Petition to STOP Mustang Road Kill

Please sign and share the Petition to Install Strieter-Lite to Prevent Mustang Road Kill

Petitioning Mr. Ismael Garza
Install the Strieter-Lite Wild Animal Highway Warning Reflector System in Nevada on Highway 50 E. and Other High Strike Areas

From Julie Keller:

Save Wild Lives by stopping tragic dusk to dawn wild horse and other wild animal-vehicle collisions! The reflector system is the most effective method of preventing these collisions with a 78% – 90% prevention rate stopping 4 out of 5 accidents that would otherwise occur. They reduce an estimated 800,000 yearly wild animal-vehicle collisions. Please go to www.strieter-lite.com for further information and statistical analysis based on extensive road test data. The reflectors are eligible for 80% FHWA funding under the TEA-21 hazardous elimination fund. They were successfully tested on Highway 50 E. in Northern Nevada for three years (2003-2006) then removed to widen the highway. NDOT was not able to replace them because they were inadvertently destroyed. Now many tragic accidents, especially with wild horses, are happening again. Due to their success in preventing these collisions, they need replaced and also installed in other high strike areas.

Please contact the Nevada Department of Transportation at (775) 888-7087 or email Mr. Ismael Garza, Assistant Chief Traffic Operations Engineer, at IGarza@dot.state.nv.us.

Thank you.

(Note from Protect Mustangs: Highway 50 E has the Pine Nut wild horses on one side and the Virginia Range wild horses on the other)

18 thoughts on “Petition to STOP Mustang Road Kill

  1. I believe this to be a very constructive and cost preventative measure to insure that the drivers will be more wary of the hazards of horses crossing the roads and to be on the alert in that particular area. Great damage could also be inflicted to personnel in vehicles as well as harming the horses. Thanking you, Karl Rosenberg

