Wednesday July 2, 2008, 6:56 pm
Please everyone time is short for speaking out and letting BLM know what you think of this. Please take a moment to send an email to them and tell them NO CULL.

BLM Online Feedback Form

Secretary of the Interior
US Department of the Interior
1849 C Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20240
E-Mail: webteam@ios.doi.gov

Director Kathleen Clarke
Bureau of Land Management
US Department of the Interior
1849 C Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20240
Fax: (202) 452-5124

Sample Letter:

Dear Sirs/Madame,
I am absolutely shocked and sickened to learn about BLM's roundup and eradication of wild horses. I am particularly outraged by images of baby foals - too young to run fast enough to escape their fate - bound by the feet and left to die in the blazing sun. This is beyond inhumane and needless.
Have you no shame? These innocent and majestic animals should not be persecuted and put to death in the most despicable ways, this is thoroughly indefensible in my opinion.

Please put a stop to this massacre at once. There are other viable solutions to herd management numbers-please explore them, please do not kill these horses. Below you will find an article that poses some very plausable -humane solutions, my hope is that it will touch one of you enough to care about the fate of these horses. Thank you for taking the time to read this email and any consideration you can give its content. Respectfully,

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 7:02 pm
I will use the sample letter and mail both tomorrow! This is outrageous and cruel behavior on the part of our 'government'. They need to worry about humans and let the wild animals alone!

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 7:11 pm
Fax just sent and e-mail sent to Debbie. Thank you so much for caring fr the horse's.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 7:47 pm
Thanks. Emails sent

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 8:22 pm
i got a different address it is

U.S. Bureau of Land Management,
Office of Public Affairs
1849 C Street, Room 406-LS
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: (202) 452-5125
Fax: (202) 452-5124

off site http://www.blm.gov/nhp/news/releases/pages/2001/pr011221_clarke.htm


email i got was woinfo@blm.gov

LETTERS SENT

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 8:51 pm
I tried to post a comment to this article earlier today but it didn't work for some reason. It really frustrated me. I got an e-mail alert to this from a yahoo anti horse slaughter group.

It makes me so angry!!!

Thanks for posting.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 8:55 pm
Sorry about the mix up folks. Alternate BLM contact e/addresses:

NI_webteam@blm.gov. or woinfo@blm.gov.

and the address for the feedback form is :

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/feedback.html

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 9:06 pm
A documentary if any one is interested "Saving the American Wild Horse."

The program airs 9 p.m. EST Monday on the Documentary Channel. Directed by James Kleinert, it's narrated by Peter Coyote and features Viggo Mortensen. Check your listings.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 10:35 pm
Thanks so much for posting this Debs, this is the part people need to add to your letter. This is truly disgusting, but leave it to our imbecile government to keep coming up with backwards solutions to sensitive issues. Sent complete letter to your e-mail and the one provided by Robin.

PLEASE ADD TO DEBS SAMPLE LETTER:
By Tony Dokoupil | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jul 1, 2008 | Updated: 6:12 p.m. ET Jul 1, 2008

After surviving the ice age, the industrial revolution and the slaughterhouse, America's wild horse population is facing a new threat: the U.S. government. The Bureau of Land Management announced this week that it is considering euthanizing wild horses to curb the population on the range and in federal holding facilities. There are an estimated 33,000 wild horses living in 10 Western states, and another 30,000 living in government corrals. The BLM is billing euthanasia as a way to cope with looming budget cuts, while still maintaining the mustang as a living symbol of the American West. But critics say that the herds have already been thinned to the edge of extinction with periodic roundups and auctions. A century ago, there were around 2 million wild horses roaming the West; now the BLM wants to cut that population to 27,000. In "Mustang," her new history of the wild horse in North America, Deanne Stillman explores why America is destroying the horse it rode in on. She spoke about the government's new proposal with NEWSWEEK's Tony Dokoupil. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: How surprised are you by this proposed alteration of federal policy?
Deanne Stillman: It's shocking. Then again, there's been a move to dismantle the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which enshrines mustangs as a protected symbol of freedom, since it passed in 1971. And the move is reaching its peak under the Bush administration. For the past eight years, the president has wrapped himself in the flag and now, three days before the Fourth of July, his administration announces plans to exterminate our greatest icon—the very horse we rode in on.

What are the biggest threats to the wild horse population?
I think it comes down to mismanagement. Study after government study, dating back to the Teddy Roosevelt administration, shows that it's livestock grazing that does the most damage to the range, not wild horses. You can't say that 20-something-thousand horses are doing more damage to the land than 4 million cows. Yet the Bureau of Land Management claims that wild horses are overrunning the West and that there is an "overpopulation" problem. It's simply not true. The only place there is an overpopulation problem is in government corrals—because the horses shouldn't have been removed from their home turf in such great numbers to begin with.

Then what's spurring the BLM to cut herd sizes?
There are a number of factors. The livestock lobby regards mustangs as pests, animals that steal food from cows, and since members of the lobby lease federal land for ranching, they pressure the BLM to curb the wild mustang population. There are also a lot of other things happening on public lands these days: increased oil and gas drilling, mineral leases, development. The BLM is supposed to determine how many wild horses as well as cows and sheep the range can support with range studies, but these are not always up to date. What this all comes back to is mismanagement: The fox is guarding the henhouse.

Historically, how has the BLM managed the mustang population?
Federal management of our wild horses has been plagued from the start. Over the years, there have been various disasters. The first one that I know of was in 1977, when about 200 wild horses in a government holding facility in Nevada died because agency personnel failed to clean out their corrals after a series of storms and the muck froze and the animals couldn't move. The horses were buried in mass graves and it was only when photos surfaced in newspapers that the story became known. There have been others since then. To be fair, many horses have been successfully placed through the government's adopt-a-horse program, making their way into partnerships with the right people. But now there are more horses in BLM pipelines than on the range, and they ought to be returned to their home turf, where they belong, rather than a trip to the gallows. Does this mean I am saying there should be no management of wild horse herds? No.

Where does the public stand on this issue?
People across the board—right wing, left wing—aren't happy about our stripping away the wild horse population and the American heritage that goes with it. We're a country that was born in the hoof sparks of Paul Revere's famous ride on a horse. The horse is our great icon of freedom and the open road, and that's why our greatest road-trip car is the Mustang, with the galloping pony on the grille, and that's why we drape horses with flags on July 4th and ride them down Main Street.

What explains America's strange relationship with the horse?
I think it's something very deep and primal. We love the wild but want to tame it. The lone survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn—that's how he was billed at the time, in 1876, on the country's bicentennial—was a horse named Comanche, described by the army as "our great silent witness" in his retirement citation. He had seen many terrible things and continued to do so, including the massacre at Wounded Knee, watching it from the pack train, even though he was no longer on active duty. And that's what these horses are. They are our witnesses. They've been on the front lines with us since day one; they know our deepest darkest secrets, and there's a part of us that can't take it.

What needs to be done?
I have a solution: The BLM keeps complaining about the "expense" of managing wild horses. Its annual budget of $39 million dollars is not much these days, but if money is really an issue for the agency, then the government should ask Americans to donate to the cause of preservation, and put a box at the end of IRS forms, just like they do with various other funds and even the presidential election, asking taxpayers to check off a box and the amount of the donation. It would raise hundreds of millions of dollars. After all, the wild horse is us.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 11:39 pm
When America went to war in WW1, there was not only men who answered the call! There were horses! Dogs too, but the horses are who I'm speaking of. There were roundups of wild horses that were broke to saddle and shipped to Europe to carry your Cavalry to win the war. Dogs ran messages back and forth, yet these brave animals are forgotten, because there are cattle grazing on "public" land. Since when does "public" mean cattlemen ONLY.

Thursday July 3, 2008, 1:36 am
Thanks for posting this and of course I am doing something about it!! But, please don't take this the wrong way (I admit to being a bit pedantic!) but these horses are feral, not wild and what's that about surviving the ice age?????? As their ancestry is partly the Iberian horse imposrted by the Spanish....................um???

Thursday July 3, 2008, 3:27 am
Horses are meant to be free with no interruption from humans!

