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

Cattle Graze While Wild Horses Are Rounded-Up

Cattle are grazing under oil derricks, carribou around the Alaskan pipeline, freeways built across the Western Unitized States. Why should wild horses be displaced for this pipeline???




Activists Ask Senator Udall to Investigate BLM’s Removal of Wild Horses in Ruby Pipeline Zone
Denver protesters request an immediate moratorium on roundups
Denver, CO (January 7, 2010) —Chants of “Wild ‘N Free—Let ‘Em Be” echoed through Downtown Denver today as close to 50 members of the wild horse loving public protested outside Senator Mark Udall’s Office to stop the roundups. Despite single-digit temperatures, protesters came from as far as three hours away. Mustang advocates met with the Senator’s staff following the protest to discuss the wild horse crisis as well as what may be the smoking gun behind these roundups—a massive natural gas pipeline from Wyoming, through Nevada to southern Oregon.

“We are asking Senator Udall and his colleagues to investigate the BLM’s dealings with the Ruby pipeline with an eye on the wild horse crisis,” said Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director, The Cloud Foundation and Emmy-Award winning filmmaker.

Protests also took place today in Albany. NY and Las Vegas. An all-day Boston protest at the Massachusetts Sate House is scheduled for January 8 and another Las Vegas protest on Sunday. A large protest is planned for New York City on January 17th.

“Protesters are calling for a moratorium on all roundups until a truly sustainable plan is in place—one that protects our legendary wild herds in the West,” explained Makendra Silverman, Associate Director, The Cloud Foundation,


###

Links of interest:
Ruby Pipeline Information

News Reports

News Reports


Pipeline Map:


Western Watersheds Project


American Herds


Freedom’s Escape & Roundup Report:

Video Overview of Calico horses and current roundup
Youtube
More YouTube

12.28.09 USA Today: “Activists Decry Wild-Horse Roundups”


Mestengo. Mustang. Misfit.
America’s Disappearing Wild Horses


Frequently Asked Questions on Wild Horses


Stampede to Oblivion: An Investigate Report from Las Vegas Now
Updated 2009-2010 Roundup Schedule


Unified Moratorium letter and signatories

Photos, video and interviews available from:
The Cloud Foundation
news@thecloudfoundation.org

Calico, Nevada-Where Wild Horses Roam

Time to Hold Obama Accountable...Wild Horse Roundups Unjustifiable

(the following is from In Defense of Animals)

This is insane... one massive unnecessary and unjustified roundup...
Please do this now, thanks!


Time To Hold President Obama Accountable:
Demand Halt to BLM Calico Wild Horse Roundup
BLM to Begin Secret Calico Roundup on Private Land - No Public Observers Allowed
Please join IDA and Sheryl Crow in calling on President Obama to halt the Christmas-week roundup of thousands of Nevada horses.
IDA continues to work diligently to stop the pending Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundup of 2,700 horses in the Calico Mountain Complex in northwestern Nevada. Despite our efforts, the roundup is set to start today, but there is still time to save most of the horses! We won’t stop fighting – but we need your help to stop this massive assault on America’s wild horses.


Please take these THREE essential steps today! Only a huge public outcry will save these horses from the trauma of being stampeded with helicopters over treacherous winter terrain into capture pens, where they will be torn from their family members before being loaded onto trucks destined for possibly illegal BLM wild horse warehouses in the Midwest.

1. Paste the letter below (please feel free to personalize) to President Obama in the web form

2. Follow your email with a phone call to the White House (both numbers) to appeal to the President to halt the BLM’s cruel Calico wild horse roundup. See letter below for details on what we are asking of the President.
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

3. Forward this message to five friends and family and ask that they take a couple of minutes to help the horses – every public comment and phone call counts. You can help us increase the number of active wild horse advocates.
For more information, see the most recent Associated Press story and IDA’s statement on the recent federal court ruling in our lawsuit to stop the Calico roundup.
LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA (Paste the letter below (please feel free to personalize) to President Obama in the web form


December 28, 2009
Dear President Obama,
I urge you to stop the largest scheduled roundup of wild horses in years – those living in the Calico Mountains in Nevada. Please halt the Interior Department - Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) pending cruel round up of over 2,500 horses who are living peacefully in more than 500,000 acre public land complex.
Last week, a federal court judge ruled that the BLM’s stockpiling of western wild horses in mid-western holding facilities may be illegal and consequently suggested that BLM postpone the Calico roundup. In addition, several appeals are pending with the Interior Board of Land Appeals – including a formal Motion to Stay (stop) the roundup – and your White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) charging that the BLM has flagrantly violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in its failure to assess the impacts of its massive capture and removal plan.
Over the weekend, the BLM made public its plan to begin the roundup in secret on private land from which the public will be barred, thus violating a BLM pledge made just three weeks ago at a packed public meeting in Reno to conduct these roundups with full public transparency.
Wild horse society is complex and consists of tightly knit family bands. President Obama, as you enjoy the holidays with your lovely family, I urge you to take a moment to remember the wild horse families in Nevada’s Calico Mountains that are about to be shattered forever by the BLM's cruel round up plans.
With a simple phone call, you Mr. President can stop the terror that is about to befall the majestic wild horses of northwest Nevada. Please act today.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,



