Peaceful Protest to Protect America’s Iconic Wild Horses Jan 4th in Berkeley-Oakland

 

PM HV Girl with sign trap to slaughter

Join us for a peaceful protest Friday, Jan 4th outside the Rockridge BART Station during the evening rush hour from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (on College Avenue @ Oakland/Berkeley border) to show we all want the cruelty & slaughter of indigenous wild horses to stop now!

We stand with our fellow advocates in Nevada to demand a STOP to the crimes against America’s iconic wild horses! We stand with the American public who wants ALL wild horses protected (BLM & NDoA). Stop the roundups!

This is a family friendly protest. Bring signs and candles!

Let people know that they can have their peaceful protest wherever they are. One person and one sign is enough, more people and signs are great too! Take a pic and post it to our FB page we will share out! https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

 

Here is the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/530479583642398/

Associated Press Reports: Nevada Horse Advocates Fear Slaughter http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/Nevada-horse-advocates-fear-slaughter-4165757.php

 

 

URGENT! Stop Wild Horse Slaughter & Cruelty in Nevada

Protect native wild horses! © Protect Mustangs.org

Protect native wild horses! © Protect Mustangs.org

 

Take Action to Save Wild Horses 

Gather in peaceful protest on January 4th (in conjunction with the Carson City Rally) in hometowns around the world to STOP the Slaughter of Native Wild Horses. Let your friends know what is going on. TOURISTS speak out! Do you support NEVADA’s cruel treatment of iconic mustangs?

Post pics holding your signs on Protect Mustangs’ FB wall and we will share them out!

Post here: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

Make your voice heard, contact the White House, your Congressional Representative and your Senators to request they halt the roundups, stop the slaughter of U.S. wild horses and burros as well as return all wild horses in holding to the range.

Come to the Carson City “Slaughter is not the Answer” Rally in Nevada’s Capitol. From 10:30 a.m. -1 p.m on January 4th. In front of the Nevada State Legislature building 401 South Carson Street, Carson City, NV. Info: Bonnie Matton 775-720-6086

Send your letters in to Hidden Valley by 9 p.m. PST Jan 3rd. Your letters will be taken to the Governor at the end of the Jan 4th Rally in Carson City.

email: hiddenvalleywildhorses@gmail.com

We need your HELP! Please write an original letter off this form letter and send it to Shannon Windle, President of Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund. She is taking it to the Governor!

Dear Governor Sandoval,

I am appalled by the current treatment of Nevada’s Virginia Range wild horses. These horses belong to the State of Nevada and their fate ultimately lies in your hands. 80% of Americans are opposed to horse slaughter; now the Virginia Range wild horses are being dumped at livestock auctions by the State of Nevada – the first step in the slaughter pipeline. To treat one of this State’s natural resources with such disregard is reprehensible. You, as the highest ranking official of the State of Nevada, have the authority to stop your Department of Agriculture from this inhumane treatment and its continued determination to wipe them off the range altogether.

To preserve these icons of Nevada’s western heritage, please direct the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDoA) to take the following steps immediately, before these horses are gone forever:

1. STOP sending all Nevada Virginia Range wild horses to the livestock auction immediately. These horses are entering the slaughter pipeline and being put at direct risk of ending up at slaughterhouses in Canada and/or Mexico. I am opposed to having Nevada’s horses served on dinner platters in foreign markets.

2. STOP the random trapping of these horses. Poor to no planning has resulted in 153 horses being removed from the Virginia Range. The opportunistic methods being implemented to trap Nevada’s horses has had almost no impact to the public safety concerns that the NDoA is using as an excuse for the taking up of these horses. I oppose the indiscriminant taking up of Nevada wild horses.

3. RE-ENGAGE the cooperative agreements previously entered in to between NDoA and wild horse advocate groups. These agreements originally allowed non-profit funds to be used to relieve the burden on the tax payer regarding the management of the Nevada wild horses. I support cooperative agreements that allow NDoA to hand over Nevada’s horses to the care of advocate groups that use their donor funds to find them good, quality forever homes.

4. RE-ENGAGE wild horse advocates willing to assist in the on-going management of the Nevada horses as provided in NRS 569. I oppose the current policies affecting Nevada’s wild horses that have led to reactive versus proactive decision making regarding which horses to remove, have led to the use of dangerous techniques implemented in the taking up of horses, put the public at risk of injury during these round ups, and caused entire communities to become outraged at the activities in which the NDoA has engaged.

