It’s urgent to send in comments by midnight April 10th against BLM’s horrid plans to wipe out the Kiger herd (Sprit is from the Kiger herd http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166813) and Riddle herd in Oregon. Unless this is stopped they will leave only a few wild horses as a token to photograph and breed in a zoo-like setting.
The BLM is proposing to spend your hard earned tax dollars for a brutal helicopter roundup of 210 wild horses, and permanently remove and put in holding 120 thus stripping populations to the low end of BLM’s alleged Appropriate Management Level (AML). That would leave only 51 for Kiger HMA and 33 for the Riddle Mountain HMA. There are already too few remaining on the range. Stop the roundups!
Chasing them with helicopters or drugging them up with PZP–a pesticide, made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries–used for birth control for alleged ‘humane management in the wild’ is heinous, deceitful and must be stopped now. http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf Spaying underpopulated wild horses or gelding studs must be halted too. This is a native species that must NOT be managed to extinction using tools like PZP.
Please send your comments by midnight Friday, April 10 to:
Lisa Grant
Burns District Office
Email: lgrant@blm.gov or BLM_Or_BU_Mail@blm.gov
Be sure to send your senators and representatives (http://www.contactingthecongress.org)
a copy of your email and request they intervene to stop this tragedy before it’s too late.
PZP lobbyists are paying a lot of money to fool your elected officials into believing wild horses are overpopulated and therefore NEED their EPA approved “restricted-use pesticide” for birth control when the truth is wild horses need their rights protected to the land they are supposed to be freely roaming on according to the 1971 law.
Here are seven talking points:
1. ) Raise the BLM’s alleged appropriate management level (AML) to create viable herds. Genetically viable herds are essential to ensure the herds survival based on natural selection. Both the Kiger and Riddle herds need to be allowed higher populations immediately.
2. ) Reduce livestock grazing that is currently getting 5 times more forage allocation than native wild horses.
3.) Stop shooting up wild horses with PZP. It is a pesticide that sterilizes after multiple use and is being used as a tool to manage native wild horses to extinction. It’s inhumane for many reasons and robs them of their right to survival of the fittest in the wild and would force them into breeding program with many problems such as this: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8077
4.) There is no evidence of overpopulation according to the National Academy of Sciences 2013 report, therefore roundups are unjustified.
5.) Holistic management must be implemented to save the herds before they are all destroyed.
6.) Wild horses are a native species who prevent wildfires. When the herds are radically reduced from helicopter roundups then catastrophic wildfires follow costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
7.) Stop the roundups.
If you have already emailed a comment but didn’t realize how dangerous endorsing PZP is then you have the right to send the BLM an updated comment stating you are against using PZP (native, 22 or any other version). You will find a lot of information about PZP in the Facebook Forum on PZP https://www.facebook.com/groups/ForumPZPWildHorsesBurros Sadly groups that have signed contracts with BLM are pushing PZP as well as the registrant at the top of the pyramid. What they aren’t speaking about is the fact that mares are permanently sterilized after multiple use and that often fillies get raped by mobs of studs desperate to breed because their mares are on PZP.
Thank you for taking action today to save America’s wild horses in Oregon from being managed to extinction and for helping the victims of previous roundups.
BREAKING NEWS: Advocates win — BLM Cancels Roundup Following Protect Mustangs’ and FOA’s Court Victory
Nevada’s beloved Pine Nut Herd from ‘The Misfits’ escapes horrible helicopter stampede
RENO, NV. (March 25, 2015)—After U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks’ Feb. 11 decision to grant Protect Mustangs’ and Friends of Animals’ (FoA) a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the proposed roundup of more than 300 wild horses on the 98,000 acre Nevada Pine Nut Herd Management Area (HMA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced today it has officially canceled the roundup. The famous herd from ‘The Misfits’ continues to live in freedom thanks to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and justice in federal court.
“The BLM is attacking wild horses, painting them as pests that are destroying the environment while the real culprits act with impunity in their own best interest,” states actor Mark Boone Junior (Sons of Anarchy, Batman Begins).
