Tag Archives: Congress

Take action for wild horses & burros ~ Ask Congress to defund helicopter roundups

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Act today and make your voice heard in Congress

Please CALL the Capitol switchboard today at (202) 224-3121. Ask to be connected to your state Representative’s office. Ask them to NOT fund helicopter roundups.

You can also find the direct contact information for your state representative here>> http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Thank you for taking action to help America’s wild horses and burros.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_dhnqCijOk

 

(Graphic made by Robin Warren, age 11, Protect Mustangs’ new Youth Campaign DIrector)

Mustang Monday™: Ask your representative to defund slaughter today

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(Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)

Please CALL the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121; ask to be connected to your state Representative’s office. Ask them to NOT fund horse slaughter. Calls must be made today!
The House of Representatives will vote on the AG Appropriations bill tomorrow, Tuesday, June 26. A new amendment could be offered to remove the Committee-approved language that was just added back in last week prohibiting the USDA from spending tax dollars to inspect horse slaughter facilities.
America’s horses can be protected if the House keeps the defunding language currently included that prohibits inspections of horse slaughter. It’s up to us to make our voices heard today.Pro-slaughter supporters are putting the pressure on, but you can urge your Representatives to stand strong and oppose any effort to remove this funding ban.
You can also find the direct contact information for your state representative here>> http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Thank you for taking action to help all of America’s horses including our iconic wild horses.

Speaking out about uncounted deaths from the roundup

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Old Gold notice pelvis is probably injured. She can’t get up. Whip coming at her. Eyes freaked. Agony! (Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved.)

“Dead horses are a result of this roundup fiasco,” states Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs.  “The BLM should have brought wild horses aid (water and feed) for several months to avoid an emergency ‘gather’ during foaling season. Who’s giving the orders to stampede frail wild horses and tiny foals?”

Here is the BLM’s report about the Jackson Mt. roundup: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/wfo/blm_programs/wild_horses_and_burros/Jackson_Mountains_Gather/facreports.html

“Counting the dead from a roundup is basic math,” says Novak. “All the wild horses who died or were killed from lethal injection as a result of the BLM’s Jackson Mountain roundup should be counted as roundup-related deaths. Not counting the dead properly shows the BLM’s lack of transparency.”

“The federal agency wants to make Congress feel the roundups don’t cause many deaths so they skew the numbers to ensure their funding won’t be cut off,” explains Novak. “We request that Congress investigate their erroneous death count.”

We brought up this issue at last winter’s Calico roundup beginning with Old Gold‘s death. Read our position here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=348

Below is what we said on November 26, 2011.

“So many wild horses die because of roundups yet the BLM does not count the deaths accurately,” explains Anne Novak, Executive Director of the California-based Protect Mustangs. “Congress hears that there is only a 1% death rate at ‘gathers’. We want transparency and accountability for all the deaths at roundups.”

“If a horse is chased by a helicopter for miles and miles, then while in a trap pen terrified with plastic tied on to whips, slammed into a metal panel, next shoved into a trailer and transported to another holding facility and is put down a day or two afterwards—it is related to the roundup,” says Novak.  “If Old Gold had not been rounded up, I bet she would be alive today.”

BLM has done nothing to improve transparency since then. The subterfuge continues . . .

Contact your elected officials and ask them to intervene to make this cruel roundup become transparent with correct death counts.

Thank you for doing what you can do to stop the roundups.

Links of interest:

June 9, 2012  Associated Press Congressman criticizes Nevada wild horse roundup  http://mynorthwest.com/174/690641/Congressman-criticizes-NV-wild-horse-roundup

11/30/11  Horse yard reports on Celebrities speak out against roundups and Old Gold’s death http://bit.ly/uqkVH6

11/29/12  Tuesdays Horse Michael Blake and The Barbi Twins speak out against wild horse roundups  http://bit.ly/sWpySD

11/28/11  Wild mustang killed by BLM . . . because she was old by The Desert Independent http://bit.ly/rCE39o

11/28/11  Questions over fate of “Old Gold” by International Horse News. http://bit.ly/vr1MX9

11/26/11 KPFA  Evening News, KFCF Fresno, KPFK Los Angeles, WBAI New York, KPFT Houston, WPFW Washington, DC interview to Stop Calico Roundup. Hear it  at 26:25 on http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/75490

Click here to ask Congress to stop funding roundups

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Roundup helicopter chases fearful wild horses (Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved,)

Contact the Appropriations Committee and ask them to stop funding cruel helicopter roundups.

