Tag Archives: wild horses

*Featured/Spotlights

BLM Is Rounding Up over 1000 Horses

Photo ©GingerKathrens

More of Nevada’s wild horses are being taken from their homes and families.

On Oct. 22nd, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began its wild horse roundup on and around the Roberts Mountain Complex located in Eureka County, approximately 20 miles northwest of Eureka, NV. The roundup operation is being conducted using helicopters.

According to a BLM statement,

(the) Roberts Mountain Complex encompasses approximately 556,500 acres of public and private lands and has an Appropriate Management Level (AML) of 110-184 wild horses. The complex includes the Roberts Mountain, Whistler Mountain, the northern portion of the Fish Creek Herd Management Areas, and the Kobeh Valley Herd Area. Based on the March 2023 population stats, which does not include foals born this year, BLM documented 1,161 wild horses within and outside the management areas of Roberts Mountain and Whistler Mountain HMAs – over 6 times above the high end of the established appropriate management level.

As of Monday, Oct. 30th, BLM had captured 589 Wild Horses (229 Stallions, 270 Mares, and 90 Foals). Their goal is to remove about 1,068 wild horses deemed “excess,” and treat up to 19 mares with GonaCon before being released back to the range — along with up to 19 stallions.

DEATHS
BLM’s Gather Status report states that 4 horses have died as of Oct. 30. This does not include 7 horses who were killed when the truck transporting 36 horses on Monday CRASHED:

A contracted semi-truck transporting horses gathered during the ongoing Roberts Mountain Gather in Nevada to Utah’s Axtell Holding Corrals turned over on its side on Highway 50 outside of Delta, Utah on October 30. The truck was transporting 36 horses. Three horses were killed in the accident, four were humanely euthanized due to their injuries, and many suffered minor cuts and bruises. BLM transported the 29 remaining horses to a holding facility in Delta where they continue to be evaluated and closely monitored by the on-site veterinarian. The driver was not injured. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
(BLM Gather Report)

We hope that the remaining horses continue to do well and there are no further deaths or complications as a result of this crash.

Once this roundup is completed, approximately 110 wild horses will remain in the HMA, as well as 122 wild horses left uncaptured outside of the HMA. This roundup is expected to last up to 19 days.

Livestock grazing in this area? Yes. Mining in this area? Yes.

You may follow the daily reports for this roundup here:
Roberts Valley Wild Horse Roundup (Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Daily Gather Reports to read detailed comments.)
Roberts Mountain Complex information hotline: (775) 861-6700.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

*Featured/Spotlights, Wild Horse Fire Brigade

Sad Days Indeed for American Wild Horses and American Taxpayers

An Iberian mare reducing wildfire fuels on the Oregon-California border near the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument. She is also re-seeding the native plants and grasses she is consuming in her droppings (dung), which completes the life cycles of the native flora that is critical to the co-evolved native fauna, including small and large mammals, insects, and pollinators. Photo: William E. Simpson II

There’s really no such thing as a ‘feral wild horse’; it’s an oxymoron. So why do some people and agencies keep using that tag?

Recent news that 6,500 Wind River wild horses were rounded up is distressing to say the least. It’s a move designed to make room for the more profitable use of public and tribal lands for livestock production.

A preponderance of the latest scientific data strongly suggests that wild horses are not an ‘invasive species’.

On the other hand, it is settled history and science that cattle, sheep, and goats are an invasive species in North America, and are devastating* when introduced into American wilderness ecosystems.

*Land Held Hostage: A History of Livestock and Politics; Thomas L. Fleischner, Ph.D.
Citation by: Professor Thomas L. Fleischner, Ph.D.: “The most severe vegetation changes of the last 5400 years occurred during the past 200 years. The nature and timing of these changes suggest that they were primarily caused by 19th century open land sheep and cattle ranching.” View here.

