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Article in the Sonoran News on Nov. 3, 2010 by Patricia Haight, PH.D

10/25/2014

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BY PATRICIA HAIGHT, PH.D. | NOVEMBER 3, 2010 BLM horse and burro gathering The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently gathered and removed from their homes near Yuma an anticipated one hundred wild burros. The fate of wild horses and burros is tragic.  My attorneys and I recently reviewed several thousand documents provided by the Arizona Game and Fish Department under the Arizona Public Records Law.

Of the records we reviewed, we are obtaining copies that provide evidence of the following:
  1. The United States Forest Service (USFS) in Apache Sitgreaves National Forests failed to honor its commitment in a stipulated agreement in the US Federal Court to work cooperatively with plaintiffs, including myself, in preparing a management strategy for protected wild horses found in the Forests.  The USFS has, however, worked very closely with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) on this issue even though the AGFD has only very limited authority under cooperative agreements with the USFS.  The only agency who has Federal authority is the USFS
  2. AGFD is pushing to obtain even more autonomous control over removal of wild horses and burros in areas where Game and Fish feels the BLM is moving too slowly, even though the AGFD has no jurisdiction under the federal Wild Horse and Burro Act and only limited input under cooperative agreements with federal agencies.
  3. The Director of AGFD used his position and time paid by Arizona taxpayers to lobby to get a person appointed to the national Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Counsel who is notoriously anti-wild horse and burro and used his position and time to enlist others to write letters of support for this person. 
  4. A company owned by a man who was indicted by a federal grand jury on a felony for hunting wild horses from the air has been active gathering wild burros in Arizona.  This person was indicted on a felony but was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser misdemeanor thus allowing the man’s company to continue to work for the BLM and other federal agencies.  Pictures of helicopters very close to wild horses and burros they are gathering are available at the following link: http://conquistadorprogram.org/blm_begins_gather_of_burros_near_yuma
At least one eyewitness account is available from an ecologist of the helicopters actually touching the animals as they drive them for miles.  How would you survive being driven by a helicopter for 10 miles or more in 100-degree heat?

My question is why such a vehement effort to remove wild horses and burros from Arizona ranges they have lived in peacefully since the Spanish arrived in the 16th century? 
Certainly, pictures of the animals and forage show that no one is starving.  The AGFD, BLM and USFS argue that the horses and burros are depleting forage but historical documents clearly show that the horses and burros have been here for hundreds of years and everyone did just fine.  I am happy to provide a list of references of these documents to anyone who might be interested.  If you want your heart torn out, watch the video of little burros driven for miles by helicopters and crying out when they are separated from their families or watch the video of wild horses driven for miles, sometimes with their babies, until they almost drop.  The historical documents indicate that there was a very peaceful
co-existence of wild horses and burros with everyone else until the early 1930’s when federal agencies took over grazing rights and “management” of wild horses and burros.

The wild horses and burros of Arizona go back to the early explorers including Coronado and Father Eusebio Kino.  They are a precious natural resource.  Many scholars even show evidence that these kind and gentle creatures date back to prehistoric times.  Is the federal government’s quest for grazing lease money or energy so great that it will jeopardize our children’s right to see a magnificent wild horse whose ancestors may have carried Coronado, Father Kino or legendary cavalry officer General George Crook or to see a wild burro herd with their close family ties in the wild?  When is enough, just enough?

Patricia Haight, Ph.D., The Conquistador Equine Rescue and Advocacy Program and guardian of four Peruvian horses: 4715 N. Black Canyon Hwy, #1019, Phoenix, AZ 85015. Telephone:  490-430-4011. Online: www.conquistadorprogram.org.
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Fact Sheet on Wild Horses

10/24/2014

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http://www.aowha.org/documents/facts01.pdf

FACT SHEET on WILD HORSES Prepared by Brandy Galos and Karen Sussman WILD HORSE LAWS

•1897 - The Nevada legislature passed a law allowing any citizen to shoot a wild horse on sight.

•1971 - Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act passed by Congress.§ "Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people; and that these horses and burros are fast disappearing from the American scene. 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."

