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Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Wild Horse Roundups : Who calls an emergency?
Christmas Week, Eagle and Silver King gather: Helicopters contractors paid to prowl Nevada's high desert and spot wild horses' shelters from blizzards, had flushed put and captured 18 mustang stallions, 16 mares and 9 foals befor the Bureau of Land Management declared snowstorms a hazard to pilots and aircraft. Today BLM plans to continue its "emergency" round up. BLM says these wild horses come too close to the road.Why is this wild horse round-up an emergency? No, wait, these are excess mustangs. That's the emergency. Most members of the public only know what BLM said in its press release. It announced a race to remove 100 "excess" wild horses from public and private lands “to provide for public and animal safety.” Either or neither could be true, because: Self-declared Bureau of Land Management emergencies do not require environmental assessments
Emergency gathers aren't uncommon in BLM wild horse management. Just this year they've had emergencies in places like Three Fingers, Oregon and Caliente, Wood Hills, Tunnel Springs, CherrySpring and Silver King, Nevada.
Were these true emergencies? We must listen to BLM's "trust me" because the streamlined process only requires a
BLM staffer -- often a field office manager responding to a rancher-tenant who wants mustangs off "his" land -- to report an "emergency" situation to a state program
lead. The lead contacts the Washington, D,C, office. Then,
"If timing permits, a gather plan environmental assessment is prepared prior to any removal of wild horses or burros in response to the emergency. If this is not possible, a report is prepared after the action is taken. The public is notified via at least a news release." (Jason Lutterman,Public Affairs Specialist (On Range), National Wild Horse and Burro Program and BLM handbook ) 
No shelter for wild horses at BLM's Broken Arrow facility, but that's no emergency. It's where mustangs go
after Christmas week Eagle /Silver King gather 2016 (BLM photo)
These days, I try to give BLM the benefit of the doubt by listening to sources inside the agency if they'll talk with me. There's a real danger America's pubic lands and wildlife will be handed over to slaughter-friendly states in 2017 and, despite its flaws, BLM is--under law -- restricted in their treatment of wild equines. Still, I can't swallow "after the action is taken" explanations because I've been in California grazing association meetings, where a BLM field manager coodled ranchers with wild horse worries, by promising, "Anything we can do to assist you, we will. Anything." One element of "anything" turned out to be the 2015 round-up of 1,070 wild horses and the admitted deaths of 16. But that was another time. Now, I urge you to sign up for Google.com/alerts for news on wild horses. Even though I've covered BLM's handling of our wild horses for 30 years, I haven't been skeptical enough. Too often when they've said "Trust me," I should've heard "I'm lying." You can help me and the wild horses. 
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Labels: BLM, BLM staffer, emergency round-ups, gathers, helicopters, round-ups, snow, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:11 PM 0 comments  
Thursday, December 13, 2012 FOR THE LOVE OF WILD HORSES For the love of wild horses...
By Susan Skorupa, Reno Gazette JournalIt seems like poetic justice -- or at least good karma -- that novelist and wild-horse advocate Terri Farley ended up living in Nevada.As a girl in Southern California, the future author of the 24-book Phantom Stallion young-adult book series learned to ride despite a severe allergy to horses. By the time she was 8 years old, she was writing about horses, pecking out her first story -- about a wild pinto named Pagan -- on her grandmother's Selectric typewriter.As an adult, she moved to Reno with her husband, journalist Cory Farley, where one of the first people she met was Wildhorse Annie -- real name Velma Johnston -- a fellow horse advocate who died in 1977.
Today, Farley continues to write and to champion wild horses. Her efforts include being a party in a lawsuit filed last year, but later dismissed, aimed at stopping a U.S. Bureau of Land Management practice of rounding up wild horses and moving them to long-term holding facilities. Where did your love of horses come from? Part of it was, I lived in suburban Los Angeles. I did not get around horses often. I was practically terminally allergic to things with hair. Once a month, my parents took me to a stable. Between the hay, dust and the horses, I would end up in the emergency room. They (my parents) would suffer with me. I outgrew that, and began to hang around horses more. What came first, the advocacy for wild horses or the book series? I'd always cared for wild horses "» so one grew out of the other. When we moved here, I realized this was the wild horse capital of the world. They were not that far away; I could actually go out and see them. When writing romance stories, there were threads of the horse subplots. My agent said, "That's what you should write about. You can go see them, then you can write about them as something symbolic."
