Happy Thanksgiving!
We want to thank our supporters and friends for their hard work speaking out and taking action for the wild horses and burros.
Today we want to honor April Freudenberg from South Carolina who took action and adopted a California Twin Peaks at-risk yearling. She named him Pilgrim. Thank you April for saving a wild horse!
April & Pilgrim (Photo © Scott Freudenburg)
Twin Peaks wild horses counting on your help (Photo of “Magic” © G. Gregg)
Happy Thanksgiving!
California-based Protect Mustangs has been working hard to stop the Twin Peaks roundup once we brought you the news of the Rush Fire last summer. We are grateful several wonderful advocates such as Craig Downer, Grandma Gregg, Jesica Johnston, Barbara Clarke, Monika Courtney, R.T Fitch, Debbie Coffey and many others have joined the fight to protect the Twin Peaks wild horses on the range.
“We oppose rounding up and removing native wild horses from the Twin Peaks HMA especially now that they can play a key role in restoring the land. It’s time the BLM use good science and cut down on invasive techniques that cause global warming. Wild horses and burros can heal and reseed the range after the wildfire so let them do it.”
Keep contacting your elected officials across the country to educate them about how the Twin Peaks wild horses can heal the land after the fire. Let them know these federally protected wild horses deserve to remain on their range. Tell them removals are cruel and costly–warehousing them for decades is not sustainable. Request the Twin Peaks roundup be cancelled. Thank you for helping California’s wild horses and burros.
Please make a donation to help Protect Mustangs continue our work for the wild horses. Thank you.
Below is the email we received today from Ken Collum at the BLM.
All my best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving,
Anne
Anne Novak
Executive Director of Protect Mustangs
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Twin Peaks Response
From: “Collum, Kenneth R”
Date: Tue, November 20, 2012
To: Anne Novak protectmustangs
There will be no imminent roundup operation in the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA). The situation will be re-evaluated this January.
HMA population information obtained from September’s aerial inventory will be available soon.
Ken Collum
Field Manager
Eagle Lake Field Office
2950 Riverside Dr.
Susanville, CA. 96130
Ph: 530 252 5374
Cell: 530 260 0158
Secretary Ken Salazar Public Domainhttp://www.doi.gov/images/SecySalazarOfficialPortrait.jpg
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said Tuesday he “regrets” threatening to punch a Gazette reporter for asking him last week about problems in the government’s wild horse program.
Salazar visited Fountain on Nov. 6 as part of a tour through Colorado in support of President Obama’s re-election campaign and Gazette reporter Dave Philipps asked him to answer a few questions on video.
Philipps, a prize-winning investigative reporter, had tried to reach Salazar for months through his press secretary to comment on a story Philipps wrote for ProPublica without response. The story detailed how a Colorado man with business connections to Salazar had been sold hundreds of federally protected wild horses despite being a proponent of horse slaughter. The fate of the horses is unknown.
When Philipps began asking Salazar about the program and possible personal ties he had to the wild horse buyer now under investigation, Salazar cut the interview short.
The secretary, dressed in a suit and wearing his signature white cowboy hat, approached Philipps, pushed The Gazette’s video camera out of the way, and got within inches of the reporter’s face.
“Don’t you ever,” Salazar said in a low voice, pointing a finger. “You know what, you do that again… I’ll punch you out.”
After saying he felt he’d been “set up,” Salazar left.
Listen to the audio of the interview here.
“Holding our public officials accountable is one of the cornerstones of our role as journalists,” said The Gazette’s Director of Content Carmen Boles. “We are dismayed that anyone would respond to legitimate questions in such a fashion.”
The Gazette held the audio, hoping that Salazar would agree to a substantive interview concerning the wild horse program. His press office responded to requests with a simple statement: “The Secretary regrets the exchange.”
The confrontation was made public by the Colorado Springs-based wild horse advocacy group The Cloud Foundation on Monday and quickly spread through major news organizations and social media Tuesday.
Pilgrim formerly Sweet Baby Red #2484 happily adopted by April November 2012 (Photo © April, all rights reserved)
“I just wanted to give you guys an update on Baby Red now known as Pilgrim. I have had him for 1 week now and he has settled in beautifully. I have worked with him for the last 3 days and he is responding so well. He will move his forequarters and hindquarters away and come to me at liberty. I can halter him and he is coming to pressure on the halter already! I would have never known about this 3 strike program that the BLM has in place before seeing your site. I thank you so much for making people aware of these wonderful horses. This is such an awesome experience and I can’t wait to continue building this bond with this horse for years to come! Thank you!”
