Forest Service seeks contactor to take Sheldon wild horses

Public Land and Desert Sky (Photo © Anne Novak, all rights reserved.)

Public Land and Desert Sky (Photo © Anne Novak, all rights reserved.)

Reference number: F14PS00185
Issue date: 02/05/2014
Response due: 03/19/2014 05:00 PM PT

The USFWS is actively seeking qualified Contractors to receive, care for, and find long-term homes for up to 500 feral wild horses and/or burros per year. Contractors may receive horses for placement each year for up to four years. Horses will be captured and removed by the USFWS from the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, Denio, NV (Humboldt County). Award will be made to multiple Contractors. Pricing will be based on a per-animal fixed price. Interested contractors must be registered in SAM (System for Award Management) at http://www.sam.gov and complete Online Representations and Certifications (ORCA) at http://www.bpn.gov. This solicitation will be posted to http://www.fedconnect.net on 02/18/14. All technical questions are to be directed to John Kasbohm at (541) 947-3315 and contractual questions to Shannon Blackburn at (503) 872-2825. PROJECT INFORMATION: The successful contractor(s) shall perform scope of work as specified in the Statement of Work.

Set Aside: N/A
NAICS: 813312-Environment, Conservation and Wildlife Organizations
PSC / FSC: F019-NATURAL RESOURCES/CONSERVATION- OTHER WILDLIFE MAN

Contracting office:

FWS, DIVISION OF CONTRACTING AND GE
EASTSIDE FEDERAL COMPLEX
911 NE 11TH AVENUE
PORTLAND, OR 97232-4181

Contact: SHANNON BLACKBURN
Phone:
Fax:
Email: shannon_blackburn@fws.gov

https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/PublicPages/PublicSearch/Public_Opportunities

Wild & Free not Slaughtered

Protect Mustangs.org

Protect Mustangs.org

Contact your elected officials. Go meet with them to respectfully request they stop horse slaughter, stop transport to horse slaughter and ensure America’s wild horses never go to slaughter again!

We need your help to sponsor wild horses, help with pasture rental, help purchase hay, help buy panels for 2 round pens and shelters, help with the cost to repair fencing, help cover veterinary and transport costs so we can save more wild horses and care for the ones in our outreach program. We are 100% volunteer and donate our time gentling and caring for the wild horses. All money donated goes directly to help the wild horses. Every dollar counts. Please help!

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Did you know America’s wild horses are indigenous?

Indigenous horses

Science and technology have proven America’s wild horses are native to this land. Their scientific name is E. caballus. Paleontological data shows that E. caballus originated in North America between one and two million years ago. DNA analysis shows the origin to be 1.7 million years ago.

Although we’ve been taught that America’s wild horses were brought over by the Spanish after a period of Ice Age extinction, today this belief is being challenged by new scientific discoveries, migration research, Native American history and contemporary investigations into the Spanish Inquisition’s censorship about the Americas. For example, the Equus scotti fossil, recently found near Las Vegas, has caused scientists to revise their thinking on the extinction and evolution of horses in America.

Even so, the BLM, the Bureau of Land Management within the Department of the Interior, refuses to acknowledge wild horses as native wildlife because they would be forced to change their management practices which are now biased toward the extractive and livestock industries.

The federal agency claims that there are too many wild horses leading to overgrazing when the truth is that commercial livestock has been documented to cause range damage.

The National Academy of Sciences reported in June 2013 that there is no evidence of overpopulation to back up the BLM’s claims for removals.

Management decisions must be based on good science. Without population studies there is no good science.

Currently wild horses are reproducing at a higher rate because they fear extinction from excessive roundups harvesting the herds since 2009. That was the same year the New Energy Frontier projects were fast-tracked for public land–the land where native wild horses live.

Population studies are essential now before it’s too late. Today, 90% of wild horse herds are not genetically viable. They are in danger of being wiped out.

America needs an intervention to save native wild horses including a moratorium on roundups, removals and population interference. We must begin scientific population studies before we loose America’s indigenous horses forever.

Contact your elected officials today. Ask them for an immediate moratorium on roundups, removals and fertility interferences for urgent population studies. Science must guide the management of America’s indigenous wild horses or they will be managed to extinction.

