Tag Archives: Burros

Daryl Hannah and Michael Blake speak out about toxic drilling, wild horses & burros on Valentines Day

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Protect Mustangs.org

For immediate release 

Make LOVE not Roundups™ launches to stop the war against native wild horses and historic burros

WASHINGTON (February 14, 2013)–Daryl Hannah, who was arrested yesterday at the Keystone XL Pipeline Protest, and Oscar-winner Michael Blake (Dances with Wolves) speak out to protect America’s indigenous horses, historic burros and public land. The celebrities join Protect Mustangs’ Make LOVE Not Roundups™ native wild horse awareness campaign. Mustangs and burros are being cleared off public land to minimize environmental restrictions for toxic drilling.

“Wild horses and burros absolutely thrive on public lands but they are being unceremoniously eviscerated to make room for private cattle grazing leases and toxic drilling operations,” explains Daryl Hannah. “The BLM has increasingly become the BLMM–Bureau of Land Mis-Mangement. Let them live free!”

“Roundups are like a war on our native horses,” states Anne Novak, executive director for Protect Mustangs. “We want to focus on the public’s love for wild horses to protect them. Right now they are being wiped out and many go to slaughter. We need to return all the mustangs and burros stockpiled in holding to their legal range land. As a native species, wild horses will help create biodiversity and reverse desertification.”

“We go to America for vacations and love photographing the families of wild horses and adorable burros,” shares Barbie Hardrock European singer and spokeswoman for Protect Mustangs. “Please help save these magnificent animals!”

Michael Blake, author of Dances with Wolves says, “Loving horses is essential for human life on this planet. For millions of years, horses assisted humanity but after cars were invented in America, America has fully destroyed them and continues. Though humanity is similar to all animals in terms of no full perception, the killing of them all is moving the earth to destruction. If we only kill those who attack us, humanity will keep the earth real for humans who follow us. Like humanity, every horse is different but I have loved them most and have never killed one all my life.”

Recently, beef in the EU has been contaminated with toxic horse meat. Horse lovers and health enthusiasts are concerned the same scandal will happen in the U.S.A. if horse slaughter isn’t stopped.

Native wild horses are at-risk of going to slaughter for human consumption abroad now that Oklahoma’s elected officials appear to be supporting horse slaughter for human consumption in foreign countries.

Protect Mustangs wants the cruel roundups to stop now. They are asking for all wild horses and burros “stockpiled” in government holding to be returned to the protected zones of public land specified in the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971, called Herd Management Areas.

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Media Contacts:

Anne Novak, 415-531-8454 Anne@ProtectMustangs.org

Kerry Becklund, 510-502-1913  Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org

Links of interest:

Daryl Hannah arrested at White House: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/arma-virumque-cano-police-arrest-keystone-protesters/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/daryl-hannah-rfk-jr-arrested-keystone-pipeline-protest-article-1.1263324

Daryl Hannah bio: http://movies.nytimes.com/person/93354/Daryl-Hannah/biography

Michael Blake bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Blake_(author)

Anne Novak bio: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=2

Barbie Hardrock & Roquette: http://rocquette.com/

Native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

The Salazar Plan to wipe out wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=3686

Proposed Wyoming oil field will be the largest on the planet: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=3709

Citizen investigation exposes evidence of BLM wild horses sold to probable slaughter: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=3567

Bill to legalize horse slaughter in Oklahoma http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20130213_16_A1_CUTLIN438547

Oklahomans Against Horse Slaughter: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oklahomans-Against-Horse-Slaughter-in-2012-and-Beyond/160171540747135

European wild horses are slaughtered: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4787786/Nabbed-stabbed-and-beaten-wild-horses-to-go-in-our-beef.html

European horse meat scandal: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130211/API/1302110559?p=1&tc=pg

Petition to Defund & Stop the Wild Horse Roundups:  http://www.change.org/petitions/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups

Protect Mustangs on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

Link to Protect Mustangs’ press releases: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=125

Protect Mustangs in the news: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=218

www.MakeLOVEnotRoundups.org

Protect Mustangs is a California-based preservation group whose mission is to educate the public about the native wild horse, protect and research wild horses on the range and help those who have lost their freedom. www.ProtectMustangs.org

NYC’s premier of Saving America’s Horses educates and informs

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Bring this film to your community to let them know what’s happening to America’s horses

“A searing indictment of corporations, institutions and governmental agencies involved in the slaughter of horses, Katia Louise’s impassioned pic amasses impressive documentation, visual and testimonial, of systemic mistreatment of the animals, illegal and fraudulent practices regulating their sale, and the very real possibility of their extinction in the wild.”

“…contrasts shots of noble, beautiful, galloping animals… with well-researched, shocking statistics.”
— Ronnie Scheib VARIETY

 

Shining the light on wild horses and burros

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Cynthia Smalley in the field. © Cynthia Smalley

We are going to publish a book and make a short film on the wild horse and burro herds that photographers document. The goal is to bring awareness to these herds and shine the light on them.

Visit our Facebook page to post a photo and let us know which herds you document.

Let us know if you want to be included in this project. Email Contact@ProtectMustangs.org for more information.

100% of the profits will go to help wild horses and burros.

Federal Plan Will Remove Horses from Nevada Wildlife Refuge

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Cross-posted from The Horse

by: Pat Raia
September 07 2012, Article # 20606

Wild horses and burros will be removed from their ranges in northwestern Nevada under a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) conservation plan for the wildlife refuge on which they currently reside. The plan is slated to become effective after Sept. 24, said Jason D. Holm, assistant regional director of external affairs for the FWS Pacific Region.

Approximately 800 horses and 180 burros currently reside on the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR), Holmes said. The refuge is also home to approximately 2,500 pronghorn antelope and 150 bighorn sheep, as well as greater sage grouse, mule deer, and other wildlife species, he said.

The horses and burros will be removed from the refuge under a final Comprehensive Conservation Plan intended to rid the sanctuary of non-native and invasive species, Holm said. Officials would conduct gathers with the goal of removing all the horses and burros within five years, he said.

“Horses and burros are damaging native habitats for refuge wildlife,” Holm said. “Controlling feral animals takes away from wildlife and public use management priorities and efforts, and is costly.”

American Wild Horse Campaign Director Suzanne Roy opposes removal on grounds that horses and burros have resided on the area since the 1800s.

“These are U.S. Cavalry horses and burros used in the California gold rush,” Roy said. “They’ve been there (on SNWR lands) long before the refuge was created in the 1930s.”

Anne Novak, executive director of the wild horse advocacy group Protect Mustangs said the FWS assessment of the equids’ environmental impact is flawed.

 “They want to get rid of all the horses without understanding the positive impact they have on the thriving natural ecological balance,” Novak said. “Wild horses heal the land and their grazing prevents wildfires.”

Roy said that wild horse advocates had recommended FWS officials use fertility control to phase out the horse and burro population over a 15-year period. The agency rejected the option, she said. Now she and others are exploring legal options that could block the total removal.

“Right now, we don’t know what we can do, but we’re looking into it,” she said.

Horses and burros removed from the refuge will be available for adoption, Holm said.

Link to the original article: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=20606

Statement from Protect Mustangs:

“We are against phasing out the population using fertility control or by rounding them up,” explains Novak. “We ask that the wild horses and burros be allowed to stay.”

 

Nevada State Senator, Mark Manendo, comments to Protect Mustangs on the Sheldon wild horse and burro crisis

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“According to Nevada’s Legislative Counsel Bureau, the wild horses and burros living in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge appear to be managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service under the authority of the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act and other applicable federal law,” explains Mark Manendo, Nevada State Senator.  “As such, the horses and burros are not feral horses or burros (domesticated horses or burros which have become wild) under NRS 569.008, and are therefore not under the jurisdiction of Nevada’s Department of Agriculture pursuant to NRS 569.010. Because there is no state jurisdiction, it would be questionable for the State of Nevada to try to assert any control or management over those horses and burros.”

“if people contact their Congress person and their two US Senators and let them know how you feel on this important issue that would be extremely helpful,” says Manendo.

Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada to remove all wild horses, burros within 5 years

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Cross-posted from The Republic

  • MARTIN GRIFFITH  Associated Press
  • September 02, 2012 – 8:04 pm EDT

RENO, Nev. — Federal officials have approved a final management plan for the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Nevada that calls for the removal of all wild horses and burros from it within five years.

The move is being made because the refuge was created for pronghorn antelope and other native wildlife, and horses and burros have a negative effect on habitat, said Joan Jewett, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland, Ore.

