In January we offered to help adopt hundreds of wild horses and the Department of Interior blew us off

PM Oct 2014 PVC Mirror
The Honorable Sally Jewell Secretary of the Interior
U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240
Friday January 29, 2016
 
RE: Official request to stop using federally protected American wild horses in cruel experiments, offer all the wild horses at the closed door Indian Lakes holding facility for adoption and provide transparency with public access, etc.
Dear Secretary Jewell,
Pregnant mares were moved Friday January 22, 2016 from Palomino Valley Center (PVC) outside of Reno to the closed door, privately owned and operated, facility called Indian Lakes aka Broken Arrow, located at 5676 Indian Lakes Road, Fallon, Nevada.
Does the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) intend on using the pregnant mares from Beatys Butte, Oregon and other herds in the horrible Nazi-type sterilization experiments in Oregon, Kentucky or elsewhere?
The Beaty’s Butte pregnant mares and members of their herd seem to have been rounded up because Country Natural Beef, a supplier of Whole Foods Market, was pushing for the roundup. Do they want the federally protected wild horses gone so they can use the public grazing land for more grass fed beef?
 
Protect Mustangs officially requests the mares from Beatys Butte, Oregon, as well as all the other wild horses (male and female) at the Indian Lakes facility, be immediately put up for adoption–not experimented on. Wild horses over 10 years old must be offered to the public as well. They are not yours to engage in animal testing. This cruelty must stop now.
 
We also request you immediately create transparency for the public, show good faith and therefore request you:
  1. Halt transporting American wild horses out of the closed door Fallon facility called Indian Lakes (aka Broken Arrow). The public wants to save all these wild horses–including the pregnant mares–through adoption or purchase.
  2. Provide all identification numbers and descriptions all the wild horses as well as a headcount of unbranded, untagged wild horses and foals at Indian Lakes as of today January 29, 2016.
  3. Provide a separate list of all identification numbers and descriptions of all the wild horses as well as a headcount of unbranded wild horses and foals at Indian Lakes from January 20 to today.
  4. Provide a list of identification numbers of all the wild horses who have transported out of Indian Lakes since January 1, 2016 and show exactly where they have gone and where they are now.
  5. Grant immediate visitation to members of Protect Mustangs, elected officials and their staff, as well as other members of the public to the closed door facility known as Indian Lakes (aka Broken Arrow) to witness, document, photograph and video all the wild horses for as many days as needed at the facility to help them get adopted in order to keep them safe from cruel experiments, dubious sales or worse.
How many wild horses have been sold or given away to be used in research projects, “studies” or experimentation since 2009? How many wild horses have been used in research projects, “studies” or experimentation since 2009 and then later offered for adoption, moved to long-term holding or sold?
Sterilization and “fertility control” experiments are cruel and unjustified
 
The BLM’s overpopulation claims are fraudulent and any action such as experimentation for population control, fertility control, or other actions taken that are based on fraudulent information is wrongful.
There are no “excess” wild horses on public land. Roundups have been based on fraudulent data. Read more about that here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8551
There exists no accurate head counts of America’s wild horse populations and many herd management areas have no wild horses left on them.
The BLM’s horrible customer service, lack of problem solving and poor marketing are the reasons wild horse adoption has dropped. The public wants to adopt wild horses but the BLM is making it impossible for adopters to get the wild horses they want. It’s as if the BLM wants their adoption program to fail.
Americans do not want their tax dollars funding cruel experiments reminiscent of the notorious Nazi–Dr. Joseph Mengele. The rights of American wild horses are being violated. This is animal cruelty at its worse. All wild horses–especially pregnant mares–must never be used in sterilization or other experiments.
To sum things up:
  1. There is no overpopulation of wild horses. They are underpopulated on the vast acreage of public land in the West. Even the National Academy of Sciences said in 2013 that there is “no evidence of overpopulation”.
  2. BLM’s harvesting model based management via roundups is disrupting herd structure and increasing the birthrate.
  3. BLM’s allegations of overpopulation are fraudulent based on false data. Besides no head counts, they don’t even account for the correct mortality rates in the wild for example.
  4. Predators should not be killed off and if there are none left then they need to be reintroduced for the thriving natural ecological balance for the herd management area.
  5. Wild horses are a return-native species who help reduce catastrophic wildfires, create biodiversity, etc. We need the herds to reverse desertification. Read more about native wild horses here: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562
  6. The BLM is creating a false overpopulation crisis to cash in on wild horses as laboratory animals for fertility control experiments while reducing the herds to nonviable levels.
  7. GonaCon™, PZP, SpayVac® are all pesticides that classify wild horses erroneously as pests–ultimately sterilize them and are not needed because wild horses are underpopulated. There are no “excess” wild horses in America.
  8. Experimenting on wild horses to sterilize them is animal cruelty funded by tax dollars and must stop now.
  9. The BLM is trying to manage America’s wild horses to extinction.
Federally protected wild horses and burros are to be protected from harassment according to the law. You can read about the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_and_Free-Roaming_Horses_and_Burros_Act_of_1971
The public is outraged the BLM, the federal agency put in charge of managing and protecting wild horses and burros, would engage in animal cruelty and try to use America’s icons of freedom in population control experiments.
Any and all experimentation, “research” or harassment of a federally protected wild horse or burro–based on the overpopulation myth, decreased adoptions or any other excuse must stop now.
Sincerely,
Anne Novak
 