© Anne Novak, all rights reserved. Sharing for educational purposes crediting © Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs with a link back is welcome.

 

Australia: Stop killing wild horses. Clinton Wolf and RSPCA spin piece (graphic images)

Brumbies shot down and killed a few years ago at Frazier Downs. Why does the RSPCA support these cruel massacres? 

Tell the RSPCA to STOP endorsing the Brumby killings. “Aerial Cull” = Aerial Killing. They are shooting them down from helicopters. Recently the Lake Gregory Massacre killed thousands.

Contact the RSPCA here: http://www.rspca.org.au/contact-us

Brumby foal killed in Frazier Downs 2012

Brumby foal killed in Frazier Downs, Austalia 2012. Copyright protected. Courtesy Wild Horses Kimberley.

 

Read what the wild horse killers say and know that Clinton Wolf is a huge player in the extractive industry

“Clinton Wolf is the public face of the Martu people’s corporate campaign. He fronted mining executives in Fremantle this week, with a message that the traditional landowners are open for business.”

The real Clinton Wolf behind the Brumby massacre. Is he working to Frack Western Australia?

The real Clinton Wolf behind the Brumby massacre. Is he working to Frack Western Australia?

Shameful pro-kill spin piece is one-sided

Why didn’t they interview the wild horse advocates?

Cross-posted from The Bush Telegraph:

One of the country’s biggest horse culls has just been completed in the north of Western Australia, where more than 7000 brumbies have been shot from helicopters.

Feral horses are also aerially culled in the Northern Territory

But in Victoria and New South Wales this method is not an option, despite support from environmental groups and the RSPCA.

Author of the book Desert Lake, Kim Mahood, says feral horses are damaging fragile, arid landscapes.

“Lake Gregory is one of the most significant arid-zone wetlands in the southern hemisphere.”

Ms Mahood says, ironically, the cull is also needed to avert an animal welfare issue for the horses.

“The lake is lower than it’s been in ten years. It’s becoming very salty which means the horses are either poisoned by the salts or they move off to the handful of much smaller, fresh-water pools along Sturt Creek, at which point they start getting bogged and perishing in the waterways.”

Clinton Wolf is chair of the Aboriginal Lands Trust that carried out the cull, and says this is a very complex and emotional issue.

“They’ve had a connection with these horses for 120 years … but you can’t have six to seven thousand horses running around,” Mr Wolf said.

“When there was no water, the horses were coming into the community where you have two and three year old kids walking around.”

Kim Mahood says the area is an Indigenous Protected Area and a pastoral lease, which complicates the situation.

And she says the cull was an environmental requirement to allow the traditional owners to hold on to their traditional protected areas.

“The 99-year leases are due to come up for renewal in 2015…and the Pastoral Lands Board has threatened to take away the leases if something isn’t done about the feral horses.

“In 2002 the feral horses were identified as one of the biggest environmental issues for the region.

“With that number of horses, it couldn’t possibly be functioning effectively as a cattle station.”

Clinton Wolf agrees.

“We want to have these stations up to scratch so when the Pastoral Lands Board comes around they’ll say ‘no, you’re not in breach anymore, well done’,” he said.

Feral horses are also in large numbers in the Northern Territory where they are regularly aerially culled.

Executive Director of Flora and Fauna at the Department of Land Resource Management in Northern Territory, Alaric Fisher says wild horses are treated the same as any other feral animals.

“The landscape is suffering from a lot of ferals – horses amongst them, as well as camels, donkeys, buffalo and cattle in some places.

“On some properties horses are out of control through lack of any systematic management.

“We’ve had a lot of experience of aerial culls particularly through the management of feral camels…and have taken those techniques and applied them to horses as well.

“It’s an absolute requirement that each animal is shot (at least) twice and then they fly back over the animals to ensure they’re all dead.

“The location of every shot animal is recorded on GPS and they’re inspected subsequently by a vet and the welfare outcomes are audited.

“No animals were wounded and left behind and the average time to death was eight seconds,” Mr Fisher said.

The veterinary report from the recent NT aerial cull stated:

While not aesthetically pleasing, the technique of helicopter shooting for feral horses allows a far shorter duration of suffering when compared to any other method proposed to manage the population.

