Tag Archives: Feinstein

Signatures needed to help America’s wild horses

Posted on by

Dianne_Feinstein,_official_Senate_photo

We are going to a meeting at Senator Dianne Feinstein‘s office soon and need your help to get more signatures on 3 important petitions:

1.) The DEFUND the ROUNDUPS PETITION http://www.change.org/petitions/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups

2.) SAVE OUR NATIVE WILD HORSES PETITION http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/save-our-native-wild

3.) PETITION for EMERGENCY SHELTER & SHADE http://www.change.org/petitions/bring-emergency-shelter-and-shade-to-captive-wild-horses-and-burros

Please help by sharing and emailing the two petitions to your friends and family. Thank you so much for helping America’s wild horses!

( Senator Feinstein photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Wild Horses & Burros and the law

Posted on by
Photo ©Rachel Anne Reeves all rights reserved

Photo ©Rachel Anne Reeves all rights reserved

Kathleen Hayden’s list

1. The 1971 Wild horse Act is superseded by the Wildlife Trust laws whose basis was the Magna Carta which can be seen in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

2. Changes in English common law enacted in 1641, ruled that the Magna Carta had settled the question of who owns fish and wildlife.

3. Wild horses and burros are no less “wild” animals than are the grizzly bears that roam our national parks and forests (Mountain States v. Hodel)neither the states of the federal government have the right to harm Our Heritage  Wildlife as found by Supreme court 1995 Ruling Babbit v.Sweet Home.

4. The Babbit v Sweet Home case found that The term “take” means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. 16 U.S.C. § 1532(19).

5.  By a 6-3 vote, the Court upheld the statutory authority of the Secretary of the Interior to include “habitat modification and degradation” as conduct which constitutes “harm” under the ESA.

In addition to the statutory provisions described above,

6. Section 5 of the ESA authorizes the Secretary to purchase the lands on which the survival of the species depends. Accordingly, Sweet Home maintained that this Section 5 authority was “the Secretary’s only means of forestalling that grave result [i.e. possible extinction).

7.  As a result, based upon “the text, structure, and legislative history of the ESA the Supreme Court concluded that “the Secretary reasonably construed the intent of Congress when he defined ‘harm’ to include ‘significant habitat modification or degradation that actually kills or injures wildlife species.

8.  Pursuant to BLM’s 2001 Special Status Species Policy requirement that “sensitive” species be afforded, at a minimum, the same protections as candidate species for listing under the ESA. It called on BLM managers to “obtain and use the best available information deemed necessary to evaluate the status of special status species in areas affected by land use plans . . . This statement by BLM was from the May 2003 Proposed Nevada Test and Training Range Resource Management Plan and Final EIS    Comment 87, BLM Response, pg. E-25″The issue of a wild horse as an invasive species is moot since the 1971 WHBA gave wild free-roaming horses “special” status based on their heritage of assisting man settle the “West”.

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

Posted on by
PM Wildland Fire Risk 2013

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

`

For immediate release:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

# # #

Media Contacts:

Anne Novak, 415.531.8454 Anne@Protect Mustangs.org

Kerry Becklund, 510.502.1913 Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org

Photos, video and interviews available upon request

Links of interest:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Protect Mustangs™: www.ProtectMustangs.org

Protect Mustangs™ on Facebook

Protect Mustangs™ on Twitter

Protect Mustangs™ on YouTube

Protect Mustangs™ in the News

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