In Defense of Animals, located in San Rafael, Calif., is an international animal protection organization with more than 85,000 members and supporters dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by protecting their rights and welfare. IDA's efforts include educational events, cruelty investigations, boycotts, grassroots activism, and hands-on rescue through our sanctuaries in Mississippi, Mumbai, India, and Cameroon, Africa.
In Defense of Animals is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. We welcome your feedback and appreciate your donations. Please join today! All donations to IDA are tax-deductible.

In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner, San Rafael, CA 94901
Tel. (415) 448-0048 Fax (415) 454-1031
idainfo@idausa.org

BLM in violation of Legal Responsibilities: Mustangs vs Ranchers

Ranching is the history of western settlement, as well as wild horses. Both have rights based on property law i.e. herd areas and allotment improvements) as well as historic cultural landscape preservation. BLM has violated their fiduciary duty us to manage our heritage (inheritance) of wild horses according to the law. They have violated their duty to manage healthy ranges that are overgrazed by livestock. They have violated their duty to manage for ecological diversity by removing the very equid wild life that contribute to healthy diversity.
DOI and Congress are catering to the global special interest agenda for energy development and while embezzling our heritage estate in the process.
Boycotting beef and aiming poison arrows at ranchers will not gain ground for wild equids. BLM is the responsible agency and Congress is responsible for BLM. Every BLM manager that authorizes a gather should be personally sued for removing excess horses, transporting them from their native ranges to long term holding and sale (adoption)
kat
----- Original Message -----
From: Nylene Puha
To: Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 12:24 PM
Subject: RE: All evidence points to N. American Native Status of the wild ones...Re: "horses under-counted more likely" Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter

Conversation with a local ranchers relative yesterday-she stated that her Uncle should not have to change his way of life-(cattle rancher)-for wild horses. EVEN IF beef IS unhealthy for the land and even if his own health is affected-he should not have to make any concessions to his family's traditional lifestyle.
My question -Does he hate wild horses? Answer-Well, he is a RANCHER.
Those of you who don't live here-this is the culture we face.

This is war. And the ranchers are winning. The best thing I can suggest at this point is to Boycott Beef. If we can get all the REAL environmental groups to join in and organize -which there is talk of...this could have some true clout. Even those who don't intend to stop eating beef-could make the THREAT...."I am a lifelong beef eater but due to the wild horse situation..."...and so on. We must hurt the rancher/beef industry where they care-their pocketbooks. Another issue-wolves, coyotes, cougars-the wild horses natural predators here-are being wiped out by the BLM as well. Wild horse herds cannot survive as wild horses without them.

Nylene

PS-I think the hay thrown in Moundhouse that caused the accident that killed the wild horse last week- was by a rancher. I was told it was a guy who threw a bale of hay from the back of his pickup-right on the edge of the busy highway. I can't imagine a wild horse person doing such a thing. I think it was to cause talk of the 'problems' wild horses cause. Ranchers don't want winter feeding of wild horses because they will also eat the hay the ranchers throw to their cows in winter. They don't want the predators as they will also eat their cows.

Near Las Vegas? Get Involved! Protest Plan for Today!

PROTEST THE INHUMANE WINTER ROUNDUP OF NEVADA’S WILD HORSES

WHERE: THE ENTRANCE TO RED ROCK CANYON, LAS VEGAS NEVADA, WHEN: 1PM, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27. 2009, CONTACT PERSON: ARLENE GAWNE, 702-277-1313 artistfromafrica@hotmail.com

On Monday, Dec. 28, 2009, the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) intends to roundup approximately 2,400- 2,700 of the estimated 3,000 wild horses in the Calico Mountain wild horse complex of Northern Nevada. They will be driven by helicopters in icy winter conditions, over rocky ground, for long distances. Some horses will be injured or die just as they have in recent BLM helicopter roundups.... (Press Release continued here)

Two More Wild Horse Foals Killed in BLM Roundup

From The Cloud Foundation

Sheryl Crow and Thousands of Advocates Call on President Obama and Senator Reid to Grant America’s Mustangs a Christmas Reprieve

Two More Wild Horse Foals are Killed in Most Recent BLM Roundup

Colorado Springs, CO (December 24, 2009)—Sheryl Crow asks Senator Reid and President Obama to grant a Christmas reprieve until the American people and Congress can find a better way to manage our living legends of the West. Now they are being managed into extinction. The Cloud Foundation also reports two more wild horse deaths, during the recent Paisley Wild Horse roundup in southern Oregon (December 16-18).

