Horseback Magazine reported on National treasures saved from the slaughterhouse http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/28702
A special to thank you to Craig Downer who took photos of the WY14 for us.
www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.
Dear Friends of wild horses and burros,
After a stealth Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundup, paid for with tax dollars, 37 wild horses were sold to a Canadian slaughterhouse.
These wild horses from the Bighorn Basin and Pryor Mountain area were found 1 mile from a former protected Heard Area, zeroed out in 1987, known as Dry Creek/Foster Gulch. The heritage herd had been on the range for generations but the State of Wyoming didn’t want them roaming free on public land anymore so they called in the BLM to round them up.
In March the herd was chased by helicopters and rounded up at taxpayer expense, handed over to the Wyoming Livestock Board and sold at auction to a Canadian slaughterhouse for $40 a piece. 23 herd members over the age of 2 were slaughtered to be eaten abroad before we got involved.
I’m grateful actor Mark Boone Junior and I were able to secure all 14 youngsters ages 8 months to 2-years-old and get them out before they were slaughtered too. We call them the WY14. Sadly all their mamas and papas were butchered at the Canadian slaughterhouse shortly after the clandestine roundup.
On Memorial Day weekend we transported the WY14 out of the Montana feedlot to a ranch, in California near Reno where they will stay temporarily until they move down to their home in the San Francisco Bay Area.
While at the ranch , Protect Mustangs pays for all their hay and these youngsters need to eat a lot. Right now the orphans eat about 3 bales a day. We need your help to feed the 14 survivors. We have started a fundraiser here: http://www.gofundme.com/9xcfag Please share it with your friends and family so we can raise the money for hay to help the survivors of the roundup.
Grass hay locally is $17.50 for a 100 pound bale, if we buy it in 2 ton loads–otherwise it is $20 a bale at the feed store plus the gas to pick it up. We would like to buy grass hay by the ton to stretch dollars. Once the WY14 move to the Greater Bay Area, the heritage herd will need hay until we can find irrigated pasture for them. Please make a donation today to help feed the young wild horses who have lost their freedom and their families but have survived the horrors: http://www.gofundme.com/9xcfag
For more information about the plight of the WY14 visit www.ProtectMustangs.org We are a California nonprofit. While we are applying for our 501c3, donations are retroactive, but even so, for this Hay Drive we are under The Wild Horse & Burro Fund which is part of the Andean Tapir Fund–an established 501c3 so your donations are tax-deductible right now. All donations go directly toward buying hay minus the fund-raising widget fee (4.5%).
Please help by making a donation for hay right here: http://www.gofundme.com/9xcfag These 14 little orphans are skinny and need good quality hay to grow strong. Every dollar goes to nurture and feed them so they can heal from the trauma of the roundup and the loss of their families.
The WY14 know people care about them. They felt everyone’s prayers to find them before it was too late. Now they are counting on us all to come together and buy hay so they can grow strong and have the best chance at a new life. Please share this post with your friends and family because it takes a village. . .
In gratitude,
Anne
Anne Novak
Executive Director
Protect Mustangs
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs
In the news: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=218
Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who educates, protects and preserves native and wild horses.
© Protect Mustangs, all rights reserved
Urgent: Our funding fell through
Please help the 14 orphaned wild horses in the next phase of this rescue. We need help to pay interstate transportation, get corral panels, hay, medical expenses, etc. We are a group of volunteers who will be donating our time to gentle these wild horses and prepare them for adoption so they can live happy lives. Your donation is urgent now. Please donate here.
We also need land in the San Francisco Bay Area to house them and a used truck and gooseneck stock trailer. Need a tax deduction? We have a 501c3 that is our umbrella while ours is pending.
We are a California nonprofit organization. We protect mustangs.
