BLM plans on conducting a wild horse roundup in eastern Nevada ELY, Nev. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will begin a wild horse roundup near Ely, Nevada on or about July 8, 2019. The purpose of this roundup is to use taxpayer dollars to appease Cattlemen as well as the mining and Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) fracking industry, etc. There is no evidence of overpopulation it’s just a big fat greedy lie.
Wild horses torn from their family bands and homes on public land, will be made available for adoption or sale as a means of “disposal” through the BLM’s Adoption and Sale Program. In the past, the BLM has sold thousands of wild horses to alleged kill buyers such as their buddy who purchased at least 1,700 native wild horses to “use in the Mexican film industry.”
The BLM is claiming the population of wild horses in the proposed roundup area, known as the Triple B Complex, was estimated at 3,381 as of March 1, 2019 – more than ten times above the target population of 474-889 wild horses. Advocates who crunch numbers such as Marybeth Devlin find this impossible because wild horses don’t have litters.
After years of land degradation from overgrazing cattle and most especially sheep, the BLM and their P.R. division spin lies and fake news once again. They claim, “… By balancing herd size with what the land can support, the BLM aims to protect habitat for other wildlife species such as sage grouse, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, and elk. Removing excess animals would also enable significant progress toward achieving the Standards for Rangeland Health identified by the Northeastern Great Basin Resource Advisory Council (NGBRAC).” Know that the NGBRAC is made up of opportunists who want to cash in on the land, water, resources or government funding for the wild horse “problem”.
Of course, former Secretary of Interior, Ryan Zinke, has joined the board of U.S. Gold Corp., who is involved with mining and exploration of liquid natural gas, etc. Even the Elko Daily reports:
“The rapid transition from the highest levels of the executive branch to the corporate boardroom is raising questions about possible conflicts of interest.
It comes fewer than four months after Zinke left a cabinet position overseeing the country’s oil and gas, coal and other natural resources and those companies that profit off their extraction.”
Keep in mind that Zinke, while in office, allegedly made deals to remove America’s wild horses from public land–to free it up for mining, fracking, water grabs, etc. Just #FollowTheMoney because now it’s so obvious as the public watches it play out.
Now here’s the funny part–the BLM has not proved to the American public or elected officials that there are “excess” wild horses on 1,682,998 acres of public land in what’s known as the Triple B Complex near Ely and Elko. After allegedly being seduced by big dollars, Zinke said there were too many wild horses while in office and therefore it supposedly is so.
Who suffers as a result of all this greed? The innocent wild horses do of course.
Roundups are cruel, period. Injuries and deaths are commonplace. Native wild horses suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after being chased by helicopters, stampeded into traps, then ripped from their families and their native land. Because the BLM views American wild horses are soul-less animals and pests, they don’t care and they lie to claim they do. The BLM strives to hide the cruelty from the public to avoid outrage that travels like wildfire–thanks to the social media.
The Triple B Complex is located in the BLM’s Elko and Ely districts on public lands administered by the Wells and Bristlecone field offices. The roundup may also take place in areas outside the Complex where wild horses have moved in search of food and water after being fenced out of their rightful access to food and water on public land. The BLM claims they will leave 2,581 wild horses in the Complex once the roundup is completed. The truth is the BLM inflates the population estimate to justify removing a high percentage in order to wipe out the majority of wild horses in the resource-rich Complex. The roundup is expected to last approximately 20-25 days at huge expense to the American taxpayer. Are you aware of how much money roundup contractors rake in?
The BLM states that members of the public are welcome to view the daily roundup operations, provided that it does not jeopardize the safety of the animals, staff or observers and that it does not disrupt gather operations. The BLM will escort the public to gather observation sites located on public lands. The BLM anticipates that viewing opportunities will begin on or about July 9, 2019, weather and logistics permitting. Those wanting to view roundup operations are asked to notify Public Affairs Specialist Chris Hanefeld at (775) 289-1800 prior to the desired viewing date to be added to the attendee list and to receive specific instructions on meeting locations and times.
Some high-tech behind the scenes horse advocates, who aren’t asking for donations, believe the BLM’s contractor “pre-gathers” and therefore stampedes wild horses much further than they would let the public know. Of course, the BLM and everyone in on the roundup game won’t tell you the truth.