  2. Outstanding idea! Now, to get them to use it. It’s my understanding that the BLM wants all of our mustangs dead….

  3. This sounds like a great idea to help keep our countries mustangs safer. Please do this!

  4. Hey There Everyone,
    My name is Meghan Dixon I am getting ready to get my campaign out at http://www.wildhorseclassroom.com you can find us on Facebook also at Save America’s Wild Horses National Educational Youth Campaign. I was chosen to be the official ambassador and spokes person to my new campaign. I am VERY happy and excited to be working with everyone on helping, saving, protecting, promoting, and preserving America’s Wild Mustang horses! Anne is a very special friend of mine.I will do ANYTHING to save these horses. The American Mustang- No other horse is quite as American as the Mustang!! The genuine history of these horses is often so overshadowed by folklore, however, that most people are unaware how deeply these tough, enduring horses reflect the history and influences of the many nationalities and people’s that came west or were forced to confront westward expansion. The American Mustang, just like the American people, is an amalgamation of everything that went before! The Mustang is just as American as its people and are very important and essential to the environment! Wake up America we need to give them their true freedom they deserve!!! These horses are in fact the only true American horses and we are rounding them up, and making them go extinct? This can NOT happen! I am just like these horses, I am the underdog myself. First let me tell you my true story and fully introduce myself to you, You know my name and not my story!
    This is my true story. A heart breaking story that will touch you’re heart more then words ever will. As you all know my name is Meghan Dixon, I am the person of survival and growing up that was not really my title! I was diagnosed with a Autism Spectrum Disorder known as “Asperger Syndrome” as a child. Asperger Syndrome is the most misunderstood disabilities in the world today! I was a lonely misunderstood girl lost in a broken world. Like these horses I know for sure how these mustangs feel. They are happily living with their families; safe and secure in their own little worlds. Then these scary people come and turn their world upside down. I know they are scared, confused and stripped of everything they knew and had. They are taken to strange places and mistreated. Alone and separated from their families. This even happened to me, These horses are just like me.
    This cannot happen. This is not right. These horses deserve the right to stay where they are at. Running wild and free with their families. At the age of 2 my Mom knew I had some type of Autism but the doctors turned a blind eye to it at the time. I would throw violent tantrums as a child when I got frustrated and couldn’t communicate. I then started to self harm as a child because I was suffering from my disability. I would bang my head up against things and would throw myself on the floor and scream. I never been good at socializing or making friends with people, I don’t do sarcasm, I can’t read body language, I don’t make eye contact and I lack communication skills. I have 2 brothers and when I couldn’t socialize with them very well I got frustrated and would bite them or I would bite my parents! So The doctor told my Mom “Bite her back” Well they did and it taught me to bite myself when I got frustrated! So I would bite myself when I failed to communicate or got mad, sad, or frustrated. That is a classic sign of Autism that the doctors I had at the time ignored. It then became a habit and my first response when I got upset to bite my arm. I struggled with things normal children didn’t struggle with. for example putting on my own clothes and learning how to tie my shoes. Then when I started school, I started getting bullied very badly! I remember in the 2nd grade talking to my Dad crying saying “all I want is a friend!” By the time I was in the 3rd grade everything was spiraling out of control. I couldn’t control myself most of the time and at first they diagnosed me with ADD and the teacher I had in 3rd grade knew something was wrong. So They took me to new doctors and I went to see specialist. I went to a hospital in Dallas Texas and they told my Mom they think I have high functioning Autism so they sent me to a specialist in Fort Worth and they tested me and I showed all the signs for Asperger Syndrome and I was diagnosed with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.) I was also having sensory problems and I didn’t like for people to hug or touch me. I still struggled with biting myself. I bit my arms and hands and fingers when I couldn’t cope. No matter how hard I tried to stop I couldn’t! It became natural to me and I got bullied for having bite marks on my arms. I started telling my Mom at the age of 8 “I wish I was dead!” It would break my Mom’s heart! I then was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. The very first thing the doctors did when I got diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome was put me on heavy duty anti psychotic medication that I did not even need at that time. Then when I got diagnosed with depression and anxiety they drugged me on even more dangerous medications! They did a lot of damage to me and made me a person that I was not! No one understood me even a few of my family members and my Mom got told all the time that she was a bad parent judged her and my Dad and told them all I need is a whooping and discipline. My parents even got rude stares when we went out in public. The medication they put me on messed with me. Then by the time I got in to middle school it all went down hill! As I got older the bullying escalated as if they got colder! All I wanted more then anything in the world was a friend! I was having terrible trouble making and keeping friends. It was as if I were living on an alien planet, only I was the alien. Just when I thought I’d made a friend, that person would suddenly refuse to have anything to do with me. My Mom had to quit her jobs to advocate for me because the teachers and everyone who worked at the school would call and make her come up there! My Mom tried very hard to fight for me! No matter how hard she tried she could not win. The teachers and the school board and even the principle would bully her! They would tell her that she was a bad parent and that she had me spoiled and they told her that I was a brat! The medication the doctors drugged me on made me gain weight and that gave the bullies more ammunition to bully me. Then by the time I got older the worse it all got! The teachers did not know how to teach me and me and my family did not have the support and help we needed for my Autism Spectrum Disorder because no one really knew anything about it.