The Victorian Government is in the process of developing a management plan for the brumbies in the Victorian high country.

A spokesman for the state Minister for Environment and Climate Change sent a statement on feral horses to Bush Telegraph.

The Victorian Government is focussing efforts on other measures available including the live removal and re-homing of horses and the euthanasia of captured horses in a controlled environment. 
Parks Victoria is developing the Victorian Alps Wild Horse Management Plan … The draft plan will soon be open for public comment.

Parks Victoria will provide final recommendations to the state government in 2014.
The RSPCA consistently supports aerially culling of wild horses and, in a submission to the Victorian Management Plan, accuses the Victorian Government of placing more importance on public perceptions than on animal welfare.

Parks Victoria prematurely and publically ruling out shooting will make it all the more difficult to now convince the public of the relative humanness of it. This situation could damage the reputation of Parks Victoria …and have adverse welfare impacts on the horses themselves.

Clinton Wolf, chair of the Aboriginal Lands Trust in Western Australia

Kim Mahood, author of Desert Lake, published by CSIRO.

Alaric Fisher, Executive Director of Flora and Fauna at the Department of Land Resource Management, Northern Territory

See more evidence of Frazier Downs cruelty here: http://pindanpost.com/2012/11/27/control-of-unwanted-horses-shot-from-helicopters/#jp-carousel-24919

Australian pro-kill article spins brumby massacre despite livestock damaging the land and plans for Fracking

When will Australia come clean with the real reason they want to kill off the brumbies? Read the biased spin piece (below) that doesn’t mention the other side of the debate. Why isn’t ABC including brumby advocates in this article?

 

Cross-posted from ABC

Feral horse cull commences in the central Kimberley

By Belinda Varischetti and Babs McHugh

Updated Thu 31 Oct 2013, 1:47pm AEDT

An aerial cull of thousands of feral horses has started on two Indigenous pastoral leases in the central Kimberley.

The Kimberley Rangeland Biosecurity Group says there are about 6,000 feral horses on Lake Gregory and Billiluna stations. However, the Pastoralists and Graziers Association believes the number is closer to 9,000.

The Aboriginal Lands Trust says the horses must be removed to protect the local environment, to comply with legal obligations and to mitigate animal welfare and public health issues.

The RSPCA is also supporting the aerial cull.

Clinton Wolf is the chair of the Aboriginal Lands Trust.

“What I am firm on is the number in relation to the aerial count and that was 6,000 horses,” he said.

“The logistics is basically that the RSPCA is heavily involved, we’ve got two veterinarians there, I believe that there is two helicopters involved and that’s the standard way of doing culls in Western Australia on pastoral leases and we’ve just tried to make sure that we’ve followed to the letter the exact requirements for best practice aerial culling which we believe and we’ve been told by a variety of experts is the most humane way of dealing with the feral horse population.”

Mr Wolf says the traditional owners want the feral horse numbers under control for business and personal safety considerations.

“Build a fence one day and the next day it’s not there because a huge herd of wild horses has run right through the middle of it. You can see the distress in their eyes and they’ve had a connection with these horses for 120 years.

“When you see them say we’ve had enough and sure we want a few horses out here because we want to maintain that connection, but you can’t have six to seven thousand horses running around and what is concerning them also is when there was no water around, the horses were coming into the community.

“And you’ve got two or three year old kids walking around and we’re not saying wild horses are aggressive or anything like that, but when you’ve got a wild animal that suddenly takes flight over a vehicle going past and takes off and runs over the top of a child, is anyone going to turn around and say ‘well, we should put up with that’, because quite clearly we shouldn’t.

“We’ve got a feeling that if we get on top of the bulk of them, we’ve already had discussions with Kimberley land Council rangers who are saying that as part of their duty statement that they’re prepared to participate moving forward so that we absolutely keep a handle on this.”

The Australian Wildlife Conservancy has backed the cull of the brumbies at Lake Gregory “as long as it’s humanely conducted”.

The AWC owns more than 800,000 acres in the Kimberley, most of it former pastoral stations.

The land is being rehabilitated and cleared of feral animals to help build up numbers of endangered species.

