Dear Friends of Cloud, his family, and herd;
The BLM Billings Field Office mailed a Scoping Letter to interested parties on July 28th, stating their intent to reach an “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) of 90-120 adult wild horses, one year of age and older in the Pryor Mountains. If they carry out this plan 45 to as many as 75 horses would be removed in 2012. We cannot allow this to happen.
Our position is clear — there is absolutely no need for any removals.
It is important that you respond to an action which would threaten the continued existence of the Pryor Wild Horse Herd. Please write a factual letter to the BLM using some of the information provided here. Remember that BLM will not consider your response unless it is clearly your message — no copying of the list supplied here. Please use your own words to communicate your polite outrage at such an unwarranted proposal.
You will note in our list of recommended response topics, the support of PZP, the one-year infertility drug. This comes as a departure for TCF. However, the remotely delivered drug given at the correct time of year has reduced the foal population and it has given us a good argument to fight for no removals. We still strongly believe in the long-range goal of natural management without helicopters or bait traps or drugs. We see PZP as a means to an end, and that end is a hands off strategy in which Mother Nature calls the shots as much as possible.
August 9, 2011 – Chicago (EWA) – The Progressive Rancher Magazine has issued a response to the article in Time Magazine on the Madeleine Pickens proposed wild horse sanctuary. It is ironic that the response accuses equine advocates of “misrepresentations and distortions” of truth but is full of the authors’ own misrepresentations and distorted truth.
The story, which was not available online, was immediately distributed in a press release by Sue Wallis of United Horsemen LLC., a staunch horse slaughter supporter and opponent of wild equine preservation.
Many western ranchers are licensed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to graze cattle on public lands for token fees well below the government’s administrative costs, leading opponents of the practice to refer to them as “welfare ranchers”. Since welfare ranchers on public lands are one of the driving forces behind the removals of America’s wild horses and burros, it came as no surprise that such a magazine would distort the truth to further their agenda for more removals.
Such is the widespread sense of entitlement in this community that they exhibit outright anger at having to share public lands they feel should be solely for the use of their privately owned livestock that currently outnumber mustangs by at least 50 to 1.
The article quotes long-time equine advocate, Willis Lamm, in an attempt to discredit all information from equine advocates. In response, Lamm commented, “It’s ironic that Sue Wallis, who along with her group that I have long considered to be included among those Hysteria Corps, laptop experts and self-promoters, would be so careless as to publish my criticisms of their very actions in her press release.”
This week’s FEATURE segment with Erica Fitzgerald in Oregon and her organization which brings teens and mustangs together in a wonderful learning program. Plus, we speak with Sarah Watson, who is one of the teens who is training her second mustang. And our Geek Pick, Tack and Habit Segment and Pony Club for Adults. Don’t miss a minute of another fun-filled show!
Nashville, TN – July 13, 2011 – Well known country music icon, Lacy J. Dalton, has been awarded a “Whinny” award for her efforts to save and preserve lands for wild horses. The award will be presented by the Women’s Horse Industry at their annual meeting October 6-8 at the Radisson Hotel Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dalton, whose credentials in music are substantial, has put her energy, money and name behind the Let ‘em Run Foundation.
The Let ‘em Run Foundation is working with other organizations to begin to set aside huge tracts of land for these horses, to help manage the herds and to fence off areas where they should not roam. The group’s dream is to create the “Comstock Wild Horse Sanctuary” where these horses can be preserved, protected and allowed to run free for our children and our children’s children.
“We are very pleased to award Lacy a Whinny for her efforts. More and more people are starting to understand the need to preserve areas for our wild horses and organizations like this and people like Lacy are making this happen. She is to be applauded for her efforts by everyone who cares about wild horses,” states WHIA Executive Director, Catherine Masters.
Lacy is presently recording 2 new CDs. The first, called “Songs of the New West”, is a collection of Outlaw Country songs which include many as yet unrecorded songs by Lacy and friends, along with classics like “Wild Horses” by the Rolling Stones and “Friend of the Devil” by the Grateful Dead. In addition, fueled by feelings generated by what Lacy describes as a “Thermonuclear Divorce” from longtime husband and partner Aaron Anderson, she is working on a CD called “What Don’t Kill You Makes You Strong” after its title track.