    People would look at me and say I looked normal that I don’t look like I have a disability or anything wrong with me! What they failed to know is that not all disabilities are visible, mine are invisible! People sure do not understand me and I sure do not understand them! Also one thing about people is I found it funny how a fake smile can hide a broken heart and how the masking of you’re feelings is a secret art! I get locked out of the world. All on the sole account or simple justification, I am different. I am treated cruel for little reason. I always look in the mirror and ponder to myself, “What is wrong with me”, “Is it the way I look, or the way I dress” I just don’t understand why? I don’t think I will ever know why. I never could grasp the concept or completely understand how they could judge someone that they truly did not understand or even know. None really instigated an attempt to understand me. They only retreated to the simplistic, band wagon task of assuming I was different than the norm in which, made it right for them to mistreat me. A devious illusion created by fear, laziness, and down right pure immaturity. My life has seemed to be a huge struggle, full of ups and downs, rises and falls. It seems like I am always getting myself into situations and I am the one who always seems to be getting hurt. When I was a child, every night before I went to sleep, I would pray to God and Jesus and ask, “Please give me a true friend!” I would even put on my Christmas list every year for a friend when I was a kid. No one wanted to be my friend. I been mocked, teased, bullied, laughed at, rejected, and judged for things that are way beyond my control. I wasn’t learning anything in school all I was learning is that I was these horrible names that the other students called me! The teachers and the principle would even bully me along with the students. They would even tell us things like Asperger Syndrome is not a real disability that my Mom made it up. They (The Bullies) called me names like “fat”, “freak”, “retard”. “Worthless”, “loser”, “ugly”, “annoying”, and A LOT of other things. I even been told plenty of times to go kill myself, they even told me that God put me here as a joke, that I’m a mistake. They said unimaginable things to me. The students at the school I went to, Made me feel like a parasite that infected the world. They judged my outside without knowing my inside. There was even times when the teachers and even the principle at the school gave the bullied permission to bully me! I also have a learning disability I was defiantly not the teacher’s favorite student. They would label me and call me un-teachable. I was not able to defend myself from the bullying. Most teachers would call me a liar when I would reach out for help with the bullying. Then sometimes certain teachers had favorite students that would bully me and when I would reach out to report that students bullying the teacher would stand me up in front of the whole class just to call me a liar! I even got voted off all the lunch tables, I had to eat lunch in the bathroom, Because No one wanted me at their table. One time at a field day the teachers, principle, And school made me participate in the games. We were playing base ball, I hit the ball wrong, And all the other students on the team were yelling at me, And making fun of me, The team I was on blamed me for them losing the game, Then one boy punched me in the stomach, And the team mates were spitting on me. The teachers did not care that this happened. The teachers just labeled me as difficult or unteachable. The teacher who gave the students permission to bully me, Her and a coach who bullied me stood me up in front of everyone in gym class and would say “Why can’t you be normal and be like everyone else!” Then it got to where when I would report the bullying the teachers and school would just say that I was a tattle tale. The bullies would also trip me in the halls at school, they would start rumors about me, Say things that wasn’t true, and they would even push me out of the lunch lines. When I would cry or become upset and have a ‘meltdown’, they would stand there and laugh. I was not able to defend myself from the bullying. I also have a few health problems so I been a little bigger then other girls the medication the put me on made me gain weight. The boys at the school and other students would talk about how fat and ugly I am.
    I then began to starve myself at times and made myself throw up after I would eat at times. I hated myself and who I was. I hated my skin, my body, and my hair! The teachers would even hear all the rumors that were spread and they didn’t care one teacher told me it was my fault and that I need to stop being a baby! There was even times when the teachers would make us pick groups and have a partner, No one wanted me in their group, they would fight about having to be partner’s with me. I even remember the boys getting in to a fist fight about not wanting me in their group. Even in P.E or gym class they would never pick me to be on their teams and if they did have to pick me they would blame me for them losing the game! I was never invited to parties, I didn’t have any friends I could call and talk to on the phone or text like others my age. I was never invited to a sleep over. Like other girls, I never even had boyfriends or been invited on a date or anything like others my age. I would try to talk to guys but they would tell me I was too ugly, fat, stupid or just not good enough, I didn’t have a very good childhood. Other things that normal children got to do, I didn’t get to do. I