Tag Archives: mustangs

They continue the cruelty

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“It was hot with the desert sun beating down on PVC,” explains Anne Novak. “We were in the car with the AC on and the poor captive mustang was suffering and clinging to the fence for a strip of shade.”

Dear Friends of Wild Horses & Burros,

Last week we visited the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Palomino Valley Center near Reno, Nevada. It’s the largest short-term holding and adoption facility in the U.S. for captive wild horses and burros coming from the roundups. We have been deeply concerned the BLM continues to commit acts of animal cruelty towards captive wild horses and burros despite international public outcry so we investigated the situation again.

During 85 degree sunny high desert weather, many wild horses in the pens were showing signs of heat stress with rapid breathing. Their coats were coming in for the winter and some mustangs were clinging to the fence and the feeders for what little shade they could find. It was a heartbreaking sight.

The majority of the pens had no shade or shelter. Some shade “studies” appear to be ongoing in the sick pens and another internal pen.

Many wild horses were overweight and their feet looked horrible. Many young wild horses have developed clubbed feet due to lack of proper foot care after being taken off the range by the feds. In the wild, their feet wear down naturally but when captured it is the BLM’s responsibility to care for them.

The majority of captive wild horses looked depressed. The burros looked unhappy too.

The BLM has repeatedly refused offers to help bring shade and shelter to the wild captives and is telling elected officials they are “doing something” by conducting studies with U.C. Davis to determine if shade and shelter is needed. Their PR tactics are outrageous. Everyone knows penned animals need access to shelter in extreme weather!

Right now the BLM is committing heinous acts of cruelty and must be held 100% accountable. The three basics of animal husband are 1.) Food, 2.) Water 3.) Shelter. Does each pen of wild horses or burros provide access to shelter? No.

With the recent good news that the feds will make animal cruelty a top-tier felony, it’s time right NOW to contact your elected officials and request for immediate action to bring shade and shelter to all captive wild horses and burros in ALL the pens not just select sick pens.

PM Shade Cruelty

Take action to inform your voices in government that the BLM’s ongoing shade studies are delaying action and causing captive wild equids ongoing suffering.

Make an appointment to meet in person with your representative and senators. Politely request they stop the animal cruelty–paid for with tax dollars. If you cannot go in person then send them this video: http://bit.ly/1nr5d2M from our 2013 investigation and let them know that since this video was taken, only a few sick pens appear to have flimsy shade structures. Kindly remind them that animal cruelty is becoming a top-tier felony so they need to take it seriously. More than a thousand wild horses and burros are being abused in the pens because the BLM and the Department of Interior are denying them access to shelter.

You may contact Congress here: http://bit.ly/1ihTCwj . Send your elected officials a handwritten letter and encourage your children to mail in drawings asking for shelter too.

For everyone who has signed this petition, we must pull together to double the number of signatures and then we have a plan to make a big impact . . .

Email the petition http://chn.ge/ZGEgx3 to everyone you know with a personal plea asking them to sign and share it so together we can pressure the BLM to bring them shade and shelter. Share the petition daily on your Facebook page and in groups asking others to share out because more extreme weather is coming soon.

Public opinion is very important with elections only weeks away. Let’s put it to work to stop the abuse of America’s wild horses and burros. Hold your elected officials accountable to STOP the CRUELTY now!

In deep gratitude,
Anne

Anne Novak
Executive Director
www.ProtectMustangs.org
https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak
https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

Sign and Share the DEFUND and STOP the ROUNDUPS Petition: http://www.change.org/p/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups

URGENT! Ask the feds for a moratorium on roundups by mail or go to Monday’s BLM meeting this Monday

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Send your written comments asking for an immediate  moratorium to end all roundups to the BLM and copies to your senators and your representative here.

Submit Written Comments to:
National Wild Horse and Burro Program
WO-260, Attention: Ramona DeLorme
1340 Financial Boulevard
Reno, Nevada, 89502-7147
Comments may be e-mailed to the BLM wildhorse@blm.gov Please include “Advisory Board Comment” in the subject line of the e-mail.

Contact Congress via this link: http://www.contactingthecongress.org

Moratorium on Roundups Petition: http://www.change.org/p/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-studies

Save our Native Wild Horses Petition: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/save-our-native-wild

Help feed young wild horses, rescued from the slaughterhouse ~ Winter is coming!