Here is the link to contact them: https://appropriations.house.gov/contact/contactform.htm

Americans want aid sent to pregnant wild horses and babies—not to stampede them

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Privately owned livestock allowed to remain on the range while wild horses risk death in helicopter roundup

For immediate release:

Freedom Lost & Hell Begins (Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)

WASHINGTON (June 7, 2012)—Protect Mustangs opposes the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Jackson Mountain roundup, in northwestern Nevada famous for Burning Man, set to begin tomorrow. The preservation group and members of the public are reaching out to elected officals nationwide to come to the aid of America’s wild horses and burros. The BLM has chosen to endanger heavily pregnant mares and tiny foals by stampeding them in a terrifying helicopter roundup. Protect Mustangs asked BLM to continue trucking out water and other aid as needed for the wild horses. Their request was refused. Trucking aid to them is cheaper than a cruel million dollar roundup paid for by the American taxpayer. Originally the wild horse removal was planned for after foaling season in July but BLM claims the indigenous horses are at risk because of drought conditions even though rain is forecasted and private livestock is allowed to remain grazing on the range.

“We need our elected officials to intervene at this point,” says Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “We asked the BLM to continue bringing them water but they refused to wait until foaling season is over. Now the BLM will round them up and jeopardize their ability to peacefully birth their babies.”

The helicopter roundup will endanger more than 96 foals counted in April 2012 as well as the newborns and pregnant mares carrying the unborn.

In March 2012, Joan Guilfoyle, BLM wild horse and burro division chief, announced to the world they would use a new method to capture mustangs—bait trapping. Now the government agency is demonstrating their double speak and lack of human care for America’s wild horses. The roundups, funded by Congress, continue.

“The BLM obviously doesn’t care about the welfare of pregnant mares and tiny foals,” states Novak. “Stampeding them will cause spontaneous abortions and newborn foals won’t be able to keep up. Will they be separated from their mamas and left out there to die?”

Protect Mustangs is calling on Americans to contact their senators and representatives because theses wild horses belong to all Americans. Members of the public are encouraged to ask their elected officials intervene–to stop the Jackson Mountain foaling season roundup and bring America’s indigenous horses aid if needed.

The preservation group also suggests voicing concerns to Nevada’s Congressman Joe Heck 202-225-3252 (fax 202-225-3252) and Senator Dean Heller 202-224-6244 (fax 202-224-6244).

Protect mustangs feels the BLM’s estimate of 930 wild horses is inflated to justify a massive roundup. The entire capture area is more than 775,000 acres including the 286,000 acres within the Jackson Mountain Herd Management Area.

“The BLM is using the drought as an excuse to clear out wild horses while risking their death,” explains Novak. “They are leaving livestock on the same allegedly drought afflicted land to graze, so BLM’s actions don’t make any sense. It just shows how the government agency wants to dispose of America’s icons.”

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

 # # #

Media Contacts:

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

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

Contact Protect Mustangs for interviews, photos or video

 

Links of interest:

 

Reno NBC affiliate News 4 reports: Wild horse advocates say the BLM jeopardized public process http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/Wild-horse-advocates-say-the-BLM-jeopardized/a8kN1TVKZ0WLiaEBaISvDA.cspx

KPFA Evening News, KFCF Fresno, KPFK Los Angeles, WBAI New York, KPFT Houston, WPFW Washington, DC  Protect Mustangs says the Nevada BLM jeopardizes public process, privacy and free speech http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/81120  report at 22:35 on the link.

BLM’s plans for bait trapping ~ Gone Viral ~ Las Vegas Review Journal Land managers try new method to capture mustangs http://bit.ly/HKKIrL

America’s wild horses are indigenous: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

Helicopter roundup video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_dhnqCijOk&feature=plcp

Tweet Congress: http://tweetcongress.org/

Contact elected officials: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Burning Man: http://www.burningman.com/

Protect Mustangs website: http://protectmustangs.org/

BLM Press Release on the alleged emergency Jackson Mt. roundup: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/info/newsroom/2012/june/winnemucca__blm_to.html

Link to this press release: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=1614

 

Round table for wild horses and burros

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Native Wild Horses (Photo © Cynthia Smalley, all rights reserved.)

Introducing the Wild Horse and Burro Council
We are co-creating The Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Council to champion American wild horses and burros’ welfare and rights. If you would like to join the democratic council please contact us at Contact@ProtectMustangs.org. At this time we are accepting one representative from each wild horse and burro group as well as 5 independent advocates.