Chief executive Atticus Fleming says the brumbies don’t belong there.

“Feral horses do have a significant impact on the environment, they are driving the decline in our wildlife, along with other feral herbivores.

“So action does need to be taken. It needs to be done humanely, but we need to remove them from the Australian environment.”

Mr Fleming says the option of rounding up and breaking in the brumbies wouldn’t be practical in the vast Kimberley.

#BREAKING Photos of dead Brumbies (wild horses) killed by aerial slaughter in #Australia

Brumbies are Australian heritage wild horses. Witnesses found them shot and killed (Copyright protected)

Brumbies are Australian heritage wild horses. Witnesses found them shot and killed (Copyright protected)

 

Aerial slaughter kills thousands of Brumbies (wild horses) in Australia. Copyrighted photo.

Aerial slaughter kills thousands of Brumbies, heritage wild horses of Australia. (Copyrighted photo.)

 

Young Brumby shot from a helicopter in the massacre. Photo p-rotected under copyright.

Young Brumby shot from a helicopter in the massacre. Photo p-rotected under copyright.

 

Please check back as we are updating the page when the photos come in from Australia.

We welcome your comments. Please keep them clean so we can post them. Thanks for understanding.

Politely contact The Prime Minister of Australia, Honorable Tony Abbott and request he stop the killings http://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm

Please help! Join the Thunderclap to Stop the Brumbie Killing: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/6098-stop-killing-brumbies?locale=en

Sign and share the petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/258/184/025/stop-killing-the-brumbies/?z00m=20659573

Follow us on Facebook for updates and action to Save the Brumbies! https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

Follow Anne on Twitter for updates: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak and Protect Mustangs https://twitter.com/ProtectMustangs

Read about what’s happening: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=5440 and check our site often: http://protectmustangs.org/

“The whole world is watching and outraged,” states Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs based in California. “Killing Australia’s heritage wild horses is shameful and needs to stop now!”

 

Special thanks to Libby Lovegrove and Lynette Sutton with boots on the ground across Australia working hard to save the brumbies.

Stop Killing Brumbies

Save the Brumbies

 

 

Australia’s wild horses, the brumbies, are being slaughtered by the thousands in aerial kills to make way for the natural gas industry to Frack and poison Australia’s land, water and air.

7000 brumbies were slaughtered from September to October 2013. Why? To industrialize the areas where the brumbies live in order to sell liquid natural to Asia for their mushrooming demand for electricity. The spin doctors justify the massacre by lying to the public.

 

Brumbies are Australian heritage wild horses. Witnesses found them shot and killed (Copyright protected)

Brumbies are Australian heritage wild horses. Witnesses found them shot and killed (Copyright protected)

 

Aerial slaughter kills thousands of Brumbies (wild horses) in Australia. Copyrighted photo.

Aerial slaughter kills thousands of Brumbies (wild horses) in Australia. Copyrighted photo.

 

 

The United States wants to be the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export leader with Russia and Australia right behind them. Meetings in Washington are happening now.

 

 

Natural gas fracking is putting your community at risk to EXPORT liquid natural gas. The export market will drive up natural gas prices at home. This is not gas for your car. LNG is used to make electricity instead of using clean solar power. The Asian demand for electricity is booming. Big Oil & Gas doesn’t want rooftop solar. They don’t care about the environment. They want to Frack and Sell. When your water is poisoned with Fracking chemicals they won’t care. Don’t be fooled.

See the movie GASLAND 2 to understand the environmental devastation caused by fracking for natural gas.

We request responsible stewardship of the land. Killing off thousands of wild horses in Australia or the United States to fast track energy development for export is heinous. Save the Brumbies now!

Take ACTION and tell your friends:

Politely contact The Prime Minister of Australia, Honorable Tony Abbott and request he stop the killings http://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm

Please help! Join the Thunderclap to Stop the Brumbie Killing: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/6098-stop-killing-brumbies?locale=en

Sign and share the petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/258/184/025/stop-killing-the-brumbies/?z00m=20659573

Follow Wild Horses Kimberley and donate to their cause: http://www.wildhorseskimberley.com.au/

 

 

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

Comment here: www.ProtectMustangs.org

 

Photo © Lynette Sutton

Photo © Lynette Sutton

Are they killing thousands of wild horses to frack northwestern Australia?

