Tag Archives: “chevaux sauvage”

Why does France TV 2 report mostly from the side of BLM and pro-slaughter advocates?

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PM Photo Wild Horses ©AdventureJournalist

The overpopulation myth is dangerous

Recently France TV 2 came to the American West to report on the “problems” caused by the “overpopulation” of wild horses. Someone either fed them the story or they did a little research on Google about American mustangs and found the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) authoritative spin, vast website and their new America’s Mustang campaign to get their overpopulation message out, couched with pretty pictures and enticing video footage of huge herds running, helicopter roundups, etc. making news reporting easy. What foreign journalists would think the BLM is lying about wild horses chasing cows away from water sources when they have so much “factual” material out there to back up their position that there are too many wild horses?

France TV 2 reports:

From: http://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/usa/video-les-chevaux-sauvages-se-reproduisent-trop-vite-un-probleme-pour-l-ouest-americain_949025.html

Synopsis Translation:

Wild horses reproduce too fast, a problem for the American West

The United States prohibits mustang slaughter but the same authorities want to limit their number to 25,000 although there are already 50,000 on the land

Mustangs are no longer welcome in the American West. Federal authorities ring the alarm for the overpopulation of wild horses on the land. There will be 150,000 in five years if nothing is done to stop their expansion. A bigger problem than the horses reproducing quickly and devouring everything on their path, according to the administration, is what is creating conflicts with certain ranchers.

2,000 horses were removed in 2015, an insufficient number

The Unites States prohibits slaughtering mustangs, but the same authorities want to limit their number to 25,000 but 50,000 mustangs are on the land. The ranchers who share the land with the wild horses won’t tolerate limited access to water sources in areas invaded by wild horses. The mustangs chase off their livestock.

In total, 2,000 chevaux were gathered in 2015, an insufficient number to reach the fixed objective, but the animal defenders call the process barbaric. Different methods have been launched without results, and that’s pushing the federal authorities to propose an award of one and a half million dollars to find a long lasting solution for the wild horse problem.

BLM’s spin dominates news report

Sadly the myths reported as truth in the France TV 2 news report were not countered effectively and the good counter points ended up in the trash. The journalists interviewed BLM staff on the range. They met with ranchers who push the overpopulation myth and are pro-slaughter–including Callie Hendricksen. They interviewed Carol Walker, photographer,  legal plaintiff and board member of Wild Horse Freedom Federation at a watering hole with a lot of mustangs. The journalists reported on training at a prison program with failed adoptions being the undertone. France TV 2 seems to have heard from all sides of the issue to be fair but who were their handlers? Was it Callie Hendrickson or BLM’s staff over at their America’s Mustang campaign? The news editor crafted the story from the materials shot in the field resulting in the BLM and pro-slaughter viewpoint out in front. The whole story focused on the alleged overpopulation of wild horses in a country that prohibits slaughter with the feds offering $1.5 million to whoever find the lasting solution for population control. Sounds like the BLM pitched this story to push their heinous agenda.

The French report shows the advocacy where we are losing the battle. . . We are split. . .  A portion of the advocacy is supporting the overpopulation myth and offering solutions to the false problem. Are there really too many native wild horses left in the wild?

Overpopulation must exist to justify radical zero growth fertility control measures such as PZP, castration, field spaying and slaughter

When wild horse groups support BLM’s overpopulation myth–with advocates pushing PZP as the “solution” to the “problem”–the overpopulation myth gets stronger and is eventually seen as truth. Reporting on myths as truth is a tactic used to sway public opinion–the second largest super power according to the President of the United States.

If we don’t all stand up to disprove the overpopulation myth then slaughter, sterilization and cruel roundups will be the end result.

PZP, made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries, is used for slow extermination because science proves it sterilizes after multiple use while the general public doesn’t notice. It’s a way to manage them to extinction, period. Proponents of the one foal only policy are jeopardizing survival of the species. What happens when the mare is sterilized through PZP applications and her “one foal” dies in the wild?