Links of interest:
 
Anne Novak
Executive Director
Tel./Text: 415.531.8454
Read about native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562  
Then on June 22, 2016 the subcommittee hearing on wild horses and burros was held in the House of Representatives and this is what the elected officials said:
On September 9, 2016, the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board voted to kill the alleged 45,000 wild horses in taxpayer funded holding facilities and pastures. Do they want to cover-up the fraud that has been going on for years by killing the evidence?

Don’t Let Them Kill 45,000 Wild Horses and Burros! Sign and Share the Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/907/592/301/demand-nokill-45000-wild-horses-burros-in-holding

 

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Is it even legal?

Doesn’t the law protect wild free roaming horses and burros from harassment, branding, etc?

Listen carefully to the Bureau of Land Management propaganda as you watch the wild mare who is forcibly branded and jabbed with Pesticide PZP, made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries. The Bureau gives more public land use to commercial livestock for grazing than the native wild horses in northeastern California’s huge Twin Peaks herd management area.

Pm PZP Darts

Read about the dangers of Pesticide PZP here: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=6922 Despite the dangers this is what the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC), the Cloud Foundation, Return to Freedom, Front Range Equine Rescue and others want to do to America’s wild mares. They are buying into the Cattlemen’s overpopulation lie

pm-pzp-slaughter-meme-shane-destry

(Poster by Shane Destry)

Overpopulation is a lie. Even if there were 67,000 –150,000 wild horses and burros left in the western United States that would be too few for them to survive human predation, mountain lions, the drop in the water table and climate change.

We all know wild horses and burros are not “pests” as the Pesticide PZP Pushing Humane Society of the United States called them on the “pesticide” application. Sell outs.

Join the PZP Forum on Facebook to receive news about forcibly drugging wild mares with Pesticide PZP and the fight against it

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of native and wild horses. www.ProtectMustangs.org




Petition: Demand #NoKill 45,000 Wild Horses & Burros in Holding

Petition Target: United States Congress

We request that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) return the 45,000 captive wild horses and burros, now at risk of being killed, back to public land Herd Areas established with the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act.

The 45,000 captive wild horses and burros are being hoarded in taxpayer funded ranches and holding facilities to make room for commercial livestock, fracking and other industries on public land. The BLM makes more than $4.3 billion annually from onshore oil and gas development, so they should have taken care of the wild horses and burros they chased off public land to rake in all that profit. But instead, the Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board has recommended that the BLM kill all the captive 45,000 wild horses and burros they unjustly call “unadoptable”.

The BLM claims the 45,000 captive mustangs and burros are “unadoptable” because they were not picked at adoption events, and thus received 3-Strikes or are over the age of 10. But that’s not true. These adorable captive wild horses and burros were never given a fair chance at finding loving adoptive homes or sanctuaries.

The public is outraged. Wild horses and burros are living symbols of freedom and the pioneering spirit of the American West.

Recently I went to a short term holding facility to help rescue some 3-Strikers and made this short video of Snowbunnie (#2256) and Suzie King (#2473) 3-Strike Friends: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs/videos/1159846957407655/?pnref=story You can see they were interested in being saved.

After seeing the video, someone came forward to take the pair and give them a loving forever home. Sadly, the BLM made it difficult and unpleasant for the potential new owner, who was in tears at one point because the BLM was giving her such a hard time with the paperwork. I provided support to keep everything on track and then shortly afterwards we delivered the two 3-Strike mustang mares to their safe forever home. The rescue video is here:https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs/videos/1174495795942771/?pnref=story

Since the BLM is not doing their job to publicize available wild horses and burros, and since their customer service is rotten, it’s wrong to call the 45,000 captive wild horses and burros “unadoptable”. They were not given a fair chance. Now that the BLM wants to KILL them all.

Sign this petition to ask that BLM put all the wild horses and burros back on public land to save tax-payer dollars and safeguard their lives. If needed, water wells could be drilled in Herd Areas thus still saving taxpayers millions of dollars. It’s time to restore the natural ecological balance in the West, prevent catastrophic wildfires and #PutMustangsBack.