"I'm asking President Obama and Senator Reid to stop the Calico roundup of the American wild mustangs in Nevada NOW until Congress decides how to manage our living legends of the West." – Sheryl Crow

Two wild horses foals died, one that broke its leg during the helicopter roundup and another that was found dead in the temporary corrals where the horses had been held overnight. The Wild Horse and Burro specialist at the BLM Lakeview field office reported that the second foal was found dead in the foal pen the morning following his capture. The foals had been traumatized and separated from their mothers directly following entry into the trap.
275 horses in all were captured, 23 were allowed back out on the range, 15 mares and 8 stallions. All mares released were given infertility drugs. According to the Paisley Wild Horse and Burro Specialist, the estimated number of horses remaining in the immense herd area of nearly 300,000 is 102 animals. This number is below minimum standards to ensure their long term survival.

Many are demanding that the numbers of wild horses allowed on their home ranges be increased to guarantee they can survive into the future. At the December 7^th National BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Meeting in Reno, Don Glenn, Chief of the Wild Horse and Burro Program, stated that 150 acres is necessary to maintain one wild horse on dry western areas. Yet, in the Paisley area, which is legally designated for wild horses, the BLM has left one horse for every 3,000 acres. As in most wild horse herd areas, BLM allows for cattle grazing and regularly cites the lack of forage in their decisions to remove wild horses.

The focus is now turning on the Administration in an effort to save the last stronghold of wild horses. Three days after Christmas BLM plans to wipe out 80-90 percent of the estimated 3,000 horses living in the Calico Mountain wild horse complex. The horses will be driven by a low-flying helicopter over dangerous terrain in winter conditions to traps and temporary corrals. Respiratory illnesses, permanent injury and death are expected should this winter roundup take place.

“Two foals and a mare have already been killed in the first two winter roundups and these deaths were in roundups 1/10^th the size of Calico. I’m asking the public to join me in calling on our President to stop the Calico roundup now. No horse owner in their right mind would run their own horses in the winter the way the BLM does our wild horses. This is nothing short of government-sponsored cruelty.” – Ginger Kathrens, Naturalist and Emmy-award winning filmmaker- creator of the popular PBS Cloud Wild Horse Documentaries

In Defense of Animals (IDA) has filed complaints with the Department of Interior and White House Office of Environmental Quality (CEQ) alleging multiple violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
“The President should order a halt to this roundup until the legality of the long-term holding facilities is determined. The BLM itself says this (Calico) is not an emergency roundup, so there would be no harm in waiting for adjudication of this enormously important issue,”said William J. Spriggs, of Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney, which filed the case on behalf of IDA, Downer and Farley.

IDA charges that BLM violated NEPA by failing to adequately assess the environmental impacts of its massive wild horse capture plan. Over 10,000 public comments were submitted to the BLM in opposition to the Calico roundup, which the BLM has stated will cost taxpayers $1.9 million for the roundup contractor and BLM personal alone. Additional costs for branding, sorting, processing and transporting horses are expected to add at least another million.

“The thing these horses have to fear most is the very federal agency that is supposed to protect them.” —Howard Boggess, Crow Indian Elder and Historian
It would appear that there is a continuation of the Bush era policy of removing tens of thousands of wild horses from their rightful Western publicly-owned rangelands, often to make room for increased grazing of privately-owned livestock as well as for oil, gas and mineral deals. Judge Friedman questioned the legality of BLM’s warehousing of over 34,000 wild horses in government holding facilities. 9,000 more are expected to be added this year and in 2011 and in 2012 as BLM continues its unwarranted massive removals. Independent analysis¹ of BLM’s own population estimates shows a dramatic decline in populations since 2000 and leaves in question how many wild horses and burros are even left on public lands. According to BLM the number of wild horses in government holding facilities will exceed those left on public lands around the time the government agency completes its desruction of the Calico horses.

“BLM only looks at removing or contracepting wild horses to manage what they claim to be exploding populations. BLM fails to look into restoring even a portion of their legally designated 24+ million acres that have been taken away from the wild horses and burros in the past 40 years.” —Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist.

“This is not only a humane issue, this is an issue about preserving a legacy that we have in the west.” —Congressman Raul Grijalva, in an address to wild horse advocates in Washington DC on September 29^th, 2009.