BLM has no accurate head counts of wild horses. The National Academy of Sciences stated in their 2013 report that there is “no evidence” of overpopulation, period.

Time to stand together

It’s time for all advocates to come together to protect wild horses. Together we are a mighty force for the wild ones.

I challenge all group leaders and advocates to put aside personal differences, break their contracts with BLM and agree to fight together to protect America’s wild horses for once and for all. Together we can do this.

Many blessings,

Anne

 

Anne Novak

Executive Director

www.ProtectMustangs.org

Contact@ProtectMustangs.org

 

Links of interest™:

France TV reports on the overpopulation problem: http://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/usa/video-les-chevaux-sauvages-se-reproduisent-trop-vite-un-probleme-pour-l-ouest-americain_949025.html

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

Outrage over secret documents planning to kill or slaughter 50,000 native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=777

Petition to Defund and Stop Wild Horse Roundups: https://www.change.org/p/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups

The Atlantic reports on Callie Hendrickson’s contentious appointment to represent the public on the Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board in 2012: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/the-lasso-tightens-around-americas-wild-horses/252948/

Callie Hendrickson: http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Callie-Hendrickson/277533708

EPA pesticide fact sheet on PZP: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf

Breaking News: 11-year-old on a mission to save America’s wild horses

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Protect Mustangs’ Youth Campaign Director, Robin Warren (Wild Mustang Robin) at the Rally to Stop the Roundups in Sacramento July 10, 2012. (Photo © Cat Kindsfather, media permission granted.)

Robin Warren leads youth campaign for Protect Mustangs


For immediate release:

SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (July 16, 2012)–Since joining Protect Mustangs in June as their new youth campaign director, Robin Warren, age 11, has met with a Nevada State Senator, documented wild horses on the range, was a featured speaker at the Stop the Roundups rally in California’s capital and gave oral comments at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) helicopter hearing also in the golden state. At the hearing, Warren presented the BLM representative with her Petition to Save Wild Mustangs asking the BLM to stop helicopter roundups.

“It’s not fair that the Bureau of Land Management has an exemption to the law that protects wild horses and burros,” states Robin Warren, youth campaign director for Protect Mustangs. “We want cruel helicopter roundups to stop and we want to make sure they always have access to clean water.”

The petition reads:

“We, the undersigned, do respectfully request that the Bureau of Land Management adhere to the same rules and regulations as the general public in regards to the humane treatment of wild horses and burros. We find it unreasonable that the Secretary of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, or any person or organization, is found to be exempt from our collective responsibility as humans to treat animals humanely. We further find it unreasonable that the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture are permitted to define “humane” as it pertains to their own areas of command. We respectfully request that the Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 be restored to its original intent, that no person or organization would be permitted to capture wild horses and burros by means of motorized vehicles, or by polluting or closing off watering holes, as these methods have been proven inhumane.”

Warren started the petition 3 years ago under her pen name Wild Mustang Robin–to stop the wild horse roundups. She was inspired to co-author the petition after reading “Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West” by Marguerite Henry.

She has been active in her hometown, Las Vegas, and over the internet to get signatures. After posting the petition online at Change.org she received signatures from 50 States, DC, Puerto Rico & and more than 30 countries.

At last week’s helicopter use hearing in Sacramento, Warren presented 2770 signatures from her petition to Amy Dumas, the BLM representative.”Kids don’t want to see wild horses in zoos,” states Warren. “We want to observe them roaming on the open range with their families.”

Warren’s speech at the BLM helicopter use hearing received a standing ovation from the audience.

“Robin speaks for the youth of America and touches people’s hearts across the nation,” says Anne Novak, executive director for Protect Mustangs. “She wants the wild horses to be protected–not harassed and torn from their families forever.”

# # #

Media Contacts:

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

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

Contact Protect Mustangs for interviews, photos or video

Mustang Robin hands Amy Dumas (BLM) the growing petition against helicopter roundups at the California BLM public hearing on helicopters for roundups, etc. in Sacramento July 10, 2012 (Photo © Cat Kindsfather, media permission granted.)

