tagged w/ Wild Mustangs
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Photo: Wild stallions spar in a holding pen during a roundup by the Bureau of Land Management east of Carson City, Nev. Federal land managers say tens of thousands of wild horses and burros roaming parts of 10 Western states are too numerous for the range to sustain. Credit: Debra Reid/AP
Nevada's wild mustangs: Officials reject philanthropist's sanctuary
January 21, 2011 | 8:55 pm
A proposal from the wife of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens to create a sanctuary in Nevada for wild horses removed from public rangeland around the West has been rejected, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said Friday.
Madeleine Pickens' plan wouldn't save taxpayers' money and doesn't include enough water and forage for the mustangs, agency Director Bob Abbey told The Associated Press. He said the BLM spent considerable time with Pickens on her proposal, and is committed to pursuing public-private partnerships to improve its management of the symbols of the West.
“However, despite numerous requests from the BLM, (her) foundation has not provided a formal and detailed proposal so that the BLM can properly analyze and determine its feasibility,” Abbey said.
Pickens said the BLM failed to clarify what details it wanted, but she was not giving up. She bought two ranches in northeastern Nevada last year to serve as a sanctuary for mustangs captured from the range, instead of in government-funded holding facilities.
“I'm going to keep working with the BLM,” she told the AP. “It's like your children. You just have to keep working with them until they get it right. To me, it's sad we don't have the leadership to fix the issue of these poor American mustangs.”
Pickens first proposed establishing the sanctuary in 2008 after the BLM said it was considering euthanasia as a way to stem escalating costs of keeping animals gathered from the open range.The BLM rejected her initial proposal, saying it involved the use of public land where wild horses did not exist when the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was enacted in 1971.
While Pickens' latest proposal addresses that issue, Abbey said it would require an environmental analysis to transfer title of wild horses to her and change the class of livestock authorized on several Nevada grazing allotments from cattle to horses.
Among other reasons, existing law also would need to be changed to give the BLM the authority to reimburse a private party for grazing wild horses, he said.
Under Pickens' latest proposal, a nonprofit foundation would care for the animals with a government stipend of $500 a head,per year. Abbey said that exceeds the BLM's existing long-term holding cost of $475 a head, per year, in Midwest pastures. “Her prospectus, as presented, does not demonstrate an obvious cost savings to the American taxpayer,” he said.
But Pickens said her proposal would result in “huge savings” because it would involve the government initially turning over 1,000 wild horses in short-term holding facilities where costs run $2,500 a head, per year.
Eventually, Pickens wants to return all horses in government-funded holding facilities to natural habitat elsewhere after purchasing more property. “I don't think the BLM quite grasps that our country is in a financial emergency,” she said. “You can't keep spending the money they do to put horses in holding. They have a program that doesn't work, and they're trying to save face.”
Last year, Pickens purchased the 14,000-acre Spruce Ranch and the adjoining 4,000-acre Warm Creek Ranch to serve as a horse sanctuary. The Elko County ranches, which she renamed the Mustang Monument preserve, come with grazing rights on roughly 564,000 acres of public land.
Abbey also criticized Pickens' media campaign supporting the sanctuary, saying some of the information requires clarification and context, and that other information is “just plain false.” Pickens defended her statements.
The BLM rounds up wild horses to limit their numbers, saying it is done to protect the herds, rangelands and wildlife. Activists maintain they are being conducted to appease ranchers and make room for cows.
About 33,700 wild horses roam freely in 10 Western states, about half in Nevada. The BLM set a target level of 26,600 horses and burros in the wild, and removed 10,637 of the animals from the range in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
Of the $63.9 million designated for the BLM's wild horse and burro program in the last fiscal year, holding costs totaled about $37 million.More than 40,000 horses are in government-funded holding facilities, BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said.