Read for more information: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6775 and http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6734 and http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6668
© Gage Skidmore
For immediate release
Protect Mustangs rescues 14 young wild horses from slaughterhouse after BLM roundup
SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (May 7, 2014)—Against all odds, actor Mark Boone Junior (Batman Begins & Sons of Anarchy) and Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs, saved 14 young free-roaming wild horses from slaughter thanks to donations from Alicia Goetz, the Schnurmacher family and others. This unprecedented rescue seems to be the first time American wild horses have been purchased back from a slaughterhouse following a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundup. In March, the herd of 41 wild horses was rounded up by the BLM, using taxpayer funds, handed over to the the Wyoming Livestock Board and sold at auction to a Canadian slaughterhouse for human consumption abroad. The BLM claims everything they did was legal.
“If it’s legal then the law needs to change,” states Novak. “Americans love wild horses. They want to make sure they’re protected. Congress knows that and it’s time they represent the public who elected them into office—not interests who want to dispose of them.”
In 2004, former Montana Senator, Conrad Burns, added the Burns amendment to the Appropriations Act of 2005 without any public or Congressional discussion. The Burns amendment overruled many protections in the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. From that time forward, “unlimited sales” to slaughter has been legal.
Due to public outcry against selling wild horses for slaughter, the BLM uses middle men who sell the mustangs to the slaughterhouse. This time the scapegoat was the Wyoming Livestock Board, other times it’s men like Tom Davis. The 1,700 wild horses he purchased from the feds have never been accounted for. Advocates believe they went to slaughter in Mexico.
Public outcry over Tom Davis prompted BLM to revise their policy to avoid another fiasco in the future. A change in policy is not a change in law. It’s still legal for the BLM to allow slaughter and exportation of horse meat.
Out of the 41 wild horses rounded up on March 18th and 19th near Greybull, Wyoming, 37 were quickly sold to the slaughterhouse. 4 foals were saved by the co-owner of the auction house and later transferred to advocates. Protect Mustangs jumped in later on April 2nd to save the other 37 wild horses from being slaughtered. Chances were slim they would find any alive.
Boone and Novak quickly learned that a group of 23 mares and stallions had already perished. The two managed to prevent the last 14 orphaned wild youngsters from going to slaughter. The survivors are called the WY14. They range in age from 8 months to 2 years old.
“It’s a miracle we were able to get them out,” says Boone. “I can’t believe the EPA, in 2012, designated our wild horses as pests—especially when the horse originated in America.”
“American free-roaming wild horses are a returned-native species who contribute to the thriving natural ecological balance,” explains Novak. “They have value on the range because they reduce the risk of wildfires, reverse desertification and with climate change that’s really important.”
For generations, free-roaming wild horses lived in family bands north of Greybull and close to a former herd area called Dry Creek/Foster Gulch that was zeroed out in 1987 to make room for extractive uses such as bentonite mining.
In 1971 there were 339 wild herds in the West, but now there are only 179 left in all 10 western states combined.
Today the Bighorn Basin is preparing for another extractive boom but this time it’s about fracking for oil and gas with right-of-way corridors to service those fields. Is this why the small herd of 41 wild horses was suddenly ripped off public land?
The feds maintain the 41 wild horses were not wild even though they lived wild and free for generations.
Curiously reports have surfaced that a bucking string made up of wild mustangs was turned out by their original owner more than 40 years ago. If it could be proven these wild horses were on public land in 1971, they would be protected under the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act. The BLM claims the horses have been there for only 40 years not 43.
“It’s horrible for tourism that the State of Wyoming would allow this sort of thing,” states Boone. “The beauty of the Bighorn Basin is like no other place on earth but it won’t be the same now that these wild horses are gone.”
Go to www.ProtectMustangs.org to help the WY14 with your donation. Protect Mustangs is a California nonprofit based in San Francisco.
