Hudson is a bay gelding with id number is 12224370 from the Owyhee HMA in Nevada. He’s 2 years old and already 14.3 hands.
So many of Hudson’s relations were killed during the Owyhee roundup. Reports came in of wild horses being chased by choppers and run off cliffs. . .
Why did the BLM roundup the Owyhee mustangs? Why did they spin to the public that they didn’t have enough water? Didn’t award-winning reporter, George Knapp, find bodies of water out on the Owyhee range? Why were the wild horses fenced out? Does their tragic removal have anything to do with fracking in Nevada? What is the truth?
Help Hudson find his forever home to keep him safe from the heinous 3-Strike system.
Every time a protected wild horses is offered for adoption and no one picks him or her they earn a strike against them. After 3 strikes they loose all their protections and legally can be sold for $10 a head by the truckload. The pro-slaughter Burns Amendment twisted the intention of the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act. The BLM claims that after the Tom Davis fiasco they won’t do this anymore. Do you believe BLM?
Why does Congress support the Burns Amendment?
Here is a video of Hudson #4370. He’s a nice mover and a sweet boy.
Here is information from BLM about the California Internet Adoption event:
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will offer 45 wild horses and 6 wild burros through its first online adoption in California beginning June 16.
The animals are available for adoption from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday, June 16, through Friday, June 27. The adoption fee is $125 per animal. Animals can be picked up at the Santa Clara Horseman’s Park in San Jose on July 12 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., or at either the Ridgecrest or Litchfield Corral.
All animals available for adoption have been vaccinated, de-wormed and have a health certificate. None of these animals are gentled or trained.
SAN FRANCISCO (December 20, 2012)–Citizens around the word are outraged at the BLM’s cruelty towards America’s native wild horses. The alleged federally protected mustangs are being rounded up and removed by the thousands only to be stockpiled in the Midwest at taxpayer expense. Some end up in the slaughter pipeline. During the current Owyhee roundup wild horse advocates documented mustangs being chased by a helicopter through barbed wire fencing. Protect Mustangs wants the roundups to stop and for the government to use the wild herds in Holistic Rangeland Management instead to reverse desertification on public land.
Artist Michelle Guillot says she was inspired by the horrific scenes of wild horses being driven through barbed wire at the Owyhee Roundup in Nevada.
“I was so appalled that I had to do something!” states Guillot. “How can the government hire helicopter contractors to push mustangs into barbed wire?”
She made the Seasons Greeting poster to let the world know what’s going on. Protect Mustangs is grateful to be able to release Guillot’s powerful message.
Public outrage is mounting and as a result, Protect Mustangs is organizing a Rally in San Francisco for January 2013. Date, time and place to be announced.
“The cruel roundups must stop,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “Congress needs to listen to the public. They must stop enabling the wild horse wipe out–even if lobbyists are throwing cash around Washington.”
Protect Mustangs encourages Americans to meet with their senators and representatives to ask them to stop the roundups and use wild equids with livestock for Holistic Rangeland Management. This is a powerful solution for climate change–one that will reverse desertification.
The Petition to Defund and Stop the Roundups is circulating. Animal lovers around the world are encouraged to share it with their friends and request the United States Congress stop the cruelty and stop the roundups.
Michelle Guillot retains the copyright to the poster but encourages animal lovers to share the poster to spread awareness. She does not want the poster used for fundraising or commercial use.
Protect Mustangs is a California-based preservation group whose mission is to educate the public about the American wild horse, protect and research wild horses on the range and help those who have lost their freedom.
Wild horses and burros are supposed to be treated as “components of the public lands”. 16 U.S.C. § 1333(a) The law is clear that “wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death” and entitled to roam free on public lands where they were living at the time the Act was passed in 1971. 16 U.S.C. § 1331 These legally protected areas are known as “herd areas,” and are defined as “the geographic area identified as having been used by a herd as its habitat in 1971.” 43 C.F.R. § 4700.0-5(d).