•2004 - Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) slipped a provision into a 3,000-page omnibus spending bill in December 2004 that effectively guts federal protections afforded to wild horses.§ Division E, Section 142, of the Consolidated Appropriations Bill - H.R. 4818 (aka "Omnibus Spending bill.")§ The language specifies that the horses "SHALL" be sold, rather than the more flexible "MAY."§ Wild horses over the age of ten will be sold without limitations.§ Wild horses aged ten and under will be sold without limitations if they are not adopted in three adoption attempts.§ Selling wild horses for slaughter will no longer be considered a crime.SUMMARY - WILD HORSE POPULATION NUMBERS•Turn of the Century - At the turn of the century, there were approximately 2 million wild horses on public lands.

•1974 - There were approximately 60,000 wild horses and burros on public lands.

•1985 - BLM tried to gain sale authority and failed because of the outcry of the American public. At that time BLM had warehoused about 40,000 wild horses

•Today - There are likely fewer than 36,000 wild horses and burros on public lands. BLM plans to bring the population down to 20,000 wild horses and burros.At BLM's target population levels, 70% of the herd areas will have less than 100 animals. Such populations will not be genetically viable over the long term.Wild horse and rescue groups estimate that Approximately 6000 to 14,000 wild horses will go to slaughter in the next twelve months.
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October 24th, 2014

10/24/2014

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LETS PRAY THAT THE HUMAN RACE NEVER ESCAPES FROM EARTH TO SPREAD ITS INIQUITY ELSEWHERE - C.S.LEWIS
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October 24th, 2014

10/24/2014

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From the December 2004 Idaho Observer:

28,000 wild horses to be executed by Bush

Critics say slaughter is payback for BLM grazing ranchers who supported president's reelection bid

by Greg Szymanski

Our Texas gun-slinging President now has his sights set on the symbol of the great American West, the wild mustang.

In a matter of days, he's set to pull the trigger and sign a little known bill, opening the slaughter house gates on 28,000 wild horses grazing on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property in California and other western states.

Animal rights critics said the "trigger-happy" President is expected to turn his back on the "cowboy's best friend" despite an 11th hour plea to stop the carnage.

The amendment to kill the horses slipped into an obscure federal appropriations bill sponsored by Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana), a friend to ranchers seeking more grazing land for cattle now used by wild horses.

Critics said the "hidden move" comes as pay back to meat packers as well, both groups making campaign contributions to President Bush and Sen. Burns.

Sen. Burns quietly added the amendment in an unrelated spending bill in hopes of gaining little attention from critical animal rights activists. The law removes all protection for wild horses over the age of 10 or that have failed to be adopted after three attempts.

Critics said the law will also lead younger horses to slaughter and is designed to wipe-out the entire wild horse herd, paving the way for open grazing for land-hungry cattle ranchers who view the horses as a nuisance.

"No one knew about this until the last minute. It was kept a secret for obvious reasons," said Jerry Finch, head of the Habitat for Horses, a nonprofit Texas horse rescue group. Don't turn your back on this President for one minute. He's now even going to shoot the horses in the back. This amendment means death by slaughter for tens of thousands of horses and a lot of profit for those who kill and transport the meat overseas.

"It's a sad reflection on our government process to know that one man can silently, by himself, order the death of so many horses."

Under the amendment, older horses, burros and those younger horses deemed not able to be adopted will be sold at auction then killed. The law overrides the longstanding 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which offered protection against this type of wholesale slaughter.

It clears the way for horses to be slaughtered at one of three United States equine slaughterhouses, two located in Texas. American horse meat is then sold to France, Italy, Belgium and Japan, where it is viewed as a delicacy.

Celia Bodington, a spokesman for the BLM, said the agency did not actively support the hidden legislation, but will support its ramifications if passed into law.

Animal rights groups across the board have voiced last minute opposition to the potential slaughter, including the Society for Animal Protective Legislation, the Animal Horse Defense Fund and the Human Rights Society.

"This provision was kept secret since it would never see the light of day otherwise," said Chris Hyde, an analyst for the Animal Protective Legislative group, referring to the fact that many legislators were completely unaware of its inclusion in the otherwise unrelated federal spending bill.

Trina Bellak of the American Horse Defense Fund said this sets the stage for a major battle with the environmentally unfriendly Bush Administration and Republican Congress.

"This is abominable, outrageous, disingenuous and unethical," said Bellak.

Sen. Burns, a rancher himself, denied allegations he is sponsoring the bill to help his rancher friends gain needed grazing land or to line the pockets of the meat packing industry.