Thursday July 3, 2008, 3:45 am
Here we go again:(
Greedy *@&*_+@%*#*

Thursday July 3, 2008, 3:46 am
Email sent, thank you Debbie

Thursday July 3, 2008, 5:12 am
I WAS TALKIN TO A FRIEND ON PHONE THIS WEEK OUTRAGOUS OPPS I'M SO SICK OF THIS

Thursday July 3, 2008, 6:10 am
Thank you - e-mails will be sent.

Thursday July 3, 2008, 9:30 am
Did anyone else receive this pathetic response?
Hello,

Thank you very much for your comments regarding the Bureau of Land
Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.

The Bureau of Land Management is facing a number of difficult challenges in
the National Wild Horse and Burro Program. Our goal in the West is to
manage healthy, free-roaming herds on healthy rangelands; however, it is
becoming increasingly difficult to do so.

Wild horses and burros in the West have virtually no natural predators and
their herd sizes can double about every four years. As a result, the agency
must remove thousands of animals from Western public rangelands each year
to ensure that herd sizes are consistent with the land’s capacity to
support them. As of June 2008, there are more than 30,000 wild horses and
burros that are fed and cared for at short-term and long-term holding
facilities. It is essential to keep the BLM’s wild horse and burro program
in balance. Right now, the cost of keeping these animals in holding
facilities is spiraling out of control and preventing the agency from
successfully managing other parts of the program. For example, this fiscal
year, holding costs will exceed $26 million, more than three-fourths of the
BLM’s congressional appropriation of about $37 million for this program.

In addition, rising energy prices have increased costs. In one year alone,
energy costs for transportation and feed have increased almost $4 million.
It is clear the agency cannot continue current removal and holding
practices under existing and projected budgets. Neither can the BLM allow
horses to multiply unchecked on the range without causing an environmental
disaster. That's why the BLM is exploring options to exercise its legal
authority to (1) sell older and certain other unadopted animals “without
limitation” to any willing buyers and (2) euthanize those wild horses and
burros for which no adoption demand exists. We know this is not a popular
option, but we are at a critical point where we must consider using the
legal authorities allowed us.

The BLM welcomes your input as we work to improve the program and the
welfare of the West’s wild horses and burros within our budget. For every
comment to be officially recorded we ask you to leave feedback on this
program, please go to:

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro/feedback.html

or call 1-800-710-7597.

Thank you again for your participation!

Thursday July 3, 2008, 10:23 am
Why is it that these people's first response is always to kill something when it doesn't fit in with what they want. Same treatment that was given to the Native Americans when they were in the way....lets just kill them if they will not move. If it can be done to people then nothing stands a chance.....the mentality of many in this Country has not changed....I've written...hope someone in power listens. My prayers for these beautiful four leggeds.

Thursday July 3, 2008, 10:23 am
They come up with long paragraphs of utter nonsense, no facts only lies spread out so the twit who thinks writing it will put you off. Only it doesnt put us off.
We are not interested in lies only animal liberation nothing less. NO COMPROMISES, otherwise we are as bad as them.

Thursday July 3, 2008, 11:56 am
Every body please keep writing the Senators of these states Montana and the BLM people etc etc...the BLM are dead set on making a move towards their actions BEFORE this administration is up! Including new round ups to reduce the herds even smaller like 90-120 horses!!!

http://www.lovellchronicle.com/Read/AllStories/tabid/754/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1026/A-new-plan-for-the-wild-mustangs.aspx#Comments

Thursday July 3, 2008, 3:24 pm
THANK YOU DEBBIE FOR THIS STORY--I HAVE PUT OUT SEVERAL AND PETITIONS-TRYING TO HELP SAVE THE REMAINING WILD HORSES--SLAUGHTER/ROUND-UP STARTS THIS MONTH! HERE IS SOME EXCELLENT INFO. ON WHAT THE BLM IS REALLY DOING WITH THE HORSES:

http://www.igha.org/BLM.html

Thursday July 3, 2008, 3:29 pm


here is another petition to sign as well for the wild horses.....


http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/death-considered-option-to-control-mustang-herds

Thursday July 3, 2008, 11:21 pm
Ceci M. That is their PP (Piss Poor) excuse letter.
I can give you links that show it's the cattle ranchers who back these killing because they are grazing their cattle on government land and getting away with it.

http://www.wasteofthewest.com/

http://www.thebeckoning.com/environment/cattle/grazing.html

Thursday July 3, 2008, 11:23 pm
Kathy,

Thank you for writing me with your opinions on horse slaughtering. I
will be attending NCSL this year, but it is my understanding that the
resolution will not be brought up for a vote. I am certainly opposed to
animal cruelty and want to ensure that necessary and reasonable
precautions are taken to prevent animal cruelty. I will keep your
opinion in mind if this issue is again brought to my attention. If I may
ever be of service in the future, please feel free to contact me or my
Legislative Assistant, Nicholas Carson, with the information provided
below.

