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!
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Aurora, CO — The Arabian Horse Foundation has announced it received a $50,000 gift from the Barbara Wright Hutton Trust, the largest gift the non-profit entity has ever received since re-launching in 2007. The $50,000 gift was directed to horse rescue and rehoming and to equine research.
“This gift speaks volumes for the message it conveys and represents an investment in the future of the Foundation,” said AHF President Larry Kinneer. “It is a clear indication of a family’s belief and trust in the Foundation to use their gift wisely. The Foundation board deeply appreciates this major gift.”
“I know my aunt would be pleased to know that her gift will be used for something that meant a lot to her and will make a difference in impacting the welfare of horses,” stated Wright Hutton’s niece, Jackie Johnston, an Arabian horse owner and an AHA judge of national and international shows.
Ms. Wright Hutton lived in St. Louis, MO, owned an Arabian and loved horses. Johnston describes her aunt as “a charitable person,” and recalls that her aunt, “truly enjoyed horses,” and was introduced to horses at various camps at an early age. Prior to Wright Hutton’s passing in 2008, she urged Johnston, the executor and a trustee of her Trust, to give to worthy animal charities.
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.
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.
I volunteer at a non-profit 501C horse rescue/rehab/retirement facility down here in St. Augustine, FL. We are the only such organization in our region and are currently home to 13 horses at different levels of rehabilitation. We are also home to a very famous mare, Awaiting Justice, who is the great grand-daughter of the Triple Crown Winner, Secretariat! Why is she so famous? As a filly, she was owned by Garrett Redmond of Kentucky, who legally sought the right to name her Sally Hemmings after Thomas Jefferson’s famous slave and reputed lover. Redmond made international headlines when he sued The Jockey Club for that right but lost the suit. Awaiting Justice went on to race at Churchill Downs, but was eventually sold by Mr. Redmond, sold again and then again until she ended up at a horse boarding facility in St. Augustine area. A boarder at the facility did not want to go to the trouble of shipping her (Awaiting Justice) back home, so the mare was sold to the students for about $1.00, left at the boarding facility.
Last year, Marie Matte, the founder of Diamonds in the Rough, received an urgent call from the mother of one of the students who had purchased the mare that she (the mare) was in an advanced state of starvation at the nearby boarding facility. Marie brought the mare back to the farm and provided her with the necessary medical attention, food, shelter and love she so richly deserved. Today, Serafina, as we’ve renamed her, is a happy, healthy and vibrant personality here at the farm. Another member of our farm is a descendant of War Admiral and Man o’ War! Celebrity lineage doesn’t get better than this in the world of horse rescue!
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.
January 18, 2011 – Chicago (EWA) – When the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners appointed a group of “wild horse experts” who were all public lands cattle ranchers to the new Feral Horse Committee to oversee wild horse issues, questions arose as to which horses, which issues, and who were the members of this new committee?
It was soon learned that one member of the committee was actually a former mustanger, others were members of various hunting committees for bobcats, coyotes, and other wildlife, and the chairman Mike Stremler, was actually a mountain lion bounty hunter for Nevada’s wildlife commission receiving $1,800 for each lion killed. It was not clear how these men were qualified in any way to be called experts on wild horses.
Wild horse advocate’s fears were realized when an article written by Stremler stated ranchers should stand on their state-owned water rights because wild horses had no legal “beneficial use” or right to drink Nevada’s waters.
In a telephone conversation in November 2010, Stremler was asked if his plan was to let Nevada’s wild horses die of thirst, which he quickly denied, stating that was entirely untrue and to deny Nevada’s wild horses water was not the committee’s intent at all.
The goal of this conference stated “The sole purpose …convene the horse industry…bring together different perspectives…find pragmatic, sustainable, economically viable solutions for horses both domestic and wild.”
A look at the objectives and sponsors of the hosting organization, United Horsemen, of this conference infers this is a group of horse people united around a common goal. Yet if one were to look closely at the sponsors of this conference one would see all groups are not primarily involved with horses.
Of the so called “Gold Buckle Sponsors” only 3 out of 9 are primarily involved with horses. Of the “Silver Spur Sponsors” 11 out of 19 and of the “Bronze Concho Sponsors” 2 out of 6 are involved mainly with horses. Of the 34 total sponsor groups listed, less than half or 16 are involved primarily with horses as a livelihood. Most other groups are cattle ranchers and farmers.
Dear Friends,
So many of you often ask me what you can do to help the wild horses. Here is what you can do. The BLM has publicly stated in a press release that they have plans “to gather and remove approximately 1,917 to 2,278 excess wild horses from in and around the Antelope Complex.”
I have previously submitted a proposal to Bob Abbey to postpone this gather that directly affects the wild horses on the future site of the eco-sanctuary that we are developing in Nevada and allow me to construct my own holding facilities on the private lands that I have already purchased for the horses, which are adjacent to the Antelope Complex. This would also be a considerable savings to American taxpayers and the government in many ways.
Just before the new year, the Obama Administration took action to address a Bush-era “no more wilderness” policy that had left millions of acres of western wild lands at risk to destructive development. The new policy requires the BLM to reconsider millions of acres of our public lands for new protections. The WildAlert community had spoken up urging this policy change many times over the past years, so thank you!
The new policy will be only as strong as the agency’s commitment to it. That’s why we need you to take action today to ensure that the guidance document that directs the process ensures maximum protection for deserving wild places. Read on to learn more, and take action.
Take Action
In ending the Bush-era “no more wilderness” policy, the Obama Administration has restored a path toward protection for millions of acres of wilderness-quality public lands across the West. BLM officials are now working on guidance to govern the process for wilderness inventory and management, and we need to ensure that the document covers all the bases. Click here to take action.