The term ‘feral’ as used by some people in regard to wild horses is just a name tag assigned to wild horses that have wondered off the protected Herd Management Areas (‘HMAs’) run by the Bureau of Land Management or Wild Horse Territories run by the United States Forest Service.

The term ‘feral horse(s)’ is nothing more than a construct that is used for legal jurisdictional purposes and has no relevance as to evolutionary biology or genetics of any horse, let alone a wild horse with genetic markers traced back 500,000 years and more, as with some of our local Iberian horses.

The ongoing mismanagement of native species American wild horses is about greedy people who have no vision other than for money, not what’s right, not what should be, not what the Creator would want, not what’s good for ecosystems, and certainly not what’s good for the American taxpayer.

The ongoing widespread decimation of wild horses, a native herbivore, and even elk in some areas is only about eliminating low value herbivores and replacing them on the landscape with animals that make more money for a small group of profiteers, which now includes some Tribal Nations.

This exchanging of native herbivores for invasive species herbivores (cattle & sheep) is about money and not preserving or protecting wilderness ecosystems. In fact, introducing invasive species ruminant herbivores (cattle & sheep) into North American wilderness ecosystems is the worst thing anyone could do.

It’s become clear that greed will be the undoing of humankind on this planet, unless more intelligent, logical people prevail.

As we now clearly see, even some indigenous tribes are rounding up wild horses (a.k.a.: Spirit Horses) and selling them off with many (most) ending up in slaughterhouses.  So much for indigenous wisdom? So much for preserving cultural and spiritual heritage?

It seems that these tribal nations have forgotten their past and what the Creator and Nature intended for the lands…

Not that long ago, 50-60 million buffalo, millions of elk and deer, and 20 million wild horses ranged over North America. Then European settlers came and decimated the buffalo and now some indigenous peoples have joined the government’s effort to decimate the Spirit Horses. In a way, it just seems to be a continuation of government’s agenda to erase all traces of the culture of the indigenous peoples here in American and around the world, just to steal resources. Is nothing sacred anymore?

Then we have the scientifically ignorant (or willfully ignorant) advocates and gold plated big dollar nonprofit orgs who are shooting wild horses with high powered (deadly) rifles using heavy syringes filled with chemicals that sterilize them, ending their life cycles — a highly unnatural and idiotic process to make money.

That right, it’s now profitable for even some wild horses advocates like American Wild Horse Campaign and others to join ranks with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), United States Forest Service (USFS), and state Fish and Game agencies and get millions in Federal grant dollars to chemically sterilize native species American wild horses to help accomplish the monetary agenda of exterminating wild horses from the American landscape to make more landscape into cheap livestock grazing (welfare ranching) available!

The Brazilians wrecked much of the Amazon rainforest for money. They’ve burned off hundreds of thousands of acres of rainforest to create cheap livestock grazing. It has been said, ‘no rainforest — no rain.’ And now there are reports that the water temperature in the Amazon River has reached nearly 100 degrees!

Now American government agencies are showing their banana republic logic as well, by arguably allowing wildfires to burn extensive areas of forest as ‘managed burns’, thereby creating large deforested areas that fill in with grass and brush, thus trading life giving forests for livestock grazing areas.

Wild Horse Fire Brigade has a proven, nature based solution that gives wild horses a valuable place in the wilderness, where each wild horse deployed into a wilderness wildfire fuels management role provides value in the amount of approximately $72,000.00 to Americans. That is at least forty times (40x) the value of a fatted steer at market.

Will YOU help our all-volunteer nonprofit organization, Wild Horse Fire Brigade, to accomplish its re-wilding and relocation goals to save genetically relevant populations of American wild horses before it’s too late?

It’s easy to donate to our work via PayPal: Click Here.

Wild Horse Fire Brigade is results oriented and driven!  We don’t rescue 2 horses and then ask donors for $25,000 like American Wild Horse Campaign recently did, even as they are sitting on $3 Million in their fat bank account!