# # #
Media Contacts:
Anne Novak, 415.531.8454 Anne@ProtectMustangs.org
Tami Hottes, 618.790.4339 Tami@ProtectMustangs.org
Photos, video and interviews available upon request
Links of interest™:
Cody Enterprise: ‘Some’ horses avoid slaughter http://www.codyenterprise.com/news/local/article_99e78c52-d0a8-11e3-a6ac-001a4bcf887a.html
AP (Viral): Feds draw criticism for selling Wyoming horses for slaughter http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/20/feds-draw-criticism-for-selling-wyoming-horses-for-slaughter/
Sons of Anarchy’s Bobby Elvis wants to save 37 American wild horses http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6668
The horse and burro as positively contributing returned-natives in North America http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajls.20140201.12.pdf
Native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562
Wild horse overpopulation myth debunked: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6721
Washington Post (Viral) U.S. looking for ideas to help manage wild-horse overpopulation http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-looking-for-ideas-to-help-manage-wild-horse-overpopulation/2014/01/26/8cae7c96-84f2-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html
Huffington Post: Advisory board recommends BLM sterilize wild horses http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121030/us-wild-horses/
Westword: Callie Hendrickson, allegedly pro-slaughter appointee to the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/03/callie_hendrickson_wild_horse_board_slaughter.php
Advisory Board member endorses slaughter http://rtfitchauthor.com/2012/10/30/blm-wild-horse-burro-advisory-board-member-endorses-horse-slaughter-during-public-session/#comment-68620
BLM and wild horse slaughter: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=1141
Video footage of helicopter roundups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF49csCB9qM
PEER: BLM doesn’t track cattle on Public land http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2013/01/24/blm-says-it-cannot-track-cattle-on-its-lands/
2012 EPA Pesticide Information for Fertility Control http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf
ProPublica: All the missing horses: What happened to the wild horses Tom Davis bought from the gov’t?http://www.propublica.org/article/missing-what-happened-to-wild-horses-tom-davis-bought-from-the-govt
Princeton University: Wildlife and cows can be partners, not enemies, in the search for food http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/93/41K10/index.xml?section=featured
Princeton and the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros Population Growth Study shows BLM roundups increase population growth: http://www.ispmb.org/herd_social_structures.html
Horseback Magazine: Group takes umbridge at use of the word “feral” http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/19392
Petition to Defund and Stop the Roundups: http://www.change.org/petitions/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups
Petition for a Moratorium on roundups for recovery and scientific studies: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-scientific-studies
Wyoming tourism “Roam Free”: http://www.wyomingtourism.org/
Wyoming Pipeline Corridor Initiative (Bighorn Basin) http://wyia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/brian-jeffries.pdf
KLS News BLM horses seized in suspected slaughter ring (Aug. 5, 2011) http://www.ksl.com/?nid=960&sid=16686555#JFD7d0UvEtYOc4fi.99
Washington Post: The Story of Conrad Burns and Wild Horseshttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/10/they_reallly_do_shoot_horses_d.html
Christian Science Monitor and cross-posted by The Seattle Times (March 2, 2005) Law allows slaughter of wild horses for meat by Brad Knickerbocker http://bit.ly/K8DWIF
Now, a law signed by President Bush will allow the slaughter and export of horse meat form thousands of wild horses. Horse lovers are urging reversal of the measure, which slipped into a recent federal appropriations bill by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.
Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burro Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_and_Free-Roaming_Horses_and_Burros_Act_of_1971
Mark Boone Junior: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0095478/
Anne Novak: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak and http://newsle.com/AnneNovak
www.ProtectMustangs.org Protect Mustangs educates, protects and preserves native and wild horses. The nonprofit conservation group strives for a 10 year moratorium on roundups and science-based holistic land management to reduce global warming.
Update on the WY14 Rescue Mission
Boone and I saved the last of the WY41 from Dry Creek/Foster Gulch areas in the Bighorn Basin. When we jumped in, on April 2nd, 23 Wyoming wild horses had already been slaughtered. We are so grateful to have saved the remaining 14 youngsters (8 mo–2 yrs old) now called the WY14.
You can read the backstory press release here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6668 We will post our new press release soon.
We had to keep this rescue mission completely quiet to ensure the safety of the WY14. We hope you will understand that is why we could not answer your questions during the rescue.
Now I can share with you some of the correspondence (below) during phase one of the WY14 Rescue Mission. I will be updating it, so check back often.
