Wild horses are indigenous to North America. They will heal the land while creating biodiversity to balance out the surge of grazing, energy, mining and water projects on public land.
We understand your priority to foster the New Energy Frontier and therefore we ask you to find the win-win so America’s wild horses and burros–our living treasures–will not become extinct from the industrialization of western public lands.
It’s essential to leave viable herds (families) on public land so the wind horses and burros can reverse desertification because of their nature to forage and roam.
Predators will control the population as part of nature’s cycle and only the fittest will survive. This cuts out the cost of buying costly pharmaceuticals to control reproduction.
We know all the 51,000 wild horses in holding are at risk of going to slaughter and ask that they be returned to public land where they will cost the government almost nothing to live out their lives. Most male horses in holding have already been sterilized so they will not be able to reproduce.
We oppose creating additional herds of sterile wild horses as they don’t exhibit wild horse behaviors and could threaten the indigenous horse with extinction.
We stand with thousands of Americans to respectfully ask you to stop the cruel wild horse and burro roundups, so that an accurate accounting of horses on the range can take place and alternative sustainable management techniques could be applied to save the indigenous horse.
We thank you in advance for becoming a hero for America’s indigenous horses.
America’s open range was often used by free grazers (nomadic cowboys with herds of cattle) until ranchers put up fences and threatened free grazers. Ranchers felt entitled to public land that they did not own but used.
Kevin Costner’s film OPEN RANGE illustrates the mentality that continues today–the mentality against sharing public land with America’s indigenous wild horse.
Write a hand written letter to your senators and representative asking them to stop funding cruel helicopter roundups. Let them know you want viable herds on the range and for the BLM to stop skewing the male-female ratios, allow predators to manage the herds as nature intended so risky fertility control drugs aren’t needed.
Your letters will make a big impact. Politicians realize one hand written letter voices the opinion of one thousand people.
Send us a copy of your hand written letters so we can take them with us to Washington. Please mail them to: Protect Mustangs, P.O. Box 5661, Berkeley, Ca. 94705
Thank you for doing what you can do to help the wild horses and burros!
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.”
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.
The Sacramento Stop the Roundups Rally and Press Conference is at 2 p.m. July 10th on the sidewalk outside the Federal Courthouse across from the Amtrak station. ( 501 ” I ” Street at the 5th Street intersection in Sacramento, CA 95814)
Here is a list of speakers:
Carla Bowers, National Wild Horse Advocate
Tina Brodrick, Owner of Sonny Boys Tours
Craig Downer, Wildlife Biologist and acclaimed Wild Horse and Burro Expert
Terri Farley, Award winning writer and beloved author of The Phantom Stallion series
Cat Kindsfather, Award winning wild horse photographer
Marilyn Kroplick, MD, Board President for In Defense of Animals
Simone Netherlands, President of Respect for Horses
Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs
Jetara Séhart, Executive Director of Native Wild Horse Protection & Marin Mustangs
Robin Warren (Wild Mustang Robin), Director of The Youth Campaign for Protect Mustangs
Bring homemade signs and your friends. It will be hot so bring a rain umbrella for shade and plenty of water. Protect Mustangs encourages members of the public to carpool or take Amtrak to save on fuel and reduce pollution. Oil and gas extraction–on public land–is one of the main reasons wild horses are being wiped off their home on the range. Be part of the solution and take the train if you can.
The voiceless wild horses and burros need your help after the rally too. Give oral or written comment against helicopter roundups and attend the 6:30 pm BLM Wild Horse & Burro Helicopter/Vehicle Use Public Hearing for roundups and management. The meeting runs from 6:30-8:30 PM at the Woodlake Hotel (formerly the Radisson near Arden Fair Mall) 500 Leisure Lane in Sacramento.
Please CALL the Capitol switchboard today at (202) 224-3121. Ask to be connected to your state Representative’s office. Ask them to NOT fund helicopter roundups.
“Dead horses are a result of this roundup fiasco,” states Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs. “The BLM should have brought wild horses aid (water and feed) for several months to avoid an emergency ‘gather’ during foaling season. Who’s giving the orders to stampede frail wild horses and tiny foals?”
“Counting the dead from a roundup is basic math,” says Novak. “All the wild horses who died or were killed from lethal injection as a result of the BLM’s Jackson Mountain roundup should be counted as roundup-related deaths. Not counting the dead properly shows the BLM’s lack of transparency.”
“The federal agency wants to make Congress feel the roundups don’t cause many deaths so they skew the numbers to ensure their funding won’t be cut off,” explains Novak. “We request that Congress investigate their erroneous death count.”
“So many wild horses die because of roundups yet the BLM does not count the deaths accurately,” explains Anne Novak, Executive Director of the California-based Protect Mustangs. “Congress hears that there is only a 1% death rate at ‘gathers’. We want transparency and accountability for all the deaths at roundups.”
“If a horse is chased by a helicopter for miles and miles, then while in a trap pen terrified with plastic tied on to whips, slammed into a metal panel, next shoved into a trailer and transported to another holding facility and is put down a day or two afterwards—it is related to the roundup,” says Novak. “If Old Gold had not been rounded up, I bet she would be alive today.”
BLM has done nothing to improve transparency since then. The subterfuge continues . . .
Contact your elected officials and ask them to intervene to make this cruel roundup become transparent with correct death counts.
Thank you for doing what you can do to stop the roundups.
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A federal judge in Nevada has temporarily banned the Bureau of Land Management from using helicopters to gather many of the hundreds of mustangs targeted in a roundup that’s already under way about 150 miles northeast of Reno.
U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben granted part of a temporary restraining order late Wednesday. Horse protection advocates who sought the order say the BLM’s own rules prohibit helicopter roundups during foaling season.
McKibben says he’ll allow the activity to continue in the southern half of the Jackson Mountains because BLM has proven there’s an emergency due to drought. But he says that emergency doesn’t stretch to the northern half of the gather area covering hundreds of square miles.
He says no helicopters can be used there at least until the foaling season ends July 1.
Carl Mrozek, an American journalist and filmmaker from New York, believes his civil liberties were violated while filming a controversial Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild burro roundup near Yuma, Arizona. After his footage from a previous roundup aired on AZ TV newscasts—showing a helicopter chasing a burro and flipping it over—BLM employees began harassing him. Then one day, in 103 degree weather, things got worse. His camera was ripped from his hands, he was manhandled, handcuffed and detained in a ranger vehicle until he passed out and was rushed to the emergency room. The BLM searched his belongings and took his video footage—all without his permission. Carl needs your help with airline miles and donations towards defending his civil liberties. Thank you for helping Carl stand up and fight this. Donate to eagleye@localnet.com via Paypal. Every dollar received will help fight this.