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Dear friends of Wild Horses,

Please help the 14 Dry Creek wild orphans (WY14) ages 10 months to 2 years old who Mark Boone Junior and Anne Novak saved from the slaughterhouse. The Canadian slaughterhouse was holding them in their Montana feedlot before shipping the young wild horses by air to be slaughtered abroad and eaten as an expensive delicacy.

The WY14 were brutally chased by choppers into traps near Greybull, Wyoming. Terrified, their herd of 41 mustangs was quickly sold at auction. 4 foals were saved at the auction and are in the care of another group. All the other horses were purchased to be slaughtered. The Canadian slaughterhouse purchased the WY14 and took them to their feedlot but before slaughtering them but we negotiated them out of hell and to safety. Sadly before we got involved, 23 of their family members were slaughtered in Canada quickly after the auction–everyone age 3 and up. . .

You can help the traumatized WY14 with a tax-deductible hay donation. They eat so much that we need to gather funds again to buy a large quantity of hay to keep the price down. Hay is really expensive out West because of the drought. Prices are rising quickly and will skyrocket this winter. For this reason we must fill the barn with several truckloads now.

All direct tax-deductible donations made through www.PayPal.com or by mail means the money is going directly to feed and care for the horses. We are sponsored by the Andean Tapir Fund while our own 501c3 is in the works so your donations are tax-deductible.

This is the first time any wild horses have been rescued after being owned by and in possession of the actual slaughterhouse. Here is an article in Horseback Magazine about the rescue. Please help these youngster survivors so they can honor all the wild horses who have been slaughtered over the years.

Please share this fundraiser to raise the hay money. Together we can keep the WY14 fed and cared for while they heal from the trauma of the ruthless roundup that ended with their families being slaughtered. This winter is going to be very cold and they will need enough hay to keep warm so they don’t get skinny. Please help the today.

Our goal is to create an eco-sanctuary for the WY14 so you can come visit wild horses living in peace and harmony with nature. We are currently looking for suitable land for grazing to cut down the high cost of hay and make the eco-sanctuary sustainable. In the meantime we need to feed them good hay that is trucked in.

The WY14 need your help today. Please help with a donation and email this letter to your friends and family so the youngsters can get hay to eat.

Good hay helps them heal and grow strong. The 14 wild youngsters are so grateful for your caring support and help.

Many blessings,
Anne

Anne Novak
Executive Director
www.ProtectMustangs.org

 

 

Native wild horses are not pests ~ Stop managing them to extinction

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Dear Friends of Wild Horses and Burros

Protect Mustangs is a national nonprofit organization making grassroots count. Our mission is to protect and preserve native and wild horses. Besides engaging mostly in outreach and education about the wild horse crisis, we advocate for holistic land management, self-sustaining herds and reserve design. We are calling for a 10 year moratorium on roundups for the herds to recover from the roundups and for studies to form good management plans. Right now there are no accurate census counts on the range so we don’t even have a clear picture of the few wild horses left living in freedom.

Our members don’t see an overpopulation or “excess” of wild horses on public land, even if the population is over BLM’s biased appropriate management level (AML). Livestock outnumbers wild horses more than 50 to 1 on the range. Yet wild horses are always scapegoated for damage by special interest groups.

We are deeply concerned that the use of FDA approved “restricted use pesticides” such as PZP–an immunocontraceptive made from pig ovaries that people call birth control–sterilizes mares after multiple uses and should never be used on nonviable herds, those herds with less than 150 wild horses. Genetic diversity is essential for survival and using PZP surely will curtail that. There is one herd in Nevada currently being treated by wild horse advocates that seems to have less than 50 wild horses. This worried us.

Wild horses are a native species and not pests. Sadly there are factions who are treating wild horses as individuals and ignoring the herd element and other factions treating wild horses as invasive pests.

Despite decades of experimental research on wild mares, the FDA would not approve PZP as safe. Eventually the EPA approved it as a restricted use pesticide. You can see the pesticide fact sheet here: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf

How can drugging mares with restricted use pesticides be honoring their freedom? Most of the time the BLM will need to round them up to dart them anyway. You can hear the BLM official speak about that here: http://www.thespectrum.com/videos/news/local/cedar-city/2014/08/06/13698391/

We are also concerned PZP and other sterilants affect behavior and that mares will be subjected to live in unnatural situations.

