Category Archives: Horse Care/Protection

Wild Horse Fire Brigade Lawsuit Halts BLM Wild Horse Roundup in Oregon

A herd of wild horses seen in an alpine riparian area of a wilderness area. Documented evidence proves wild horses have been using this riparian area and spring for centuries without any ill effects. Photo: William E. Simpson II.

YREKA, CA, US, December 31, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — On Wednesday, October 5th, 2022, Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court in Washington D.C. (Case 1:22-cv-03006) against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, on behalf of its client Wild Horse Fire Brigade (WHFB), a California-based all-volunteer 501-c-3 nonprofit organization.

That lawsuit brought a temporary halt to the roundup of wild horses from private property within and adjacent to the Pokegama Herd Management Area in southern Oregon while the Department of Justice evaluated the lawsuit, which alleged that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) failed to follow the law and its own guidance before initiating the roundup.

The intention of the lawsuit was also to prevent the loss of wild horses and to compel BLM to conduct legally required studies regarding the horses.

“The BLM has a history of cutting corners and ignoring their legal obligations in a rush to get rid of wild horses in the west,” Professor Michael Harris, director of the Environmental Advocacy Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School said. “Horses are native to the west and are an important aspect of the ecosystem. We need to work to increase their numbers to ensure healthy, stable herds.”

The recent doctoral dissertation by Yvette ‘Running Horse’ Collin provides evidence that strongly suggests wild horses have been living in the region of Southwestern Oregon since at least the year 1580, when Sir Francis Drake documented observations of wild horses living among the local indigenous peoples of Southwestern Oregon during his voyage and exploration of the west coast of America in 1580.

Dr. Collin’s dissertation , titled ‘The relationship between the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the horse: deconstructing a Eurocentric myth,’ can be read in its entirety at the following URL:

https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/7592

In early December, Wild Horse Fire Brigade and its legal team at Vermont Law learned that a wild mare was ‘acutely injured’ during a renewed roundup activity by the BLM during the time the DOJ agreed to halt the roundup while considering the legal action by Vermont Law. Tragically and needlessly, that wild mare died.

On December 7th, 2022, Wild Horse Fire Brigade issued a Press Release condemning the BLM’s actions and the death of a protected American wild horse, as a result of the continuation of the alleged illegal roundup.

“That wild mare died tragically and needlessly as a result of an illegal and ill-conceived roundup authorized by Mr. Todd Forbes at the BLM’s Lakeview Oregon office,” said Deb Ferns, President, Wild Horse Fire Brigade, who went on to say that “wild horse advocates should contact Mr. Forbes directly and offer their own concerns as well.”

(Todd Forbes – Oregon BLM Lakeview District Manager. Ph. 541-947-6100 / email: tforbes@blm.gov)

The removal of wild horses from the area around Pokegama is reckless and disregards the health, safety and welfare of people living in the region, given the excessive grass and brush wildfire fuels that were formerly managed by hundreds of wild horses that have lived in this area on the Oregon-California border for the past 440 years.

Now it seems that the BLM was desperate to somehow defend and explain the questionable and needless death of the wild mare to the Federal Court in Washington D.C. that is handling the pending lawsuit.

On December 20, 2022, the BLM filed a Declaration in the Washington D.C. Federal Court (Case No. 1 :22-cv-3006) by the BLM agent involved in the death of the wild mare, a Mr. Blair J. Street, who claims the title of ‘District Wild Horse and Burro Specialist for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Lakeview District in southcentral Oregon.’

Among the statements made in the Declaration by Mr. Street, he also stated the following:

“We spent hours attempting to load the remaining mare and stud into the truck. Eventually, I unhooked the horse trailer from my truck, and we left the horses overnight to see if they would go into the trailer themselves. I have used this tactic on other gathers to coax the horses into the trailer with a small bucket of water.

It is not uncommon for studs and mares to be mixed together while trying to load horses from the trap to the holding facility.

We headed back out to the trap the following morning, on November 22, 2022. When we arrived, the mare was lying down and the stud was kicking at her. She could not stand. At that point, I released the stud.

When the mare tried to stand, she was very uneasy and stumbled a lot to try to keep her balance. Her head was tilted to the side, she could not straighten her neck, and her eyes were very wide open. When I went to her left side, I noticed a huge bulge where her spinal column would be. She had hoof marks from the stud on her neck. I suspected the stud had fractured some of her vertebrae.

After about ten minutes of observation, I decided that the mare was not going to be able to load in the trailer or survive long outside of the trap. She was slow and clearly in a great deal of pain. The mare was obviously suffering and was not going to have quality of life.