“We are so grateful truth and justice has been upheld for America’s wild horses,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs based 4 hours away in San Francisco. “We have been studying the wild horses in the Pine Nuts for several years. They are an inspiration to fight for wild horse freedom throughout the West.”
“The BLM’s outdated 2010 environmental assessment did not stand up in court because it did not take into account the current situation on the range,” explains Tami Hottes Protect Mustangs board member. “We are working on increasing the Appropriate Management Level for native wild horses to ensure their survival.”
Before the proposed 2015 roundup was stopped, BLM wanted to permanently remove 200 wild horses and forcibly drug with PZP the few remaining mares to be released. Protect Mustangs and FOA filed a case in the District Court of Nevada, arguing that BLM violated its duties under NEPA by dusting off their stale 2010 Environmental Assessment. U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks agreed to the preliminary injunction. On Feb. 11 Hicks decided that the plaintiffs showed they were likely to succeed on their legal claims and granted Protect Mustangs’ and FoA’s request to postpone the roundup.
“This gives us a fighting chance to restore the herd’s population to what it was when I was a boy,” says Craig Downer director of ecology and conservation for Protect Mustangs. “Habitat restoration is essential for native wild horses to survive drought and environmental changes in these times.”
“Forced drugging with PZP, an EPA restricted use pesticide that sterilizes after multiple use, is something we will not tolerate on the federally protected Pine Nut herd,” states Novak. “Americans will champion the herd’s freedom and will prevent special interest groups from using them as pharmaceutical lab rats for drug research on the range.”
“Underpopulation on the Pine Nut HMA is a serious problem for the herd’s long term survival because of the public land grab and environmental degradation due to multiple use policies,” explains Novak. “Since BLM tried to round them up in the beginning of 2015 we have become vigilant and are often in the field gathering evidence to keep the native herd safe, as well as building our legal department to fight for the voiceless in court.”
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Protect Mustangs is the leading grassroots nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses. www.ProtectMustangs.org
Helicopter roundups will increase to administer PZP
95% of the herds can’t be shot with darts in the field
Does the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) want to take over the Wild Horse and Burro Program, pushing forced drugging with PZP (pesticide made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf) for management on underpopulated herds? PZP is a “tool” to manage wild horses to extinction. Science proves PZP (native, 22, etc.) sterilizes after multiple use.
Isn’t the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) the wild horse mouthpiece for HSUS? Doesn’t their pledge to “keep them in the wild” written up in the Huffington Post include forced drugging with PZP as their cornerstone management tool? Does HSUS want to create zoo-like settings to “keep them in the wild”? HSUS endorsed the former Secretary of Interior’s Plan, aka the Salazar Plan, in 2009. Now the plan is entering the final wipe-out phase with the help of PZP pushers.
For decades native wild horses have been used by the pharmaceutical industry as lab rats for birth control “research” at huge taxpayer expense. This involves killing wild horses to research drug damage on ovaries and other organs. PZP = Roundups = Cruel Animal Experiments
BLM refused to hear public comments at “public” meeting
MINDEN, NV (January 22, 2015)—Edita Birnkrant, Campaigns Director for Friends of Animals (FoA) flew out from New York City with FoA correspondent Nicole Rivard to give public comments at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public meeting about the Carson City District Draft Resource Management Plan which calls to zero out 6 treasured herds of wild horses. After being denied her rights at the public meeting, held at the Carson Valley Inn in Minden, Nevada this afternoon, Birnkrant took over the microphone at the BLM meeting and held up yellow crime scene tape while Rivard filmed the protest against censorship and managing wild horses to extinction. Birnkrant was threatened with arrest by Nevada Sheriffs while holding up her banner. The hotel manager made Rivard stop filming and told the advocates they were being thrown out of the hotel, even though they had booked rooms there that night.
