BLM-

Tell Feds: Postpone Massive Mustang Roundup & Pursue Cost-Effective Alternative

act by Jan, 20, 2011 and check back here the 21st for the final decision!
Last year with much fanfare, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced Interior Secretary Salazar's new strategy for reforming the woefully mismanged wild horse and burro program. Among the proposals: public/private partnerships and identifying alternatives to the off-the-range holding of wild horses, which is bankrupting American taxpayers. (The BLM has rounded up and removed so many wild horses from the Western range that it now warehouses more mustangs in government holding facilities [40,000+] than are left free in the wild!)

So what does the BLM do when presented an actual opportunity to match its words with action? The agency ignores a cost-effective alternative proposed by philanthropist Madeleine Pickens and her Saving America's Mustangs Foundation and instead gallops ahead with an expensive and inhumane plan to roundup and remove over 2,000 wild horses from the Antelope public lands complex in northeastern Nevada beginning in just days. . . on January 20. The action will leave behind as few as 427 wild horses on this 1.3 million acre range!

Instead of taking up Mrs. Pickens on her offer to construct holding facilities for the horses on two ranches she has purchased within and adjacent to the Antelope Complex, the BLM will subject these mustangs -- including heavily pregnant mares -- to a helicopter stampede in the dead of winter, conducted in trecherous conditions and freezing temperatures. One needs only to recall last year's Calico roundup, which caused scores of mares to spontaneously abort their late term foals, to predict what a terrible toll this roundup will take on the beautiful wild horses of Antelope. BLM actually plans to ship the Antelope horses thousands of miles away to holding facilities, when they could be housed instead on lands adjacent to their home range.

But now, a powerful coalition of humane, enviornmental and horse advocacy organizations have joined forces to tell BLM enough is enough. In a sign on letter sent this week to BLM director Bob Abbey, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), ASPCA, Western Watersheds Project, PBS Filmmaker Ginger Kathrens and The Cloud Foundation and many other organizations urged the BLM to postpone the Antelope roundup, writing:

BLM’s plan to proceed with a late-January gather in the Antelope Complex makes no fiscal or operational sense. Antelope horses will be captured during treacherous winter conditions and shipped thousands of miles to the Midwest, instead of being gathered at a safer time of year and held on adjacent private lands that will eventually become part of larger wild horse eco-sanctuary.

Please join these groups in sending a strong message to the BLM and other government officials that it's time for the agency to live up to its words by postponing the Antelope roundup for a few months until Saving America's Mustangs can take these horses and provide cost-effective holding for them on lands adjacent to their home range. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE SO PLEASE TAKE ACTION HERE-
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6931/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5126

The numbers, issue, and history of the wild miracles-
These numbers are recent (if not the latest) Bureau of Land Management numbers, as well as numbers obtained through independent investigation. Please understand that population levels in particular are fluid and subject to a significant degree of uncertainty (the same caveat applies to numbers provided by the BLM).

* In the 19th century, more than 2 million wild horses roamed the West (source: J. Frank Dobie, “The Mustangs”, Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas, 1952).
* BLM's first census in 1974 reported 42,666 horses and 14,374 burros. (source: BLM/FS Joint Report to Congress, FY1992-95, pg 37-40)
* Today, fewer than 33,000 wild horses likely remain on public lands.
Over 2 million head of private livestock enjoy subsidized grazing on public lands.
* More than 250,000 wild horses and burros have been removed from public lands since 1971. The BLM plans to remove another 12,000 for Fiscal Year 2010.
* The 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act mandated that wild horses and burros be protected and managed on "areas where presently found," which included 47 million acres of public lands on 303 herd areas.
* Since 1971, wild horses have been zeroed out from 111 herd areas representing over 20 million acres; 2.4 million acres of wild horse habitat were lost between 2005 and 2009 alone.
* Burros share their habitat with bighorn sheep, a highly-prized game species that now outnumbers them at least 16 to 1 on public lands. BLM’s target for nationwide burro population is less than 3,000.
* BLM relies on an annual population increase rate of about 20% to evaluate population levels and justify round-ups of wild horses and burros, while the National Academy of Sciences estimates that rate to be closer to 10%.
* Wild horses account for less than 0.5% of large grazing animals on public lands.
* 6 states have lost their entire wild horse and burro populations.
* In 70% of the remaining herd areas, BLM’s population targets are set at levels that will not ensure genetic viability.
* The current removal policy is costing over 60 million tax dollars a year.
* In 2008, less than 5% of BLM’s wild horse and burro program budget was allocated to herd management on the range, with the remaining 95% allocated to captures, holding, and placement.
* According to the USGS, $7.7 million could be saved annually through the use of contraceptive measures alone.
* The removal and processing of a single horse through the adoption pipeline can cost as much as $3,000.
* Over 36,000 wild horses are currently held in government holding pens.
* Livestock grazing is authorized on five times more acres of BLM land than wild horses (160 million acres for livestock vs. 26.6 million acres [shared with livestock] for horses and burros).
* Publicly-subsidized livestock grazing on public lands costs taxpayers in excess of $132 million annually, yet cattle grazed on public lands provide just 3% of the nation's beef supply.
* Private livestock outnumber wild horses and burros on public land by at least 50 to 1 (note: some livestock may not be grazed year round).

At this critical juncture, we encourage the public and the media to draw from the continually updated information and research found on this site to help raise awareness of the plight of the American wild horse. For Campaign updates and alerts, please join our email list.

BURRO MISTAKE-
The BLM (Burea of land management)is in charge of managing the wild horses and burros. In this picture, that was on the news Jan,2011, is showing a BLM helicopter chasing 1 single burro (correction, a burro and a baby burro, this is violating the BLM's own long standing rule of not rounding up young horses, burros, or pregnant mares/burros) , they get too close to them and actually knock them over. The Burro staggers off, the helicopter pilot, aware of their mistake, hurries off the other way. This was caught on film by wild horse and burro advocates, this is what the BLM doesn't want you to see.
View the picture here-Blogger won't let me post it!
http://tuesdayshorse.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/10burros30bkfm.jpg



Brave-heart a stallion with courage-

New: Video captures full horror of death of Nevada mustang in BLM roundup

by Suzanne Roy, with Terri Farley

In the early morning of Wednesday, October 6, 2010, amid the vast landscape of the Silver King Herd Management Area in southeastern Nevada, a mustang family lost everything in a BLM helicopter roundup.

I looked down from a hill above the entrance to the capture site to see a striking white mare, running at full speed, with her young foal at her heels. Galloping just ahead of the helicopter was a beautiful sorrel stallion, forehead lined with a wide white blaze. He lagged behind his family, torn between making a run for freedom and protecting his mare and foal, even if that meant following them into the jaws of the trap. The stallion, who we have named Braveheart, chose family over freedom, and it cost him his life.

Not long after his decision, Braveheart charged the bars of the trap pen, defending his mare and foal against an enemy he recognized: another horse. Though the BLM contractor clearly observed that his saddle horse was causing Braveheart’s agitation, he tied his mount just outside the stallion’s pen. To Braveheart, the saddle horse appeared to be within striking range. Braveheart didn’t know know men and their metal fences wouldn’t give way to his charge. And, slamming himself against the metal fences, he went down.

BLM often claims that horses with broken necks die instantly. They don’t.

Braveheart fell down after sustaining a mortal injury, but then he struggled to his feet. Head hanging down, he searched for his family. Could he see them nearby? Could he hear or smell them as he lifted his great red-gold head one final time?

As Braveheart lay dying or dead, the BLM wranglers loaded his white mare into a trailer. Dazed by defeat, she no longer struggled. Her stallion was dead, her foal forcibly taken from her.

Next the wranglers dragged the stallion’s body, covered by a tarp, onto the same trailer, forcing the pale mare to stand over her dead mate.

An endless 40 minutes later, the truck drove off, leaving the small foal, who looked just like his father, alone in the trap pen, never to see his mother or sire again.

At the holding site, dirt was piled atop the stallion next to mounds containing the bodies of numerous other victims of this roundup. Our requests to film the body were denied; when we filmed the backhoe and the stallion’s body awaiting burial from the distance, the government-contracted wrangler drove the truck and trailer around to block our view.

Ben Noyes, the BLM wild horse and burro specialist, refused our request to speak to him to get information about Braveheart’s death. Throughout the two days that we attended the roundup, Mr. Noyes refused to speak with the public and answer questions. The PR person charged with being the spokesperson often was unable to answer basic questions about the Silver King capture operation.

My colleague Deniz Bolbol and I captured the whole scene on video, despite the best efforts of the BLM to prevent us from doing so. We participated in two days of “public observation” at Silver King, during which the BLM’s main objective was to prevent us from capturing and exposing the images that convey the anguish, the trauma and the suffering wild horses endure in the BLM roundups.

BLM observation rules prevented us from observing and videotaping all aspects of the roundup including when the horses enter the trap. That is the moment they realize there is no escape, and the full impact of their capture is visible as they struggle mightily to kick down or climb fences. BLM also prevented us from filming the actual sorting of horses, when foals are wrenched from their mothers, and mares are taken from their stallions.

In previous roundups advocates have been allowed to get close enough to the trap and holding facility so that wounds could be seen – now the BLM keeps the public at such a distance that makes observation nearly impossible. It was only because we stood firm on our rights to travel the public roads in this public lands complex that we captured Braveheart’s final moments.

Sadly, this rainbow, which greeted us as we arrived at the trap site on Tuesday morning, brought no luck to the Silver King mustangs. Our wild horses aren’t looking for a pot of gold; they just want their freedom. It’s up to us to be their rainbow.

Braveheart standing guard over his mare moments before he broke his neck by charging the fence.


In Braveheart’s memory, we will continue the fight. Meanwhile, we have told BLM that we would like to adopt Braveheart’s mare and foal. After this ordeal, this pair must be reunited. It’s the least we and the BLM can do for these brave survivors.


SEE PICTURES AND VIDEO FOR THE ABOVE STORY AT-
http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/news/?p=2264

AN UNUSUAL HAPPY ENDING-

The mare and young colt belonging to the valiant stallion Braveheart have been adopted, reunited, and are destined for Return to Freedom’s Wild Horse Preserve under creation at Soldier Meadows Ranch in northwestern Nevada.

AWHPC supporters will recall that this beautiful pair watched their steadfast protector die defending them during the Silver King roundup. You may recall our report on this tragedy, in which the mare, was loaded onto a trailer and forced to stand over the dead body of her stallion for at least 40 minutes, until the truck pulled away, leaving her young foal all alone at the trap site. The mother and young colt were never to see each other again until AWHPC arranged for their adoption.

We have named the mare Caliente, after the area in Nevada that was her home, and her foal is Hero. We are grateful to Return to Freedom for stepping up, not only to provide sanctuary for Cali and Hero, but also to rescue two other Silver King mustang families. Stay tuned for their amazing stories in the coming weeks.

Read More:
Braveheart’s Last Stand – Tragedy at Silver King

Braveheart and his mare, Caliente, gaze out at their homeland, their freedom lost forever.

Caliente, loaded onto the trailer and forced to stand over Braveheart’s dead body.

Braveheart’s foal, Hero, left all alone at the trap site.

Cali and Hero, Reunited.

To view the pictures and video of the above story go here-
http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/news/?p=2718