Help us Promote the Wild Horse Documentary "Mestengo"!

ReinFree Inc. (a 501(3)c dedicated to the preservation of the wild horses of America) is looking for someone (or a group of people) to step up to the plate and donate their time and energy to promote the documentary Mestengo. We need someone willing to contact the public-access TV channels and nation-wide film festivals and submit Mestengo for viewing. We need to get the message out! Time is running out for our wild horses of America! If you can help please email ReinFree. The word must get out, and you can help!

Even if you can help a little bit...every little bit helps!

Factsheet on BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Fertilit Control Program

Factsheet on BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Fertility Control Program
Updated as of June 5, 2009
The Bureau of Land Management has supported the development of an effective contraceptive agent for wild horses since 1978. The most promising agent is known as Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP), a fertility-control vaccine that was developed in the 1990s but is not commercially available.
PZP is used by the BLM under an investigational exemption issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that is held by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
A short-term, liquid form of conventional PZP, considered safe and highly effective, must be administered annually. However, it is not feasible to gather wild horse herds every year to administer this liquid vaccine; moreover, it is very difficult to approach most wild horses and burros on Western public rangelands closely enough to allow for injections by hand or darting.
Instead, the BLM has been using a 22-month, time-release pellet that must be administered to mares after they have been captured. This means more mares need to be captured and released than would normally be gathered and simply removed from the affected Herd Management Area.
Since 2004, the BLM has administered more than 2,000 doses of the pelleted form of PZP to wild horses in 52 Herd Management Areas. So far, the pelleted form appears to be safe, but it is unclear how effective it will be in controlling population growth rates when applied in the typical four- to five-year gather (round-up) cycle.
Early data from the Clan Alpine Herd Management Area in Nevada shows that untreated mares foaled at a rate of 54 percent, while mares treated with pelleted PZP foaled at a rate of six percent in the first year following treatment and 14 percent in the second year. More recent data from treatments using a different pelleted form of PZP at the McCullough Peaks Herd Management Area in Wyoming indicate somewhat lower efficacy, but a significant effect nonetheless (a 65 to 80 percent foaling rate in untreated mares as compared to a 30 to 40 percent foaling rate in treated mares).
These results are encouraging, but it remains challenging to demonstrate large impacts on overall population growth rates because of difficulties associated with capturing and treating enough mares, monitoring herd growth rates using aerial population estimates, and the factor of movements of horses between treated and untreated HMAs. Work to develop a longer-lasting agent and demonstrate its effects continues as the BLM applies fertility control on the range in an ongoing effort to suppress population growth rates.

Issue of Wild Horses being Feral is Moot!!

In 1971 Congress unanimously declared that “wild free roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West that enrich the lives of the American People” They were to be managed on their historic and native ranges. By operation of law they are wild life. (Supreme Court seminal case, Kleppe v. New Mexico) The often used “feral argument” is moot.. BLM settled the native/feral argument stating "The issue of a wild horse as an invasive species is moot since the 1971 WHBA gave wild free-roaming horses "special" status based on their heritage of assisting man settle the "west

As a prime example The Coyote Canyon Herd was sequestered for more than two centuries from other wild horse herds. As a result they evolved into a distinct population segment. This evolution meets the criteria of both state and federal statutes of endangered and threatened species. “Endangered” when its survival and reproduction in the wild are in immediate jeopardy from one or more causes, including loss of habitat, change in habitat, over exploitation, predation, competition, disease, or other factors; or “Rare” when either: Although not presently threatened with extinction, the species is existing in such small numbers throughout all or a significant portion of its range that it may become endangered if its environment worsens; or the species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range and may be considered “threatened” as that term is used in the Federal Endangered Species Act.(ESA) This mandates emergency designation of native habitat known as ACECs,

”

Documents Reveal BLM Secret Plan to Destroy Wild Horses!!

We Must Stop This!!!!!!

BLM gets more money to remove wild horses and burros than they do keeping them on the range even if they are only removed to be killed as stated below.

----- Original Message -----
From: "The Cloud Foundation" <news@thecloudfoundation.org>
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 11:05 AM
Subject: Wild Horses Press Release- Please Distribute


PRESS RELEASE
June 11, 2009- for immediate release


Documents Reveal BLM Secret Plan to Destroy Wild Horses

Documents obtained from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) via the Freedom
of Information Act by a Phoenix-based non-profit, The Conquistador Program,
reveal shocking and detailed plans to destroy healthy wild horses in
government holding facilities as well as those still remaining in the wild
on public lands.