The Wild Free Roaming Horse & Burro Act also authorizes designation of specific ranges for wild horses and burros. “Range’ means the amount of land necessary to sustain an existing herd or herds …and which is devoted principally but not necessarily exclusively to their welfare in keeping with the multiple-use management concept for the public lands”. 16 USCS §§ 1332(c), 1333(a). ~Animal Law Coalition
Why is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM),–the agency responsible for the care and welfare of wild horses and burros–allowed to break the very law enacted to protect our native wildlife and heritage animals?
If you don’t like the photos taken by witness and filmmaker Stephanie Martin at the Owyhee Roundup then please meet with your senators and representatives to ask them to stop the abusive roundups.
Is there really an overpopulation problem?
It’s long overdue for an independent and accurate wild horse and burro census for each Herd Management Area (HMA). BLM’s population estimates are only that–estimates. It’s easy to count cows as horses from the air and double count horses as they roam from area to area.
If there really is an overpopulation problem then using fertility control drugs on non-viable herds or sterilizing herds will be a disaster. Why? This would ruin their gene pool and result in inbreeding. Mother nature has a ‘survival of the fittest’ program in place that ensures only the strong, healthy and wise reproduce.
Current thriving natural ecological balance studies on the range are necessary. For decades wild horses have been scapegoated for the damage created by livestock–especially to fragile riparian areas. Cattle enjoy standing in riparian areas all day whereas wild horses come for a drink and leave for the rest of a day. Princeton University has proven wild herds reverse desertification so livestock benefits from more abundant forage.
The Appropriate Management Levels (AML) for wild horses and burros were set by the Government. The Cattlemen are a wealthy lobbying force in Washington. It’s no surprise that cattle outnumbers wild horses on the range at least 50 to 1 on HMAs throughout the West.
Currently the BLM uses archaic methods of range management which allow livestock grazing methods that are harsh on the land, a wide use of pesticides and extraction industry pollution. The range is being destroyed. Removing wild horses is the wrong action because the native equids can heal the range and reverse desertification.
What’s wrong with roundups
Helicopter roundups are harsh on the environment. Chasing wild horses creates unnatural stampedes zigzagging over 10-15 mile areas many times per day for many weeks. This ruins the high desert environment and disturbs species such as the sage grouse.
Rounding up more federally protected native wild horses than they can adopt out fails as a management technique. Wild horses and burros end up stockpiled in holding facilities at taxpayer expense. After the cruel roundups, wild horses loose what is most precious to them–their families and their freedom.
Solutions
Using Range Design, which includes Allan Savory’s Holistic Rangeland Management, is a viable solution for today’s range issues. More wild horses and burros should be allowed on the range to reverse desertification, reduce fuel for wildfires and create biodiversity. This ultimately improves rangeland grazing for livestock.
“Holistic Management using native wild horses, heritage burros and livestock should be used for rangeland programs across the West,” explains Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “It’s a win-win that works to heal the land, reverse desertification and reduce global warming”
SAN FRANCISCO (December 13, 2012)–In honor of the National Day of the Horse today, Protect Mustangs calls for an end to cruel roundups of native wild horses. The California based conservation group is circulating a Change.org petition to Congress to De-fund and Stop the Roundups. The roundups are deadly and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is skewing the death count.The BLM emphasizes preexisting conditions so Congress won’t realize how many federally protected wild horses are being killed as a result of the roundups.
“Enough is enough!” states Anne Novak, executive director for Protect Mustangs. “If they weren’t rounded up at the hands of the BLM then those wild horses at Owyhee and other ranges surely would not be dead now. We want the roundups to stop, the warehousing to stop, the fiscal irresponsibility to stop, the bad science to stop and we are asking for an accurate independent census of how many wild horses are left on the range.”
Today close to 50,000 wild horses are warehoused in government short or long term holding facilities yet only an estimated 20,000 remain in the wild. In the 1900s two million wild horses roamed in America. Afterwards the wild horse population dropped mostly due to hunting for their meat.
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“America’s wild horses should be returned to the range,” states Inez Fort, vice president of Protect Mustangs’ board of directors. “In 1971 there were almost twice as many herd management areas for wild horses. Today it’s hard to find free roaming mustangs on the range. They’ve been stampeded by helicopters and have become victims of roundups.”
