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STOP THE GENOCIDE OF THE WEST’S WILD FREE-ROAMING
HORSES & BURROS!
STOP THE GENOCIDE OF
THE WEST’S WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES & BURROS!
STOP THE US
GOVERNMENT’S BLM ROUNDUPS!
In 1971, Congress passed the The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and
Burros Act, which required the protection, management, and
control of wild free-roaming horses and burros on public lands.
Congress found and declared that wild
free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the
historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to
the diversity of the life forms within the Nation and enrich the
lives of the American people; and that these horses and burros
are fast disappearing from the American scene.
Photo Credit: The Cloud Foundation
Congress, with overwhelming public support, intended for wild
horses and burros to be protected in the wild, and removed only
when necessary, and if removed, guaranteed humane treatment.
They were never to be sold for slaughter. It is the policy of
Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be
protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to
accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where
presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of
the public lands.
Since its inception in 1971, The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM)
and the U.S. Forest Service’s (FS) Wild Horse and Burro Program
have failed to protect the horses and burros they are
responsible for. Unfortunately, the BLM operates in a manner
that promotes the interests of livestock industry and other
commercial operations over those of wild horses and burros. As a
result, wild horse and burro populations and their herd areas
have dramatically declined in number and size; the BLM has taken
away 20 million acres of wild horse habitat and removed over
270,000 horses from the range.
The "multiple use management concept" included in the 1971 Act
has been construed by the BLM to allow multiple uses of public
lands on Herd Management Areas. The Act states that herd areas
are to be “devoted principally” to the welfare of the wild
horses and burros. “Multiple use” was intended to support and
maintain a "thriving natural ecological balance" on public
lands, with respect to other wildlife and range biology and
ecology. The BLM includes under “multiple use” such uses as
cattle grazing, mining, development, and oil drilling. Such uses
were not intended to justify the removal of wild horses and
burros from their herd areas.
To make matters worse, in November, 2004, without a hearing or
an opportunity for public review, Senator Conrad Burns from
Montana, slipped a rider into the 2005 Federal Appropriations
Bill amending the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act.
The Burns amendment authorized “sale authority” for the BLM and
FS and since then, the “Burns Bill” allowed the majority of
horses being held in government pens to be rounded up, removed
and even sold for slaughter.
THE BLM ROUNDUPS
BLM’s helicopter roundup
Photo by LCA’s Special Investigations Unit
Helicopters, with deafening blades, terrorize and force herds of
frightened wild-free-roaming horses to gallop for their lives,
not realizing they are being herded to a corral where they will
be forever removed from their native land. As a result of the
roundups, some of the horses become bloodied, injured, exhausted
and some mares miscarriage their colts. Others simply die in the
process.
Horses injured during the BLM roundups
Photo by LCA’s Special Investigations Unit
LCA’s Special Investigation Unit witnessed the inhumane way in
which the wild horses are gathered, herded and transported at
the biggest FY 2010 BLM “Calico Roundup” in Gurlock, Nevada. The
roundup is intended to roundup approx 2,500 horses and leave
just 600 horses on approx 542,000 acres of this range complex.
The family structure of these horses is torn apart. As the
horses are herded into the trap, the stallions are separated
from the mares and the foals from their mothers. The horses are
shipped to another facility where they stand, their spirits
broken and all life erased from their eyes, in their own waste
with no escape from the elements. These iconic creatures of the
Wild West will never see their grazing lands again or their
family.
Although the BLM claims the horses are “starving” or
malnourished, none of the horses rounded up or in the holding
pen are emaciated or unhealthy looking. The BLM admits they
cannot give the horses the diet they are used to in the wild and
some horses get sick from the feed they are given.
Injured horses from the BLM roundup
Photo by LCA’s Special Investigations Unit
COST TO TAXPAYERS
The cost to taxpayers annually is over $60 million dollars. The
Obama Administration proposes to spend up to 500 million tax
dollars to purchase private lands in the Midwest and East to
warehouse wild horses removed from public lands (which the
taxpayers already own) in the West. The cost to taxpayers
annually for government holding facilities is over $60 million
dollars.
What the public is not being told is that the Cattlemen with
their millions of cows are getting subsidized grazing rates for
their herds at the expense of taxpayers and the wild horses.
Additionally, cattle are an invasive species that are much more
devastating to the ecosystem than the horses. Wild horses are a
small percentage of grazing animals on public lands, where they
are outnumbered by cattle at least 200 to 1.
THE SURVIVAL OF WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES IS IN JEOPARDY
The wild horse population today is smaller than in 1974 when the
BLM conducted the first census after Congress protected the
horses due to their dwindling numbers. There are approximately
33,000 horses left in the wild. By the end of 2010, there will
be more horses in government holding facilities than on the
range. The interests of these living “historic and pioneers
spirits of the West” are being forfeited for those of the
livestock industry and other commercial operations. The truth is
there are too few horses and burros on our public lands and
unless the wild horse numbers are allowed to grow, the survival
of these amazing animals is in jeopardy.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
1. In July 2009, the US House of Representatives
passed H.R. 1018, The Restore Our American Mustangs Act. This
act addresses, amongst other management issues, the setting of
AMLs (appropriate management levels) based on scientifically
sound methods, voluntary grazing buyouts, negotiations with
private land owners to allow for federally supervised protection
of wild horses on private lands, the identification of
appropriate rangelands and the establishment of sanctuaries or
“exclusive use areas” for wild horses and burros.
Call 202-224-3121 and get information to contact your Senators
and ask them to support the S. 1579, The Restore Our American
Mustangs Act.
2. Contact President Obama, Members of
Congress and Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Ken
Salazar via
this easy petition and letter sender. The planned roundups
by the Obama administration must stop in order to allow time for
independent analysis on the true numbers of horses remaining and
investigations into the true reasons for removing 12,000 wild
horses and burros this fiscal year.
3. Please watch the investigative report from
CBS's George Knapp: "Stampede
to Oblivion" and share this online video with everyone.
PLEASE DONATE TO LCA AND HELP STOP THE GENOCIDE!
PUT AN END TO THE BLM ROUNDUPS!
Jillian Michaels lends her image to LCA’s Stop the BLM
Roundups Campaign
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