Link to the petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/907/592/301/demand-nokill-45000-wild-horses-burros-in-holding/

Anne Novak
Founder and Executive Director
www.ProtectMustangs.org
Contact@ProtectMustangs.org
https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs
https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of native and wild horses. www.ProtectMustangs.org




Demand an Urgent Congressional Investigation and Head Count of all Wild Horses and Burros in Captivity and in Freedom

 

This Change.org petition is going to the US Senate, the US House of Representative and the President of the United States

On September 9, 2016, the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board voted to kill the alleged 45,000 wild horses in tax-payer funded holding facilities and pastures. Do they want to cover-up the fraud that has been going on for years by killing the evidence?

Taxpayers and the general public want to know:

  • How much fraud has been committed regarding the wild horse and burro count on public land and in corrals?
  • How many budgets were approved using fraudulent information?
  • How many wild horses have gone to slaughter?
  • How many wild horses and burros have been shot and killed?
  • How many unbranded foals did the kill-buyers get to sell overseas?

We request an immediate Congressional investigation and independent head count, with photo IDs, of the alleged 45,000 wild horses and burros rounded up and held in captivity–at taxpayer expense.

In addition, we call for an immediate moratorium on roundups, transport and removals for a precise independent count, with photo ID, of all the federally protected wild horses and burros in the wild. This must occur before any more wild horses or burros are rounded up and/or transported, trapped, chipped, collared, removed, sterilized, given pesticide PZP, GonaCon®, SpayVac®, IUDs, etc., researched or experimented on in any manner to prevent further fraud against taxpayers as well as prevent abuse against wild horses and burros who should be protected from harassment and abuse by law.
We request a complete inventory of the wild horses and burros at the following locations:

  1. Every Herd Management Area
  2. Every Herd Area
  3. Every “Complex”
  4. Every temporary holding facility
  5. Every short-term holding facility
  6. Every long-term holding facility, pasture, eco-sanctuary, etc.
  7. Mustang Heritage Foundation facilities and all equids in their program
  8. TIP Trainers’ facilities
  9. All private contractors’ facilities
  10. Research facilities
  11. Any other locations where wild horses and burros are held in captivity and/or live on public land.

The public, voters of America and taxpayers are outraged and demand immediate action. Thank you.

Sign and share the Change.org petition

Link to the petition: https://www.change.org/p/u-s-senate-investigate-the-wild-horse-burro-count-in-captivity-and-freedom

Help fight the killing!

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




What will be different this time? #Fracking and wastewater in Elko

Photo credit Jim Bleche. Nobel Energy Fracking rig in Colorado

  • Larry Hyslop/Elko Free Press Correspondent

Part 2 Cross-posted from the Elko Free Press for educational purposes

This column is the second in a series looking for answers to the question: what is going to be different this time around? What will prevent Elko County from facing the many problems faced by so many other states where hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is being used for oil and natural gas exploration and production? What combination of natural conditions, Noble Energy (Noble) and state/ federal oversight is going to make fracking a good experience for Elko County residents? These columns are not an endorsement of fracking and they focus on Noble although other oil companies may come into the county.

The liquid used in fracking a well is 98 to 99 percent water and sand. About a dozen chemicals are typically added to that, some of which are toxic, to ensure fracture stimulation. Each well uses a slightly different chemical mix but they all usually include acids, clay controls, friction reducers, scale inhibitors, iron controls, biocides and gellants.

Anyone can view the list of chemicals used in each fracking job at fracfocus.org. Under the new state regulations, Noble lists the chemicals within 60 days of each well completion. Go to fracfocus.org, click on Find a Well, select Nevada and Elko County. Wells are listed by an API number, but the correct well can be found using the provided well’s latitude and longitude along with a map.

After fracking, fluids flow back up the pipe. This “flowback” must then be disposed of, treated, recycled or re-used. During oil well production, water from the rock formation also comes up with the oil, called produced water. This and the oil itself must be dealt with safely. Chandler Newhall is Noble’s Rockies business unit asset manager. He said Noble will always contain produced water and flowback in steel tanks or pipes, they will not use lined pits.

For the first two wells, this flowback and produced water was shipped to a licensed facility in Eastern Utah for treatment. If Noble enters a production phase, they will develop a water management program to include treatment, recycling and reuse. In a grouping of future oil wells, produced water could be piped to a central location to be treated and piped back out to be used in fracking other wells. Noble will not use evaporation ponds for disposal. “When the company has to dispose of any water, we will obtain the appropriate regulatory permits and use only state-approved commercial disposal facilities or permitted underground injection,” explained Chandler. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection would issue a permit for any proposed re-injection well.

