NOWHERE TO HIDE: CALLING FOR A CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION OF BLM AS THEY SEND AT LEAST 1,700 WILD HORSES STRAIGHT TO -- WHERE?

    produced with DreamCatcher Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary

For two decades many have known that somethings smells funny about the Bureau of Land Management ‘s “long-term holding” aspect of the wild horse program, and the foul odor isn’t coming from the horses.

The spiriting away of up to 11,000 captured wild horses yearly, who have been rounded up and sent east into leased long-term holding pastures on private ranches behind locked gates where no private citizen is permitted to visit or verify unless a "public tour" has been arranged, has long aroused deep concern about the longterm holding program. Questions became suspicions about whether all the wild horses who arrived there were safely grazing away, living happily-ever-after, idyllic lives on rolling hills of green among their same-sex wild horse friends as BLM officials staunchly claim.

BLM’s Lili Thomas admitted that BLM did indeed sell wild horses straight out of longterm holding at a national public meeting in June 2010, stating they would not sort out and sell or adopt out an individual horse; rather, horses were sold by the truckload/trailer load to appropriate buyers.  Who would buy mature wild horses by the truckload, we asked?  BLM assured us buyers were appropriately screened. No answer was satisfactory or really made sense – until now.  Seriously, of what value of possible use are 10 to 30 wild, untouched horses unless someone is a known sanctuary?  We can reasonably assume such quantities of horses would be sold to slaughterhouses across the Mexican and Canadian borders. 

When I called BLM concerned about a shipment of wild horses intercepted on their way to (Mexican) slaughter in 2011, BLM'S Sally Spencer, Supervising Marketing Specialist in charge of BLM's adoption program, acknowledged she had approved that sale and told me we needed to have Congress change the law if we wanted to change how BLM does business.  Well, I'm writing to Congress to change the way Ms. Spencer does business for BLM.

Reading the article, the signs point to destination-slaughter:   Mr. President, Congress: Where are YOU with this?

This article reveals that the way Ms. Spencer has been conducting business for BLM is contrary to the public position BLM has consistently taken, i.e., that they do not sell horses to slaughter although they legally can do just that, which is why we need to press our Congressional representatives to change the law. 

I am personally sickened by the reality that Ms. Spencer, whose hand I have shaken, appears to be keeping her eyes wide shut to the virtually certain gruesome fate of at least 1,700 horses that we know about.

Even more eye-widening, most of these horses didn't even make it to longterm holding behind closed gates: these big, older horses were authorized by Ms. Spenser to be sold in trailer loads straight out of "short-term" pens, i.e., fresh off the range.  

IT IS TIME FOR A CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION.   60 Minutes, Diane Sawyer, you want a story of intrigue and corruption evidently spanning decades?  Working with Wild Horse Education, journalist Dave Philipps has connected the dots, and we find that decades-old BLM duplicity and -- ?  We need a real investigation.

U P D A T E:  

Criticism  has been voiced by some about the timing of this story (since a parallel investigation into these issues was apparently ongoing), and it has confused some people.  I'm asked: "What should we do?"

Bring it back to the issue:  Look at the terrified, freshly captured horses in the photo above.

In the trap pen, lathered and steaming in below-freezing cold

From a practical reality position, the issue for us, the public, is clear:  the facts that we do have are now public, this story is now public, and we must not hesitate to voice our outrage and concern to our representatives.  We are responsible for the information we do have, which is not disputed, and debating about the story's timing is something we can and should do privately.  The facts are that while BLM is running out of places to put wild horses they keep removing, a pro-slaughter person (Calli Hendrickson) was appointed to the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, and the public needs to be speaking up because the pro-slaughter forces are moving in.

We are calling for a Congressional investigation of BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program and Ms. Spencer's administrative leave immediately effective while she is investigated.  Even more troubling is BLM will likely say she was just doing her job as she approved the sales of  animals under the circumstances you are about to read in Dave Philipps' groundbreaking work, All the Missing Horses: What Happened to Wild Horses Tom Davis Bought from the BLM?

When you have finished reading and are ready to take action, click here to easily find your Senators' phone number and email address, and if you don't know who your representatives are, then click here to easily find your Congressional representatives and their phone and email information.

Read on...
All the Missing Horses: What Happened to the Wild Horses Tom Davis Bought From the Gov’t? 

A lone mustang who escaped the helicopters watches a Bureau of Land Management roundup in the Stone Cabin Valley in Nevada during the winter of 2012. (Dave Philipps)

The Bureau of Land Management faced a crisis this spring. 

The agency protects and manages herds of wild horses that still roam the American West, rounding up thousands of them each year to keep populations stable.

