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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Wild Horses Die to Clear the West for Industry Each morning, dawn touches fewer wild horses on America's Western range lands. Roundups by the Bureau of Land Management clear the way for a tsunami of industrialization. Senate confirmation of Interior Secretary-designate, Rep. Ryan Zinke, advocates looser environmental regulations for extractive industries. He proposed legislation to open horse slaughter plants in the West.
Nevadans Velma "Wild Horse Annie" Johnston and Carrol Able spend their lives fighting for America's wild horses. It seemed like a good time to give them their say, again.
I sat down with Wild Horse Annie
today. We had quite the conversation. I complained of how convoluted her law
had become, how it was now a life sentence for the very animals it was intended
to protect. She listened quietly, never uttering a word. “We really need your
help.” I told her. She offered no reply.
The grass surrounding us was cool damp; refreshing, the day warm and clear. I closed my eyes and imagined a
band of wild horses grazing peacefully nearby. How fitting it would have been.
But alas! Imaginings are nothing more than imaginings. There were no wild
horses and Wild Horse Annie was not going to answer.
Beside me was a small and unassuming
grave marker. In that, it was much like the woman buried there. Beneath the
name Velma B. Johnston, Wild Horse Annie and the dates March 5, 1912 - June 27,
1977 are three mustangs, running wild and free. As I ran my fingers across the
relief and looked closer at the image, I realized there was something
unexpectedly ominous portrayed there.
The running mustang trio has reached
the edge of a dangerous precipice with no choice left but to jump. The last of
the three is rearing and looking over his shoulder as if deciding whether to
fight or flee. Tears started flowing when I put the scene in the context of the
battle we’re waging today.
I started sobbing like a crazy fool and blurted out,
“Help me! I don’t know what else to do.”
It was then that a voice came to me,
a gentle but strong whisper in my ear.
“FIGHT”
it said, “Fight like a wild stallion.”
Labels: BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Congress, Department of Interior, Interior Secretary, Velma Johnston, West, wild horse advocate, wild horse Annie, wild horses, Zinke Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:15 AM 0 comments  
Saturday, October 24, 2015 BLM Cares Really, Truly, Deeply About Wild Horses BLM 2008: Killing captive wild horses “magic bullet for budget problems"BLM 2015: Killing captive wild horses sold to Tom Davis in 2008 was "deceitful"
According to
the Associated Press ”Steven Ellis, the BLM’s deputy director of operations, lamented
Davis’ ‘deceitful actions.’”
I mean, BLM had absolutely no idea what Davis had done with 1,794 federally-protected wild horses.
Really?
It’s been
almost 7 years to the day since my op-ed in the Reno Gazette Journal quoted then-BLM Deputy Director Henri Bisson who suggested killing captive wild horses might be a “magic bullet for budget problems".
At the same time, Susie Stokke, then Nevada’s Wild Horse and
Burro Program Manager, told KUNR that though BLM spends millions on many
programs, “aggressive management of wild horses is the magic bullet for BLM budget
shortfall.”
2008: Sally Spencer, director of program which sold wild horses to Davis:
I mean, it almost sounds like a policy had been born.
Still, after the publication of the Op-Ed and a longer blog on the same topic, I heard from Spencer
who asked why I’d turned on the BLM. I responded that I was tired of lies, and never heard from her again.
The Denver Post
quotes the report : “Between 2008 and 2012, Davis spent $17,940 on horses from
the BLM... “ and “BLM spent more than $140,000 delivering the horses to Davis…”
If this wasn't an attempt to balance the BLM budget on the backs of wild horses, what was it?
Before this report came out, I asked BLM questions about Tom Davis and other wild horse policies. They never answered, so I turned to government websites.
"Myth #2: It is the BLM's policy to sell or send wild horses to slaughter. Fact: This charge is absolutely false. The Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management care deeply about the well-being of wild horses" But they sent them to slaughter, just the same. ------------------
Author's Note: Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt pushed back its publication deadline
to give the agency over a year to respond to inquiries about wild horses, but BLM chose not to answer a single question
on the record for my recent non-fiction book, Wild At Heart: Mustangs and the Young People Fighting to Save Them
Labels: BLM, Department of Interior, Henri Bisson, horse slaughter, kill buyers, mustangs, Office of the Inspector General, Sally Spencer, slaughter, Steven Ellis, Susan Stokke, Tom Davis, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 1:13 AM 3 comments
Wednesday, January 16, 2013 Blood Legacy of Outgoing Secretary of Interior Dear Readers,Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar ran the Bureau of Land Management for 4 years and stripped the Western range of 35,000 wild horses.One-third of the captive horses were adopted, but at least 1,000 of those went to slaughter.Fewer than 32,000 mustangs remain in the wild, today.
This is your reality : another careless Secretary of the Interior, another 4 years like the last four mean there will be no more mustangs.Please watch and care,TerriLabels: adoption, BLM, Cat Kindsfather, Department of Interior, ghost dancer, horse slaughter, Ken Salazar, mustangs, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 11:24 PM 0 comments
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