In my opinion, if the mare were released, she would have gone through a lot of pain before passing a slow and horrible death. Her foal outside the trap was old enough to be weaned. Given all of these considerations, I decided to euthanize the mare as an act of mercy.”

Clearly, by his own admission, Mr. Blair was having great difficulty attempting to force two wild horses from a wilderness area (the mare and her stallion) into a trailer.

It’s my belief that the truth of the matter is that during the ‘hours spent’ trying force two wild horses into a trailer, the mare seriously injured her neck, resulting in her death. Of course, there was no necropsy performed, which might disprove Mr. Street’s statement.

“Unlike Mr. Blair, I am a field researcher and wild horse ethologist that has studied free roaming wild horses in the wilderness and around Pokegama for the past 8 years continuously, and I have logged over 15,000 hours of close observational study of wild horse behavior and ecology. In that time, I have never witnessed any band stallion or bachelor stallion kicking any mare lying on the ground. The highly questionable and unbelievable statement by Mr. Blair seems to assign blame for a human-caused injury, likely caused by attempting to force wild horses into a trailer, to the loving companion of the mare,” said William E. Simpson II, Founder & Executive Director of Wild Horse Fire Brigade.

“It would be highly unusual for a wild stallion to aggressively attack one of his mares as his principal role is to act as guardian and protector of his band. Stallions have an immense responsibility under pressure to manage their herd and protect the mares and foals. They are on watch at all times. If the mare were already injured, he would likely stand over her, nudge her, and continue to protect her. Aggression on the part of the stallion towards other horses is primarily associated with sexual competition, dominance, or territory (protecting the group and resources),” said Professor Julie Murphree, PhD, Equine Science Advisor at Wild Horse Fire Brigade.

A great deal of new research and understanding of wild horse ethology has come to light over the past eight years (2014-2022) as a result of the intensive and continuous study and published research of wild horses living naturally in the wilderness by William E. Simpson II.

One of many examples of the unexpected behaviors of wild horses is how they respect and honor dying members of the herd, as was documented in this published article, ‘How wild horses deal with death and grief – A rare insight’, which can be read here: https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2018/07/04/wild-horses-death-grief-insight/.

It’s most unfortunate that many of the personnel at the BLM are actually willfully ignorant of the many scientific facts related to wild horse behavioral ecology and ethology. These facts offer important insights as to how America can better manage its iconic wild horses.

Some of the research and peer-reviewed published studies that support the rewilding/relocating initiative integral to the wild horse management plan known as the ‘Natural Wildfire Abatement and Forest Protection Plan’ (aka: Wild Horse Fire Brigade) are found at: https://www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org/resources.

Under the direction of Professor-Litigator Michael Harris, Vermont Law will be filing a response to Mr. Blair Street’s Declaration, as well as a ‘permanent injunction’ in January 2023, to prevent any future roundups in and around the Pokegama wild horse Herd Management Area, one of the few remaining wild horse Herd Management Areas in Oregon.

Please visit www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org for more information.

One in Four…

Another Year in the Trenches on Behalf of America’s Wild Herds

As the door closes on 2022, the numbers show that BLM rounded up 1 in every 4 wild horses — they lost their freedom and their families!

This fight has become more critical than ever as our work at The Cloud Foundation grows more challenging each year. We are in an uphill battle with a govt. bureaucracy & outside financial interests and a BLM that has the funds and the power to “interpret” the law at the expense of our wild horses and burros.

But victory is NOT impossible when we work together to constantly remind BLM that their responsibility (according to the 1971 WH&B Act), is to ensure the wild horses & burros are “…protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death…”

We invite you to join Ginger and TCF as we renew our commitment to protecting and preserving America’s wild mustangs and burros.

It’s not too late!  Please consider giving a tax-deductible one-time or monthly recurring donation to support this ongoing work in 2023.

Thank you for fighting with us to protect and preserve wild horse and burro families everywhere.

Happy New Year!
The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Exposing the Flaws of a Failed Paradigm Killing American Wild Horses

William E. Simpson II is greeted by a wild mountain stallion in the Soda Mountain Wilderness area.

YREKA, CA, US, December 22, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — The assumption that the ‘1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act’ (‘1971 Act’) is protecting American wild horses today is incorrect.

It’s a fact that over the past 50+ years since the 1971 Act was passed, socioeconomic impacts on land management policies driven by consumerism have resulted in the highly flawed, inhumane management of wild horses witnessed today.

Like flies to any dying or dead animal, the ineffective and failing wild horse management program was quickly surrounded by money motivated people and wild horse nonprofit organizations who proffer numerous costly band-aids, which arguably benefit them far more than the wild horses.