Re-injection of wastewater has been a problem in other areas, where this process has caused a series of small earthquakes. Many re-injection wells have not caused these problems. It appears this concern can be reduced through control of the amount of water injected per day and the pumping pressure. NDEP regulations do not address any potential seismic issues.

In some areas, radioactive minerals have returned in the produced water. This has not been seen in Nevada. If it does happen, a special permit must be obtained and the radioactive sludge disposed of properly. Very little, if any, natural gas is expected so flaring is unlikely. In North Dakota, such flares light the night skies. Actually, Noble hopes to find a little natural gas to use for powering well site generators.

Spills of produced water and oil are always concerns. Chandler says Noble has strict guidelines for the companies they hire. Emergency response plans will be in place for spills, along with spill prevention programs. If spilled, produced water could seep into the ground, and further actions will be taken to remove the contaminated water and even the contaminated soil. NDEP would become involved in any spills.

This is so early in the exploration process, it is hard to know the future of oil production in Elko County. Only the first well is producing oil in a long-term production test to understand the potential production. Noble’s success scenario would be to produce 50,000 barrels of oil per day at peak production. Chandler says this will be different from the Bakken Oil Field in North Dakota where they produce 900,000 barrels of oil per day. Nevada is currently producing 900 barrels per day.

The initial wells will be vertical wells, to study the subsurface geology and test various zones for oil production. Noble may use horizontal wells in the future, which will use more water and create much more wastewater.

“Horizontal wells minimize the surface impact while recovering more of the resource potential. This would enable us to replace many vertical wells with one horizontal well,” said Chandler.

 # # #

How will #fracking affect Elko County?

  • Larry Hyslop/Correspondent Elko Daily Free Press

cross-posted for educational purposes

Let me start by saying I have no answer to the above question. If Noble Energy does indeed develop wells using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, what will that mean to Elko County residents?

Noble Energy has held informative meetings and told us everything will be fine, that fracking will be good for the county. They said there is not a single proven case of fracking chemicals contaminating drinking water aquifers, and other problems either will not occur here or have been overblown.

However, it is difficult to accept these facts with so many other states having problems. What worries me most is we will not know the problems we face until operations are well underway and it is too late to change things.

A quick Internet search using “fracking problems” followed by various state names brought up long lists of articles, including these below.

• NBC News reported fracking wastewater appears to be linked to earthquakes in an Ohio town that has not seen past quakes. The state has ordered an indefinite moratorium on fracking within three miles of the earthquake epicenters. Not only am I alarmed at the thought of fracking causing seismic activity, but Elko lies in an area of high seismic activity. In 2008, if fracking operations had been in place near Wells, what would have happened because of that earthquake?

• The Washington Post reported Pennsylvania drilling for natural gas caused “significant damage” to drinking-water aquifers. The Texas Tribune reported that due to the recent drought, oil and gas companies may run short of needed water for operations in South Texas.

• Time magazine reported the House Energy and Commerce Committee found that 14 of the country’s most active hydraulic fracturing companies used 866 million gallons of fracking chemicals between 2005 and 2009. This does not include water, which makes up 99 percent of the fluid injected into wells.

• The Herald-Standard newspaper reported Williston, N.D. has a large methamphetamine drug problem brought in by a gang selling drugs among the oil workers.

• Governing the States and Localities website reports North Dakota roads, designed for farm-to-market travel, are not holding up under the big trucks accessing rigs and wells. On the Jiggs Highway, what effect will heavy truck traffic have on this small highway?

So help me out. Help me find an answer by telling me what you think. Will fracking be good or bad for Elko County? Are the possible problems overblown? If you believe fracking will cause problems, which ones do you worry about the most? Email me at hyslop.nv@gmail.com and put “fracking” in the subject line.

In two weeks I will report the results. I will not be able to quote your complete comments, but will report the consensus of responses.

# # #

(6) comments

freewillie

The USGS says all industrial uses of water, including mining, use about 20 billion gallons per day. According to Mr. Hyslop the top 14 (IOW most all) companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing operations use (derived from the quoted 866 million gallons per 5 years x 100 to one water ratio) about 50 million gallons of water per day – 1/400 of industrial usage. When the same math is done for the 270 billion per day for all water usage in the US it’s 2/10,000. I’m not real worried.

freewillie

Before someone points out the obvious, Mr. Hyslop did not make this assertion, the article he quoted did.

Bland

Search the Net for anything + problems and you will get thousands of hits leading to articles that, unsurprisingly, detail problems. Which of these are worth consideration then becomes the issue. Since the level of bizarre claims by people looking for and, again unsurprisingly, finding “problems” seems to runs around a 100% it’s naive to give most the time of day. Try Googling “obama birth certificate” or “truth 911” for a taste of what I mean. The examples you site aren’t much better.

