Terri Farley

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

WILL WILD HORSES BE THANKFUL FOR YOU?

My friend Palomino is in South Dakota at a failed wild horse rescue. The horses will go to a slaughter auction if they're not rescued by December 1.

PLEASE READ TO THE END TO SEE HOW YOU CAN HELP!

".. we have saved about 25% of the horses so far. When you look at how many are still out there, your heart breaks. But, for the horses that have been saved, it is EVERYTHING. The situation is fast coming to a close, and I can't imagine it being a happy one. We officially have 7 days left. It is terribly painful to get to know these horses and realize that we won't be able to save them all.

The stallions are fighting non stop as we break their hearts. Every time we steal their families, they fight more and it is obvious they are hurting. They run the fence line, screaming for their families.

My heart is breaking and it makes you physically ill. Every night when your head hits the pillow, it all comes crashing down. Knowing how many of these horses will probably be slaughtered, the stallions especially, is too much to bear.

These horses never ever did anything to deserve this. There is too much pain here to cry away, but every morning you get back up and start over. We will keep fighting until the bitter end and bring home as many horses as we have funding for.."

Here's how you can help:

1) Make a $50 tax-deductible donation here: http://www.chillypepper.org/donate--support.html

2) Under comments write WILD AT HEART.
When Palomino notifies me, I'll send you FREE autographed books:
WILD AT HEART: Mustangs and the Young People Fighting to Save Them
and
"Wild One" PHANTOM STALLION #1

If you’d like the books personalized, please indicate the first name of the recipient

3) Because this donation helps fund emergency rescue, this offer ends December 1, 2016 or when I run out of the (30) books I bought from my publisher -- specifically to donate!

Labels: books, donate, foals, horse slaughter, mares, Palomino Armstrong, phantom stallion, stallions, Wild at Heart, wild horses

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Posted by Terri Farley @ 11:08 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 27, 2016

Where's Mama? : What Happens to Foals After a Wild Horse Roundup

WASHINGTON, DC (June 23, 2016 ) Republicans on the Federal Lands Sub-Committee launched a plan for the extinction of America's wild horses. Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming purred that euthanasia is "such a lovely way to die." An alternate strategy? Round up 100% of America's wild horses so they won't suffer on the range.

Here's what happens to wild foals if they survive roundups. I was at Palomino Valley Wild Horse corrals with photographer Karen Hopple a few years ago when these foals arrived.
The first filly out of the contractor's truck tumbled out backward, but kept her balance. Most horses were sorrels, but there were also bays, duns and paler horses, including a palomino.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZWDI8spqRRO4F4xoZWUVggDcWgJTbVn-r8yxu23D3oINu692CgRWNyq0SDzMxZU_GhVLjsueEYI7Ub-tWmjLXmr3oZZSZeMIITSnws32P5TUhTaQZnpXATL_XBj0-u5Govc5/s1600/Antelope16foalswaitmoms.jpg

Bodies huddled together as close as possible, the foals stared at the truck which still held their mothers. Only a few pairs were reunited.

The red chestnut foal with blaze, pictured at blog-top, was so traumatized by roundup, shipment and loss of her family, her face was frozen in this expression the entire time I was there.
She and a few others tried to nurse from other foals.
This method of self-soothing indicates these babies are too young to be separated from their mothers, even though they met BLM's guidelines for weaning.
This is a perversion of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 and if you're an American tax-payer, you're paying for it.


Too young to be taken from her mother, a foal tries to nurse another baby (Photos by Karen Hopple)

Labels: BLM, BLM roundup, contractors, euthanasia, filly, foal, mares, mustang, Palomino Valley, Rep. Cynthia Lummis, weaning, wild horses, Wyoming

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Posted by Terri Farley @ 3:00 AM 10 comments

Monday, April 11, 2016

Still Studiously Ignorant of Modern Science: BLM on Wild Horses

Roundup photo by Melissa Farlow for WILD AT HEART: Mustangs and the Young People Fighting to Save Them

Dear Readers,
Research for Wild at Heart took me into the issue of wild horse birth control. It's a rarely needed "solution" to a man-made problem that had to be explored.
Instead of accepting remote darting (like you've seen on wildlife TV specials), BLM and Oregon State University want to experiment with spaying, shown in this video.

In 2012, US District Judge Beryl Howell, ruling on BLM wild horse policy declared that BLM “may not simply remain studiously ignorant of material scientific evidence well known to the agency and brought directly to its attention in timely-filed comments”. Sadly, she was wrong.

Here is my letter to BLM, Oregon State University and Wild Horse Advisory Board members.

Greetings:
In a 2013 report, NAS recommended birth control darting for wild horse herds which demonstrated a need for management. The Humane Society of the United States concurred.

“Bureaucracy Interrupted,” HSUS’s analysis of BLM’s budget documents indicated, “…the more money Congress appropriates in response to the Bureau’s plans for reform, the more the program costs (and animals in long-term holding) increase instead of the other way around.”

Despite consensus from all credible agencies that it’s cheaper and more humane to manage wild horses on the range, BLM remains stubbornly opposed to modern management techniques.

Instead, the Bureau offered $10 million to anyone who found a new means of birth control, as they paid independent contractors to chase, trap and corral the West’s remaining wild horses.

Now, Oregon State University and BLM are fired-up to experiment on mustangs with spaying surgery. “Let’s see what happens” is a bad strategy when test subjects are alive and answers are at hand. At least 10% of spayed mares died at the Sheldon Refuge. Many others were released and not tracked. Another example? BLM facilities have a high mortality rate in gelded stallions (a procedure considered safe and routine for domestic horses). But these are wild animals. They are not unconscious and are traumatized. If they don’t go into shock and die, they often succumb to a lack of post-op care.

This crosses the line from experimentation to molestation. Can you really believe sterilization will be different for wild mares? Can you ethically substitute hope for experience?

Sincerely,

Terri Farley

Labels: BLM, BLM round ups, gelding, mares, mortality rate, mustangs, Oregon State University, spaying, sterilization, wild horses

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Posted by Terri Farley @ 12:28 PM 0 comments

My friend Palomino is in South Dakota at a failed wild horse rescue. The horses will go to a slaughter auction if they're not rescued by December 1.

PLEASE READ TO THE END TO SEE HOW YOU CAN HELP!

Here's how you can help:

In 2012, US District Judge Beryl Howell, ruling on BLM wild horse policy declared that BLM “may not simply remain studiously ignorant of material scientific evidence well known to the agency and brought directly to its attention in timely-filed comments”. Sadly, she was wrong.