Tag Archives: wild horses

Nevada is a “fence out” state

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Rural Fencing Rules in Nevada

 

Cross-posted from eHow
By Patricia Linn, eHow Contributor

 

Rural Fencing Rules in Nevada thumbnail
In Nevada, you can’t ask your neighbor to fence in his cows, you have to fence them out.

Nevada is one of many western states that are primarily comprised of “open range” land. The open range designation means that cattle, horses, sheep and other livestock are free to roam and feed over any property that is not fenced. Nevada, and other open range states, legislate “fence-out” laws that essentially say: if you don’t want other people’s livestock coming on your property, then it is your responsibility to fence your land adequately to prevent ingress. Your fencing also prevents egress for your livestock

Read more: Rural Fencing Rules in Nevada | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_7148677_rural-fencing-rules-nevada.html#ixzz26mvCdAOj

Letter to the President

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Mustang flag with stars by Robin Warren (Wild Mustang Robin) for © Protect Mustangs

Dear Mr. President,

Wild horses are indigenous to North America. They will heal the land while creating biodiversity to balance out the surge of grazing, energy, mining and water projects on public land.

We understand your priority to foster the New Energy Frontier and therefore we ask you to find the win-win so America’s wild horses and burros–our living treasures–will not become extinct from the industrialization of western public lands.

It’s essential to leave viable herds (families) on public land so the wind horses and burros can reverse desertification because of their nature to forage and roam.

Predators will control the population as part of nature’s cycle and only the fittest will survive. This cuts out the cost of buying costly pharmaceuticals to control reproduction.

We know all the 51,000 wild horses in holding are at risk of going to slaughter and ask that they be returned to public land where they will cost the government almost nothing to live out their lives. Most male horses in holding have already been sterilized so they will not be able to reproduce.

We oppose creating additional herds of sterile wild horses as they don’t exhibit wild horse behaviors and could threaten the indigenous horse with extinction.

We stand with thousands of Americans to respectfully ask you to stop the cruel wild horse and burro roundups, so that an accurate accounting of horses on the range can take place and alternative sustainable management techniques could be applied to save the indigenous horse.

We thank you in advance for becoming a hero for America’s indigenous horses.

In gratitude,

Anne Novak

 

 

Anne Novak

Executive Director

Protect Mustangs

P.O. Box 5661

Berkeley, California 94705

Rally to STOP selling Reno’s wild horses to kill buyers ~ Friday Sept. 14 in Carson City, NV

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Take Back the Power (© Protect Mustangs)

Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 10:02 AM
Subject: WILD HORSE RALLY – FRIDAY, 09/14/12 – WHERE AND WHERE TO MEET

The Rally will start promptly at 11 a.m. and end at 1:00 p.m., directly in front of the Legislative Building. We will only be allowed to walk on the sidewalk and grass next to the street.  We will NOT be able to use the Legislative Building grounds to meet ahead of time. 
So, we will be staging at the vacant lot on the corner of Carson Street and Fourth Street – DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE SIDEWALK CROSSING  IN FRONT OF THE LEGISLATIVE BUILDING [BIG CLOCK].
We have lots and lots of Nevada Department of of Agriculture signs already  made out.  Cat Kindsfather is making up some special signs for us to carry, at the last minute and very much appreciate her efforts on this.  I am bringing a Nevada flag, as well as our Alliance of Wild Horse Advocates Advocates big banner.
So, with that said, it’s vital we meet early enough to go over the talking points and to hand out signs.
PLEASE, ORGANIZERS OF THE EVENT – BE AT THE EMPTY LOT BY 10 A.M.
OTHER PARTICIPANTS, PLEASE BE AT THE EMPTY LOT NO LATER THAN 10:30 A.M.
Thank you all – realize the whole thing’s been a rush, but this Rally is very needed on the truth and lies about the Nevada Department of Agriculture, informing the public before the already-captured Virginia Range horses go to sale at auction on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 – SALE MEANS SLAUGHTER!

Madeleine Pickens’ Eco-RESORT?

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By U.S. Government [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Cross-posted from the PPJG

September 12, 2012 by ppjg

Debbie Coffey     (c) Copyright 2012  All Rights Reserved
_______________________________________________________________

When you read Madeleine Pickens letter to friends and supporters yesterday (9/11/2012), did any of you catch the fact that she called her planned Mustang Monument a “Wild Horse Eco-resort?”  So when did this plan go from being a wild horse eco-sanctuary to an eco-resort?

(Not to even mention that the word “monument” can mean something erected as a memorial or as a marker at a grave or tombstone.)

Mrs. Pickens’ explains that her eco-resort plan will supposedly reduce the numbers of wild horses held in short term holding pens.  Let’s do the math.  If you take 900 horses out of short term holding to put in this eco-resort, but then you round up all of the horses off of the 3 HMAs, and they are then sent to short term holding, then haven’t you just added about the same amount of horses TO short term holding as you took out?  Maybe you’ve even added more.