Breaking News: Invasion of privacy suppresses free speech

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BLM places outrageous conditions on public comment

For immediate release:

WASHINGTON (May 31, 2012)—Protect Mustangs, a Bay Area-based preservation group, asks the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to revise their conditions for receiving written comment that requires personal identifying information that BLM says they can not safeguard. What started as an issue jeopardizing public process for people who want helicopters roundups to stop has mushroomed into a free speech issue for all Americans.

“This in an invasion of privacy—a restriction of our rights of free speech,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “It will stifle public participation.”

Due to the BLM’s lack of public notice for a public hearing, the preservation group released an alert titled: Government transparency and public process jeopardized. They gathered comments requesting the Nevada public hearing  be rescheduled with 30 days notice and comments against using helicopters and motorized vehicles for roundups and management. Early Tuesday morning the group sent the comments to the Director of BLM in Washington requesting he intervene and reschedule the public hearing. Wild horse photographer, Cat Kindsfather, hand delivered the comments to BLM officials at the hearing.

As a result of Protect Mustangs’ grassroots efforts and the public rallying for their right to comment,  the BLM released the press release announcing they will extend only the written comment period for the use of helicopters and motorized vehicles for roundups and management in Nevada.

BLM also states:

Comments submitted to BLM must include your address, phone number, email, or other personal identifying information in your comment. Please be aware your entire comment–including your personal identifying information–may be made publicly available at any time. While you may request we withhold your personal information from public view, we cannot guarantee we will be able to do so.

The preservation group opposes BLM’s terms for public comment for 2 reasons:

1.) The controversial Nevada public hearing regarding using helicopters and other motorized vehicles for roundups and management, must be held with 30 days notice so the American public may attend and give oral comment as well as written comment.

2.) The BLM must accept written comments and protect personal identifying information if the commenter has requested their information be withheld from public view. Requested personal identifying information should not be excessive.

“Any person who requests that their personal information be safeguarded should have that right to privacy—especially by a government agency,” states Kerry Becklund, director of outreach for Protect Mustangs.

Refusing to keep personal identifying information confidential, stifles the public process because anyone can get a copy of the comments according to BLM protocol. The public wants to know their rights to privacy are ensured.

“Are the BLM’s new written comment conditions intended to suppress public comment?” asks Novak. “It’s a no-brainer that this is going to discourage people. What’s happening to America’s public process and our rights to free speech?”

 

# # #

 

Media Contacts:

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

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

Contact Protect Mustangs for interviews, photos or video

 

Links of interest:

Reno NBC affiliate News 4 reports: Wild horse advocates say the BLM jeopardized public process http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/Wild-horse-advocates-say-the-BLM-jeopardized/a8kN1TVKZ0WLiaEBaISvDA.cspx

BLM press release with comment guidelines requiring personal identifying information that will not be safeguarded:

http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/info/newsroom/2012/may/carson_city__blm_nevada.html

Protect Mustangs press release: Government transparency and public process jeopardizedhttp://protectmustangs.org/?p=1416

Video of helicopter roundup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_dhnqCijOk&feature=player_embedded

Freedom of speech in the U.S.A: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States

Protect Mustangs website: http://protectmustangs.org/

 

Photo © Cynthia Smalley, all rights reserved.

 

 


Terrified wild horses chased and shot with birth control

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Is this what the EPA has approved for our wild horses and burros? Has the EPA approved–under a restricted-use pesticide program–a method to terrorize the young and old in a herd rendering the mares infertile as young as seven years old?

Who gave the government the right to play God and make the choices? Wildlife depends on natural selection for the survival of the fittest.

The questions remain:

Are wild horses and burros ruining the thriving natural ecological balance on the range–or is it the livestock?

We all know the livestock is the culprit–outnumbering wild horses 50 to 1.

How many wild horses are out there? Some Herd Management Areas have as little as 3 horses on them. Where is the scientific proof they are overpopulating?

If you don’t like what you see then take action.

Re-protect the indigenous wild horse.

 

Congress considering terrible bills to speed up oil and gas destruction of public wildlands

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Water for wildlife in Nevada (Photo © Anne Novak, all rights reserved.)

Cross-posted from National Resources Defense Council

By Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.