“Today, with the public land grab for water rights, energy development and mining projects, the wild horse is facing a huge monster called greed,” explains Novak. “It’s not sustainable to wipe them out. Native wild horses can reverse desertification, offset carbon emissions and heal the land. We need our wild horses to help stop global warming.”
The horse originated in North America. Many breeds of horse exist today–including the American wild horse aka mustang. The Spanish Conquistadors reintroduced the horses to their native homeland where they benefit the ecosystem, reduce global warming and inspire people across the globe.
Ph.D.s J.F. Kirkpatrick, and P.M. Fazio cite in Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife that:
The key element in describing an animal as a native species is (1) where it originated; and (2) whether or not it co‐evolved with its habitat. Clearly, E. 6 caballus did both, here in North American. There might be arguments about “breeds,” but there are no scientific grounds for arguments about “species.”
The non‐native, feral, and exotic designations given by agencies are not merely reflections of their failure to understand modern science but also a reflection of their desire to preserve old ways of thinking to keep alive the conflict between a species (wild horses), with no economic value anymore (by law), and the economic value of commercial livestock.
Native status for wild horses would place these animals, under law, within a new category for management considerations. As a form of wildlife, embedded with wildness, ancient behavioral patterns, and the morphology and biology of a sensitive prey species, they may finally be released from the “livestock‐gone‐loose” appellation.
In 2004, Congress recognized the first official National Day of the Horse. The text of the resolution states:
Encouraging citizens to be mindful of the contribution of horses to the economy, history, and character of the United States and expressing the sense of Congress that a National Day of the Horse should be established.
Whereas the horse is a living link to the history of the United States;
Whereas, without horses, the economy, history, and character of the United States would be profoundly different;
Whereas horses continue to permeate the society of the United States, as witnessed on movie screens, on open land, and in our own backyards;
Whereas horses are a vital part of the collective experience of the United States and deserve protection and compassion;
Whereas, because of increasing pressure from modern society, wild and domestic horses rely on humans for adequate food, water, and shelter; and
Whereas the Congressional Horse Caucus estimates that the horse industry contributes well over $100,000,000,000 each year to the economy of the United States: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress–
(1) encourages all citizens to be mindful of the contribution of horses to the economy, history, and character of the United States;
(2) expresses its sense that a National Day of the Horse should be established in recognition of the importance of horses to the Nation’s security, economy, recreation, and heritage; and
(3) urges the President to issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States and interested organizations to observe National Day of the Horse with appropriate programs and activities.
On the eighth anniversary of the first official National Day of the Horse, horse enthusiasts are encouraged to celebrate the horse’s contribution to the United States.
Protect Mustangs is a California-based preservation group whose mission is to educate the public about the American wild horse, protect and research wild horses on the range and help those who have lost their freedom.
Salazar’s Agency Ignores Federal Court Order Honoring First Amendment, Denies Observers Access to Wild Horse Roundup
Reno, NV (July 19, 2010)—Laura Leigh, Herd Watch Project Coordinator for The Cloud Foundation, has been denied access to observe the Owyhee roundup, the first leg of the Tuscarora roundup near Elko, Nevada. On July 16th, Federal Judge Larry Hicks’ ruled Leigh’s First Amendment rights be upheld and therefore allow her and others to view the roundup. Leigh contends that the BLM has gone against the Judge’s orders for three days. Today Leigh filed a motion to uphold the court order for her First Amendment rights.
BLM officials refused to tell her where the trap site was located. They had strategically placed it on private land within the public herd management area (HMA) even though the range contains more than 450,000 acres of public land. The private landowner would not grant Leigh and others access. BLM used this method before to hide the Calico roundup from the public and journalists except for rare staged “media days”.
The helicopter stampede resumed as soon as the Judge lifted the injunction last Friday. Since then BLM has captured 620 mustangs and their young foals in the sweltering heat. More than 17 wild horses have been killed during the roundup. At least 2 foals were shot (euthanized) because of leg deformities resulting in lameness after being run over many miles of volcanic rock. Advocates question the accuracy of the diagnosis—pointing to evidence that lameness previously was caused by running the hoofs off the baby horses during last winter’s Calico roundup in Nevada also run by Cattoor Livestock, the private contractor who will be paid close to one million dollars for this roundup.