Instead of learning from mistakes and implementing a genuine management solution that is most beneficial for wild horses, the band-aids that are promoted are highly flawed and conflict with the highest and best interests of the so called ‘protected’ wild horses.

Core Flaw in Wild Horse Management Today:

The core flaw in wild horse management program today is that managers are keeping wild horses in areas commingled with livestock, where for the past 200 years, apex predators have been eliminated with great prejudice to reduce losses of livestock.

During the 1800s many wild horses were relocated from their natural habitats into other regions via livestock traders.

When the 1971 Act was passed, many areas that had been used for livestock production for two centuries and largely devoid of apex predators became Herd Areas and Herd Management Areas (‘HMAs’). The result is that the wild horses contained in these HMAs are living in the absence of their co-evolved natural predators, which over the millennia had regulated wild horse populations and engaged in a process known as ‘Natural Selection’ that preserved the genetic vigor of the species. The result is that wild horse populations go unchecked and their genetics suffer from a lack of Natural Selection, both of which are bad for the sustainable conservation of wild horses.

It’s critical to understand that the process of Natural Selection works perfectly and weeds out weak genetics. Natural Selection works on many levels. For instance, having a large selection (diverse genetic representation) of bachelor stallions competing for breeding rights helps assure that the best genetics are represented in the competition and then carried forward by the champion who becomes a band stallion.

There is also a recently discovered more subtle form of competition representing another facet of Natural Selection, which occurs within in harems (mares) of family bands for the position of ‘lead mare’.

During 8 years living among and studying free roaming wild horses in an ecologically balanced wilderness, wild horse ethologist William E. Simpson II has discovered and recorded that the offspring of a lead mare has a survival advantage over the offspring of lesser mares in the band harem. This is because the band stallion and harem will stick with the lead mare, and the lead mare will wait as long as it takes for her new foal to gain its strength to travel with the band.

On the other hand, an omega mare who has a new foal that requires time to stand and be ready to travel with the family band may be faced with a difficult decision. If the lead mare moves the band before the omega mare’s foal is ready to travel, the omega mare will have to decide to stay behind with her foal, or abandon the foal and leave with the band. Either way, the omega mare’s foal has a lower rate of survival without the protection of the band and its stallion.

Examining flawed band-aids being applied to failed management:

1) Roundups and subsequent warehousing of captured wild horses into off-range feed lots are argued as one manner of managing wild horse populations in areas devoid of apex predators. These methods are very costly for taxpayers (>$150M/year) due to lots of personnel, equipment, aircraft, feeding horses hay, etc., and they are brutal, inhumane, and ecologically inappropriate given that such actions do not correct the core problem.

Roundups also result in ecological damage to landscapes due to stampedes, where dozens of wild horses running for their very lives from helicopters trample the landscape, injuring and killing some flora and fauna. During helicopter roundups, wild horses are run for miles and beyond their natural ability, adversely impacting the health of horses. Pregnant mares spontaneously abort foals on the run, and new foals run their soft new hooves off and go lame and fall behind, ending up being eaten alive by coyotes.

2) So-called ‘contraception’ (costing tens of millions annually) is a nice sounding term for what is actually ‘chemical sterilization’ of mares using chemicals commonly known as ‘PZP’ and ‘GonaCon’, along with the castration of stallions. PZP and GonaCon are known to adversely impact the social structure and hierarchy of the harem, where lead mares that sterilized can lose their status in the band.

One program known as ‘Veterans for Mustangs’, and the bill by the same name (H.R.7631 — 117th Congress, 2021-2022), proposes to have military veterans using high powered gas operated rifles to shoot heavy darts/projectiles containing chemical sterilization compounds into wild horses, making a complete mockery of the intent of the 1971 Act, by stalking and shooting wild horses (a.k.a. ‘harassment’), like at a carnival shooting gallery.

The wild horse nonprofit known as American Wild Horse Campaign also engages in this ludicrous and dangerous activity. Studies show horses shot in this manner can suffer from bleeding, hematoma, broken bones, and death.

More on ‘PZP’ and ‘GonaCon’: https://www.einpresswire.com/article/553542481/decimation of wild horses continues path forward plan supported by non profit activist organization return to freedom.

“Fertility control in free‐roaming wildlife populations has been associated with changes in immigration (Ramsey 2005; Merrill, Cooch & Curtis 2006), decreased group fidelity (Nuñez et al. 2009; Madosky et al. 2010), increased survival (Caughley, Pech & Grice 1992; Kirkpatrick & Turner 2007; Williams et al. 2007), altered reproductive behavior (Nuñez, Adelman & Rubenstein 2010; Ransom, Cade & Hobbs 2010), and shifted phenology (Ransom, Hobbs & Bruemmer 2013)” ~ Ecological feedbacks can reduce population‐level efficacy of wildlife fertility control.