Statement from Edita Birnkrant:
“While we were waiting to go into the meeting a man told a BLM staffer “I wanna open up a horse butcher shop”. Then a few other guys started making jokes about how tender horse meat is. The BLM guy just chuckled but didn’t tell them it was inappropriate.
I was outraged that the BLM dared to hold a “public ” meeting and forbid the public from speaking. I took over the microphone to call out the sham of a BLM meeting, that shut out the public, and I said that Friends of Animals was there tonight to oppose the BLM’s extinction plan for wild horses in Nevada. I said the BLM is managing wild horses to extinction through roundups and PZP and we are outraged and demand it stop. I held our banner that said “Stop the BLM’s Criminal Reign of Terror. Protect Wild Horses Under the Endangered Species Act” The sheriffs were surrounding me at that point threatening to arrest me unless I left. I still had the banner and was shouting “the BLM is charged with crimes against wild horses”.
Then the hotel manager at the Carson Valley Inn in Minden, Nevada—Phil Dohrn–started bullying us and got in Nicole’s face. He pushed against her—blocking the camera and told her she had to shut her video off and we were getting thrown out.
Three extremely hostile sheriffs and the Carson Valley Inn manager escorted us to our rooms and waited outside while we packed our bags. They pounded on the door to hurry us or they’d arrest us. They called additional sheriffs to the hotel during all this. We left the hotel shocked that the Carson Valley Inn treats paying guests who exercise their First Amendment rights in their meeting room like this.”
The federal plan for public land in the Reno/Carson area is of interest to all Americans from coast to coast. Citizens care about public land and want federally protected wild horses protected by the law that allows them to roam freely without harassment.
Friends of Animals, an international animal protection organization founded in 1957, advocates for the rights of animals, free-living and domestic around the world. www.friendsofanimals.org
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Friends of Animals’ public comments that advocates were not allowed to read and were given to Collen Sievers the BLM BLM Project Manager for Carson City District at the public hearing on the draft resource management plan for Carson City District
Edita Birnkrant, FoA’s campaigns director 917-940-2725
The opinion of the American public, as declared through Congress is clear: “wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people.” BLM has an obligation to consider wild horses as an integral part of the natural system of public lands.
It appears from the Carson City’s Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Environmental Impact Statement that the BLM failed to take into consideration critical information about wild horses and failed to consider any alternatives that promote a free and viable wild horse population.
Friends of Animal is here to urge BLM to reevaluate its Resource Management Plan.
We ask that BLM consider an alternative that: (1) maintains all wild horse herd management areas; (2) prohibits conflicting uses on herd management areas; and (3) prohibits efforts to eradicate wild horses, such as round-ups, fertility control and sterilization. BLM must take into consideration the small population of wild horses and the potential that they will be listed as a threatened or endangered species under the Federal Endangered Species Act. From a scientific perspective, wild horses on our public lands are at risk of extinction if BLM does not change its management plans.
BLM does not provide adequate area for wild horses. Under the current RMP, approximately 4.8 million acres of public lands covered by the plan are open for private ranchers to graze cattle and sheep while only 1.2 million acres are reserved for wild horses. In the preferred alternative the ratio or area available for cattle and sheep grazing is also more than 4 times that available for wild horses.
Moreover, under no alternative, are cattle and sheep prohibited from grazing on wild horse herd management areas. BLM must consider an alternative that provides contiguous habitat for wild horses to roam freely.
Second, all alternatives for the proposed Resource Management Plan allows BLM to continue managing horses at artificially low populations, or appropriate management levels. This results in expensive, and cruel round-ups that tear the wild horses from their homes and families and place them in tax funded holding facilities. This is one of the largest threat to wild horses on U.S. lands. Experts have warned that the “majority of wild equid populations managed by the BLM are kept at population sizes that are small enough for the loss of genetic variation to be a real concern.”
The Equid Specialist Group of IUCN Species Survival Commission recommends minimum populations of 2,500 individuals for the conservation of genetic diversity. Others have warned that populations managed with a target size of fewer than 500 horses are at some risk of losing more than 90 percent of selective neutral genetic variation over a period of 200 years.