Sincerely,
Sheila Klinker
State Representative
District 27



Nicholas Carson

Legislative Assistant

Representative Sheila Klinker

Representative Joe Micon



200 West Washington Street

Indianapolis, IN 46204

317-232-0366

ncarson@iga.in.gov


-----Original Message-----
From: kchadwelll@aol.com [mailto:kchadwelll@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 6:07 PM
To: h27@IN.gov
Subject: Please oppose horse slaughter!



Representative Sheila Klinker
Indiana House of Representatives
200 West Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2728

Dear Representative Klinker,

Legislators are expected to introduce a pro-horse slaughter
resolution at the National Conference of State Legislators this
summer. I hope I can count on you to oppose this resolution.

Having failed to convince the American public or a majority of
Congress that horse slaughter is a form of humane euthanasia or
a responsible means of horse disposal for horse owners, the
horse slaughter lobby has begun using a new tactic. Dramatic and
unsubstantiated public statements have been made about the
number of horses that are now being turned loose or abandoned,
due supposedly to the lack of slaughter as a means available to
horse owners for disposing of animals for which they no longer
have a use, or are able to feed. These stories fail to account
for the fact that the export of horses for slaughter has
remained a legal option and an equivalent number of horses are
going to slaughter so far in 2008. I pray you watch how this
atrocity is committed before you ever vote to allow anymore
slaughter of these majestic creatures and please stop them from
transporting these souls to slaughter in other Countries. I
can't sleep knowing the truth.
GodSpeed


Sincerely,
Kathy Chadwell

Friday July 4, 2008, 6:13 am
Please take a moment to urge PBS to run the story of cloud and his family before 7-11 deadline-we need help to save Our Wild Horses, please do all you can.
Here is the link folks-please leave comment:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/uncategorized/welcome-to-the-new-nature-web-site/446/#comment-257

Friday July 4, 2008, 6:35 am
Thank you Debbie. Kathy C. sent it to me and I just commented and sent out an alert on Care2. I will cross post now.

Friday July 4, 2008, 7:11 am
An UpDate!