The use of chemicals to control wild horse populations (wildlife) disintermediates evolutionary Natural Selection and leads to genetic erosion and social disruptions in wild horses (equids). Furthermore, using chemicals (PZP & GonaCon) is ‘Selective Breeding’ and leads to genetic decline.

MORE: https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/550887360/wild horses wild horse management non profit organizations wrong chemical use on wildlife populations flawed

In addition to the social breakdown of family bands, genetic erosion, and selective breeding that are all part of using PZP on free roaming native species American wild horses, we also find evidence of the following:

“Even on a large animal struck correctly, the dart (contraceptive PZP and GonaCon darts) can cause hemorrhage and hematoma. Misplaced shots can break bones or even kill the animal” (Thomas and Marburger 1964). Muzzle report can cause problems in darting either captive or free ranging animals. In captive situations, the noise can be more disturbing to animals than getting struck with a dart. Disturbed animals are then more difficult to approach, or the entire group of animals may run away” ~ Page 32, Overview of Delivery Systems for the Administration of Contraceptive to Wildlife”, by Terry J. Kreeger.

3) Farming out wild horses at taxpayer expense as so-called adoptable or trainable horses also costs American taxpayers, since the BLM pays $1,000 for each horse adopted.

As most wild horse advocates know, the 1971 act was passed to ostensibly protect wild horses, yet few parts of 1971 Act are being observed and followed by the Bureau of Land Management (‘BLM’) today.

Even the core intentions of the 1971 Act that are cited in its preamble are disrespected and ignored in the management of wild horses today by the very agency charged with protecting wild horses, the BLM. This is clearly the result of political pressures brought to bear on law and policy makers by the trillion-dollar corporations who provide campaign donations to politicians on both sides of aisle.

The key sentence in the preamble to the 1971 Act states:

“It is the policy of Congress that wild free roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding harassment, or death…”

The reality of life for wild horses in American today under the 1971 Act is quite different than what any outsider looking in would believe having read the 1971 Act.

The reality today, over fifty years since the passing of the 1971 Act, is that the BLM does everything to wild horses that was originally prohibited under the 1971 Act.

The BLM regularly and aggressively; captures, brands, and separates family members from each other, where stallions, mares, and juveniles are sent into separate holding corrals even as family members scream for each other, causing tremendous emotional hardship for wild horse families. After segregating horses by sex and age, they are genetically molested where stallions are castrated and mares are chemically sterilized. This inhumanity transcends the prohibited ‘harassment’ cited in the 1971 Act.

It’s a horrifically brutal and inhumane scene that is repeated annually dozens of times each year in America over the past 40 years.

The protests of wild horse advocates and wild horse nonprofits, in court and in the media, have yielded no change in the behavior of the BLM.

That’s simply because the public servants at Government agencies are like soldiers carrying out the orders that are handed down from their superiors, who are essentially controlled by elected politicians who in turn are arguably beholden and influenced by campaign contributions from huge corporations.

A very simple example of the foregoing is relevant to the current SAFE ACT (H.R. 3355) that is languishing in the U.S. Senate.

The lawyers who drafted the Safe Act made sure there was a loophole for a major corporation (Nestle’) who owns the second largest pet food company in Mexico Purina (conveniently located just over the U.S. border in Mexico). In order to remain profitable, Purina requires a constant source of horse meat from America and elsewhere.

A review of the last draft of the SAFE Act showed that shipments of American horses for ‘human consumption’ outside the U.S. would be prohibited if the act passed. However, there is an arguable loophole: shipments of American horses for ‘animal products’ is not cited as being prohibited in the draft bill.

Since the installment of Deb Haaland as the head of the Department of Interior (‘DOI’), which oversees the BLM, the brutal process of rounding up wild horse families in holocaust fashion have increased.

Wild Horses captured by the BLM and the United States Forest Service (‘USFS’) are then genetically molested where stallions are castrated and mares are sterilized using chemicals commonly known as ‘PZP’ and ‘Gonacon’. These chemicals are known ‘genetic poisons’ and end the natural life cycles and genetic lines of wild horses.

No DNA (genetic) testing is performed by the BLM or USFS prior to ending gene lines of processed wild horses using castration or chemical sterilization.