Bland

As an example of how misleading a search for problems can be, a full reading of The Washington Post story referenced shows one guy at the USEPA issued a report about methane in water in Penn. – a report that not only contradicts the final report that settled this matter by his own EPA but one that details gas in water that occurs naturally in that area anyway, is completely non-toxic in water anyway and has also long ago been ruled inconsequential by the Penn. State EPA.

powwowgirl

You need to do the research yourself
What is the Halliburton loop hole
What is horizontal drilling
What is in fracking fluid
How much water does it take to drill a well
Why is regulations on private land wells different than public land
How far back from the well is the water tested
How long do fracking jobs last
finally why did a family in Aruba Texas recently awarded 3 million dollars in a fracking poisoning case

powwowgirl

A family in Aruba Texas just was awarded 3 million for poisoning them. Headwated for the Humbolt river is the Mary’s River Valley. Ground water always follows surface water. Good luck with that North Texas!

Biased press reports ignore public comment against roundups, PZP, GonaCon®, sterilization, livestock damage and killing

Cross-posted from the Elko Free Press for educational purposes

Advisory board suggests recommendations to the BLM

by FALLON GODWIN-BUTLER FGodwin-Butler@elkodaily.com


Fallon Godwin-Butler, Elko Daily Free Press
Ben Masters, left, Dr. Robert Copeland and Dr. Julie Weikel discuss working group recommendations Friday at Stockmen’s Hotel & Casino.
ELKO — As the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting rounded out its last day in Elko, some of the working group recommendations given aligned with public comment and were focused on alleviating the population issue and restoring viable rangelands.

While the first recommendation — to destroy horses deemed unadoptable or sell them without limitation — was recognized as being the least socially palatable, Dr. Robert Cope said it was necessary to look at all options.

During its time in Nevada, the board was given a first-hand experience of the rangeland and horses in the form of a field trip, “where it became so obvious there’s an incredible crisis situation out there affecting the resource,” he said.

The rangeland was described as the bedrock the burros, wild horses, wildlife and rural communities depend on, said Dr. Julie Weikel.

Cope said it has become apparent the time for discussion was over, instead it is now at a point where “something has got to be done.”

This working group recommended the Bureau of Land Management follow the stipulations of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act “by offering all suitable animals in long and short term holding deemed unadoptable for sale without limitation or humane euthanasia. Those animals deemed unsuitable for sale should then be destroyed in the most humane manner possible.”

The initial recommendation was approved by all present board members save Ginger Kathrens.

It was asked if more horses could be removed from the wild to put less pressure on the land.

“I would like to see them put some more pressure to get more funds to do more gathers,” said June Sewing.

When asked about his feelings on the measure, member Ben Masters said, citing his age of 27, he was angered about inheriting and having been given messes.

He said his ultimate goal is to have a target population controlled by birth control. Masters didn’t think that could be accomplished through adoption and he would like to pass down a better rangeland to future generations.

“It’s a way of taking the public and Congress … on that field trip,” said Weikel.

The second recommendation — which also found approval, with Kathrens abstaining — focused on the prioritization of sage grouse habitat, when removing excess animals.

Kathrens did so based on a lack of information concerning the amount acres and herds impacted by this decision.

Additionally, it was proposed that the degree of degradation on the range was to be used as a criterion when prioritizing and removing excess animals.
The later caveat includes considering rangelands, which can be “restored and maintained in a healthy status.”

“It’s already past time for some of these places,” said Weikel, explaining this is an attempt to ask the BLM what can be saved.

That recommendation was not meant to “usurp” the priorities of the bureau.

Cope brought up the subject of genetic variability, which was touched upon by Dr. Boyd Spratling Thursday during public comment.

This form of variability or diversity potentially allows for a realistic chance of avoiding the problems associated with inbreeding.

Cope researched how high the numbers of horses would have to be to ensure this from within.

“According to what I heard yesterday, that magic number isn’t 150 it’s closer to 5,000,” he said.

Spratling said this is easily solved by placing studs in smaller herds, for example less than 150.

The conversation soon turned to economic viability by developing relationships with other agencies and departments to “conduct an analysis of socioeconomic and environmental effects on communities.”

Encouragement was given to state agencies and BLM redevelopment advisory councils to submit plans for range rehabilitation and herd management, which would be created to serve various areas based on local expertise and understanding.

The working group recommendations looked toward a theme from Thursday’s public comment to help the resource by dealing with the population and create unification to work with Congress and the Secretary of the Interior. One member of the public asked for the BLM’s hands to be untied.

The issue was called a breakdown of scientific management.