We were in authentic positive negotiations with the real decision makers resulting in this outcome. We are grateful for everyone’s prayers and support because together this miracle has happened. Now there is so much to do to bring the WY14 to California, find land for a sanctuary or prepare them for adoption in pairs.
Bad news: Our funding for the second phase of the WY14 Rescue Mission appears to have fallen though.
We urgently need funds now to bring them to California to create a sanctuary for them or prepare them for adoption in pairs. Please make a donation via www.PayPal.com to Contact@ProtectMustangs.org or by mailing your check to: Protect Mustangs, P.O. Box 5661, Berkeley, Ca. 94705 We are a California nonprofit organization with a 501c3 sponsor so your donations are tax deductible.
We need your donations for interstate transportation, board, feed, corral panels, water troughs, medical, gas, supplements, a used truck and trailer, etc.
Here is our fundraiser for the used trailer: http://www.gofundme.com/WildHorseTrailer
If anyone wants a tax write-off and can donate a 3/4 ton truck with less than 90K miles and capable of hauling heavy loads of horses and/or anyone has a safe used gooseneck stock trailer tall enough for horses that they want to donate we will meet our goals quicker so we can serve the WY14 once they arrive.
Thank you for donating and sharing the update with your friends and family.
Many blessings,
Anne Novak
Executive Director of Protect Mustangs
Excerpt from an email on April 6th
. . .That is so great to know as we are getting closer. Very soon we will know if they are still alive. . . Please say nothing as I just want to surround this possibility with prayers and miracles. . . We are waiting to hear about their status. I learned the plant is closed on the weekend so at least they will not be killed while my contact is off work. I am relieved. Jane Velez Mitchell (CNN) called to interview me today but I was unable to speak with her because I felt it was in the best interest of the 37 horses if I kept quiet until they are safe. . .
Many blessings, Anne
Excerpt from an email on April 9th
. . .Confidential: The 14 who have not been slaughtered yet are in quarantine in Montana. . . My guess would be that they are all mares–one about to foal–except for perhaps some weanling colts maybe 9 months old. I’m going to call around to organize the haul out of Montana to Nevada so we are ready. . . There are so many rumors about this on Facebook that I want to keep this totally confidential. People have been calling the slaughterhouse and I don’t want anything to ruin this deal. Please don’t tell anyone.
Many blessings, Anne
Check back here for more posts and please donate for the WY14 Rescue Mission
Dennis Van Tine/Future Image / WENN
Horse advocates will protest roundups at BLM Advisory Board meeting April 14 in Sacramento
Los Angeles, Ca. (April 2, 2014)–Mark Boone Junior, who plays Bobby Elvis in Sons of Anarchy, is working with Anne Novak at Protect Mustangs, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, to get 37 Wyoming wild horses including 2 colts from a Canadian slaughterhouse before they are slaughtered for human consumption abroad.
“We hope we can get them before they slaughter them,” explains Boone. “Wild horses are a national treasure and we want them back.”
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not notify wild horse groups about the helicopter roundup. Instead they handed over 41 free-roaming wild horses, including 6 youngsters, to the Wyoming Livestock Board who quickly sold these living icons of freedom at auction. 4 foals were purchased a Montana buyer to save them. 37 wild horses including 2 youngsters were purchased by a Canadian slaughterhouse.
“If we had known what was going on, we would have bought the wild horses directly from the Wyoming livestock board and put them in a safe place,” explains Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “Why didn’t the BLM notify horse protection groups that the free-roaming wild horses were going to be rounded up and sold?”
The Wyoming 41 were a small herd roaming east of US 310 between Lovell and Greybull, Wyoming. They were likely descendants of the Foster Gulch/Dry Creek Herd Area that was zeroed out in 1987 to make room for other uses. In 1971 there were 339 wild herds in the West, but today there are only 179 left in all 10 western states combined.