The BLM is conducting the roundup under the DOI-BLM-NV-E030-2017-0010-EA Antelope and Triple B Complexes Gather Plan Environmental Assessment decision signed on December 21, 2017, when Ryan Zinke was the Secretary of Interior overseeing the BLM. Access the Decision Record and determination of the National Environmental Policy Act adequacy at https://go.usa.gov/xyYxj.
Once the roundup is underway, the BLM will post roundup reports and wild horse death reports as well as additional information on its website at https://go.usa.gov/xy2R7. For technical information, contact Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Ben Noyes at (775) 289-1836 or bnoyes@blm.gov.
BLM Seeks Public Comment on Public Lands Nominated for Oil and Gas Leasing
ELY, Nev.–The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ely District is asking the public to review and provide comment on parcels of public land nominated for potential oil and gas exploration and development. The public comment period concludes Monday, Sept. 18, 2017. America’s free markets will help determine if energy development on public lands is feasible.
The BLM received requests to lease 208 nominated parcels of public land, totaling 388,960 acres. Leasing would occur in areas where oil and gas development is allowed under the 2008 Ely District Resource Management Plan. The decision to offer parcels for lease does not authorize any drilling or development. Impacts of leasing the parcels are analyzed in the preliminary environmental assessment (EA), in accordance with the Oil & Gas Leasing Reform mandated in 2010. Lease stipulations identified in the Ely Resource Management Plan (2008) are attached to some parcels to help protect certain resources. The preliminary EA is available for public review at http://bit.ly/2vH21Ix.
Interested individuals should address all written comments to the BLM Caliente Field Office, PO Box 237, Caliente, NV 89008, Attn: Dec. 2017 O&G Lease Sale or fax them to the Caliente Office at (775) 726-8111. Comments may also be submitted electronically with the subject, “ATTN: 2017 Oil & Gas Lease Sale” to blm_nv_ely_oil_and_gas2017@blm.gov.
Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
A Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale is scheduled on December 12, 2017. Additional information about the sale including the sale notice and parcel list will be posted to https://on.doi.gov/2nntQCJ as it becomes available.
For more information, contact the BLM Caliente Field Office at (775) 726-8100.
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Protect Mustangs is keeping the public informed
Protect Mustangs is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of native and wild horses. www.ProtectMustangs.org
We invite you to post more information in the comments section below because the public has a right to know the real reasons why America’s wild horses are being terrorized, pushed off public land, to end up at risk of going to slaughter for human consumption abroad. Sadly the news in Wyoming doesn’t know what fair reporting means and is not covering the crisis as they should.
It’s shameful the energy industry, government employees and our elected officials refuse to find the win-win for wildlife and industry to coexist. Instead they are wiping out America’s wild horses to cash in on their land. Recently in the Wyoming Checkerboard roundup, the BLM zeroed out most of the wild horses despite public outcry. The BLM also tried to blame horse advocates for taking more than 400 additional wild horses when the truth is they were allegedly pushed by Governor Mead to take as many as they could find.
Wyoming’s Governor Matt Mead joined the fight against wild horses in the Checkerboard allegedly because he is pushing for maximum industrialization of public land and especially liquified natural gas (LNG) to replace diesel and for export to Asia’s growing market for fuel, electricity, etc.). The most important document for you to read to understand why Wyoming is getting rid of their wild horses is Wyoming LNG Roadmap (April 2014) Below is some news from last May:
Cheyenne, WY (May 12, 2014) – Governor Mead unveiled a report today showing Wyoming is well positioned to be a leader in developing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry for high horsepower uses.
Since Governor Matt Mead took office in January of 2011, he’s made it a point to maximize the use of Wyoming’s natural resources. “One of the things I really wanted to accomplish was an energy strategy. An energy strategy is energy, economy and environment,” Mead said.
Mead went out and partnered with Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (GNA), to provide an “LNG road map” about the feasibility, potential, costs and benefits of using liquefied natural gas.
“Liquefied natural gas gives our customers who are currently use diesel to power their engines the ability to reduce costs of ownership. Abundantly domestically produced natural gas offers lower fuel costs and reduced emissions,” said Richard Wheeler, President & CEO of Wyoming Machinery Co.
Wyoming is the third leading producer of natural gas and the use of LNG as a supplement to diesel fuel in Wyoming’s high horsepower sectors such as mining, drilling and over-the-road trucking.