A representative of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign said the BLM is not using the contraceptive porcine zona pellucida in a way that is managing the population. Sterilization was also called invasive and barbaric and the board was asked to abandon it in favor of funding acceptable forms of contraception.

It was commonly asked for to remove the horses for appropriate management levels and begin conservation efforts.

Cross-posted from the Elko Free Press for educational purposes

Ben Masters starred in UNBRANDED now on Netflix. Masters voted to kill all the wild horses claimed to be unadoptable after receiving-3-Strikes from failed BLM adoptions due to BLM’s poor marketing and rotten customer service.

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




#BREAKING: Protect Mustangs calls for nationwide protests against killing and sterilizing wild horses and burros

© 2014 Anne Novak, all rights reserved.

© 2014 Anne Novak, all rights reserved.

Protect Mustangs, a 501c3 nonprofit organization calls for protests against the Bureau of Land Management’s (BoLM) Wild Horse Advisory Board’s decision today to euthanize all the allegedly “unadoptable” wild horses in long-term holding. They also voted to push more wild horses through advertised adoption events to strike them out quicker! Under former Secretary Salazar, the BoLM has irresponsibly rounded up more wild horses than they could ever adopt out at once. Is it because Salazar is a fifth generation rancher paying back a promise to the Cattlemen’s lobby? Since then the federal agency has been hoarding America’s wild horses in captivity at huge tax-payer expense without correcting the failed adoption program. Now they want to kill the mustangs they call “unadoptable” and sterilize all the wild horses living in freedom on the range. Protect Mustangs is calling for the Bureau of Land Management to #PutThemBack on the 1971 herd areas in the West and stop sterilization. More than one-third of the herd areas have been zeroed out.

“We will fight this outrageous plan to kill and sterilize America’s icons of freedom and we will win,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “The public is not going to tolerate this. The Bureau of Land Management is a rogue agency and their advisory board is made up of people favoring the livestock industry except for one person. The bogus board of mustang haters needs to be dismantled and recreated with wild horse and burro experts–not cattlemen with a huge conflict of interest. It’s time to put America’s wild horses and burros back on public land where they belong.”

image

Who are the wild horses in long-term holding? Are they mostly 3-Strike mustangs from the BoLM’s failed adoption program with rotten customer service? Others are over 10 years old and should have been left out on the range to live their lives out in peace.

Check back here for updates and donate to Protect Mustangs for legal fees to fight with the law by clicking here www.PayPal.me/ProtectMustangs  or go here to donate on the crowd-funding site: https://www.gofundme.com/FightwithLaw

The fight is on!

 

Update on Cleo April 2012: We found an adopter for Cleo but the BoLM had already shipped her out. When we told the Nevada BLM that the adopter was willing to go to long-term holding (Midwest) to get her they said that was impossible. They said they would only sell 100 horses at a time out of long term holding. The adopter could only take Cleo. The BLM said it was impossible.

 

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Fraudulent figures, sterilization and underpopulation

PM Burros Wild 2 © Carl Mrozek

To:  Heather van Blokland at KJZZ

Rio Salado College and Maricopa Community College, Arizona

I am emailing you directly because comments cannot be posted to your article.

http://kjzz.org/content/360434/feds-look-solution-wild-horse-burro-overpopulation

First, let me commend you for correctly identifying PZP as a “sterilization drug.” The Bureau of Land Management (BoLM) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) both like to refer to it as “birth control,” but PZP is actually a sterilant.  More on that later.  The reason for my email is to alert you that BoLM has given you false information regarding the wild horses and burros.

While a reporter or any member of the public should be able to secure accurate data from government agencies, BoLM’s data is fraudulent as concerns wild horses and burros.  BoLM is aggressively pursuing a disinformation campaign against the mustangs, concocting a crisis that does not exist, and using scare-tactics to secure increased funding for itself.  Let me now address certain points cited in your article.

Herd-growth rates:  Equids are slow-growth species when it comes to reproduction. The gestation period for horses lasts 11 months, and a mare produces just 1 foal.  The gestation period for burros lasts 12 to 14 months, and a jenny is less fertile than a mare.  While an independent study of BoLM’s records did confirm an almost 20% birth rate for wild-horse herds, and an almost 15% birth rate for wild-burro herds, the study also found that 50% of foals perish before their first birthday.  Thus, the effective increase in population from new foals is just 10% for wild horses and 7% for wild burros.  Adult mustangs also die.  They succumb to illness, injury, and predation at a rate of at least 5% a year. So, what is a normal herd-growth rate?  Around5% for wild horses and about 2% for wild burros, probably less in each case.  Thus, a herd could not double every four years — that’s just BoLM propaganda.