Despite spin created by the BLM and industrial interests who don’t want to share the land with federally protected wild horses, the truth is that they are gravely underpopulated. The National Academy of Sciences reported there is no evidence of overpopulation in 2013. Therefore, Secretary Jewell’s push to control population is unnecessary.
Independent estimates report only 21,354 wild horses are left in the wild while there are approximately 240,000-480,000 heads of livestock in wild horse and burro areas. As a result of roundups more than 48,000 wild horses are warehoused in captivity at taxpayer expense. Native wild horses should be returned to the original herd management areas established in 1971.
A 13-year study of wild herds done by the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros working with Princeton University shows wild horse herds with functional social structures contribute to low herd growth compared to BLM-managed herds.
In the wild, the majority of herds need to recover from recurring roundups so they can self-regulate. Protect Mustangs is calling for a 10 year moratorium on roundups for recovery and scientific studies. Their Change.org petition to Secretary Jewell is here: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-scientific-studies
Since the EPA categorized native wild horses as pests in 2012, to pass the restricted use pesticide and immunocontraceptive known as PZP, the BLM doesn’t care to notify the public about roundups on public land outside of herd management areas. These horses are sent off to auction and are purchased for probable slaughter.
The public is furious to learn the BLM rounded up free-roaming wild horses–using taxpayer funds–with no public input on the roundup. The Wyoming 41 should have been tested to see if they were descendants of the Foster Gulch/Dry Creek Herd not just handed over to the livestock board and sold off to a slaughter company.
A protest is being planned in reaction to BLM’s slaughter-friendly policies and the clandestine Wyoming 41 roundup at the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting in Sacramento April 14-15.
“Americans are outraged that their tax dollars are being used to chase iconic wild horses from freedom into the chambers of death–so they can be a eaten abroad,” states Novak.
If anyone has any information about clandestine roundups or removals please contact Protect Mustangs.org
Protect Mustangs educates, protects and preserves native and wild horses. The nonprofit conservation group strives for a 10 year moratorium on roundups for recovery and science-based holistic land management to reduce global warming.
“With this latest action, the Bureau of Land Management seems to feel that they can act with impunity and these fabulous animals should never be passed to a middleman for sale to foreign markets who wish to devour a spirit that exists only in these animals, only on our nation’s lands,” says Boone. “Wild horses are now wrongfully designated as “pests” so that they may be pursued and cleared from lands, so that those very same lands may be used solely by corporate interests (fracking, mining, and ranching) supported by tax dollars by the Department of the Interior. We need to stop this momentum now.”
# # #
Media Contacts:
Anne Novak, 415.531.8454 Anne@ProtectMustangs.org
Kerry Becklund, 510.502.1913 Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org
Photos, video and interviews available upon request
Links of interest™:
Footage of helicopter roundups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF49csCB9qM
Celebrities speak out against wild horse roundups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLsS9r87tRk
BLM’s Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board Meeting April 14-15 in Sacramento: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2014/March/BLM_Sets_Meeting_of_National_Wild_Horse_and_Burro_Advisory_Board_for_April_14_15_in_Sacramento.html
Washington Post (Viral) U.S. looking for ideas to help manage wild-horse overpopulation http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-looking-for-ideas-to-help-manage-wild-horse-overpopulation/2014/01/26/8cae7c96-84f2-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html
The Horse Magazine, BLM Seeks Ideas on Wild Horse Management http://www.thehorse.com/articles/33289/blm-seeks-ideas-on-wild-horse-management
San Jose Mercury News, Associated Press, Nevada farm bureau, counties sue over wild horses http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_24897316/nevada-farm-bureau-counties-sue-over-wild-horses
