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Monday, March 17, 2014
Nevada Governor must rescue Nevada Mustangs 
The Virginia Range wild horses fall
under the control of the Nevada Department of Agriculture. State laws
designate them “stray livestock” no matter how many generations they’ve roamed the sagebrush hills of the Silver State.
This means they can be and are taken to livestock auctions where they are sold by the pound to kill buyers. Wild horse advocates worldwide asked Nevada Governor Bryan Sandoval to halt the “trap – castrate – destroy” cycle.
October 4,
2013: private-public partnership is created to cut NDA costs and save mustangs.
January 2014: ,ASPCA’s Kevin O'Neill and
wild horse advocates meet with NDA to express concern at the Department's failure to implement agreement. Advocates are told action is pending.
February: wild horse trapping continues
March 2014
: silence from the governor’s office as NDA reverts to “trap – castrate –
destroy”
Today: Email, Phone, Fax the Governor and tell him to act on this win-win way to humanely manage the Virginia Range horses
ON THE RANGE through the proposed private-public partnership.
CARSON CITY - Phone: (775) 684-5670 - Fax: (775) fax: (775) 684-5683
LAS VEGAS - Phone: (702) 486-2500 - Fax: (702) 486-2505
Labels: Governor Brian Sandoval, kill buyers, slaughter auction, Virginia Range wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 6:56 AM 0 comments  
Friday, August 16, 2013 My First Trip to a WILD HORSE Slaughter Auction
Dear Readers, I'm counting down the minutes. Federal Judge Miranda Du set a hearing by teleconference for 1:30 p.m. today to decide whether to grant a temporary restraining order suspending the auction of over 400 wild horses. It's 3:35 p.m. I don't want to return to the Fallon Livestock Exchange tomorrow. My heart hasn't mended from the first time. My First Trip to a Slaughter AuctionFor years, I've known that wild horses and their tame cousins are sent to livestock auctions where they face "kill buyers." I wrote such an auction in GIFT HORSE. It was based on interviews and research. On January 9 of this year, I attended a slaughter auction. My heart falls heavy in my chest when I think about it and my throat aches like it's full of splinters when I try to talk about it. I went to this auction to find 41 wild horses which had been trapped by the Nevada Department of Agriculture. Members of the Hidden Valley Wild Horse Preservation Campaign hoped to use donations -- from people around the world! -- to buy back the wild ones. But the horses that I can't forget were domestic horses. Trailered for miles and then left in strange corrals, they neighed and whinnied after their owners. Before the auction Shannon Windle and I walked around looking for the mustangs, but the horses that came up to fences, puzzled and friendly, were cow ponies, race horses, a burned-out endurance horse and mounts that had helped children learn to ride. Herded down a chute and into the auction ring, many realized they were in danger. So, they did what they'd learned to do. They trotted up to the edge of the auction ring and nudged at boots of audience members. Those horses had been raised as pets or at least, trained to trust humans. They didn't know where they were. They didn't understand what was expected of them. They didn't know why they were in an unfamiliar place that smelled of fear. Ironically, they turned for help to the species that had betrayed them. I think the only thing that kept me using my head during that long, long day, was doing a series of live posts via Twitter, for horse lovers far away. I hope I don't ever have to do it again. Labels: fallon livestock exchange, kill buyers, live Tweet, Rambles, slaughter auction, wild horses Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 4:36 PM 2 comments
Sunday, January 13, 2013 Tumbleweed Heart: mustang filly's first violent month of life has happy ending Dear Readers, I'm sure you remember the photos of this mustang foal being abused by the private security staff of a Reno land developer. After being trapped and hauled around by her fragile neck, Diamond was picked up by the Nevada Department of Agriculture. She was loaded into a horse trailer and taken to to the Nevada State Prison with her herd. There, her father, brothers and cousins were castrated. At the prison, she waited, with no idea of what would happen next. 
On Wednesday, January 9, Diamond and her family were jammed into a 42 mustang shipment. They arrived in Fallon, Nevada for a slaughter auction After live goats, cattle and pet horses were sold for meat, the Nevada mustangs were shoved, one-by-one, into a filthy, muddy arena the size of your living room. The noise of the auctioneer, the snapping of whips, the smell of humans and manure-smeared walls assaulted Diamond's nose. The terror was even worse, because Diamond was alone. For some reason, auction staff separated the two. In the photos below, you'll see Diamond standing at the exit door. I took this photo as she whinnied to her mother, who neighed frantically on the other side. When Diamond couldn't get to her mother, she trotted back and appealed to the auction ring staff.
There was no help there, but we were able to buy her, along with the rest of the Virginia Range herds. Hidden Valley Wild Horse fund bought-back 29 Nevada mustangs for $7,000. Finally, the horses were brought back to pastures on the edge of the Nevada range they know. They'll never run free again, but little Diamond is with her family.  Home again.
Labels: Diamond, foal abuse, Nevada Department of Agriculture, slaughter auction Permalink to this blog post Posted by Terri Farley @ 2:30 AM 0 comments
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