-- Martin Griffith/Associated Press
Photo: Wild stallions spar in a holding pen during a roundup by the Bureau of Land Management east of Carson City, Nev. Federal land managers say tens of thousands of wild horses and burros roaming parts of 10 Western states are too numerous for the range to sustain. Credit: Debra Reid/APPhoto: Wild stallions spar in a holding pen during a roundup by the Bureau of Land... more
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If you are new to the slaughter issue, let me just give you a quick rundown. Horses are routinely bought and sold at livestock auctions by the pound. Once purchased they are loaded onto crowded livestock trailers and shipped to either Canada or Mexico, a long distance without food or water.
Many of the horses will suffer terrible injuries along the way but will not be treated. Some will fall down in the trailers and be trampled by the others. Some will die before they arrive at the slaughter yard.
IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE - DO NOT READ THE NEXT PARAGRAPH
When they arrive they are unloaded and herded single file through a slippery chute system. The floor is slippery from urine, feces and blood. The terrified horses, one at a time, are pushed into the "kill" chute. This is where a man with a hydraulic retracting gun will try to shoot the horse in a very small spot between the ears stunning the horse and causing it to fall down incapacitated. Because horses have a high fear factor and thrash around trying to escape, it often takes the shooter several applications before the 4 inch spike hits the right spot. The gun is not meant to kill the horse, only stun it so it won't fight when they hoist it up by one leg and dismember it while its beating heart bleeds out from it's sliced open neck still very much alive.
I'm sorry that I have to share the gruesome details with you...but if I don't how will you know how evil horse slaughter is, and how necessary it is to fight against it.
And how we must try to save as many horses as we can from suffering that cruel fate. http://www.wildmustangcoalition.org/id15.htmlIf you are new to the slaughter issue, let me just give you a quick rundown. Horses... more
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Virgil 'Red Cloud' Goode Ties an Eagle Feather on Wild Mustang, Prairie Lonesome
Produced in association by Institute of Range and the American Mustang
and PK Productions LLC
Filmed/Edited by: Christopher Crosby
Traditional Lakota Spiritualist and Singer, Virgil Red Cloud Goode describes his mission of putting an Eagle Feather on all the Wild Mustangs at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, in South Dakota. Virgil is a Sun Dancer and the Red Cloud family is very active in this annual Sun Dance at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary South Dakota.
http:/www.wildmustangs.com
All Rights Reserved
a musicseenPROduction
2010Virgil 'Red Cloud' Goode Ties an Eagle Feather on Wild Mustang, Prairie... more
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I.R.A.M. Sponsor Mustang, Champagne Lady
Words by Dayton O. Hyde
Narrated by Martin Meyer
Flute music written and performed by Windwalker, Wind Spirit Drum
From Imagine A Place Sponsor Mustangs DVD
Director | Editor - Christopher Crosby
Producers - Karla LaRive and Susan Watt
"When I first saw the Champagne filly she was a jug bellied little orphan whose old and weak mother had been killed by a mountain lion. My friend Susan saw her first and came running to tell me she had seen a strange yellow mustard baby with green eyes. We brought this little animal in to the corrals, where we happened to have a wild mare that had lost her foal. Champagne Lady lost no time in finding the mares source of milk, stubbornly ignoring the mares kicks, until the old mustang mare gave up and let her suck. Generally, I let wild horses be wild, but because her champagne color made the filly a genetic rarity, we kept her in the corrals with her foster mother until the little ladys coat shone with health and she had caught up in size with the other foals.