But by March, government pens and pastures were nearly full. Efforts to find new storage space had fallen flat. So had most attempts to persuade members of the public to adopt horses. Without a way to relieve the pressure, the agency faced a gridlock that would invite lawsuits and potentially cause long-term damage to the range. 

So the BLM did something it has done increasingly over the last few years. It turned to a little-known Colorado livestock hauler named Tom Davis who was willing to buy hundreds of horses at a time, sight unseen, for $10 a head. 

The BLM has sold Davis at least 1,700 wild horses and burros since 2009, agency records show -- 70 percent of the animals purchased through its sale program.

Click here to read full story

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY QUESTIONABLE AS BLM COR MELANIE MIRATI ADMITS ORDERING THE HOTSHOTTING OF AN INJURED WILD HORSE DURING CALICO TRI-STATE COMPLEX ROUNDUP; and ANSWERS ARE LONG IN COMING FOR MARE SHOT FROM TEMPORARY HOLDING

                 Melanie Mirati, BLM's replacement COR for the Calico Tri-State complex, acknowledges ordering a hotshot be used on an injured, downed horse they struggled for 10 minutes to free from his stuck position in a stock trailer.  A review of my film, below, reveals he got stuck when being packed in like sardines, the last horse forced into an untenable situation, a customary habit among BLM ground personnel and roundup contractors eager to fill up each trailer load for economics. 

             I've put together my film of the incident, below, so I can walk you through exactly what happened as we saw it.  The brief interview is at the end. 

             For the tender hearted (that's a lot of us), my rating of this film is G; this film shows people trying to get a horse unstuck and doing unsavory, upsetting things at times, but it isn't graphic or violently upsetting.  You can only see just enough to know what is going on.  

                   For starters, contrary to Ms. Mirati's statement in this brief interview, this horse was given zero time to rest and collect himself before being hotshotted and forced to stand after being down, injured, and stuck in the trailer for 10 long minutes as those he feared most struggled none too gently to free him and then flagged, poked, prodded him relentlessly to stand.  I doubt he even comprehended what was being asked of him. 

                  She refers to the hotshot being an "acceptable" tool for "livestock" management.  That may or may not be the case for domestic horses, who also are not universally agreed to be "livestock," but certainly the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act treats wild horses as anything but livestock and decrees they are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the American west and are to be treated as an integral part of the natural system of public lands, not treated as livestock.  Additionally, the law states they are to be protected from capture, branding, harassment, and death.  A few minutes here, just a few simple minutes given to this lovely trapped animal who didn't intend to get his foot caught, could make the difference between harassment and compassion, between truly upholding this law and respecting this noble animal, or treating it as livestock, as Ms. Mirati openly admitted she does, whether she recognizes it or not.  

                 It is high time for the members of the Bureau of Land Management to take a personal inventory and reevaluate because Ms. Mirati may well be in violation of the law by treating these animals as livestock, and so would be every member of the elite Bureau of Land Management who does likewise.  

                 Ms. Mirati replaced Ashley Whitman as COR of this Tri-State Complex roundup, who was relieved of her duties after standing by doing nothing while burros were abusively hotshotted when the Sun J crew went into high gear to empty the trap pen for incoming horses rather than tell the pilot to hold off on bringing in more animals, as revealed by Ginger Kathrens' film when she attended the Calico roundup in December 2011.  Candidly, one wonders if Ms. Mirati would have responded any differently. 

Here this unfortunate stallion, whose injured front leg is finally free from being stuck inside the

   trailer, is given no time to calm down, has a rope around his neck and is having his head yanked. 

                I had reported on this in my previous blog post, Yes, It's Bad Enough for Me, and had posted Laura Leigh's video.  After Melanie confirmed her hot-shotting order, I decided to post my video and walk us through the actual event.  

                The day Ginger Kathrens filmed the abusive hotshotting of the burros, a BLM internal investigation and report was released which stated that as part of their investigation, animal welfare experts told BLM officials that electrical prods should be used only as a last resort when human or animal safety is in jeopardy.  

                 This situation, with an injured, downed horse who was shutting down, docile, convinced he was going to die, doesn't come close to meeting that criteria.  He endures poking, prodding, pulling, flagging, with a completely subdued, submissive spirit, surrounded by humans he greatly fears, yet there was no fight, no resistance.  Contrary to Ms. Mirati's statement in her brief interview, he was given no time to collect himself and decide to stand on his own. 

                 The crew makes an attempt to hide the use of the hotshot, but the behavior of the horse gave it away, and when confronted with the question, Ms. Mirati admitted she asked for the hotshot to be used on this horse. 