5. ENCOURAGE AND SUPPORT new legislation and departmental policies that will protect and preserve the Nevada Virginia Range horses. I support these living symbols of our pioneering American spirit and laud them as proud symbols of Nevada’s past, its courageous present, and its strength of tomorrow. I encourage you to ensure they are protected and become the focus of enjoyment for both tourists and residents of current and future generations.

The next meeting of the Nevada Department of Agriculture Board of Directors isn’t scheduled until March. By then, several hundred more horses might be removed from the range. Additionally, there are 41 Virginia Range wild horses scheduled to be sold at the livestock auction on January 9, 2013.

Please act now to protect the Virginia Range wild horses so a long-term solution can be found.

Sincerely,

 

Sign, print your name and address.

Mail your letter to Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund, PO Box 20052, Reno, NV 89515 or scan and email it to hiddenvalleywildhorses@gmail.com no later than January 3, 2013.

 

All letters will be delivered in person to the Governor’s office in Carson City on Friday, January 4, 2013.

Cruel way to drag foal by pulling bailing twine around their neck (Photo © Bo Rodriguez)

Cruel way to drag foal by pulling bailing twine around their neck (Photo © Bo Rodriguez)

Reno: Damonte wild horses trapped w/ cruelty

(Graphic by Anne Novak & Denise Delucia for © Protect Mustangs.www.ProtectMustangs.org May be used for social sharing. Photo © Bo Rodriguez)

 

 

Rally to Save Nevada’s Wild Horses from Slaughter ~ January 4th

PM HV Girl with sign trap to slaughter
Protect mustangs & Stop the cruelty!
Make signs, bring friends and join the rally on Friday, January 4, 2012 (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) in front of the Legislative Building (Hwy 395 East) in downtown Carson City, Nevada.

If you can’t come to Nevada then hold a peaceful protest in your hometown and send us your photos. We will post them here. Even one person can have a protest. Well traveled roads with lots of traffic are great spots for small protests.

Are you aware the federal officials discussed a plan to kill most of the native wild horses left in America? Read: Outrage over secret documents planning to kill or slaughter 50,000 native wild horses!

Feel free to send us an email with any questions Contact@ProtectMustangs.org

Photo by Bo Rodriguez

 

From Bonnie Matton:

Well, as you all know by now, we are battling the Nevada Department of Agriculture to get them to stop sending our Virginia Range Horses + horses from other areas as well – to auction: MEANING TO SLAUGHTER.

So, we are having an emergency rally on Friday, January 4, 2012 (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) in front of the Legislative Building (Hwy 395 East) in downtown Carson City.    Sorry for the last minute notice.  We have to have it before the next auction which is on January 9, 2013.  NO TIME TO LOSE.

We are calling it “Slaughter is not the Answer.”  We will have flyers to pass out to press and others. Would appreciate your emailing me of  how many people will be coming from your area and where you are coming from.

Many of you have participated in demonstrations before. Please come at least 1/2 hour before the rally begins (in the park area next to the Legislative Building) so you can receive instructions (especially if you’ve never attended a demonstration before).  There are certain regulations we must abide with. The Legislative police have always welcomed us wild horse advocates because we are polite and follow their directions.

After the rally, we will be marching to the Governor’s Building (which is next door to the Legislative Building and close to where we gathered before the rally). Shannon Windle, President of Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund, will then bring hundreds of letters directly up to the Governor’s office – letters she has been gathering for some time opposing what NDA is doing with Nevada’s Treasures.

You are welcome to make up signs and bring them with you. We have lots in our storage shed which will work and I’ll bring them as well.  You are also welcome to bring your organizational signs.

The easiest place to park is if you drive down Stewart Street. There’s usually plenty of parking directly behind the Legislative Building, which is convenient for carrying signs and tables to our setup area.

 

Seasons Greetings from BLM

© Michelle Guillot, all rights reserved. Released through Protect Mustangs.

Public outrage gets creative

SAN FRANCISCO (December 20, 2012)–Citizens around the word are outraged at the BLM’s cruelty towards America’s native wild horses. The alleged federally protected mustangs are being rounded up and removed by the thousands only to be stockpiled in the Midwest at taxpayer expense. Some end up in the slaughter pipeline. During the current Owyhee roundup wild horse advocates documented mustangs being chased by a helicopter through barbed wire fencing. Protect Mustangs wants the roundups to stop and for the government to use the wild herds in Holistic Rangeland Management instead to reverse desertification on public land.