“It’s a 300 to 400 million dollar investment as best we can tell to really get this going here in the state, but that will create about 5,000 really good, high paying, high tech jobs,” said Erik Neandross, CEO of GNA
According to GNA, the investment could return 160 to 170 million dollars in fuel cost savings for Wyoming based businesses.
“It’s an opportunity for coal companies to lower their fuel costs and also use a product that we have in abundance in Wyoming,” Mead said.
This isn’t the first time a public affairs firm is pushing energy driven missions through at the expense of wildlife and especially native wild horses. Just follow the money . . .
According to a June 2010 press release, “Kearns and West has been known to gather scientific experts and build a movement of common interest “stakeholders” to crush public outcry and true environmentalism.”
see: http://noyonews.net/?p=6231
Kearns and West Inc., the same “Collaboration and Strategic Communications” company that ran public meetings for the corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) “Initiative” [and who illegally barred public recording and comment at their public meetings] has also been accused of running manipulative “public workshops” for the BLM – in the controversial roundup of wild horses in northern Nevada, and other Western States.
According to a June 2010 press release, “Kearns and West has been known to gather scientific experts and build a movement of common interest “stakeholders” to crush public outcry and true environmentalism.”
Although Kearns and West, Inc. claims to represent the public and the environment, and impartially facilitate public meetings, in reality they represent energy interests. They function to facilitate government approval for private projects, and shift policy in favor of private “stakeholder” interests. They specialize in marginalizing and excluding public involvement – with contrived and manipulative “stakeholder collaboration” processes.
Interestingly, in the Brave New World of modern day environmental policy, private interests, not tax dollars, are financing public policy processes and decisions. These processes were once taxpayer supported, and deemed to be fair and impartial. But now, with governments going broke, governmental processes and the agencies entrusted to design, control and regulate corporate industrial interests, have been bought and paid for by the same corporate interests they are supposed to regulate.
Corporate crooks such as Kearns and West have stepped in the void, to conduct what are ostensibly public meetings, but in reality are paid for by private corporations and individuals. The MLPA “Initiative” was a classic example of corruption easing it’s way into a bankrupt democracy.
Kearns and West contracts out what are essential out public policy endeavors. But they serve the private corportations and individuals who pay for their services – to create favorable governmental outcomes for proposed “projects.”
Kearns and West’s clients are a laundry-list of energy and natural gas interests. They are cashing in on what once would have been unacceptable, criminal conflict of interest in determining public policy.
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In the case mentioned below, Kearns and West was allegedly involved in helping to exterminate wild horses from Northern Nevada, so that the Ruby Pipeline could go through. The Ruby Pipeline is a 42 inch diameter natural gas pipeline, that as of last year, runs from 680 miles from Wyoming to Oregon, and passes right through the heart of the wild horse country in Northern Nevada.
According to many in the west, the wild horses were an obstacle to the pipeline project that the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) did not want to deal with. So in comes Kearns and West – to hold “public workshops.” But why is a company with direct ties to natural gas and energy interests – running public meetings and workshops, supposedly on behalf of the public – on an issue between wild horses, public land, and a natural gas pipeline project?
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There is nothing more heartbreaking than seeing helicopters terrorizing the beautiful wild mustangs, a living icon of the American West. The 2010 press release below is part of a tragedy that is continuing to this very day.
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From a June, 2010 press release by the Cloud Foundation:
Spin Doctors Hired for the Destruction of America’s Wild Horse and Burro Herds
Denver, CO (June 14, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation has learned that the San Francisco based public relations and public affairs firm, Kearns and West, with ties to big energy and offices across the country, has been hired to push the Salazar Plan for Wild Horses and Burros through Congress in Fall 2010—despite public outrage. Kearns and West has expertise in crisis management as well as accomplishing policy and regulatory goals. Their clients range from Mineral Management Services (MMS) and PG&E to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Department of Interior (DOI) has enlisted the firm using the Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (ECR) as the go between. Senior mediator of Kearns and West, J. Michael Harty will facilitate an unprecedented public workshop in Denver, Colorado at the Magnolia Hotel, 818 17th Street, on June 14th followed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Public Advisory Board Meeting on June 15th. Both days will be live-streamed and viewing available on http://www.thecloudfoundation.org. The public and members of Congress are encouraged to watch. The public will protest on June 15th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with a press conference at noon.
