BLM threat

Dear Friends of Cloud and his herd and all wild horses;

About the time you think it can’t get any worse, it does. The outrageous and unthinkable is being proposed by BLM---killing our wild horses because they say there are too many on the range and in holding facilities!

BLM has indicated a need to euthanize wild horses because the care and feeding is costing them too much money. In other words they have decided that they will now start killing mustangs to balance their budget. This message was delivered on Monday, June 30, at a meeting of the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Meeting in Reno. Henri Bisson, deputy director of BLM recommended that wild horses be euthanized to alleviate what he wrongly characterizes as an over-population of horses on the range (approximately 32,000 according to BLM—this is an inflated number) and accurately states are 33,000 in holding facilities. Bisson stated that caring for so many animals has crippled the agency’s budget.

Of course, BLM created the problem by removing some 70,000 wild horses from their homes in just the past five years! They have managed our mustangs to the very brink of extinction and now they want to kill off the few that remain.

How could this happen? Montana Senator Conrad Burns took the protection language out of the Wild Horse and Burro Act by slipping his stealth amendment into the Appropriations Bill in 2004. Euthanasia had been prohibited prior to this.
Thankfully, Burns was defeated in 2006 by Jon Tester. Yet, the protections have not been reinstated into the Act and, ironically, Jon Tester now sits on the Committee that is blocking legislation which would put the protections for our mustangs back in the Act. (Click here to see members of Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Ask them to put the protections back in the Wild Horse and Burro Act to protect our mustangs from being killed by the BLM.)

What does this latest BLM move mean in real terms for our mustangs and specifically Cloud’s herd? We really can’t be sure as no details were laid out at the meeting. Which horses do they plan to kill first? We don’t know.

In the meantime, BLM in Billings has issued an Environment Assessment. This EA is separate and apart from the long range HMAP with comments due on July 11. This EA would allow for the removal of up to 38 Pryor wild horses beginning as early as July 25.
(Click here to read the EA)

Targeted will be mostly young animals and I fully expect that BLM will remove a Cloud daughter and granddaughter, Rain and Arrow, if they can catch them in the bait traps. Perhaps even little Shadow, the September filly who survived in spite of a hard winter could be removed. Comments to the EA are due by July 25.

It is now even more critical that we speak up! Please call and write the BLM in Billings and the Senators in Montana urging them to leave the horses alone. They are safe on their range. Because of the BLM efforts to euthanize our mustangs, we don’t know what might happen to them if they are removed.Please ask the Senators to work with BLM and the Custer National Forest supervisor on legally expanding the Pryor range to allow for a truly viable population that can live in peace in their rightful home.

Now is not the time to be timid. Make calls to the Senators in Montana, write or email the BLM in Billings, talk to your local newspaper and your Congressional representatives. Communicate with everyone you can think of to let them know what is happening. We WILL NOT let them kill our mustangs. Not now. Not ever!

Happy Trails!
Ginger Kathrens

P.S. The Jon Tester toll free number may not work for everyone. Try calling these numbers instead:
Sen. Tester's Washington DC office: (202) 224-2644
Sen. Tester's Montana office: Tracy Stone Manning in Missoula at (406) 726-3003
or Bill Lombardi in Helena at (406) 449-5401

P.P.S. Cloud airs nationally on Nature this Sunday night, July 6th. Tell your friends to watch and to join us in preserving the freedom that our mustangs represent on this Independence Day weekend!

Click here to sign a petition to save Cloud's herd!

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