Nevada Appeal by Scott Sonner, Associated Press (viral): Horse roundups waste money http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/local/6813542-113/horses-blm-horse-report
Huffington Post: Advisory board recommends BLM sterilize wild horses: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20121030/us-wild-horses/
Callie Hendrickson, allegedly pro-slaughter appointee to the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/03/callie_hendrickson_wild_horse_board_slaughter.php
Advisory Board member endorses slaughter: http://rtfitchauthor.com/2012/10/30/blm-wild-horse-burro-advisory-board-member-endorses-horse-slaughter-during-public-session/#comment-68620
BLM and the slaughtering wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=1141
BLM doesn’t track cattle on Public land: http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2013/01/24/blm-says-it-cannot-track-cattle-on-its-lands/
EPA Pesticide Information for ZonaStat-H http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf
National Academy of Sciences report: Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13511
Rallies held in 50 states to drum up opposition to roundups, slaughter http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/80561cc4e8a64b43ae909f7d09a0473e/NV–Wild-Horses-Rallies
ProPublica: All the missing horses: What happened to the wild horses Tom Davis bought from the gov’t? http://www.propublica.org/article/missing-what-happened-to-wild-horses-tom-davis-bought-from-the-govt
Princeton University: Wildlife and cows can be partners, not enemies, in the search for food http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/93/41K10/index.xml?section=featured
International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros Study: http://www.ispmb.org/herd_social_structures.html
Horseback Magazine: Group takes umbridge at use of the word “feral” http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/19392
Petition to Defund and Stop the Roundups: http://www.change.org/petitions/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups
Petition for a Moratorium on roundups for recovery and scientific studies: http://www.change.org/petitions/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-scientific-studies
Wyoming tourism “Roam Free”: http://www.wyomingtourism.org/
Anne Novak on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/theAnneNovak
Protect Mustangs’ press releases: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=12
Protect Mustangs in the news: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=218
America’s native wild horses: http://www.Protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562
Für die sofortige Befreiung:
Pferdeschützer protestieren gegen die Roundups auf dem BLM Advisory Board Treffen am 14. April in Sacramento.
Los Angeles, Kalifornien. 2. April 2014. – Mark Boone Junior, Dasteller des “Bobby Elvis” in “Sons of Anarchy”, arbeitet zusammen mit “Protect Mustangs”, einer profitfreien Organisation in San Francisco, um 37 Wyominger Wildpferde, inklusive 2 Hengsten eines kanadischen Schlachthauses zu kaufen bevor sie für die Lebensmittelindustrie im Ausland geschlachtet werden.
“Wir hoffen wir können die Pferde kaufen, bevor sie mit der Schlachtung beginnen,” erklärt Boone. “Wildpferde sind ein nationaler Schatz und wir wollen sie zurück haben.”
Das Bureau of Land Management (BLM) benachrichtigte keine Wildpferdeschutzgruppen über den Hubschrauber-Roundup. Stattdessen brachten sie 41 freilebende Wildpferde, inklusive 6 Jungpferden, zum Wyoming Livestock Board, wo sie diese lebenden Symbole der Freiheit auf Auktionen verkaufen wollen. 4 Fohlen wurden von einem Montana Käufer gerettet. 37 Wildpferde, inklusive 2 Jungpferden, wurden vom Schlachthaus Bouvry Export von Fort Mcload in Alberta, Kanada, ersteigert.
“Wenn wir gewusst hätten was vorgeht, hätte wir die Wildpferde direkt vom Wyoming Livestock Board gekauft und sie an einen sicheren Ort gebracht,” erklärt Anne Novak, Leiterin des Protect Mustangs. “Warum hat die BLM keine Pferdeschützer benachrichtigt, das die Wildpferde zusammengetrieben und versteigert werden sollen?”
Die Wyoming 41 waren eine kleine Herde die zwischen Lovell und Greybull, Wyoming lebte. Sie waren wie Nachkommen der Foster Gulch/ Dry Creek Herde, welche 1987 ausgerottet wurde, um Land für andere Zwecke frei zu machen. 1971 gab es 339 Wildpferdeherden im Westen, doch heute bestehen nurnoch 179 Herden in allen 10 Weststaaten zusammen.
Aufgrund der Gegner, bestehend aus der BLM und industriellen Interessen welche ihr Land nicht mit staatlich geschützten Wildpferden teilen wollen, ist die Wahrheit das die Wildpferde verheerend niedrig populiert sind.