Photo James Marvin Phelps / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Photo James Marvin Phelps / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

 

“The global public is outraged that  Australia would condone mass killings of wild horses. Are they killing off thousands of horses so they can frack the land for oil and natural gas? We ask that the heinous killings cease immediately.” ~Anne Novak, Executive Director of Protect Mustangs.

 

Killing wild horses for Fracking?

 

An aerial cull of wild horses is taking place in the Kimberley

As seen on ABC Australia

The Aboriginal Lands Trust has begun an aerial cull of thousands of feral horses in the Kimberley.

A survey of Lake Gregory and the Billiluna Pastoral Station two months ago found about 6,000 feral horses.

The Trust says the animals are a risk to the environment and public health, and to comply with the law they have to go.

The Trust says an aerial cull is the most humane way to do that and has employed shooters in helicopters.

A plan to cull feral horses in the same area in 2010 was abandoned after a backlash from animal welfare advocates.

The state Opposition’s Lisa Baker has called for the cull to stop immediately.

“There’s babies, there’s foals whose mothers are shot who starved to death,” she said.

“This is not a civilised way of managing a population of horses.”

Ms Baker says traditional owners want to manage feral horse populations in other ways.

“They’re really cognisant of the fact that some of them will need to be euthanised, put down, whatever, but there is many opportunities for tourism, for breaking the horses in, and for using them more productively,” she said.

The Aboriginal Lands Trust says traditional owners have been consulted.

The area’s former Indigenous Protected Area co-ordinator, Wade Freeman, says other options were considered and ruled out.

“Too costly and not humane at all,” he said.

“We even tried the option of darting and putting horses to sleep but when you’re looking at numbers of up to 10,000 it’s just not viable.”

Links of interest™:

Petition: Stop Killing the Brumbies!    http://www.thepetitionsite.com/258/184/025/stop-killing-the-brumbies/

Original Article: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-30/aerial-cull-of-horses-to-take-place-in-the-kimberley/5057208

The Canning Basin in Australia’s isolated Kimberley may be one of the largest unconventional natural gas finds outside the United States. http://grenatec.com/canning-basin-natural-gas-and-australias-kimberley/

Aerial cull in Kimberley region of Australia http://horsetalk.co.nz/2013/10/31/aerial-horse-cull-kimberley-region-australia/#axzz2jEuPty9A

Mixed news to Canning Basin decision: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-09/mixed-news-to-canning-basin-decision/4678898 “Shale gas fracking can’t be divorced from the risk of serious water contamination and serious air pollution.”

Western Australia introduces Canning Basin Development Bill: http://www.lngworldnews.com/western-australia-introduces-canning-basin-development-bill/

Canning Basin Bill marks new chapter of gas development: http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/5183/canning-basin-bill-marks-new-chapter-of-gas-develo.aspx

Oilex expands onshore Canning Basin oil and gas acreage: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/49061/oilex-expands-onshore-canning-basin-oil-and-gas-acreage-49061.html

Oilex gets 2 blocks in Canning Basin: http://www.naturalgasasia.com/oilsex-expands-in-canning-basin-in-western-australia “According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Canning Basin has the largest unconventional hydrocarbon potential in Australia.”

Key Petroleum: Canning Basin focus to unlock shareholder value: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/30893/key-petroleum-canning-basin-focus-to-unlock-shareholder-value-30893.html

Hydraulic Fracturing in Australia’s Northern Territory Protect Mustangs Hydraulic_Fracturing_in_Australia_draft

Land Rights Controversy: The Case of the Australian Aborigines Protect Mustangs UP149.001.00009.00011.archival

Agreements, treaties, negotiated settlements project http://www.atns.net.au/default.asp

MAC_EP_AppendixKCulturalAndHeritageSubPlan

Petroleum Prospectivity of the Eastern Canning Basin, WA BRUMBY Canning_Prospectivity_Report_Final_Updated_July06

GASLAND 2:  www.Gaslandthemovie.com

GASLAND 2 in Australia: