Terrified wild horses chased and shot with birth control

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Protect Mustangs

Is this what the EPA has approved for our wild horses and burros? Has the EPA approved–under a restricted-use pesticide program–a method to terrorize the young and old in a herd rendering the mares infertile as young as seven years old?

Who gave the government the right to play God and make the choices? Wildlife depends on natural selection for the survival of the fittest.

The questions remain:

Are wild horses and burros ruining the thriving natural ecological balance on the range–or is it the livestock?

We all know the livestock is the culprit–outnumbering wild horses 50 to 1.

How many wild horses are out there? Some Herd Management Areas have as little as 3 horses on them. Where is the scientific proof they are overpopulating?

If you don’t like what you see then take action.

Re-protect the indigenous wild horse.

California Twin Peaks mares given a 3 year dose of infertility

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Protect Mustangs

AP reports: Land managers try new method to capture mustangs

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Protect Mustangs

Cross-posted from The Seattle Times

Federal land managers say they will use a new method to remove “excess” wild horses from the range in Nevada and other western states.

By MARTIN GRIFFITH

Associated Press

RENO, Nev. — Federal land managers say they will use a new method to remove “excess” wild horses from the range in Nevada and other western states.The U.S. Bureau of Land Management for the first time is resorting to the widespread use of “bait trapping,” which involves setting up panels and using food, water and salt to lure mustangs into a trap.The move comes after animal rights advocates’ growing criticism of the traditional use of helicopters to drive the animals to corrals. Activists brand the practice as inhumane, saying horses are traumatized, injured or killed as they are driven for miles across rough terrain to corrals.

“The BLM is committed to continuously improving its management of wild horses and burros,” Joan Guilfoyle, BLM wild horse and burro division chief, said in a statement. “Deploying this new method of bait trapping enhances our ability to gather animals more effectively in certain areas of the West, while minimizing the impact to the animals.”

But the agency also still plans to conduct helicopter roundups, she added.

Anne Novak, executive director of San Francisco Bay area-based Protect Mustangs, said bait trapping would only be justified if there really were an excess number of wild horses on the range ruining the natural ecological balance.

“BLM never provides a scientific wild horse head count – only sloppy inflated estimates to justify removals,” Novak told The Associated Press. “When observers go out on the range, we see other factors devastating the land like big business extracting oil, gas and mining and ripping up the terrain, along with the old school methods of overgrazing cattle.”

The BLM already has used bait trapping in densely wooded areas where helicopters can’t easily move animals, and in areas where timeliness isn’t an issue. Bait trapping usually occurs over a period of several weeks or months.

But the use of bait trapping to remove horses over long periods of time in a variety of locations simultaneously is a new strategy for the agency, Guilfoyle said. The concept is to capture smaller numbers of animals over a long period of time, not to gather large numbers of horses in a short period of time, she added.

For the first time, the BLM is soliciting bids for several bait-trapping contracts to remove mustangs in six zones across the West over a one-year period starting July 1.

The government’s wild horse program is intended to protect wild horse herds and the rangelands that support them. About 33,000 wild horses live in 10 Western states, of which about half are in Nevada. Under the program, thousands of horses are forced into holding pens, where many are vaccinated or neutered before being placed for adoption or sent to long-term corrals in the Midwest.

While animal rights advocates complain that the roundups are inhumane, ranchers and other groups say they’re needed to protect fragile grazing lands that are used by cattle, bighorn sheep and other wildlife.

No proof to justify removing “excess” wild horses with bait traps or roundups

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Protect Mustangs

“We are concerned the BLM’s new proposal to bait trap, over long periods of time, will zero-out wild horses in the West. The agency will continue helicopter roundups as well. There is no proof to justify the alleged “excess” amounts of wild horses. Princeton science has proven wild herds heal cattle grazing lands for cattle, so let’s find the win-win and stop wasting tax dollars on irresponsible mustang removals.” ~Anne Novak, Executive Director for Protect Mustangs.

Read about the issue and our comment in the Associated Press article here.

If you don’t like what’s going on then take action to protect America’s wild horses and burros. Get creative . . .

Music 4 Mustangs

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Protect Mustangs

Saving wild horses through music.

Music 4 Mustangs‘ is a Protect Mustangs project. The mission is to raise awareness to protect American wild horses today and for future generations. Through concerts and recorded music, we will be raising money to fund various projects on and off the range.

If you are with a band and want to get involved to play a benefit concert to save the mustangs contact us: Info@Music4Mustangs.org

Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Music4Mustangs

On the web: http://www.Music4Mustangs.org

We also need volunteers.

Evidence

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Protect Mustangs

I will confess, I did not attend the public vigil for the 40th Anniversary of the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act because I am heartbroken. Someone contacted me more than five weeks ago who had evidence proving the cattle–not the wild horses–are damaging the range in the Calico Complex but they are holding back.

Most of the majestic Calico wild horses have been rounded up and torn from their families but they have not all been processed and shipped out to long-term holding . . . not yet.

I lit a candle on December 15th praying that the person with the evidence would come forward so we could prove this roundup was conducted under false pretenses and return the Calico wild horses and burros to their wild homes.

Please join me to light candle for their freedom.

In gratitude,

Anne Novak

Executive Director of Protect Mustangs

Wild Horse Annie honored today

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Protect Mustangs

Wild horse heroine, Velma Johnston aka Wild Horse Annie, fought for decades to protect mustangs and prevent them from being shipped off to slaughter. Johnston campaigned to prevent them from being killed on public land, harassed by airplanes rounding them up, branded, terrorized and sold to make dog food. Congress unanimously passed the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act in response to the public outcry led by Wild Horse Annie.

On December 15, 1971 the President of the United States of America signed The Act to forever protect our majestic wild horses and burros–symbols of American freedom and the pioneer spirit.

Sadly forty years later, protections for American wild horse and burros are being violated through stealth acts, such as the Burns Amendment which makes it legal for our living treasures to be be sold in “unlimited numbers” and therefore bought by kill buyers and sold to slaughter because the meat fetches a high price in Asian countries especially.

In 2011 wild horses and burros are again chased by aircrafts and terrorized in roundups to remove them from their rightful place on public land. Next they are torn from their families, processed and branded only to await an unknown fate . . .

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) excuse for back-room removal deals is a random allotment system called the appropriate management level (AML) that has nothing to do with The Act and nothing to do with thriving natural ecological balance (TNEB) yet everything to do with the livestock grazing lobby as well as the extractive and energy industry’s public land grab.

Most herd management areas (HMAs) are overpopulated with livestock–trashing the land–while the wild horses are scapegoats for all range and riparian damage. Some HMAs have as many as 200 heads of livestock to one wild horse. Curiously, adult cows and calves are counted as one unit yet adult wild horses and their foals are counted as 2 units. The numbers are skewed and the spin is intense against wild horses and burros because there is no money behind them. They can’t be used for profit or for tax write-offs.

More than 75 million tax dollars are wasted annually on BLM’s broken program–dependent on expensive roundups and removals. It creates a surplus of formerly wild horses warehoused in long-term holding who are vulnerable to slipping out the back door to slaughter or being killed by the government because of being a financial drain.

Leaving indigenous wild horses on their legal range costs next to nothing in comparison. Protect Mustangs would like to see American wild horses freed from long-term holding and returned to their herd management areas of origin.

Tonight, vigils to re-protect American wild horses and burros are being held across the United States of America, the UK and Sweden. The public wants the roundups and inhumane treatment to stop now.