“They trample the habitat and overgraze and disturb the water sources,” she told The Associated Press. “We’re required by law to manage our refuges in accordance with the purposes for which they were established, and Sheldon was primarily for pronghorn antelope.”

Horse advocacy groups sharply criticized the refuge’s comprehensive conservation plan, which will guide its management over the next 15 years. It was publicly released late last month.

They say horses and burros lived in the area long before the refuge was created in 1931, and the animals actually heal the land and help prevent wildfires through grazing.

“We are extremely disappointed that the federal government has chosen to eradicate wild horses and burros from the lands where their ancestors have lived for more than a century and a half,” Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, said in a statement.

An aerial survey in July showed the 575,000-acre refuge along the Oregon border is home to at least 2,508 antelope, 973 mustangs and 182 wild burros, said Aaron Collins, a park ranger at Sheldon.

“We’re recording the highest numbers of pronghorn antelope since we began counting them in 1950,” he said.

Federal officials began the planning process on the refuge’s management plan in 2008, and received several thousand comments from individuals, organizations and government agencies during it, Collins said.

The final plan will be signed sometime after Sept. 24 by the regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Agency, he added.

Under federal law, only horses and burros removed from lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service are protected from slaughterhouses if they can’t be adopted.

“Rounding up indigenous wild horses is wrong — especially when they can be sold to the meat buyers at auctions,” said Anne Novak of California-based Protect Mustangs. “These horses are vulnerable to ending up going to slaughter … The Sheldon plan to wipe out wild horses is nuts and goes against the public’s wishes.”

Activists said the final management plan rejected a more humane alternative to phase out horses and burros over 15 years using fertility control, an option that would have allowed unadoptable animals to live out their lives at the refuge.

(Story distributed by The Associated Press)

Link to the original article: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/9d2599146ac04731ae3b93a918db2c59/NV–Refuge-Wild-Horses

How many California wild horses and burros will be left after the fire?

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California wild horse country ~ Rush Fire map (Twin Peaks HMA) updated August 25, 2012

 

How many wild horses and burros were trapped by fencing in the fire?

Fire approaching Deep Cut area by Robin Blair 8.15.12

 

Rush Fire update in the Twin Peaks HMA

Susanville, Calif., Aug. 26, 7 a.m.–On Saturday, firefighters successfully held fire lines in the northeast part of the Rush fire in spite of gusting winds. Large dust devils were common and firefighters remained very busy fighting fire.

The threat from dust devils has led firefighters to go to the unusual length of mopping up for 500 to 1000 feet from fire lines into the burned area.  This tough work involves finding each and every hot spot and cooling them off.

In spite of the winds on Saturday, firefighters were able to hold the existing fire perimeter for the fourth day in a row.

The northeast flank is where the fire is most active.  This part of the Rush fire is in Nevada, about 25 miles northeast and east of Ravendale, Calif., near SOB, Garden and Burnt lakes, the Buffalo Hills, Antelope Basin, and Cottonwood Creek.

Helicopters with buckets dropped water on hot spots in the Cottonwood Creek area on Saturday.  In the southern and southwestern flanks of the fire on Saturday, firefighters continued repairing damage from fire-fighting activities.

The National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning for Sunday from noon to 10 p.m. because of low humidity and gusting winds.  The winds have the potential of fanning any remaining embers and hot spots.  Winds can also form dust devils that could carry hot material over containment lines into extremely dry unburned vegetation.

On Sunday, firefighters will continue their efforts to hold the fire to its current perimeter, to mop up and to make repairs on the western side of the fire.

Area and Road Closures in Effect: Public lands bounded by Highway 395 on the west, the Sand Pass road and Nevada 447 on the east, the Wendel Road on the south, and Juniper Ridge road to Buckhorn road on the north are closed. The Buffalo Meadows road in Washoe Co., Nev., is also closed.  The Ramhorn Springs and Dodge Reservoir campgrounds remain closed.

Remarks:   NOTE:  Use of chainsaws on public lands managed by BLM in northeast California and far northwestern Nevada is suspended because of extreme fire danger.  Fire officials remind residents and visitors that fire restrictions are in effect for public lands and national forests in northeast California and far northwest Nevada.  Campfires are permitted only in posted recreation sites.

