Tag Archives: Bureau of Land Management

Willie & The Nelson Family Sing “Wild Horses”

Country Music Legend Covers Stones Classic to Help Animal Welfare Institute Protect America’s Horses

March 22, 2011 (Washington, D.C.) – The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is honored to announce the exclusive release of the Rolling Stones’ classic “Wild Horses” – performed and produced by the legendary Willie Nelson and his family members.  Willie & The Nelson Family are donating the proceeds from the sale of the song to AWI’s campaigns on behalf of wild and domestic horses.  Willie and the entire Nelson family are long-time supporters of AWI and its efforts to end horse slaughter and preserve the right of wild horses to roam free.

“The BLM has been rounding them up at an alarming rate, supposedly for their own good. Sadly, there are more wild horses in holding pens than in the wild. Something is wrong with that, so we must act now before the BLM has managed these magnificent animals into extinction,” said Willie Nelson. “It’s time for the cowboys to stand up for the horses.”

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was enacted in 1971 to halt the disappearance of these iconic animals from public lands in the American West.  Since then, however, over 20 million acres of land set aside by Congress for wild horses have been removed from their range, even as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) — the very agency charged with their protection — claims there is not enough land to support existing herds.  The BLM is unnecessarily removing horses based on spurious claims of damage to range and other adverse impacts.  The BLM’s mismanagement of America’s wild horses is largely designed to benefit a livestock industry that has for decades, exploited western public lands while profiting from massive subsidies funded by taxpayer dollars.  Willie & The Nelson Family and AWI are calling on the BLM and the Obama administration to immediately halt all wild horse round-ups, restore the land provided by law to wild horses and to stop warehousing horses on private lands at even greater expense to the taxpayer.

Continue reading Willie & The Nelson Family Sing “Wild Horses”

Wild Horse Lawsuit Update

You are invited to attend the next hearing March 24, 2 p.m., Sacramento, California

Our lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues! We won’t give up, and you’re invited to attend the next hearing in Sacramento. We want the Judges to know that there is a large contingent of people who really care about protecting wild horses and burros. And we need you to balance out the BLM people who will be in the gallery, silently willing the Court to rule in their favor.

When: March 24, 2011, 2 p.m. (Note: you should check the Court’s website listed below on March 23, or check with IDA, to confirm the hearing hasn’t been postponed, which does happen occasionally.)

What: Next hearing in the case of IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS; DREAMCATCHER WILD HORSE AND BURRO SANCTUARY; BARBARA CLARKE; CHAD HANSON; LINDA HAY, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR; BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT; KEN SALAZAR, Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior; ROBERT ABBEY, Director of the Bureau of Land Management; KEN COLLUM, Field Manager of Eagle Lake Field Office, Defendants.

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Speak Out for Mustangs and Burros in Arizona

Join us in Phoenix to represent the last of America’s wild horses and burros

The clock is winding down for the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting in Phoenix. On March 10 and 11 (Thursday and Friday), The Cloud Foundation will be in leading the charge, along with friends of wild horses and burros from across the country. We are calling for an immediate halt to all BLM roundups that are destroying the last of America’s wild herds at enormous taxpayer expense. We urge you to join us on those two days at the Phoenix Sheraton Downtown Hotel (340 N. 3rd St). Even if you cannot come to the meeting itself, we urge you to come show your support at one or all of the events below:

Join me, Academy Award-winning author of Dances with Wolves, Michael Blake; wild horse philanthropist, Madeleine Pickens; R. T. Fitch of Habitat for Horses Advisory Council; Simone Netherlands of Respect4Horses; Laura Leigh of Grassroots Horse and others who will be voicing our support for our wild horses and burros at a Thursday Press Conference, March 10, 11:30 am to 12:30 in the Sheraton’s South Mountain Room. The BLM meeting will start at 1 pm.

