32,000 Adopted Horses, Burros Are Missing in Action at BLM (AP: Reprint 1997)

 

PM Sick Filly PVC March 25 2014

Government: People who want the formerly wild animals are supposed to wait a year to get title before they can be sold. But enforcement is lax and many end up slaughtered.

February 02, 1997MARTHA MENDOZA | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cross-posted from the LA Times for educational purposes

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A federal program to protect wild horses and burros has lost track of more than 32,000 animals placed in adoption, allowing people to neglect, abuse and even slaughter some of them for profit.

In addition, officials of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management may have falsified records to cover up the problem and ignored warnings that thousands of adopters have not been checked and have not received titles to their animals, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.

“Records are systematically falsified and no one wants to know about it,” said Reed Smith, a former BLM administrator who retired from the New Mexico office in 1995.

In 1971, Congress enacted a law to protect wild horses and burros and place excess animals for adoption. In 1978, to better prevent their slaughter or sale, it created a system of legal titles: The adopter would keep each animal for one year, comply with a health check, then get title.

Until the title is issued, the animal would remain government property.

Using the BLM’s computerized records maintained in Denver and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the AP found that 32,774 of all adopted animals–or 20%–remain untitled. Legally, those horses and burros are still federal property.

The adopted horses were given to more than 18,000 different people.

Last month, the AP reported that the $16-million-a-year program has allowed thousands of titled wild horses and burros to be slaughtered. The investigation found that BLM employees are among those profiting from the slaughter.

In response to the first report, Wild Horse and Burro Program chief Thomas Pogacnik wrote: “Once title is issued, the animal is private property.”

Under the 1971 law, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is mandated by Congress to protect wild horses and burros on public lands. Babbitt refused to comment for this story.

BLM officials say they rely on spot checks to trace horses that remain untitled. But Larry Woodard, the former state director of New Mexico’s BLM office, called spot checks inadequate.

“One out of every five animals adopted by the bureau never being titled would indicate that the titling aspect of the adoption program has not been a subject of intense concern,” Woodard wrote in a 1993 memo.

A U.S. Justice Department memo from April 1996 indicated that the BLM is not carefully screening adopters because the agency does not want to know what happens to the animals.

“The Adopt-a-Horse program is seriously flawed. . . . BLM has an unstated policy of not looking too closely at proposed adoptions,” wrote Charles Brooks, a Justice Department attorney who had been assisting the U.S. attorney’s office in Texas with an investigation of the program. “The agency’s approach to this was its version of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’ ”

A March 27, 1995, internal memo from that investigation quotes BLM law enforcement agent John Brenna as saying that Lili Thomas, a BLM official, made “a tacit admission of backdating documents used in the Wild Horse and Burro Program.”

“Her additional comments were that she did not know if this was illegal or not,” Brenna wrote.

Thomas did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment. Brenna refused to comment.

In the 25 years since the law’s passage, the BLM has gathered 165,635 animals in 10 Western states deemed “excess” and given most of them to adopters for $125 each. About 40,000 horses and burros remain in the wild.

Thomas Sharp, a 43-year-old wheat and alfalfa farmer, sits in a West Texas penitentiary, the only person in the country in federal prison for selling untitled horses.

He says he couldn’t afford to feed the animals and didn’t bother to send in a form requesting title. “They got me on a signature, but they got me, that’s for sure,” he said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Hank Hockeimer of Oklahoma said he hoped Sharp’s four-month sentence would set an example.

“Our purpose for prosecuting this case was to send a message that under this program you can’t ostensibly adopt these horses and then sell them before you have title,” he said.

The AP contacted 20 adopters of untitled horses last week, but only two still had their animals. One said his horse died, another gave his away and the rest said they had sold their untitled horses, mostly at livestock auctions.

Wild horses sold at auction almost all eventually end up slaughtered, according to the operators of North American horse slaughterhouses.

George Varner Sr., who spent 20 years as a “killer buyer” for slaughterhouses, said one or two wild mustangs show up at auction barns each month in central Mississippi alone.

He said the only people willing to bid on the horses are the slaughterhouse buyers. “These horses aren’t good for anything else,” he said.

The AP’s Fred Bayles, Chris Sullivan and Drew Sullivan contributed to this report.

Protect Mustangs is an organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Governor Takes Pride in Wyoming’s Leadership on #Fracking and Wants it Recognized

Wild horses are quickly being wiped out in Wyoming. Governor Mead encourages roundups and removals at federal taxpayer expense. Mead seems to be owned by the oil and gas industry so it’s no surprise he’s getting rid of their environmental obstacles. 

From Vote Smart

By: Matt Mead
Date: Aug. 23, 2013
Location: Cheyenne, WY

Governor Matt Mead expressed that he is proud of Wyoming’s record of effective regulation of the oil and gas industry in his comments on the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed rule for hydraulic fracturing. Governor Mead wrote to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell to say that the BLM should reject the duplicative regulation and defer to states like Wyoming.

“As a leading energy producer, Wyoming continues to set the standard for development and environmental stewardship,” Governor Mead wrote. He pointed to Wyoming’s first-in-the-nation hydraulic fracturing rules, updated well bore integrity standards, air standards for natural gas production and wells that are hydraulically fractured, and Wyoming’s recently released energy strategy. “Guided by this energy strategy, Wyoming is establishing baseline groundwater sampling, analysis and monitoring regulations.”

Given state leadership is already in place in Wyoming, Governor Mead expressed concern that the new BLM rule would add to existing delays and undercapitalization of federal permitting. Another area of concern is the BLM’s effort to grant variances to allow compliance with state or tribal requirements when those meet or exceed the federal rule or standard. What is troubling is that the ability to acquire variance is given to operators, not states or tribes. “Despite BLM’s contention that states will be afforded opportunity to work with the BLM to craft a variance, the mechanism in the rule only allows operators to pursue a variance,” Governor Mead wrote.

The Governor requests a reconsideration of this provision and that the BLM not expand its administrative footprint in Wyoming. “Wyoming has led the nation in regulating hydraulic fracturing, and the BLM should allow us to continue that leadership,” Governor Mead said.
Source: http://governor.wy.gov/media/pressReleases/Pages/GovernorTakesPrideinWyoming%E2%80%99sLeadershiponHydraulicFracturingandWantsitRecognized.aspx

Request a 10 year moratorium on wild horse roundups for science

 

Tibetan prayer flag depicting Windhorse

Tibetan prayer flag depicting the Windhorse

Dear Friends of American wild horses,

In 2009 while I was working with Ginger at the Cloud Foundation, Cheryl Crow asked Obama to stop the roundups. Crow even went to the White House with Ginger’s Cloud DVD and a pitch to stop the roundups. She also spoke with Sec. Salazar on the phone. There was tons of national and international media buzz about Sheryl Crow asking to ‘Stop the Roundups’. Sadly it didn’t work to stop any roundups 🙁

Let’s join together and all ask for a 10 year moratorium on roundups for scientific studies (population, migration, etc.) I believe the National Academy of Sciences said more scientific studies were needed.

How can any member of Congress avoid looking like a sell-out and fool if there isn’t any scientific research proving there is an overpopulation of wild horses–compared to livestock–to justify mega-millions spent on roundups and warehousing?

Let’s push for Congress to use science to govern policy. Can we all get behind science and a 10 year moratorium on roundups? Then, we could have a chance to save America’s wild horses and burros.

The Internet is in our favor to spread the truth to voters. Just let the Senators’ and Representatives’ opponents know what they have been doing . . . 2014 is an election year!

Elections for the United States Senate will be held on November 4, 2014, with 33 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate being contested in regular elections whose winners will serve six-year terms from January 3, 2015 to January 3, 2021. Additionally, special elections may be held to fill vacancies that occur during the 113th United States Congress.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2014

The 2014 United States House of Representatives elections will be held on November 4, 2014. Elections will be held for all 435 seats, representing the 50 U.S. states. Elections will also be held for the non-voting delegates from the District of Columbia and four of the five U.S. territories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2014

All my best wishes,
Anne

Anne Novak
Executive Director of Protect Mustangs
www.ProtectMustangs.org

Email the team at Protect Mustangs: Contact at ProtectMustangs.org

 

Petition to De-Fund the roundups

Anne Novak with friendly wild horses. (Photo © Irma Novak)

Please sign and share the Change.org petition to De-Fund the roundups.

Wild horses are a native species to America. Rounding up federally protected wild horses and burros has been documented as cruel. Warehousing them for decades is fiscally irresponsible. Clearing mustangs and burros off public land–for industrialization, fracking, grazing and the water grab–goes against the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act put in place to protect the living legends of the American West.

We request you de-fund the roundups immediatley.

There is no accurate census and the Bureau of Land Management figures do not add up. We request an independent census because we are concerned there are less than 18,000 wild horses and burros in the 10 western states combined. More roundups will wipe them out.

Kindly allow native wild horses and the burros to reverse desertification, reduce the fuel for wildfires and create biodiversity on public land–while living with their families in freedom.

 

Petition Letter

De-fund the Roundups

Wild horses are a native species to America. Rounding up federally protected wild horses has been documented as cruel and fiscally irresponsible. Clearing mustangs off public land–for industrialization and fracking–goes against the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act put in place to protect the living legends of the American West.

[Your name]

Adopt a BLM wild horse to save it from an unknown fate

Meet Ellie (#6457). She’s a gorgeous 4 yr old Palomino mare from the Calico Mts. She is at the Palomino Valley Center near Reno. (Photo courtesy BLM)

Taking action to find homes for at-risk wild horses

Protect Mustangs is working with members of the public to find homes for all the wild horses who were not adopted during the recent Bureau of Land Management (BLM) internet adoption. The unadopted are at risk of being sold to pro-slaughter people like Tom Davis.

“We are reaching out to the public through Facebook and Twitter to find adopters,” explains Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “People across the country are expressing interest in adopting these great horses. I don’t know why the BLM isn’t marketing the adoption program better.”

BLM’s three strike program

America’s living legends receive a strike against them every time they are offered for adoption. If they are offered on the internet and not adopted they get a strike and another internet adoption gives them another strike. If they are offered for adoption at an event and don’t find their person then they get their third strike . . . It’s a cruel system. After three strikes the federally protected wild horses can be sold to anyone who signs on the dotted line that they won’t sell them to slaughter or for use as rodeo stock. The BLM doesn’t check that the buyers are complying so it’s a free for all.

“If indigenous wild horses are not adopted then they will be shipped out to the Midwest where they are at-risk of being sold by the truckloads–even the one year olds,” states Novak. “With the recent E.U. crackdown on American horse meat, riddled with toxic substances, we are concerned wild horses face an increased risk of going to slaughter because they have never been given substances such as bute.”

Positive communication

Members of the public may email Contact@ProtectMustangs.org to enlist their help in communicating with BLM for a smooth adoption process as well as getting information on trainers and transportation.

Below are some wild horses available for adoption:

Meet Baby Red (#2484) a sorrel yearling gelding. His mother was captured during the Twin Peaks roundup and he was born at the BLM facility in California near Susanville. (Photo courtesy BLM)

 

Lily (#3361) is from the Fox Hog herd. They have some draft in their line and make wonderful pets/riding horses when you give them a lot of love. (Photo courtesy BLM)

Good News! This horse has an adopter waiting for him at the Ridgecrest facility. Sam (#3275) is from California’s High Rock area and appears to be from cavalry stock. He is handsome and might make a nice little jumper or sport horse.

 

Meet Stuart (#2600), a yearling gelding from High Rock in California (eastern Sierra). This internet auction could be his 3rd strike and put him “at risk”. He is located near Susanville, California. (Photo courtesy BLM)

 

Here is Merlot (#9380) a yearling red roan gelding from Green Mountain, Wyoming. He is located in Rock Springs, WY and can be shipped to various locations.

To learn about these horses and others in need of adoption, visit Protect Mustangs on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

From the BLM website:

Adoption Requirements

Applicant must be 18 years of age or older.

Applicant must have access to a stall/corral that meets the following criteria:
  • Stall, corral, etc. must contain a minimum of 400 square feet per animal
  • Stall, corral, etc. that is 6′ tall on all sides with access to feed, water and adequate shelter for anything 2 years or older. The stall/corral height is 5′ for a yearling and 4.5′ for a burro. (This area is only required until animal is gentled, not for the life of the animal.)
  • Stall, corral, etc. must be made of protrusion-free materials, (EX) Wood, Pipe, Cattle Panels. Barb wire is not allowed in the area that is being used for gentling the animal.
  • Covered stock trailer. Covered stock trailer refers to: solid top, pipe rails, tarp, etc. BLM will not load into two-horse or drop-ramp trailers.
Applicant must describe their stall/corral, etc. in the application packet and submit to BLM for approval.
  • Application – Describe the area where you will keep the animal(s) during the gentling phase. (Application is located in back of brochure.)

Letter to the President

Mustang flag with stars by Robin Warren (Wild Mustang Robin) for © Protect Mustangs

Dear Mr. President,

Wild horses are indigenous to North America. They will heal the land while creating biodiversity to balance out the surge of grazing, energy, mining and water projects on public land.

We understand your priority to foster the New Energy Frontier and therefore we ask you to find the win-win so America’s wild horses and burros–our living treasures–will not become extinct from the industrialization of western public lands.

It’s essential to leave viable herds (families) on public land so the wind horses and burros can reverse desertification because of their nature to forage and roam.

Predators will control the population as part of nature’s cycle and only the fittest will survive. This cuts out the cost of buying costly pharmaceuticals to control reproduction.

We know all the 51,000 wild horses in holding are at risk of going to slaughter and ask that they be returned to public land where they will cost the government almost nothing to live out their lives. Most male horses in holding have already been sterilized so they will not be able to reproduce.

We oppose creating additional herds of sterile wild horses as they don’t exhibit wild horse behaviors and could threaten the indigenous horse with extinction.

We stand with thousands of Americans to respectfully ask you to stop the cruel wild horse and burro roundups, so that an accurate accounting of horses on the range can take place and alternative sustainable management techniques could be applied to save the indigenous horse.

We thank you in advance for becoming a hero for America’s indigenous horses.

In gratitude,

Anne Novak

 

 

Anne Novak

Executive Director

Protect Mustangs

P.O. Box 5661

Berkeley, California 94705

Send comments against roundup and SpayVac® for Wyoming wild horses

Release Date: 07/06/12
Contacts: Sarah Beckwith
307-347-5207

BLM Releases Preliminary EA for North Lander Complex Wild Horse Gather

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Lander Field Office announces that a preliminary environmental assessment (EA) analyzing a proposed wild horse gather in the North Lander Wild Horse Herd Management Area Complex is now available for review.The North Lander Complex is located east of Riverton within Fremont County, Wyo. The proposed gather is expected to take place in fall, 2012.The preliminary EA analyzes four alternatives and is available by visiting the BLM website at: www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/NEPA/documents/lfo/N-Lander-gather.html.The 30 day comment period runs from July 9 through August 7, 2012. Comments may be emailed to: BLM_WY_North_Lander_Gather@blm.gov(please include “North Lander Gather EA Comments” in the subject line). Comments may also be mailed to BLM Lander Field Office, Attn: Scott Fluer, 1335 Main Street, Lander, WY, 82520.For more information, visit: www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/NEPA/documents/lfo/N-Lander-gather.html, or contact BLM Wild Horse Specialist Scott Fluer at 307-332-8400.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM’s multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
–BLM–Lander Field Office   1335 Main Street      Lander, WY 82520
Last updated: 07-06-2012

It’s only getting worse

Here is a video message about the American wild horse crisis in February 2010. The numbers are bigger now with 53K wild horses in holding and perhaps 15K left on the range.

Thank you Arlene Gawne and team for bringing this YouTube message to the public.

In 2009, 2010 and 2011 we all tried to help The President understand the need to save the mustangs. Sadly he appears to want The New Energy Frontier above and beyond anything else.

If you don’t like what’s going on then contact your representatives and senators because they are your voice in government. Congress funds the rotten Wild Horse and Burro Program under the Bureau of Land Management.

Request a Congressional investigation, forensic accounting and a moratorium on roundups as well as fertility control until the truth comes out that there are hardly any wild horses left out on America’s public land.

This year the EPA passed a fertility control pesticide for use on America’s wild horses and burros. Our indigenous horse has been formally labelled a “pest” by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. We want the erroneous classification reversed. Pests and invasive species are weeded out and disposed of . . .  Why did the EPA sell out?

(Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)

Stop the roundups and the extermination!