BLM employees as well as a USDA veterinarian held weekly “Implementation
Team” meetings beginning in July of 2008 in which they discussed and
developed strategies aimed at ridding BLM of thousands of mustangs. In
October they completed a 68 page document entitled “Alternative Management
Options”. Tactics included in this document are reminiscent of those used to
wipe out Native American tribes in the 1800s.

The BLM team created scenarios for killing mustangs using barbiturates, gun
shots, or captive bolts. Bodies would be disposed of through rendering,
burial or incineration. They discussed killing 1200-2000 wild horses per
year. The document states that “the general public would be prohibited from
viewing euthanasia.” Additionally, the Team felt that “increased support
from public relations and management staff would also be needed to insulate
those doing the actual work from the public, media and Congressional
scrutiny/criticism.”

“Minutes from these meetings as well as the Draft Plan reveal what amounts
to ‘the final solution’ for the American mustang,” states Ginger Kathrens,
filmmaker and Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation. “Despite
a huge outcry from the American public last year regarding BLM plans to kill
wild horses in holding, the agency is still pressing forward with a plan to
destroy our American mustangs both on and off the range.”

Division Chief of the Wild Horse and Burro Program Don Glenn told The Cloud
Foundation that “no decision has been made to move forward on a large scale
with this plan, yet.”

BLM meeting minutes speak for themselves. “Security at facilities and at
gathers would need to be increased to combat eco-terrorism. Having the
people that are willing to put down healthy horses at gather sites could be
a problem. Having vets putting down healthy horses at preparation
facility[ies] could also be a problem.” Meeting minutes reveal the
psychological toll that employees would pay—“have counseling for employees
and contractors that have to euthanize the healthy horses because it is very
stressful.”

The report created an option in which wild horses of all ages could be sold
“without limitation”. In other words, horses could be sold directly to
killer buyers in unchecked numbers. The Team admitted that “some wild horses
will go to slaughter”.

“Once they are gone, they’re gone” says Karen Sussman, President of the
International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros. “To lose
this incomparable species would be a travesty.”

Team Members formulated ways in which they could circumvent the National
Environmental Policy Act, asking “How many (wild horses) could be euthanized
during a gather (roundup) without having NEPA?” BLM discussed ways to
circumvent the federal carcass disposal law (43 CFR 4730.2). Conversations
included how many wild horses could be rendered at the Reno Rendering plant
or “disposed of in pits”. The Team concluded that “there will not be large
numbers of horses euthanized during gathers or in the field. This is due to
state environmental laws.”

Recommendations include the creation of gelding herds, and sterilization of
mares to create non-reproductive herds in the wild in place of natural
herds. The team recommended changing the sex ratio from the normal 50% males
and 50% females to 70% males and 30% females. Then the experimental two-year
infertility drug, PZP-22, would be given to all mares that are returned to
the wild. Plans call for rounding up the wild horses every two years to
re-administer the drug.

“Mares on the drug will cycle monthly and, with the altered sex ratio, the
social chaos will be dangerous and on-going,” Kathrens explains. “Any
semblance of normal wild horse society will be completely destroyed.”

Kathrens has spent 15 years in the wild documenting mustang behavior for her
PBS television documentaries which chronicle the life story of Cloud, the
now famous pale palomino stallion she has filmed since birth. “Even Cloud
and his little herd in Montana are in serious danger if BLM implements these
options,” she continues. “The BLM plans a massive round up in Cloud’s herd
beginning August 30, 2009.”

The BLM will not guarantee that Cloud and his family will remain free.



The BLM documents referred to above and photos of wild horses are available
from The Cloud Foundation.

The Cloud Foundation, Inc.
107 South 7th St.
Colorado Springs, CO 80905
719-633-3842
719-633-3896 (fax)
info@thecloudfoundation.org
www.thecloudfoundation.org

Rare Opportunity to Sponsor an American Heritage Herd Mustang

This is our 9th foal born from our Coyote Canyon Sulphur Springs foundation mares. If you would like to name and sponsor this filly, you can! For just $300 the honor is all yours!! Please contact Kathleen Hayden at CCCDA@znet.com (Coyote Canyon Caballos d'Anza is a 501(3)c organization dedicated to returning the Coyote Canyon wild horses to their natural free-roaming habitat in Southern California.)

She's a grulla filly born Saturday June 6, 09 out of an older grulla mare. . Here She is! pics by Kay Levie

BLM has Mismanaged Coyote Canyon Wild Horses into Extinction

A letter written to the BLM Romona Delorme:

"June 9, 2009

Dear Ms. Delorme,

Please submit the enclosed comments into the official record and to the Wild Horse Advisory Committee for immediate action.

For re submission, I have enclosed my 2004 comments regarding the Coyote Canyon wild horse removal and pertinent documents.