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Saving America’s Mustangs Responds to BLM’s Thursday Announcement

Dear Friends & Supporters,
Saving America’s Mustangs (SAM) is encouraged by yesterday’s announcement by Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey that major changes are on the horizon for the Wild Horse and Burro Program.  However, we have many concerns about the timetable to make these changes and actions that the BLM will take in the intervening time while America waits for these changes to go into effect.  It is also hard not to recognize that promises have been made in the past with no results and the startling number of horses that continue to be gathered remains an untenable fact and something needs to be done about gathers in the short term to protect the diminishing numbers of wild horses left on the range.  The incremental and minimalist approach taken in the past has not served anyone well and the public is crying out for reform in the short-term.

Looking at the specifics of Director Abbey’s statement, we would call for Secretary Salazar and Director Abbey to take an in depth look at the following:

1.       The current Appropriate Management Levels (AML) is severely flawed in a number of ways.  The number of aums allocated to horses compared with those given to cattle is skewed badly and must be changed.  The BLM must do an audit of the forage on all public lands allotments and ensure that there is true equity where multiple uses are concerned.

Continue reading Saving America’s Mustangs Responds to BLM’s Thursday Announcement

Save Wild Horses from Inhumane Roundups!

Dear Animal Advocates,
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues to mismanage the care of wild horses and burros. The agency’s current policies allow inhumane methods of gathering and confining equines, and could spell the end for these national icons. But there’s still an opportunity to help save our wild horses. U.S. Representative Dan Burton of Indiana has succeeded in passing an amendment to the Interior Appropriations Bill to cut $2 million from the BLM’s annual budget in order to pressure the agency to end its ill-conceived efforts.

This amendment was adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives and will soon be considered in the Senate. Please let your two U.S. senators know that they should support the Burton amendment to cut $2 million dollars from the BLM’s budget—this cut saves money and our country’s wild horses.

What You Can Do
Please ask your U.S. senators to support a $2 million reduction in the BLM’s budget and help protect wild horses! Visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center online to email your senators now.

Thank you for your support.

http://www.aspca.org/

Breaking News: Congress Approves $2 Million Tax Cut for the BLM!

Dear Friends & Supporters,
It’s a great day for the mustangs! Yesterday afternoon, Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) went on the floor of Congress with an amendment to a voice vote to cut the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro budget by $2 million dollars.

It was voted on and approved! This is HUGE news and is sure to send a message to agency officials that the American people will not let their actions go unnoticed.

“Indiana Republican Dan Burton says his amendment is intended to send a signal to agency officials that most Americans want the mustangs treated more humanely on public lands across the West,” as told to the Associated Press.

Here is the full article from yesterday’s vote.

Please be sure to write to Rep. Burton and thank him for going out of his way for our mustangs! Click here!

We also want you to see this powerful video created and produced by Ginger Kathrens of The Cloud Foundation.  Please be advised that some of these images are disturbing, but unfortunately, that is the truth to these government roundups. Please watch all the way through.

Congressional Appeal to Halt the Roundups

Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=13274

Oppose BLM Plan to Remove 1,726 Wild Horses from Northeastern Nevada

The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments on a plan to round up 1,726 wild horses from the Triple B, Maverick Medicine and Antelope Valley BLM Herd Management Areas and the Cherry Spring Wild Horse Territory, managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The roundup is scheduled for July 2011, in the heat of the desert summer.

They will leave behind as few as 472 wild horses in this vast, 1.7 million-acre public lands complex. Meanwhile, the BLM authorizes nine times that number of privately-held, farmed animals to graze the same area. Click here to submit your comments today!

In Defense of Animals is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. We welcome your feedback and appreciate your donations. Please join today! All donations to IDA are tax-deductible.

In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner, San Rafael, CA 94901
Tel. (415) 448-0048 Fax (415) 454-1031
idainfo@idausa.org

Madeleine Pickens Responds to BLM’s 1/21/11 Announcement Regarding Saving America’s Mustangs Eco-Sanctuary Plan

On behalf of America’s wild horses, American taxpayers, and my Saving America’s Mustang Foundation, I would like to express my deep disappointment in the BLM’s late Friday (January 21st) evening press release announcing its rejection of my proposal to create an eco-sanctuary for wild horses in Nevada.