May 15, 2012

A suite of bad bills is scheduled to be considered in the House Natural Resources Committee tomorrow, and NRDC opposes all of them. Here are the details from my colleague Bobby McEnaney on the four worst:

    • H.R. 4383 – This draconian bill is designed to eliminate the public’s right to have a say in the management of public lands–lands that belong to all Americans. The bill would abolish most avenues to protest oil and gas leasing decisions, mandates unrealistic timelines for challenging oil and gas leases, aims to limit the scope of federal courts, and imposes a $5,000 fee if anyone can still find a way to protest an agency’s oil and gas leasing decision. Further, this legislation would require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to bypass proper environmental review, even though the oil and gas industry currently is sitting on thousands of unused leases.
    • H.R. 4382 – This sweeping legislation would mandate oil and gas leasing on public lands, even when it is not warranted. It would also eliminate the public’s right to participate in management processes associated with leasing decisions by severely curtailing the opportunity to protest inappropriate leasing decisions. Lastly, it would force the BLM to lease lands when oil and gas companies want, even when such a decision would destroy or damage sensitive lands and wildlife habitat, including wilderness quality lands. In essence, this bill would cede control of federal lands to oil and gas producers and remove safeguards that balance energy production with necessary conservation mandates.
    • H.R. 4381 – This bill would require the Department of Interior (DOI) to establish arbitrary targets for energy production on federal lands–even those under the jurisdiction of other agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service. The bill would require the agency to take all necessary actions to meet the targets, leading to extraction of coal, oil and gas, and other dirty fossil fuels at the expense of cleaner sources such as wind and solar.
    • H.R. 4402 – This legislation would nearly abolish the public’s right to participate in the management of mining claims on federal lands. H.R. 4402 would eliminate the few safeguards that are in place and turn the clock back to the 19th century by eliminating the public’s right to challenge inappropriate mineral leasing decisions.

Letter requesting EPA repair error classifying iconic American wild horses as ‘pests’

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Native Wild Horses (Photo © Cynthia Smalley)

Daniel T. Heggem

Acting Division Director

Environmental Protection Agency

heggem.daniel@epa.gov

 

 

Dear Mr. Heggem,

We respectfully request that the EPA apologize for classifying America’s legendary wild horses as ‘pests’, acknowledge the classification error and cancel approval of ZonaStat-H and any other pesticides for indigenous wild horses or American burros.

America’s wild horses and burros are an asset to the environment and humankind. Science proves they create biodiversity and heal the land—reversing damage and desertification.

The American public is uplifted knowing wild horses are roaming freely in the West. People come from around the world to catch a glimpse of wild horses because they are beloved icons of the American spirit and freedom.

Public land grazing allotment holders might call free roaming wild horses a nuisance but they have an obvious conflict of interest because they want all the grazing and water rights for their livestock, etc. They would like to eliminate the rights of the free roaming wild horses and burros. We hope the EPA will not buy into their game.

There is no scientific proof wild horses are overpopulating—only inflated estimates by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) who must invent high numbers so Congress will give them millions of taxpayer dollars to fund their broken Wild Horse and Burro Program.

Indigenous wild horses do not reproduce like rabbits—many die before the age of two. Life on the range can be hard and most wild horses do not reach the age of 17. As a wildlife species, this is normal. Left alone they will self-regulate as an integral piece of the ecosystem.

Wild horses have natural predators such as mountain lions, bears and coyotes to name a few. BLM goes to great lengths to downplay the existence of predators to foster their overpopulation estimate-based myths.

We expect the EPA to be based on science not myth.

Are you aware of the two Princeton studies proving equids heal the land for cattle to thrive?

The first study, “Facilitation Between Bovids and Equids on an African Savanna,” was published in Evolutionary Ecology Research in August 2011, and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Keller Family Trust and Wageningen University, the Netherlands.

The second study, “African Wild Ungulates Compete With or Facilitate Cattle Depending on Season,” was published in Science on Sept. 23, 2011, and supported by grants from the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the International Foundation for Science.

Besides the environmental hazards of using ZonaStat-H, we are concerned the iconic herds will risk ovary damage and permanent sterilization from multiple use or overdosing with PZP.

We ask that all ZonaStat-H use be put on hold immediately until your “pest” classification error has been corrected and for the EPA pesticide/drug approval be retracted.

Please reply to us via email or fax immediately with your response. Thank you.

 

Sincerely,

Anne Novak

Executive Director for Protect Mustangs

 

encl:

EPA Pesticide Fact Sheet for ZonaStat-Hhttp://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf

Princeton reports: 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

NB: Faxed to numerous senators and representatives

CC: Lisa P. Jackson

 

 

Anne Novak

Executive Director

Protect Mustangs

P.O. Box 5661

Berkeley, California 94705

 

Twitter @ProtectMustangs

Facebook Protect Mustangs

Protect Mustangs on YouTube

Protect Mustangs in the News

 

www.ProtectMustangs.org

 

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