                 Another concern I want to report on:

                 Farewell to this lovely mare...

                  I saw and photographed this lovely mare on the one day the public was permitted to tour the last Temporary Holding area for this 2012 Calico roundup.  She was down, had been given banamine according to Ms. Mirati, and we were to "keep walking" so we didn't upset her.  

One has to wonder what goes on behind the scenes.  I was under the distinct impression she was to be given time, like overnight, to improve.  I read in the Gather Updates that she was euthanized later that same day. Perhaps I misunderstood the timeline.  But what concerns me is the manner of her death:

                 I'm told she was killed by firearm, and I've been trying to learn why this unfortunate young mare, by the looks of her, was forced as her last living act to load into a trailer, obviously feeling very ill and/or in pain, and be driven off alone to be shot when she could have been administered an overdose injection if she in fact needed to be euthanized at all. I am waiting for her necropsy, as well.  

                 But the very worst thing a person can do to these very social, herd animals is isolate them from others of their kind, especially under stressful circumstances like a roundup.  The circumstances of her death haunt me. 

                 I will update as I receive information.  

26 February 2010: CALICO HAS LOST ITS LIGHTNING - LIGHTNING LOSES ALL

QUESTION:HOW DO YOU MARGINALIZE LIGHTNING?

                  LIGHTNING of the Calico Mountains

                                           ©2009 Photography by Craig Downer

                   Here is the powerful, charismatic Lightning, who stood watching the two-leggers, confident but alert and protective as he observed the men in his world. 

ANSWER: TWO HELICOPTERS, THE BLM, AND $67.5 million.

                      ©2010 Photography by Elyse Gardner

            In October 2009, this extraordinary stallion captivated Craig Downer, who was out on a bittersweet trip  visiting the wild horses in the Calico mountains.  Craig named him "Lightning" both for the distinctive markings he bears and for his energy and magnetism.  Lightning pranced, cavorted, and sparred with a visiting Mahogany stallion.

            The immense roundup in the five contiguous Herd Management Areas comprising the "Calico Complex" was scheduled to start in two months, with a goal of denuding the mountains of 2700 out of her supposedly 3095 horses.  Like many of us who love these horses, wildlife ecologist Craig Downer wanted to see them living free in the mountains as intended.  

            Of all the bands and stallions Craig captured on film (the best way to capture a wild horse!), Lightning stood out from the rest. He was extraordinarily beautiful, this king of his mountain:  fit, with bold white lightning spears adorning, sizzling on his lovely form.  

             Lightning's majesty and aliveness depict a palpable example of equine power and grace.  Being such a compelling presence, this exemplary stallion was featured in a moving YouTube slideshow by Laura Leigh, using Craig Downer's photographs, with a stirring song by Lacy J. Dalton.  It is embedded below, toward the end of this post, courtesy of Laura Leigh.

                         ©2010 Photography by Elyse Gardner

          The six-week roundup took its wicked toll, stripping the sparse, wild Nevada mountains of the equine beauties who animated them while enriching the soil and the spirits of all fortunate enough to witness their peaceable presence.  

          In our disturbing visits to Fallon we had nevertheless been relieved:  we had not seen Lightning at the Fallon holding facility.  Then on Sunday, February 21, 2010, the first official Sunday tour, we were in front of the stallion pens.  Only a few minutes earlier people had been talking with Craig about Lightning.
          To my dismay, I heard Craig quietly say, "Oh, there's Lightning.  There he is." My heart sank.  "Craig has got to be wrong," I thought.  The horse had similar markings, but he looked so big... so different.  
           But there is no mistake.  Lightning has been run off his mountain.
                          ©2010 Photography by Elyse Gardner

                I figured out what was different, what was missing:  his purpose.  The mountains.  We -- humanity -- have deprived him of his purpose.  We have stolen his reason for living.  And only we -- humanity -- can restore it.

               The wild horse's power in free movement and his obvious familial bonds are thrilling and display his completeness in his element, fulfilling his reason for being.   Their perfection and presence is riveting; their right to be wild is compelling and ever so obvious when we see wild horses in the wild.   They are fulfilling their purpose, meeting multiple needs -- theirs, ours, the environment's -- in being wild.  It is so missing, palpably absent, when they are just...there...in the holding pens. 