Artist Michelle Guillot says she was inspired by the horrific scenes of wild horses being driven through barbed wire at the Owyhee Roundup in Nevada.

“I was so appalled that I had to do something!” states Guillot. “How can the government hire helicopter contractors to push mustangs into barbed wire?”

She made the Seasons Greeting poster to let the world know what’s going on. Protect Mustangs is grateful to be able to release Guillot’s powerful message.

Public outrage is mounting and as a result, Protect Mustangs is organizing a Rally in San Francisco for January 2013. Date, time and place to be announced.

“The cruel roundups must stop,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “Congress needs to listen to the public. They must stop enabling the wild horse wipe out–even if lobbyists are throwing cash around Washington.”

Protect Mustangs encourages Americans to meet with their senators and representatives to ask them to stop the roundups and use wild equids with livestock for Holistic Rangeland Management. This is a powerful solution for climate change–one that will reverse desertification.

The Petition to Defund and Stop the Roundups is circulating. Animal lovers around the world are encouraged to share it with their friends and request the United States Congress stop the cruelty and stop the roundups.

Michelle Guillot retains the copyright to the poster but encourages animal lovers to share the poster to spread awareness. She does not want the poster used for fundraising or commercial use.

The poster may be downloaded from www.ProtectMustangs.org

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

# # #

Media Contacts:

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

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

 

 

Press Release: Protests to stop roundups and sales to kill buyers

(Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)

For immediate release

Call for peaceful protests to stop the roundups and stop the BLM from selling federally protected wild horses to kill-buyers

American public outraged at cruel ‘management’

WASHINGTON (October 6, 2012)–Protect Mustangs announced on Facebook Friday their call for nationwide protests to stop the roundups and stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from selling federally protected indigenous wild horses to kill buyers.

“We are calling for peaceful protests as well as candlelight vigils so no more wild horses will die from roundups, be tortured by the helicopters or sold to kill buyers for delicacy meat abroad,” states Anne Novak, executive director for California based Protect Mustangs “The public is outraged.”

Last week ProPublica exposed the BLM selling at least 1,700 federally protected wild horses to known pro-slaughter buyer, Tom Davis, and the public is furious. The BLM is charged with managing and protecting wild horses–not selling them for $10 a head to a pro-slaughter middle man to reduce the numbers in holding due to years of fiscally irresponsible roundups.

“Members of the public who are active in their communities must let their friends, family and neighbors know they can contact Congress if they don’t like their tax dollars used to fund cruel roundups,” says Tami Hottes, Protect Mustangs’ outreach coordinator for the Midwest and South. “People are upset to learn about the BLM selling all those historic wild horses to a guy like Tom Davis. It’s disgusting.”

This week the Antelope roundup, in northeastern Nevada, started under the pretense of saving the wild horses from a drought stricken area.

“We are concerned the BLM is jumping on the drought opportunity to zero out herds for industrialization of public land–especially massive energy projects that could pollute the water,” explains Novak. “Our indigenous wild horses are environmental barometers. If they die from drinking the water then that’s a red flag something is poisoning the water out there.”

Novak continues,”If there is a real problem on the range then bring them aid in the field–don’t round them up and warehouse them at taxpayer expense. It won’t cost much to bring them hay and water for a few months to get them through a difficult time.”

In watching videos from the roundup it should be pointed out that these wild horses were actually in excellent shape and there is no sign they have been suffering from lack of water or forage this summer. They are efficient browsers.

Even though the BLM announced last spring they would bait trap, they are not keeping their word to the American public. The BLM continues with cruel helicopter roundups.

The contractor has been criticized in the past for deadly incidents that could have been prevented. Despite objections from advocates and members of the public, the BLM continues to hire the contractor.

At the Antelope roundup advocates from The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) recorded videos showing healthy horses stampeded into traps, foals terrorized by choppers and a terrified stallion jumping out of the capture corral breaking his leg and running away. He was then euthanized by the BLM.

During the roundup wild horses were traumatized with whips and a wild mare broke her neck and died in transport.

If these historic wild horses had not been rounded up surely they would be alive with their families roaming in the West.

Outraged members of the public are calling BLM officials requesting the roundups stop. Officials downplay the cruelty and trauma, claiming these were rare incidents and touting that roundups, also known as “gathers”, only have a 1% death rate.

