Tag Archives: Burros

GonaCon™ — To Be Used against Wild Horses — An Overview

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GonaCon™ is an EPA-registered, immuno-contraceptive pesticide.  Its classification is “restricted-use” due to “non-target injection hazard.”  EPA warns that “pregnant women should not be involved in handling or injecting GonaCon and that all women should be aware that accidental self-injection may cause infertility.”  Children are not allowed in areas where the product is used. [4, 6]  Please keep in mind that the GonaCon™ dose-in-question is meant for a horse.

GonaCon™ “works” by causing an auto-immune disorder.  Behaving like a perverted vaccine, GonaCon™ tricks the immune system into producing antibodies that destroy a female’s gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH).  Without GnRH, a female does not produce sex hormones, does not come into estrus, and is thus infertile.  Behaviorally, courtship-rituals cease. [1, 3-6]

For those wild-horse-and-burro advocates who oppose the other immuno-contraceptive — PZP — you will be disturbed to learn the following from the USDA-APHIS “Questions and Answers” sheet regarding GonaCon™:

“After evaluating GonaCon™, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) … approved the slaughter of pigs vaccinated with GonaCon™.  Similar injectable hormone-altering products are used routinely in livestock applications.” [5]

Good grief.  So, the slaughterhouse pig ovaries used to manufacture PZP may very well come from animals who were previously injected with GonaCon™ to destroy their GnRH hormone — without which the ovaries cannot produce estrogen — and those poor pigs may also have been “routinely” injected with other similar “hormone-altering products.”  Then our wild horses and burros are injected with PZP, which itself causes a marked drop in estrogen after just three treatments. [2]  Surely, these hormonal atrocities constitute animal abuse.

GonaCon™ is long-acting.  The treatment-protocol, consisting of two injections administered 30 to 60 days apart, can cause infertility for as long as four-to-five years without the need for booster shots. [3, 5]  However, mares would still need to be rounded up and held captive for those 30 to 60 days to administer the injections properly.  If all females in a small herd were treated per the multi-year plan, it could result in an unintended consequence — a huge gap in the herd’s age-structure, because very few if any foals would have been born during that period.  Indeed, although the pesticide’s effectiveness was expected to diminish over time, a 3-year study of GonaCon-treated elk revealed that the percentage of infertile females actually increased each year, finally reaching 100%.  It was also noted that every one of the treated elk suffered an abscess at the injection-site. [1]

Because GonaCon™ stimulates the immune-system, it will elicit the greatest reaction — the greatest output of destructive antibodies — if a mare is blessed with healthy immune-function.  Such a mare will react strongly and be contracepted quickly.  But she could just as easily be sterilized.  In fact, GonaCon’s™ “application instructions” warn of the chance of sterilization. [5]

On the other hand, GonaCon™ may not work at all if a mare suffers from weak immune-function.  That mare’s immune system will fail to react to GonaCon™, and she will get pregnant in spite of it.  Thus, over time, there is the risk of another unintended consequence — selection for the immuno-compromised.  As Jenny Powers, a National Park Service wildlife veterinarian and one of three lead scientists who participated in the elk research commented: “Any time we’re manipulative with wild animals, we’re messing with natural selection.” [1]

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Report prepared by Marybeth Devlin on December 18, 2015 for Protect Mustangs

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References:

  1.  Keller, Larry.  (2011, May 17)  To shoot, or not to shoot, at Rocky Mountain NP.  High Country News.  Retrieved from http://www.hcn.org/blogs/range/to-shoot-or-not-to-shoot-at-rocky-mountain-np

  2.  Kirkpatrick, J. F., I. K. M. Liu, J. W. Turner, Jr., R. Naugle, and R. Keiper.  1992a.  Long-term effects of porcine zonae pellucidae immunocontraception on ovarian function of feral horses (Equus caballus).  J. Reprod. Fert. 94:437-444.  Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1317449

  3.  McGrath, Matt.  (2011, September 1)  “Deer ‘pill’ curbs aggressive mating.”  BBC News.  Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-14744811

  4.  United States Environmental Protection Agency.  (2009)  Pesticide Fact Sheet.  Mammalian Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH).  Retrieved from http://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/registration/fs_PC-116800_01-Sep-09.pdf

  5.  USDA-APHIS. (2006, May 1)  “GonaCon™—Birth Control for Deer: Questions and Answers.”  Digital Commons@University of Nebraska – Lincoln.  Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdaaphisfactsheets/7/

  6.  U.S. Department of the Interior.  (2015)  Review of Ungulate Fertility Control in the National Park Service.  Retrieved from https://www.nature.nps.gov/biology/wildlifehealth/Documents/Ungulate%20Fertility%20Report_09242015.pdf

Protect Mustangs is an organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Keep the pressure on!

