Friday, August 28, is National Call-In Day!

Cloud lives in a land of rugged canyons and great beauty in the southern mountains of Montana in the Pryor Wild Horse Range, in a small band of 191 wild horses, the only remaining herd left of wild horses in Montana.

In 1993, this is where Ginger Kathrens first met Cloud, who was then a young foal, along with some of the other members of his herd and his family. She was captivated, not just with the beauty and grace of the animals, but, she recalls, with how "their communication was so fascinating."

To listen to the Katia Louise interview on WFL Endangered Stream Live, with Ginger Kathrens, entitled "Angels for Cloud" please go to

http://www.wflendangeredstreamlive.org/angelsforcloud.html

(caution: disturbing content)

Soon after meeting Cloud and his herd, Ginger Kathrens founded the Cloud Foundation. Now as the Executive Director, she works non-stop to save this herd and those in other states--the last few of what used to be two or three million horses roaming free in the American west.

Her immediate challenge is to halt the government plan coming into effect next week on September 1, when the Bureau of Land Management is expected to conduct helicopter drives to round-up and remove 70 of the 191 horses in Cloud's herd. These will include foals and older horses, like Cloud's mother who has spent all the years of her life in freedom.

The horses will be taken out of the wild, kept permanently in captivity, and offered for "adoption."  "Adoption" may sound like a positive outcome, but the reality is different.  Horses are injured and lose their lives in the round-ups; of those that survive only around 10% are adopted.

All the rest are herded into pens.  Some eventually go to live in pastures; most spend the rest of their lives in holdling enclosures.

There are now 33,000 American wild horses being kept in holding pens at taxpayer expense.  All have lost their freedom and been separated from their families, their herds and their lives in the wild.

Ginger Kathrens is a tireless champion for these horses, She explains that there is in fact no overpopulation of wild horses, which is the myth that leads to their being rounded-up.  After 70 of the 191 horses in Cloud's herd have been removed, the herd will not be genetically viable and will be unable to sustain itself.

Where do wild horses come from? 

The history of the Pryor Mountain Herd is fascinating and can be traced back genetically to the early 1500's, when horses were bred in the Caribbean by the Spanish conquistadores, who then brought them to the mainland.  They were used on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  Then they were bred by the Crow people, who still see them as their horses.

Going back a bit further, millions of years ago, the horse originated on the North American continent. 12,000 years ago they died out on this continent--due perhaps to a combination of hunting and environmental factors. Having spread to the rest of the world, they survived elsewhere, and it is these same horses who returned with the Spanish and who are now the dwindling population in the American west. There is genetic evidence to verify this.  Ginger Kathrens believes that they should rightfully be declared an endangered species.

Instead, the laws meant to protect them, such as the 1971 Wild Horse and Burrow Act, have been used to lead to their eradication. Ginger Kathrens points out that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), as a government agency, was set up in the 40's to manage the grazing of privately-owned cattle on public lands.  The fee for grazing a mother cow and her calf is around $1.30 per month.

The wild horses, as well as all the other resident wildlife on BLM lands, are viewed as unwelcome competition for the grazing cattle, who are, after all, a business.

"The horses deserve to live free," comments Ginger.  Their designated range covers 40,000 acres in Montana, just west of the Big Horn Canyon.  They were allotted this land--though it is smaller than their original range--so that they would have a safe, protected place to live.

The wild horses' removal is an American tragedy that is happening throughout the west. 

In eastern Nevada, the wild horses that remain in twelve herds are all scheduled to be rounded up and removed this fall.  This process has already begun this August, and, if carried through, the end result will be that all of the more than 600 wild horses will be brought into captivity.  The days of the wild horses, who have lived in these areas of the Nevada desert for hundreds of years, will be gone forever.

Every year throughout the west, these helicopter round-ups have been taking place for decades, wearing away at the horse populations that are left.  There may still be 25,000 wild horses in America--maybe less.

An indomitable visionary, Ginger Kathrens, is fighting for a total renewal of how public lands are perceived and managed. She'd like to see a way of managing lands that will serve not special interests, but the expressed will of the American people who have consistently supported the wild horse as a vital, living heritage on the lands of the American west.  That the horses deserve to live out their lives in freedom is an overwhelmingly popular view.  However, many people are entirely unaware of the events now taking place to remove the herds of horses.

Please lend your voice to the groundswell of support for these magnificent animals by contacting the new BLM Director, Bob Abbey.

As Ginger Kathrens says, "These are our wild horses living on our public lands!  They deserve their freedom!"

What you can do

For the latest update, please go to:

http://network.bestfriends.org/golocal/international/news.aspx

Bob Abbey has been appointed the new national Director of the BLM. 

Please contact him and let him know how to start out with a great positive step:  Halt all the round-ups of America's wild horses now--in Montana, in Nevada, and throughout all the states!

BLM Director Bob Abbey


Call: 202-208-3801


Fax: 202-208-5242


Robert_Abbey@blm.gov

To learn more and to listen to the Katia Louise interview with Ginger Kathrens "Angels for Cloud", please go to WFL, Endangered Stream Live

http://www.wflendangeredstreamlive.org/angelsforcloud.html

Please visit the Cloud Foundation's website:

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/

For more information on wild horses, please go to

http://www.vickitobin.com/id22.html

Photos: Re-printed with permission from the Cloud Foundation