The awards will be given out on October 6 in Nashville, Tennessee at the Rhythm and Hooves benefit to save horses. The event will raise funds for three equine charities: The Cloud Foundation, The Equestrian Aid Foundation and NetPosse.com. The benefit will be a part of the WHIA’s Annual conference (October 6-8 at the Radisson Hotel Opryland) where women from around the world will gather to exchange information and business.
For additional information on the WHIA and its upcoming conference and benefit, please visit Women’s Horse Industry or call 615-730-7833.
Listen to Jamie and Helena as they chat with Madeleine Pickens. Heartfelt. Overcoming. Passionate. Inspiring. Four words that sum up Madeleine Pickens and her efforts to change the way Americans treat one of our most beloved national symbols: the mustang. Listen in…
Stable Scoop Episode 152 – Show Notes and Links:
Host: Helena Bee and Glenn the Geek (along with Jamie Jennings in the interview)
July 13, 2011. Lexington, Kentucky, USA: The Horse Radio Network’s (HRN) Jamie Jennings and Helena Bee join together as part of the Women of HOPE series to bring you an incredible interview with Madeleine Pickens. This interview will air in a two part series on Thursday, July 14, 2011 and Friday July 15, 2011 on the live HORSES IN THE MORNING show at www.horsesinthemorning.com or on a smart phone at www.horsesinthemorning.mobi. Plus, it will be played in its entirety on Friday on the recorded Stable Scoop Radio Show at www.stablescoop.com.
Heartfelt. Overcoming. Passionate. Inspiring. Four words that sum up Madeleine Pickens and her efforts to change the way Americans treat one of our most beloved national symbols; the mustang. Madeleine Pickens is no stranger to challenges, and she is a role model for horse girls and women everywhere. She is the epitome of the successful businesswoman, a wife, mother and grandmother, a Thoroughbred racehorse owner, an animal welfare activist, philanthropist, and author. But above all, she is an American woman who is heartfelt, overcoming obstacles, passionate, and inspiring.
For example, Madeleine and her husband, Boone Pickens, led the fight to close the last horse slaughterhouse in the United States. Their work resulted in the passage of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act by the United States House of Representatives. During the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the Pickens donated $7 million to the Red Cross to aid the people of the city of New Orleans.
After the Bureau of Land Management announced in 2008 that the United States government was considering euthanasia and/or selling more than 30,000 wild mustangs to slaughterhouses overseas, Madeleine Pickens announced plans to develop a one million acre (4,000 km²) sanctuary for the horses. She did exactly that. It’s called Mustang Monument, and it is beyond a dream come true for anyone who appreciates the presence of these simple, yet stunning equines.
The Horse Radio Network (HRN) – the Voice of the Horse World – is the pioneer and leader in equine related online horse radio. With a variety of different shows from the serious to the sublime, the Horse Radio Network is your entertaining and informative source for everything horse. Listen to any of the nine popular shows on the network at www.horseradionetwork.com.
Dear Friends of our Wild Horses and Burros;
I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful 4th of July! In the spirit of freedom for our wild horses, the Cloud Foundation filed a lawsuit against the BLM in Nevada to prevent the removal and warehousing of over 1,700 wild horses from their vast 1.7 million acre home in northeastern Nevada (Maverick-Medicine, Triple B, Cherry Creek and Antelope Valley West Herd Management Areas).
The exhausted old mare run was nearly hit by the Sun J helicopter at Antelope in January
Taxpayer dollars paid to the infamous Sun J helicopter roundup crew alone will total approximately $600,000 and that’s just the beginning of the expenditures. The costs in short-term holding, where all the horses will go at least temporarily, will be $8,000 per day based on the target number of horses to be removed. Incarceration for life will add millions to the price tag — all funded by American taxpayers.
The cost to the horses is the permanent loss of family and freedom… what wild horses live for. Some horses will pay the ultimate price — losing their lives either during or as a result of this planned operation.
The Cloud Foundation is represented by attorneys Rachel Fazio and Julie Cavanaugh-Bill. We are the primary Plaintiffs in the case and are joined by plaintiffs Craig Downer and Lorna Moffat. In order for the judge to rule on our plea, the BLM has delayed the start of the roundup (originally scheduled to begin on July 7th) until the 16th of July, The hearing will be held at the Nevada District Court, 400 South Virginia Street in downtown Reno at 10 am on July 14th. Please come if you can to show your support of Nevada’s wild horses!