For additional fire information, please go to InciWeb @ http://inciweb.org/incident/3151/

 

Started:  8/12/12 at 6:42 pm Expected Containment: 8/28/2012
Cause:  Lightning Committed Resources: 755 people
Fuels:  Fire is burning sagebrush, juniper,and grass Structures Threatened: 39 (20 residences; 1 commercial; 18 outbuildings)
Estimated Size: est. 320,793 acres (275,650 acres in California and 45,143 acres in Nevada) Structures Damaged or Destroyed: 1 (barn)
Containment: 66% Injuries: 3 minor

 

Twin Peaks HMA wildfire ~ 300K acres burned already

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Twin Peaks HMA Rush Fire (Photo © Phil Perkins)

Rush Fire Update

Tuesday, August 21, 2012   8 pm

   Northern Rockies Incident Management Team – Doug Turman, IC

Fire Information Office:

530-710-8568

Staffed: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm

Started:  August 12, 2012 at 6:42 pm

Cause:  Lightning

Fuels:  Fire is burning in sagebrush, juniper, and grass

Estimated Size: 313,911 acres

Containment: 50%

Expected Containment: 8/28/2012

Committed Resources: Approximately 832 people

Structures Threatened: 9 (6 residences; 1 commercial; 2 outbuildings)

Structures Damaged or Destroyed: 1 (barn)

Injuries: 2 (both in fire camp)

Updated Rush Fire Map in Twin Peaks HMA

Location: The fire is located on Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Northern California District (BLM-CA-NOD,) Eagle Lake Field Office, approximately 15 miles southeast of Ravendale, California.  The fire is burning near a major natural gas line and transfer station, and power transmission lines that supply the Reno area and adjacent to Highway 395.

Summary:   Today firefighters made excellent progress in continuing line building and mop-up around the perimeter of the Rush Fire.  Fortunately the predicted critical fire weather conditions occurred for only a short time and fire spread was minimal.  Most of the growth occurred in the northeast part of the fire where firefighters made progress, but have not completely encircled the fire in the SOB/Burnt Lake areas. Crews will continue line building in that area tonight and tomorrow.  Tomorrow, aircraft (small air tankers and helicopters) will be used to help firefighters in this effort.  The remainder of the fireline will be patrolled and any heat found next to the fireline will be put out.  Suppression repair (mainly smoothing and water barring dozer lines) will begin on some cool portions of the fireline.

Area and Road Closures in Effect: On August 17, the BLM issued a closure order for public lands in the fire area to protect public health and safety.  The closed area is bounded by Highway 395 on the west, the Sand Pass Road on the east, and the Wendel Road on the south.  The new northern boundary for the public land closure is the Juniper Ridge, Tuledad, Stage Road, Marr Road, and Buckhorn Road extending to Nevada Highway 447 in Washoe County. Routes closed within this closure area include the Ramhorn Springs, Rye Patch Road, Buckhorn, Shinn Ranch, Stoney, Deep Cut, Smoke Creek, Skedaddle Ranch, Dry Valley, and Brubeck roads. The Ramhorn Springs Campground and the Dodge Reservoir Campground also is closed.  Today, August 21st Washoe County closed the Buffalo Meadows Road to public use.  This will allow firefighters better access and help protect firefighter and public safety.

Travelers along the Highway 395 corridor, please use caution where fire crews and equipment are working in the fire area.

Remarks:   NOTE:  Use of chainsaws on public lands managed by BLM in NE California and far northwest Nevada is suspended effective Monday, Aug. 20, due to extreme fire danger.  Fire officials remind residents and visitors that fire restrictions are in effect for public lands and national forests in northeast California and far northwest Nevada.  Campfires are permitted only in posted recreation sites.

For additional fire information, please go to InciWeb @ http://inciweb.org/incident/3151/

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Help California’s last wild horses stay on the range

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Fire endangers wild horse habitat

Rush Fire photo August 20, 2012 (Photo © Phil Perkins)

Close to 300,000 acres of the Twin Peak wild horse range have burned as of midnight August 20th.

We are very grateful to the Rush fire crews working to contain the fire, protect the land, livestock, wild horses and burros and especially the community.

We ask the BLM to find a way to help the wild horses on the range by bringing them food and water as needed–until the forage grows back.

Rounding up California’s last herd of wild horses and removing them from their herd management area is wrong. We don’t want them to lose their legally designated range to livestock, energy and mining use. These other forms of public land use can move elsewhere for a while, if needed, but California’s wild horses need their home on the range.

Photo © Cynthia Smalley, all rights reserved

Rush fire info and map: http://inciweb.org/incident/3151/