The BLM has created an alleged wild horses dehydration emergency by fencing mustangs off from water and running them scared by helicopter into traps. Advocates feel it is inhumane that the BLM is not treating the wild horses in the wild for dehydration but instead the BLM continues to chase them, round them up and ship the wild horses crammed in huge trucks for more than 5 hours to a temporary holding facility—all in the desert heat.
“These are wild animals. If this alleged emergency was happening to deer or big horn sheep the BLM would not be terrifying them by helicopter chase and then trucking them for half a day in the sweltering heat to be cared for at a distant location. Traditionally you care for distressed wild animals in the wild,” states Makendra Silverman, Associate Director of The Cloud Foundation. “And isn’t it curious that other wildlife or cattle isn’t suffering extreme dehydration out on the same range?”
Leigh had filed a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to stop this roundup and defend the public’s first amendment rights to observe the operation. BLM testified in federal court that no cattle remained on the range and that the horses had no water—even though a river is only 10 miles away, a short distance to travel for wild horses who under normal circumstances may travel twice that distance in daily treks to get a drink.
4,000 privately-owned cattle are permitted to graze (and drink) on the Tuscarora Complex where BLM permits only 400 mustangs. Made up by three separate HMAs: Owyhee, Little Humboldt and Rock Creek, the area is to be managed by BLM principally (though not exclusively) for the federally protected wild horses.
The foundation wants to know what is stopping the horses from accessing the Owyhee River and other perennial water sources? Are gates locked and vast areas fenced for livestock in the HMA?
“BLM’s emergency roundups are classified as such before the action begins. The three Tuscarora roundups were never described as emergencies. Suddenly, with the BLM challenged in court and 12 dead horses from the first day’s roundup their operation has suddenly morphed into an ‘emergency rescue’ roundup,” states Cloud Foundation Director, Ginger Kathrens, who has 16 years experience documenting wild horses in the West. “There is really no way to accurately assess the real, on-the-ground situation because the public is still being denied access. Is BLM resorting to any means just to carry out an agenda to rid the western ranges of wild horses?”
The three Tuscarora roundups (Owyhee, Little Humbolt and Rock Creek) were scheduled months ago as a standard BLM operation. The wild horses were found to be healthy. The primary reason for the roundups was because the wild horses were allegedly damaging livestock fencing. The public, mustang advocates, animal welfare groups and equine experts warned against summer helicopter roundups in the desert heat. The BLM ignored the comments.
The Cloud Foundation calls for immediate access to be given to all members of the interested public and for the addition of at least two knowledgeable wild horse advocates to BLM’s assembled team of insiders to determine what went wrong in the Owyhee disaster.
“Right now BLM plans to zero out the entire West Douglas herd in Colorado against a Federal Judge’s specific ruling to leave the herd intact. For the past three days, BLM ignored Judge Hicks’ ruling for the First Amendment,” states Kathrens. “Who will stop Salazar’s rogue bureau before they ruin the West?”
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Links of interest:
Washington Post reports on NV Roundup Resuming http://bit.ly/cRwhSc
NBC Reno reports BLM Still Restricting Public Access to Roundup http://bit.ly/bE2wiJ
Leigh vs Salazar Documents filed 7/19 that relate to Leigh’s attempt to observe the Owyhee roundup and uphold her First Amendment rights:
Motion for Contempt http://bit.ly/bSAZax
Declaration for Motion http://bit.ly/9AY4x5
Exhibit A DOI Letter http://bit.ly/aL8w95
Disappointment Valley… A Modern Day Western Trailer- excellent sample of interviews regarding the issues http://bit.ly/awFbwm
PR Firm Hired for the Destruction of America’s Wild Horse and Burro Herds http://bit.ly/czf3HB
Fact Sheet on Wild Herds & The Salazar Plan http://bit.ly/bfdX1y
