Wild Horses Removed Needlessly For What?

The following article was recently posted here on care2 from horsetalk.com.nz  - The Bureau of Land Management is needlessly rounding up close to 2700 Wild Horse and shipping them off of the only lands they have ever known to be trapped on a holding outside of Fallon Nevada. That is approximately 80% of the total population. The amount of time that these beautiful mustangs must stay in this facility is undetermined. According to the Bureau they are doing this "because they are trying to preserve the"delicate range land" and they are starving" - or might.Supposedly this facility was to assure these animals better conditions.Once you read this first hand report, We/I the undersigned request that this 8 week operation be halted immediately, and those wild horse be returned to the lands that they originally lived upon. There was no reason for there removal. And this is/was another senseless act of cruelty and a waste of tax payers dollars.
Please read the following report .......
Sight of wild horses leaving "gut-wrenching"January 21, 2010

Pictures from the Calico Mountains Wild Horse Gather on December 29, showing a 20-plus-year-old bay mare. The BLM said the decision to euthanize the mare was made 'as an act of mercy was made by the BLM horse specialists in consultation with the onsite US Deptartment of Agriculture veterinarian'. %uFFFD BLM

 

Wild horse campaigner Madeleine Pickens has described her tour of the Calico muster in northern Nevada, describing as gut-wrenching the sight of horses leaving the home they had known all their lives.

The Bureau of Land Management is undertaking an eight-week operation to remove up to 2700 horses from five herd management areas - some 80 per cent of the horses known to inhabit the area.

The muster has sparked anger among horse advocates, who have labelled it unnecessary and cruel. The bureau says the muster is necessary to maintain the health of the delicate rangeland.

Pickens, who has been promoting her own plan to manage the estimated 27,000 mustangs remaining in the wild, joined the crew of ABC's Good Morning America for a tour of the Calico Complex on January 14.

She said she observed her first wild horse roundup.

"On a spectacular day in an area so picturesque it took our breath away, I watched as 51 wild horses were herded by helicopter into corrals and loaded on trucks, taken away from the only life and land they have ever known.

"As I watched, I saw wild horses peering out the back of the trailers looking back at the peaceful and beautiful mountains they would never see again and the feeling was gut-wrenching," she said.

"The bureau briefing before the gather was full of stock lines we all have grown accustomed to: 'the horses are starving up here in this wonderful country and we are doing them a favour to gather them and take them to holding areas where they will have better conditions'.

"Most of the wild horses we observed were in good condition and the sight of an undernourished horse was rare, and though the bureau admitted that many were in good condition now, they said they still had to gather them in case something changed later in the year.

"The previous day I had a guided tour of the newly constructed wild horse holding facility in Fallon, Nevada.

"This is where all the wild horses being gathered in the Calico Complex will be held for an undetermined number of months or years.

"This facility stands by itself on the outskirts of Fallon with no windbreaks, overhead protection or other means for the wild horses to avoid the harshness of the winter months or the brutal heat of summer, and many of them will certainly be there during both the winter and summer.

"While traveling out to the gather, we observed two trucks that passed us on the rough access road and witnessed one horse in the trailer down on its side. When we advised the bureau that we were pretty certain that a horse had fallen and could potentially be trampled, the response was, yes, it happens once in awhile.

"Perhaps by not loading the trucks with so many horses such incidents could be avoided. But, of course, these gathers are all about expediency."

Pickens said while the bureau had all the canned answers down pat, there remained so many compelling questions about appropriate numbers of wild horses on the range, the lack of accounting of the acreage that has been taken away from the wild horses over the years, the issues of excess wild horses and where they will go and how taxpayers will pay to feed them.

"None of the bureau answers speak to those questions in any meaningful way. The bureau presents the argument in such a way that it looks like it is just a matter of removing thousands of wild horses for the good of the horses.

"Advocates across America must raise their voices in unison to let the bureau, Congress and the Obama Administration know that this is not simply a numbers game.

"The very survival of America's wild horses is at stake and putting it into any other context is clouding and distorting the facts.

"The history of our involvement in protecting certain species in this country tells us that we don't stop until they are totally gone."

"For those of you who have been on a wild horse gather, you can relate to the sense of loss and despair one feels when these wild horses are led unknowing into a trap and loaded on a trailer and taken away from their homes forever. And for those that have not seen it firsthand, we know that you share our sense of despair as this great American resource is taken off OUR public lands, never to return to the glory of life that has characterised their existence."

Pickens, the wife of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, urged horse supporters to write or call their Congressman or the Obama Administration to "tell them enough is enough".

"There is still time to save and protect the magnificent wild horses of the West. Please get involved now for the sake of our wild horses," she said.

 

Once again, we/I beg that you take immediate action to save these magnificent animals. Thank you for taking the time to address this situation.