Wild Horses: Delivering Public Comments to the BLM on Adobe Town

On Monday, I had the honor of delivering to the BLM in Rock Springs 3516 comments from people all over the country on the Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek roundup.
This is the herd, Adobe Town, that I have followed for 7 years and wrote about in my book, Wild Hoofbeats: America's Vanishing Wild Horses.

How did this come about? This is a good question. For the first time, the BLM refused to accept comments from the public on a proposed roundup EXCEPT by mail or hand delivery. No emailed or faxed comments were allowed - the thinking on the part of the BLM was to prevent being "bombarded" by "frivolous" comments. Comments by the way, that are from the public that pays their salaries. The letters were from supporters of the Wild Horse Preservation Campaign and its coalition partner, In Defense of Animals. Both organizations decided that they wanted to do something and allow the public to have their say about the upcoming roundup of 2000 wild horses and the removal of almost 1600 from their 1.5 million acres home in the Red Desert.
When they contacted me, I told them I would be glad to help, and deliver the letters to the Rock Springs BLM office on the last date comments were to be accepted, August 16.



On my way, I spent a couple of days with the wild horses of Adobe Town, perhaps my last opportunity to see most of them again in the wild before the roundup.



As I headed out to the horse range on Saturday afternoon, I saw a rainbow over the horses range. I took this as a sign that our efforts might meet with a favorable outcome for these wonderful horses.



The first group I saw was the grey stallion, mare, grey two year old and this year's palomino colt - and that new colt had grown! He had darkened up too, and the band was more skittish than on my last visit, but I was very happy to see them again.




Many horses in the area I visited 3 weeks before had moved out of the area, and I also enjoyed meeting some new horses. My favorite encounter was with a grey stallion with bitten off ears who actually drove his mare right toward me so he could get a good look at me!




Just after dawn, I found a large group with primarily greys on a hillside of sage - still enjoying their morning nap, but now awake once they spotted me, and moved off, with a mare with an amazing dreadlock in front.




One band had beautiful colors, and they kept edging closer and closer to check me out. Their stallion ran in front of one of the many thousands of oil pumping stations dotting the area.




Last, a young bachelor who had been kicked out of his band came between me and the band he did not want to give up. The separation of the young colts from their band is a natural one - how much harder and more traumatic will it be for thousands of these horses to be ripped from the only homes and families they have ever known?



I have to hope that we have made enough of a difference through our comments to stop this unnecessary and cruel roundup which is scheduled to begin October 1. Thank you to everyone who participated in commenting to stop this roundup.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_00cc2b7a-a9ad-11df-9850-001cc4c002e0.html

Wild Horses: The Winter of Our Discontent - Protests Around the Country

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

Wild Horses: Call for a Moratorium on Roundups

On October 7, Ken Salazar announced a disastrous new plan for managing wild horses while admitting the deficiencies in the current management of the Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro Program. His new plan, heralded as salvation for wild horses by some, would actually spell the complete destruction of wild horses in this country. It would continue the removal of wild horses from the lands that were set aside for their use in 1971 with the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

With already 37,000 wild horses in holding facilities, more than are left in the wild, the Bureau of Land Management began an aggressive roundup campaign with their new funding on October 1, planning to in one year remove 12,000 more horses from their homes and families, zeroing out herd areas and bringing the numbers down in many others to impossible to sustain as genetically viable. Salazar's plan includes sterilized herds, moving horses in holding to the East and Midwest, despite having 19 million acres here in the West that are already public lands designated by Congress as protected wild horse habitat.

Part of his plan would also reduce the requirements for adopters of wild horse, thus increasing the likelihood of their purchase by killer buyers.


Shortsighted people who have endorsed this plan fail to see that removing horses from the wild, destroying their families and creating sterilized herds in captive parks is taking the very essence that we revere and admire about the wild horse - his Independence, freedom and very wildness. With no more horses left on public lands, in 20 years we shall see the end of this American Icon.

Having spent time over the past six years following wild horse herds in CO, WY and MT, and also bearing witness to the roundups and their cruel aftermaths, I would like to see the wild horses roaming free on our public lands, under new management. Instead of being targeted for extinction, these precious living symbols of our heritage deserve to be protected, and allowed to live out their lives in their homes in the West.












In Defense of Animals has an action plan with a web form for contacting President Obama, to impose a moratorium on roundups and to return the horses in holding to the range as well as a form letter to send to your Senators in support of the Roam Act: http://bit.ly/ActionPlan















The Cloud Foundation has an online petition for a moratorium on roundups that you can sign and pass along to others to sign:
http://bit.ly/3ps4wW


This is a critical time in our history for wild horses, so please take action now.