Tag Archives: wild horses

Breeds, Contributors/Press, Wild Horse Sources

Ted Turner Signs on with Saving America’s Mustangs

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We are pleased to announce that Saving America’s Mustangs has a new Advisory Board member, Mr. Ted Turner!

Since the early 1970s, Ted Turner has stepped into the international spotlight with one accomplishment after another. Whether in billboard advertisement, cable television, sports team ownership, sailing, environmental initiatives or philanthropy – Turner’s vision, determination, generosity and forthrightness have consistently given the world reason to take notice.

Turner now dedicates his time and resources to making the world a better, safer place for future generations. His current philanthropic interests include: the Turner Foundation, the United Nations Foundation, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the Captain Planet Foundation, and the Turner Endangered Species Fund.

www.tedturner.com

“The Turner Foundation looks at the earth as a precious asset that has been lent to us. As a family, we believe it is our job to do whatever we can to leave it better than we found it.” R. E. Turner, Chairman

Continue reading Ted Turner Signs on with Saving America’s Mustangs →

Breeds, Contributors/Press, Wild Horse Sources

The End of Winter: An Update on the Pryors

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Dear Friends of Cloud, his family and herd;
Lauryn Wachs and Catherine Stokes, our Cloud Foundation interns, accompanied me on their second journey to the Pryor Mountains. It’s always an adventure and last week was no exception.

According to people who live in the area, this winter has been the worst in 50 years — not only lots of snow but sub zero temperatures for extended periods. It’s a hard fact that winter often selects out the youngest and the oldest in all wild species. This is nature’s way of keeping populations in check and allowing only the fittest to survive and reproduce. So, we really didn’t know who among the wild horses might have died during this stretch of unusually challenging weather. Yet, some things never change and we were thrilled to witness the mating behavior of sandhill cranes on our drive out to the horse range. The male leaped in the air and danced around the female, paying no attention to our car and cameras eavesdropping on his display.

Sandhill cranes in a mating dance
Koda Wakan & his mother, High Noon, on the day of his birth 6/10

Continue reading The End of Winter: An Update on the Pryors →

*Featured/Spotlights, Breeds, Contributors/Press, Media/Radio/TV Sources, Rescue/Protection Sources

Willie & The Nelson Family Sing “Wild Horses”

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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” →

*Featured/Spotlights, Breeds, Contributors/Press, Wild Horse Sources

Wild Horse Lawsuit Update

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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.

Continue reading Wild Horse Lawsuit Update →

Breeds

U2 Joining in This Plight!

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The band U2 is joining in on this fight for our wild horses! Our wild horse herds are quickly dwindling and things need to step up!

This important Call to Action music video will be airing on networks around the planet in the weeks ahead!

Wild Horses & Renegades will have its official release May 7th-14th at the 34th International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula Montana.
http://www.theamericanwildhorse.com/

Please watch; please share! Thank you from the bottom of my galloping heart!

Where the wild wind blows,

Sonya, aka Mustang Meg
www.mustangmeg.com
www.wildwindart.com
www.amillionvoicesformustangs.com

Breeds, Contributors/Press, Wild Horse Sources

Speak Out for Mustangs and Burros in Arizona

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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.

Continue reading Speak Out for Mustangs and Burros in Arizona →

Breeds, Contributors/Press, Wild Horse Sources

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

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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.

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Breeds, Contributors/Press, Rescue/Protection Sources

Save Wild Horses from Inhumane Roundups!

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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/

Breeds, Contributors/Press, Wild Horse Sources

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

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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

Breeds, Rescue/Protection Sources

Utah Legislator Introduces Resolution Opposing Dead Bill

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February 7, 2011 – Chicago (EWA) – On February 1st, Utah Senator David P. Hinkins introduced joint resolution S.J.R 11, titled “A Resolution Expressing Opposition to Federal Restoring Our Mustangs Act.”  The resolution expresses opposition to federal bills H.R. 1018 / S. 1579, known collectively as the ROAM Act. The only problem is that the ROAM Act was from the 111th Congress and no longer exists.

The ROAM act was passed by the House of Representatives on July 19, 2009 but was never taken up by the Senate and died with the end of the 111th Congress. Though initially popular among wild horse advocates, growing suspicion that ROAM could be used by the Obama Administration to implement its “Salazar Plan” caused it to lose support.

The “Salazar plan” would remove mustangs from their native habitats in the West, sterilize them, and leave them to die out on Midwestern feedlots. So intent is the Administration on this plan, that it rejected a private refuge plan offered by Madeleine Pickens, wife of oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens. That plan would have left the horses on a large tract of their native lands which the Pickenses had purchased.

Continue reading Utah Legislator Introduces Resolution Opposing Dead Bill →