There are no herds that have a large enough population to meet the recommendation of the IUCN Species Survival Commission – 2,500 animals—and only 1 out of 17 of the herd management areas in this planning area has an appropriate management level set to 500 or more. Limiting horses to an artificially low number is short-sighted and ineffective because it could prompt short-term population growth.
Finally, Friends of Animals submitted a petition to the US Fish and Wildlife Service asking it to recognize wild horses as threatened or endangered. The Endangered Species Act requires the government to make final determination on the petition within 12 months – which would be this June. The BLM should not undermine this legal process by allowing BLM to round-up and remove wild horses from Carson City herd management areas. Not only would such actions undermine the Endangered Species Act, but they would also put the viability of the horses here at risk. Instead the plan should recommend BLM halt all efforts to remove wild horses, and allow Fish and Wildlife Service to review the law and facts in regards to wild horses. Nicole Rivard, correspondent, FoA 203-910-1217
As my colleague just pointed out, all but one of the 17 herd management areas in the Carson City District has an appropriate management level set to 500 or more. Everywhere else the loss of genetic viability is a real concern. So additional roundups, which destroy social structure that can lead to population spikes, as well as consideration of administering fertility control, should be removed from this Carson City District Plan immediately if not sooner.
While some wild horse advocates may claim fertility control drugs, such as PZP, is the lesser of two evils, we at FoA believe birth control is equally harmful and inhumane as roundups. In most cases—even the BLM admits this—wild horses would still have to be captured to be treated with the pesticide before being released.
The widespread use of PZP is really very contrary to the true core intent of the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971, which was to restore wild horses as naturally, integrated, harmonious components of the public land ecosystem who are not overly tampered with. Deciding which animal should give birth or not is a very invasive, unacceptable thing to do to these wild animals.
Studies have revealed adverse effects of PZP— that it sterilizes wild horses after multiple uses and results in risky foal birth out of season and significant behavioral changes that can affect the health of the herd.
BLM’s discussion regarding a population control program in the EIS is inaccurate and unsupported. They claim fertility control limits the stress of pregnancy on mares, and helps stallions as they will not be exerting extra energy fighting to control mares or raising foals.
What about the stress on mares of not being able to get pregnant as nature intended!
We urge the BLM to look beyond data provided by the Humane Society of the United States, which has a vested interest in PZP as it is the registrant of the pesticide, and Jay Kirkpatrick, the director of the Science and Conservation Center, which produces the active ingredient in PZP. For instance a 2009 Princeton University study of the horses on Shackleford Banks in North Carolina, who began getting PZP in 2000, showed that prolonged infertility has significant consequences on social behavior.
Researchers found that females who were receiving contraception were much more likely to change groups. Normally bands are really very stable, said researcher Cassandra Nunez, and mares will stay with males much if not all of their lives. That stability is really important for the health of the group members. Foal mortality increases when there are a bunch of different changes, and parasite load of animals in the group can go up because they are getting more stressed.
In a later study in 2010, Nunez found that recipients of PZP also extend the receptive breeding period into what is normally the non-breeding season, resulting in foal birth out of season.
Normally the winter is spent eating as much as they can, and everyone is more relaxed. Males tend to let females roam farther, which is good because food is patchier. So all of this is changing because of extended cycling.
Nunez also noted it’s taking a while for the contracepted mares, who were taken off PZP in 2009, to respond physiologically. So that flexibility that you think you have with PZP…it’s not really that flexible.”
It is imperative that BLM reduce the number of cattle and sheep allowed to graze on public lands, as well as consider holistic resource management plan, such as reserve design, which is described in detail in Craig Downer’s Book the Wild Horse Conspiracy. Both options would adequately protect these majestic animals so that they can persist for future generations.
