Urge your Representative to support the new Anti-Slaughter bill

This is one of those lazy copy paste updates I know ya'll love. It derives from the fact that the internet hates me, and I haven't been able to get webpages to cooperate, so I'm just pasting you the email the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign sent me. Enjoy.

With the 111th Congress comes a new opportunity to end the transport of American horses for slaughter in Mexico and Canada: please call your U.S. Representative and urge him/her to co-sponsor the newly-introduced Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act (H.R. 503).

While our Campaign's main focus is on keeping wild horses in the wild, we must also ensure that the thousands of wild horses unnecessarily rounded up each year do not end up over the border at Mexican or Canadian slaughterhouses. Although the last remaining U.S. slaughterhouses have closed their doors, slaughter remains our wild horses? greatest threat once they have been removed from the range. Nothing the Bureau of Land Management says or does will change that sad reality.

Please visit www.congress.org and enter your zip code to locate your U.S. Representative. Remind him/her that horse slaughter is NOT humane euthanasia and that America's wild horses are also being slaughtered - we should not allow these living symbols of our Nation to end up as a gourmet meal for diners in Europe and Asia (which is where horse meat is exported to).

On behalf of America's wild horses, thank you for your support.

The AWHPC Team
American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
www.wildhorsepreservation.org

Wild Horse Reprieve; but our work isn't done!

From the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign. I've highlighted some important points in this brief for you.

As many of you may recall, last summer BLM announced it was considering putting to death thousands of wild horses in its care, as a way to balance the books. After a massive public outcry, the decision was postponed until the next Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting. The meeting took place this past Monday, following release of a long-awaited Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the federal Wild Horse and Burro Program.

The GAO Report was a disappointment in that it failed to address the systemic problems associated with BLM's wild horse management policies, focusing instead on options available to address the glut of horses in government holding: 'euthanasia,' sale without limitation (i.e. slaughter), or release of the captive horses on some of the 19 million acres lost by the herds since passage of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. The GAO merely sent BLM and Congress back to the drawing board, while failing to investigate the underlying cause of the current crisis: the unnecessary removal of thousands upon thousands of wild horses from our public lands.

At Monday's meeting, BLM Deputy Director Henry Bisson announced that any decision regarding 'euthanasia' would be postponed for a year. In the meantime, BLM will be working with Madeleine Pickens, wife of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, as well as other private parties, who have offered to take thousands of horses off BLM's hands into privately-run sanctuaries. Our deepest gratitude goes out to Mrs. Pickens and the other good Samaritans offering their land in this 11th hour reprieve for the horses.

A looming crisis has been averted, but many concerns remain:
- More than ever, a moratorium on round-ups is in order until actual numbers of wild horses and burros on public lands have been independently assessed, and legally-mandated range studies have been conducted.

- The BLM 'bail-out' by private parties should come with strings attached to ensure that we are not just emptying government corrals so that BLM can continue rounding up more and more horses.

- At Monday's meeting, the Advisory Board made some highly disturbing recommendations, including shipping horses abroad as 'foreign agricultural aid,' removing restrictions against slaughter for horses sold under the Burns Amendment, and extending Burns Amendment sales to younger horses and foreign markets. Death in a Canadian or Mexican slaughterhouse is no better, if not worse, than a government bullet to the head. WE MUST REMAIN VIGILANT.

The incoming Obama-Biden administration presents an opportunity toward a new beginning for the federal Wild Horse and Burro Program. Please contact the Office of the President-Elect and express your concerns and hopes for the future of our wild horses.

On behalf of America's wild horses and burros, thank you for your support,

The AWHPC Team
American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
www.wildhorsepreservation.org
Click here to join our email list and receive the latest updates.

A big thanks goes out to all of the private parties who have donated time, money, and land to help these horses. However, just as the AWHPC suggests, it will all be in vain if we allow the BLM to use this 'bail out' as an excuse to round up more horses. I hope those parties have let it be known that this is a one time deal, and I hope that they will continue to put effort into encouraging the BLM to change their round-up policies, and stop the problem once and for all.

Say 'No!' to BLM's magic bullet

After last week?s shocking announcement that it was considering putting to death thousands of wild horses to address its budgetary shortfalls, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) went into damage-control mode, laying the groundwork for ugly compromises. Meanwhile, AWHPC Coalition members met with key congressional staffers today to assess the situation and formulate a plan of action. In addressing this crisis, our allies in Congress are counting on the American public?s vocal support.

Below is a list of action items for you to help in this fight:

Alert Oprah Winfrey to this tragedy. She needs to hear from thousands of us urging her to feature our wild horses, American icons, on her show.

CNN?s Anderson Cooper should be urged to investigate the matter.

Please also contact your US Representative, two US Senators, and Rep. Nick Rahall, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee and long-time friend of the horses, using the following talking points:

- BLM is warning that the 29 thousand horses left on the range could cause an 'ecological disaster.' Three decades ago, when federal protection was enacted for the horses because they were 'fast disappearing from the range,' population levels were much higher. The horses were not posing a threat then, so how could they be now? How about the fact that 12.5 million acres allocated to wild horses under federal law have been taken away from them? How about the 6 million head of private livestock grazing the same public lands?

- The additional funding BLM is seeking, with our horses as bargaining chips, should only be granted subject to strict independent oversight and the following conditions: 1. A moratorium on round-ups until actual numbers of wild horses and burros on public lands have been independently assessed; 2. The review of scientific findings that contradict claims of wild horse overpopulation and negative impact on the range; and 3. Implementation of in-the-wild management, including non-invasive fertility control methods, which would save millions of our tax-dollars.