Ruining survival of the fittest and natural selection is our biggest concern if man chooses who breeds and how many foals are born. The herds must adapt to upcoming environmental and climate changes in order to survive, therefore genetic variability is essential at this pivotal time.

You can read about PZP on these various posts: http://protectmustangs.org/?s=PZP+&submit=Search

Here you can read about Gonacon on these posts: http://protectmustangs.org/?s=gonacon&submit=Search

This is also a good post to read about the ISPMB and Princeton study that shows wild horse herds with functional social structures contribute to low herd growth compared to BLM managed herds: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6057

You can search other topics you might have questions about in our search bar too: http://protectmustangs.org

We are 100% volunteer and are working to help the wild horses without any conflict of interest as far as we can tell. We do not receive funding from influencers, corporations or organizations connected with the drug PZP, the pharmaceutical industry, Big Oil and Gas or other energy, ranching and mining sources. That’s why your donations are so important.

Our vision is to speak out for the voiceless, stop the BLM from being cruel to wild horses and work towards a solution for healthy management keeping wild horses on the range based on good science. We have a petition out for the 10 year moratorium on all roundups. Please sign and share it here: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-studies

Thank you for reaching out to us. It’s important to do the research and find the answer for yourself so you can feel good about taking action to help save the last of the wild horses and burros.

We are grateful you care so deeply about saving America’s wild ones.

Many blessings,
Anne

 

Anne Novak
Executive Director
Protect Mustangs
San Francisco, California

Read about native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs
In the news: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=218

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

 

 

Photos of the Wyoming 14 ~ National treasures saved from the slaughterhouse

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Horseback Magazine reported on National treasures saved from the slaughterhouse http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/28702

 

A special to thank you to Craig Downer who took photos of the WY14 for us.

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




Light a candle for the 23 Wyoming wild horses who perished after the BLM roundup

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RIP WY23

We invite you to join us to light a candle and say a prayer for the 23 Wyoming wild horses who perished after the stealth BLM roundup (March 18 & 19).

We promise we will work hard to ensure this never happens again and we pledge to honor the legacy of the survivors, the WY14.

Press Release: Mark Boone Junior helps save the mustangs

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© Gage Skidmore

© Gage Skidmore

For immediate release

Protect Mustangs rescues 14 young wild horses from slaughterhouse after BLM roundup

SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (May 7, 2014)—Against all odds, actor Mark Boone Junior (Batman Begins & Sons of Anarchy) and Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs, saved 14 young free-roaming wild horses from slaughter thanks to donations from Alicia Goetz, the Schnurmacher family and others. This unprecedented rescue seems to be the first time American wild horses have been purchased back from a slaughterhouse following a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundup. In March, the herd of 41 wild horses was rounded up by the BLM, using taxpayer funds, handed over to the the Wyoming Livestock Board and sold at auction to a Canadian slaughterhouse for human consumption abroad. The BLM claims everything they did was legal.

“If it’s legal then the law needs to change,” states Novak. “Americans love wild horses. They want to make sure they’re protected. Congress knows that and it’s time they represent the public who elected them into office—not interests who want to dispose of them.”

In 2004, former Montana Senator, Conrad Burns, added the Burns amendment to the Appropriations Act of 2005 without any public or Congressional discussion. The Burns amendment overruled many protections in the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. From that time forward, “unlimited sales” to slaughter has been legal.

Due to public outcry against selling wild horses for slaughter, the BLM uses middle men who sell the mustangs to the slaughterhouse. This time the scapegoat was the Wyoming Livestock Board, other times it’s men like Tom Davis. The 1,700 wild horses he purchased from the feds have never been accounted for. Advocates believe they went to slaughter in Mexico.

Public outcry over Tom Davis prompted BLM to revise their policy to avoid another fiasco in the future. A change in policy is not a change in law. It’s still legal for the BLM to allow slaughter and exportation of horse meat.