Wild Mustang Robin present petition to TriRAC BLM January 2012:

Links of interest:

Link to Robin’s petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-president-of-the-united-states-the-blm-is-not-exempt-from-humane-treatment-of-mustangs

Protest, press conference and public hearing information: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=1828

Celebrities speak out against wild horse roundups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLsS9r87tRk

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

Helicopter hearings and the public process: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=1498

Anne Novak on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/theAnneNovak

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

Link to this press release: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=125

Copy of Robin’s speech to BLM delivered as a letter at the hearing:

Robin Warren
Director of the Youth Program Protect Mustangs P.O. Box 5661 Berkley, CA 94705

Mike Pool
Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management
1849 C Street NW, Rm. 5665
Washington DC 20240

James G. Kenna & Amy Dumas
BLM Wild Horse and Burro State Director, and Program
California State Office
2800 Cottage Way, Suite W1834
Sacramento, CA 95825

July 10th, 2012

Re: Helicopter Roundups

Dear Messrs. Mike Pool and James Kenna and Ms. Amy Dumas;

Hi I am Wild Mustang Robin, Director of the Youth Campaign at Protect Mustangs; I came here today to talk about the mustangs.  I am happy see there are many people here who could come today to say no to the roundups.  First of all I would like to say the roundups are inhumane.  There is a law made by Wild Horse Annie saying you cannot use motorized vehicles to round up the wild horses.  If I – or even the President – was to round them up I would get arrested.  Now there is one interesting thing: the BLM gets an exemption even though it is a law not to use motorized vehicles.

Helicopters are like monsters to the mustangs; children do not want America’s animals to be scared or hurt in anyway. This makes kids feel unsafe because they don’t want to have monsters in their life and children are like animals (they don’t have a voice really). The helicopters are so scary that the mustangs remember the noise for the rest of their lives.  I went to the BLM holding facility in Sparks, NV and when we were walking a slow pace the horses got scared and ran away. They were scared of people walking – how do you think they feel about helicopters?

Another reason the roundups are inhumane is because they separate the families apart – the foals from the mothers and the mothers from the fathers. They might spend the rest of their lives behind gates and never see each other again.  Their ability to have families is a gift because many creatures have to let their babies live on their own after a few weeks of them taking care of them.  I know how it feels because I lost my whole family. I have found a new home and happiness but the mustangs may never get to be in a herd again – and they long for family. It is not humane to separate families from each other.  How would you feel if you lost your family?

A much more humane idea is to keep the family bands whole and send them all together to sanctuaries. It is an idea that would save money and make money as a tourist attraction – a business like a hotel near where the mustangs and burros live. This is a great idea and it can cost less than feeding, watering, and taking care of them when they can take care of themselves.  It could make money for all the states where mustangs still live – both yours and mine.

The mustangs and burros deserve to be treated right.  I know that and a numerous amount of others do too.  Many people care about the wild horses and burros and do not want any of them rounded up or eaten. There are the big names you know, that spoke before me, and then there are the “little names” you don’t know yet, like mine. I represent the voices of many children.

Please do not use helicopters or motorized vehicles for roundups or management. Please reconsider your roundup plans and let them live in freedom.

Sincerely,

Wild Mustang Robin (Robin Warren)

 

Terrified wild horses chased and shot with birth control

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

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

The questions remain:

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

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

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

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

Re-protect the indigenous wild horse.

 

Music 4 Mustangs

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Wise wild stallion (Photo © Cynthia Smalley, all rights reserved.)

Saving wild horses through music.

Music 4 Mustangs‘ is a Protect Mustangs project. The mission is to raise awareness to protect American wild horses today and for future generations. Through concerts and recorded music, we will be raising money to fund various projects on and off the range.

If you are with a band and want to get involved to play a benefit concert to save the mustangs contact us: Info@Music4Mustangs.org

Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Music4Mustangs

On the web: http://www.Music4Mustangs.org

We also need volunteers.