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Update on our petition for shade and shelter for captive wild horses and burros

Last year I had several meetings with BLM staff to bring shade to the captives at Palomino Valley Center (PVC). I hoped it would set an example for other facilities without shade as well.

BLM staff wanted to try a specific shade structure to ensure it would work for the facility. They told me there was no money in their budget to buy it. I offered to quickly raise the money for the trial shade structure to fast-track the process.

Sadly the BLM’s Washington office created a lot of red tape and delays. The window for the 2015 hot weather trial period ended.

My hopes were to have the PVC shade trial completed in 2015 so by the summer of 2016 the pens would be filled with shade structures providing relief from the hot weather and triple digit heat-waves.

In the wild, equids can move to cooler zones. In the BLM pens they are trapped.

Now it’s 2016 and summer temperatures are starting to climb. . . I hope there won’t be anymore dead wild horses in the pens this summer. Previous heat-waves have been tragic.

Please email this petition to everyone you know and ask them to sign and share it. Let’s keep the pressure on BLM to do the right thing.

After all, BLM made more than $4 billion in profit last year. Funds should be made available for BLM to purchase trial shade structures themselves right now! The least BLM could do is to provide shade to the iconic captives struggling under the pounding sun.

Together we can turn this around!

With dedication,
Anne

Anne Novak
Executive Director
www.ProtectMustangs.org
Contact@ProtectMustangs.org

Mission: To protect and preserve native and wild horses.

Petition to bring emergency shade and shelter to captive wild horses and burros:  https://www.change.org/p/bring-emergency-shelter-and-shade-to-captive-wild-horses-and-burros

 

Protect Mustangs is an organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Rep. Stewart (UT) uses the rare skinny mare and foal photo from Cold Creek, NV. to push for state control of wild horses. Do they want to slaughter the American mustangs?

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May 25, 2016

April 27, 2016

Well this is politics isn’t it?

 

Wildlife advocates see an attempt to bypass a congressional ban on selling animals for slaughter (Salt Lake Tribune): http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/sltrib/politics/58190806-90/horses-bill-wild-stewart.html.csp

#Truth

 

Protect Mustangs is an organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Are Wild Horses at Risk Again? BLM Seeks Public Input on Public Lands Nominated for 2016 Oil and Gas #Fracking Exploration and Development

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It’s time to connect the dots about what’s really going on in eastern Nevada

PM WC11 Lucky 11 Map

Your comments are needed!

Pancake and Triple B wild horse HMAs are affected for this round of oil and gas leasing. What other HMAs are next?

From a BLM press release:

Ely – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ely District is asking the public to provide input on potential issues associated with oil and gas leasing on 41 parcels of public land, totaling 82,121 acres, in White Pine County, Nevada. Leased parcels may later include exploration and development. The BLM is analyzing the parcels to identify potential impacts in an environmental assessment (EA), in accordance with the Oil & Gas Leasing Reform mandated in 2010. The deadline to provide input is Friday, June 3, 2016.

The input received will assist in the preparation of a preliminary EA that the BLM will make available for public review and comment in late June 2016. A Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale is scheduled on Dec. 13, 2016.

Scoping information and other documents can be found at http://1.usa.gov/1ssQyIn. Interested individuals should address all written comments to the BLM Ely District Office, 702 N. Industrial Way, Ely, Nevada 89301 Attn: 2016 Oil & Gas Lease Sale or fax them to (775) 289-1910, Attn: 2016 Oil & Gas Lease Sale. Email comments will not be accepted.

Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

For more information, contact Leslie Riley at the BLM Ely District Office at (775) 289-1860

[End of BLM press release]

PM Helicopter Mustang Roundup

Protect Mustangs is an organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




BLM should take care of the wild horses & burros they ripped off public land

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“BLM does have a billion-dollar problem — its livestock-grazing program. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, the direct and indirect costs of the Federal Grazing Program may result in the loss of as much as a billion dollars to the American people — every year! Note that Kornze’s one billion-dollar wild-horse “problem” covers the lifespan of horses. So, that amount would be spread out over a period of 20 years. For the same time-frame, the Federal Grazing Program would cost the taxpayers $20 billion. The fictitious wild-horse “problem” reflects BLM’s lack of scientific integrity and its deceitful data. There is no overpopulation of mustangs except on BLM’s fraudulent spreadsheets. Reviews of BLM’s year-to-year population-estimates disclose reproductively-impossible birth-rates let alone population growth-rates. For instance, in Nevada, BLM announced that the Lava Beds burro herd grew from 40 to 350 in one year, a 775% herd-growth rate. In Oregon, BLM claimed that the famous Kiger herd grew from 21 horses to 156 horses in four years, an increase of 643%. In Wyoming, BLM declared that the Salt Wells Creek herd grew from 29 horses to 616 horses in 6 months (yes, months), a 2,024% increase. BLM’s “data” is chock-full of such preposterous growth-estimates. What is a normal herd-growth rate? About 7% or 8% a year, although some estimates peg it at 4% to 6%. As for the alleged number of wild horses held in captivity, an independent forensic audit would likely reveal many “ghost” horses — ones that exist only in BLM’s bookkeeping records. BLM is a corrupt agency. It has invented a counterfeit crisis to create a sense of urgency, gambling that Congress will be tricked into increasing its budget to “solve” a non-existent problem. Finally, wild-horse adoptions have not actually declined. The appearance of a decline is due to the reformed definition of what constitutes an “adoption.” Up until 2005, BLM counted sales-for-slaughter as “adoptions.” After 2005, only “forever-family” placements qualified. Consequently, adoption-figures seemed to decline but true adoptions continued at their historical level. However, mustangs are not homeless horses. They are wild horses that belong at home — on the range.” ~ Marybeth Devlin

“This is the cost of EXTRACTION of a wildlife species for commercial purposes paid by taxpayers. It is a fraud perpetrated on the American Public and the destruction of a National “protected” treasure.” ~ Kathleen Hayden

Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




BLM Boss: Wild Horse Program Facing Future $1B Budget Crisis

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PM Helicopter Mustang Roundup

  • By SCOTT SONNER, ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO, Nev. — May 12, 2016, 1:21 PM ET

The head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says it’s time to admit his agency has a $1 billion problem.

BLM Director Neil Kornze says the administration can’t afford to wage an increasingly uphill battle to protect the ecological health of federal rangeland across the West while at the same time properly managing tens of thousands of wild horses and caring for tens of thousands more rounded up in government corals.

Kornze told The Associated Press the agency may not have done as good of a job as it could have in recent years to underscore the environmental and budgetary crisis looming in its wild horse and burro program.

His experts estimate $1 billion will be needed to care for the 46,000 wild horses and burros currently in U.S. holding facilities over their lifetime. That doesn’t include the cost of future efforts to shrink the population of the record-67,000 now roaming public lands in 10 western states.

“We’re trying to make an effort to be real clear about the challenges because they are significant,” Korzne said late Tuesday.

“We need partners coming to the table, whether it’s states or counties or others,” he said”

The 67,000 horses and burros on the range is a 15 percent increase from last year, and more than double the population that was estimated when President Nixon signed the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act into law in 1971. The landmark legislation allows for removals but also grants the animals unique federal protection and requires they be treated humanely during and after their capture.

Korzne said his agency’s horse budget has doubled since 2009 — from $40 million to more than $80 million currently — but “the trajectory of the population has just gone up and up.” Left unchecked, the population naturally doubles every four years.

“It’s a double bind,” Korzne said. “There’s a very real impact on the range when the herds are overpopulated, but it costs us $50,000 per horse if the horse lives out its whole life in holding.”

