Captured Owyhee mustangs being stressed to the max by BLM

PLEASE CALL IMMEDIATELY TO DEMAND THAT THESE ATROCITIES STOP:

KEN SALAZAR – (202) 208-7351 – Department of Interior, in charge of BLM
PRESIDENT OBAMA – (202) 456-1111
REPS IN CONGRESS (202) 225-3121  give your zip code and they will give you the number to your representatives in congress

BLM DIRECTOR, BOB ABBEY
E-mail: Director@blm.gov
BLM Washington Office
1849 C Street NW, Rm. 5665
Washington DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-3801 / Fax: 202-208-5242

Examiner.com
By Maureen Harmonay

Yesterday, writer Terri Farley and photographer Cat Kindsfather got first glimpses of 16 wild mares and six foals who were run off Nevada’s Owyhee desert by BLM-hired helicopters, as part of the “Tuscarora Gather.” What they saw was heart-wrenching. But what they heard was even worse.

These horses were part of a contingent of over 350 from the Owyhee Herd Management Area (HMA) who have been brought to the Palomino Valley Center near Reno for warehousing and “processing.” Astonishingly, a group of these so-called “water-starved” horses were already being freeze-branded and “processed,” even though they have scarcely had time to recover from the trauma of being wrenched from their native range, and then trucked to a never-before-seen feedlot.

Terri Farley described the scene in her blog:

“The Tuscarora mustangs neighed, screamed, rumbled in strange lion-like roars I’ve never heard before–for one hour and forty minutes.

I don’t know how long they’d been crying before we reached the Palomino Valley Wild Horse Adoption Center. I don’t know if it’s still going on now that I’m home.

I do know it’s legal and I could do nothing about those sounds, or the collisions of horseflesh and bones with something that sounded like thunder, on and on and on. . .

Sixteen mares and six foals were visible. We were not allowed to enter certain areas because other Tuscarora horses were being freeze branded and processed.

The sixteen mares and six foals called to those in distress. With foals tucked tight against their sides, mares patrolled back and forth in such tight formation. Neither Cat nor I are positive of our counts.

These horses are a few days off the range, bewildered and stunned. And this is legal. BLM is doing what it is allowed to do. I don’t dispute that, but it is far from humane to confine wild animals who’ve spent their lives escaping predators and subdue them so that they can be attacked.”

Cat Kindsfather echoed the horror of what they had seen:

“We were not allowed to witness the freeze mark processing, but certainly could hear the stress and terror, screams of the equine rang loudly the entire time we were there. The Owyhee captured pen of mares and foals raced back and forth, terrified.

And it was so damn hot yesterday! No cloud cover and NO SHADE for them at all. A few small burros were laying down by the fence, trying to get the bit of shade that the fence offered. SO SAD.”

For now, this is the closest our humane observers can come to documenting how this roundup has shaken these wild horses to the core. According to the BLM’s Environmental Assessment for this roundup, approximately 140 mares and stallions (40% to 60% ratio) were supposed to have been released back into the Owyhee Herd Area (HA) after the mares had been treated with a two-year contraceptive known as PZP. If this is the case, why is BLM branding these wild horses, unless it has abandoned its re-release plans?

There is evidence that the BLM is playing fast and loose with the numbers its feeding the public as to how many horses have died. Some individual horses from the Owyhee roundup seem to have fallen off the radar screen, and unless you’re counting carefully, you might never notice. But the Gather Report for July 18th, for example, noted that 92 horses had shipped from the temporary corrals near the trap site to long-term holding at the Palomino Valley Center (PVC). According to the Facilities Report, however, only 91 of those horses were actually received at PVC, yet the one who didn’t make it was never listed in the mortality statistics. Who was that missing horse, and what happened to him or her?

Laura Leigh took time from her nonstop efforts on behalf of the Calico and Tuscarora horses to send this message:

“In 1971, Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which said: ‘It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.’

The Herd Areas (HAs) were created by guesswork. Then the HAs were cut by flimsy excuses like ‘horses are too hard to manage there.’ In many of those areas we now have mining and other interests. Now horses are being shoved off the crumbs we left them, with no factual data and against the intent of the 1971 Act. The concept of ‘Appropriate Management Levels‘ is based on hot air.”

To support Laura Leigh’s ongoing efforts to protect the Tuscarora horses, visit Grassrootshorse.com or WildHorsesNeedYou.com.

Related, please sign, thank you:

http://www.change.org/animal_law_coalition/petitions/view/stop_government_roundups_of_wild_horses_and_burros

http://www.change.org/animal_law_coalition/petitions/view/stop_the_slaughter_of_american_horses