Five years is far too long for BLM and the Advisory Committee to ignore this culturally historic distinct population segment of free roaming horses mis managed into extinction in the wild.

USFS and DOI have set higher priorities for other public land uses despite the negative impacts those decisions are making on all herds.

The Coyote Canyon Herd is a microcosm of the wild equid problem and solution.

Numerous mandated cultural historic and wildlife preservation laws and processes were circumvented in the facilitation/application of management plans that removed the Coyote Canyon free roaming wild horses (and Clark Mt Mojave burros). These plans are fatally flawed. The federally mandated herd area was grossly underestimated and misrepresented. The FREE ROAMING WHBA clearly mandated and intended permanent herd areas to be designated as areas of permanent critical habitat to sustain viable herds.

Real estate law is abundantly clear that pre existing contracts/ covenants/appurtenances attach to the land. The Free Roaming wild horse and burro mandates cannot be abrogated by transferring title to the land or through conflicting management plans. Our free roaming herds are held by the government in trust for the American people in perpetuity. They represent natural LOCAL cultural pioneering history.

The public has suffered a loss that, by law, can and must be restored to them.

Since Tom Pogacnik wrote the following note to Senator Morrow, more information has surfaced. Long time BLM and retired employees, and others, have stated that they personally knew that the Coyote Canyon herd ranged far and wide outside of the designated herd area on BLM in the early 70's. BLM currently controls multiple sections of land over which this herd historically ranged. A portion of which is a vacant allotment.

8-8-05, California Wild Horse and Burro Program Manager Tom Pogacnik wrote “When BLM began revisiting the Coyote Canyon horse situation, I also worked with the Solicitor's Office who said BLM erred in relinquishing control of the Coyote Canyon animals to State Parks. The Desert Protection Act pretty much gave control of the land and all resources to National Park Service."

OVER VIEW of Wild Horses in Coyote Canyon

Colonial Spanish horses were first introduced in the coastal regions of San Diego County by settlement of missions and ranches. Further inland, Cahuillan pictographs of mounted Spaniards at the north end of Coyote Canyon (La Puerta) indicate the early expedition of Pedro Feges in 1772 or Anza in 1774.

This band of Native Americans made their home in Coyote Canyon and surrounding mountains along the NE Corner of San Diego and bordering Riverside counties. Long before western settlement, a tributary of Coyote Canyon was named Horse Canyon after the residing herd. During the infamous 1851 Garra revolt and raid on Warner Ranch, the Cahuillas added more cattle and horses to their Coyote Canyon herd. According to author Lester Reed, at the turn of the century native wrangler Carlos Moreno referred to the canyon horses as “The Ranch Ramuda”. Bands of the herd ranged east and west as far as Beauty Mountain and into the surrounding mountain valleys. Indian ranching continued in the Canyon until the late 1970’s when California State Parks expanded the Anza Borrego Desert State Park . The Federal designated Coyote Canyon herd area was “zeroed out”. The herd removed by the park in 2003.

With the assistance of California Senator Bill Morrow and BLM, Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza rescued four of the wild stallions with the BLM promise that the herd could be re introduced pending habitat restoration. BLM Wild Horse and Burro Manager Tom Pogacnik proposed an agency and private partnership with us. In January 2009 rare wild Spanish Foundation mares were acquired to re establish, maintain and preserve a unique gene pool. Wildlife grants are available for financial assistance.

As the only Heritage Herd of Spanish Horses in San Diego County, and the last wild herd in Southern California, the Coyote Canyon horses represent a vanishing element of our local pioneering landscape. In 1971 Congress unanimously declared that “wild free roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West that enrich the lives of the American People” They were to be managed on their historic and native ranges. By operation of law they are wild life. (Supreme Court seminal case, Kleppe v. New Mexico)

The Coyote Canyon herd’s vital legacy of cultural, educational, aesthetic, and inspirational benefits should be maintained as our heritage/ inheritance for future generations as supported by other Heritage Acts. With the 1966 passage of the Nation Historic Preservation Act Congress declared that the spirit and direction of the Nation are founded upon, and reflected in, its historic heritage. “Knowing and Understanding our Past, Inspiration For Future Generations, and providing a sense of roots and identity define motives for historic preservation.” This includes Identification, documentation, acquisition, protection, management, rehabilitation, restoration, stabilization, maintenance and reconstruction, or any combination of the foregoing activities. Enforcement of this Act is Sec 106, was not utilized in the Coyote Canyon herd removal nor was the State Historic Preservation Office consulted.

