International News: American wild horse advocates seek freeze on roundups

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Protect Mustangs

New Zealand paper reports:

The Bureau of Land Management is wiping out America’s wild horses,” says Anne Novak, executive director of the group. “We need to stop the roundups and protect our native wild horses.”

Protect Mustangs described the appropriate herd management level of 138 for the area as out of date and lacking in scientific merit.

“We must ensure native wild horses can survive upcoming environmental changes,” Novak says.

“The minimum population for a genetically variable herd is 150. Why are PZP advocates and the BLM allowing wild horse herds to fall below safe numbers?”

Read the full article here: http://horsetalk.co.nz/2014/11/03/american-wild-horse-advocates-seek-freeze-roundups/#axzz3HzasTBgg

PZP advocates put wild horses at risk of sterilization after roundup

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Protect Mustangs

Protect Mustangs calls for a freeze on roundups for scientific reevaluation

Tonopah, NV (October 31, 2014)–The Battle Mountain District, Tonopah Field Office is rounding up about 120 wild horses from within the Reveille Allotment and Herd Management Area (HMA) located approximately 50 miles east of Tonopah, NV to remove alleged excess wild horses on 600,000 acres of public land.

“The BLM is wiping out America’s wild horses and taxpayers are paying for the abuse,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “We need to stop the roundups and protect our native wild horses.”

The roundup will stampede native wild horse families by helicopter over a fragile ecosystem and possible sage grouse habitat in the Great Basin Desert. Often wild horses are injured and die in roundups. The treacherous roundup is paid for with tax dollars, and began October 30, 2014. Most herds need to be rounded up before given PZP.

After the roundup, approximately 70 wild horses will be permanently removed, 60 wild horses will be sent to holding facilities in Ridgecrest, California and about 10 horses will be offered for adoption after the roundup in Tonopah, NV on November 8. The remaining 50 wild horses will be released back into the HMA for a post roundup population of 98 wild horses, putting the survivors at risk. The minimum number for genetic variability is 150 wild horses.

Often the BLM returns wild horses with conformation defects to the range, instead of placing them in adoptive homes or long-term holding where they will not breed. Apparently the agency doesn’t realize that by returning wild horses with defects they will ruin the breeding pool. The BLM claims mares selected to maintain herd characteristics will be released back to the HMA. The public must watchdog the agency to ensure wild horses with defects are pulled from the breeding pool and rehomed. Euthanizing them is not an option supported by the American public.

The informed public is outraged over an EPA approved restricted use pesticide called PZP, made from pigs ovaries, to be used on native wild horses. PZP advocates campaign rigorously to treat mares with the Porcine Zona Pellucidae (PZP-22) in order to temporarily sterilize mares. PZP advocates hail the use of PZP in spite of the fact that wild horses are underpopulated on millions of acres of public land.

Experimental research on ovary damage in mares given the immunocontraceptive PZP is used to hone the drug for eventual human use. This could be where the “follow the money” piece fits in. Wild horse advocates are furious America’s herds are being used as lab rats. Science has proven the drug sterilizes wild horses after multiple use. PZP advocates are pushing for BLM to manage wild horses “in the wild” using these risky drugs.

The devastation of wild horses in the Reveille Allotment appears to be subject to a 1987 District Court Order and two orders issued by the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) in 2001 and 2002, requiring BLM conduct an annual inventory of wild horses in the Reveille Allotment and initiate a roundup to remove alleged excess native horses from the Allotment when the inventory shows that population numbers exceed the out of date Appropriate Management Level (AML) of 138 horses.

Current AML does not represent healthy herd populations and lacks scientific merit. AML must be updated to ensure healthy herds remain on public land. The herd census must never fall below 150 wild horses to maintain genetic variability.

The current estimated population, based on previous inventory flights is 168 wild horses, according to BLM. This is the low end of the genetic viability scale. The orders need to be challenged based on scientific reevaluation of wild horses benefiting the ecosystem as a native species, livestock causing range damage and the minimum number of wild horses needed for genetic variability.

