Sacramento Peaceful Protest on Behalf of Our Wild Horses & Burros 1/21/10

, Wild Horse & Burro Advocates -

Please put Thurs, 1/21, on your calendars per the attached notice & bring
your friends, family & whoever you can get ahold of if you can make it out.

Also, please forward this notice to everyone you know in the Sacramento
area, Rancho Cordova, Folsom, El Dorado Hills, Roseville, Elk Grove,
Placerville, Auburn, etc. If you have a website to post this notice, that
would be great. We want to have an incredible turnout. We expect good press
coverage & want them to know there's plenty of us standing up for America's
wild horses and burros.

There have been & continue to be protests across the country & even
internationally. We must get the American public educated that our wild
horses & burros are being managed to extinction by the BLM & to take action.
If we don't do this now, it will be too late.

Many thanks for your support of our wild herds.

For the wild ones, Carla B ;--}


Sacramento Protest Against Wild Horse & Burro Roundups
Join us to stand up for America’s disappearing wild herds

Date: Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010 Rain or Shine
Time: 11 AM – 1 PM, Press Conference at Noon
Place: State Capitol, 10th Street between L and N

This peaceful protest on behalf of America’s wild horses and burros is part of a grassroots nationwide campaign that includes The Cloud Foundation and In Defense Of Animals who are sponsoring this event. It is one of several protests that are taking place across the country and internationally to protest the U.S. government’s destructive wild horse and burro policy.

This is an urgent call to President Obama, Dept. of Int. (DOI) Sec. Salazar & Congress to order the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to stop the inhumane & treacherous winter roundup of over 2,500 wild horses in the Calico Mtn. Complex in NW Nevada. Also, this is a call to stop all additional roundups planned by the BLM in FY2010 until a sustainable in-the-wild & fiscally responsible management plan is put in place to re-protect our magnificent wild herds on their native Western public lands. We want accountability and transparency from our government and the BLM, the agency that is supposed to be protecting our legendary herds, but instead is using millions of taxpayer dollars in their ongoing mismanagement and elimination of our herds.

The Mission of this protest and beyond is:

• To educate the press & the American public that our wild herds are being managed to
extinction by the DOI/BLM, mainly because of fast-tracked, carte blanche energy
development on our public lands and the cattle and big game industries.
• To call for an immediate moratorium on all roundups.
• To call for a Congressional investigation into the Wild Horse & Burro Program under the
direction of the BLM.
• To call for an independent census of the numbers & health of all herds still wild in the West &
in all short & long-term holding facilities.
• To call on the Congress to reject the Salazar Plan to relocate the majority of our wild herds to
zoo-like preserves in the Midwest and East, non-wild, non-free, and non-reproducing at
millions of dollars of taxpayer expense.
• To call on the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources to bring the ROAM (Restore
Our American Mustangs) Act to the table, to work with the American public on improvements
and pass The Act as soon as possible to re-protect our wild horses & burros on their legal
Western lands.
• To call on Senator Boxer for her support on the above issues.

Despite repeated outcries from humanitarian groups, wild horse advocate organizations,
celebrities such as Sheryl Crow, Viggo Mortensen, and Michael Blake, and experts on wildlife and range management, the BLM has pressed forward with its brutal and inhumane round up of one of the last large mustang herds on the Nevada range. BLM started the Calico Roundup on 12/28/09 even though U.S. District Court Judge Friedman recommended they hold off pending further findings & decisions in the Calico Lawsuit regarding the legality of housing our herds in short and long-term facilities off of their legal Western public lands.

The roundups inhumanely stampede the frightened wild horses by low-flying helicopters across rocky and steep terrain for several miles to a temporary trap site, including pregnant mares and foals that struggle to keep up & sometimes die en route or are brutally trampled in the temporary corrals by the other terrorized horses. Often, roundups are done in severe cold (as is presently the case with the Calico roundup) or hot conditions (as in the Pryor’s roundup) adding undue stress to the animals where needless injuries occur. The worst injury of all is that our wild herds are no longer wild and free roaming on their legal Western lands. Eventually, a lucky few will be adopted out, most will go to long-term holding at huge taxpayer expense and some will go to auction and could end up with the worst fate of all, cruel and inhumane slaughter in Mexico or Canada for human consumption abroad. Is this what the American people want for our living legends of the American West?

Under orders from the DOI, the BLM plans to gather another 12K wild horses and burros in FY2010 to add to the already 33K in short and long-term holding facilities for over $50M/year of taxpayer expense. BLM states 30-36K remain in the wild currently. Independent sources say only 15-18K remain. BLM has already zeroed out over 100 herds and the vast majority of the remaining herds are left with genetically nonviable numbers that threaten their long-term survival.

When will the BLM stop? What is fueling this relentless effort to remove 80-90% of the Calico Complex herd? Is it the proposed, fast-tracked Ruby Pipeline Project? Are all the wild herds going to be zeroed out with BLM’s false excuses that the herds are overpopulated, or destroying our rangelands or are starving to death just to fast track massive energy development on our public lands with taxpayer-funded stimulus monies? Even though we need energy independence & job creation, is everything of value going to be destroyed to achieve those ends?

We, the American people, cannot let this happen. We must stand up and fight for what we know is right and save our wild horses and burros before it’s too late. They are the living legends of the West--symbols of freedom, family, independence, strength, spirit and our Western heritage. If we lose them, we lose part of ourselves.

Get educated. Get active. Save our iconic wild horses and burros.

Call Pres. Obama to issue a moratorium on all roundups at 202-456-1111, Fax 202-456-2461
Call/fax your Senators to improve and pass the ROAM Act now

For further information and for sign ideas/slogans, please see:
http://www.thecloudfoundation.org, http://www.thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com,
http://idausa.org

Local Contacts:
Carla Bowers, Wild Horse Advocate and The Cloud Foundation volunteer, carla84bowers@yahoo.com
Cathy Adams, Wild Horse Advocate, crowbot32@yahoo.com

Media Contacts:
The Cloud Foundation: Makendra Silverman, 719-351-8187, makendra@thecloudfoundation.org

In Defense of Animals: Elliot M. Katz, DVM, 415-448-0048 x225, emk@idausa.org
Hope Bohanec, 707-540-1760, hope@idausa.org