It's a cold winter this year, made even colder by the unresponsiveness of our government to the plight of our wild horses. Right now, at the coldest time of the year, the BLM is rounding up over 2700 horses in northern Nevada, and horses are being injured and are dying in the harsh winter conditions. Despite a U.S. District Court Judge's recommendation, and despite protests by wild horse advocates around the country and even internationally, the BLM is proceeding with this roundup at a cost of almost 2 million dollars to the American taxpayer.
Never before has the public turned out to protest the actions of the Bureau of Land Management, but of course never before has that agencies abuses in managing wild horse been so blatant. When lawsuits fail and thousands upon thousands of letters, phone calls, faxes and emails fall on deaf ears, then all that is left is our freedom of speech, and protests have a way of attracting media attention that all those letters and phone calls and emails have failed to do.
Yesterday over thirty wild horse advocates assembled in Denver in spite of the bitterly cold weather. We gathered in front of Senator Mark Udall's office building in downtown Denver. Senator Udall is on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the Senate, and this is the committee where the ROAM Act languishes. Senator Udall has not come out in support of the ROAM Act and wild horses - neither has he come out against it. Ginger Kathrens, Makendra Silverman and I met with Kate Zimmerly in Senator Udall's office to discuss our concerns and to ask for Senator Udall's support after the protest.
Protests continue as the roundup in Nevada continues, and we continue to call and write and email. This is the time to stand strong - something has got to give.
Thank you to all of you who are protesting, writing and calling and emailing - you DO make a difference.
For a list of upcoming protests go here:
http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/events