“We disagree with their whittled down death rate,” states Novak. “For years we have caught the BLM avoiding the correct death count and misleading Congress about the true number of horses painfully dying in roundups. During winter 2010 more than 180 wild horses died or were euthanized as a result of the roundup but the BLM tried to rewrite the numbers.”

The federal agency, funded by Congress to manage wild horses and burros, attributes the gross majority of roundup deaths to pre-existing conditions when they are obviously roundup related. If the horses weren’t rounded up they surely would not have died at that time.

The BLM often kills indigenous wild horses for being “old” and claims it was a pre-existing condition. They also kill baby horses claiming they have leg deformities. The foals can’t tolerate being stampeded for many miles on their undeveloped baby feet and legs and suffer severe injuries and are euthanized. BLM resists taking responsibility for their heinous actions.

At roundups since 2009, advocates as well as members of the press and public have been pushed back from the trap site and the holding corrals. It appears the BLM wants to hide the cruel roundups and injured animals from public view.

“The Wild Horse and Burro Program avoids transparency because of their disgusting secrets,” states Novak. “The public has a right to know what’s happening at roundups and afterwards. The public wants to know how many federally protected wild horses have been sold to the slaughter middle men since 2005.”

In 2004, a stealth rider known as the Burns amendment was attached to the Congressional Appropriations Bill to allow unlimited sales of captive wild horses over the age of ten or those who have been presented at adoption venues (live or Internet) three times–even pregnant mares and one-year-olds called yearlings.

The recent ProPublica article, written by Dave Phillips, highlights a corrupt program and interviews a pro-slaughter middle man. According to ProPublica, ‘Tom Davis buys 100s of mustangs at a time, sight unseen, for $10 a head. BLM has sold him more than 1,700 wild horses and burros since 2009.

“Hell, some of the finest meat you will ever eat is a fat yearling colt,” he says.

“. . . but BLM’s Sally Spencer said it would be unfair for BLM to look more closely at him based on the volume of his purchases. “It’s no good to just stir up rumors,” she said.’

In 1997 Associated Press investigative journalist, Martha Mendoza, uncovered BLM’s internal corruption wherein adopted wild horses were quickly being sold to slaughter even by BLM employees who adopted them.

‘A multimillion-dollar federal program created to save the lives of wild horses instead is channeling them by the thousands to slaughterhouses where they are chopped into cuts of meat.

Among those profiting from the slaughter are employees of the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that administers the program.’

Mendoza’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) research and the story she exposed, forced the adoption program to change their protocol and only give title to the mustangs after one year to prevent the wild horses from being sold into the slaughter pipeline.

Today the BLM sends America’s living treasures to slaughter by selling them to the middle men who sell them to slaughter. Protect Mustangs asks Congress for a freeze on roundups, a freeze on sales and a full investigation into the ‘sale authority program’ since 2005.

The roundups ramped up in 2009 with the stimulus package push for the New Energy Frontier on public land and a new mandate to wipe out the wild herds of the West known as The Salazar Plan.

Despite nationwide protests in 2009-10 against the Secretary of the Interior’s plan, the majority of wild horses and burros were ripped from their family bands, taken off their land and the stallions were sterilized. President Obama ignored public outcry and Congress eventually fell for the BLM pleas for funding to ‘help the wild horses’.

In 2010, 54 members of Congress joined Congressman Raul Grijalva requesting a moratorium on roundups and a National Academy of Science (NAS) investigation into the broken program. Somehow the BLM has taken charge of the NAS investigation now called a “study” and is feeding the NAS the information instead of the Academy conducting independent research.

Today more than 52,000 wild horses and burros are living in captivity–mostly in the Midwest as specified in the Salazar Plan. Last year the controversial Wild Horse and Burro Program cost the American taxpayer 78 million dollars. Next year the cost will increase.

Protect Mustangs requests that Congress work with advocates to find a way to return wild horses to their wild lands in the West–to create biodiversity on the range–a win-win for wild horses, livestock, landowners, tourism and energy development on the New Energy Frontier. Their presence also helps greatly to reduce wildfires.

“Shrinking the numbers of wild horses left on public land today could be dangerous,” explains Kerry Becklund, director of outreach for Protect Mustangs. “Giving already small herds fertility control will ruin genetic viability and could create inbreeding.”

The BLM’s reproduction rates don’t account much for mortality within the herd. Often foals don’t live to be two years old but the BLM spin on population has them multiplying like rabbits.