"The amendment focuses on the proper management of horses and burros on public land," said Sen. Burns in defense of the bill's passage, adding horses are now living in poor conditions.

Critics said Sen. Burns statements should be categorically dismissed since his idea of proper horse management is to "kill them all off."

Despite mounting criticism, President Bush is expected to sign the amendment since he has failed to veto one piece of legislation during his first term and critics believe he will not suddenly change that pattern now.

http://proliberty.com/observer/20041211.htm

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October 24th, 2014

10/24/2014

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The "Burns Amendment" of 2004

10/23/2014

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Citation: Public Law 108-447
2004 H.R. 4818

In December 2004 Senator Conrad Burns from the state of Montana prepared what is widely known as “The Burns Amendment.” This bill was never introduced to Congress, never discussed or voted on. In fact few, if none, knew of its existence or insertion into this 3,000 page Omnibus Act. This bill amends Section 3 (16 USC §1331) of the original Act. It over turned 33 years of national policy on the care and management of free-roaming wild horses and burros by repealing the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of these animals that had been covered by law.

He did so by amending Section 3 of the Act that removed language which protected the horses and burros from commercial sale (slaughter). He added subsequent paragraphs that included such language as: “sale of excess animals,” “shall be sold if more than 10 years of age or been offered unsuccessfully for adoption three times,” “shall be made available for sale without limitation“and “any excess animals sold under this provision shall no longer be considered to be a free-roaming wild horses or burros for purposes of this Act.”

The Burns Amendment effectively allows the BLM, after rounding up free-roaming wild horses, to sell “without limitation” and placing them in jeopardy of commercial processing (slaughter) because once sold they are no longer under the protection of the Act.

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October 16th, 2014

10/16/2014

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BLM poised to eradicate last large wild horse herds in Wyoming US Congressman, Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), supports listing of wild horses as endangered speciesROCK SPRINGS  – The Cloud Foundation (TCF) with 280,000 followers, as well as numerous wild horse and animal advocacy groups, condemns the Bureau of Land Management’s scheduled roundup which will eliminate all wild horses on 1.2 million acre checkerboard land (alternating one mile square sections of private and public land for 20 miles on either side of Interstate 80) within the Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek Herd Management Areas (HMA).  The roundup of 946 wild horses is the first step in the planned total elimination of all wild horses in Great Divide Basin and Salt Wells Creek.

“Adobe Town, Salt Wells and Great Divide Basin are home to the largest free-roaming wild horse herds left in Wyoming,” states Carol Walker, renowned equine photographer and Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF) Board member. Walker has photographed the unique southwestern Wyoming herds for 10 years. “Genetic tests link the Adobe Town herd to horses re-introduced to the America’s by the Spanish in the 1500s. Great Divide Basin wild horses are descended from Calvary remounts,” she continues.  “To lose the wild horses in this vast landscape known by local residents as the ‘Big Empty’ would be to lose touch with our western history, heritage, and the untamed spirit of the West.”

The roundups, aimed at appeasing the powerful Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA), are in compliance with a Consent Decree between the BLM and RSGA, a back door deal allegedly encouraged by then-Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar. According to the Consent Decree the BLM agrees to zero out Divide Basin and Salt Wells, arguing that these unfenced wild lands allow mustangs to freely roam into private land in the checkerboard areas. Yet even in the Adobe Town HMA, which contains only a small portion of land within the checkerboard, the BLM intends to slash the herd by 100% leaving only 500 horses on over 400,000 acres of federal lands.

While BLM and RSGA contend that 1,912 wild horses overpopulate the 2.4 million acres within the HMA’s, TCF and WHFF research reveals that 356,222 cattle and 45,206 sheep graze the same lands under federally subsidized grazing leases. While cattle and sheep are not on the range year round like wild horses, the monthly average of 68,740 cattle and 10,741 sheep is staggering compared to fewer than 2,000 wild horses.  Livestock, not wild horses overpopulate and degrade the rangelands.

TCF and other advocate groups question the legality of BLM’s Decision to reduce herd levels far below Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs) set in their own Resource Management Plans, and without an Environmental Assessment as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

“Wild horse and burro herds and the federal lands on which they roam are under fire from those seeking to control land currently owned by the American public,” states Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of TCF.  Since 1971 wild horses and burros have lost over 20 million acres of habitat. 339 wild horse herds were designated for protection on western ranges when the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was passed. Today only 179 herds remain. 70% of the remaining herds are no longer genetically viable due to their small herd sizes. The intent of the forward thinking, environmentally sound and unanimously passed 1971 Act has been totally ignored by the agency charged with protecting wild horses and burros.

As recently as July 10, Utah Representative Chris Stewart introduced HR 5058, The Wild Horse Oversight Act of 2014 which, according to a Salt Lake Tribune article, “could allow states to sell wild horses to slaughter.”

“Apparently, Congressman Stewart is not satisfied with the sweetheart deal welfare ranchers have had for decades, in which they pay virtually nothing to run their cattle and sheep on land owned by the American public,”  Kathrens says. She also attributes the dire situation to BLM’s bungling of the Wild Horse and Burro Program. “BLM has turned their back on management practices that would allow for the animals to live out their lives in freedom, rather than languishing in costly holding pens and pastures.”

“Wild horses are between a rock and a hard place.  The BLM wants to eliminate them in Wyoming, and Utah Congressman Stewart wants states to have the authority to eliminate them on federal rangeland,” states Paula Todd King, TCF Director of Communications. “This is why The Cloud Foundation joined Friends of Animals in filing a Petition to List North American Wild Horses under the Endangered Species Act.”

“With the myriad of threats posed to the remaining wild horse herds in America, it is past time that we look to science to guide their management on our public lands,” states US Representative Raul Grijalva (AZ).  “I support The Cloud Foundation’s call for wild horses to be federally protected under the ESA.”

The ESA petition’s introduction states:

The primary threats to wild horses on federal public land are habitat loss, inadequate regulation, and excessive round-ups and removals. Overall, wild horses on federal public lands face the threat of extinction due to at least four factors identified in the ESA. First, habitat loss, particularly from cattle grazing, mining, energy exploration, and urban expansion, endangers the distinct population segment (“DPS”). Second, human utilization threatens the species, specifically removal and sterilization to reduce the population and allow commercial grazing. Third, existing regulatory mechanisms are inadequate to manage the threats that face wild horses and may, in fact, constitute an independent threat to their survival. Finally, other natural and manmade factors also threaten the continued existence of wild horses in the United States, including their artificially fragmented range and small population size. Thus, it is vital to the survival of this population segment of wild horses that it becomes federally protected under the ESA

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Appropriate Wild Horse Management Numbers

10/15/2014

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The US Forest Service considers these numbers to be viable???

Territory Horse Population
In general, the Heber Wild Horse Territory’s (HWHT’s) appropriate management
level (AML) of 28 to 35 horses will be managed so that after a gather
and re-release, 28 to 35 horses remain in the
Territory area. (19,700 acres) We will attempt to retain
herd composition of about 60 percent male and 40 percent female. Age distribution will
approximate 20 percent aged between 0 and 5 years old, 60 percent between six and
fifteen years old, and 20 percent sixteen years or older. An
example is to release four males and two females in the 16+ age class, 10 males and 6 females in the 6-15 year class, and an undetermined ratio of males to
females in the 0-5 year class depending on the sex of unweaned foals being released.

However....

A leader in the field of equine population genetics is Dr. Gus Cothran, Director of the Equine Blood Typing Research Laboratory at the University of Kentucky. In addition to blood and hair samples collected from horse breeds around the world, Dr. Cothran has been analyzing blood samples from U.S. wild horses. He has been studying the Pryor Mountain wild horse herd of southern Montana since 1991 as well as other wild horse herds on public lands in the West.

Dr. Cothran suggests that managing wild horses at low population levels leaves them vulnerable to a long range loss of genetic diversity. This is the same sort of problem which plagues endangered species around the world. But, just how small is too small? At what point do wild horse populations suffer the risk of irreparable genetic damage?

Based on his DNA analysis, Dr. Cothran now believes that the minimum wild horse and burro herd size is 150-200 animals. Within a herd this large, about 100 animals will be of breeding age. Of those 100, approximately 50 horses would comprise the genetic effective population size. These are the animals actually contributing their genes to the next generation. Dr. Cothran has stated that 50 is a minimum number. A higher number would decrease the chances for inbreeding.

(A number of variables such as an unbalanced sex ratio in favor of males would cause this minimum number to be revised upward. Unbalanced sex ratios with many more males than females occur on at least some of the wild horse and burro herd areas.)
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Save the Heber Wild HorsesĀ 

10/3/2014

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