Wild Horse Roundup
2009, CNN
Jan. 30 - Louise Schiavone reports on a government roundup of wild horses that has angered some animal rights advocates.
Judge issues go ahead in massive
wild horse roundup - sort of
2009, San Jose Examiner
Dec. 25 -
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman denied a request for preliminary
injunction which would have barred the Bureau of Land Management
from implementing the capture of roughly 2,700 wild horses from
the Calico Complex in Northern Nevada. Perhaps the most important
part of the decision keys on the placement of excess horses in
long term holding facilities located in Oklahoma, Kansas and South
Dakota. In his discussion of case merits, Judge Friedman speaks
of the level of management involved in such holding facilities, "...the use of long term holding facilities
runs counter to the statute's mandate that the agency's management
of wild horses occur at 'minimal feasible level' "Such a large
number of confined horses raises precisely the specter of the 'zoo-like
developments' whose formation the act was meant to prevent." noted
Friedman.
Injunction Filed to Fight Wild Horse Roundup
2009, KLAS-TV
Dec. 17 - The fate of thousands of Nevada's wild horses
was on the line Wednesday in the nation's capital. Advocates for
the horses asked a federal judge to stop a massive roundup planned
for later this month in northern Nevada. The focus of the court battle
is the proposed Calico roundup. The Bureau of Land Management says
it needs to remove 2,700 horses from an area larger than 500,000
acres and it needs to happen even in brutal winter weather. Advocates
for the horses argued the BLM action is cruel, dangerous and clearly
illegal.
BLM Lacks Information on Wild Horse Plan - Roundups
Continue
2009, San Jose Examiner
Dec. 14 - BLM's Surprise Field Office ended
a roundup of 217 horses along the Nevada/California border the day
before the meeting. The unannounced move was certainly a surprise
to animal advocates. It was scheduled to take place in August of
next year. Many are calling it a sneak attack which allowed no opportunity
to file an appeal to stop the action. One mare died due to round
up activities and foals are reported to be in poor condition.
US Plan to Round Up Wild Horses Draws Opposition
2009, New York Times
The government wants to carry out what is believed
to be the biggest-ever roundup of wild horses on federal land, moving
as many as 25,000 mustangs and burros to pastures in the Midwest
and East out of fear their fast-multiplying numbers will lead to
mass starvation. The plan is facing heated opposition from advocates,
including celebrities Sheryl Crow, Bill Maher and Ed Harris, who
contend the proposal is inhumane and unnecessary. They say the situation
is not as dire as the government has painted it.
Nevada wild horse roundup to cost taxpayers $900,000
2009, San Jose Examiner
Dec. 2 - A final determination of "No
Significant Impact" has been made by Bureau of Land Management
regarding the controversial Calico Complex roundup of wild horses
in Northern Nevada. Alan Shepard, lead BLM officer for the state
of Nevada, quoted an all inclusive cost of $900,000 for the massive
gather of 2,700 animals.
BLM delays Nevada horse roundup to allow appeals
2009, Associated Press
Nov.
28, Carson City, NV - The Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday
postponed a planned roundup of thousands of wild horses in Nevada
because of a lawsuit and to allow time for appeals of its decision.
Suit may block BLM roundup of mustangs in Nev.
2009, San Francisco Chronicle
Nov. 23 - Animal protection advocates
are asking a federal judge to block the government's planned roundup
of thousands of wild mustangs in Nevada next month, saying the helicopter-aided
gathers are illegal because they "traumatize, injure and kill" some
of the animals.
Wild horse removal generates over 7000 comments
to BLM
2009, San Jose Examiner
Nov. 16 - The Bureau of Land Management
logged over 7,000 comments from a concerned public regarding the
scheduled round up of 2,700 wild horses from the Calico Complex in
Northern Nevada.
BLM To Round-Up More Wild Horses
2009,
Las Vegas Now
Oct. 23 - Saturday the Bureau of Land Management begins
the latest in a sweeping series of wild horse roundups. BLM has a
tough job -- managing millions of acres of public land for competing,
often conflicting uses. When it comes to wild horses, it looks as
if BLM has decided to make its life a bit easier by just getting
rid of them altogether. BLM admits the current effort will eliminate
half of Nevada's herd management areas. "We are going
to pull those horses out as a proactive measure," said BLM Ely
District Spokesman Chris Hanefeld. "Basically zeroing it out."
Issues
arise with TRNP wild horses at auction
2009, The Dickinson
Press
A wild-horse auction turned chaotic when a stud tried to jump
a fence, another horse escaped during loading into a trailer and
another reportedly died Friday afternoon in Dickinson.
Virginia may be home for West's wild horses
2009, The Virginian-Pilot
Oct. 8 - Establishing wild-horse preserves
in Eastern states, including Virginia, could help solve the problem
of too many horses on public lands in the West, the Interior Department
said Wednesday. "Virginia is certainly a possibility," said
bureau spokesman Tom Gorey. "There might be an opportunity for
some towns or rural communities to say, 'Hey, this might be an opportunity
for eco-tourism.' " Gorey said the goal is to have 17,500 breeding
wild horses on public lands. They would produce about 3,500 foals
a year, which is about the number adopted each year.
Salazar Presents
Ambitious Plan to Manage Wild Horses
2009, Washington Post
Oct. 7, Washington, DC - The government plans
to aggressively sterilize wild horses and transplant thousands to
new public preserves in the Midwest and East as a solution to the
nearly 40-year-old problem of how to manage the exploding numbers
of wild horses in the West, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday.
BLM employee arrested in Wyo wild horse shootings
2009 Associated
Press
Sept. 30, Rock Springs, WY - Officials with the U.S. Bureau
of Land Management say a BLM employee has been arrested in connection
with the June shooting deaths of 3 wild horses at the agency's holding
corrals in Rock Springs. BLM spokeswoman Lorraine Keith says Jason
Hein was arrested in Billings, Mont. on Friday.