Studies show predators such as mountain lions and coyotes reduce the wild horse foal population. Last summer several young foals were killed by coyotes at a BLM holding facility near Sparks, Nevada. Even so, the BLM hides the truth about predators reducing the population and continues to repeat they have no natural predators despite the fact they do.

“Show me a real independent headcount before we talk about fertility control,”says Novak. “There aren’t enough wild horses left on the range any more. The truth is that the BLM will continue to roundup wild horses to treat them with fertility control. Roundups have been deadly so far. Roundups are NOT the answer. Biodiversity is the answer.”

Novak continues, “More than 52,000 indigenous wild horses have been captured and are warehoused in government holding. Selling ‘excess’ wild horses to kill-buyers is a heinous act and must stop now as well as the gluttony of roundups”

# # #

Media Contacts:

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

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

Links of interest:

AP reports & Protect Mustangs speaks out against the roundups: 3,500 Wild horses going to loose their freedom starting October 1st Federal roundup of wild horses burros starts today http://www.lvrj.com/news/federal-roundup-for-wild-horses-burros-starts-today-172056591.html

ProPublica reports: All the missing horses: What happened to the wild horses Tom Davis bought from the government  http://www.propublica.org/article/missing-what-happened-to-wild-horses-tom-davis-bought-from-the-govt

Brutal report for day 1 of Nevada’s Antelope roundup. Two horses die. AWHPC video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne3ppBnbr7g&feature=youtu.be

Day 3 of Antelope roundup. Foals are terrorized by the helicopter and chased too long on their tender hooves. AWHPC video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N9LDAwZqyU&feature=youtu.be

Buffalo News (January 5, 1997) US effort to save wild horses leads thousands to slaughter as workers profit by Martha Mendoza http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BN&p_theme=bn&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF99E45C1DF5CF&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

The Burns amendment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Burns#The_Burns_Amendment

Huffington Post (October 17, 2009) Ken Salazar’s wild horse plan fuels accusations that he’s in the pocket of ranchers by Martin Griffith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/17/ken-salazars-wild-horse-p_n_324799.html

News 4 KRNV Reno BLM selling to kill buyer? http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/BLM-selling-to-a-kill-buyer/s7svkl_zd0i1NVKHbd0ceA.cspx

Oct 5th Facebook announcement~Call to Stop the Roundups: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=418628774862814&set=a.240625045996522.58710.233633560029004&type=1&theater

Protect Mustangs on the web http://www.ProtectMustangs.org

 

BLM fluff snares the Sacramento Bee

Stop the Roundups Rally at the Federal Courthouse in Sacramento ~ organized by Protect Mustangs & Native Wild Horse Protection. (Photo © Respect 4 Horses.)

We were looking for an article about the Sacramento protest, where more than 25 dedicated advocates from around the West endured 104 degrees in front of the Federal Courthouse to stand up against roundups. Sadly only a fluff piece was published that belittled public outrage over cruel roundups.

BLM California’s Amy Dumas is quoted as saying “most people who protest roundups don’t understand them”.

” . . . Until last fall, all of the horses were living in the wild, according to Amy Dumas, manager of the wild horse program for BLM in California.

She said they had been gathered in a round-up, a BLM tactic used to maintain the growing population of wild horses. She likened the process to a helicopter acting as a sheepdog and herding horses into pens.

Roundups are controversial – on Tuesday, about 15 people from throughout California and Nevada protested BLM’s roundup program outside of Sacramento’s federal courthouse. The protestors said horses are a national symbol of freedom that deserve to stay in the wild and roundups are abusive.

Dumas said most people who protest roundups don’t understand them. Beverly Moss, who attended Saturday’s event with family members, agreed and said she has watched a BLM roundup.

“I did not see abuse at all,” she said. “I felt like they really cared about the horses.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/14/4631346/wild-horse-up-for-bid-adoption.html#storylink=cpy

Please comment at the link and share this so others will have a chance to comment on BLM spin.

 

Come to the Sacramento Rally to Stop Helicopter Roundups July 10th

 

Note posted 6/24: Rally time is 10:30 AM ~ Location TBA in 48 hours

Here is a list of speakers as of this date

Craig Downer

Marjorie Farabee

Terri Farley

Ginger Kathrens

Elliot Katz

Carl Mrozek

Simone Netherlands

Shruti Tewari

Jetara True-Love

Robin Warren  (Wild Mustang Robin)