She is mature now and is as beautiful as any animal in the herd. Often I see Champagne Lady running wild across the prairie, able to leave her friends in the dust. In those moments it seems inconceivable that she would let me stroke her glistening neck and even scratch her ears. But when I come bumping and rattling across the prairie in my old pick-up truck and call her name, she leaves the rest of the herd behind to gallop to me, putting her head in the open window on the truck to search my pockets for shards of grain. One day soon she will have a baby of her own, and we hope and pray that she will give us another little champagne foal...." Dayton O. Hyde, Founder
http://www.wildmustangs.com/
http://www.windspiritdrum.com/I.R.A.M. Sponsor Mustang, Champagne Lady
Words by Dayton O. Hyde
Narrated by... more
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I.R.A.M. Sponsor Mustang, Painted Desert
Words by Dayton O. Hyde
Narrated by Martin Meyer
Music written and performed by Martin Meyer and Windwalker (Wind Spirit Drum)
From Imagine A Place Sponsor Mustangs DVD
Director/Editor - Christopher Crosby
Producers - Karla LaRive and Susan Watt
"In order to limit the numbers of foals that are born to the wild herd, and thus having too many horses and too little grass, we take the stallions in to winter in special pastures where they become accustomed to humans. It is important that we halter-break each stallion so that they can be caught up on the range and led away from the mares. We never have to worry about Painted Desert. In the Spring, a month before the breeding season, he can be seen pacing the fence of the stallion pasture, wanting to get back with the girls. In the fall he is worn out with activity and comes in on his own, begging to be given a vacation.
He is a kind and gentle animal who can be fierce with rival stallions but is apt to stick his head in the door of a tour bus to greet the people. He looks at every face as though trying to locate someone he recognizes. Painted Desert, with his sorrel and white coat is a beautiful animal and his foals are much in demand by those who take the tour and see them..." Dayton O. Hyde, Founder
http://wildmustangs.com/
http://www.greatsky.com/I.R.A.M. Sponsor Mustang, Painted Desert
Words by Dayton O. Hyde
Narrated by... more
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I.R.A.M. Sponsor Mustang, Painted Desert
Words by Dayton O. Hyde
Narrated by Martin Meyer
Music written and performed by Martin Meyer and Windwalker (Wind Spirit Drum)
From Imagine A Place Sponsor Mustangs DVD
Director/Editor - Christopher Crosby
Producers - Karla LaRive and Susan Watt
"In order to limit the numbers of foals that are born to the wild herd, and thus having too many horses and too little grass, we take the stallions in to winter in special pastures where they become accustomed to humans. It is important that we halter-break each stallion so that they can be caught up on the range and led away from the mares. We never have to worry about Painted Desert. In the Spring, a month before the breeding season, he can be seen pacing the fence of the stallion pasture, wanting to get back with the girls. In the fall he is worn out with activity and comes in on his own, begging to be given a vacation.
He is a kind and gentle animal who can be fierce with rival stallions but is apt to stick his head in the door of a tour bus to greet the people. He looks at every face as though trying to locate someone he recognizes. Painted Desert, with his sorrel and white coat is a beautiful animal and his foals are much in demand by those who take the tour and see them..." Dayton O. Hyde, Founder
http://wildmustangs.com/
http://www.greatsky.com/I.R.A.M. Sponsor Mustang, Painted Desert
Words by Dayton O. Hyde
Narrated by... more
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I.R.A.M. Sponsor Mustang, Ghost Dancer's Shadow
Words by Dayton O. Hyde
Narrated by Martin Meyer
Flute music written and performed by Windwalker, Wind Spirit Drum
From Imagine A Place Sponsor Mustangs DVD
Director | Editor - Christopher Crosby
Producers - Karla LaRive and Susan Watt
"Up on the high reaches of the Sanctuary, summer winds are a constant, sending light clouds scudding across the sky, and their shadows racing across mountain meadows. This land was one of the Sanctuarys original BLM mares Ghost Dancers domain and is where we are most likely to find her daughter.
Ghost Dancers Shadow, a dun and white paint born on the open range, is as shy and elusive as her mother. Scan the groups of wild horses grazing those high prairies and you are likely to see one animal standing on the edge of the herd watching your every move. No eagle soars about the rimrocks, no coyote slinks through the tall grasses in search of cottontails, no prairie dogs bark warning of approaching danger, without Shadow being aware of all happenings. Like her mother Shadow hates to be looked at. One has only to glance at her and she seems to feel your gaze. Her snort of fear is a thunderclap sending her band into instant flight. It is this wildness inherent in her genes that has protected wild horses from danger throughout the centuries..." Dayton O. Hyde, Founder
http://www.wildmustangs.com/
http://www.windspiritdrum.com/I.R.A.M. Sponsor Mustang, Ghost Dancer's Shadow
Words by Dayton O. Hyde... more
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I.R.A.M. Sponsor Mustang Prairie Lonesome
Words by Dayton O. Hyde
Narrated by Martin Meyer
Music written and performed by Martin Meyer
From Imagine A Place Sponsor Mustangs DVD
Directed/Edited by Christopher Crosby
Producers, Karla LaRive and Susan Watt
"Once last year I heard the thunder of a hundred hooves, saw summer dust billowing above the pines as wild horses raced each other for first place at the water hole along the Cheyenne River. I watched them from a grove of giant cottonwoods and was glad for their freedom here on the sanctuary.
For an instant, however, I froze. Prairie Lark, who usually led them was not to be seen. Fearing the worst, I hurried up the ridge looking for the old blue roan mare who had been one of my favorites.
Suddenly, I saw movement-the flick of a horses tail against a pester of flies. Prairie Lark stood in the shade of a giant juniper, and stretched out at her feet was a lovely black and white foal, It was my first glimpse of the pretty filly we now call Prairie Lonesome. The old mare nudged the baby to its feet and with wobbly uncertain legs it chased after its mother. Prairie Lonesome is now four years old and is one of the handful of horses we designate as sponsorship horses. . . . " Dayton O. Hyde
http://www.wildmustangs.comI.R.A.M. Sponsor Mustang Prairie Lonesome
Words by Dayton O. Hyde
Narrated by... more
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By SCOTT SONNER (AP) – 15 hours ago
RENO, Nev. — A federal appeals court on Tuesday cleared the way for the roundup of more than 2,000 wild horses in California and Nevada, rejecting critics' claims that the free-roaming mustangs have a legal right to remain on the range.
In an after-hours order, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused to grant an emergency stay sought by animal rights groups ahead of the scheduled roundup Wednesday.
The order came as lawyers for the Obama administration mounted their most vigorous defense to date for rounding up wild horses in the West, arguing in court filings that leaving the overpopulated herds on public rangeland would do the mustangs more harm than good.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jMTnDwrTwTRtYPwVG3GCYwf_Yu-QD9HH01I01By SCOTT SONNER (AP) – 15 hours ago
RENO, Nev. — A federal appeals... more
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As the Bureau of Land Management captures wild mustangs and prepares them for slaughter, our western heritage is at risk.
An alternative to slaughter is adoption. And now is the time to adopt a wild mustang if you can.As the Bureau of Land Management captures wild mustangs and prepares them for... more
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Thousands of wild mustangs kept in U.S. government holding pens may have to be killed as costs escalate for their upkeep, according to a new federal report released this week.
The report, issued by the Government Accountability Office—the watchdog agency for the U.S. Congress—examined long-term options for successfully managing unadoptable horses.
About 30,000 animals removed from western rangelands are currently being cared for by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM)'s Wild Horse and Burro Program.
This year, with adoptions dwindling and hay prices rising, holding costs are expected to exceed U.S. $27 million, or about 74 percent of the program's budget.
This level of funding is not enough to control wild populations while keeping older, unadopted animals alive, BLM officials said.
(Related: "Horses Suffer, Owners Struggle With Soaring Feed Prices" [September 8, 2008].)
The report comes at a critical time: A decision regarding the fate of thousands of mustangs is expected on Monday when BLM's National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meets in Reno, Nevada.Thousands of wild mustangs kept in U.S. government holding pens may have to be killed... more
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Actress and activist, Persia White talks about wild U.S. horses being slaughtered for meat and what she and the Humane Society are doing to try to prevent it.Actress and activist, Persia White talks about wild U.S. horses being slaughtered for... more
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