Tag Archives: America

Scientists find ancient horse fossils

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The underside of a skull, showing palate and teeth, of Equus scotti is seen in this photo provided by the San Bernardino County Museum. The remains of the Ice Age horse were found for the first time at Tule Springs in Nevada.

The underside of a skull, showing palate and teeth, of Equus scotti is seen in this photo provided by the San Bernardino County Museum. The remains of the Ice Age horse were found for the first time at Tule Springs in Nevada.

Cross-posted from the Press Enterprise

San Bernardino County Museum scientists excavating an Ice Age mammoth skeleton from the Tule Springs area north of Las Vegas have found a skull and lower jaw of an ancient horse never before reported at the site or in Nevada.

Horses are not uncommon in the Tule Springs fossil record, but not Equus scotti, a large horse common in much of western North America during the Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age.

Las Vegas-area volunteers were instrumental in the discovery.

“Our research funding from the Bureau of Land Management includes a strong public outreach component,” said Kathleen Springer, the museum’s senior curator of geological sciences and lead scientist for the research program in the upper Las Vegas Wash. “Because of this, we set up Nevada’s first paleontology-based site stewardship program, getting local citizens involved in our research. And now it’s paid off — in a big way.”

Springer discovered the fossil site in 2003, during survey conducted by museum scientists and funded by the Las Vegas district office of the Bureau of Land Management. The original find — a tusk and tooth of a mammoth just peeking out at the surface — suggested that multiple parts of the skeleton might be present.

In 2012, Springer’s mammoth site was selected for excavation as part of the BLM’s celebration of 50 years of science at Tule Springs. The presence of multiple bones made it ideal for excavation by site stewards working with museum paleontologists.

Brushing through desert sediments at the surface quickly revealed fragments of horse teeth mixed in with the mammoth fossils. Careful digging teased out more horse teeth, then both sides of the lower jaw, and finally, the skull.

The new finds preserve anatomical features never before seen in any horses from Tule Springs, making firm identifications possible for the first time. The site is nearly 12,000 years old, making the fossils among the youngest records of Equus scotti anywhere in North America.

The discovery is forcing scientists to revise their understanding of horse evolution and extinction at the end of the Ice Ages.

Horse fossils are fairly abundant from Tule Springs and the upper Las Vegas Wash, said Eric Scott, the museum’s curator of paleontology. His studies have revealed that three species of horse lived in the area during the Pleistocene Epoch.

But none of the earlier remains discovered there were sufficiently complete to make firm species identifications possible.

“There have been some species names suggested here and there, but nothing really concrete,” Scott said. “It’s a long-running joke with our team in Vegas that every time a new site is excavated, I plead for them to find a horse I can name.”

With identifiable horse fossils so scarce, paleontologists have had to make inferences about what horse species were present around Tule Springs. Other scientists proposed that the large horse found at the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Southern California also lived throughout the Mojave Desert and the Southwest.

“We now think that’s erroneous,” Scott said. “Our new horse from Vegas has a different anatomy from the big La Brea horse. It looks more like large Ice Age horses from northern Nevada that were living at about the same time.”

The new discovery shows that Equus scotti survived in southern Nevada until the end of the Pleistocene, which was not previously known. In Southern California, the species was replaced in the later Ice Ages by an anatomically distinct form.

“That’s likely either a pulse of evolution — a speciation event — or else the immigration of a different species northwards into California from Mexico,” Scott said. “Either way, we can now clarify the timing and geographic extent of this episode, and the relationships of these two species, in a very exciting way. And it means we had as many as four horse species living in the American southwest at the end of the Ice Ages. Compared to horses today, that’s quite a lot of species.”

Springer said the find emphasizes that “even after decades of work there’s still a lot for us to learn about the Ice Ages at Tule Springs.”

The fossils are under study at the San Bernardino County Museum.

This is an artist rendering of the Ice Age horse, Equus scotti. Image provided by the San Bernardino County Museum.

This is an artist rendering of the Ice Age horse, Equus scotti. Image provided by the San Bernardino County Museum.

Link to the original article to comment: http://www.pe.com/local-news/san-bernardino-county/san-bernardino-county-headlines-index/20130522-san-bernardino-county-scientists-find-ancient-horse-fossils.ece

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

Follow us on Facebook for updates: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

Breaking News: Protesters want to end native wild horse abuse and use mustangs to fight wildfires

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PM Wildland Fire Risk 2013

Wildfire risk potential version 2013, data origin & source: USDA Forest Service

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For immediate release:

More than 40 international protests today to stop the roundups and stop horse slaughter

OAKLAND, Ca. (April 27, 2013)–Protect Mustangs™, the Bay Area-based native wild horse conservation group, is holding protests today in Oakland and Rock Springs, Wyoming to save indigenous wild horses from roundups, abuse, slaughter and pass the SAFE Act. The Oakland rally is held outside the Rockridge BART station from 3:30 to 6 p.m. The Rock Springs rally is held at 70 Gateway Blvd at 2 p.m. The group wants all the wild horses in government funded holding to be returned to the range to help reduce wildfires. More than 40 international protests, spearheaded by Nevada’s Patty Bumgarner on Facebook, are being held to save the horses. Protect Mustangs™ requests Congress stop the cruelty, the slaughter and save taxpayer dollars–especially during the Sequester.

“We are united across the country to say no to slaughter, roundups and cruel overectomies in the field,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs™. “We want our wild horses to be protected. Did you know America’s wild horses are indigenous? Are you aware that CalTrans found ancient horse fossils while digging the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel?”

The horse, E. caballus, originated in America over a million years ago and returned with the Conquistadors if it ever went extinct in the first place. With history written by the Inquisition, one must read between the lines. It was heresy for Old World animals, such as the horse, to have originated in the heathen Americas.

Novak points out,”Recent DNA testing proves our iconic wild horses are the same species as E. caballus–the original horse.”

Esteemed scientists Kirkpatrick, J.F., and P.M. Fazio explained the following in Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife (Revised January 2010). The Science and Conservation Center, ZooMontana, Billings:

‘The key element in describing an animal as a native species is (1) where it originated; and (2) whether or not it co‐evolved with its habitat. Clearly, E. 6 caballus did both, here in North American. There might be arguments about ‘breeds,’ but there are no scientific grounds for arguments about ‘species.’

The non‐native, feral, and exotic designations given by agencies are not merely reflections of their failure to understand modern science but also a reflection of their desire to preserve old ways of thinking to keep alive the conflict between a species (wild horses), with no economic value anymore (by law), and the economic value of commercial livestock.’

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) received $78 million last year to run the Wild Horse and Burro Program. Two-thirds of the expenses went towards caring for the equids in captivity. Despite the federal budget crisis, the program received a $2 million increase in funding for their 2014 fiscal budget–including $6 million for the helicopter contractor.

California’s Senator Feinstein chairs Energy and Water subcommittee as well as rules on Interior issues within the Committee on Appropriations. The Committee gives taxpayer dollars to fiscally irresponsible and cruel wild horse and burro roundups despite public outcry.

Roundups and removals are linked to mining and toxic fracking in the West. It appears native horses are being removed to fast track the extractive industry’s use of public land for private profit yet the public and the environment are hit with the costs.

Native wild horses will soon be zeroed out from Wyoming’s “checkerboard” public-private land–allegedly in preparation for the largest natural gas field in the country. The conservation group has requested a $50 million fund be created to mitigate environmental distress from fracking on the range.

“Tourists love to come to Wyoming to see our wild horses,” states Melissa Maser, outreach coordinator for Protect Mustangs™ in Wyoming and Texas. “We’d like to see native wild horses protected for future generations.”

Advocates are documenting wild horses being removed throughout the West as healthy and with fewer foals. The starving and overpopulation myths from BLM spin doctors are fabricated to sway Congress to fund roundups and removals.

“We’d like to find a win-win for wild horses in the West,” explains Novak. “Native horses will help reduce wildfires that cost insurance companies billions of dollars annually and contribute to global warming. We have requested the BLM put a freeze on roundups and return the 50,000 wild horses stockpiled in holding to public land. This will take the burden off the taxpayer and help to reduce wildfires.”

Protect Mustangs™ is devoted to protecting native wild horses. Their mission is to educate the public about the indigenous wild horse, protect and research American wild horses on the range and help those who have lost their freedom.

# # #

Media Contacts:

Anne Novak, 415.531.8454 Anne@Protect Mustangs.org

Kerry Becklund, 510.502.1913 Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org

Photos, video and interviews available upon request

Links of interest:

Gone viral~ The Associated Press, February 10, 2013: Wild-horse advocates split over interior nominee http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020332496_apnvwildhorses1stldwritethru.html

US property exposed to wildfire valued at $136 billion says report: http://www.artemis.bm/blog/2012/09/17/u-s-property-exposed-to-wildfire-valued-at-136-billion-says-report/

KQED Horse fossil found in Caldecott Tunnel: http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/05/26/new-fossils-from-the-caldecott-tunnel/

Gone viral~ The Associated Press, March 24, 2013: Budget axe nicks BLM wild-horse adoption center http://www.denverpost.com/colorado/ci_22862206

Horseback Magazine: Sequester prompts call for wild horses and burros to be returned to the wild http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/21568

Horseback Magazine, March 8, 2013: Protect Mustangs calls for fund for Wyoming wild horses http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/20979

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

Ruby pipeline and wild horse roundups? http://www.8newsnow.com/story/12769788/i-team-bp-connected-to-wild-horse-roundups

BLM’s 2014 Budget: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2013/april/04_10_2013.html

Why are the wild horses being removed? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCWWgOugF2U

Wyoming Tourism’s video of wild horses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tRZkBXkbyY

Protect Mustangs™: www.ProtectMustangs.org

Protect Mustangs™ on Facebook

Protect Mustangs™ on Twitter

Protect Mustangs™ on YouTube

Protect Mustangs™ in the News

Information on native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562 

AP reports: Wild-horse advocates split over interior nominee

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Protect Mustangs flag designed by Robin Warren

Protect Mustangs flag designed by Robin Warren

By MARTIN GRIFFITH — Associated Press

RENO, NEV. — Wild-horse advocates may be unified in their sharp criticism of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, but they’re split over President Barack Obama’s choice to replace him.

Horse groups are hoping Recreational Equipment Inc. chief Sally Jewell will represent a shift in direction for the government’s management of wild mustangs. They note nearly 40,000 horses have been removed from the range across the West during Salazar’s four-year tenure, which ends in March.

Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, said her group “responded optimistically” to Jewell’s nomination and looks forward to opening a dialogue with her about reforming the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse program.

“Sally Jewell is a surprising choice, but we’re hopeful that as a conservationist and outdoor enthusiast, she’ll appreciate the important role wild horses play in our national heritage and work with us to find ways to preserve them for future generations,” Roy said. “Jewell will face many challenges as interior secretary, but time is running out for America’s wild horses and burros, so she’ll have to act quickly.”

In announcing the nomination Wednesday, Obama said Jewell has earned national recognition for her environmental stewardship at REI, which sells clothing and gear for outdoor enthusiasts. He also noted her experience as an engineer in oil fields and her fondness for mountain climbing, biking and skiing.

But Anne Novak, executive director of California-based Protect Mustangs, said she has doubts about Jewell because of her earlier background as a commercial banker and Mobil Oil engineer.

“I’m very concerned that an appointment coming from big oil and banking will not protect native wild horses,” Novak said. “They don’t know how to make money out of mustangs but see environmental restrictions slowing down quick profits … Her focus appears to be on making profits off public land.”

Madeleine Pickens, head of Saving America’s Mustangs and wife of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, said it remains to be seen whether Jewell can bring about real change in the BLM’s management of mustangs. Pickens had endorsed Rep. Raul Grijalva-D-Ariz., as interior secretary, saying he would be the best choice to implement bold reforms.

“I don’t know anything about her,” Pickens told The Associated Press on Sunday. “But we’re welcoming the change for sure. And we’re hopeful that she doesn’t start to drink from the same well that everybody has been drinking from in Washington.

“After a while, you realize these people are incapable of change whether Republican or Democrat. The animals get left out at every turn. Politically, the mustang has always been treated as less than a desert cockroach,” she added.

Horse defenders strongly oppose the BLM’s ongoing program to remove mustangs from public lands, saying there are now more of the animals “stockpiled” in government holding facilities than remain free on the range.

About half of the estimated 37,000 horses and burros on federal lands are in Nevada. BLM maintains that the range can sustain only about 26,000 and conducts roundups regularly to try to get closer to that number.

Jewell must undergo hearings and win U.S. Senate confirmation to become interior secretary.

 

 

Citizen investigation exposes evidence of BLM wild horses sold to probable slaughter

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Wild horse mares in holding (Photo © Anne Novak, all rights reserved.)

Wild horse mares in holding (Photo © Anne Novak, all rights reserved.)

Wild Horse & Burro Advocates Demand Congressional Investigation

For Immediate release:

WASHINGTON (January 24, 2013)–Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF) released evidence exposing the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) wild horse long-term holding contractor selling wild horses to an alleged “kill buyer”. The BLM appears to be trafficking wild horses to slaughter through holding facilites. Debbie Coffey, volunteer director of Wild Horse Affairs at WHFF, uncovered evidence of the contractor selling at least 34 federally protected wild horses. In short and long-term holding, indigenous wild horses retain their wild status and protections but it appears some are being sold to slaughter.

“This evidence shows that the BLM is not protecting our wild horses and is allowing alleged kill buyers to purchase them,” explains R.T. Fitch, volunteer president of Wild Horse Freedom Federation, “The public wants Congress to enforce the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act that they unanimously signed into law in 1971.  A Congressional Investigation needs to happen now.”

WHFF joins with Protect Mustangs to call for a freeze on roundups, access to document all holding facilities as needed as well as an immediate Congressional investigation into the BLM and their contractors allegedly selling America’s iconic wild horses into the slaughter pipeline.

“It’s time for a deep investigation–done by an entity outside the BLM–to bust these crimes against the American mustang and champion the public who were deceived by officials in charge of protecting our icons of freedom,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “The public is outraged. Protests are being planned as a result of the evidence.”

Coffey, with the assistance of Animal’s Angels, researched and released Wednesday an in-depth article on the activities of a BLM contractor selling 34 BLM wild horses to a kill buyer, while under contract with the BLM and being paid with U.S. taxpayer dollars, to care for iconic wild mustangs on its pastures.  Evidence was obtained through South Dakota Brand Board Inspection records and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Information from government and public records show that Jim Reeves and Lyle Anderson own Spur Livestock. They have a contract with the BLM for a wild horse long-term holding pasture on private land within the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, as well as on Indian Trust Lands administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  This U.S. taxpayer funded facility is the Whitehorse Wild Horse Long Term Holding Facility.

WHFF received records from the South Dakota Brand Board that reveal on 11/8/2008, while under contract with the BLM, “owner” Spur Livestock sold 34 horses with “BLM tattoos” to JS Farms–owned by alleged kill buyer Joe Simon.

In a telephone conversation with Jim Reeves, Coffey reports that when asked about 72 horses he bought as alleged pack animals, Reeves said “I’m told not to talk about this kind of stuff.”  He added “I can’t talk about this” and “That’s BLM business.”

When asked about all the wild horses who disappear from their short-term holding facilities after the roundups, BLM officials inform the public and the media that they will be well taken care of on “grassland pastures”.

“The BLM leads the public to believe that captured wild horses are living out their lives grazing peacefully on long-term holding pastures, and claims they do not sell wild horses to slaughter, but at least one contracted middleman did sell BLM wild horses to an alleged kill buyer and the horses very likely met a horrific fate at a slaughterhouse,” explains Coffey. “We want a freeze on roundups, immediate access to document all long-term holding facilities as needed and a Congressional investigation into all aspects of the BLM’s Wild Horse & Burro Program.”

###

Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF) is a registered, Texas non-profit corporation with Federal 501c3 status and registered as a legal non-profit in all 50 states of the Union.  WHFF puts people between America’s wild equids and extinction through targeted litigation against governmental agencies whose documented agendas include the eradication of wild horse and burros from public, federal and state lands. WHFF is funded exclusively through the generosity of the American public.

Protect Mustangs is a California-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:

R.T. Fitch, Volunteer President WHFF, 800-974-3684, rtfitch@wildhorsefreedomfederation.org
Debbie Coffey, Director Wild Horse Affairs WHFF, 800-974-3684, debbie@wildhorsefreedomfederation.org
Anne Novak, Executive Director Protect Mustangs, 415-531-8454, anne@protectmustangs.org

Photos and interviews granted upon request

Links of interest:

Debbie Coffey publishes her research on PPJ Gazette (sources noted): http://ppjg.me/2013/01/22/wild-horses-sold-to-kill-buyer-by-blm-contractor/

http://rtfitch.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/joe-simon-invoice.png

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

Petition to Defund the Roundups: http://www.change.org/petitions/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_after_sign

Wild Horse Freedom Federation: http://wildhorsefreedomfederation.org/

Protect Mustangs: http://protectmustangs.org

Indigenous wild horses managed to extinction

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Photo ©Rachel Anne Reeves all rights reserved

Photo ©Rachel Anne Reeves all rights reserved

THE WILD HORSE IS NATIVE TO NORTH AMERICA

By Ross MacPhee, PhD, Curator – Division of Vertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY

It needs to be more widely understood that the horse’s status as a native North American species is beyond serious question.

A “native” species, in evolutionary terms, is defined as one that differentiated or diverged from its immediate ancestor species within a specific geographical locale. The contemporary wild horse in the United States is recently derived from lines domesticated in Europe and Asia. But those lines themselves go much further back in time, and converge on populations that lived in North America during the latter part of the Pleistocene (2.5M to 10k years ago).

The morphological (fossil) evidence and the more recent DNA evidence (although preliminary), points to the same conclusion: the species Equus caballus—the species encompassing all domestic horses and their wild progenitors—arose on this continent.

The evidence thus favors the view that this species is “native” to North America, given any rational understanding of the term “native”. By contrast, there are no paleontological or genetic grounds for concluding that it is native to any other continent.

From a scientific standpoint, it is completely irrelevant that native horses died out in North America 10,000 years ago, or that later populations were domesticated in central Asia 6000 years ago. Such considerations have no bearing on their status as having originated on this continent.

Reintroduction of horses to North America 500 years ago is, biologically, a non-event: horses were merely returned to part of their former native range, where they have since prospered because ecologically they never left.

CLICK HERE for Scientific Assessment of the Wild Mustangs of America – MANAGED TO EXTINCTION, written by Ross MacPhee, Curator, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History.

CLICK HERE to Review Information about Craig Downer’s Book entitled THE WILD HORSE CONSPIRACY.

“Traditional Dakota/Lakota people firmly believe that the aboriginal North American horse did not become extinct after the last Ice Age, and that it was part of their precontact culture.

Scientists know from fossil remains that the horse originated and evolved in North America, and that these small 12 to 13 hand horses or ponys (sic) migrated to Asia across the Bering Strait, then spread throughout Asia and finally reached Europe. The drawings in the French Laseaux caves, dating about 10,000 B.C., are a testimony to their long westward migration. Scientists contend, however, that the aboriginal horse became extinct in North America during what is (known) as the “Pleistocene kill,” in other words, that they disappeared at the same time as the mammoth, the ground sloth, and other Ice Age mammals. This has led anthropologists to assume that Plains Indians only acquired horses after Spaniards accidentally lost some horses in Mexico, in the beginning of the XVIth (16th) century, that these few head multiplied and eventually reached the prairies.

Dakota/Lakota Elders as well as many other Indian nations contest this theory, and contend that according to their oral history, the North American horse survived the Ice Age, and that they had developed a horse culture long before the arrival of Europeans, and, furthermore, that these same distinct ponys (sic) continued to thrive on the prairies until the latter part of the XIXth (19th) century, when the U.S. government ordered them rounded up and destroyed to prevent Indians from leaving the newly-created reservations. Although there is extensive evidence of this massive slaughter, no definitive evidence has yet been found to substantiate the Elders’ other claim, but there are a number of arguments in favour of the Indian position.”

CLICK HERE for Scientific Paper Entitled: The Aboriginal North American Horse.

Cross-posted from: http://thisnthatn.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/the-aboriginal-north-american-horse-managed-to-extinction/

Teen reports on gentling native wild horses

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Cross-posted from Discover Mustangs

Helping gentle Blondie

PM Blondie Adopt Dec 29 2012.001

 

PM Blondie Inez Touches Back Dec 29 2012.001

 

Today was amazing. Blondie seems to know the sound of our car. We pulled up and she looked at us from the other side of the corral to say “Hi.”

Without a round pen the gentling process is unusual but fun. It’s my first time to gentle a wild horse fresh from the holding facility and it’s really cool. I’m working in a team with my mom and Inez.

Before Blondie came up to me, Inez was scratching her face up to her ears and under her chin. Blondie enjoyed it. She understands we all love wild horses. They know who the nice people are.

Later Blondie came up to me. We started connecting nose to nose when Inez reached out and touched her back for the first time.

Inez said, “Look! She doesn’t mind this.”

Later Mom was scratching Blondie’s hindquarters for the first time and Blondie was loving it!

I think things are moving along well with the gentling because we are taking our time. These 4 California wild horses have lost their families and their freedom. They deserve compassion.

Sadly we can’t give them back their previous lives and I wish we could . . . We can offer them the best lives in captivity–filled with love, respect and partnership.

I dream of a day when we can have a large space for the wild horses we work with so they can run in a herd, work with us, then go back to the herd for sleep time.

 

~ Irma Novak, Director of Discover Mustangs

 

Honoring Pilgrim on Thanksgiving

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Happy Thanksgiving!

We want to thank our supporters and friends for their hard work speaking out and taking action for the wild horses and burros.

Today we want to honor April Freudenberg from South Carolina who took action and adopted a California Twin Peaks at-risk yearling. She named him Pilgrim. Thank you April for saving a wild horse!

April & Pilgrim (Photo © Scott Freudenburg)

 

 

 

 

Press Release: Protests to stop roundups and sales to kill buyers

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(Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)

For immediate release

Call for peaceful protests to stop the roundups and stop the BLM from selling federally protected wild horses to kill-buyers

American public outraged at cruel ‘management’

WASHINGTON (October 6, 2012)–Protect Mustangs announced on Facebook Friday their call for nationwide protests to stop the roundups and stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from selling federally protected indigenous wild horses to kill buyers.

“We are calling for peaceful protests as well as candlelight vigils so no more wild horses will die from roundups, be tortured by the helicopters or sold to kill buyers for delicacy meat abroad,” states Anne Novak, executive director for California based Protect Mustangs “The public is outraged.”

Last week ProPublica exposed the BLM selling at least 1,700 federally protected wild horses to known pro-slaughter buyer, Tom Davis, and the public is furious. The BLM is charged with managing and protecting wild horses–not selling them for $10 a head to a pro-slaughter middle man to reduce the numbers in holding due to years of fiscally irresponsible roundups.

“Members of the public who are active in their communities must let their friends, family and neighbors know they can contact Congress if they don’t like their tax dollars used to fund cruel roundups,” says Tami Hottes, Protect Mustangs’ outreach coordinator for the Midwest and South. “People are upset to learn about the BLM selling all those historic wild horses to a guy like Tom Davis. It’s disgusting.”

This week the Antelope roundup, in northeastern Nevada, started under the pretense of saving the wild horses from a drought stricken area.

“We are concerned the BLM is jumping on the drought opportunity to zero out herds for industrialization of public land–especially massive energy projects that could pollute the water,” explains Novak. “Our indigenous wild horses are environmental barometers. If they die from drinking the water then that’s a red flag something is poisoning the water out there.”

Novak continues,”If there is a real problem on the range then bring them aid in the field–don’t round them up and warehouse them at taxpayer expense. It won’t cost much to bring them hay and water for a few months to get them through a difficult time.”

In watching videos from the roundup it should be pointed out that these wild horses were actually in excellent shape and there is no sign they have been suffering from lack of water or forage this summer. They are efficient browsers.

Even though the BLM announced last spring they would bait trap, they are not keeping their word to the American public. The BLM continues with cruel helicopter roundups.

The contractor has been criticized in the past for deadly incidents that could have been prevented. Despite objections from advocates and members of the public, the BLM continues to hire the contractor.

At the Antelope roundup advocates from The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) recorded videos showing healthy horses stampeded into traps, foals terrorized by choppers and a terrified stallion jumping out of the capture corral breaking his leg and running away. He was then euthanized by the BLM.

During the roundup wild horses were traumatized with whips and a wild mare broke her neck and died in transport.

If these historic wild horses had not been rounded up surely they would be alive with their families roaming in the West.

Outraged members of the public are calling BLM officials requesting the roundups stop. Officials downplay the cruelty and trauma, claiming these were rare incidents and touting that roundups, also known as “gathers”, only have a 1% death rate.

“We disagree with their whittled down death rate,” states Novak. “For years we have caught the BLM avoiding the correct death count and misleading Congress about the true number of horses painfully dying in roundups. During winter 2010 more than 180 wild horses died or were euthanized as a result of the roundup but the BLM tried to rewrite the numbers.”

The federal agency, funded by Congress to manage wild horses and burros, attributes the gross majority of roundup deaths to pre-existing conditions when they are obviously roundup related. If the horses weren’t rounded up they surely would not have died at that time.

The BLM often kills indigenous wild horses for being “old” and claims it was a pre-existing condition. They also kill baby horses claiming they have leg deformities. The foals can’t tolerate being stampeded for many miles on their undeveloped baby feet and legs and suffer severe injuries and are euthanized. BLM resists taking responsibility for their heinous actions.

At roundups since 2009, advocates as well as members of the press and public have been pushed back from the trap site and the holding corrals. It appears the BLM wants to hide the cruel roundups and injured animals from public view.

“The Wild Horse and Burro Program avoids transparency because of their disgusting secrets,” states Novak. “The public has a right to know what’s happening at roundups and afterwards. The public wants to know how many federally protected wild horses have been sold to the slaughter middle men since 2005.”

In 2004, a stealth rider known as the Burns amendment was attached to the Congressional Appropriations Bill to allow unlimited sales of captive wild horses over the age of ten or those who have been presented at adoption venues (live or Internet) three times–even pregnant mares and one-year-olds called yearlings.

The recent ProPublica article, written by Dave Phillips, highlights a corrupt program and interviews a pro-slaughter middle man. According to ProPublica, ‘Tom Davis buys 100s of mustangs at a time, sight unseen, for $10 a head. BLM has sold him more than 1,700 wild horses and burros since 2009.

“Hell, some of the finest meat you will ever eat is a fat yearling colt,” he says.

“. . . but BLM’s Sally Spencer said it would be unfair for BLM to look more closely at him based on the volume of his purchases. “It’s no good to just stir up rumors,” she said.’

In 1997 Associated Press investigative journalist, Martha Mendoza, uncovered BLM’s internal corruption wherein adopted wild horses were quickly being sold to slaughter even by BLM employees who adopted them.

‘A multimillion-dollar federal program created to save the lives of wild horses instead is channeling them by the thousands to slaughterhouses where they are chopped into cuts of meat.

Among those profiting from the slaughter are employees of the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that administers the program.’

Mendoza’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) research and the story she exposed, forced the adoption program to change their protocol and only give title to the mustangs after one year to prevent the wild horses from being sold into the slaughter pipeline.

Today the BLM sends America’s living treasures to slaughter by selling them to the middle men who sell them to slaughter. Protect Mustangs asks Congress for a freeze on roundups, a freeze on sales and a full investigation into the ‘sale authority program’ since 2005.

The roundups ramped up in 2009 with the stimulus package push for the New Energy Frontier on public land and a new mandate to wipe out the wild herds of the West known as The Salazar Plan.

Despite nationwide protests in 2009-10 against the Secretary of the Interior’s plan, the majority of wild horses and burros were ripped from their family bands, taken off their land and the stallions were sterilized. President Obama ignored public outcry and Congress eventually fell for the BLM pleas for funding to ‘help the wild horses’.

In 2010, 54 members of Congress joined Congressman Raul Grijalva requesting a moratorium on roundups and a National Academy of Science (NAS) investigation into the broken program. Somehow the BLM has taken charge of the NAS investigation now called a “study” and is feeding the NAS the information instead of the Academy conducting independent research.

Today more than 52,000 wild horses and burros are living in captivity–mostly in the Midwest as specified in the Salazar Plan. Last year the controversial Wild Horse and Burro Program cost the American taxpayer 78 million dollars. Next year the cost will increase.

Protect Mustangs requests that Congress work with advocates to find a way to return wild horses to their wild lands in the West–to create biodiversity on the range–a win-win for wild horses, livestock, landowners, tourism and energy development on the New Energy Frontier. Their presence also helps greatly to reduce wildfires.

“Shrinking the numbers of wild horses left on public land today could be dangerous,” explains Kerry Becklund, director of outreach for Protect Mustangs. “Giving already small herds fertility control will ruin genetic viability and could create inbreeding.”

The BLM’s reproduction rates don’t account much for mortality within the herd. Often foals don’t live to be two years old but the BLM spin on population has them multiplying like rabbits.

Studies show predators such as mountain lions and coyotes reduce the wild horse foal population. Last summer several young foals were killed by coyotes at a BLM holding facility near Sparks, Nevada. Even so, the BLM hides the truth about predators reducing the population and continues to repeat they have no natural predators despite the fact they do.

“Show me a real independent headcount before we talk about fertility control,”says Novak. “There aren’t enough wild horses left on the range any more. The truth is that the BLM will continue to roundup wild horses to treat them with fertility control. Roundups have been deadly so far. Roundups are NOT the answer. Biodiversity is the answer.”

Novak continues, “More than 52,000 indigenous wild horses have been captured and are warehoused in government holding. Selling ‘excess’ wild horses to kill-buyers is a heinous act and must stop now as well as the gluttony of roundups”

# # #

Media Contacts:

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

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

Links of interest:

AP reports & Protect Mustangs speaks out against the roundups: 3,500 Wild horses going to loose their freedom starting October 1st Federal roundup of wild horses burros starts today http://www.lvrj.com/news/federal-roundup-for-wild-horses-burros-starts-today-172056591.html

ProPublica reports: All the missing horses: What happened to the wild horses Tom Davis bought from the government  http://www.propublica.org/article/missing-what-happened-to-wild-horses-tom-davis-bought-from-the-govt

Brutal report for day 1 of Nevada’s Antelope roundup. Two horses die. AWHPC video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne3ppBnbr7g&feature=youtu.be

Day 3 of Antelope roundup. Foals are terrorized by the helicopter and chased too long on their tender hooves. AWHPC video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N9LDAwZqyU&feature=youtu.be

Buffalo News (January 5, 1997) US effort to save wild horses leads thousands to slaughter as workers profit by Martha Mendoza http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BN&p_theme=bn&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF99E45C1DF5CF&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

The Burns amendment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Burns#The_Burns_Amendment

Huffington Post (October 17, 2009) Ken Salazar’s wild horse plan fuels accusations that he’s in the pocket of ranchers by Martin Griffith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/17/ken-salazars-wild-horse-p_n_324799.html

News 4 KRNV Reno BLM selling to kill buyer? http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/BLM-selling-to-a-kill-buyer/s7svkl_zd0i1NVKHbd0ceA.cspx

Oct 5th Facebook announcement~Call to Stop the Roundups: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=418628774862814&set=a.240625045996522.58710.233633560029004&type=1&theater

Protect Mustangs on the web http://www.ProtectMustangs.org

 

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

Stop the wipe out!

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“The proposed ‘final’ management plan is outrageous,” says Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “They want to wipe out all the wild horses and burros at the Sheldon Refuge. They have no respect for the stakeholders or biodiversity.”