I understand the your fans keep in contact with you on wild horse issues through mail, email and other electronic media. I love it. I guess if I had a legacy in books and horses, it would not be a bad one. They (young readers) are ready to take action. I have a blog, a newsletter, 3,000 are on it. "» Kids can see they don't have to just stand and complain. They can do something. If that becomes a habit (for them), that will make me very happy. PhantomStallion.com Select, Sample, Purchase books: PHANTOM STALLION : http://amzn.to/Z3GJQt Labels: BLM, love of horses, Melissa Farlow, mustang, phantom stallion, round-ups, terri farley, Velma Johnston, wild horse Annie, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 2:29 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 Captured Calico Wild Horses Denied Shelter from Storms Captured Calico Wild Horses Denied Windbreaks BLM’s double-standards leave nearly 1000 captured mustangs in the cold Fallon, NV (January 19, 2010)— 956 wild American mustangs rounded up off public land by helicopters in the past two weeks now stand in a feedlot-style Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contracted holding facility outside of Fallon, Nevada on private land. The new Fallon facility is not equipped with shelter, windbreaks or protection of any kind for the horses. High winds, rain and snow are expected to continue through the end of the week. In Calico, herds can move to sheltered canyons for protection from the harsh winter weather. Yet, in Fallon, they are deprived of adequate protection despite recommendations from wild horse advocates. This is in direct opposition to BLM’s own standards. “I’m confused by the double standard. Before members of the public are allowed to adopt a wild horse from BLM we must prove we have adequate shelter. Why doesn’t BLM have to meet the same standards?” asks Ann Evans, adopter of three mustangs. Yesterday, members of the public reported an inhumane lack of windbreaks. No apparent effort has been made to tie canvas tarps on fences to block the howling wind and the anticipated driving snow. On Friday January 15, advocates asked local Nevada BLM staff, Directors and top-level Department of Interior (DOI) under-secretaries to intervene on behalf of the horses by creating wind blocks. "Those that care about the welfare of the wild horses or burros are asking for minimal protection for these vulnerable animals. Wild horse families are being ripped out of their natural environment where they can take care of themselves, separated from their family members and incarcerated on a windswept plain outside Fallon where they have no ability to protect themselves from the elements. BLM then tells the public their actions are for the good of the animals,” states Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation (named for the famous wild horse Kathrens has documented for the PBS/Nature series) The DOI and BLM responded that at the just constructed Fallon facility “weather is not that extreme to require wind breaks for healthy horses. . . they do not require protection from the elements to maintain good health. . . .there is nothing to be concerned about from an animal well-being standpoint.” Thus, no actions to protect the captured horses have taken place, not even for foals or sick horses. Advocates contend that the horses are more prone to strangles (equine distemper) due to the lack of adequate protection. “When these horses were rounded up, some where limping and wet with sweat. They are now terribly traumatized, depressed and confused. Their immune systems are compromised, making them more vulnerable to illness, like strangles (equine distemper) and death,” explains Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist, third generation Nevada native, and witness to the Calico roundup. “BLM continually tells the public and the media that the wild horses are starving and must be removed from the range. Yet, the BLM provides them with no shelter in dangerous weather conditions where the horses will burn fat reserves attempting to keep warm. No reputable rescue would place any horses in a situation like Fallon,” stated Hilary Wood, President and Founder of Front Range Equine Rescue.. When asked about the lack of windbreaks the BLM indicated that the contractor who built the facility was not asked to provide any shelters or windbreaks. BLM zeroed out a portion of the Dishpan Butte wild horse herd in Wyoming solely on the basis that the wild horses did not have cover according to BLM Program Chief Don Glenn. “We owe so much to these mustangs—it’s a dishonor that our government does not provide wind protection from the harsh elements,” said Elyse Gardner, humane observer, Calico and Pryor Mountains roundups The Cloud Foundation and the public call on Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar, to stop the Calico roundup and take immediate action against the cruelty and mismanagement of the BLM's wild horse and burro program. Canvas tarps are affordable and readily available at various outlets in the Reno/Fallon area. ### Labels: BLM, Calico Complex, Cloud Foundation, mustangs, round-ups, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 7:34 PM 1 comments
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