Kornze said one of the growing problems is a dramatic drop in the private adoptions of gathered mustangs over the past decade from about 8,000 a year to 2,500 or fewer.

Critics fear BLM is exaggerating the numbers to build support for past proposals by livestock interests to slaughter the oldest mustangs that have been placed in long-term holding with little chance of being adopted.

“The BLM’s numbers are inflated estimates to fear-monger elected officials into supporting a breakdown of the 1971 law,” said Anne Novak, executive director of the California-based Protect Mustangs.

Korzne insisted the agency has no intention of allowing the slaughter of federal horses. But he said it’s considering spaying, neutering or otherwise sterilizing some animals that are on the range — something just as distasteful to most horse protection groups who argue the real answer lies in dramatic cutbacks in government-subsidized livestock grazing.

“Wild horses are present on just 12 percent of federal rangelands, which they share with livestock, and their habitat has shrunk by over 40 percent the last four decades,” said Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign. “The feds consider 67,000 wild horses and burros to be overpopulated, yet there are only 70,000 big horn sheep remaining in the West and they are highly endangered.”

Shared for educational purposes from: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/blm-boss-wild-horse-program-facing-future-1b-39070413

Seen in the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/blm-boss-wild-horse-program-facing-future-1b-budget-crisis/2016/05/12/128ae566-18b2-11e6-971a-dadf9ab18869_story.html and going viral

Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Rosario Dawson Among 100 Democracy Spring Protesters Arrested at U.S. Capitol

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by John Zangas

Washington, DC — The number of arrests on the fifth day of civil disobedience protests known as Democracy Spring exceeded 800 on Friday. Youth and student was the fifth day of sit-ins outside the U.S. Capitol in a continuing series of the eight days of protests. Activists are confronting Congress over the influence of corporate lobbying and special interests in politics.

Actress Rosario Dawson joined the protesters at the sit-in, along with Harvard professor Dr. Lawrence Lessig and author Chris Hedges. All three were arrested.

“By being here and making history you are making yourself known,” Dawson told the protesters, before walking with them to the East side of the Capitol. She said that their actions were forcing Congressional leaders to step forward on getting money out of politics.

Photo by John Zangas

Photo by John Zangas

Dr. Lawrence Lessig also spoke to the youth explaining he chose this day to get arrested with them because he believed in what they were doing. “I’m gonna march around this Capitol and get arrested with you,” said Lessig.

Chris Hedges, author of Wages of Rebellion, said, “Any society that does not grasp that life has an intrinsic value beyond a monetary value kills itself.” He said that he was proud to be with youth organizing for change, but the movement for change must be sustained.

Lessig, Dawson, and Hedges were charged along with over 100 students and youth with “obstruction” of the driveway on the east side of the Capitol. They were later released and given fourteen days to pay a $50 fine.

Many traveled long distances, some from as far as Oregon and California, to join the Democracy Spring week of civil disobedience actions.

Activists are calling on Congress to set aside the influence of “dark money” from Super-PACs and the uber rich, which they say tilts legislation toward corporate agendas.

Other key issues included legislation pending for voting rights and fair elections, and a demand that the Senate act immediately to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. The Senate deferred holding a hearing to confirm the President’s nomination to the Supreme Court, despite the fact that Justice Antonin Scalia died ten months before Obama leaves office.

Dr. Lawrence Lessig speaks in front of the Capitol./Photo by John Zangas

Dr. Lawrence Lessig speaks in front of the Capitol./Photo by John Zangas

Democracy Spring messages managed to reach the halls of Congress. The protests were joined by several members of the House on Thursday, including Congressman Henry Johnson of Georgia, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California. They expressed support for Democracy Spring and urged the movement to keep fighting for rights for voters, workers, and families.

Representative Johnson told protesters on Thursday that Congressional members needed movements like Democracy Spring to help it pass legislation, and it was grassroots efforts that mobilized the people.

“We’re calling to the public the importance of civil disobedience and mass non-cooperation as the only way we’ve seen change happen in this country,” said Dylan Lazerow, National Field Organizer for Democracy Spring.