Crossposted by:Judy Mayes for Charise DeMao
TO:all


Friends,this is a report on all the info that I have been getting
from Cindy MacDonald(Las Vegas,NV) and wildlife ecologist,Craig
Downer who are right in the (Minden,NV)middle of this "war" that is
being waged against our wildhorses/burros(WH&B's).Much of my research
is complied from Cindy's and Craig's reports that were just
presented b4 the WH&B Advisory Board meeting in Reno.It is very
detailed and well thought out.What I am about to pass along to you
concerns the Wildhorses/Burros of the Sheldon Range and Jackson
Mountain Range but it really tells the story of the BLM(Bureau of
Land Management) and how they have "mismanaged ' all the wild
herds.This story is the same all over the West with our
wildhorses/burros (WH&B's). Sheldon has been moving horses off
the range and either killing them or pushing them thru the downed
fences on to BLM land that adjoins the refuge on all sides.(Sheldon
Range is approx.1/2 million acres).This is why we think that BLM in
Nevada is pushing so hard to do their gathers.They were "supposedly"
1200 horses left on the refuge.They were proposing to have them
totally removed by the end of the year.FWS(Fish&Wildlife Services)
want the horses off the Refuge so the big game hunters will spend $$$
to buy tags to hunt the big game on the Refuge.A way for the FWS and
the DOI(Dept.of Interior which oversees both the FWS & BLM)to make$$$.
The BLM wants to remove the horses so the cattlemen can lease the land
so they ,too can make$$$$$. The big lobbyists are the CATTLEMEN & BIG
GAME ASSOC.-they can "buy" and control what the DOI does.
Ex BLM special agent,Steve Sederwall maintained that BLM
routinely transferred wildhorses SECRETLY from 1 location to another
to prove "overpopulation" so they had an excuse to do a "gather" and
eradicate more horses.He quit in disgust after documenting extensive
abuses such as this covered up by BLM.He stated BLM would use this
technique to justify round-ups in a targeted area of both temporary
herds and the original wildhorse populations in order to cut the
original herds down to the quick!Note: BLM and FWS fail continually to
respond to questions about the missing population.Then, 6 months ago
"coincidently finds that 50% of Sheldon's population all of a sudden
comes up missing. At the same time-the exact # of WH&B's that are
missing from Sheldon are now the exact same# that appear at JACKSON
MOUTAIN RANGE HMA(herd management area).
BLM was using ineffective methods in counting herd
population.They lacked consistency &resulted in overinflating
populations. The publc requests that FWS&BLM publicly post complete
results of any new census surveys of WH&B's done on Sheldon Range
(since 2007)& future surveys.They need to provide both direct counts
of WH&B's population as well as full explanation of ANY TECHNIQUE used
to "adjust" the populations.Also post # of WH&B"s removed from refuge
during round-ups.
They need to continue to support the policy throughout the refuge
of NO LIVESTOCK grazing authorizations within the refuge.This allows
the land to "heal" from past abuses.
Craig Downer(wildlife ecologist)is an ex-employee of BLM.He quit in
disgust of their mismanagement of the system.In his report to the WH&B
Advisory Board he states over 98% of the reduced equine herd
management areas (HMA's)are grazed by livestock(based on current BLM
maps).He goes on to point out that while forage and water rarely seem
to be an issue for livestock and big game interests,these resources
are always portrayed as "too little"for the relatively tiny #'s of
our nation's remaining WH&B's.They are given a very small portion of
resources available within their legal herd areas & even in their
reduced HMA's!In some cases,this is as low as 10-20% and the rest is
given to the livestock/big game monopolies by state game agencies on
public lands.Sometimes livestock strips the most nutritious vegetation
in late spring/early summer-then the WH&B's/other wildllife get what
very little is left.Note:No federal official ever admits the fact that
WH&B"s are famous for being able to thrive on dry,flammable vegetation
and at the same time reducing the fire hazards.They are a valuable
part of our ecosystem!
BLM has justified WH&B removals based on humane concerns
associated with drought conditions-failing to concede that water
resources may be available to equine but inaccessable because
livestock fencing or because the biotic needs of equine were not
adequately considered when HMA boundaries were originally drawn.In
response to these concerns, the BLM has RARELY USED AUTHORITY to close
areas to livestock grazing to provide habitat,access to
water/protection for WH&B's.Instead they remove them to provide access
to more forage for private domestic livestock!WH&B's are CLEARLY BEING
VICTIMIZED & SET-UP for discreditation and practical elimination by
the very officials/agencies that are charged with their protection!
It's estimated that more than 4 million head/livestock & 3
million Big Game animals graze public land.WH&B's account for LESS
THAN 1/2 of 1% of large animals grazing public land.WH&B's are so
vastly outnumbered on federal rangelands by domestic livestock(even
reduced WH&B populations)therefore will NOT substantially reduce total
forage consumption.Note:BLM could NOT provide any info demonstrating
that federal rangeland conditions improved because of WH&B's removal.
From Cindy's report to WH&B Advisory Board -she states that
BLM/HSUS isn't providing any specific data on PZP(birth control
injection)and it's effects on herds that it has been used for approx.
last 6 years.Note:Cindy tells me that Ginger Katherines(from Pryor's
herd) has noted that older mares that stopped reproducing after
years of PZP use are now reproducing again.And younger mares not
foaling for many years. BLM reports populations are continuing to
reproduce normally a well as citing it ineffective (yet they still
keep using it).The concern now is that BLM is using PZP as an
eradication "tool" and NOT as a management "tool".Along with other
tools such as too low AML's,age manipulation structure,and now
gelding populations to support inevitable inbreeding and population
"crashes"until