20 January 2012
Investigation of BLM Roundup Contractor Requested
Allegations filed with Interior Office of the Inspector General
WASHINGTON (Jan. 20, 2012) – The Cloud Foundation (TCF) of Colorado Springs, CO has requested an investigation into the contracting process which led to Sun J Livestock of Vernal, Utah, receiving millions of dollars in Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contracts to round up wild horses and burros in the West since the Fall of 2010. The request for an investigation was filed yesterday with the Interior Office of the Inspector General.
“Specifically, did Sun J have the requisite experience to obtain these BLM contracts?” asks Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of Colorado-based TCF. “Did the Sun J helicopter pilot, Josh Hellyer, have 1,500 hours of comparable experience conducting the humane round up of wild horses and burros? And was BLM aware of any experience short-comings prior to the issuance of contracts to Sun J?“
19 January 2012
A pale palomino was born on the Pryor Mountains in April of 2010. I named him Echo for obvious reasons. The colt was a spitfire from the get-go like his famous grandfather, Cloud. You can feel the magic when you are around this dynamic, bold colt—dangerously bold at times as he challenges older horses and even courted a young filly from Morning Star’s family.
22 December 2011
From Ginger Kathrens on the subject:
Great news! The Cloud Foundation, and others have succeeded in preventing the zeroing out of the Jakes Wash Herd of wild horses in the Pancake Complex of eastrn Nevada. BLM has also agreed to take gelding off the table! 200 stallions were to be captured, castrated and turned back onto the range. Read all about it here. I hope this signals a turnaround for the mustangs in 2012. Keep the faith, Happy Holidays and Happy Trails!
- Ginger
Cross-posted from AWHPC
For Immediate Release
BLM Postpones Radical Wild Horse Elimination and Castration Plan in Response to Federal Lawsuit
Environmental and Conservation Groups Fight to Stop Latest Government Plan to Destroy Wild Horse Herds
Washington, DC (December 21, 2011) ... Today, in response to a lawsuit filed by a coalition of environmental and wild horse advocacy groups, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has agreed to postpone its plans to "zero out" (eliminate all wild horses from) the Jakes Wash Herd Management Area (HMA) in Nevada and to replace 200 wild, free-roaming stallions with castrated males and return them to the range. These “scientifically unsound, controversial, untested, and radical approaches” are part of the BLM’s proposed Pancake Complex roundup, which is set to begin on January 12, 2011.
16 December 2011
BLM proposed removal targets youngest of famous Pryor Mountain Mustangs
Cloud’s family and other wild horse families threatened
BILLINGS, Mont. (Dec. 16, 2011) - The Montana Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Billings Field Office issued a Preliminary Environment Assessment outlining plans to strip at least half of the young wild horses from the Pryor Mountains in 2012. The BLM preferred alternative would result in a loss of 20% of the herd and 50% of the young horses, ages one-three, in order to reach their Appropriate Management Level (AML) of 90-120 set in the Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) of 2009.
When Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Ginger Kathrens recorded a tottering newborn wild foal, she hardly anticipated how he would change her life. She named the pale colt Cloud.