But the big issue relates to the impact of “dark money” on rights of the voters, noted Laserow. He said any effort to stem money influence flowing through Congress is going to take a sustained movement. “We know there is a super majority of people who believe there needs to be an end to big money corruption, but Congress is not responding to that,” said Lazerow.

James Cole, a member of Wolf PAC, a group working to pass an Amendment to get money out of politics, said he believes Democracy Spring is making an impact in the media. Cole has been arrested three times. “What we’re doing here is politically advantageous because in the future our message will keep growing,” he said.

“This is a call for people to come out,” said Lazerow.

#BREAKING: Unions, wild equine advocates, scientists and Native Americans take a stand against experiments on wild horses and burros, PZP and sterilization

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PM Photo Wild Horses ©AdventureJournalist

For immediate release:

Coalition boycotts meeting

Redmond, OR (April 13, 2016)—Americans are outraged. A government agency is experimenting and exploiting federally protected wild horses and burros. Advocates, unions and Native Americans are boycotting the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting in Redmond, Oregon today and Thursday. The primary stakeholder—the American public—is being ignored.

“Members of the livestock industry as well as members of the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board have suggested slaughter as a management tool for wild horses. Americans won’t stand for it. There would be an outbreak of protests nationwide. We will fight that abuse in the courts if the advisory board dare threaten the welfare of America’s wild horses.” —Stephanie Elias, community outreach organizer for Stop American Wild Horse Slaughter

“The Bureau of Land Management is usurping the caretaking role they have been mandated to uphold and are subjecting the mares in our nation’s wild horse and burro herds to pernicious and needless reproduction experimentation. The universities they are funding to do this research must acknowledge that this would never be of use or value in the domestic horse industry. I believe their agenda needs to be investigated before they are paid to do irrevocable harm to these horses. They have already changed the genetics and natural herd behavior. Ahimsa, do no harm, applies to animals as well as people. This is an abomination and must be stopped.” —Christine DeCarlo, Ph.D. in Zoology from Cornell, Advisory Board member for Protect Mustangs.

“The Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board is useless, yet quite costly to the taxpayers. Circumventing the laws to protect America’s wild horses on public lands, this board represents ranchers who hold grazing permits on public lands only. The intent purpose of the WH&B Board was to protect and make sure wild horses remain safe and wild, and to regulate those ranchers who threaten, abuse, and even kill America’s wild horses. Not only does this board not protect the wild horses, their actual mission, but continues experimentation and using pesticides like PZP and GonaCon™ as birth control—darting the chemicals into wild horse mares. I speak for many Americans, in that humane principle’s and an ethic balance to manage our wild horses has been lost some time back. It’s time to restore them.” —John Cox, Oregonian and Vietnam Veteran

“The truth is, America’s wild horses are underpopulated on public land today. Even the National Academy of Sciences states there is ‘no evidence’ of overpopulation. The BLM’s arbitrary management levels (AML) are way too low for genetic diversity and survival. Fertility control and sterilization at this point endangers the survival of this cherished native species. Wild horses are indigenous to North America yet now the feds and special interest groups want to sterilize them and push them off public land. We offered to help adopt out all the pregnant mares from the last big Oregon roundup (http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8739) but our offer was ignored. The BLM doesn’t want to adopt out these wild horses they want to exploit them as lab animals. The advisory board is a joke. It’s biased towards slaughter, sterilization, pesticides for birth control and cattle as well as experiments.” —Anne Novak executive director of Protect Mustangs

“We want the burros to have the space they require under the law protecting them. In over a decade visiting the burro herds in the West, I don’t see any evidence of BLM’s claims of overpopulation. Everywhere I go it’s getting harder and harder to see burros and many have vanished all together. Why would people want to sterilize or inject the last surviving wild burro herds with pesticides like PZP for birth control? PZP is a slow road to extinction. What we need is creditable population counts for all the remaining burro herds. Advocates and BLM should work jointly for the census. Then we can find out what the real situation is.” —Carl Mrozek, filmmaker and contributor to CBS Sunday Morning