We have already saved one entire heritage herd of approximately 150 wild horses by gaining the ownership and management rights to the herd that were once considered ‘feral’ horses. And now they are protected under California law.

There is strong fossil and cultural archaeological evidence that our local herd, here on the Oregon California border on and around the present day Cascade Siskiyou National Monument (‘CSNM’), are the descendants of wild horses documented by Sir Francis Drake in 1580 during his exploration of the area, as cited in the doctoral thesis of Dr. Yvette ‘Running Horse’ Collin.

We also have and have studied the historic photo album and personal diary of the famous local cowboy George F. Wright (born in Henley Hornbrook, CA 1897), who was a Deputy Sheriff for Jackson County Oregon and a BLM range rider, whose personal diary and photo album (dated 1911-1957) contains mentions of ‘wild horses’ and the ‘wild ones’ in the area of the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument on both sides of the Oregon-California border.

Interestingly, the local Bureau of Land Management depended heavily upon George F. Wright for information about the natural history and cultural archeology of the area that is today the CSNM.

We recently sued the BLM and won, stopping the roundup of the remaining Pokegama Herd of American wild horses. (See Siskiyou News article here.)

We are a tiny all volunteer 501 c 3 nonprofit public benefit organization. And we need your help! We cannot do our work unless we are properly funded. People need to clearly understand that fact.

We are the ONLY organization that is doing this important work, while some others pretend and fake it… and pay themselves nice fat salaries and live in the lap of luxury using donations.

In addition to saving the herds mentioned above, our team of volunteers have worked cooperatively to successfully rewild 61 Mustangs into the heritage native herd that we own and manage.

And we are conducting the scientific research with free roaming wild horses in a balanced wilderness ecosystem that is desperately needed to show the important value and benefits that wild horses provide to wilderness ecosystems. We cannot do these things without proper funding.

It’s up to you… Will you help our genuine program?

We are currently under-funded for the effective programs we have envisioned. We are making progress with every dollar we get!

PLEASE make a tax-deductible donation: CLICK HERE.

Or please send a check make payable to:

‘Wild Horse Fire Brigade’
404 So. Main St.
Yreka, CA  96097

Thank You!

Visit www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org for more information.

*Featured/Spotlights

Urge Park Service to Preserve Horses in Teddy Roosevelt National Park

Previously we have asked you to submit comments to save wild horses in the Teddy Roosevelt National Park (TRNP). We are sorry to say, we have to ask you to speak up once more. Despite North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and the state’s Senator John Hoeven pushing to keep the wild horses, the Park Service is still pushing to remove the vast majority of horses or all of them.

TRNP, located in North Dakota, is dedicated in honor of President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt and his leadership in conservation policy.  While these horses are not protected under Federal law and are referred to as “livestock,” they have been cherished cultural icons for decades. When Teddy Roosevelt was young, he visited the area and experienced the magnificence and beauty of the natural landscape which included wild bison and wild horses exhibiting natural wild behaviors — living in family bands, with stallions protecting their families.

The Park Service continues to propose to either get rid of all of the horses or allow only 35-60 — of the nearly 200 horses living in the area — to remain. The Park Service manages the Park for cultural and natural resources and claims to rely on public input for Park management. PLEASE SPEAK UP for these magnificent horses NOW — they truly are CULTURAL ICONS!

Please tell the Park Service the following (in your own words):

  • Preserving the Teddy Roosevelt horses MUST be a cornerstone of the Park’s livestock management plan, since they contributed to President Teddy Roosevelt’s wonder at the natural world, leading to his CREATION of the NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM.
  • Horses have lived “wild” in TRNP for generations and MILLIONS of Park visitors cherish these animals as an integral part of the cultural heritage of the Badlands.
  • These horses must be managed to preserve natural behaviors just as Teddy Roosevelt would have experienced. He would have seen stallions protecting their families, foals with their mothers and aunties, and the entire repertoire of natural “wild” horse behaviors.
  • To protect the GENETIC HEALTH of the herd and promote its genetic viability, the minimum population should be 150 or more. By allowing the horses to use additional areas of the TRNP, the herd can – and should – be managed at a HIGHER MINIMUM POPULATION LEVEL.

