Tag Archives: BLM

Livestock Proven Responsible for Degraded Rangelands

A recent High Country News article reported that PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) has just released data clearly showing that over 50 MILLION acres of BLM-managed lands fail to meet the agency’s own land health standards.

What is the “primary culprit” responsible for land deterioration?

PRIVATE LIVESTOCK.

Wild equids are outnumbered by millions of commercial cattle and sheep — there’s no way they can be faulted for all rangeland degradation.

This important truth is exactly why we hosted two free webinars (linked here) on effective advocacy featuring award-winning journalists Cynthia Smoot and Vickery Eckhoff. Vickery’s groundbreaking grazing data sheet (linked here) is a valuable asset that shows how the Bureau scapegoats wild horses for rangeland damage while failing to mention livestock at all.

NOW it’s time for Congress to get the message – and we need YOU to send it. Here is your CALL TO ACTION for today —

  • CLICK HERE to send a message to Congressional Leadership with the facts — livestock, not wild horses, are overgrazing our ranges.
  • Then, SHARE this action on all your social media platforms.
  • Add the hashtag #HoldAWildHorseHearing to your posts and call on your personal representatives to hold the Bureau accountable.

The first step in preparing to fight is to get informed. Please visit the GET INFORMED page of our website to learn more about the science behind the wild horse/burro issue. We need all hands on deck, armed with the FACTS, to win for the animals.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Colorado’s Sand Wash Basin Wild Horses Need Your Voice

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is asking for public comments on a plan to remove 80% of the Sand Wash Basin herd located in northwestern Colorado. The agency wants to leave just 163 wild horses on the range – while they allowed the annual equivalent of over 180 cows to graze there last year.

Additionally, BLM is proposing fertility control methods that would destroy natural “wild” behaviors — including the use of Gonacon and artificially skewing the sex ratio which destroys wild horse social structure and increases stallion aggression.

Please join us in calling on BLM to humanely manage this herd on the range with PZP fertility control, and to allow the herd size to be reduced through natural attrition over time.

It takes just a moment to add your name and speak up for Colorado’s Sand Wash Basin wild horses!

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Say NO to Castrating Wild Stallions and Massive Roundup

BLM Wyoming (Lander FO) is asking for public input on their future management plan for wild horses living in the North Lander Complex. They plan to remove the majority of the 1,600 North Lander horses and have suggested castrating stallions on the range, destroying their natural wild behaviors.

Please raise your voice! Urge BLM to give wild horses their fair share, protect natural wild behaviors, and humanely manage these magnificent animals on their Congressionally-designated habitat.

We know the endless action alerts get tiring. It’s exhausting for us too. But we cannot stop.

Our action alerts get YOUR voice on the record showing there is massive public opposition to these hideous plans. Your voice matters!

We MUST continue to speak the truth and call for fair and humane treatment of our wild horses and burros.  If we persevere, we will prevail!  Please take action here.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

BLM Plans to Wipe Out Southern Nevada Burros

Last month we told you about the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan to eliminate burros from their own lands in California. NOW the agency is working to decimate the wild burro herds of Southern Nevada.

America’s wild burros just can’t get a break. BLM’s mismanagement keeps them at such low population levels that these gentle but hardy animals now face a genetic crisis.

PLEASE take a moment to speak up for the wild burros – and wild horses – of Nevada’s Lake Mead Complex.

Silence is complicity, so we MUST stand up and be heard. We can’t let America’s few remaining wild burros go without a fight!

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Massive Extermination of Wyoming’s Wild Horses Looms

The BLM is prepping to implement its Massive Extermination Plan for the wild horses in southern Wyoming. This is a direct assault – get rid of wild horses to accommodate the Rock Springs Grazing Association’s private livestock on our public lands.

We are not willing to accept, on any terms, this MASSIVE ROUNDUP.

Please take the time to sign our petition today.

Please share this message with your friends, family, and on social media. We must show BLM that Americans – from all walks of life and across all political aisles – want Wyoming’s Wild Horses protected.

This Extermination Plan must be stopped. Without your help these magnificent animals are doomed.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Tell BLM: No Barbaric Surgeries on Our Wild Mares

At their current population numbers, private livestock outgraze wild horses 60 to 40 in the Confusion Herd Management Area (HMA) of western Utah. Of course, according to BLM, this means there are too many horses. As we know, the agency prioritizes livestock use ahead of our federally protected wild horses.