Friends of Animals, an international animal protection organization founded in 1957, advocates for the rights of animals, free-living and domestic around the world. www.friendsofanimals.org
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BLM Nevada News CARSON CITY DISTRICT OFFICE NO. CCDO 2015-11 FOR RELEASE: November 28, 2014
CONTACT: Lisa Ross, 775-885-6107, lross@blm.gov
Draft Resource Management Plan Environmental Impact Statement Available for
BLM Carson City District
Carson City, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is asking the public to review and comment on a Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Carson City District. The draft plan will affect approximately 4.8 million acres of public land. The comment period opened with the publication of a notice of availability in the Federal Register on November 28, 2014. Comments will be accepted during a 120-day period which closes March 27, 2015.
Public meetings to review and comment on the draft EIS will be announced at least 15 days in advance in local newspapers and on the BLM website.
The plan will address: Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, lands and realty, utility corridors, wind energy, travel management, recreation, fish and wildlife, minerals, wild and scenic rivers, public health and safety, and visual resource management.
Public meetings on the Draft RMP/Draft EIS are currently scheduled for 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.; on January 13, at the John Ascuaga’s Nugget (1100 Nugget Ave.) in Sparks, Nev.; on January 15, at the Fallon Convention Center (100 Campus Way) in Fallon, Nev.; on January 20, at the Mineral County Library (First & A Street) in Hawthorne, Nev.; on January 22, at the Carson Valley Inn (1627 US Hwy 395 N) in Minden, Nev.; and on January 29, at the Yerington Elementary School (112 N. California St.) in Yerington, Nev. An additional public meeting will be held from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., on January 24, at the Carson City Plaza Hotel and Event Center (801 South Carson Street) in Carson City, Nev. Additional public meetings are anticipated in coordination with local County Commissions and Boards of Supervisors.
Written comments related to the Carson City District Draft RMP/Draft EIS may be submitted by any of the following methods:
• Website: http://on.doi.gov/1uYBNGT• E-mail: BLM_NV_CCDO_RMP@blm.gov
• Fax: 775-885-6147
• Mail: BLM Carson City District, Attn: CCD RMP, 5665 Morgan Mill Rd., Carson City, NV 89701.
Copies of the Carson City District Draft RMP/Draft EIS are available in the Carson City District Office at the above address or on the following website: http://on.doi.gov/1uYBNGT
We are against using anything as a pesticide on native wild horses and burros. The EPA passed PZP as a restricted-use pesticide for wild horses and burros in 2012. This gave wild horses and burros the designation of PESTS and must be reversed.
We asked Jay Kirkpatrick, Ph.D to define “Native PZP” and this is what he said.
“Native PZP is the family of glycoproteins extracted from porcine zona pellucida and administered without any alterations, such as “PZP-22″, in which the PZP is encased in a biodegradable, non-toxic material so that it has a longer duration of action (and which doesn’t work!). Research is ongoing elsewhere to find out why it doesn’t work. SpayVac is a proprietary product made in Canada and the effects of this formulation cause both uterine edema and ovarian damage. Native PZP does neither – based on a 28 year data base.” ~ Jay Kirkpatrick, Ph.D
The Science and Conservation Center
2100 S. Shiloh Road
Billings, MT 59106
“Wildlife ecologist Craig Downer of Nevada accused Salazar, a former rancher, of acting on behalf of those who view mustangs as taking scarce forage away from their cattle herds. Downer contends cattle are more destructive to the range because they concentrate in high numbers around water sources instead of grazing over a wider area as wild horses do.
“Both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management have the right to remove livestock to ensure viable, healthy populations of wild horses. But they refuse to exercise that,” Downer said. “Their master is primarily these traditional ranching interests.”
“Horse defenders have stepped up their efforts in recent weeks, suing to block a proposed roundup of 2,700 horses in northern Nevada and lining up the support of celebrities such as Sheryl Crow, Lily Tomlin, Bill Maher and Ed Harris.
Crow took her concerns directly to Salazar in a telephone call this past week.
“One of the first things he said was something must be done because the horses are starving. We (advocates) don’t believe it,” Crow said in an interview with The Associated Press.”