Your voice makes a difference.  Please submit your comments directly to the Park Service by clicking here. The deadline for submitting comments is October 25, 2023.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

*Featured/Spotlights

Wild Horse Fire Brigade Updates

Photo: Michelle Gough

Maybe you can imagine the frustration of having a vaccine that is proven to cure cancer, but not having the money to produce and distribute the cure.  Even as people are dying.

That is the kind of frustration that we are dealing with in regard to saving wild horses!  We have the cure for the wild horse management debacle. Now we just need the money to get the cure effected.

Unfortunately, an industry-wide slowdown in funding, partially caused by more nonprofits than ever entering into the wild horse nonprofit marketplace, is diluting donations and slowing progress on our projects critical to implementing a permanent, humane, and natural solution to keep American wild horses wild and free.

People are being fooled into funding the widespread sterilization (a.k.a.: Fertility Control) of wild horses to augment the genetic damage being inflicted by reducing populations via BLM roundups. This slowdown in funding is coming at a time when some people are asking and pleading with us, “Is there any way we can get the Wild Horse Fire Brigade plan accomplished faster?”  Of course there is, but it takes proper funding… we can only go as fast as our budget allows us.

Stanford produced a white paper that addresses the serious issues that arise from under funding a worthy nonprofit:

The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle

“Funders must take the lead in breaking a vicious cycle that is leaving nonprofits so hungry for decent infrastructure that they can barely function as organizations — let alone serve their beneficiaries.”

(Note: In the case of Wild Horse Fire Brigade, the ‘beneficiaries’ are the wild horses being abused, tortured, and on the brink of extinction.)

“Our research reveals that a vicious cycle fuels the persistent underfunding of overhead. The first step in the cycle is funders’ unrealistic expectations about how much it costs to run a nonprofit. At the second step, nonprofits feel pressure to conform to funders’ unrealistic expectations. At the third step, nonprofits respond to this pressure in two ways: they spend too little on overhead, and they underreport their expenditures on tax forms and in fundraising materials. This underspending and underreporting in turn perpetuate funders’ unrealistic expectations. Over time, funders expect grantees to do more and more with less and less — a cycle that slowly starves nonprofits.”

Sure, we’ve gotten some great national media exposure, and we’re very grateful for it. But people incorrectly assume that will be the ticket and we should now have financial wings when it’s not the case.  Honestly, national media articles help build brand recognition, reputation, and equity, but are less effective at bringing in donations these days than in prior years.

Until we can secure a major grant or large-scale donor, or a solid following of monthly donors, which as a newer nonprofit, we don’t have yet, our progress is restricted by budget.

We are far from having the kind of financial support we need to fully and speedily execute our novel, multifaceted approach to change the ongoing disastrous wild horse management and 30 years of failed advocacy.

Doing more of the same isn’t going to save wild horses in a manner that provides sustainable, humane, natural conservation that keeps them ‘wild & free’.

Too many people keep ignoring the evident facts that wild horse roundups have been greatly accelerated in coordination with horrific sterilization programs, both of which are carefully and scientifically designed to decimate wild horse populations.

This is the Bureau of Land Management’s end game.  And the biggest nonprofits are cashing in on the BLM’s plan, to the great detriment of wild horses.

Our end game is to use the combined experience of our team, along with the unparalleled extensive knowledge and experience, gained by managing our herd of 150 free roaming wild horses in a wilderness for the past 9 years, including during a catastrophic wildfire, to re-wild and relocate tens of thousands of wild horses into appropriate remote wilderness areas on parts of both public and privately owned remote wilderness.

There is approximately 353 million acres of privately owned for forests in America. About 50 million acres of that is very remote and unsuited for livestock, but ideal habitat for wild horses, that can make these areas more wildfire resilient.