did not get to go to prom or high school and was not able to get a education. I tried very hard to live up to people’s expectations but people treated me like I was never going to be good enough. It’s hard for people to realize what life can be like for someone like me. No one knows what it’s like feeling sick and in pain on the inside while you look fine on the outside. The thing about school is, you go home you look in the mirror you cry you think you are fat you think you are ugly then you want to die, the worse thing is you go back and the next day it all happens over again. I would never sleep at night. I stayed up all night having panic and anxiety attacks about what was going to happen the next day. Or I would cry myself to sleep. I would cry because I thought I was worthless, Cry because I thought I was never going to be good enough, Cry because of all the comments people would burst out. I had been on over 500 different types of medication. Sometimes the medication did not work and it made me sick there was even times I had to go to the hospital. I then started cutting myself! I still had the problem with biting myself and no matter how hard I tried I could not stop still! I also tried to be everyone else’s idea of perfect until I completely lost who I was! Sometimes I could convince myself that I’m not really alive, that I’m just in a nightmare and couldn’t wake up, it was that bad! I was the awkward outcast girl in school that no one wanted to sit by talk to or be friends with. I was just like these Wild Mustang Horses I was treated as bad as them. So many answers and fingers were pointed for questions in situations that’s too bad to think about most people can’t dream about it! I became my own worse enemy and why I am the way I am is not a mystery. I then became mentally ill from everything. Then I was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. I was afraid of the world and I felt that they wanted me to die. I thought that if I died they would all be happy! I became suicidal! I took a look at myself and came to grips with what I found it was a vision of a child disturbed and broken down! I would pray, pray for all the pain to go away, Pray for a good life! I would just pray for it all to get better! I would try to go to church and the bullies were at the church too and I got bullied the same at the church! I then would have mood swings one day I could be happy then I would be mad then I would severely depressed. I didn’t understand why God made me this way. I became very angry at God. The bullies then got to where they thought it was hilarious when I had meltdowns so they would make me have a Autism melt down and stand there and laugh! I couldn’t take all the drama so I decided to run, But you can’t run forever eventually you get tired! I then started to hear voices and had bad thoughts in my head telling me to hurt myself or to kill myself! The things that the bullies would day continued to haunt me when I was feeling low. I then was put in to a mental hospital! I was a dead soul who was screaming for revival. At the mental hospital it was very scary I would get bullied there and they didn’t know how to deal with people with Autism Spectrum Disorders and all they did was drug me on more dangerous medications that made me have seizures. The doctors and nurses treated me like a prisoner they took me away from my family and They would yell at me and treated me like I was in prison and was put on suicide watch so they took everything away from me just like these wild mustang horses I know exactly how they felt!
    The thing is people would ask me if I was alright but I would tell them white lies but they couldn’t tell by my dull eyes that I was not alright! No one never noticed and then I would hide broken inside! I wrote a letter with my head shaking wild “look at me now aren’t you proud of you’re precious child” But I knew that my parents were not the ones to blame. It’s the world that should bow down their head in shame. I’ve tried for so long to fix this and fit in, I had come to realize that this worlds full of sin! Thinking of nothing but the pain I felt inside. No one could hear the screams or the cries hiding inside these eyes. I felt like there was no hope and no faith left to give. I felt no reason and no porous for my soul to be here.
    Little did those bullies know they were the reason for her taking her own life!
    And I am asking myself “Do I even deserve to live”! I then couldn’t take it all anymore so the doctors and therapist had to fight to get me out of school they had wrote a note about how I needed out of there, So at the age of 15 I dropped out of school. I tried going to a charter school but they discriminated against me and bullied me and did the same things to me there! So I barley got a 9th grade education! The writings and everything you’re reading now is coming from someone with only a 8th grade education. I started to lash out from everything I went through I had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from everything that I went through!
    They then tried giving me treatment for my Autism Spectrum Disorder but I was older and none of the therapies worked, The treatment did not work and the pills did not work! I decided to kill myself!
    Then something amazing happened! My Dad decided to get me a horse! He was going to get me a horse that I could do barrel racing and compete with because I loved to barrel race. All That changed….