Not even one month ago, on January 4, 2011 in Las Vegas, BLM director Bob Abbey stated publicly that my idea “has merit and deserves serious consideration.” Today, he has rejected the project, notifying the media, but providing my foundation with no explanation, despite our three years of hard work on the plan.

My eco-sanctuary proposal offers a cost-effective solution to the problem of the BLM’s roundup and warehousing of as many as 40,000 wild horses in off-the-range holding facilities. It is exactly the kind of public/private partnership solution that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has stated is essential to reform of the wild horse and burro program.

So imagine my astonishment when I read in the news release that my plan didn’t save money.  During our three years of work, BLM officials at every level acknowledged in meetings with me that the eco-sanctuary plan saves the taxpayers money.

Read more> http://www.horsesinthesouth.com/article/article_detail.aspx?id=13031

It’s not too late! You have one day to save 400 mustangs in the Great Divide Basin HMA in Wyoming’s Red Desert. Please act now…

Dear Friends & Supporters,
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is asking for public comments on its proposal to remove 600 wild horses from the Great Basin Divide Herd Management Area (HMA) in Wyoming’s Red Desert region. The BLM says that this 1,215 square area can only sustain 415 to 600 horses. BLM claims 1,000 mustangs live in the area. Meanwhile, the BLM authorizes thousands of cattle to graze this same area. According to BLM statistics, Wyoming has the second highest wild horse population in the nation, yet the latest available BLM population figures (FY 2009) estimate just 5,000 horses. The state has reduced the areas where wild horses are allowed to roam by nearly half in the last four decades and aims reduce the overall population further to just 3,700 horses. Less than three months ago, BLM captured and removed over 2,000 wild horses from another area of Wyoming’s pristine Red Desert region in the Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek Herd Management Areas.

Urge the BLM to implement a fertility control program instead of a capture and removal operation, and undertake a process to increase Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs) for wild horses and decrease livestock grazing in this federally-designated wild horse area.  Please personalize the message below.

Click here to TAKE ACTION to voice opposition to BLM Proposal to remove 400-600 mustangs in Wyoming

Also, please TAKE ACTION today to stop the Antelope Complex gather in late January 2011.

Also, please join in on the discussions on our Facebook fan page today. www.facebook.com/mustangmonument and on Twitter: @mpickens.

Visit her website for up to the minute information: www.savingamericasmustangs.org.

Also check out the Mustang Monument Wild Horse Eco Sanctuary Page: www.mustangmonument.com.

Become a supporter of the wild horse issue: Click here.

Saving America’s Mustangs

2683 Via de la Valle

# G313

Del Mar, California 92014

Update on BLM, Antelope Complex Gather, & Politico Campaign Launch

Dear Friends & Supporters,
We thoughtfully planned out an online and print campaign in Politico to run today, January 18th. It was the best outlet to target the right audience to get the most attention and a solution to the wild horse issues we are facing.

The audience is composed of the country’s innovators and high-end consumers:

  • Thought Leaders and Opinion Influencers
  • Key Decision Makers in Business and Finance
  • Investors
  • Community Leaders and Concerned Citizens
  • Journalists
  • Educators
  • Federal, State & Local Elected Officials and Policymakers

With one click you can reach:

2010 Site stats:
3,723,219 Unique Visitors
10,064,124 Visits
25,230,687 Page views
Source: Google Analytics

Demographics:
18-34 yrs old – 10%
35-49 yrs old – 39%
50+ yrs old – 47%
Male – 73% / Female – 27%
Average HHI 60k-100k – 30%
Average HHI over $100k – 42%
College – 49%
Graduate School – 34%
Source: Quantcast

Please TAKE ACTION today to stop the Antelope Complex gather this January 2011.

Continue reading Update on BLM, Antelope Complex Gather, & Politico Campaign Launch