Fraudulent figures:  There is no overpopulation except on BoLM’s falsified spreadsheets.  Reviews of the agency’s population-estimates reveal biologically-impossible herd-growth rates.  For instance, in Arizona, BoLM reported that the Big Sandy herd grew from 250 burros to 754 burros in one year, a 202% increase.  In Nevada, BoLM would have us believe that the Lava Beds herd grew from 40 burros to 350 burros in one year, a 775% increase.  In Wyoming, BoLM declared that the Salt Wells Creek herd grew from 29 horses to 616 horses in 6 months (yes, months), a 2,024% increase.  The agency’s “data” is chock-full of such preposterous growth-estimates.  So, when you hear talk of how the wild horses are reproducing “exponentially,” that’s a sure sign that the numbers have been falsified.

Wild horses and burros are underpopulated:  Per the guidelines of BoLM’s own geneticist, 83% of the wild-horse herds and 90% of the wild-burro herds suffer from arbitrary management levels (AMLs) set below minimum-viable population (MVP).  Low AMLs enable BoLM to claim an “excess” in herds whose numbers, even if they were over AML, would still not reach MVP.  For instance, the AML for Arizona’s Black Mountain herd was set at 382 to 478 wild burros.  The Black Mountain Herd Management Area comprises 925,425 acres, or 1,446 square miles.  Thus, per the AML, BoLM implies that each burro needs 1,936 to 2,423 acres, or about 3 to 4 square miles per burro.  If BoLM projects there to be 2 burros per 3 square miles, the agency declares an “overpopulation” because there is “double the number” that the AML allows.  As you can see, being “over AML” is meaningless as well as misleading.  But the low AMLs, combined with falsified, biologically-impossible herd-growth estimates, give BoLM an excuse to scapegoat those few wild horses and burros for the range-damage done by the millions of livestock that overgraze the public lands.

Adoptions:  Have not declined — let alone “disappeared” — contrary to what BoLM led you to believe.  It’s just that BoLM used to count the thousands of sales-for-slaughter as “adoptions.”  Now that only true adoptions — “forever-family” placements — qualify, it just seems as if the number has declined.  However, wild horses are not homeless horses.  They have a home — where they belong — on the range.

HSUS:  Is the registrant of PZP / ZonaStat-H with the Environmental Protection Agency.  Thus, HSUS’ information is not impartial because the organization has its reputation to protect.  Further, HSUS has submitted a proposal for a multi-year project in which BoLM would pay for HSUS staff to experiment on Arizona’s burros via “opportunistic” darting with PZP.

Pesticide:  PZP is not just a sterilant but also a registered pesticide that was approved by the EPA for use on wild horses and burros “where they have become a nuisance.”   However, PZP was registered without the standard testing requirements.  There is currently a lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of the registration, especially in light of new studies that have disclosed PZP’s many adverse side-effects.

Sterilizing mustangs:  PZP is a potent weapon in BoLM’s arsenal — for its biological warfare against the wild horses.  But population control for wild horses is unnecessary because there is no overpopulation.  Why would we contracept herds whose population is inadequate for genetic viability?  Why would we contracept herds based on falsified figures?  Logically we wouldn’t and ethically we shouldn’t.  Further, if PZP were going to stop the roundups, it would have done so long ago for the famous Pryor Mountain herd, home to Cloud, the stallion who was the subject of a number of documentaries that aired on PBS.  The Pryor Mountain mares have been darted with PZP for nearly two decades.  Yet roundups have been scheduled there like clockwork every 3 years and, in spite of intensifying the PZP treatments recently, BoLM tried to implement yearly roundups until stopped by a Friends of Animals lawsuit.

PZP — the anti-vaccine:  PZP causes disease — auto-immune disease.  PZP “works” by tricking the immune system into producing antibodies that target and attack the ovaries.  The antibodies cause ovarian dystrophy, oophoritis (inflammation of the ovaries), ovarian cysts, destruction of oocytes in growing follicles, and depletion of resting follicles.  The mare’s estrogen-levels drop markedly as PZP destroys her ovaries.  Ultimately, PZP sterilizes her.  Because PZP stimulates the immune system, it ironically works “best” — sterilizes faster — in mares that have strong immune-function.  Such mares respond to the anti-vaccine and produce quantities of PZP antibodies that destroy their ovaries.  But, conversely, PZP may not work at all in mares whose immune-function is weak or depressed.  Those mares fail to respond to PZP.  They keep getting pregnant and producing foals who, like their dams, suffer from weak immune-function.  So, the PZP pesticide works against the very horses that Nature has best equipped for survival-against-disease while favoring and selecting for the immuno-compromised.  Worse yet, radioimmunoassay tests indicated that PZP antibodies are transferred from mother to female offspring via the placenta and milk.