~April from South Carolina
Pilgrim, formerly known as Sweet Baby Red (#2484) is a Twin Peaks wild horse yearling from California. He was born at the Litchfield holding facility. He was passed over during the internet adoption and became an at-risk mustang with another strike against him. 3-Strikes and federally protected wild horses loose their protected status and can be sold to pro-slaughter buyers by the truckloads.
Protect Mustangs wants to make sure the Litchfield 11 who were passed over during the BLM’s national adoption find forever homes.
“We are keeping track of the eleven yearlings from the Litchfield Corrals, near Susanville,” explains Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “Some of these at-risk youngsters are still in California and some have been sent back East. A few have been adopted and several have accrued another dangerous strike against them.”
If anyone wants to adopt one of the Litchfield 11 please send an email to Contact@ProtectMustangs.org. The preservation group is happy to assist perspective adopters to navigate the BLM’s maze of red tape to adopt a mustang.
Pilgrim (Sweet Baby Red #2484) at the BLM Litchfield Corrals, California Sept 2012 (Photo courtesy BLM)
Find the win-win to return America’s wild horses to the range–creating biodiversity on The New Energy Frontier
OBAMA poster Created by Lise Stampfli
Sign the petition to DEFUND the Roundups: http://www.change.org/petitions/united-states-congress-de-fund-the-roundups
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.
Teen wants Twin Peaks mustangs to remain on the range for educational opportunities
SAN FRANCISCO (November 3, 2012)–Protect Mustangs opposes the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposal to roundup and remove native wild horses from Twin Peaks–the largest herd management area near Susanville, California. The California-based preservation group is planning a protest against the proposed Twin Peaks roundup. The San Francisco protest date and time will be announced after the Presidential election.
“Americans value California’s treasured herd of native wild horses, with cavalry remount influences, known as the Twin Peaks horses,” explains Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “These mustangs are survivors and play an essential role in creating biodiversity. Native horses heal the land after wildfires and from livestock over-grazing. This ultimately benefits livestock too.”
Native wild horses have survived in nature for hundreds of years and do not need to be rescued after a wildfire when there is forage and water out there. If they need extra forage or water then the BLM can bring them forage. It’s much cheaper than rounding them up and warehousing them in the Midwest–where they risk being sold to a slaughter middle man someday.
If the land needs healing after the fire then engage the latest science to use native wild horses to help heal the land and reverse desertification.
After a wildfire burned through the HMA for days, advocates conducted a study documenting the forage, water and terrain conditions. There is water and forage out there.
“Going to the Twin Peaks HMA is like stepping inside a living wildlife biology museum of the high desert,” says 15 year old Irma Novak, Director of the Discover Mustangs Project. “After the 2010 roundup, it’s hard to find wild horses to observe because the range is so huge and there aren’t many mustangs left.”
“American youth needs to have access to the natural world to round out their education,” adds Novak. “We want the Twin Peaks wild horses to remain on the range. If they need to remove any animals to heal the land after the fire then they should remove the destructive grazers who ruin the riparian areas–the cattle.”
The vast 798,000 acre Twin Peaks HMA is one and a half hours north of Reno and approximately 250 miles from the Bay Area making it an accessible option to observe treasured wild horses in their native habitat.
Irma Novak, Director of Discover Mustangs (Photo © Carolyn Orndorff)
# # #
Media Contacts:
Anne Novak, 415-531-8454 Anne@ProtectMustangs.org
Kerry Becklund, 510-502-1913 Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org
Links of interest:
Native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562
Princeton Study: Wildlife and cows can be partners not enemies in search for food: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/93/41K10/index.xml?section=featured
California Twin Peaks Rush Fire Report: https://www.box.com/s/yf5mucjsowlawk5z3kyn
Discover Mustangs Project: http://discovermustangs.org/
Twin Peaks HMA: http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/hma-main/HMA-CA-242.html
Letter to BLM asking for Twin Peaks roundup specifics and stating our position to bring them aid in the field as needed but keep them on the HMA: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=2864
Petition to de-fund the roundups:https://www.change.org/petitions/united-states-congress-de-fund-the-roundups
Anne Novak with friendly wild horses. (Photo © Irma Novak)
Please sign and share the Change.org petition to De-Fund the roundups.