- Unrestricted sales and instant titling of adopted horses are not acceptable alternatives: slaughter is a worse fate than a bullet to the head.

- Members of the public have expressed an interest in contributing to the support of America?s wild horses. Please implement tax incentives for that purpose, ensuring monies are strictly allocated to in-the-wild management and to care for horses already in holding pens.

To locate your US Representative and two US Senators, visit www.congress.org and enter your zip code.

BLM has set up a web-page for the public to comment. While we are under no illusion that they have any interest in the American public?s wishes, you may give them a piece of your mind by calling 202-208-7351 or by following this link.

Remind them that we, the American people, entrusted them with our wild horses, living symbols of our freedom and spirit. After decades of lies and backroom deals, millions of acres lost to private livestock, and millions of our tax-dollars wasted on rounding up horses by the thousands, our precious herds are decimated and 30 thousand horses languish in government corrals. Now a bullet or slaughter are the only alternatives they can offer us for our wild horses?

BLM cannot say we did not warn them or plead with them; they cannot say we did not offer solutions. They have failed us and we will be asking our congressional representatives to hold them accountable for their wild horse management duties, duties so egregiously subordinated to special interests. Enough is enough.

It is time America stand up for its wild horses, a national treasure. Ask your family, friends, neighbors and colleagues to speak out at this critical time. We are the horses? only voice.

For more suggestions on how to help, please click here. On behalf of the horses, thank you for your support,

The AWHPC Team
American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
www.wildhorsepreservation.org
Click here to join our email list and receive the latest updates.

Death Sentence for rounded-up mustangs

From the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign:

The Bureau of Land Management?s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board met on Monday. In our pre-meeting alert, we had expressed grave concerns over BLM?s plans, asking whether ?kill authority? was next on BLM's misguided agenda. Lo and behold, BLM came out and announced it is now considering simply putting to death 'excess' wild horses! How did it come to this?

In 2001, BLM obtained a 50% increase in annual budget for implementation of an aggressive removal campaign. 24,000 horses were slated for capture, with no long-term plan for their welfare. Now, predictably, the federal agency finds itself in the untenable positions of warehousing over 30,000 horses (more than remain in the wild); the funding it wants to save by euthanizing our wild horses was wasted on years of unnecessary round-ups to cater to special interests.

6 million head of private livestock graze our public lands and BLM wants us to believe that 25,000 wild horses are overpopulating the range? Removals are based on flawed and biased data; BLM itself admitted at Monday?s meeting that not even its censusing techniques are accurate. In 2005, while in the process of rounding up thousands of horses supposedly due to poor range conditions, BLM eased public land grazing restrictions for private cattle.

BLM?s irresponsible approach to wild horse management created the problem, and the agency is now asking the American public to swallow a very bitter pill, all the while continuing to round up horses by the thousands (2,000 are slated to come off the Nevada range in the coming weeks alone).

America cannot let this stand. Congress is in recess for Independence Day week, but stay tuned for a national action plan next week.

On behalf of America?s horses, thank you for your support at this critical time,

The AWHPC Team
American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign
www.wildhorsepreservation.org
Click here to join our email list and receive the latest updates.

Saving America's Symbols: Mustangs

Saving America's Symbols is a new article series I'm starting, featuring some of the most influential and prominent species in North America, such as Bison, Bald Eagles, and the American Mustang. Many of these animals are the backbone on which our nation was created and as such deserve our respect and continuing protection. I'm starting with the Mustangs because we're coming up on foaling season soon. Its been a strange, hard, changeable winter all over the country this year, and I doubt the Mustangs are fairing any better than the rest of us. For wild horse herds all over the southwest and in their northern ranges of Montana and Oregon and some in Alberta and British Columbia late spring and into the summer is the foaling season. For the Buruea of Land Management and other entities set with 'managing' the mustang herds this is also the height of roundup season.
During the summer of 2006 Front Range Equine Rescue (sister charity of the Cloud Foundation to save wild horses) published heartbreaking accounts of roundups that took place in Utah and Nevada. Chased by helicopters with days old foals running along side, panicked horses stumbled, broke legs, trampled foals, and collapsed from exhaustion to perish in the desert, or be rounded up later and hauled by truck to pen sites. A corraled horse panicked and broke its neck when it crashed into the fence, and another kicked a foal that had gotten mixed up with the adult horses, killing it. Even unborn foals were lost, when stress caused the mares to abort their babies. In 1971, the United States Congress recognized Mustangs as “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West [...] that [...] contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people.” Is this the way we treat such living legends?
Anyone familiar with horses, wild or otherwise, has heard of the Burns Amendment. This illegal appendix to the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act virtually gutted protections for these animals, as well as impacting the lives of countless domestic horses. Further plans by Mustang management calls for using birth control on mares over 10 years of age to help hold down the population. While this is a less expensive route than the barbaric roundups (conducted at the taxpayers expense, I might add) it will still help to contribute to the downfall of one of America's most recognizable symbols of freedom. Wild Mustangs have been pushed into isolated rangelands in some areas, far seperated from other herds, and birth control would only weaken their already compromised genetic diversity. These beautiful animals, once desenced from Andalusians, Arabians, and some of the most graceful and intelligent breeds in the world would become the 'weeds' that western ranchers have long held them to be.

For more information, or to donate to FRER's campaign to save our Mustangs, visit:
http://FrontRangeEquineRescue.org

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/issue.html (Warning, this website contains disturbing photos taken by press and onlookers at Wild Horse Roundups)

When I was 13, a 30 year old adopted Mustang taught me how to jump high, and how to dream. If Bandit is still alive today he'd be in his forties. Where ever you are I still love you, Bandito.