This practice is a form of ‘selective breeding’, and as science proves, ensures a loss of genetic diversity, resulting in genetic decline in wild horse herds, and ultimately leads to ‘bottle necking’ and possible extinction of wild horse gene lines, which contain the most robust equine genetics.

At some point soon, domestic horse breeders will need to breed back to these robust genetic lines to reinvigorate domestic horse breeds, many of which are suffering from congenital defects and genetic diseases related to inbreeding over centuries.

Following this initial horror show, wild horses are then processed for allocation into so called programs that are extremely costly to American taxpayers, and further punish wild horses emotionally.

The BLM sells it Adoption Incentive Program (‘AIP’) as a success and solution for getting rid of wild horses they have rounded up. However, combination of the AIP and other wild horse processing programs (prisoner programs, etc.) only places a small percentage of all the wild horses (about 5-7%) rounded up into the hands of adopters or trainers who are paid $1,000 (tax dollars) by the BLM for each horse adopted.

Wild horses that are funneled into adoption and training programs are wild sentient beings, few or which will submit to any training program.

Wild horses adopted are made to submit to the demands of human trainers. Surprisingly, so-called horse ‘trainers’ fail to understand the wild nature and spirit of wild horses, as opposed to domestic horse breeds, which have been bred for the past 6,000 years to serve the utility of humankind and are well suited to training. This failure by people and trainers to understand wild horses and their behavioral ecology leads to a majority of wild horses placed in programs resisting training and ending up at slaughter auctions for meat in the pet food industry, a horrific ending for innocent wild horses.

The Big Question: Is there a better solution to the current wild horse management debacle?

Answer: Absolutely!

There is a plan that provides a more humane, natural, and cost-effective management paradigm for wild horses.

That plan is called the ‘Natural Wildfire Abatement and Forest Protection Plan’, also known as the ‘Wild Horse Fire Brigade’.

Wild Horse Fire Brigade is a cost-effective solution for humanely managing wild horses naturally without keeping them on degraded ecologically collapsed landscapes that are being intensively used for commercial enterprises, including oil, gas, mineral, and livestock production.

Keeping wild horses in areas where they are deemed to be in conflict with the interests of $Trillion/year corporations guarantees that wild horses will remain in a constant state of conflict with consumer driven demands for public land use, resulting in the highly flawed and costly management concepts previously cited.

2022 MUSTANG SUMMIT presentation on Wild Horses and Consumerism on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3pCv0VgMOI

What many people (including some wild horse advocates) fail to realize is that there are 115 million acres of designated critical wilderness where motorized vehicles and livestock production are prohibited due to law and costly logistics.

Using just 20 million acres of this vast water and forage rich wilderness area, up to 100,000 wild horses could be redistributed (rewilded/relocated) as family bands, at the rate of 1 horse per 200 acres, away from conflicts, ending the plight of wild horses.

This plan provides wild horses with habitat that is consistent with what they had enjoyed prior to the arrival of the Europeans in north America. Wild horses are completely at home in the deep wilderness and had survived in such habitats for 1.7 million years in North America.

And via reestablishing wild horses into economically and ecologically appropriate wilderness areas, these keystone herbivores can once again re-balance ecosystems, and manage the now over abundant grass and brush wildfire fuels. This natural symbiotic wildfire grazing reduces fuel loading and results in normalizing the wildfire regime, devolving super fueled super-hot catastrophic wildfires back into the normal wildfire expected on the landscape that burns low, slow, and cooler as a result of less fuel. This in turn saves forests, wildlife, and watersheds from catastrophically hot wildfires.

LEARN MORE:

More about the many benefits of the Wild Horse Fire Brigade plan HERE: https://www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org/_files/ugd/b50928_b546b19ef08441349993b0d3fd8111eb.pdf

ReWilding Europe’s wildfire focused journal ‘GrazeLIFE’ published an abstract of the Study that supports the Wild Horse Fire Brigade plan online at:
https://grazelife.com/blog/wild horse fire brigade lessons in rebalancing north american ecosystems by rewilding equids/

NPR has also published a story (with audio) online at:
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/30/1131042723/preventing wildfire with the wild horse fire brigade

Please visit www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org for more information.

Updates from Wild Horse Fire Brigade

We have some exciting news from our participation at the 10th Annual EQUUS Film & Arts Festival that was held in Sacramento, CA from Dec. 2-4.

The skies opened up and deluged many outdoor events. The snow that hit the mountains to the east of Sacramento (Tahoe, etc.) was heavy, so Festival attendance by some folks who planned on attending the live Festival by driving was limited due to hazardous travel conditions.