Of the 115 million acres of publicly owned ‘designated wilderness’ (unsuited for livestock), all of which is at grave risk of incineration by wildfire, at least 30 million acres of that is very remote ideal habitat for wild horses. We only need to utilize a total of 20 million acres in order to re-wild/relocate 100,000 horses at the rate of 1 horse per 200 acres.

Here’s what we have in progress that can change everything for American wild horses:

(1) Our pilot herd of wild horses helped CALFIRE to stop a deadly 38,000 acre, wind driven catastrophic wildfire from incinerating the national treasure called the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument. THIS IS A CASE STUDY. And we need to continue our ongoing research with this case study herd. We are needing to acquire some electronics for an advanced tracking system for our lead mares. This will open the door to much more important scientific information. The telemetry package (electronics, etc.) we need costs $20k. We currently don’t have that in our budget.

By way of the wildfire fuels management year after year, when the fire struck in 2018, the fuels had been managed by the wild horses and were minimal, and that made CALFIRE’s wildfire suppression efforts more effective.

Our herd of wild horses had created and maintained a fire resilient landscape year-round, and they can do the same job elsewhere.

Saving what we can right now – working with our extended family of volunteer advocates, we have rescued 60 mustangs that would have ended up in a Mexican slaughter plant.  Here is a video showing one of the groups that has their freedom restored: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntqV QeeVMs.

We must continue to offer the lesson from our wild horse management experience to legislators, forest managers, firefighters, ecologists, and wild horse advocates. Our empirical experience transcends textbooks, academic hypotheses, and certainly BLM mythology.

We can teach and inform others.  Education is one of our key strategies, and will help our future re-wilding partners to understand how and why our plan works, and how to successfully scale our plan onto very large landscapes of 100,000 acres and larger.

(2) Articles & publications:

Anyone who has been college educated can recall the huge time requirement and effort to write a term paper, right?

Now imagine having to crank out a term paper every week, for years in a row! That’s what we’ve been doing, and we have NO STAFF.  Of course, that’s on top of dealing with hundreds of emails per week, phone calls, etc.

In addition to doing daily field work in the wilderness with wild horses and all the chores it takes to live off grid in the wilderness, Wild Horse Fire Brigade’s founder William Simpson and co-researcher Michelle Gough have been producing articles and papers weekly that average 2,500 words each (in Simpson’s case, for the past 9 years).

We must continue authoring and publishing articles and white papers that inform decision makers and educators about the genuine value of maintaining natural herds of wild horses on the appropriate landscapes. This is a very time-consuming endeavor (writing researched articles and getting them published).

Wild Horse Fire Brigade’s founder, William E. Simpson, is a professional writer and published author (Ulysses Press), and recognized by Simon and Schuster: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/William E Simpson/169118167.

A few of our published articles and informational stories are platformed on our website (www.WHFB.us), providing the public with quick single point access to important, accurate information about wild horses.

Many other articles are published elsewhere, such as these example outlets:

*Pagosa Daily Post (Colorado): https://pagosadailypost.com/author/william simpson/

*HorseTalk (New Zealand):  https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/author/billsimpson/

* Sierra Nevada Ally: https://sierranevadaally.org/author/william e simpson ii/

(3) Utilizing our wilderness research station/ranch:

Our free roaming wild herd in the wilderness coupled with our onsite research station can serve as a center for the college field studies of wild horse ecology and ethology. This could turn out a new army of resource managers into the real world who know the truth of wild horses.

Our research station/ranch is set in the wilderness among a herd of free roaming wild horses. This provides our team with the opportunity to have visiting university students and scientists to learn about wild horses using what we call the ‘Goodall Method’.  Through an alliance with an accredited University, we hope to soon be offering a certificate or fellowship program in Wild Horse Ecology Ethology.