Mrs. Pickens wants us to believe this eco-resort “serves the greater good for our wild horses.”  Let’s see, they’ve all had their “nuts” chopped off and will live with the same sex for the rest of their lives, without any children around them.   Is this good?  It’s certainly not natural.

In this letter Mrs. Pickens states “Already there are many people on both sides of this issue making assumptions and concluding the worst possible scenarios based on ‘proposed’ alternatives in the scoping documents.”  (Doesn’t this sound dismissive of REAL concerns?)  Well, yes, to some of us, removing horses from 3 Herd Management Areas and knowing that these 3 Herd Management Areas will then most likely be zeroed out and NOT Herd Management Areas anymore, and replaced with an eco-RESORT, is an assumption.  But we see a pattern to what the BLM is doing.  We can foresee that the BLM is removing ALL of the wild horses and slowly replacing them with non-reproducing herds.

Maybe the BLM and Mrs. Pickens would assume we wouldn’t think ahead and assume anything about Mrs. Pickens eco-resort plan and BLM’s other eco-sanctuary plans.  Maybe they, and the BLM, didn’t assume anyone would care enough to spend many hours poring over Dr. Gus Cothran’s genetic analysis reports (thank you Bonnie Kohleriter, who is almost blind by now because she prepared spreadsheets that will soon be available to the public) and realize that the herds that are left are either not viable or at risk of losing viability.  But we do.
We see what the BLM is doing.  When we look at the facts, we see that the worst case scenario IS happening.

Mrs. Pickens also claims “I will never accept any proposed plan that threatens the life of a wild horse. We will do everything we can to hold all the existing horses harmless”  But, the BLM’s eco-sanctuary plans DO threaten the lives of wild horses when they plan to remove more horses off of their federally  protected HMAs.   When the BLM removes horses from the HMAs, it DOES threaten the lives of horses during roundups and in holding facilities.  We see this in person with our own eyes at roundups and when we look at the BLM’s own facility reports.   Most importantly, the eco-sanctuaries could be on public lands that are NOT HMAs.   And they should be, so that other wild horses won’t have to be removed from HMAs.

Mrs. Pickens’ letter states: “If any horses are required to moved, they will have a permanent home at Mustang Monument.”  Really?  Even those wild horses that will be removed from the 3 HMAs after your eco-resort is up and running?  Will they also be left in their family bands?
Mrs. Pickens states “I hope you will continue to put your trust and faith in me and Saving Americas Mustangs to find the best way to do this… I pledge to do this in the most benign way possible, always bearing in mind that the ultimate goal is free-roaming wild horses but so many that will never have that experience again without the creation of Mustang Monument.”
This isn’t about putting trust and faith in you, it’s about holding the BLM accountable for the details and asking for their transparency.

It is NOT benign is that the public is not yet aware of all the details, which by BLM’s own admission are not even formulated yet.   This is like buying a car without taking a test drive.
Is Mrs. Pickens going to make the trust, which will detail what will happen to the eco-resort in the future, available to the public, so that we can read it?  Otherwise, this is asking you to go along with and support something you know little about.  Would you sign any legal document without reading it?

Mrs. Pickens says that the “Mustang Monument is going to seem like a “dream come true” to the wild horses who go there.   Will it be a dream come true when the remaining wild horses on these 3 HMAs are rounded up?  Or will it be the usual nightmare that roundups are, and be a part of a BLM plan to whitewash the fact that it’s removing all of the wild horses off of their HMAs.

Mrs. Pickens  states “we must work with the BLM to reach a conclusion that involves compromise.”  Why do we have to compromise?  This is all paid for with tax dollars (including BLM’s salaries, lest they forget), and we’ve already had to compromise way too much.

Madeleine Pickens states that “the ultimate goal is free-roaming wild horses” but the millions of dollars spent for this eco-resort would have gone a long way in legally stopping the BLM from removing the wild horses off of their HMAs.   Otherwise, this is just a shell game.

Link to the original article: http://ppjg.me/2012/09/12/madeleine-pickens-eco-resort/

 

 

Nevada policy change sells its wild horses by the pound

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 Cross-posted from The Examiner
By Carrol Abel
Some of the Virginia Range horses to be sold at auction by the pound
Some of the Virginia Range horses to be sold at auction by the pound
Photo credit: S. Bains
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Not many people are aware that the state of Nevada is the legal owner of all wild horses in the state except those on public lands. Fewer yet are aware that Nevada will be making their horses available at a September 19th livestock auction where they will be sold by the pound.

“A livestock auction sale yard does not differentiate whether a person is a horse lover or a kill buyer that’s the unfortunate part of this,” stated Ed Foster , Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA) spokesman, on a News 4 broadcast in Reno, Nevada.