Outrage over secret documents planning to kill or slaughter 50,000 native wild horses  

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Nevada mustang © Carl Mrozek

Nevada mustang © Carl Mrozek

Preservation group asks for pro-slaughter activist to be replaced on national Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Panel

WASHINGTON (February 10, 2012)—Protect Mustangs asks Secretary Salazar, overseeing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to replace the pro-slaughter appointment of Callie Hendrickson, for the ‘General Public’ position on the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board with a neutral person. Hendrickson has a history of lobbying in support of slaughter and zeroing-out wild horses. Protect Mustangs is concerned that the BLM has given the green light to plans to kill and slaughter the more than 50,000 American wild horses taken off the range as revealed in secret documents including one found on Wikileaks.

“We are opposed to BLM’s outrageous decision to choose a pro-slaughter and anti-wild horse activist for the advisory board,” states Anne Novak, executive director for Protect Mustangs. “It is fiscally irresponsible to roundup and warehouse more than 50,000 wild horses but to slaughter and kill them is a heinous act.”

The preservation group and members of the public are gravely concerned the BLM is preparing to kill the 50,000 wild horses in holding according to secret reports from 2008 discovered by Dr. Pat Haight, President of the Conquistador Equine Rescue and Advocacy Program’s FOIA research. The report reveals planning for massive wild horse sales to slaughter and euthanasia on an epic scale that will wipe out the American wild horse.

Protect Mustangs recently learned about a Wikileak document titled Federal Lands Managed by the BLM and Forest Service issued to the 110th Congress in February 2009 discussing how to “dispose” of wild horses.

“In destroying the last wild horses, the U.S. government’s BLM is continuing to destroy the planet,” states Michael Blake author and Academy Award-winner for Dances with Wolves.

Protect Mustangs wants the BLM to honor their promise of ‘a new direction’—not continue to break the public’s trust.

“More than 80% of Americans are against horse slaughter,” explains Kerry Becklund, director of outreach for Protect Mustangs. “Wild horses are a national icon—they are beloved by the public from coast to coast.”

By taking the majority of wild horses off the land at great taxpayer expense, BLM created a fiscal problem. Some ask if it was to ‘help’ big business’ land grab. Now the mustangs are in the care of the BLM and killing them or selling them to slaughter is not supported by the American people.

“BLM is going against the public’s wishes by cruelly rounding up wild horses in secrecy and denying media access,” states Novak. “Are they now moving forward to slaughter and kill all the mustangs they took off the range? If so, this mustang massacre must be stopped.”

# # #

Media Contacts:

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

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

Links of interest:

Secret documents reveal plans to destroy America’s native wild horses in 2008:

http://bit.ly/wxph6e

http://bit.ly/zw4wLZ

Feb 2009 Wikileaks doc Federal Lands Managed by the BLM and Forest Service issued to the 110th Congress discuss how to “dispose” of wild horses: http://bit.ly/Asouv2

Petition to stop horse slaughter: http://chn.ge/ykkbJe

Science finds American wild horses are native: http://bit.ly/wPExYA

Hendrickson, the activist against wild horses: http://bit.ly/x4PpVG

AWHPC reports on advisory board stacked against mustangs: http://bit.ly/ypkkSL

ASPCA & independent poll shows Americans against horse slaughter: http://bit.ly/Acbi6n

Twitter @ProtectMustangs

Protect Mustangs on YouTube

Protect Mustangs in the News

www.ProtectMustangs.org

 

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




Mr President

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OBAMA poster © Lise Stampfli 2009

Thank you Lise Stampfli for creating the popular poster for the Stop the Roundups! launch of nationwide and international protests, conceived of and organized by Anne Novak, in San Francisco, December 2009, outside of Senator Feinstein’s office.

Wild horse supporters may use this poster at peaceful protests.

 

Helicopter chasing young wild horses

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Young wild horses are getting injured or killed after being rounded up. Stop the Roundup$.

Share the video, write letters to your senators and representatives to ask for what you want and make a donation so we can save some Calico Complex wild horses.

Let’s end this tragedy and have a Happy 2012!

AP: BLM chief in NV wants more eyes on roundups

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By SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press – 12/26/11

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Nevada is appealing to agency employees to step up and blow the whistle on any abuse of mustangs.