We still saw many people who drove in from southern California and from up north, as well as many attendees who made early reservations and flew in. The Murieta Hotel and Spa was fully booked for the weekend due to the two horse related events: a hunter/jumper show and the EQUUS Film Festival.

On Saturday Dec. 3rd at 10:00 AM, William Simpson gave a TED-like talk (live presentation) at the Guild Theater about the Natural Wildfire Abatement and Forest Protection Plan (a.k.a. ‘Wild Horse Fire Brigade’). That talk had the largest audience attendance at the Festival and lasted 30 minutes. The talk was followed by a 30 min. panel discussion (Q&A) with the audience.

The following Board members were in attendance:

Deb Ferns – President
Kelsey Stangebye – Vice President
Michelle Gough – Treasurer
William Simpson – Founder/Exec. Director

The audience provided many good questions that addressed various aspects of how and why Wild Horse Fire Brigade benefits wild horses and ecosystems.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sent three representatives to the Wild Horse Fire Brigade talk. Their team leader was Amy Ruhs who was from the BLM’s Idaho state office.

One of the three ladies from the BLM, from the Sacramento BLM office, had a good question:

“How would you amend the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act to allow rewilding?”

The answer:

Section 1339 of the Act currently prohibits the BLM from relocating wild horses from any Herd Management Area (HMA) into another non-HMA area, such as designated critical wilderness (115 million acres available).

By amending just Section 1339 to state that:

The BLM is authorized to humanely relocate wild horses as family bands from areas where they are deemed to be in conflict with commercial enterprises and subject to roundups, and relocate them into designated critical wilderness areas that are both economically and ecologically appropriate.

A further discussion outlined how wild horses can currently be rewilded using existing law (Humane Transfer of Excess Animals Act: H.R. 1625).

Other questions from the audience included those involving evolution of wild horses and native species status, depredation by north American apex predators, and the current dire situation for wild horses created by the failed Adoption Incentive Programs (‘AIP’).

This talk and Q&A session was filmed, and we hope to have that presentation online for viewing sometime next week. It’s a massive video file (~40 Gigabytes).

The music video (“We Are the Wild Horses”) produced by a diverse collective of all volunteers around saving wild horses and presented by Wild Horse Fire Brigade WON the Winnie Award (top honor) in the category of “wild horse music videos.” “We Are the Wild Horses” premiered at the 10th Annual EQUUS Film Fest in Sacramento, CA and was very well received by the audience and is now online, full length, for everyone to enjoy and share:

NOTE: You don’t need any account or signup – just watch!

  1. On Twitter: https://twitter.com/OfficialWHFB/status/1600280004083990528
  2. On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialWHFB/posts/pfbid0ErJTsCvRPCrvq3CXpiZC51KjvZfanMpojiQZ6qN3e5X6sSQsZsfsHts3oXtDQzCHl
  3. On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWINUpdiomc

The diverse team at Wild Horse Fire Horse Fire Brigade believes that music is an important way to educate others in a way that opens hearts and minds about the importance of American wild horses. We have more good stuff in the pipeline that we’ll be reporting later in the month.

The entire team at Wild Horse Fire Brigade wishes everyone a great holiday season!

Please visit www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org.

EQUUS Film & Arts Festival Presents a TED-like Talk about How Wild Horses Manage Wildfire Fuels

A family band of wild horses naturally maintains a firebreak that protects an old-growth forest and the wildlife that live there.

On Saturday Dec. 3rd at 10:00 AM, EQUUS Film & Arts Festival will present a TED-like talk about Wild Horse Fire Brigade at the historical Guild Theater in Sacramento California.

Wild horse ethologist and researcher William E. Simpson II will speak about how wild horses cost effectively manage wildfire fuels, make trees more fire resilient, and how forest ecosystems, watersheds, and wildlife benefit from the presence of these native keystone herbivores.

William has lived among and studied free roaming wild horses in the wilderness mountains on the California-Oregon border for the past 8 years continuously.

Simpson has logged over 15,000 hours of close observational study, a method pioneered by Dr. Jane Goodall during her 1960s study of the Apes in Gombe, Africa, which Simpson calls the ‘Goodall Method‘ in honor of Dr. Goodall.

Some of Simpson’s research has been published in print and in online journals, such as ReWilding Europe’s wildfire focused journal GrazeLIFE: https://grazelife.com/blog/wild-horse-fire-brigade-lessons-in-rebalancing-north-american-ecosystems-by-rewilding-equids/.

Recently, NPR national featured a story by reporter Stephanie O’Neill, about Simpson’s research on air (and podcast) and in print to its audience of 46 million: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/30/1131042723/preventing-wildfire-with-the-wild-horse-fire-brigade.