Kill buyers transport horses to slaughter across the border. The meat then ends up on dinner plates in other countries.

Late in 2011 NDA Director, Jim Barbee, created a policy in which horses removed from the range were offered to the public on a first come first serve basis for a price of $90 each. These sales were open to “anyone with a checkbook”, but most attendees were wild horse advocates.

The announcement of a change in policy resulted in an overwhelming number of calls to Nevada Governor, Brian Sandoval. Most of the calls were referred to Mr. Foster. Governor Sandoval’s office had not responded to this mornings Examiner.com questions at the time of publication.

In conversation with Examiner.com, Foster cited the reason for a change in policy centered around the third public sale at which the advocates did not buy the horses from NDA, but waited and purchased them at auction. “They kind of jerked our chain a little bit”, said Foster. “I think the Director had a very reasonable offering to the groups to have these horses before anybody else had a chance to. They basically spit on that and I don’t think the Department was willing to go through this little exercise again with them.”

Advocates cite questions regarding the legality of the paperwork involved at that particular sale and say they were advised by their attorney not to participate.

There were subsequent sales in which the advocates purchased all the horses made available to them. Why would Director Barbee change policy after successful sales?

Foster stated he was not aware of any subsequent sales and was doubtful they had occurred, but promised to look into it.

The 23 horses involved in the auction were removed as “nuisance” horses along the Virginia Range foothills of east Reno. Foster indicated in the broadcast that Virginia Range horses were coming down into residential areas of Reno because they were starving. When asked about emergency planning by Examiner.com, he stated, ” There is no emergency plan for the horses due to the drought… The big picture is, and this is the rule of the planet, it’s survival of the fittest.” Foster spoke of the lack of funding and went on to point out, “There’s nothing other than for us to respond to citizen complaints regarding the horses.”

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.”

 

Wild horse advocates gagged in Las Vegas newspaper

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The Las Vegas Review-Journal has CHANGED the article that was getting many hits and comments. The link is the same but now the article is skewed and biased against the indigenous wild horse.

The advocates voices have been gagged. Quotes by Anne Novak (Protect Mustangs) and Suzanne Roy (AWHPC) have been erased from the article published on September 2nd, 2012. Why?

Here is the link: http://www.lvrj.com/news/nevada-wildlife-refuge-to-remove-all-wild-horses-168331946.html?ref=946

The original article published in the Review was identical to the one published at The Republic also on the 2nd.

Why would a Las Vegas newspaper censor quotes supporting the indigenous wild horse’s rights to live in a national wildlife refuge?

Please comment about this on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs The newspaper needs to read what YOU think about this censorship! We encourage you to comment at the article itself too.

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

Science proves wild horses are indigenous so protect their rights to land and water

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Stop the removal of indigenous wild horses from the Sheldon Wildlife Refuge.

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.”

Read the full article here and please comment: http://www.lvrj.com/news/nevada-wildlife-refuge-to-remove-all-wild-horses-168331946.html?ref=946

Sign the petition to ensure wild horses will maintain their rights to water.

Removing wild horses from the definition of wildlife is a political maneuver to deny the wild horses access to  water. An argument of the opposition is that wild horses are not wild but feral. However, recent scientific evidence proves that wild horses are indigenous to North America.

As Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs points out, “most zoologists are familiar with the work of PhD.s J.F. Kirkpatrick and P.M. Fazio and the revised January 2010 paper Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife. The Science and Conservation Center, ZooMontana, Billings.

Their scientific paper states, “Thus, based on a great deal of paleontological data, the origin of E. caballus is thought to be about two million years ago, and it originated in North America.”

Also the paper cites, “The fact that horses were domesticated before they were reintroduced matters little from a biological viewpoint. They are the same species that originated here, and whether or not they were domesticated is quite irrelevant.”

So, indeed, wild horses are wild. The current Nevada definition of wildlife states  “‘Wildlife’ means any wild mammal, wild bird, fish, reptile, amphibian, mollusk or crustacean found naturally in a wild state, whether indigenous to Nevada or not and whether raised in captivity or not.” No other species is singled out for exclusion, why should wild horses be?

In the 76th legislature, Nevada Assembly Bill 329 attempted to remove wild horses from the definition of wildlife. Even though Nevada voters overwhelmingly sided with the wild horses and the bill did not pass, it appears as though the argument will be pushed again during the 77th legislative session.

Las Vegas news station KTNV Channel 13 reported that the bill “…would have prevented the state engineer from approving water rights for wild horses in Nevada” and “would deny the animals access to water prevent water rights being issued if someone were to establish a wild horse sanctuary to promote eco-tourism”

If you agree that wild horses should remain in Nevada’s definition of wildlife, and that they should never be denied access to water, please sign the petition.

Robin Warren (Wild Mustang Robin), Director of the Youth Campaign for Protect Mustangs, co-authored this petition.

Read Dr. Kirkpatrick’s paper here: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562