News Release

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Protect Mustangs

Protect Mustangs asks Obama to stop the dangerous Calico roundup

Advocates ask for the sustainable win-win

WASHINGTON (November 21, 2011)— Protect Mustangs launches their campaign and petition to stop the frivolous Calico roundup in northern Nevada near the town of Gerlach, known for Burning Man. The mustang advocacy group joins with advocates and the disgruntled public asking President Obama to stop the expensive winter roundup before it becomes deadly. The 2010 Calico roundup was the deadliest roundup in history with 160 deaths attributed to it. Protect Mustangs asks that all other roundups be put on hold until a sustainable plan is agreed to by all sides of the issue.

“There is no accurate head count and estimates cannot justify an expensive roundup when thriving natural ecological balance (TNEB) exists on the range,” explains Anne Novak, Founder and Director of Protect Mustangs. “This country is in the middle of a financial crises. We can’t afford to waste more money on cruel roundups, removals and warehousing. The money being spent on this roundup could be used to help the American people get back on their feet.”

Last year the BLM spent more than 75 million dollars on the Wild Horse and Burro Program. Advocates want to know how that money was spent—line by line.

“They are wasting our tax money on roundups instead of using a small fraction of that money to improve the range,” states Lisa Friday, Board Member of Protect Mustangs. “We want to see wild horses freed from long-term holding and returned to the West—to roam freely on their herd management areas (HMAs) as Congress intended.”

Today close to 39,000 American wild horses live in long-term holding facilities—away from their native habitat. Less than 13,850 live on public land in ten western states. In 1900, 2 million wild horses roamed freely in America.

Currently, in the Calico Complex HMA, more than half a million acres, can easily support the less than 1,000 wild horses and burros living there. Livestock currently outnumbers wild horses more than 50 to 1. Protect Mustangs wants to make sure that the mustangs are not scapegoated for damage to the range caused by livestock.

Wild horses are being removed from their range at breakneck speed to make room for ‘the New Energy Frontier’. Protect Mustangs wants a sustainable management plan for the wild horses of the West.

“It’s not ‘green’ to wipe out an indigenous species to create an industrialized zone for producing so-called renewables on public land, states Novak. “There must be a way to find a win-win for the wild horses, the other wildlife, the livestock and the energy projects in the West. We want engagement from all sides to solve this problem.”

Meanwhile Protect Mustangs asks President Obama to stop the Calico roundup and put all other roundups on hold until a real sustainable plan is agreed to by all sides of the issue.

The Salazar Plan was announced in Fall 2009 and the result was nationwide public outcry and protests. The administration disregarded the will of the people and forged ahead with a dysfunctional policy destined to zero out the American wild horse.

‘Now we want change for the good,” states Lisa Friday “We want the administration to stop wasting money on a bad plan.”

Protect Mustangs is a California-based non-profit whose mission is to inform the public about the mustang crisis, protect America’s wild horses on the range and help those who lost their freedom.

# # #

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:

Protect Mustangs’ Petition to Stop Calico Roundup: http://chn.ge/rBoej7

CBS: Stampede to Oblivion: http://bit.ly/tAopv7

FAQs on Wild Horses: http://bit.ly/teEILa

New Energy Frontier: http://on.doi.gov/taVehZ

Ruby Pipeline: The Real Reason To Remove Wild Horses? http://bit.ly/vUf9SQ

Ruby Pipeline Map: http://bit.ly/sCRcJ5

Salazar Plan Shortcomings: http://bit.ly/togfzp

Press Releases Chronicling the issue: http://bit.ly/vnyVnR

Protect Mustangs on Twitter @ProtectMustangs

Protect Mustangs on You Tube: http://bit.ly/v8TZfd

Protect Mustangs on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/uDF5JP

Protect Mustangs on Web: www.ProtectMustangs.org

Take Action: Stop the Calico Roundup Petition

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Protect Mustangs

It’s the eve of the Calico roundup. Let’s get this petition out to our friends and networks to Stop the Roundup!

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-calico-roundup

Protect Mustangs™

Forever wild and free™

Tag Archives: wildlife