              That thrill of seeing a wild horse, the excitement and deep satisfaction of watching a band in the wild -- that thrill is gone, replaced with a sense of wrongness, when we look at wild horses in pens.  That feeling of happy wonder we get watching the fabulous "Cloud" movies (see end of post to learn how to view Cloud's movies) , is utterly absent; it is so blatantly missing when they are just...there...in the holding pens. Seeing Cloud in the Britton Springs holding facility, and seeing Conquistador there with tags around his neck, waiting for "adoption" -- like that noble stallion would want to be adopted by the likes of us! -- is one of the most deeply sad things I've ever seen.  What a relief that they are free today.
             To the casual city dweller looking at the holding pens at Fallon, what's the big deal?  What's to see?  It's just a bunch of horses crammed into a pen.  Wild, eh? "Looks like any other horse to me."
            The world is deprived of a fulfillment, of something spectacular.  We grieve the loss deep in our souls.  Creation itself is offended.  Imagine using the Grand Canyon as a waste dump. Or the oceans as a waste dump...oops, now we're hitting close to home. 

       The very sight of wild horses in the wild invigorates. 
                               ©Photography by Elyse Gardner

              Indeed, wild horses in the wild are a gift, a fulfillment, the sight of which acts as a balm and restores our souls.  The loving wag of a welcoming dog's tail, the purr of a devoted cat, the sight and assured presence of wild horses in the wild are treasures without which we humans would be bereft.  Art in motion, God's 6-dimensional, living, breathing, exquisite art.  And we are changed by beholding this beauty, breathless at the wonder of it.  

             Like ballet dancer Rudolf Nuryev driving a bus;  like lions in cages.  Like Yo Yo Ma with no cello, no music; Stravinsky sans violin; Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash with no guitar; Diana Krall with no blues or piano (she was MADE to sing the blues).  When we see anyone, be it person or animal or plant, fulfilling its intended purpose, there is a deeply edifying satisfaction we feel in our very souls.  

             Ken Salazar, and the BLM party line, think they can take the wild horse from his home and family and he will still retain his magic.  But they will have removed him from his purpose.  Moving them to pastures and creating entirely nonreproducing herds destroys their social structure and removes them from their purpose.  I've heard them at Advisory Board meetings discuss ideas about gelding the stallions and returning them to the "wild":  well, the only wild thing about that is that we would even give that a second thought.  Wild horses are all about stallions forming and protecting family bands.
            Is there nothing sacred?  I suppose there are those who will mock me for that statement, but running this majestic stallion off the mountain -- depriving the mountain of this horse and his family; taking his family from him and him from his family -- has got to be one of the ugliest examples of man's arrogance and coarseness.  It's akin to catching and clipping the wings of our great iconic American eagle and putting him in a cage.  
                                ©Photography by Elyse Gardner

             Craig was so quiet about it.  We all were.  Somehow you picture a scene like this as being so much more outwardly dramatic.  But I've learned to be still, to take it in, to put it on my camera, and then to take action, baby.  Get in the solution.  
               I quietly grieved afresh the magnitude of BLM's colossal sweep, vacuuming up these healing, reseeding animals who break through ice so they and other, smaller animals can drink, paw through snow so they and other species can eat, consume dead, dry grasses, greatly reducing fire danger.  
              The grief multiplied as time went on.  I've noticed that about this work I do:  it hurts more, not less, fueling my determination to work diligently and purposefully for the sake of Lightning and his extended family of horses and burros.   We can do this together.  

                                       ©2009 Photography by Craig Downer

 ©2009 Photography by Craig Downer

                               ©2009 Photography by Elyse Gardner

(About the video below:  Since BLM only allowed observation of the roundup three days a week, I was not there to see or film when Lightning and his family went through this ordeal.  But this was his herd area, and he very well could have, and probably did, run the course you see here.  The still photos at the conclusion include photos from a couple of  the Calico HMAs, not only this running herd.  --EG)

Video by Elyse Gardner

                                ©2010 Photography by Elyse Gardner

             Two stallions died on Saturday, February 27.  Why?  Where?  Horses continue to die almost daily at Fallon.   Many are still not adjusting to the feed.  I continue to respond to all action alerts and call upon my senators to tell them I am opposed to Secretary Salazar's plan and asking them not to fund it.  I hope you will do likewise and give Lightning and his band a voice.
  *   To view the "Cloud" films, here's the PBS link:  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/category/episodes/by-animal/horse/      
The first one is Cloud, Wild Stallion of the Rockies; 2) Cloud's Legacy: The Wild Stallion Returns; and 3) Cloud, Challenge of the Stallions
        Give yourself a treat -- and you can invite family and friends if you like; there are no terrible scary things -- and watch these amazing horses.  Ginger Kathrens has woven together hundreds of hours of topnotch film, and narrates these extraordinary documentaries on this famous herd. 
         DVDs of these Emmy-winning series, which have extra material on them -- can be ordered directly from The Cloud Foundation.