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Sacramento Protest!

20 January 2010

Media Contacts: cloud_foundation_logo_cmyk

Makendra Silverman, The Cloud Foundation, 719-351-8187, makendra@thecloudfoundation.org
Carla Bowers, Wild Horse Advocate and The Cloud Foundation, carla84bowers@yahoo.com
Suzanne Roy, In Defense of Animals, 919-697-9389, sroy@idausa.org
Elliot M. Katz, DVM, In Defense of Animals, 415-448-0075, emk@idausa.org

For Immediate Release

Sacramento Horse Advocates Hold Rally Against Wild Horse Roundups

Controversy Grows Over Gov’t Acceleration of Removing Wild Horses From Western Public Lands

Sacramento, Calif (January 19)— Wild horse advocates from In Defense of Animals (IDA), The Cloud Foundation, and other members of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign Coalition, will hold a rally Thursday, January 21, at 11 a.m. in front of the State Capitol Building, to call attention to the Obama Administration's massive roundup and removal of wild horses from public lands in the West. The largest of such roundups is currently underway in the Calico Mountains Complex, known as the National System of Public Lands, in northwestern Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is removing over 2,500 horses, or 80 to 90 percent of the horses living in the Calico Complex. To date, four horses have died in the Calico roundup, which began on December 28 and continues through February.

What: Rally for America's Wild Horses
Where: State Capitol, 10th Street between L and N
When: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Press Conference at 12 noon

"The environmental assessment, which led the BLM to conclude that the horses should be removed, was wholly inadequate,” explains Ginger Kathrens, executive director of the Cloud Foundation. “BLM did not analyze the impacts of cattle grazing in the Calico Complex. When asked why, the agency said ‘this issue is outside of the scope of this environmental analysis.’ How convenient then, that wild horses can be blamed for range damage, and then removed at a cost of millions to the American taxpayer.”

"The Obama Administration's decision to continue to spend millions of tax dollars to remove wild horses from public lands in the West to stockpile on private ranches in the Midwest is fiscally irresponsible," said Elliot M. Katz, DVM, IDA president. "The BLM claims that it takes wild horses from their homes and families, stampedes them by helicopters, and warehouses them in pens for the good of the horses and the American taxpayers. Do they think we are stupid?"

"The BLM mismanages our public lands for one reason: to benefit commercial interests, such as cattle ranchers and other industries that exploit our lands and profit from the removal of the horses," Katz continued.

If the Obama Administration’s BLM continues its current course, initially charted by the Bush Administration, it will capture and remove nearly 12,000 wild horses in FY 2010 from their Western ranges and place them in Midwestern holding facilities, where they will join the 35,000 horses already stockpiled at taxpayer expense. At that time, the number of horses in BLM warehouses will far exceed those left on the range.

A December 23, 2009, decision by federal court Judge Paul Friedman — in a lawsuit brought by IDA, ecologist Craig Downer, and renowned children’s author Terri Farley — found that the BLM's Midwestern holding facilities are likely illegal, and suggested that the BLM postpone the Calico roundup.

Wild horses comprise a minute fraction (0.5 percent) of large grazing animals on public lands, where they are outnumbered by cattle at least 200 to 1. Currently, the BLM manages more than 256 million acres of public lands of which cattle grazing is allowed on 160 million acres; wild horses are only allowed on 26.6 million acres of this land, where they are far outnumbered by cattle.

IDA and The Cloud Foundation are members of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, a coalition of 50 organizations representing over 10 million people nationwide, whose goal is protecting America’s wild horses on their rightful ranges, our public lands.

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Links of interest:

NYC Protest Mustang Removals on the Ruby Pipeline Path

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/press-releases/268-wild-horse-protest-sunday-in-new-york-city-11510

Is the Ruby Pipeline the Smoking Gun? Roundups for Pipeline?

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/press-releases/258-ruby1

Associated Press: Sierra Club Supports Mustang Roundup in NV http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/81885542.html

Glenna Eckle Testimony

http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/Glenna_Eckel_Testimony_May_2009.pdf

Western Watersheds Project

http://www.westernwatersheds.org/

Ruby Pipeline Creates Infrastructure, Industry & has Harmful Environmental Impacts