(4) Video and photographic education:

Producing documentaries and edutainment videos that can help inform the public at large. We have already produced over 230 such videos. Some of these videos have thousands of views, and provide a library of video information to the public.  We need to get the word out about this body of work.

(5) TV, radio, and internet interviews:

Bringing out the truth about wild horses and their importance on the American landscape is vital to our mission, and yet another important way to inform the general public. Wild Horse Fire Brigade’s founder spends dozens of hours every month preparing for and giving interviews, on site at the ranch, on the radio, on TV, and via the internet and webinars.

Recently, Wild Horse Fire Brigade’s Vice President, Kelsey Stangebye, authored an outstanding paper that was published at Midwest Reining Horse Association’s magazine, and can be read here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mZWo2FJd1D1RtK2AWCq8yQK2sYBVcauM/view?usp=sharing

Thank you for reading this, and please do share it.

Please donate here.

Visit www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org for more information.

*Featured/Spotlights

Enough Is Enough

How do you spell cruelty? At the Cloud Foundation, we spell it:  R-O-U-N-D-U-P.  Specifically, helicopter roundup.

The BLM’s Antelope Valley Complex roundup commenced on July 9th and is unfortunately making our point for us. In 16 days, 19 horses have been killed. At least 7 tiny foals have died from the stress of the BLM miles-long run in hot and extreme temperatures. It’s unknown how many may have collapsed out on the range during the helicopter stampedes. Mares have been driven so hard that they’ve broken their necks – likely crashing gates.  Stallions have lost their lives, as well – one dying in the loading process (broken neck), and another that admirers named Mr. Sunshine for his palomino color breaking his leg jumping the 6′ high trap in a valiant attempt at freedom, which ended in a three-legged, 35-minute chase from both helicopter and horseman before his suffering was finally ended. Meanwhile, the cruelty continues.

BLM reports 19 deaths so far.  With the roundup still in progress, final reports are yet to come. An accurate count may never be known.

“The undercounting of deaths is, unfortunately, all too common,” says TCF Founder, Ginger Kathrens. “It is BLM practice to eliminate foals from the death count, as if they were never born and cared for by their mothers and the rest of their family. BLM literally gets away with murder.”

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! This kind of horrific cruelty needs to stop. There’s no accountability.

If you agree, please take action!

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

*Featured/Spotlights

Idaho’s Few Remaining Wild Horses Are under Attack

A curious Sands Basin HMA stallion watches our friends from Save Our Wild Horses.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Idaho (Owyhee Field Office) plans to reduce wild horse numbers in the Black Mountain, Hardtrigger, and Sands Basin Herd Management Areas to low numbers of just 30 horses in the Black Mountain HMA, 33 horses in the Sands Basin HMA, and 66 horses in the Hardtrigger HMA.

This disastrous plan creates a scenario in which inbreeding among the wild horses is inevitable — daughters with fathers, brothers with sisters, and mothers with sons. This effectively destroys their ability to survive. Inbreeding results in an increase of the offspring being affected by recessive traits such as blindness, deafness, a breakdown of natural immunities, and physical deformities.

BLM’s response is to bring in a few horses from other HMAs to address genetic problems. The practice of introducing new horses diminishes the unique qualities present in these herds — for better or for worse — and speaks to BLM creating a problem (lack of genetic viability) that they will have to continuously – and retroactively – fix.

BLM also plans to use Gonacon as fertility control on mares returned to the range. Studies show that Gonacon is likely permanent after just two applications. It effectively destroys the ovaries and therefore natural hormone production that drives natural, wild behaviors.

WE CANNOT GIVE UP ON THESE HORSES.  Fighting for needed change is the least we can do for these precious animals. Will you please join us?

Please take a stand today — it takes less than a minute to submit your comments to BLM to state your opposition to this ill-conceived proposal.

TIPS on How to Comment: We have provided talking points for you to use. You can leave them as written if you like. However, we encourage you to edit the suggested comments to reflect your unique thoughts and perspectives.