The Animal Welfare Institute’s updated report on the state of America’s wild horses is now available. If you would like a copy you can click on the link below or if you would like to order a large number of the booklets please email directly with your request.
Managing for Extinction: Shortcomings of the Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Program
An overview of the BLM’s failure to properly manage these symbols of the American West, 2011, 30 pages.
Executive Summary
A government program biased against the very animals it is designed to protect threatens today’s wild horses and burros. Our national Wild Horse and Burro Program and related federal lands management policies are so flawed that the long-term survival of these animals is in serious jeopardy, as is the health of public lands on which they reside. The federal agencies assigned management authority for the program, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the US Department of the Interior and the US Forest Service (USFS) in the US Department of Agriculture, have lost sight of their legal mandate to “protect” wild horses and burros. Instead, agency officials have focused almost exclusively on accommodating livestock and other commercial uses – at the expense of the welfare of wild horses and burros. This report will demonstrate that:
Court Allows Wild Horse Group’s Challenge to BLM’s Zero Out Policy
June 28, 2011 – A federal court rejected the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) request to dismiss or limit a suit brought by a consortium of wild horse advocacy groups and concerned citizens to save the West Douglas wild horse herd. Although the BLM withdrew their 2010 plans to decimate this northwest Colorado wild horse herd early in 2011, the advocacy groups have remained vigilant in their stance to have the Court decide whether BLM has the legal authority to zero out a herd. By her ruling, Judge Rosemary Collyer agreed that Plaintiffs could proceed with this claim and stated, “The Bureau of Land Management’s 2005 West Douglas Herd Amendment to the White River Resource Management Plan violates the Wild Horses Act because it restates the decision by the BLM to eradicate the ‘West Douglas herd’ of wild horses. The 2005 Amendment directed the BLM to eliminate the herd ‘at the earliest practicable date’ and BLM’s recent withdrawal of its decision to gather the herd in 2011 does not affect any change to the allegedly improper decision to eliminate the herd as soon as practicable.”
The battle over the West Douglas herd is nearly two decades old, and only through the efforts of concerned citizens and organizations have the horses been saved from the BLM’s desire to remove them all from their homelands. In 2009, concerned citizens and organizations won the first case in the United States against BLM’s practices of eliminating wild horse herds when Judge Collyer set aside BLM’s 2008 roundup plans. In 2010 advocates again sued the BLM and the BLM withdrew its plans to decimate the herd.
“The court agreed that we have the right to challenge the decision to zero out the herd, originally made in the 2005 Amendment, despite the fact that the BLM has decided not to perform a round up and removal in 2010,” explained Bruce Wagman of Schiff Hardin LLP, legal lead for the groups. “BLM has been trying to avoid the issue with self-serving tactics, but the court found the BLM’s decision to hold off on this year’s gather ‘does not affect any change to the allegedly improper decision to eliminate the herd as soon as practicable.’ This is of course exactly what we argued.”
Dear Wild Horse and Burro Supporters;
Rock Springs, Wyoming, is not exactly what I would call ‘close’ to Colorado Springs. Nevertheless, our new intern, Erin Clifford from Michigan, and I hopped in the car and started up I-25 northbound, picking up our fellow wild horse advocate friend, Rachel Reeves, along the way.
When we finally pulled up the drive to the BLM office the first thing I noticed was my tax dollars at work: a shiny new building complete with landscaping and the works.
Our little group of advocates joined together outside the building, which included our carload, a few other superb advocates from Northern Colorado, and two delightful women who came all the way from California! We totaled ten people, but our signs and presence were enough to frustrate the folks inside.
During the meeting itself we were surrounded by a lot of ranchers, most of who belonged to the Rock Springs Grazing Association – the largest grazing association in the country. Each of them gave a sentence or two on the plusses of helicopter roundups and how necessary they were, same ole, same ole. We had some great points brought up by each of the wild horse advocates who spoke. Trying to explain the issues we have with helicopter use during roundups in only three minutes is no small feat!
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