Wranglers
corral, cart off wild desert burros
2009, The Press Enterprise
Sept. 29 - A helicopter herding four burros west of Death Valley
flew so low over a dry lake bed that it raised dust clouds, and
came so close to one of the animal's hindquarters, it appeared
to touch. The pilot had flushed the three adults and a foal from
a thicket of mesquite in the Panamint Valley and worked the burros
through fields of low-growing pickle weed.
Senate
says 'no'’ to
wild horse euthanasia 2009, San Jose Examiner
2009, San Jose Examiner
Sept. 29, Washington, D.C. - The Senate has made it clear
to the Bureau of Land Management that funding will not be available
for the destruction of healthy, unadopted wild horses and burros.
Appropriations bill H.R. 2996 was passed by a vote of 77 to 21.
Federal
Judge Blocks Plan To Remove NW Colorado Horses
2009, The Denver
Channel
Aug. 5, Denver, Col. - A federal judge in Washington has
blocked the Bureau of Land Management's plan to use helicopters
and baits to trap and remove 100 wild horses from 128,000 acres
of federal and private land near Rangely in northwestern Colorado.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled Wednesday that the BLM
overstepped its authority because it had not determined whether
removing the horses was necessary to preserve the ecological balance
and multiple use of that area.
House votes to save wild horses, burros
2009,
Denver Post
Washington, D.C., Jul. 18 -- The House has voted to expand
the range of the nation's wild horses and burros by millions of acres
and to block a plan to kill thousands of the animals to prevent overgrazing.
The bill passed 239-185 Friday.
Proposed wild horse holding facilities criticized
2009, San Jose Mercury News
May 11 - Federal land managers have announced
plans for two more long-term holding facilities for wild horses,
a move criticized by animal advocates who say it will leave more
mustangs in permanent captivity than on the range. The U.S. Bureau
of Land Management is soliciting bids for the facilities that would
together hold up to 6,000 mustangs because existing ones are full,
agency spokeswoman JoLynn Worley said.
Rancher
denies he starved horses, says they were poisoned
2009, 9News
Alliance, Neb., Apr. 27 - The sheer numbers of it can be staggering:
as many as 100 horses dead on a ranch that was supposed to be a safe
haven. It's being called the largest equine cruelty investigation
in Nebraska history. It's centered around the Three Strikes Ranch,
located outside of the town of Alliance in the Nebraska panhandle.
For the past two years, trailers full of wild mustangs have been
unloaded at Jason Meduna's ranch. He adopts wild horses from the
Bureau of Land Management. They are horses no one else wants.
Federal
agency spurs people to adopt wild horses
2009, San Francisco Chronicle
Apr. 24 - A federal agency is hoping older wild mustangs rounded
up from the range will find new homes with a program that will
offer stipends to owners who adopt them. With the new program,
anyone who adopts a wild horse 4 years or older will be eligible
for a $500 stipend at the end of their first year with the animal.
The stipend is designed to help with the adopter's cost of keeping
a horse, BLM spokesman Paul McGuire said Thursday.
Plans slowed but not derailed
for horse refuge
2009, San Jose Mercury News
March 2, Reno, Nev.
- The worst economy in a generation and a changing-of-the-guard
in Washington, D.C., have slowed progress but not the wife of a
Texas billionaire's enthusiasm to create a wild horse sanctuary
in the West and save tens of thousands of animals from doom. Pickens
also said discussions with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management have
stalled as the agency awaits appointment of a new director following
President Barack Obama's election in November and with the recent
retirement of BLM Deputy Director Henri Bisson, with whom she worked
in the past on her plan. "They
broke the story," she said of the BLM. "They were probably
horrified of the box they got themselves into. Then they kind of
left me hanging."
Bill would block killing of wild
horses, burros
2009, San Jose Mercury News
Feb. 13 - Legislation
was introduced Thursday in Congress that would prevent the US Bureau
of Land Management from killing otherwise healthy wild horses and
burros that roam Western states. “It is unacceptable for wild horses to be slaughtered
without any regard for the general health, well-being, and conservation
of these iconic animals that embody the spirit of our American West," Rep.
Nick Rahall, D-W.V., said in a statement.
Bold
Plans to Save Wild Horses
2009, Las
Vegas Now
Feb. 11 - The wife of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens
is riding to the rescue of Nevada's wild horse herds. Madeleine
Pickens has a bold plan that would not only save the horses, but
would get taxpayers out of a jam as well. But when it comes to the
federal government, financial logic doesn't have to enter the picture.
In the view of Pickens and other wild horse advocates, BLM has long
been under the control of the cattle industry, "I don't think
they hate the wild horses, I think they hate the wild horse issue.
I sometimes wonder if they don't want the issue to go away because
their departments grow and grow and grow and they get a bigger budget
if they do more and more. So after awhile you start to think, could
it possibly be that?"
Mustang – Spirit
of the Shrinking West
2009, National Geographic Magazine
"Wild
horses are right in the middle of a culture that wants nothing
to do with them," said
Jay Kirkpatrick, director of science and conservation biology at
ZooMontana, in Billings, a center for the development of contraceptives
for wildlife. Kirkpatrick, who has spent more than 30 years studying
the animals, said the wild horse has been despised ever since white
men came west—blamed for everything that can and does go wrong
on these grasslands. So in the mid-1800s, when stockmen released
up to 40 million cattle on the plains, where horses had lived for
centuries without destroying the grazing, at most two million mustangs
were held responsible for the suddenly depleted range.
Reproduction authorized solely for educational purposes, provided
www.wildhorsepreservation.org is credited as source.
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