    My Dad’s friend heard about what I went through and everything. So he saved a very special horse just for me – A horse that was gonna go to slaughter! My Dad took me to the dairy farm where there was lot’s of animals running around and I thought it was so neat seeing all the chickens and geese running loose! I then was introduced to this horse, Who was like me and ready to give up because before my Dad’s friend got the horse, The horse went through severe abuse. I looked at this horse. He was big and tall but skinny then he turned around and I seen the scars on the right side of his face I thought “What happened to this horse” “He looks broken down” “He looks silly” I thought he looked silly because he had a drooping lower lip with drool hanging down and I thought it was kinda funny looking. He was 26 years old. He had scars on the right side of his body. You could tell he been beat on in the past. This horse would have defiantly been a slaughter bound horse! While others would reject the horse and throw him away like yesterdays trash I felt good vibes from this horse! Then they put the halter on him and lead him to me! That horse accepted me and looked at me and it was magic we both felt a strong bond and when I looked in to the eyes of this horse, I seen it. I could see and feel the healing hands of God! Then I realized that this horse is just like me. We both had scars and were ready to give up! I could feel his energy and he felt sadness like me! I then reached over and pet this horse and rubbed his neck, Then my Dad’s friend told me his name was “King” But his drooping lower lip gave me a inspiration to his real name “The King Elvis”. My Dad’s friend told me that life has not been so kind to him and that he was abused. Then he told me that I would be the perfect owner to show The King Elvis the tender love and care that he needs and he gave that horse to me and sent me home with him! After building a friendship and bond with The King Elvis I felt all the anger and pain leave my body! I felt true love. That one horse began to change my whole life! My life had made a huge turning point! I could even feel God reaching out to me from this horse. That horse saved me from suicide that night. It touched my heart in very many different ways. The King Elvis saved my life – and I saved his life but most of all he saved mine! God had finally answered my prayers. God finally sent me my true friend and it was that beautiful quarter horse named The King Elvis! I never knew the horse was going to be the answer to my prayers! That horse became my true best friend I would go out and ride him for hours. When I had a bad day, I would either ride him, or just lay my head on his shoulder and cry my eyes out. He would never move to get away from me. He always made me feel better and I knew he would always be there for me to ride, talk to, or cry on his big brown shoulder. me and that horse had some adventures together. He always knew how to make me laugh and smile. He was my symbol of hope and happiness. God really does work in mysterious ways. I never knew that the horse was going to be the answer to all my prayers! Sometimes God does not give us exactly what we ask for. God gives us what we need and what is best for us! Just look at what all I was praying for, He gave me the horse! The King Elvis even helped me turn my Autism in to a gift. The King Elvis gave me compassion when no one else would. That horse helped me overcome disabilities when no one else could. He was even there for me when no one else was there for me. He was able to teach me new things. That horse even re-built my battered self-esteem. I then began to work with all kinds of horses, I finally got to succeed and win at something at the horse shows I won all 1st and 2nd place! For once in my life, I was in control of something instead of something being in control of me! My Autism became a lot milder. The Autism is still there but is now a gift. My family even saw a difference in me. I never was able to smile until I got on the back of the horse on The King Elvis and got to ride was when I got my first smile! I never felt so free and happy in my life.
    You see I was the underdog just like these wild mustang horses are. The only difference is I learned to survive with barley any help!
    They were born wild. They were born free. Now they die in greed as they are a memory soon to be! I will not stop fighting until they are truly free! This is the fate of the American Wild Mustang Horse. The American Wild Mustang is a big part of America killing them and you are killing off a big part of America! My parents even took me to Cold Creek Nevada to meet the wild mustang horses! They helped me in so many ways and seeing them run wild and free in their natural habitat got me back up on my feet! These horses saved my life! The horse is what built America now the horse is being rounded up, and slaughtered! This is not right. We need to all come together and fight and take a stand to end this. I dedicate my life now to save these horses. My mission is to change the world for horses, Change the way
    people see horses and make the world a better place for the horse! Out of all the problems in the world today you may think this is not a big problem… Look again before saying that! I have never seen a more greedy industry then the horse industry and it’s time for that to change! Horses are not just our lives, they make us who we are and what we do. They make us believe in ourselves and see and hear more what is around us. They teach us to live and to live in the moment and live our life to the fullest! We should be doing the same for them! The horses helped me overcome everything I went through they even helped me to overcome self-harm. They got me through everything! The horse set me free from my mental illness, autism, depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, and a whole lot more! Horses saved my life so I will do the same for them!

  5. With habitat and water being fenced off in many areas, horses must travel. That often means crossing busy roads that can not only kill the horse but often injure or kill the driver as well. NV would be very unwise to not reasses the best interest of all involved. Put the streiter lites back…!

  6. Stop the BLM , NO TO SJROO7 IN UTAH.
    THE BLM HAS MIS – MANAGED OUR WILD HORSE’S, WE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DEMAND PROTECTION OF OUR WILD HORSE’S.

  7. I believe this is the answer to a major problem. It is a great way of warning drivers of horses crossing the roads. For those people who argue they want to get rid of the horses it would also help with deer and other wild life. Accidents cost thousands of wild life deaths, auto repairs and human injuries every year. It just makes sense as a responsible community and it is so cost effective.

  8. This would provide safety for all animals as well as cut down damage & death caused by interaction with vehicles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.