BLM’s recently announced and highly polished but unsubstantial, “Strategy Plan” as well as their association with PR firm Kearns and West, appears designed to manipulate the public and marginalize the opposition to the Salazar Plan for wild horses and burros. The plan calls for the purchase of Eastern and Midwestern “preserves” populated by sterilized wild horses, captured from their Western ranges.
“This is ALL about manipulating public opinion. And ramming ONE thing – Salazar’s Plan – through” states author R.T. Fitch.
The Kearns and West Salazar Plan Executive Summary states, ‘The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (‘Institute’) is assisting BLM in assessing stakeholder interests and developing an effective stakeholder engagement plan for the Strategy.’ Disturbingly, BLM often does not include the public as a stakeholder in their planning documents regarding the management of wild horses and burros.
“Who is the biggest stakeholder in the discussion of the public’s land and its wild horses if not the public?” asks Terri Farley, author of the Phantom Stallion series, adding “A public agency must represent the public and utilize taxpayer dollars responsibly—not spend excessively on another private contractor.”
According to their website, Kearns and West offers their clients (in this case the BLM) ‘A compelling credible, resonant case. True, high-impact support for your position.’ Advocates support a new direction that abandons the endless, expensive cycle of roundup, removal, and warehousing. BLM must adopt a far less expensive path that is kinder to the land and the wild horses legally living there, one that contains truly transparent solutions, not a slick, taxpayer-funded PR campaign.
“By hiring a high powered PR and Public Affairs firm, it seems that BLM is aiming to extinguish the opposition rather than solve the controversy over their management of our wild herds,” explains Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation. “The public by the thousands has shared their opposition to the Salazar Plan. I hope we can sit down at this public forum and seriously talk about a moratorium on roundups while we work to reinstate protections that are consistent with the intent of the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act.”
According to The Holmes Report, “Kearns & West recognizes the important value of collaborating both with our clients and their stakeholders. For more than 20 years, the firm has employed its unique brand of stakeholder-centric strategic communications and collaboration processes to design innovative, but pragmatic programs, achieving superior results for clients in the federal, state and local government, private and nonprofit sectors. Kearns & West works with tough issues and big ideas.”
Besides specializing in ‘accomplishing policy and regulatory goals’ Kearns and West also represents PG&E—a primary customer in the Ruby Pipeline natural gas project threatening public lands and five public herds with environmental devastation from Wyoming to Oregon. Kearns and West also represents Duke Energy, the Association of Western Governors and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, among others.
While Secretary Salazar vowed to restore the Interior Department’s ‘respect for scientific integrity’ he has failed to consider science, reason, or even the law when it comes to managing our wild herds.Kearns and West has been known to gather scientific experts and build a movement of common interest “stakeholders” to crush public outcry and true environmentalism. Wild horse advocates feel the Kearns and West prepared Salazar report for Congress will be biased in favor of big energy ties with DOI at the expense of federally protected wild horses who somehow are in the way of ‘The New Energy Frontier’.
“We hope Monday’s workshop will be a productive one rather than a demonstration of BLM’s inability to change,” concludes Kathrens.
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Who is really dictating wild horse roundups and removals and why are they zeroing them out? Protect Mustangs invites you to research the subject and post what you find in the comments below. This is also a welcome forum for you to politely voice your outrage at wild horse removals.
Protect Mustangs is a 100% volunteer non-profit organization where the wild horses come first! We are not paying big bucks on marketing campaigns. The majority of our donations go towards feeding and caring for rescued wild horses.
Gladstein, Neandross & Associates: http://www.gladstein.org
Leading environmental consulting firm for emission reduction, energy and transportation policy, and market development for alternative fuel vehicles.
United States Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives Multi-Stakeholder Group Advisory Committee Meeting Draft Summary of Proceedings (2014): http://on.doi.gov/1w5aaOj Kearns & West
Data removed: http://www.recovery.gov/arra/News/featured/Pages/Some-Recipient-Data-Being-Removed.aspx “The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board will sunset on September 30, 2015 and has decided for its last year not to renew the licensing agreement that allows for the display of certain recipient-related data. As of October 1, 2014, maps, charts, and graphs on the site will no longer reflect this information. This change will also include the removal of the recipient profiles as well as the cumulative national download file.