The BLM is proposing to round up nearly 90% of the Confusion HMA wild horses. They plan to sterilize (killing the WILD in wild horses) up to half of the 70 horses (mares & stallions) they plan to leave on the range.

Could it get any worse? Yep!

They plan to use the outdated and barbaric ovariectomy via colpotomy on the Confusion mares. This is an archaic procedure whereby a vet forces his arm up through the mare’s vulva and rips out her ovaries with a chain device that was used back in the 1800s (chain ecraseur).

This horror MUST STOP.

WE are the horses only voice. Please join us and raise your voice against this cruelty.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Wild Horses under Attack in DC & NV

Bad News from Washington DC: Take Action

Sadly, our elected representatives in Washington DC are pushing forward with full funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse Disaster Plan which details massive roundups and includes the agenda to kill the “wild” in our wild horses through controversial surgical sterilization.

On Friday, the House Appropriations Committee passed the Fiscal Year 2021 budget of $122.6 million for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro program, despite the agency not having a “well-defined action plan.” This is more than a 25% budget increase from FY20. While the bill includes a prohibition on killing healthy horses, there is no guarantee that horses will not continue to end up at slaughter auctions. FY21 Appropriations now heads to the Senate.

We must convince the Senate to protect the “wild” in our wild horses and ensure that the extra money is dedicated to humane on-the-range management. Please take quick action today to speak up for these iconic animals.

Oppose BLM Elimination Plan for Moriah Herd in Nevada

The BLM is working fast & furious to wipe out America’s wild horses from the landscape of our public lands. Now the BLM Ely District, in eastern Nevada, is proposing to eliminate, or zero-out, all wild horses in the Moriah Herd Area – more than 700 wild horses are set to lose their homes, freedom, and families. Based on BLM’s history, at least some of these horses will end up in the slaughter pipeline down the road. Of course, true to their usual form, the BLM will continue to allow livestock grazing on these same public lands.

It only takes a minute; please raise your voice for our cherished wild horses now.

TAKE ACTION

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Ginger Discusses Nomination of Controversial Anti-Public Lands Candidate as BLM Director

Photo credit: BLM.

The nomination of William Perry Pendley as Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is rife with controversy and inconsistency. If this self-proclaimed “sagebrush rebel” has his way, we may no longer have federal public lands – making our wild horses and burros effectively homeless.

Pendley is well known for espousing the idea that our treasured public lands should be sold off. He has called man-made climate change “fiction” despite the ample support of scientific evidence and decried the origin of the Black Lives Matter movement as “a lie that spread like cancer.”

For the senators who now face the process of confirming Pendley’s nomination, the decision should be a simple one. If they represent the belief that public lands belong to every American, they must vote against Pendley. But, for the Republican-dominated Senate in our highly charged, politically-polarized nation, the decision is weighing heavily on some.

To watch Ginger’s take on Pendley’s nomination and what it could mean for our cherished wild herds, click here. Watch the video and then please take decisive action. It only takes a minute, and your impact may very well make history.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Fighting Back against BLM’s Nefarious, Brutal Plan for Wild Horses

TCF Founder and Director Ginger Kathrens recently teamed up with Charlotte Roe, retired diplomat and founder of the Wild Equid League of Colorado, on an Op Ed published in the Washington Examiner. It’s an article that exposes the truth about the BLM’s insidious plan for our last remaining wild horse and burro herds.

As Ginger said in a recent video, it’s time to speak truth to power. It’s time to bring these horrible plans to the awareness of the American people.

Please read and share this important article far and wide, so collectively we can raise our voices against BLM’s unjust actions and protect these iconic, beloved animals for generations to come.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Speak Up for Humane Standards during Helicopter Roundups

Whether we like it or not (and we do not!), the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act allows for the use of helicopters to roundup wild horses and burros, due to a provision added in 1976.

More than 3,000 wild horses and burros are slated for helicopter roundup in Nevada in the coming 3-4 months. And if the current trend continues, thousands more will be targeted for roundup by helicopter next year.

Helicopter drives (sometimes called “stampedes”) are traumatic and injurious, and we must call upon BLM to minimize this risk as much as possible.

BLM Nevada is requesting public comment on its use of helicopters in wild horse and burro management.

PLEASE – take a moment to sign our petition outlining the humane standards necessary to minimize the danger to these cherished animals (as much as possible)!

**Don’t delay! Deadline is midnight June 30th, to ensure BLM receives it by the deadline. It only takes a moment to add your name!**

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org