“The wild horse and burro program states that the number of adoptions have significantly gone downhill over a number of years because the market for them has decreased. But the truth is the BLM staff in charge of the BLM Internet adoption auctions do not make themselves available during the internet auction to process the applications required to bid. Since the BLM isn’t allowing employees to adopt loads of wild horses to sell them quickly for slaughter like they used to—adoptions have dropped. BLM’s forte is mismanagement whether it’s the horses and burros or their own staff.” —Afroditi Katsikis, founder of Tweet Equine

“We need to restore wild horse and burro areas as well as protections promised in the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Protection Bill. I would like to see Craig Downer’s Reserve Design succeed. Let’s keep in mind that wild horses are a ‘climax’ species and predators must be allowed as nature intended. Given a balanced ecology, which can be restored, wild horse population will self-regulate.” —Susan Leffingwell, director of Wind Dancer Wild Horse and Burro Preserve

“We the people of the Alaskan Tlingit Nation stand against the use of PZP and the sterilization of wild mustangs. Like the buffalo, the wolf, the bear and other animals the horse is just as sacred to our people as the bible is to Christians, the Koran to Muslims, Buddha to Buddhists. The use of PZP, ovarian ligation, or any form of sterilization would be considered sacrilege and an insult to our people and the majority of native people everywhere.” —Rudy Al James, federal tribal judge (Tlingkit Nation)

“PZP sterilizes our wild horses and destroys the wild mares’ reproductive organs. The pesticide disrupts the stability of the herds, causes fighting, still borns, birth defects, etc. and therefore we are against it.” —Tina Wooten, Salt River Wild Horse photographer and artist

“We have a lot to study and learn about America’s wild horses. If they are used as lab animals for experiments and sterilized then we can’t study their natural behaviors in the wild. —Anne Novak, founder of the American Wild Horse Institute

“Public land belongs to all of the American people not the livestock industry. There are 5 million cattle and very few Wild Horses. More than 80% of the American public wants our iconic wild horses to be wild and free—unencumbered by any government experimental birth control like the pesticides PZP, GpnaCon™, ovarian ligation or other heinous sterilizations. The livestock industry is the number one cause of global warming and is destroying America’s ecosystems and wildlife. Wild horses manage their own numbers and we want them left alone!” —Peter Souza, founder of the Wolf, Wildlife, Wild Horse Action Group (WWWHAG)

“As a person of Yaqui ancestry I am angered and saddened by the outrageous actions of our Government in their callous disregard and lack of respect for the wild mustangs in the western United States. These beautiful creatures need to exist unmolested and unfettered so they may live in harmony with nature, as it was meant to be. I implore you to cease your heinous acts of sterilization and blatant slaughter of these beautiful creatures in your grossly misguided efforts to control their population at the behest of disgruntled farmers or corporate interests.” —Debra Pavone (Yaqui Nation)

“As a collective of concerned union representatives, Native Americans and citizens, we strongly urge that the board and universities refrain from taking part in any practice of experimentation, sterilization or the use of PZP on any and all wild horses and burros.

We ask that you don’t play God, judge, jury and executioner.

Must we remind you that crimes against humanity also includes animals. It is not only wrong ethically and morally but once again it is wasteful spending of our tax dollars. The legal implications this can lead to will only cause millions of tax dollars to be wasted in the courts. PZP. sterilization and experimentation is bad for the economy, bad for the wild horses, bad for America and a bad idea!” —Randall Massaro, President of Unions for the Preservation of Wildlife

Alliance for Wild Horses and Burros

# # #
Media Contacts:

Randal Massaro randalmassaro@gmail.com  760-245-3635

Carl Mrozek eagleye11@gmail.com

Anne Novak: anne@ProtectMustangs.org  415-531-8454

John Cox: news@veteran-journalist.com  541-880-8992

Tina Wooten: ladyriver1963@yahoo.com

Stephanie Elias: sallenicrofwi@gmail.com  414-544-2015

Links of interest:

Fact Sheet: The Truth About PZP: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8749

Feds want to use 11 million to experiment on wild horses and burros: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8657

Protect Mustangs calls for an end to animal cruelty http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8739

BLM support group advocates to experiment of Americas free and wild horses (Ovarian Ligation) http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8384

BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Meeting http://www.blm.gov/live/

Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Vickery Eckhoff responds to “Wild Horses, BLM and Logical Solutions” FB page

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BLM WH&B Logo

December 4, 2015
Vickery Eckhoff

I got kicked off the Wild Horses, BLM and Logical Solutions FB page after posting James McWilliams’ article on Mustang-Safe beef labeling and sticking around to debate it with the group members there. Don’t lament this, folks. It’s their page. They make the rules. And one of the apparent guiding principles is to center every discussion (and solution) around bringing WHB populations down to appropriate management levels (AML). That is their idea of “logical solutions.” But it isn’t mine.