If you would like to research this Environmental Assessment a bit further, you may find it (and supporting documents) here: EplanningUi (blm.gov).

For a LIVE tutorial — Join our friends with Save Our Wild Horses on Thursday, June 8th, at 7 pm EST.

They will have a 1-hour, 2-part Zoom:

Part 1 – Journalist Vickery Eckhoff presents: Speaking Truth to Power: The Media, BLM, & You

Part 2 addresses how to submit Public Comments on the Owyhee Field Office Herd Management’s proposed plan for the Idaho wild horse herds.

To register for this Zoom meeting, please email Heather Hellyer (Save Our Wild Horses) at kaya97524@yahoo.com.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

*Featured/Spotlights

Help Preserve the Pryor Wild Horses

Red Wolf and his mother, Feldspar, graze near the top of the PMWHR.

Comments are due on the Pryor Wild Horse Environmental Assessment (EA) on April 28th. If you haven’t done so, please take a moment to protect the Pryor Mustangs. Feel free to invite friends to do the same.

To comment, just click here. It will take you to the comments page where you may customize any of the suggested comments before submitting.

Speak up now to preserve the well-balanced Pryor range management that has existed for decades. In this EA, BLM wants to take a cookie-cutter approach that would disregard the unique qualities of this special herd. Also, among the proposed alternative plans:

  • genetics may no longer be a criterion for management actions
  • the already low AML may be further reduced
  • alternate fertility controls never before used in the Pryors — that destroy the natural wild behaviors — may be used on our beloved herd

You may reference the EA documents here: EplanningUi (blm.gov).

Please let the Bureau of Land Management know how much this herd means to all of us. Submit your comments on the proposed management plan that will govern the future of these horses for years to come.

We thank you for caring about these magnificent animals and for your support in keeping them WILD and FREE — you are sincerely appreciated.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

*Featured/Spotlights

Urge BLM to Preserve ALL Wild Horses in Clan Alpine HMA

The Bureau of Land Management rounded up a record number of wild horses and burros in 2022 — more than 20,000 precious animals. This is happening thanks to Congress giving record-breaking increased funding for roundups and fertility control methods that destroy who these horses really are and their natural behaviors. Sadly, the agency is hellbent on removing another 20,000 this year too.

We KNOW how frustrating and heartbreaking this is. It’s infuriating our government caters to a small special interest group – public land ranchers – for the management of OUR public lands. It’s shameful that our government refuses to use science to manage our country’s resources and instead continues the good ol’ boy status quo.

But giving up is not an option. We CAN change things — but only if we persist in our efforts. Most social change comes far too slowly; those brave souls who continue the fight and refuse to accept defeat are the ones who prevail in the end.

Your voice makes a difference.  Please submit your comments directly to the BLM.

The Cloud Foundation
www.thecloudfoundation.org

*Featured/Spotlights, Publications/Media, Wild Horse Fire Brigade

Wild Horse Fire Brigade Video Collection on YouTube Now

Wild Horse Fire Brigade, an all-volunteer 501-c-3 nonprofit organization, is pleased to present our growing collection of unique videos about free-roaming American wild horses living in the wilderness at Wild Horse Ranch, the remote mountain research station for our Org.

Living in a remote off-grid mountain wilderness is not easy by means. There are many serious risks and hardships endured by living so far out in the wild.

But the knowledge that is gained by living among the wild ones, as William and Michelle do, is priceless and worth the risks and hardships.

We hope you’ll enjoy these videos, many of which are filmed at Wild Horse Ranch with genuine free-roaming wild horses in the wilderness. Watching these videos is like taking a mini-course in wild horse ethology!

https://www.youtube.com/@wildhorsefirebrigade2191/videos

Feel free to share them with your friends and on social media.

Please visit www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org for more information.

*Featured/Spotlights

Veterans for Mustangs Act Proposes to Make Wild Horses into Carnival Shooting Gallery

American Wild Horse Campaign volunteer stalking and shooting wild horses with high powered gas operated rifle. Photo courtesy of American Wild Horse Campaign.

