Call Off Deadly Wild Horse Round-up in Nevada
- par: Care2.com
- destinataire: Director Bob Abbey, Bureau of Land Management
North of Reno, Nev., about 2,300 wild horses roam the 800,000 acre Twin Peaks Herd Management Area. But if the Bureau of Land Management has its way, just a quarter of those horses will remain there by the end of the year.
BLM officials claim that the current horse population at Twin Peaks is causing "ongoing resource damage" and that the land can't support the horse population there today. The agency has proposed rounding up 1,800 horses in August and September of this year. Plus, most of the mares left on the Twin Peaks range will be sterilized for one to two years.
These inhumane round-ups frighten the horses, causing injuries and deaths. Legs are broken, and foals get separated from their mothers. In the BLM's most recent round-up in Nevada, at least 39 horses died. The agency left just 600 horses in an area that had supported close to 3,000.
The BLM is accepting comments until March 5 about its new proposal. Tell the agency to call off the round-up in Nevada and protect America's wild horses.
Dear Director Abbey,
I am writing today to urge you to call off the Bureau of Land Management's proposed round-up of 1,800 wild horses in the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area.
These round-ups are inhumane and needlessly kill and injure horses. They scare the animals, resulting in broken legs and the separation of foals from their mothers when the young can't keep up. Already, 39 horses have died in the BLM's Calico Mountain Complex round up in the one month before it was canceled.
Wild horses' range land has already been reduced by nearly 20 million acres in the last 40 years since the passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act in 1971, which granted them federal protection. Today, fewer than 30,000 wild horses roam free, while more than three million cattle graze on federal land, causing more "ongoing resource damage" than the horses.
The BLM must do its job to protect these "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West" as the 1971 law calls these important native animals -- not the interests of the cattle ranchers. I urge you to cancel the proposed round up in the Twins Peaks Herd Management Area.
Thank you for taking the time to consider my comments. I eagerly await your response.