So I went on over to the BLM’s WHB Program FB page and posted this:

***

“Let’s be real.

AML is all about preserving higher stocking numbers of cattle than wild horses, not about providing ecological balance under multiple uses. Livestock producers keep arguing that getting down to AML and adopting out a few WHB are necessary to reduce overgrazing, preserve public grass and forest land. But they don’t provide proof that it’s horses doing the damage.

There happens to be extensive proof on the other side: data showing the degree to which private livestock outnumber WHB. How long are those looking to remove more wild horses going to pretend this isn’t relevant, and keep trying to silence those who bring it up?

Yes, there are fewer livestock on public lands today compared to years past. This is obviously hard on ranchers. Yes, wild horses need to be managed on the range. But the constant drumbeat of “over AML” “adopt out WHB” “use PZP” and “join the WHB advisory board” won’t remove the giant gorilla in the room: the damage is on the livestock side.

Go look for research to the contrary (you can find a sample here on page 14). What little exists says that, because there’s no historical data on grazing by livestock in HMAs, that pinning damage on wild horses is impossible. Go seek out studies on the negative impact of livestock production, both in the US and globally. A search of Google Scholar turns up thousands of results. Read a sample of these studies (available here on page 13). They minimally mention other species (like wild horses) on the condition of public lands. There’s a reason for that.

The COP21 climate talks now going on in Paris will continue to escalate the discussion, and livestock production, as the public is becoming increasingly aware, has a carbon footprint to rival transportation’s, and a massive water footprint, to boot.

If you want to solve the environmental problems that keep getting threaded into the “over AML” argument, you are going to have to confront this preponderance of evidence.

The public is getting informed, albeit slowly.

Why not address the issue within the livestock sector honestly instead of kicking the can down the road? And part of that discussion needs to be the cost of public grazing allotments, which cost taxpayers much more than the WHB program. Frankly, both are burdens on taxpayers, but the federal grazing program is the biggest of all. There needs to be honest discussion on that. Who wants to participate?”

***

I’m very interested to see who steps forward.

A note to newcomers: I am a writer and journalist published on Forbes.com, Newsweek/The Daily Beast, Alternet, Salon, Laika and the site I run with James McWilliams, The Daily Pitchfork. I used to work for The New York Times, Forbes Inc., Dow Jones and spent some time at The New Yorker and Time Warner. So please do not call me a horse advocate. My only advocacy is to the public and its right to be correctly informed on important policy issues by the media. To this end, I seek out research on the federal grazing program, land use and climate change, as well as data missing from most MSM coverage because it is time-consuming to find and analyze.

reprinted for educational purposes from: http://vickeryeckhoff.com/2015/12/04/my-response-to-wild-horses-blm-and-logical-solutions-fb-page/

Captives are at risk of being used in experiments!

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Feb 16, 2016 — When wild horses and burros are held captive in holding facilities with no shade or shelter they are at risk of being used as lab animals for experiments.

We have just started a new Forum on Facebook for education and awareness about experimenting on America’s federally protected will horses and burros. You are welcome to join it here https://www.facebook.com/groups/ExperimentsOnWildHorsesAndBurros

Together we will research what’s going on and learn the truth about the horrible experiments. Then armed with knowledge and facts we can contact our elected officials, etc. and stop the cruel experiments.

Surely the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 19 never intended for our icons of freedom to be used as lab animals for experiments.

Together we can turn this around.

Best wishes,
Anne

Anne Novak
Volunteer Executive Director
Contact@ProtectMustangs.org
www.ProtectMustangs.org

PROTECT MUSTANGS
PO Box 5661
Berkeley, CA 94705

 

www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.