Health-risks to volunteers:  As for the well-meaning volunteers who dart wild horses, EPA’s Pesticide Fact Sheet for PZP advises that Personal Protective Equipment requirements include long sleeved shirt and long pants, gloves and shoes plus socks to mitigate occupational exposure.  EPA specifically warns that pregnant women must not be involved in handling or injecting ZonaStat-H, and that all women should be aware that accidental self-injection may cause infertility.  Unfortunately, PZP’s manufacturer misrepresented PZP as “so safe it is boring.”   But research shows that PZP is a powerful hormone disruptor.  Further, consider the magnitude of the risk — the PZP-in-question is a horse-sized dose.  If volunteers think PZP is safe, they will be less likely to protect themselves from this dangerous pesticide.

Mengelian experiments:  The Big Lie of “overpopulation” is the pretext for BoLM’s war against the wild horses, and the wild horses are prisoners of that war.  It’s BoLM’s version of the “Shock Doctrine,” wherein the agency concocted a phony crisis to push through policies antithetical to the Wild Horse Act against the will of The People.  Now, BoLM is funding surgical-sterilization studies on the equine POWs to develop a Final Solution to the “problem” — handing out $11 million for these diabolical experiments.  The grant money is surely intended to buy loyalty and silence potential criticism from academia.  Plus, BoLM, a corrupt, rogue agency, gets to cloak itself in respectability by affiliating with prestigious universities.

Should you wish to learn more about how BoLM is mismanaging Arizona’s wild burros, I would be happy to send you a copy of comments recently submitted.  Just let me know.

Sincerely,

Marybeth Devlin

Miami, FL

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Fear mongering pushes to kill and sterilize America’s wild horses and burros

PM Oct 2014 PVC Mirror

Beware of fear mongering and stand strong for wild horses to remain wild and free as the 1971 law protects them to be. YOU are needed by the wild horses to stay grounded and fight for them.The PESTICIDE PZP PUSHERS have created a big mess by pushing fertility control on wild horses in the West. They falsely claim Americans want fertility control when the truth is Americans want our wild horses protected on public land so they can be wild and free. Free is not forcibly drugged with Pesticide PZP made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries or any other form of fertility control.

Wild and free needs to be free as nature intended.

We all agreed on stopping the roundups but the PZP PUSHERS took that one step further to push their PZP management goal. They hired salaried employees to manipulate the public. Before long people were signing online letters and petitions without reading the whole thing–especially where it called for “humane management” the buzz phrase for Pesticide PZP. Even Robert Redford seems to have been fooled into asking for “humane management” because of the way the PZP PUSHERS twisted the information claiming it’s just “birth control” and not telling people about the dangers found here: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=6922

Pushing for Pesticide PZP as fertility control went along with the Bureau of Land Management’s (BoLM) and Cattlemen’s lobby’s overpopulation LIE. Pushing for fertility control was Pandora’s box and down a slippery slope. Now the Bureau of Land Management has jumped on the false claim that the public wants “fertility control” and so they are calling for experiments to find new ways to quickly sterilize America’s wild horses as a result. The Cattlemen’s have issued a statement against mare sterilization for their Pro-Kill agenda and you can read it here: https://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/315053204/Cattleman-Statement-Against-Mare-Sterilization-Exp Isn’t it time we pull back and fight for America’s wild horses to be protected so they can live in freedom not buy into an overpopulation myth to sterilize, kill or slaughter them.

Please sign and share these petitions:

Moratorium to Stop the Roundups: https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-studies

Stop sterilizations and Slaughter of 100,000 wild horses: https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-congress-president-stop-sterilization-slaughter-of-100-000-wild-horses-burros

Defund the Roundups: https://www.change.org/p/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups

Send a handwritten letter to your confessional representative and your 2 senators and include the top page of these 3 petitions. Ask them to protect them from being wrongfully treated as pests. Tell them people want to adopt wild horses but are discouraged because the Bureau of Land Management’s adoption program is a failure due to poor marketing and rotten customer service. Therefore the wild horses should not be punished for lazy government employees. Ask your elected officials to intervene on your behalf to stop halt all roundups and all fertility control–including experiments because there is no independent accurate census of wild horses and burros in the wild. Tell them to stop spending taxpayer funds to pull native wild horses off public land for commercial livestock grazing and welfare ranching. Let them know that all the wild horses and burros should be put back onto public land in herd areas that have little to no wild equids left and to stop killing predators to save taxpayers one billion dollars over the next 20 years. That is the truth.


This mare waits in the alley before being led into the chute where her age and body condition will be checked. After being treated with the PZP fertility control agent, this mare will be released back to the Owyhee HMA.

This mare waits in the alley before being led into the chute where her age and body condition will be checked. After being treated with the PZP fertility control agent, this mare will be released back to the Owyhee HMA.

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.