The talk begins at 10:00 AM at the Guild Theater in Sacramento California and will last about 45 minutes, followed by a panel Q&A discussion session with board members from Wild Horse Fire Brigade, a California-based 501(c)3 all-volunteer nonprofit organization.

The team from Wild Horse Fire Brigade hopes to see you there!

William Simpson was the local advisor to CALFIRE during the deadly 38,000-acre 2018 Klamathon Fire. Simpson was on the fire line for 9 days assisting CALFIRE and also studying the effects of the wildfire grazing by the local wild horses on the behavior of wildfire and its progression, as well as the benefits provided to firefighters via the natural firebreaks created and maintained by the wild horses.

Please visit www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org.

Stand for Freedom This Giving Tuesday!

Ginger and Cloud’s little brother, Sax. @TheCloudFoundation.

As you know, we’re in the midst of a long, desperate battle to save our wild herds from those who would see them destroyed — and we need your help.

This year has been one of the WORST for wild horse and burro herds in the West, as unprecedented numbers were rounded up and taken from the homes they knew. So many now sit in holding pens. Help us to STOP this from happening.

Your contribution enables us to continue our fight to protect and preserve wild horses and burros on public lands, keeping them WILD and FREE where they belong.

If you can’t donate, please SHARE this message!

Help us spread the word about what is being done to our cherished wild horses and burros — living symbols of freedom and the “pioneer spirit” of the West.

As always, thank you for your incredible support!

Ginger and the Cloud Foundation Team
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Speak Up for Utah’s Burros

Urge BLM to Ditch Roundup That Will Promote Inbreeding and Genetic Crisis Facing America’s Wild Burros

America’s wild burros face a genetic crisis due to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) mismanagement of these hardy little animals. The agency keeps most burro populations so small that inbreeding is inevitable.

BLM’s unscientific “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) stands in the way of humane alternatives to roundups. In this rigged “AML” system, any animal over BLM’s arbitrary quota is considered “overpopulation.”  The only way to address this is to reduce livestock grazing and increase the number of burros on the range.

The BLM plans to decimate the Canyonlands wild burro herd — removing 51-91 of the 151 burros. Leaving just 60 to 100 animals in the herd is literally “managing” the Canyonlands burros to a slow extinction, but extinction nevertheless. There are only two burro herds in the entire state of Utah.  Three months ago, BLM Utah make a similar proposal for the state’s other burro herd, known as the Sinbad herd.

Please take action NOW. Call on BLM to 1) ditch this ill-conceived plan 2) reduce or eliminate livestock grazing in order to increase AML and 3) manage these environmentally beneficial animals humanely with PZP.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

More Mustangs Rewilded by Wild Horse Fire Brigade and an Extended Team of Great People

Photo: William E. Simpson II.

Here is the latest video posted on our Twitter page about 6 more mustangs that were saved from the kill pens and are now safely rewilded in a wilderness area:

https://twitter.com/OfficialWHFB/status/1593724583462539264

Please help us grow the Wild Horse Fire Brigade (‘WHFB’) plan to save our forests, wildlife (and habitat), and watersheds, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and humanely save wild horses, all in one move using our novel, proven plan (tested by actual wildfire in 2018).

More about WHFB here: https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/589827579/national-media-coverage-details-new-plan-to-reduce-wildfire-called-wild-horse-fire-brigade.

As time permits, we will be producing a short video showing the process and the dedicated, selfless people it takes to monitor kill auctions, raise money, bail horses out, transport, and arrange for quarantine (QT) and vet health certificates for horses, feeding during QT (30-45 days), evaluating horses to determine which ones are properly suited to rewilding, and finally transportation to a suitable wilderness location for rewilding.

Working with an extended team of amazing selfless dedicated volunteers, our nonprofit is providing our overview and guidance that has helped return what was stolen from these wild horses/mustangs: their freedom. At full scale using our plan and experience, with proper support and funding, we can do the same for thousands of wild horses/mustangs, and in the process, reduce catastrophic wildfires.

Through our larger vision and regional/national plan, we intend to scale up our rewilding program into several counties and states on the American west coast, where rewilded wild horses will reduce wildfire fuels and thereby reduce the frequency, size, and intensity of catastrophic wildfires.

Unlike any other nonprofit wild horse and burro org. in America today, our organization is uniquely qualified for this mission. Our team and Advocacy Board is made up of dedicated volunteers, each with specialized real-world empirical experience, which is absolutely required for the proper outcome.

The Wild Horse Fire Brigade plan incorporates multiple disciplines in natural resource management and science.

This is not about moving horses from one corral to another. Wild Horse Fire Brigade is about reestablishing wild horses as north American keystone herbivores into wilderness areas that are both ecologically and economically appropriate, and that takes the kind of experience that only comes from working in wildlife law, forestry, fisheries, wildfire, and with the wild horse ecology of free-roaming wild horses in wilderness.

Our nonprofit is the only one in America today with a team that has that aggregate of experience to see this through properly. Wild Horse Fire Brigade Org. is an all-volunteer California-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, with our research station at Wild Horse Ranch in the mountain wilderness area on the California-Oregon border.

Your generous financial support will support our vision to save remaining American wild horses, and also help more mustangs regain their freedom. Please consider a one-time or monthly contribution to our work via our ‘CHIP IN’ page, here:

https://www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org/chip-in

Note: In 2019, Simpson was nominated to serve on the BLM’s WHB Advisory Board. He was not seated because he would not consent to the ongoing mismanagement of American wild horses. Some of his nomination letters of reference can be read at this PDF: https://www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org/_files/ugd/b50928_d4424087009e4d319c0915981ebcbf25.pdf.

Applications to Lincoln Memorial Univ. Equine Vet. Edu. Program Set for Review in Spring 2023

Harrogate, TN [November 16, 2022] – Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) based in Harrogate, TN has begun accepting applications to its Equine Veterinary Education Program set for review in Spring 2023. The program will welcome its first accepted applicants in Fall 2023.

The EVEP is an innovative addition to LMU’s course of veterinary study encompassing a 2½ year undergraduate program followed by a 4-year veterinary doctoral curriculum. Students accepted to the program will receive a guaranteed admission to LMU College of Veterinary Medicine providing benchmarks are met during undergraduate course work.

“It’s particularly important that high school students considering their careers and college prospects are made aware of this opportunity,” said Eleanor Green, DVM, ACVIM, ABPV, Professor and Dean Emerita College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University. “Recruitment is nationwide and youth equine groups, such as Pony Club, the Interscholastic Equestrian Association, National High School Rodeo Association, and the many breed association youth groups, are going to be key to sharing this program with their members. Students who are juniors in high school, many of whom are already looking into their choice of college, should consider LMU if they aspire to having a career in equine veterinary medicine.”

Dr. Stacy Anderson, DVM, MVSc, PhD, DACVS-LA, dean of the LMU College of Veterinary Medicine, said an additional aspect of the program is shedding light on the shortage of equine veterinarians in the United States and working to provide solutions.  “Studies by the American Association of Equine Practitioners indicate that 50 percent of veterinarians who join an equine practice after graduation will leave that equine practice or veterinary medicine all together within five years,” she said. “We are focusing on providing real-world experience for these students in order to develop practice-ready graduates who can begin contributing from day one to equine practices across the country. Offering a program that is 6½ years long versus eight will give students an affordable option that helps them reach their goals sooner and provides the horse industry with skilled veterinarians earlier.”

LMU is based in Harrogate, TN and is strategically located between the heartbeat of the Thoroughbred industry in Lexington, KY and sport horse communities based in Virginia and North Carolina.

Interested students must be incoming freshmen and transfers are not accepted. Students are invited to apply via the LMU website. For more information, email Kathleen Thomas, Coordinator of Graduate Programs and Research, at evep@LMUnet.edu or visit the website at https://www.lmunet.edu/college-of-veterinary-medicine/academics/equine-veterinary-education-program.

Lincoln Memorial University is a values-based learning community dedicated to providing educational experiences in the liberal arts and professional studies. The main campus is in Harrogate, Tennessee. For more information about the undergraduate and graduate programs available at LMU, contact the Office of Admissions at 423.869.6280 or admissions@LMUnet.edu.

BLM Proposes Livestock Grazing Where Wild Horse Roundup Is Planned

Photo credit ©TheCloudFoundation.

BLM wants to create new livestock grazing permits in the same area where they propose a massive wild horse roundup in the Stone Cabin Complex. Coincidentally, Tonopah NV BLM also proposes to re-start livestock grazing in two allotments (Monitor and Ralston), which are adjacent to the Stone Cabin Complex.

Ranchers have illegally grazed livestock in these two allotments for 23 YEARS! These allotments have not had any livestock grazing permits for the past 6 years and there is no permittee.

We’re calling on BLM to use Adaptive Management to convert the allotments and permits for wild horse usage. By doing this, the BLM could cancel its proposal to round up nearly 75% of the wild horse population (that’s 689 of the estimated 931 horses) in the Stone Cabin Complex… leaving behind just 242 horses on more than 484,888 acres (that’s 758 square miles).

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The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org