Help the Homeless Animals! [Archive]

ladybug5

03-02-2010, 04:53 PM

Also, please write to Feinstein..
Here is a sample letter...
Thanks, Jody

February 23, 2010

The Honorable Diane Feinstein

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Diane Feinstein,

Please stop the BLM from continuing the destructive policies of rounding up thousands of healthy wild horses and placing them in holding facilities. It is vital that our government discontinue funding this destructive activity. The BLM has failed to consider managing the horses as per the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971 in self-sustaining herds on their legally designated lands in the American west. The law granted protection in their existing numbers and existing herd areas. The cost of their management would decrease by tens of millions of tax dollars by returning wild horses to their ranges and stopping the removal of 12,000 horses and burros in this fiscal year alone. Older animals taken off the range are offered for unconditional sale as per the Burns Amendment. No one knows how many go to slaughter but the BLM does little to prevent this. The safest place for them is on the range—and this is also the cheapest. The US taxpayers would save millions paying legitimate family ranchers not to graze their cattle on public lands and allow for horses to use the lands that are legally and “principally” set aside for their use.

The BLM is spending over $32 million on roundups in this fiscal year 2009-2010—all of the extra appropriated funds are going to the destruction of the last of our wild herds—not to improved management. Please do not allow more of the same in 2010-2011. The BLM is only adding to the problems they’ve created by having more horses in holding that are living on the public lands. Future appropriations should be made with the stipulation that all funds go to range improvements and returning lands that have been taken away from these horses. For Congress to support the spending of $32 million on roundups of over 14,000 horses and burros and then require the feed, corrals and pastures to keep the likely 9000 horses and burros (less perhaps 3,000 adopted) on government welfare after being illegally removed from their ranges is an insane policy. This policy of mass removals of wild horses is detrimental to the public interest and a huge waste of taxpayer money.

The BLM is mismanaging an American Icon. Independent analysis of BLMs own numbers indicate there are only between 10,000 and 15,000 wild horses left on the range. BLM has failed to answer to the GAO which called for them to establish standards for deciding on Appropriate Management Levels for all the herds. Additional, BLM has taken away over 20 million acres from the WH&B since 1971 and continues bush-era levels of removals while livestock outnumber wild horses over 100:1 and even 200:1 on our public lands. One of the stipulations found in the original law is that, “All management activities shall be at the minimal feasible level…” Instituting an actual minimal feasible level of management activities would be the most cost cutting of all and would allow the free laws of nature back into the equation. Wild horses and burros can and do find their niche within the ecosystems that they inhabit like all other wildlife. This would be further supported if we were to end the intentional killing of bears, wild cats, coyotes and wolves by our government’s “Wildlife Service,” another huge saving of tax dollars.

Wild horses are given scant access to their 34 million acres of “herd management areas” on federal lands while private livestock (cattle and sheep) occupy the bulk of grazing lands across the country. BLM cannot be allowed to enforce low population numbers (AMLs) on wild mustangs and burros while cattle are permitted to monopolize those areas aka HMAs! Congress and BLM must resist the demands of public land permittees and corporate cattle interests whose main intention is to eliminate wild horses from their home ranges. Besides the 200+ million acres of federal lands, cattle are also grazed on over 37 million acres of state lands. America’s wild horses get no state lands, nor are they allowed any habitat in national parks or wildlife refuges, while cattle graze in 31 national parks, 36 reclamation projects and 94 wildlife refuges! In general we need to allow the intrinsic capability of these herds to self stabilize through a hands-off policy except when extreme emergencies call for intervention.

According to a report published by The Cato Institute in 1995, which presented an extensive analysis of the federal governments livestock grazing permit program, market forces
suggest that the highest and best use of public lands is not producing red meat and that red meat is abundant and priced low and will remain so irrespective of federal range contributions…They have not examined the ecological implications of the grazing permit system, the institutional flaws that promote poor stewardship, the subsidies that reward bad management, and the market intrusions that lead to undesirable land use outcomes. Instead they have facilitated degradation of public lands…

One of the reforms they suggest to “move land uses more quickly and thoroughly in the directions demanded by an environmentally aware and recreationally active public” and to “foster new sustainable uses of public lands--uses that stress wildlife and wilderness experience.” Cato recommended
Marketable Grazing Permits; Grazing permits should be marketable to people other than ranchers and for uses other than raising livestock. To that end, all statutory requirements that restrict grazing allotment to domestic livestock production should be eliminated and regulations that either constrain or penalize grazing nonuse should be abolished…Ranchers should be free to destock their public-land ranges, and environmentalists, sportspeople, and community groups should be free to buy grazing permits from willing stockmen for wilderness protection, wildlife refuges, and outdoor recreation. All permit holders should pay fees and assume costs sufficient to make the range programs of the BLM and the Forest Service fiscally sound.

The late Nancy Whittaker, who was associated with the Animal Protection Institute, proposed that the government issue “conservation permits” instead of grazing permits for the legal wild horse/burro herd areas, thus ultimately freeing their legal herd areas from competing livestock. These permits would be made available to the public, allowing citizens to take some ownership in supporting America’s wild horse/burro herds. What many ecologists and wild horse advocates recommend is a plan in which the larger herd areas/reserves contain appropriate habitat of sufficient size to support long-term viable wild horse or burro populations of around 1,000 interbreeding individuals.

The following policies should be adopted.

1) With tens of thousands of wild horses now in holding facilities, all gathers should be halted until an accurate count of ALL corralled horses is completed and a plan is in place that supports a humane result for all of the wild horses currently in holding facilities. An independent fact-finding group should obtain and make available for public record, objective counts of horses that are now in government short and long term holding.

2) Congress or DOI needs to put forth guidelines on gather policies which minimize the negative impacts of gathers on the wild horses to reduce mortalities and injuries to these animals. At the very least, horses who are over 10 years old and are still healthy should be left on the range. They have no adoption potential and it’s a lot cheaper for the taxpayer. Bands with young foals should be left alone, as these gathers are just too dangerous for them. We have seen how many foals have suffered and died as a result of these gathers.

3) Congress needs to take a stand against the zeroing out of the wild horses HMAs. (Public Law 92-195 - 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. (Sec 1) The law also states that these ranges or areas are to be: devoted principally but not necessarily exclusively to their welfare in keeping with the multiple-use management concept for the public lands. The removal of all wild horses from their legally protected areas is completely illegal and needs to be condemned. The multiple-use mandate of these lands is not supposed to exclude them and this is law. The Wild Horse and Burro Program budget needs to focus on improving upon the wild horse herd area acreage, by reducing livestock grazing in the herd areas and herd management areas through the employment of CRF4710.5 and .6, also known as “closure to livestock.

4) Encourage transparency and responsibility to the public by making accommodations for responsible observers from the public sector to see and report on gather activities. One example is to offer them a spot atop a transport or water truck where observers who have an interest in humane treatment, can view the whole operation and also be out of the way so as not to bother the animals.

5) Encourage the Wild Horse and Burro Program to investigate other strategies for in-the-wild horse management such as controlled grazing to reduce the chance of wild fires by herding them to different areas that have a “fuel load.”

6) DOI should direct that all staff working directly with the horses have specialized training in natural horsemanship methods. Certain strategies have been proven useful in calming these animals and/or reducing their fear and anxiety during what is obviously a very stressful period in their lives.

7) The health and long term viability of the various herds should be a primary consideration for AML decisions. Statistics taken from BLMs website earlier this year show that the large scale roundups of the last several years has left approximately 60 of the original 303 Herd (Management) Areas with wild horse populations of 151 animals or greater. Therefore we need to increase the Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs) to reflect healthy long term viable populations.

8) DOI and BLM must honor the legal mandate to manage the public lands to achieve a “thriving natural ecological balance.” America’s wild horses, a reintroduced native species should have priority on our public lands over the millions of cows which are an introduced non-native species.

Regarding the legal mandate for determining excess horses, The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act states, “ For the purpose of furthering knowledge… and assisting him in making his determination as to what constitutes excess animals, the Secretary shall contract for a research study of such animals with such individuals independent of Federal and State government as may be recommended by the National Academy of Sciences for having scientific expertise and special knowledge of wild horse and burro protection, wildlife management and animal husbandry as related to rangeland management”.

In an opinion quoted from a 1982 National Academy of Sciences Report, the term “excess” is defined; “Biologically, the area may be able to support 500 cattle and 500 horses, and may be carrying them. But if the weight of public opinion calls for 1,000 horses, the area can be said in this context to have an excess of 500 cattle.

Finally, I want to thank you for your support and sponsorship of the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act to prohibit the transport, export, or sale of any horse to be slaughtered for human consumption. Horse slaughter is inhumane and currently many of our wild horses are on those truckloads heading to slaughter plants in Mexico and Canada. We are counting of you to help us have the best possible outcome.

Sincerely,

Slaughter of horses has been outlawed in the US, sparked by an overwhelming victory in California. This well meaning legislation has led to Horrific Auschwitz like transport for horses, and a horrific death across the boarders. (Mexico & Canada). There are no regulations in Mexico, horses are frequently dismembered before they are brain dead. These amazing animals are subjected to gruesome torture. Please stand with us against torture. We are focusing our rescue on healthy horses with the greatest potential for re-training/re-homing in for life homes. We have a youth at risk component which provides teens with the opportunity to build confidence, compassion, career & life skills. We want to continue expand the circle of people opposing torture, making better choices, and educating the horse and general public to address awareness and solutions to this problem. We are a volunteer organization, are cost effective, but food, transport, fencing, and farriers are real expenses. Our dream is to take advantage of a satellite pasture, which would take us out of crisis rescue, and save us approximately $800 a month. We need $2300 to fence & make this space ready for horses to run & graze, while having smaller spaces for horses for horses to be rehabilitated. Posting pictures of horses that we have rescued, are in the process of rescuing (need $600 to complete the rescue the lst horse up, he is a 5 year old, apparently sound horse, who was headed for auction on Monday), ones that we have re-trained & re-homed.

In the past week we have received emails from 5 different sources, all including multiple rescues for horses (and a donkey, mule & then the attached one that came along w. the ducks, ewes, goats & many more. Please help us help these homeless animals!

to donate, find more ways to help, or more about us, go to welltrainedhorses.com.
with gratitude. susan jan
ps we are not the polly klass foundation, but we can accept usable saleable trailers, cars, saddles, & need a 24 hp tractor, ideally w. a bucket, that runs.
changing the world in small ways today, in big ways in days to come