Out of the 41 wild horses rounded up on March 18th and 19th near Greybull, Wyoming, 37 were quickly sold to the slaughterhouse. 4 foals were saved by the co-owner of the auction house and later transferred to advocates. Protect Mustangs jumped in later on April 2nd to save the other 37 wild horses from being slaughtered. Chances were slim they would find any alive.

Boone and Novak quickly learned that a group of 23 mares and stallions had already perished. The two managed to prevent the last 14 orphaned wild youngsters from going to slaughter. The survivors are called the WY14. They range in age from 8 months to 2 years old.

“It’s a miracle we were able to get them out,” says Boone. “I can’t believe the EPA, in 2012, designated our wild horses as pests—especially when the horse originated in America.”

“American free-roaming wild horses are a returned-native species who contribute to the thriving natural ecological balance,” explains Novak. “They have value on the range because they reduce the risk of wildfires, reverse desertification and with climate change that’s really important.”

For generations, free-roaming wild horses lived in family bands north of Greybull and close to a former herd area called Dry Creek/Foster Gulch that was zeroed out in 1987 to make room for extractive uses such as bentonite mining.

In 1971 there were 339 wild herds in the West, but now there are only 179 left in all 10 western states combined.

Today the Bighorn Basin is preparing for another extractive boom but this time it’s about fracking for oil and gas with right-of-way corridors to service those fields. Is this why the small herd of 41 wild horses was suddenly ripped off public land?

The feds maintain the 41 wild horses were not wild even though they lived wild and free for generations.

Curiously reports have surfaced that a bucking string made up of wild mustangs was turned out by their original owner more than 40 years ago. If it could be proven these wild horses were on public land in 1971, they would be protected under the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act. The BLM claims the horses have been there for only 40 years not 43.

“It’s horrible for tourism that the State of Wyoming would allow this sort of thing,” states Boone. “The beauty of the Bighorn Basin is like no other place on earth but it won’t be the same now that these wild horses are gone.”

Go to www.ProtectMustangs.org to help the WY14 with your donation. Protect Mustangs is a California nonprofit based in San Francisco.

# # #

Media Contacts:

Anne Novak, 415.531.8454 Anne@ProtectMustangs.org

Tami Hottes, 618.790.4339 Tami@ProtectMustangs.org

Photos, video and interviews available upon request

Links of interest™:

Cody Enterprise: ‘Some’ horses avoid slaughter http://www.codyenterprise.com/news/local/article_99e78c52-d0a8-11e3-a6ac-001a4bcf887a.html

AP (Viral): Feds draw criticism for selling Wyoming horses for slaughter http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/20/feds-draw-criticism-for-selling-wyoming-horses-for-slaughter/

Sons of Anarchy’s Bobby Elvis wants to save 37 American wild horses http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6668

The horse and burro as positively contributing returned-natives in North America http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajls.20140201.12.pdf

Native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562 

Wild horse overpopulation myth debunked: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6721

Washington Post (Viral) U.S. looking for ideas to help manage wild-horse overpopulation http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-looking-for-ideas-to-help-manage-wild-horse-overpopulation/2014/01/26/8cae7c96-84f2-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html

Huffington Post: Advisory board recommends BLM sterilize wild horses http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121030/us-wild-horses/

Westword: Callie Hendrickson, allegedly pro-slaughter appointee to the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/03/callie_hendrickson_wild_horse_board_slaughter.php

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

BLM and wild horse slaughter: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=1141

Video footage of helicopter roundups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF49csCB9qM

PEER: BLM doesn’t track cattle on Public land http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2013/01/24/blm-says-it-cannot-track-cattle-on-its-lands/

2012 EPA Pesticide Information for Fertility Control http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf

ProPublica: All the missing horses: What happened to the wild horses Tom Davis bought from the gov’t?http://www.propublica.org/article/missing-what-happened-to-wild-horses-tom-davis-bought-from-the-govt

Princeton University: Wildlife and cows can be partners, not enemies, in the search for food http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/93/41K10/index.xml?section=featured

Princeton and the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros Population Growth Study shows BLM roundups increase population growth: http://www.ispmb.org/herd_social_structures.html

Horseback Magazine: Group takes umbridge at use of the word “feral” http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/19392

Petition to Defund and Stop the Roundups: http://www.change.org/petitions/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups

Petition for a Moratorium on roundups for recovery and scientific studies: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-scientific-studies

Wyoming tourism “Roam Free”: http://www.wyomingtourism.org/

Wyoming Pipeline Corridor Initiative (Bighorn Basin) http://wyia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/brian-jeffries.pdf

KLS News BLM horses seized in suspected slaughter ring (Aug. 5, 2011) http://www.ksl.com/?nid=960&sid=16686555#JFD7d0UvEtYOc4fi.99

Washington Post: The Story of Conrad Burns and Wild Horseshttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/10/they_reallly_do_shoot_horses_d.html

Christian Science Monitor and cross-posted by The Seattle Times (March 2, 2005) Law allows slaughter of wild horses for meat  by Brad Knickerbocker http://bit.ly/K8DWIF

Now, a law signed by President Bush will allow the slaughter and export of horse meat form thousands of wild horses. Horse lovers are urging reversal of the measure, which slipped into a recent federal appropriations bill by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.

Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burro Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_and_Free-Roaming_Horses_and_Burros_Act_of_1971

Mark Boone Junior: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0095478/

Anne Novak:  https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak  and  http://newsle.com/AnneNovak

www.ProtectMustangs.org Protect Mustangs educates, protects and preserves native and wild horses. The nonprofit conservation group strives for a 10 year moratorium on roundups and science-based holistic land management to reduce global warming.

 

Share the petition to save Australian brumbies (wild horses)

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Photo © Lynette Sutton

Photo © Lynette Sutton

To the Honourable, The Speaker and the Members of Parliament:
The Petition of the people of Victoria draws the attention of the House of their concern to the decision to remove all of Australia’s Heritage Horses the Brumby from Barmah Forest.The Barmah Heritage Horses date back to the 1870s and may have preceded this time. The combination of horses, cattle and active forestry under the eye of a multicultural established local community has selectively thinned and weeded the vegetation to support 236 species of birds including at least 13 species of long distance migratory birds nesting and resting in the Barmah. There are an estimated 54000 or more birds living in and visiting Barmah. There are also species of 8 frogs, 50 mammals, 30 reptiles, 21 fish, 553 + plants. Unknown numbers of insects, fungi and other forms of life making up the successful ecological formula to attract RAMSAR declaration in 1982, as the 14th listed in Australia’s of 65 wetlands internationally acclaimed.The Victorian Parliament has decided to remove all Barmah Brumby Heritage Horses after 150 years of coexistence that saw Barmah Forest internationally recognised and included in Ramsar. The Strategic Plan adopted at Ramsar COP6 (1996) equates “wise use” with sustainable use. Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention also recognize that wetlands, through their ecological and hydrological functions, provide invaluable services, products and benefits enjoyed by, and sustaining, human populations. The Convention also promotes practices that will ensure that all wetlands, and especially those designated for the Ramsar List, will continue to provide these functions and values for future generations as well as for the conservation of biological diversity.

Ramsar COP9 (2005) updated the definition of wise use of wetlands as “the maintenance of their ecological character, achieved through the implementation of ecosystem approaches, within the context of sustainable development”.The Barmah Brumbies have been a part of human occupation and forest management for over 150 years. The moira grass ‘lawns’ are highly productive. The flood plain vegetation supports waterbirds, spawning native fish and crayfish raising of fry, fingerlings, spat, tadpole, ducks and wading birds during high water events. The Brumby in the dry seasons groom these lawns to remain at their most vibrant and productive level. Fertilized seed and rhizomes are distributed and re-established across the region by Brumbies and their grazed green, ‘lawns’ significantly reduce fire fuel levels.To declare that horses and cattle threaten the biodiversity is ill conceived and deceptive to the Australian people.

Forestry, cattlemen and the Barmah Brumbies have a long history in the Barmah Forest successfully maintaining the security of the biodiversity well established prior to Ramsar and National Park declarations.

We believe the Victorian Government is violating its international undertakings to RAMSAR by removing its Heritage Horses and associated management systems. The Conservation status granted by RAMSAR was based on the results of local community management.

We strongly object and oppose the removal of the Barmah Forest’s Brumby population.

Read and sign the petition here: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-the-removal-of-the-barmah-forest-heritage-brumbies.html