every federal law against animal abuse there is 7) instead of using the money for roundups, you could use the money to do your job and implement the strategies appropriate for the maintenance and care of land and wild life – the money that has been spent on the roundups and holding pens alone could have made a tremendous impact on the entire wild life population 8) your current policy of the Secretary of Interior saying: “There is no place for the wild horse on public lands.” is proof that you are systematically employing methods of extinction – which is against the federal law since the wild horse is native to the United States and should be put under federal wildlife protection 9) you should employ persons to study each herd to determine the needs of the herds and then provide it 10) your entire organization and those who are affiliated with you are pro-slaughter of horses which has been noted as giving each of those who are cattlemen a subsidy payment from the proceeds received by the BLM and constitutes a very illegal and federal law prohibiting the destruction of wild life especially for the personal gain of federal employees 11) Your statement: “There is no law we won’t break in order to make a profit” further signifies that you are conducting a criminal act and violation of law and you have given no proper standard of quality of excellence as set forth in your own rules and regulations 12) The roundups of foals are not documented or reported and we can only speculate of how many foals you have taken and slaughtered for your own subsidy money 13) your own statement on your website states that your agency, the BLM, is one of the only agencies in the U.S. that makes a profit. Your budget was over 1 billion dollars (and if you can’t do anything with that but kill horses, then you do not know what you are doing and should be removed immediately from your job) and your statement that your fiscal year balance is over 5 billion dollars – none of which goes to protect the range lands, reseed, use the proper humane methods of moving horses by using cowboys and slowly moving herds to make sure they are not injured, no improvement except your touting that you have recreation areas open is not subject to the discussion of the care of the wild life on public lands – and can not be considered a reason to slaughter and remove horses since your budget contains enough money to do your job in the first place 14) every member of the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Land Management should be held accountable for the inhumane slaughter of wild horses and foals – which all contain chemicals that are fatal to humans and each one of you should be held responsible in a court of law for allowing these horses to be roundedup inhumanely especially the foals, and held at holding pens that are less than adequate, including the secret holding pens that BLM keeps from the public information system 15) the prosecution should include the inhumane roundups, transportation, sale, and knowingly distributing horse meat that is harmful and fatal to human consumption and animal consumption.
Please leave these wild horses be. They are not harming anyone or anything. If they are to be taken from their natural home and shipped elsewhere, Mexico for example, they will suffer a tragic fate. There aren’t that many left in Ca., so please leave them be.
Very respectfully,
Deana Smith