Die National Academy of Scienses (nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften) belegte das es keinen Beweis für eine Überpopulation in 2013 gibt. Aufgrunddessen ist Secretary Jewell’s Druck der Populationskontrolle nicht gerechtfertigt oder von Nöten.
Unabhängige Schätzungen befürchten das nur noch 21.354 Pferde in der Wildnis leben, wärend sich etwa 240.000 – 480.000 Stück Vieh in wilden Pferde- und Eselgebieten aufhalten.
Ein Ergebnis der Roundups ist das mehr als 48.000 Wildpferde auf Kosten der Steuerzahler gelagert werden.
Einheimische Wildpferde sollten zurückkehren, in die ursprünglichen Populationsareale, welche 1971 gegründet worden.
Eine 13-jährige Wildpferdestudie welche von der internationalen Gesellschaft für den Schutz der Mustangs und Esel in Zusammenarbeit mit der Princeton University durchgeführt wurde, zeigt das Wildpferdeherden mit funktionellen sozialen Strukturen im Vergleich zu BLM-gesteuerten Herden einen sehr niedrigen Wachstum aufweisen.
Die majestetischen Herden der Wildnis brauchen Schutz vor den wiederkehrenden Roundups, damit sie sich erholen können. Protect Mustangs ruft auf für einen 10-jährigen Aufschub der Roundups im Sinne der Erholung und wissenschaftlicher Studien.
Seit die EPA die einheimischen Pferde 2012 als Plage kategorisiert hat, um die eingeschränkte Verwendung von Pestiziden und Immunokontrazeptiven zu umgehen, kümmert sich die BLM nicht mehr um die Benachrichtigung des Folkes über die Roundups außerhalb der Populationsareale.
Diese Pferde werden zu Auktionen gesendet und zu großer Wahrscheinlichkeit an Schlachter verkauft.
Die Öffentlichkeit ist wütend darüber, zu erfahren das die BLM freilebende Wildpferde – mit Nutzung von Steuergeldern – ohne öffentliche Aufklärung eingefangen hat.
Die Wyoming 41 hätten auf Verwandtschaft mit den Foster Gulch/ Dry Creek Herden getestet werden müssen, und nicht einfach zu Auktionen gebracht und an Schlachter versteigert werden dürfen.
Ein Protest ist in Planung, als Reaktion auf die schlachterunterstützende Politik und die heimlichen Roundups des BLM und soll stattfinden auf den Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Treffen in Sacramento, welches am 14. und 15. April stattfindet.
“Die Amerikaner sind empört das ihre Steuergelder dazu genutzt werden die Wildpferde von der Freiheit in die Kammern des Todes zu treiben – nur damit sie im Ausland verwertet werden können.”, so Novak.
Wenn jemand Informationen irgendeiner Art über die heimlichen Roundups oder Entfernung der Mustangs hat, kontaktieren sie bitte www.protectmustangs.org
Protect Mustangs informiert, schützt und bewahrt einheimische und wilde Pferde. Die gemeinnützige und profitfreie Organisation strebt nach einem 10-jährigen Aufschub der Roundups, für die Erholung und wissenschaftsbasierendes ganzheitliches Landmanagement um die globale Erwärmung zu reduzieren.
“Mit dieser letzten Aktion scheint das Bureau of Land Management zu denken das sie ungestraft handeln können. Diese fabelhaften Tiere sollten niemals zu irgendwelchen Zwischenhändlern gebracht und an den ausländischen Markt verkauft werden, wo der Geist der nur in diesen Geschöpfen, nur in unseren heimischen Ländern existiert, verschlungen wird.”, sagt Boone. “Wilde Pferde sind fälschlicherweise als Pest ausstaffiert worden, sodass sie gejagt und vom Land entfernt werden sollen, damit genau diese Länder aus Unternehmungsinteressen (unter anderem Bergbau und Viehzucht), unterstützt von Steuergeldern, verwendet werden können. Wir müssen diesen Impuls jetzt stoppen.”
Thanks to MF for the translation.