LATEST UPDATE: At around 3Pm Mountain Time today, Thursday, the Billings Gazette published the sad news that the U.S. District Court judge has declined to halt the planned round-up of the Pryor Mountains wild horses. This means that the round-up will go ahead starting tomorrow morning.
Please see below for details on the events leading up to this.
Please continue to contact the media and elected officials. Only polite and courteous communications are effective and beneficial to the horses in the long term.
Your phone calls and emails are still needed since this is an on-going issue. The round-ups and elimination of 12 herds of wild horses in eastern Nevada are continuing this fall. These round-ups of wild horses occur every year in the western U.S. Polls indicate that they are opposed by a majority of the American people, who wish to see the wild horses allowed to live free in their habitat, as was the intent of the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act. Authorities in the humane movement state that the horses are in no way overcrowded, that there is no overpopulation of horses, and no prospect of the horses lacking food or water (other than from inappropriate fencing).
To stay informed about this issue, please go to the websites below. Thank you for speaking out for the wild horses whenever you can!
Postponement of wild horse round-up until today Thursday
The Billings Gazette, in Montana, is reporting that the scheduled round-up of the 190 horses of the Pryor Mountain Herd has been postponed until Thursday September 2. If the round-up does take place, around 70-75 of the horses will then be separated from their herd and be permanently removed.
A judge will determine whether the BLM will be allowed to go ahead with the round-up.
Advocates for the wild horses, the Cloud Foundation and the Front Range Equine Rescue, had filed an injunction in federal court in Washington DC, asking the judge to halt the planned round-up of the herd of horses.
The round-up has now been postponed for 48 hours, but it may go ahead on Thursday, depending on the decision of the judge.
A champion in Congress
Congressman Raul Grijalva from the 7th District of Arizona is the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. He has written to Bob Abbey, the BLM Director, about the proposed removal of 75 horses from the Pryor Mountain Herd.
In his letter he requests that the BLM program of "gathers", as the round-up and removal of wild horses is called, be suspended until the "profound problems" that plague the program be addressed, including the over 30,000 wild horses already rounded up that have been and continue to be kept for years in holding pens at taxpayer expense.
He notes a Government Accounting Office report from last year that states that the BLM is unable to determine with any accuracy how many horses the range can hold, that there are now more horses being held in confinement than there are in the wild, that there is no plan for these horses, and that it's hard to see why the horses were rounded up in the first place.
Entire herds of horses have been removed from the wild by the BLM.
19 million acres on which wild horses and burros formerly roamed have been taken from them and are no longer available to them, since the passing of the 1971 Act that was supposed to protect these beautiful wild animals.
Congressman Grijalva makes the point that continuing to conduct these round-ups is "unconscionable" on humane grounds.
The helicopter round-ups are very brutal and can result in injury and death to the horses.
He recommends that the BLM take a good look at the findings in the GAO report, and he calls on the BLM to suspend all round-ups.
Wild horses are being rounded up every year
Every year large numbers of wild horses are rounded up and separated from their herds, their families, and their way of life. The majority are condemned to spend the rest of their lives confined in enclosures.
Wild horses, like all wild animals, have an inherent right to live out their lives unmolested in the wild. They also have this as a legal right, which was the intent of the 1971 Wild Horses and Burros Act.
As well as the planned round-up of the Pryor Mountain Herd in Montana and the removal of around 75 of the 190 horses, there are other round-ups occurring in other states.
This fall the BLM plans to remove over 600 horses, 12 entire herds, from eastern Nevada. This will leave no wild horses in this area, where they have lived for hundreds of years, enjoying the peace and beauty of nature and running in freedom through the desert. These horses spend their entire lives with their parents and their brothers and sisters. To separate them from each other is inhumane.
What you can do
Please do not call the judge.
Please do contact your elected representatives and any media you feel might cover the story, as well as Bob Abbey, the Director of the BLM, and Ken Salazar, the Secretary of the Interior.
BLM Director, Bob Abbey
Call: 202-208-3801 or 866-468-7826
Fax: 202-208-5242
Robert_Abbey@blm.gov
Ken Salazar
Phone: 202-208-3100
E-Mail: feedback@ios.doi.gov
- To read Congressman Grijalva's letter in full, please click here.
- To read the two recent stories on the Best Friends network about these wild horses, please go to
http://network.bestfriends.org/golocal/international/news.aspx
http://network.bestfriends.org/golocal/international/news.aspx?pID=12815
Photo: Andrea Schafthuizen /www.publicdomainpictures.net