The Coyote Canyon Herd was sequestered for more than two centuries from other wild horse herds. As a result they evolved into a distinct population segment of free roaming horses. This evolution meets the criteria of both state and federal statutes of endangered and threatened species. “Endangered” when its survival and reproduction in the wild are in immediate jeopardy from one or more causes, including loss of habitat, change in habitat, over exploitation, predation, competition, disease, or other factors; or “Rare” when either : Although not presently threatened with extinction, the species is existing in such small numbers throughout all or a significant portion of its range that it may become endangered if its environment worsens; or the species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range and may be considered “threatened” as that term is used in the Federal Endangered Species Act.(ESA) The currant condition mandates emergency designation of native critical habitat or ACECs. The Coyote Canyon herd is now EXTINCT IN THE WILD.

The often used “feral argument” is moot.. BLM settled the native/feral argument stating "The issue of a wild horse as an invasive species is moot since the 1971 WHBA gave wild free-roaming horses "special" status based on their heritage of assisting man settle the "west”

Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza was organized to restore the herd to a redesignated herd area on BLM lands in the vacant allotment area of Beauty Mt. This issue was overlooked in the 1971 inventory of historic ranges resulting in a defective land management plan. This fatally flawed plan can be corrected through the NEPA process (National Environmental Protection Act) or ESA distinct population segment listing. A emergency exists to revise the Coyote Canyon herd area. This is necessary and imperative to the land planning process for the lands within the newly passed California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act.

The 1945 California Riding and Hiking Trail, California’s first legislated trail, lies within the allotment area and provides the public opportunity to experience this unique part of California history. Restoration of the Coyote Canyon horses and the Trail would maintain both historic icons NOW, and into the future.

On behalf of Coyote Canyon Caballos d' Anza I respectfully request that Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board and BLM should act on this now in good faith and make a supportive recommendations to DOI based on the above facts.

On behalf of our wild horses, thank you."

Kathleen Hayden

PO Box 236

Santa Ysabel, Ca 92070

CCCDA@znet.com

Typical "Center for Biological Diversity" Propaganda

In a letter to Supervisors Bill Horn, Dianne Jacob, Greg Cox, Pam Slater and Ron Roberts; Kathleen Hayden of Coyote Canyon Caballos d'Anza writes:

"Honorable Board of Supervisors,

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/anza2-25-04.htm (CBD)
The older above referenced news release is typical of CBD propaganda.
The route CBD refers to is the Anza public route created by Spanish expeditions as early as 1774 and graded by the Civil Conservation Corps at tax payers expense in the 1930's before Parks acquired the lands from BLM. The route closure was facilitated by the same management plan that zeroed out the Coyote Canyon Wild Horse Herd under the guise of bighorn sheep protection, disputed by UC Davis studies.
Mandated historic cultural and wildlife preservation laws were circumvented in processing the management plan. The federally mandated herd area was grossly underestimated and misrepresented. The management plan was fatally flawed. The public suffered a loss that by law can and must be restored.
San Diego County Board of Supervisors have the opportunity to restore this loss.
Please facilitate the remedy.
Respectfully,
Kathleen Hayden
Coyote Canyon Caballos d'Anza"

Modoc-Washoe Committee - Innovative BLM Partner

BLM Surprise Field Manager Shane DeForest, left, discusses rangeland monitoring issues during a field tour with members of the Modoc-Washoe Experimental Stewardship steering committee and northeast California ranchers.

Spotlight on Partners: Modoc-Washoe Experimental Stewardship Steering Committee

Innovation and partnership in rangeland conservation have been the hallmarks of the Modoc-Washoe Experimental Stewardship Steering Committee in three decades of advising the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service in northeast California and northwest Nevada. Established by Congress in the 1978 Public Rangeland Improvement Act, the Experimental Stewardship Program (ESP) was tasked with finding innovative solutions to rangeland management issues and providing incentives for rangeland improvements.

Today, three ESP steering committees are active: Modoc Washoe, Challis, (central Idaho) and Dillon (southwest Montana).

Keeping with the ESP model of balanced representation, the Modoc-Washoe group includes livestock grazing permit holders, environmental interest group representatives, wild horse and burro interests, resource conservation district interests, the academic sector, sporting interests, representatives for the timber and livestock industries, and local government representatives. Managers from the BLM Surprise Field Office and the Warner Mountain Ranger District of the Modoc National Forest serve on the committee along with representatives from the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the California Department of Fish and Game.

Among the Modoc-Washoe’s successes are numerous solutions to on-the-ground resource management problems, a grazing fee credit program (ranchers can use 50 percent of their federal grazing fee to fund range improvement projects) and an agreement that led to reintroduction of bighorn sheep into native habitat along the California-Nevada border near Cedarville.

Perhaps the biggest success has been the forum the program provides for improving cooperation, communication and understanding among parties interested in public rangelands.

- Jeff Fontana, BLM-California, 5/09