Protect Mustangs’ Youth Campaign Director, Robin Warren (Wild Mustang Robin) at the Rally to Stop the Roundups in Sacramento July 10, 2012. (Photo © Cat Kindsfather, media permission granted.)
Robin Warren leads youth campaign for Protect Mustangs
For immediate release:
SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (July 16, 2012)–Since joining Protect Mustangs in June as their new youth campaign director, Robin Warren, age 11, has met with a Nevada State Senator, documented wild horses on the range, was a featured speaker at the Stop the Roundups rally in California’s capital and gave oral comments at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) helicopter hearing also in the golden state. At the hearing, Warren presented the BLM representative with her Petition to Save Wild Mustangs asking the BLM to stop helicopter roundups.
“It’s not fair that the Bureau of Land Management has an exemption to the law that protects wild horses and burros,” states Robin Warren, youth campaign director for Protect Mustangs. “We want cruel helicopter roundups to stop and we want to make sure they always have access to clean water.”
The petition reads:
“We, the undersigned, do respectfully request that the Bureau of Land Management adhere to the same rules and regulations as the general public in regards to the humane treatment of wild horses and burros. We find it unreasonable that the Secretary of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, or any person or organization, is found to be exempt from our collective responsibility as humans to treat animals humanely. We further find it unreasonable that the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture are permitted to define “humane” as it pertains to their own areas of command. We respectfully request that the Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 be restored to its original intent, that no person or organization would be permitted to capture wild horses and burros by means of motorized vehicles, or by polluting or closing off watering holes, as these methods have been proven inhumane.”
Warren started the petition 3 years ago under her pen name Wild Mustang Robin–to stop the wild horse roundups. She was inspired to co-author the petition after reading “Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West” by Marguerite Henry.
She has been active in her hometown, Las Vegas, and over the internet to get signatures. After posting the petition online at Change.org she received signatures from 50 States, DC, Puerto Rico & and more than 30 countries.
At last week’s helicopter use hearing in Sacramento, Warren presented 2770 signatures from her petition to Amy Dumas, the BLM representative.”Kids don’t want to see wild horses in zoos,” states Warren. “We want to observe them roaming on the open range with their families.”
Warren’s speech at the BLM helicopter use hearing received a standing ovation from the audience.
“Robin speaks for the youth of America and touches people’s hearts across the nation,” says Anne Novak, executive director for Protect Mustangs. “She wants the wild horses to be protected–not harassed and torn from their families forever.”
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Media Contacts:
Anne Novak, 415-531-8454 Anne@ProtectMustangs.org
Kerry Becklund, 510-502-1913 Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org
Contact Protect Mustangs for interviews, photos or video
Mustang Robin hands Amy Dumas (BLM) the growing petition against helicopter roundups at the California BLM public hearing on helicopters for roundups, etc. in Sacramento July 10, 2012 (Photo © Cat Kindsfather, media permission granted.)
Wild Mustang Robin present petition to TriRAC BLM January 2012:
Links of interest:
Link to Robin’s petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-president-of-the-united-states-the-blm-is-not-exempt-from-humane-treatment-of-mustangs
Protest, press conference and public hearing information: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=1828
Celebrities speak out against wild horse roundups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLsS9r87tRk
America’s wild horses are indigenous: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562
Helicopter hearings and the public process: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=1498
Anne Novak on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/theAnneNovak
Protect Mustangs website: http://protectmustangs.org/
Link to this press release: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=125
Copy of Robin’s speech to BLM delivered as a letter at the hearing:
Robin Warren
Director of the Youth Program Protect Mustangs P.O. Box 5661 Berkley, CA 94705
Mike Pool
Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management
1849 C Street NW, Rm. 5665
Washington DC 20240
James G. Kenna & Amy Dumas
BLM Wild Horse and Burro State Director, and Program
California State Office
2800 Cottage Way, Suite W1834
Sacramento, CA 95825
July 10th, 2012
Re: Helicopter Roundups
Dear Messrs. Mike Pool and James Kenna and Ms. Amy Dumas;
Hi I am Wild Mustang Robin, Director of the Youth Campaign at Protect Mustangs; I came here today to talk about the mustangs. I am happy see there are many people here who could come today to say no to the roundups. First of all I would like to say the roundups are inhumane. There is a law made by Wild Horse Annie saying you cannot use motorized vehicles to round up the wild horses. If I – or even the President – was to round them up I would get arrested. Now there is one interesting thing: the BLM gets an exemption even though it is a law not to use motorized vehicles.
Helicopters are like monsters to the mustangs; children do not want America’s animals to be scared or hurt in anyway. This makes kids feel unsafe because they don’t want to have monsters in their life and children are like animals (they don’t have a voice really). The helicopters are so scary that the mustangs remember the noise for the rest of their lives. I went to the BLM holding facility in Sparks, NV and when we were walking a slow pace the horses got scared and ran away. They were scared of people walking – how do you think they feel about helicopters?
Another reason the roundups are inhumane is because they separate the families apart – the foals from the mothers and the mothers from the fathers. They might spend the rest of their lives behind gates and never see each other again. Their ability to have families is a gift because many creatures have to let their babies live on their own after a few weeks of them taking care of them. I know how it feels because I lost my whole family. I have found a new home and happiness but the mustangs may never get to be in a herd again – and they long for family. It is not humane to separate families from each other. How would you feel if you lost your family?
A much more humane idea is to keep the family bands whole and send them all together to sanctuaries. It is an idea that would save money and make money as a tourist attraction – a business like a hotel near where the mustangs and burros live. This is a great idea and it can cost less than feeding, watering, and taking care of them when they can take care of themselves. It could make money for all the states where mustangs still live – both yours and mine.