“HELENA, Mont. — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday that he was proposing to create seven new wild-horse preserves, including one in the East and one in the Midwest, to address the problem of a growing population crowding the Western range.
The program, which also applies to wild burros, would expand the use of contraceptives and would geld more herds on public lands in the West, Mr. Salazar said.”
. . . ”
Yet the proposal quickly drew criticism from wild-horse advocates. Ginger Kathrens of Colorado Springs, a maker of documentary films who has chronicled the lives of a wild-horse herd in Montana, said that blocking reproduction could alter the animals’ behavior.
“It takes the wild out of wild-horse herds,” she said. “They’re families in sophisticated societies. Creating gelding herds and preventing them from reproducing is managing them toward extinction.”
But ranchers, who see wild horses as competing with cattle for grasses and water, welcomed the proposal. Jeff Eisenberg, executive director for the Public Lands Council, a group that works on public lands issues for ranchers, said Mr. Salazar’s proposal was a big step toward a solution.”
“With one voice we are insisting that our government stop managing these beautiful and important animals to extinction,” Crow said in a statement released by the Cloud Foundation, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based horse advocacy group”. . .
“It’s time for all of us to speak up for our wild horses and burros so we do not lose these living legends and inspiring symbols of our freedom in America,” she said.
“Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced wide-ranging proposals this week in which horses taken from the Western rangelands would be relocated to new preservation areas further east, utilising better quality grassland.
His plan includes the aggressive use of reproduction controls to manage numbers. Salazar hoped the new herd areas would provide tourism opportunities for nearby communities” . . .
“Pickens said she would support Secretary Salazar’s efforts, and would gladly compete to offer the wild horse sanctuary that she has planned to the bureau as one of the facilities proposed by Secretary Salazar.”
MANAGEMENT OF WILD HORSES WITH PORCINEZONA PELLUCIDA: HISTORY, CONSEQUENCES, AND FUTURE STRATEGIES, Cassandra M.V. Nuñez, Princeton: http://bit.ly/1rJywKl
“However, recent research in other populations has revealed behavioral and physiological side effects of long-term PZP use.”
Injection-Site Reactions in Wild Horses (Equus caballus) Receiving an Immunocontraceptive Vaccine, By James E. Roelle and Jason I. Ransom, http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2009/5038/
“Abnormal dart trauma included cases where the dart hit bone or the needle broke off. We found strong evidence (odds ratio = 5.023, P = 0.001) for a higher probability of occurrence of swelling when darts were delivered by blowgun. We found some evidence (odds ratio = 8.729, P = 0.07) that abnormal dart trauma led to a higher frequency of nodule formation. Nodules were the most common reactions observed and often persisted for a year or more, but in our observations they did not appear to change any animal’s range of movement or locomotor patterns and in most cases did not appear to differ in magnitude from naturally occurring injuries or scars. We were unable to perform histological examinations of these nodules, but they may be similar to granulomas reported by other investigators following administration of Freund’s adjuvant.”
There are several dark forces at work who want to control America’s wild horses and burros. Some want to steal them from the people so corrupt state officials can hunt and kill them or sell them to slaughter. Others want to drug them with EPA approved restricted-use pesticides such as PZP that sterilize WILD mares after multiple use. Fertility control research trials are big business. Left unchallenged, wild horses and burros will continue to be lab rats for human fertility control research. Many soulless degenerates want to slaughter wild horses for human consumption abroad. They really want to make room for energy development and subsidized grazing on public land at the expense of wildlife and especially wild horses and burros.
Be careful what you sign. Read everything carefully. Please read this petition carefully too then send it to your friends and family so the voiceless can be protected from the exploiters and the killers. If you want to know the truth behind the facade . . . follow the money.
Thank you for taking action to help America’s wild horses and burros by sharing this petition (http://www.change.org/p/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups) via email and through your social networks. Together we can shine the light on the truth to turn things around. Stop the Roundups!