Kearns & West
Kearns & West is a woman-owned collaboration and strategic communications firm founded in 1984. Our high-stakes projects include work at local, state, regional, and national levels and cover a variety of sectors including energy, water, marine resources, land use and natural resources, government, business and academia, and technology and Internet.
Kearns & West understands the special requirements of working with stakeholders to achieve an organization’s goals. We have a proven record of success thanks to our stakeholder-centric approach of providing robust collaboration and strategic communications services. Our commitment to positive, mutually beneficial results has helped us maintain long-term relationships with the people and organizations we assist.
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.
“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
Posted: 11/12/2013 04:07:39 PM PST in the Mercury News
Twenty of the nation’s top climate scientists have sent a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown, telling him that his plans supporting increased use of the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” will increase pollution and run counter to his efforts to cut California’s global warming emissions.
The letter is the latest example of the increased pressure that environmentalists and others concerned about climate change have been putting on Brown in recent months. Their argument: the governor can’t say he wants to reduce global warming while expanding fossil fuel development in California.
“If what we’re trying to do is stop using the sky as a waste dump for our carbon pollution, and if we’re trying to transform our energy system, the way to do that is not by expanding our fossil fuel infrastructure,” said Ken Caldeira, an atmospheric scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University.
Caldeira signed the letter along with other prominent climate scientists, including James Hansen, the former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Richard Houghton, acting president of Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts; and physicist Michael Mann, a professor of meteorology at Penn State University.
The letter called for Brown to place a moratorium on fracking, as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has done.
“Shale gas and tight oil development is likely to worsen climate disruption, which would harm California’s efforts to be a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” it notes.
Brown did not respond Tuesday afternoon to a request for comment on the scientists’ letter. But last month he said in response to question from this newspaper, “As you know, I signed legislation that will create the most comprehensive environmental analysis of fracking to date. It will take a year, year and a half, maybe a little longer. And I hope that all the people, critics and supporters alike, will participate and offer their best thoughts.”
The oil industry criticized the scientists’ letter.
“The authors of this letter, while clearly very respected in their fields, do not present an accurate or realistic picture of our energy needs and our energy future,” said Tupper Hull, a spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association in Sacramento.
“California is going to need petroleum-based energy for a long time, even as it transitions to a lower carbon future.”
Brown has generally won high marks from environmental groups over his 40-year political career. He signed legislation requiring California utilities to generate 33 percent of their electricity from solar, wind and other renewable resources by 2020, for example. Last month, he appeared at an event in San Francisco to announce a pact with the governors of Washington state, Oregon and the premier of British Columbia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But he has come under increasing criticism — and public protests — this fall from opponents of fracking, the practice in which oil and gas companies inject water, sand and chemicals into the ground to fracture underground rock formations and release huge amounts of fossil fuels.
In September, Brown signed SB 4, a bill by state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, that requires companies that conduct fracking operations in California to notify all nearby property owners, obtain a permit from the state, conduct groundwater testing and disclose the chemicals they are using. The law takes effect in 2015. Opponents say that water pollution and increased air and climate emissions from fracking require a moratorium, particularly in the Monterey Shale, an area that stretches from Bakersfield to Monterey and holds billions of dollars of shale oil that could be recovered from increased fracking.
Why Asia? Because their economy is booming and they need tons of electricity for their lifestyle. Why not roof top solar? It’s clean and green . . .
Control the energy source of a country and you control that country.
America’s indigenous wild horses are living on top of huge natural gas deposits and pipeline routes so they round them up and dispose of them while fooling the public about it until it’s too late to realize you voted for a crook to represent YOU in government.
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?
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.
Join the international outcry to Stop Killing the Brumbies!
Please tell your friends about the important Thunderclap that will shout out to Stop the massacre!!! We have 10 days left to get a total of 250 people on board to make a wave of thunder shouting out “Stop Killing the Brumbies!”
Reports are coming in from Australia that 2-3,000 have been massacred and the wild horse killers want to kill 3,000 more. We will keep you posted as more information comes in. Help shine the light on this darkness. Share this information with your friends.
Evidently a huge liquid natural gas (LNG) deposit, the largest outside the U.S.A., has been discovered in Western Australia’s Kimberely, where these wild horses roam. LNG is the new export gold–selling to the Asian market for their growing electricity needs. Could the mass slaughter be connected with plans to industrialize the area into a massive fracking zone?
“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.
An aerial cull of wild horses is taking place in the Kimberley
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.”