“We must ensure native wild horses can survive upcoming environmental changes,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “The minimum population for a genetically variable herd is 150. Why are PZP advocates and the BLM allowing wild horse herds to fall below safe numbers?”

According to a press release from National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released June 5, 2013, “The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) current practice of removing free-ranging horses from public lands promotes a high population growth rate, and maintaining them in long-term holding facilities is both economically unsustainable and incongruent with public expectations,” says a new report by the National Research Council.

The NAS report states there is “no evidence” of overpopulation. Only tobacco science and spin backs up BLM’s population claim to justify roundups and fertility control/sterilizations. PZP advocates lobbied NAS to have fertility control recommended even though the herds are underpopulated.

Roundup activities within the Reveille HMA were analyzed in the 2010 Reveille HMA Wild Horse Gather Plan and Environmental Assessment (EA) and the 2014 Reveille Wild Horse Gather Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA). The EA, DNA, and Decision Record can be accessed on the Reveille Wild Horse Gather website: http://on.doi.gov/10qLBlh.

Members of the public are encouraged to witness the helicopter stampede and document America’s icons losing their freedom to spread awareness that cruel roundups must stop. Observation protocols and visitor information are available at http://on.doi.gov/1xAMeTp. The BLM will post updates, photos and other information about the roundup on the Reveille website and on the hotline at 775-861-6700 throughout the course of the roundup.

The BLM is wiping out wild horses for the extractive industry and New Energy Frontier in the West. The agency manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM focuses on their mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2013, the BLM generated $4.7 billion in receipts from public lands.

BLM’s roundups disturb the thriving natural ecological balance by disturbing habitat dynamics. This crime against nature causes abnormally high birthrate and puts native wild horses at risk of inbreeding.

“We are calling for an immediate freeze on roundups and removals for scientific reevaluation,” states Novak. “Right now native wild horses are at risk of being ruined by bad policy.”

Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of native and wild horses. The group is against using PZP in the wild. Today most wild herds are threatened with low numbers and a lack of genetic variability. Using PZP in a sanctuary setting where acreage is limited is a different situation. Wild horses must not be managed in the wild as if they were a zoo exhibit.

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Links of interest™:

Info on PZP sterilizing mares: The Effects of Porcine Zona Pellucida Immunocontraception on Health and Behavior of Feral Horses (Equus caballus), Princeton http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01vt150j42p

Princeton study on the pros and cons of adoption and immunocontraception: http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/IEC.Rubenstein.pdf Not sure about EWA’s position on PZP now they might have embraced it like some others have.

Jamie Jackson’s piece on PZP: http://protectmustangs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/PM-Jamie-Jackson-Using_Science_to_Improve_the_BLM_Wild_Horse_and_Burro_Program.pdf

Management of Wild Horses with Porcinezona Pellucida Pellucide: History, Consequences and Future Strategies, Cassandra M.V. Nuñez, Princeton: http://bit.ly/1rJywKl

Restricted use pesticide info: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-de info: Jan-12.pdf

Injection-Site Reactions in Wild Horses (Equus caballus) Receiving an Immunocontraceptive Vaccine, By James E. Roelle and Jason I. Ransom, http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2009/5038/

Pilot project to treat wild horses in Fish Springs community: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/info/newsroom/2014/april/blm_approves_pilot.html

and http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/media/pzp-pilot-project-treat-wild-horses-fish-springs-community

BLM Nevada Advisory Council Endorses Fertility Control Plan (Oct. 20, 2014) http://www.returntofreedom.org/blm-nevada-advisory-council-endorses-fertility-control-plan-october20-2014/

BLM partners with The Cloud Foundation in the Pryors: http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/mt/main_story.Par.31432.File.dat/TopStoryHorse.pdf

Why end natural selection in the Pryors? http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4941

Are wild horses at risk of being sterilized due to an advocacy campaign? http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6356

Ecologist Craig Downer speaks out against using PZP in the Pryors: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4178

Horse contraceptive study raises concerns Horsetalk, NZ: http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2010/10/220.shtml#ixzz3Hti8ioCv

Appeal to stop the wild horse wipe out: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6527

The Horse and Burro as Positively Contributing Returned Natives in North America by Craig Downer PhD candidate: http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo.aspx?journalid=118&doi=10.11648/j.ajls.20140201.12

Wild Horse Conspiracy by Craig Downer: www.amazon.com/dp/1461068983

Conformation defects: http://www.thehorse.com/articles/10115/conformation-in-horses

Genetic viability: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_viability

Genetic variability: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_variability

J. Kirkpatrick team get $100K for wild horse fertility control drug PZP: http://tuesdayshorse.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/jay-kirkpatrick-team-get-100k-for-wild-horse-fertility-control-drug-pzp/

Making PZP at The Science and Conservation Center: http://www.sccpzp.org

Native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

Petition for shelter and shade for captive wild horses and burros: http://www.change.org/p/bring-emergency-shelter-and-shade-to-captive-wild-horses-and-burros

Petition for 10 year moratorium on wild horse roundups for recovery and studies: https://www.change.org/p/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-studies

Petition to defund and stop the wild horse roundups: http://www.change.org/p/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups

Join the Walking Billboard Campaign to STOP THE ROUNDUPS in Nevada: https://www.booster.com/protect-mustangs-nevada

Sample of viral news clippings: https://newsle.com/AnneNovak

Anne Novak on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak

Protect Mustangs on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProtectMustangs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

www.ProtectMustangs.org

BLM Ely, Nevada, district to roundup native wild horses

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Protect Mustangs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AP reports: Feds to gather nuisance mustangs in Nevada

Posted on October 23, 2014 by Protect Mustangs

Well it is Mercury Retrograde which can cause some communication glitches so it’s no surprise it happened to me today in the Associated Press article, Feds to Gather Nuisance Mustangs in Nevada. It seems an important word is missing from what I said. The word ‘nuisance’ was edited out and not by the reporter. Here is how the article reads:

Anne Novak, executive director of the California-based horse advocacy group Protect Mustangs, acknowledged the roundups are legal under the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971. But she said the ranchers are “grabbing at straws to remove native wild horses.”

“If people are going to live outside the city and don’t want wild horses and other wild animals eating their grass, then they need to pay for fencing with their own money, not expect another government handout,” Novak said.

This is what I said specifically about the nuisance roundup:

The nuisance roundup is allowed in the 1971 Act. It seems like the ranchers who want wild horses removed are jumping on the bandwagon. I’d like to see ranchers work with wild horse advocates to find the win-win. After all “wildlife and cows can be partners, not enemies in search for food” according to Princeton University’s Dan Rubinstein. http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/93/41K10/index.xml?section=featured It’s time to stop the fighting and focus on improving range-land health. Old grazing practices can be improved with holistic land management incorporating America’s wild herds.

You can read the corrected version in the Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1DKtvc5

A big thank you to the Associated Press for reporting on America’s wild horses!

Anne Novak

#WildHorseWednesday TAKE ACTION Foals are Dying at the Roundup!

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Protect Mustangs

Launching the 3 Stamps Campaign on Wild Horse Wednesday™

URGENT: Wild foals need your help today! Some have already died in the heinous BLM Checkerboard roundup. The other foals are suffering from the trauma of being chased by choppers and ripped off their home on the range. Their family bands have been broken and they cry out for their papas and the rest of their family.

YOU can help them by writing three handwritten letters before midnight strikes: one to your representative and one to each of your senators. Politely request all roundups stop because the foals are being traumatized. They are babies and too young to endure the torment and cruelty.

All it costs is 3 stamps. Mail your handwritten letters to your elected officials tomorrow morning. You will find their contact information here: http://bit.ly/1ihTCwj

Speak out for the foals and demand the taxpayer funded abuse STOP now!

Photo: s.noll : Foter : CC BY-NC-SA

Read more here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=7209

Twitter hashtags: #WildHorseWednesday #StopWyRoundup

We are 100% volunteer nonprofit organization. Donate here to help protect mustangs and feed wild horses we have rescued from the slaughterhouse.

Wild Horse Wednesday™ is one of Protect Mustangs’ education and outreach programs

BREAKING NEWS: Call for Wyoming boycott and protests against roundups to frack the land for oil and gas

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Protect Mustangs

Protect Mustangs.org (Photo © Cat Kindsfather)

for immediate release

BREAKING NEWS: Call for Wyoming boycott and protests against roundups to frack the land for oil and gas

Native wild horses are facing destruction in the face of climate change with no evidence of overpopulation to justify BLM roundups

Rock Springs, WY. (September 21, 2014)–-The public is outraged more indigenous wild horses are being rounded up and permanently removed from public land for the water and fracking land grab. Protect Mustangs is calling for protests to stand up for American wild horses and for a tourism boycott targeted at Wyoming who promotes “Roam Free” in their marketing yet ignores wild horses in their state. More than 800 Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells wild horses are being rounded up from the public-private land known as the “Checkerboard” in southwest Wyoming. The Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) took the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to court to push the roundup through. Wild horses are terrified by choppers, their families ripped apart, forced into inhumane captivity, be at-risk for going to slaughter and forever lose their freedom to roam and contribute to the ecosystem. Several wild horses have already died brutal deaths in the roundup–some victims were only a few months old.

“Fracking for oil and gas is polluting the environment and wiping out America’s wild horses,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “The BLM must leave at least 150 wild horses in each herd to maintain genetic variability so they can adapt to the effects of climate change. It’s time for clean energy that can coexist with wildlife.”

BLM describes one large fracking project, Continental Divide-Creston, in saying, “The project is located on 1.1 million acres in the checkerboard pattern of mixed land ownership comprised of 59 percent federal, 37 percent private and 4 percent state-owned land. The eastern boundary of the project is approximately 25 miles west of Rawlins, Wyo. with the western boundary approximately 50 miles east of the city of Rock Springs.”

Field reports allege the BLM has inflated the population guesstimates to justify removals requested by the RSGA.

There is no evidence of overpopulation according to the National Academy of Sciences’ 2013 report.

On the other hand, internationally acclaimed wildlife biologist Craig Downer points out “much evidence exists for horse presence in the Americas, especially North America, during the post- Pleistocene and pre-Columbian period at dates scattered through the period beginning ca. 10,000 YBP and reaching very near to 1492 A.D. [Craig C. Downer, The Horse and Burro as Positively Contributing Returned Natives in North America, American Journal of Life Sciences. Vol. 2, No. 1, 2014, pp. 5-23. doi: 10.11648/j.ajls.20140201.12]

“Native wild horses are a vanishing natural resource,” states Novak. “People need to stand up for what’s right. Innocent foals are dying in this roundup and that’s wrong.”

Protect Mustangs is calling for an immediate moratorium on roundups and removals for scientific population studies and holistic management. Advocates want to see genetically viable herds on public land but the BLM prefers to cater to the extractive industry who wants number so low wild horses will die off.

“Tourists come to Wyoming to observe wild horse families in their native habitat, so why are they going to decimate these herds?” asks Novak. “The tag line at the Wyoming tourism office is ‘Roam Free‘ but they are taking away native wild horses’ freedom forever. The public is angry and wants to boycott Wyoming tourism.”

The Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek herd management areas (HMAs) total approximately 2,427,220 acres with approximately 1,2427,220 acres in the Checkerboard. The roundup held up in court recently due to the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) Consent Decree ordered by the U.S. District Court on April 3, 2013, to remove all wild horses from private lands within the checkerboard portion of the complex in 2013. The RSGA appears to be heavily involved with energy development.

Members of the public are encouraged to watch GASLAND 2, contact their elected officials, peacefully protest the roundup and join America’s growing anti-fracking movement to stop the devastation of native wild horse habitat.

Protect Mustangs is a grassroots conservation nonprofit 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.