Wild horses are a native species to America. Rounding up federally protected wild horses and burros has been documented as cruel. Warehousing them for decades is fiscally irresponsible. Clearing mustangs and burros off public land–for industrialization, fracking, grazing and the water grab–goes against the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act put in place to protect the living legends of the American West.
We request you de-fund the roundups immediatley.
There is no accurate census and the Bureau of Land Management figures do not add up. We request an independent census because we are concerned there are less than 18,000 wild horses and burros in the 10 western states combined. More roundups will wipe them out.
Kindly allow native wild horses and the burros to reverse desertification, reduce the fuel for wildfires and create biodiversity on public land–while living with their families in freedom.
Wild horses are a native species to America. Rounding up federally protected wild horses has been documented as cruel and fiscally irresponsible. Clearing mustangs off public land–for industrialization and fracking–goes against the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act put in place to protect the living legends of the American West.
Date and time TBA ~ Check back for updates.
Permission given to use to raise awareness crediting © Protect Mustangs
The photo above was taken at the 2010 Twin Peaks Roundup.
Visit us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs
Photo ©Rachel Anne Reeves all rights reserved
Call for Congressional investigation into conflict of interest on anti-wild horse advisory board catering to livestock and extractive industries
WASHINGTON (October 31, 2012)–Protect Mustangs strongly opposes the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board’s proposal to spay wild mustangs due to health risks including death and because no accurate independent headcount has been provided to prove alleged overpopulation is an issue despite multiple requests for this evidence.
“This cruel plan could kill many federally protected wild horses,” explains Anne Novak executive director for Protect Mustangs. “We oppose spaying wild mares in the field because it’s a high risk procedure. The BLM is charged with protecting wild horses not putting their lives in jeopardy. ”
Protect Mustangs is also calling for an independent audit to determine the number of mustangs in the wild and in holding facilities.
“Show us an independent headcount and then let’s talk about overpopulation–if it’s a realistic concern,” continues Novak. “Right now we see the BLM inflating the population numbers to justify rampant million dollar roundups, money dumped into fertility research and funds spent to warehouse 50,000 captive wild horses. Today maybe 17,000 are left in all ten western states. This could be the end for America’s indigenous free roaming wild horse.”
“We are concerned the anti-mustang advisory board is spreading disinformation about reproduction rates,” says Novak. “Life is harsh on the range. Wild horses don’t reproduce like rabbits and many foals die before they are two. Saying the herds double every 5 years is an invented distortion to push through radical policy”
Monday during the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting in Salt Lake, the Salazar Plan was pushed into the final phase to wipe out American wild horses living on public land. The Board, stacked to favor the livestock and extractive industries–profiting off public land–recommended spaying wild horses to control an alleged but not proven overpopulation on the range.
Members of the public and wild horse advocates are outraged over the proposal which has at least a 10% death rate and a pandora’s box full of complications.
“It’s a lot more complicated and the potential for complications and side effects is much greater,” said the BLM’s vet, Dr. Al Kane USDA-APHIS, during a report to the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board in 2011. “The potential effects on herd behavior or individual mare behavior are an issue.”
Protect Mustangs urges members of the public to contact their elected officials in Congress to request:
“The public loves American wild horses,” says Kerry Becklund, director of outreach for Protect Mustangs. “We want the BLM and their biased Advisory Board to back off and quit trying to wipe them out.
# # #
Media Contacts:
Anne Novak, 415-531-8454, Anne@ProtectMustangs.org
Kerry Becklund, 510-502-1913, Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org
Links of interest:
The Salazar Plan: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2009/oct/07/us-wild-horses-100709/
October 2012 Wild Horse & Burro Meeting: http://www.slideshare.net/blmnational/wild-horse-and-burro
Advisory Board member endorses slaughter: http://rtfitchauthor.com/2012/10/30/blm-wild-horse-burro-advisory-board-member-endorses-horse-slaughter-during-public-session/#comment-68620
Citizen board recommends BLM sterilize wild horses: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121030/us-wild-horses/
Protect Mustangs: http://www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs