Wild horses impacted in BoLM’s landscape project (Carson district)

PM Photo WY © Stephaie Thomson

Please comment to help the wild horses stay on public land and stop the BoLM from using herbicides

From a BoLM press release:

Carson City, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BoLM), Carson City District, Stillwater Field Office, has completed an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Cow Canyon, Clan Alpine, and Dixie Valley Allotments Landscape Project. The BoLM is also seeking public input under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for the Project. This includes seeking information and identifying historic properties in our near the Project area. Public comments will be accepted through September 26, 2016.

The EA analyzes seven alternatives that include proposals for livestock grazing permit renewals, range improvements, wild horse management, community mineral material pit designation, invasive, nonnative and noxious weed treatments, interim visual resource management class establishment and adaptive management.  The alternatives include changes in season of use proposals, reductions in livestock numbers proposals, no grazing and the no action alternative (status quo).

The EA and associated documents are available on the Project webpage at: http://bit.ly/2blRZFp  during the 30-day comment period.  Please send written comments to Linda Appel, Project Lead at the address in the letterhead, via fax at (775) 885-6147 or via email to: blm_nv_ccdgrazingea@blm.gov. Comments should include “CCD Landscape Project EA” in the subject line. If you have any questions, please contact Linda Appel or Angelica Rose at 775-885-6000 or at the above address.  For input or questions regarding historic properties please contact Jason Wright at 775-885-6015 or the address in the letterhead above.

-BLM-

 

BoLM Utah Press Release about their proposed wild horse and burro research

574px-Blm.svg

 Protect Mustangs is against cruel research on wild horses and burros. Population ecology can be done through noninvasive observation of the herds without harassing the wild horses and burros with roundups and radio collars. The BoLM is either too lazy to do this or just enjoys torturing our icons of freedom to “experiment” on them. Wild horses and burros need to be left alone, period.

Here is one research proposal surely there are others: http://on.doi.gov/2aF2iCb

The following is from a BoLM press release:

Salt Lake City, Utah—Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Utah Wild Horse and Burro Program will be working collaboratively with scientists at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Fort Collins Science Center to conduct several wild horse and burro research projects. The research is being done partly in response to the 2013 National Academies of Science (NAS) report that recommended science-based management of free-roaming equids within the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program.
The NAS report recommended acquiring population ecology information on wild burros to better understand their demographic parameters and improve their management, since there is remarkably little published literature on wild burros. Two research proposals include the Sinbad wild burro Herd Management Area (HMA) managed by the Price Field Office. The first study, which has been approved, would test population survey techniques for burros and identify and develop new techniques that can be applied across wild burro ranges of western rangelands. The second proposed study would study the demography of free-roaming burros to provide data for population modeling, to improve management of wild burros, and to contribute to a better understanding of the ecology of wild burros.
The NAS report also recommended research be done on wild horse demography and ecology, and highlighted the utility of statistical models for improved management. Studies to support this approach are being proposed for the Frisco HMA, managed by Cedar City Field Office, and the Conger HMA, managed by Fillmore Field Office. Specific questions approved in the research for the Conger HMA include quantifying the impacts of sterilizing a portion of male horses in the population and how treatment impacts their behavior and ecology.
Research on both wild horse and wild burro HMAs may include looking at the fertility, fecundity (reproductive rate), recruitment rate, age-specific survival and mortality, habitat selection, movements, habitat range; and their behavior and ecology at the scale of both the individual and population levels. We expect these studies to support and contribute to the management of wild horses and burros.
Price, Cedar City, and Fillmore Field Offices have begun initiating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis of the research proposals. The public review and scoping period for these proposals are anticipated to begin early in the fall of 2015.

To learn more about the program, visit the BLM National Wild Horse and Burro website at www.wildhorseandburro.blm.gov. 

Follow us on Twitter @BLMUtah

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM’s mission is to manage and conserve the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations under our mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In fiscal year 2014, the BLM generated $5.2 billion in receipts from public lands.
–BLM–Utah State Office   440 West 200 South, Suite 500      Salt Lake City, Utah 84101

 

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




#BREAKING: Protect Mustangs calls for an end to animal cruelty

PM Secretary Jewell Continue reading

Donate to save wild horses with the law on their side!

PM Helicopter Mustang Roundup

We are grateful our sucessful legal actions have stopped roundups and saved thousands of lives in the Pine Nut and Fort McDemitt areas. Protect Mustangs is creating a legal team to continue the fight for wild horse freedom in the courts. We almost didn’t find lawyers in time to help save the Pine Nut herd. We need to hire a staff lawyer

The team at Protect Mustangs feels legal action is a very important area of focus with a huge impact to save many lives.

Please make your donation to the Wild Horse Legal Fund today because the Pine Nut, Nevada, California, Wyoming, and other wild horses need legal protection again. The palm greasers going to BLM want them gone and we will take action. Click here to donate: https://www.gofundme.com/MustangLaw2016





Did you know that Academy Award-winner Michael Blake (Dances with Wolves), RIP, joined our Fort McDermitt lawsuit in 2013 to help stop two years of horrible roundups that were sending wild horses to slaughter?

MICHAELBLAKE Oscar
Michael Blake wins Oscar for writing Dances with Wolves
This is what Michael Blake wrote on August 21, 2013:

I, Michael Lennox Blake, declare and state as follows:

1. I am an author as well as a screenwriter. I have written several books and screenplays including Dances with Wolves, which was released to international acclaim in 1990. In 1991, I won every major award for my screenplay for Dances with Wolves, including an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Writer’s Guild Award, and the Silver Spur. I have also received public service awards including the Eleanor Roosevelt Award and the Americanism Award, in addition to many other awards during my life.

2. I reside in Sonoita, Arizona. I am a member of Protect Mustangs, and also am on the Advisory Board for Protect Mustangs. In a professional capacity I am an author and screenwriter. I support the work that Protect Mustangs does to protect wild horses and advocate for effective wild horse conservation on public lands.

3. I have visited Nevada for decades to see the wild horses, study them, and be inspired by them for my work. I have explored the lands of Nevada where the wild horses roam in freedom for inspiration and research for my work. I intend to return to these areas so I may continue to be inspired and do research for my work.

4. In 1992, I helped commission the first comprehensive aerial census of wild horses in Nevada. In almost every herd area, the horses were far less numerous than the BLM estimated. The final count in our survey was 8,324.

5. Protect Mustangs’ members are interested in wild horses, and I support their work to protect wild horses’ freedom and safety from cruel and harmful practices including but not limited to illegal roundups. Their mission is to educate the public about indigenous wild horses, protect and research American wild horses on the range, and help those who have lost their freedom. Protect Mustangs works to educate the public about the decisions and activities of the government that impact wild horses, and find solutions for wild horse conservation that does not include roundups and auctioning off wild horses for slaughter. Members of the public and horse advocates across the United States are interested in and support Protect Mustangs’ work to protect wild horses due to their recreational, scientific, spiritual, ecological, cultural, artistic, historical, iconic, and aesthetic values.

6. I wrote in my book Twelve the King:

“But he and hundreds of thousand like him are gone now from this beautiful land, and for that reason alone I could not stop as I traveled over four hundred miles of Nevada roads. Something evil is still afoot in this land, and it has left its imprint everywhere. In all those miles of open, free country, the mark of evil is present in what is absent. The wild horses are missing from the land.”

7. I have written extensively about the American West and find inspiration seeing and studying wild horses. If these unbranded, wild horses are rounded up and removed by the USDA Forest Service and/or the BLM on tribal land, or elsewhere by the Forest Service and/or the BLM, I will be harmed because I will no longer have the ability to study them or be inspired for my books, stories and other works.

8. Wild horses and their connection with the land in the American West inspire me to write. I have plans to spend time in the future using and enjoying these lands and studying free-roaming wild horses on public lands in the Owyhee HMAs and where the wild horses roam in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, as well as on tribal lands. The proposed gather on USDA Forest Service and tribal lands will forever remove wild and free-roaming horses that I rely upon in my professional and personal capabilities.

9. I derive significant satisfaction and happiness from the existence of native wild, free- roaming horses. Ensuring the continued existence and distribution of wildlife including wild horses in the West is of the utmost importance to me and has directly influenced my life a great deal. The West is far different than the East because the West still has wildlife—including wild horses that inspire me to write fiction and non-fiction.

10. If the Fort McDermitt Horse Gather proceeds as planned, it will prevent me and other members of Protect Mustangs from recreating, enjoying, studying, being inspired from, and writing about the wild horses in the area in the future. I am very unlikely to continue deriving benefit and inspiration concerning the wild horses in an area where they have been removed and herd numbers drastically reduced as is proposed by the Fort McDermitt Horse Gather and the 2013 Agreement between the Forest Service and Fort McDermitt Tribal Council. Our members share these views as well.

11. I have been studying and gaining inspiration from seeing wild horses in Nevada throughout my life. I have certain plans to continue visiting these wild areas of Nevada authorized for roundup, including the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, throughout my lifetime. For the aforementioned reasons I would be directly harmed should the unbranded, wild horses at issue in the Fort McDermitt Horse Gather be removed and the horses rounded up and be allowed to go to holding, auction, sale, or slaughter.

[End of Michael Lennox Blake’s declaration]

HELP build the legal fund today so Protect Mustangs can continue to fight for wild horses in court. We are a unique group dedicated purely to the protection and preservation of America’s wild horses. We need to act quickly and independently to HELP SAVE wild horses with legal action. Please make a donation today and share this fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/MustangLaw2016 or donate via PayPal to Contact@ProtectMustangs.org

Thank you for taking action today to help save the wild horses!

Many blessings,
Anne

Anne Novak
Volunteer Executive Director
www.ProtectMustangs.org
Non-profit mission: Protect and preserve native and wild horses

PROTECT MUSTANGS
PO Box 5661
Berkeley, CA. 94705





PM Pine Nut 332 90K meme

Lennox August 2014

BLM Ely, Nevada, district to roundup native wild horses

Visit Nevada?

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ely District is scheduled in early November to begin rounding up and removing approximately 120 alleged excess wild horses from in and around the Triple B and Silver King herd management areas (HMAs) in eastern Nevada.

Details will be posted on the district website as they become available. The roundups are allegedly necessary to prevent further damage to private property and provide for public and animal safety.

The district will remove about 70 alleged excess wild horses from the Triple B HMA, located about 30 miles northwest of Ely, that are allegedly damaging private property, and allegedly harassing and breeding domestic stock resulting in landowner complaints. Appropriate Management Level (AML) for the Triple B HMA is 215-250 wild horses. The current population is 1,311 wild horses.

The district will remove up to 50 excess wild horses from in and around the Silver King HMA. The horses to be gathered are located about 120 miles south of Ely. They are an alleged safety concern on U.S. Highway 93 and are damaging private property, resulting in property owner complaints. The AML for the Silver King HMA is 60-128 wild horses. The current population is 452 wild horses.

The BLM claims attempts to keep wild horses away from private property and the highway, including trapping and relocating animals to other portions of the HMAs, have been unsuccessful.

The BLM will utilize the services of roundup contractor Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc., of Nephi, Utah, which uses a helicopter to locate and stampede wild horses toward a set of corrals to be trapped and who has already been paid millions of tax dollars, year after year. The pilot is assisted by a ground crew and a domesticated horse, known as a Judas horse who is trained to lead wild horses into the corral.

Wild horses removed from the range will be transported to the National Wild Horse and Burro Center at Palomino Valley, in Reno, Nevada, where they will be offered for adoption to qualified individuals. Wild horses for which BLM is unable to adopt out will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be allegedly humanely cared for and retain their “wild” status and protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

A Wild Horse Gather Information Line has been established at 775/861-6700. A recorded message will provide information on daily gather activities and schedules. The BLM will also post daily gather information on its website.

Public lands within the HMAs will be open to the public during gather operations, subject to necessary safety restrictions, and the BLM will make every effort to allow for public viewing opportunities. The BLM has established protocols for visitors to ensure the safety of the wild horses, the public, and BLM and contract staff. The protocols are available at http://on.doi.gov/1lGnDYC under “Observation Opportunities.”

Roundups in and outside the Triple B HMA were analyzed in the Triple B, Maverick-Medicine, and Antelope Valley HMA Gather Plan and Environmental Assessment (EA), signed in May 2011 and available at http://on.doi.gov/1tgdHc6. Gather activities in and around the Silver King HMA were analyzed in the Ely District Public Safety and Nuisance Gather EA signed in August 2014 and available at http://on.doi.gov/1lx856K.

For more information, contact Chris Hanefeld, BLM Ely District public affairs specialist, at 775/289-1842 or chanefel@blm.gov.

They continue the cruelty

“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

Princess Anne and World Horse Welfare suggest eating horses to help horse welfare

Princess Anne.   Photo credit: NHC_UHI : Foter.com : CC BY-NC-ND

Princess Anne Photo credit: NHC_UHI : Foter.com : CC BY-NC-ND

D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ id=”ep_336″>

According to CBS “Princess Anne made waves Thursday when she suggested the United Kingdom should take a second look at eating horses — primarily, she argued, because it could lead to better treatment of the animals.

The statement from the renowned horse advocate sparked headlines in the U.K., protests from other animal lovers, and more than a few cringes in the U.S., which shares its British ally’s distaste for equine dishes.”

Horse slaughter is inhumane and causes great suffering. Why are alleged equine welfare groups and advocates suggesting slaughter to solve abuse?

COMMENTS HERE Plz: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57612657/eating-horse-how-about-kangaroo-unusual-meats-carry-risk-and-reward/#addcomm

CNN POLL Here http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2013/11/15/princess-anne-says-give-horse-meat-a-chance/ 

World Horse Welfare is on Twitter here https://twitter.com/horsecharity @HorseCharity

What other articles can you find about Princess Anne suggesting eating horses as a solution to horse welfare issues?

Reports from Australia that up to 3000 wild horses have been killed and they want to kill 3000 more!

PM Brumby Wild © Libby Lovegrove

Join the international outcry to Stop Killing the Brumbies!

Please tell your friends about the important Thunderclap that will shout out to Stop the massacre!!! We have 10 days left to get a total of 250 people on board to make a wave of thunder shouting out “Stop Killing the Brumbies!

Reports are coming in from Australia that 2-3,000 have been massacred and the wild horse killers want to kill 3,000 more. We will keep you posted as more information comes in. Help shine the light on this darkness. Share this information with your friends.

Evidently a huge liquid natural gas (LNG) deposit, the largest outside the U.S.A., has been discovered in Western Australia’s Kimberely, where these wild horses roam. LNG is the new export gold–selling to the Asian market for their growing electricity needs. Could the mass slaughter be connected with plans to industrialize the area into a massive fracking zone?

Help save the wild horses in Australia by clicking here: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/6098-stop-killing-brumbies?locale=en

Thank you for doing what you can do to help save the wild horses.

Many blessings,

Anne Novak

Executive DIrector of Protect Mustangs

 

(Photo © Libby Lovegrove, Brumbies in the wild. All rights reserved.)

Shutdown leaves legendary mustangs without water

BLM contractor told to stop hauling water to wild horses

Nevada mustang © Carl Mrozek

Nevada mustang © Carl Mrozek

As seen in the Elko Daily News on October 10, 2013

ELKO — While Washington politicks over a government shutdown, wild horses on the range could be dying of thirst.

Carlin resident Jackie Wiscombe, who for the past two years has contracted with the Bureau of Land Management to haul water to horses, said she’s been told to stop.

“Due to the government shutdown, these animals are in dire consequences of no water available,” she said. “… They are basically dependent on water being hauled to them.”

Wiscombe had watered an area 15 miles north of Currie and another in Ruby Valley about every five days. She was going to continue hauling water to the horses through the end of November, she said.

On Wednesday, she informed the county commission, saying horses could very well be dying.

Commissioners — who commended Wiscombe for bringing the issue to light — were worried about the horses and frustrated by the apparent lack of contingency planning by those in charge.

“What I’m concerned about is who’s responsible for these kind of management decisions?” Commissioner Demar Dahl said, “where you’d make the decision to start watering these horses, and then we say, ‘OK, now because we’re shut down, quit drinking.’”

Dahl wanted to know how many horses are left without water and dying.

“It doesn’t matter whether you love horses or hate horses,” he said. “It’s just egregious to think that you’re going to put them in a position where they depend on you and then walk away.”

Washed out roads complicated the problem, Wiscombe said. One spot hadn’t been watered for about a month because the road was impassable.

“We could go investigate and find out if they are dying. If they are, the county has a water truck, we can go haul water out there,” Dahl said.

The county also has a bulldozer, he added, to level washed out roads.

However, a county water-hauling project would need to be approved as an agenda item, according to County Manager Rob Stokes. If residents decided to haul water with private equipment, though, it wouldn’t be a county issue.

Dahl said he planned to fly an airplane over the two spots Thursday to see if he could tell how many horses were in need of water. Dahl and Commissioner Jeff Williams both own dozers, which they said could fix the road depending on its condition.

Rainstorms provide temporary puddles for the horses to drink, Wiscombe said, but the land won’t hold water for long.

Due to the shutdown, calls to the BLM state office and U.S. Department of Interior went unanswered.

Please comment here.

Elko Daily News article: http://elkodaily.com/news/shutdown-leaves-horses-without-water/article_bbf23580-31f3-11e3-aa90-0019bb2963f4.html

October 1st Protect Mustangs warned the feds would neglect the wild horses in captivity http://protectmustangs.org/?p=5280 . Apparently the BLM is neglecting their life or death care in the field as well.

Shade structure at the BLM’s Ridgecrest Corral in California

Shade at the Wild Horse & Burro Facility, Ridgecrest California

Shade at the Wild Horse & Burro Facility, Ridgecrest California

Emergency shade is needed at Palomino Valley Center (Sparks, NV), Litchfield Corrals (Susanville, Ca.), Rock Springs (WY.) and others.

Palomino Valley Center is the largest holding facility in the nation with 1,800 wild horses and burros currently captive in pens. They have no shade during the triple-digit heat wave.