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Media Contacts:

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

Tami Hottes, 618-790-4339, Tami@ProtectMustangs.org

Photos, interviews and video available upon request

Links of interest™:

American Journal of Life Sciences: The Horse and Burro as Positively Contributing Returned Natives in North America http://bit.ly/1rV9tpr

Wild Free Roaming Horse & Burro Act http://1.usa.gov/1utVtmL

More foals die in Wyoming’s Checkerboard roundup: http://bit.ly/1wEU6Ua

NEPA: http://bit.ly/1B0e9Nd

GASLAND 2: http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/

BLM Oil & Gas leases: http://on.doi.gov/1sS8l3Z

National Academy of Sciences report on Wild Horses and Burros: http://bit.ly/1sT6agA

Protect Mustangs Calls for Fund for Wyoming Wild Horses (Horseback Magazine) http://bit.ly/1ylmS0s

Continental Divide-Creston: http://on.doi.gov/1uc04gX

Continental Divide-Creston expansion http://bit.ly/1pnSNmt

Defund the Roundups Petition: http://chn.ge/1sAAQHa

Petition for a 10 year moratorium on roundups for recovery and studies: http://chn.ge/1rdhXZ2

Don’t Frack Wild Horse Land Petition: http://chn.ge/1rdDzEV

Petition for shade and shelter for captive wild horses & burros: http://chn.ge/1DriOvN

PZP (birth control) sterilizes temp to perm and is a pesticide: http://bit.ly/1mzsP4Z

Link to BLM Wyoming Wild Horse and Burro Program: http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/Wild_Horses.html

Wyoming Tourism Office: http://www.wyomingtourism.org

Roundup footage & abuse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF49csCB9qM

www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs is a national nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.

Thank you for your comments they will be posted soon.

#StopWyRoundup Now!

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Protect Mustangs

Protect Mustangs and their members are calling for Congress to intervene and stop the CRUEL helicopter roundup happening in Wyoming right now!

STOP the Cruelty! #StopWyRoundup Tweet it. Contact your elected officials until this roundup stops! Meet with them. Email them and write handwritten letters requesting they stop using federal tax dollars to pay for this Wyoming roundup and others! You can find their contact information here: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

TAKE ACTION! Peacefully protest. Write letters to the editor of your hometown paper. Remember the WY roundup is happening because PRIVATE landowners are requesting wild horses be removed from PRIVATE land but the corrupt BLM is taking them off all the Checkerboard (public & private) because the richest grazing association in the country doesn’t fence out their private property yet they complain there are too many federally protected wild horses.

The truth will reveal itself in a couple of years when the Checkerboard is swarming with fracked oil and gas wells, the ground water is poisoned and the grazing association has been busted as a Big Oil and Gas front group. Industrialization of the West is wiping out our iconic wild horses. Tell YOUR elected officials NO!

Help us get to Wyoming to watchdog the roundup

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Protect Mustangs

HELP us get to the Wyoming Checkerboard Roundup to WATCHDOG the situation and take action to prevent animal cruelty. Please donate via www.PayPal.com to Contact@ProtectMustangs.org or by mail to Protect Mustangs, P.O. Box 5661, Berkeley, Ca. 94705 Mark “Watchdog WY” on your donation. Frequent flyer miles will help too. We also need a used mac laptop and camera for journey. Thank you so much!

Background: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/court-sides-with-wyoming-in-wild-horse-roundup/article_7c23d57a-3059-597a-b3c0-3249958dc98f.html

Follow https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs for info and go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wild-Horses-In-Wyoming-Need-Help/587758424612113 to HELP the WY wild horses who will lose their freedom, their families and their place in the world in this heinous BLM roundup.

Tweet this: #StopWyRoundup Now! Get 2 WY. Meet w/ your Rep. Write letters. Protest. Get creative against #AnimalCruelty www.ProtectMustangs.org

We are 100% volunteer nonprofit organization. When you give to Protect Mustangs your donations go directly to feed and care for rescued wild horses, field and watchdog work, gas and to keep the phone and internet on. You can donate via www.PayPal.com to Contact@ProtectMustangs.org or by mail to Protect Mustangs, P.O. Box 5661, Berkeley, Ca. 94705 We are grateful for your support. You keep us going.

500 walking billboards needed to save American wild horses & burros

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Protect Mustangs

JOIN the 500 Walking Billboard Campaign to STOP the ROUNDUPS! Go here now to get your t-shirt: https://www.booster.com/protect-mustangs Wear the t-shirt and gift them to friends and family to help spread awareness!

Remember to share widely because Sharing is Caring. Thank you for taking action to educate the public that taxpayer funded roundups are cruel and must stop!

SHARE if you want to STOP ALL ROUNDUPS!

The campaign is ending soon: https://www.booster.com/protect-mustangs All money raised goes to feed and care for wild horses in our Outreach Program. We are 100% volunteer.

Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs/photos/a.240625045996522.58710.233633560029004/748930115166010/?type=1&theater

www.ProtectMustangs.org is a nationwide grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving native and wild horses.

Native wild horses are not pests ~ Stop managing them to extinction

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Protect Mustangs

Dear Friends of Wild Horses and Burros

Protect Mustangs is a national nonprofit organization making grassroots count. Our mission is to protect and preserve native and wild horses. Besides engaging mostly in outreach and education about the wild horse crisis, we advocate for holistic land management, self-sustaining herds and reserve design. We are calling for a 10 year moratorium on roundups for the herds to recover from the roundups and for studies to form good management plans. Right now there are no accurate census counts on the range so we don’t even have a clear picture of the few wild horses left living in freedom.

Our members don’t see an overpopulation or “excess” of wild horses on public land, even if the population is over BLM’s biased appropriate management level (AML). Livestock outnumbers wild horses more than 50 to 1 on the range. Yet wild horses are always scapegoated for damage by special interest groups.

We are deeply concerned that the use of FDA approved “restricted use pesticides” such as PZP–an immunocontraceptive made from pig ovaries that people call birth control–sterilizes mares after multiple uses and should never be used on nonviable herds, those herds with less than 150 wild horses. Genetic diversity is essential for survival and using PZP surely will curtail that. There is one herd in Nevada currently being treated by wild horse advocates that seems to have less than 50 wild horses. This worried us.

Wild horses are a native species and not pests. Sadly there are factions who are treating wild horses as individuals and ignoring the herd element and other factions treating wild horses as invasive pests.

Despite decades of experimental research on wild mares, the FDA would not approve PZP as safe. Eventually the EPA approved it as a restricted use pesticide. You can see the pesticide fact sheet here: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf

How can drugging mares with restricted use pesticides be honoring their freedom? Most of the time the BLM will need to round them up to dart them anyway. You can hear the BLM official speak about that here: http://www.thespectrum.com/videos/news/local/cedar-city/2014/08/06/13698391/

We are also concerned PZP and other sterilants affect behavior and that mares will be subjected to live in unnatural situations.

Ruining survival of the fittest and natural selection is our biggest concern if man chooses who breeds and how many foals are born. The herds must adapt to upcoming environmental and climate changes in order to survive, therefore genetic variability is essential at this pivotal time.

You can read about PZP on these various posts: http://protectmustangs.org/?s=PZP+&submit=Search

Here you can read about Gonacon on these posts: http://protectmustangs.org/?s=gonacon&submit=Search

This is also a good post to read about the ISPMB and Princeton study that shows wild horse herds with functional social structures contribute to low herd growth compared to BLM managed herds: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6057

You can search other topics you might have questions about in our search bar too: http://protectmustangs.org

We are 100% volunteer and are working to help the wild horses without any conflict of interest as far as we can tell. We do not receive funding from influencers, corporations or organizations connected with the drug PZP, the pharmaceutical industry, Big Oil and Gas or other energy, ranching and mining sources. That’s why your donations are so important.

Our vision is to speak out for the voiceless, stop the BLM from being cruel to wild horses and work towards a solution for healthy management keeping wild horses on the range based on good science. We have a petition out for the 10 year moratorium on all roundups. Please sign and share it here: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-studies

Thank you for reaching out to us. It’s important to do the research and find the answer for yourself so you can feel good about taking action to help save the last of the wild horses and burros.

We are grateful you care so deeply about saving America’s wild ones.

Many blessings,
Anne

Anne Novak
Executive Director
Protect Mustangs
San Francisco, California

Read about native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak
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www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs is a national nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.

Protect Mustangs™

Forever wild and free™

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