The mustangs and burros deserve to be treated right. I know that and a numerous amount of others do too. Many people care about the wild horses and burros and do not want any of them rounded up or eaten. There are the big names you know, that spoke before me, and then there are the “little names” you don’t know yet, like mine. I represent the voices of many children.
Please do not use helicopters or motorized vehicles for roundups or management. Please reconsider your roundup plans and let them live in freedom.
Sincerely,
Wild Mustang Robin (Robin Warren)
Someone has to put a stop to this!! Madelyn Pickens has purchased a great deal of land and offered to use it for the ones that have already been round up. Please someone help. Thank you for at least taking the time to hear the children….now if you would just listen to them!!
What a wonderful person you are to help these wonderful animals.
Go Robin!! What an inspiring young lady you are! You are setting an excellent example for ALL of us– I am proud of you!
Dear friends of wild horses (and all horses),
Thank you, Robin, for your courage and leadership. While most of us (including me) cringe at the thought of public speaking, you have been blessed with the courage and fortitude to speak up and speak out for what you believe in without constraints and fear. This is a quality that is not given to just everyone, but to leaders who are blessed with the desire to learn, speak out, and teach others in an effective manner that is easy to understand. I am so blessed by you. From the first moment that I saw your videos on You Tube, I knew that you were special. You were not only brave, but had tenacity and the willingness to learn the facts of what you were trying to accomplish for the future – your generation – your future.
Without any doubt, you continued on with your wonderfully written petitions, (which many can not write that well, even journalists who have wonderful words to say, but often can not say them with the words that are easy to understand like you have written in every petition and letter, and yet, with the wisdom of an “old soul” – one who has been given knowledge, wisdom, and compassion to be given to others).
In the past months leading up to the recent roundups during the wild fires and after the wild fires, I thought that the possibility of losing our wild horses to wild fires was a possibility. The wild horses, knew their escape routes, even though we did not, and if they could escape the wild fires, they would (and will still do so, we still have many wild fires in the west). My heart went out the the many who were going to rallies in the heat. Not giving a second thought to the heat or any problems, Robin faithfully kept us updated on her status as she was writing her speech. It was exciting to wait and see what she had written, this scholar of youth, this wonderful young journalist who had taken up the wild horses controversy with so many other young people, and without reserve, went to the furthest lengths to be heard.
It is amazing to see that the next generation is in their 30s now, but the next generation, Robin’s generation, has taken it upon themselves to learn facts and go places that no one else were allowed to go, or we not given the permission to go. Before the senators and legislative body of this government, Robin and others of her generation have stated their case, with facts that are indisputable, the facts of their generation. The idea that they have accomplished so much in such a short time has given us so much hope that the future for our children and grandchildren will not be lost, it is in good hands. The wild horses will survive, if they have anything to say about it because they will be the ones making the decisions and making the rules, and voting. They are prepared.
Without a doubt, we have warriors for the wild horse, Robin and the young people of her generation have given us the light to see that they are ready, and will be ready to take over the reigns of this government. If our generation, the 50+ generation, is ignored, we have two more generations who will not be denied redress and their representation in this government will not be denied. We have hope to stop the helicopter roundups, we have hope to stop the abuse and the neglect, and we have hope to tailor the needs of the wild horse as they need it – not as a government agency such as the Department of Interior governing the Bureau of Land Management currently mismanaging and abusing their office are doing. We have hope that we and the future generations can and will succeed.
I have never seen any of the generations waver. We will not give up. With Robin and her generation following the next generation, we will win. It’s just a matter of time, Robin. Do not give up, you will win. You have the heart of a warrior and the strength of wisdom and knowledge, with the compassion of truth. We will win. And, you, Robin and others of your generation, have made it possible. Your bravery before senators and the legislative bodies of this government, is without doubt, a gift – and is a shining beacon of hope!
I subject myself to many times of being humble. This time, however, it is not only being humbled by a young woman with the gifts that she has to carry out her hopes and faith, but by the generations who believe that we will not lose, no matter how long it takes, and the faith and courage to continue on with the struggles of saving the wild horses, to stop the helicopter roundups, the abuses, neglect and the facts are all written – written for these young people to address the very legislative body of government that the generations older than them, have given the power in office to make decisions.
May the angels guide us, and may the young people who have taken up this fight, such as Robin, be our hope in the future for them. They have taken the responsibility such as young royalties of old; they have also learned and taken wisdom to heart. Congratulations, Robin, for you are well respected and we are all grateful to you for allowing your gifts to be used for something that you love so very much – the wild horses. Thank you, Protect Mustangs, for choosing such an intelligent gifted young woman to represent Protect Mustangs as the Youth Director. That in itself, is a very blessed and wise decision.
Sincerely,
Jennie Barron, (WILD HORSE HUB CENTRAL, adm)
You are doing a great job and I am very proud of you. Keep up the good work. All wild horses should be free and left alone, free spirits deserve protection and action must be taken. Keep up the good work, with respect always, James.
Thank you for your support! I am happy to be part of the Protect Mustangs team!
I commend Mustang Robin for speak out clearly and honestly in protest of the outrageous helicopter rounds of the wild horses and burros. These returned natives to North America are being tortured and broken apart as far as their very important social units are concerned. This causes them much anguish and suffering, emotionally as well as physically. It is not right and is the exact opposite of what the law intended. As a wildlife ecologist, I am proposing a much better approach to restoring and allowing for truly viable herds in truly viable habitats and as naturally self-stabilizing populations. This I describe in detail in my recently published book The Wild Horse Conspiracy, which has now been further perfected in its message. You can obtain this book by calling up http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Horse-Conspiracy-Craig-Downer/dp/1461068983