YREKA, CA, US, February 3, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — A recently introduced bill titled the ‘Veterans for Mustangs Act’ allegedly seeks to employ Veterans suffering from PTSD to shoot wild horses using high powered gas operated rifles firing a heavy projectile carrying a chemical sterilization agent commonly known as ‘PZP’.

An examination of the unvarnished data about what is being cavalierly proposed in this new bill shows many compelling serious contraindications for supporting this bill.

First off, there are no published psychological studies that prove any potential mental health benefits for combat veterans suffering from PTSD by chasing wild horses around the landscape and shooting them with these powerful rifles. And in many cases where combat veterans are suffering from PTSD, ownership or use of any firearms may be contraindicated, according to information from a National Academy of Science’s report: https://cdn.govexec.com/media/gbc/docs/pdfs_edit/071712bb1.pdf.

Moreover, according to a published National Institute of Health Study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5308415/):

“Military veterans and individuals with Post traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are at increased risk for aggressive behavior and suicide, compared to civilians and those without PTSD. Further, compared to other psychiatric populations, veterans with PTSD have been found to possess more firearms and to more frequently engage in potentially dangerous firearm related behaviors. This is concerning as, compared to civilians, veterans are more likely to complete suicide with a firearm and access to firearms is associated with higher risk of suicide above and beyond the effect of psychiatric illness. Veterans with PTSD also demonstrate higher levels of anger, hostility, and aggression than those without PTSD, which may render firearm possession particularly problematic among this population.”

The key lobbyist behind this bill, Mr. Marty Irby, has a background that should be carefully considered in regard to his motivation in lobbying a bill that raises many questions and serious concerns, as can be read in this published article:

https://twhfacts.com/2019/08/03/the facts about marty irby executive director animal wellness action/

In fact, the experts who pioneered and helped develop and study using gas powered rifles to shoot large animals, including wild horses, with heavy chemical filled syringes, have themselves raised some of the serious concerns and published them:

“Even on a large animal struck correctly, the dart (contraceptive PZP darts) can cause hemorrhage and hematoma. Misplaced shots can break bones or even kill the animal.” (Thomas and Marburger 1964)

“Muzzle report [when a gun goes ‘bang’] 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)

In fact, there is mounting scientific evidence that using PZP, also known as a ‘Genetic Poison’ by many wild horse experts and advocates, has many unintended consequences that are never mentioned by the promoters of PZP.

A leading researcher in the field of fertility control using PZP, Dr. Cassandra M. V. Nuñez, has written extensively about the ‘unintended consequences’ of using PZP, even when administered in a less draconian manner than using combat soldiers to shoot wild horses with rifles.

More about Nuñez’s research here: https://cmvnunez.weebly.com/.

Interestingly, the Bureau of Land Management, which has suffered from ongoing and widespread condemnation of their management of American wild horses, is offering millions in tax dollars as funding incentives (grants) to people and NGOs to employ the use of shooting wild horses with PZP to allegedly control populations of wild horses where they are deemed in conflict with humans and commercial enterprises.

More here: https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/607372689/costly wild horse management exposing the crutches of a failed paradigm killing american wild horses.

According to an article by Michael Ray Harris, a law professor and litigator at Vermont Law University and the Legal Advisor to the California based non-profit all-volunteer organization Wild Horse Fire Brigade:

“What is ignored by the pro-PZP community is that wild horses darted with PZP to inhibit their ability to naturally reproduce aren’t really, well, ‘wild’ anymore. Wild means ‘living in a state of nature’ as opposed to being ‘tamed or domesticated’ to be more useful to humans. Accordingly, opposition to PZP is based on an ethical belief that wild animals should be free of human manipulation.”

This press release can be viewed in full online at: https://www.einpresswire.com/article/614834024/.

Please visit www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org for more information.