Amy Lueders said that’s the best way to stop horse protection advocates from undermining the agency’s roundup policies with video footage of the mistreatment of the animals and making it harder for federal land managers to win the public’s trust.

“Regardless of title, whether you are a contractor or law enforcement or public affairs, that’s everyone’s responsibility,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press.

In the past year, BLM has been taken to task by its own internal auditors, independent reviews, a U.S. district judge and camera-toting horse advocates.

A BLM task force that reviewed a roundup near the Nevada-Utah line in July found some mustangs were whipped in the face, kicked in the head, dragged by a rope around the neck and repeatedly shocked with electrical prods.

Twice this year, BLM has issued reports or statements pledging reforms to ensure humane treatment only to have videos of new incidents of mistreatment surface within days.

In the most recent case, this month, Ginger Kathrens was pointing her camera at the wranglers who appeared to be repeatedly shocking several burros with an electric prod.

The practice, called “hot-shotting,” is used to help move them into a pen or trailer and it was being employed the same day BLM chief Bob Abbey issued a report pledging more changes.

Among other things, the report said electrical prods should be used only as a last resort when human or animal safety is in jeopardy, and that they should never be used on a horse’s head or genitals.

“I thought it was ironic that while Bob Abbey was announcing the reforms I was filming the hot-shotting of the burros,” said Kathrens, an Emmy-award winning filmmaker who is the executive director of the Colorado-based Cloud Foundation, a nonprofit horse advocacy group.

Kathrens said she was about the length of two football fields away when, zooming in with her professional lenses, she captured the footage. The video showed the end points on the prods producing a shock when a wrangler lifted it into the air.

Most disturbing to Kathrens was that officials for the U.S. Agriculture Department and BLM were standing near the wranglers and witnessed the shocks but did nothing to interfere.

Kathrens said BLM officials told her privately they shared her concerns in that regard.

That’s where Lueders said agency workers have to do a better job.

Lueders delivered that message to several dozen employees in a video teleconference involving all of Nevada’s BLM offices last week, saying there’s no excuse for turning the other way if they get wind of any inhumane treatment of animals.

Lueders said, however, that it may be easier said than done when it comes to persuading workers to step up in what is often a controversial, and emotionally charged, situation.

But she said she believes her message got through.

“I made it very clear that is my expectation,” she said. “We have a lot of committed, passionate people here who care very much about the resource and the animals themselves. You can tell by that passion and professionalism that everyone takes it very seriously.”

Lisa Ross, a public affairs specialist for the BLM in Winnemucca, said Lueders’ words have been well received and will be taken seriously.

“It’s a very important message to hear,” Ross said. “It doesn’t mean that everything was wrong and now we are making it right. It’s just that it is important and everybody needs to be on the same page on this.”

About 33,000 wild horses freely roam 10 Western states — about half in Nevada. Another 41,000 are kept in government-funded facilities, including one in Herriman, Utah, that came under fire as a result of more video footage taken by horse protection advocates last spring.

A BLM task force asked to investigate issued a report in September confirming “unacceptable” conditions at the overcrowded facility where horses were forced to stand in a 4- to 8-inch deep mixture of mud and manure. BLM has since moved those animals elsewhere.

It was videotape of a helicopter either nudging or getting extremely close to a mustang in August during a roundup in northeast Nevada near the Utah line that prompted U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben to give BLM a stern lecture.

McKibben granted a temporary restraining order requiring helicopters to keep their distance from the galloping mustangs.

Lueders said it is important to remain open to criticism.

“I think we all learn more from each gather,” she said. “Each gather gives us another opportunity to improve what we do.”

Kathrens is among those who believe BLM officials are sincere and is optimistic real reform may soon follow on the range.

But Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs, based in Berkeley, Calif., isn’t so sure. She said there should be a moratorium on roundups until the agency proves they have mechanisms in place to guarantee safe and humane treatment of the horses.

“The BLM must take responsibility to train their contractors before turning wranglers loose with whips and cattle prods,” she said.