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“Letting the death toll of America’s mustangs continue to rise is simply not an option.”
The Obama Administration should be ashamed of the way wild horses in the United States are being managed, a Democratic senator says.
Senator Mary Landrieu, of Louisiana, has criticized the current pace of roundups and the growing numbers of horses held in captivity.
Writing on Thehill.com, Landrieu, who has been pushing for reforms, said the Bureau of Land Management had justified the roundups by citing a rapidly growing horse population and the need to prevent exhaustion of the land’s resources.
“The bureau has been stating this for more than a decade now, but has yet to implement a sound management plan,” she said.
She noted that when the National Wild Horse and Burro Programme was created in 1971, 54 million acres were available for wild horses and burros. That had since been halved.
“And in every year since the bureau was entrusted with this program, populations have exceeded the agency’s appropriate management level by thousands of animals, reaching over 60,000 at one point.
“Enough is enough. It is time to find a more effective management plan for these horses that does not result in the careless death of so many,” she said, referring to deaths that occurred during roundups.
Landrieu said more than 32,000 wild horses were now held in captivity.
“Not only is this not a safe or desirable solution for the animals, but also it is costing the American taxpayers more than $US30 million a year.
“There are an estimated 37,000 mustangs and burros that live in our Western states.
“We now have nearly that amount in custody, and the BLM plans to remove an additional 12,000 wild horses from the ranges at a cost of millions to the American taxpayer.”
Landrieu said the bureau’s actions were contrary to the act’s original intent to manage the wild horses and burros in their natural state and to protect them from capture and harassment.
“I have repeatedly called for an end to these roundups until a more humane and cost-effective solution has been put in place.
“The Obama Administration should be ashamed that this is happening under its watch.”
Wild mustangs, she said, were living symbols of the United State’s history and pioneering spirit.
“Anyone who has had the privilege of watching a wild herd graze freely and calmly understands what majestic animals these wild mustangs truly are.
“It is hard to fathom that hundreds of our wild horses have died at the hands of the federal agency entrusted to protect them.”
Landrieu vowed to continue to work to find a better legislative solution. “Letting the death toll of America’s mustangs continue to rise is simply not an option.”
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Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Now, let’s see which of the senators have the courage and integrity to stand up with Senator Landrieu. That will tell us where to place our votes. This is about our American Mustangs and our Wild Burros, to be sure, but it is also about our very existence as a demcracy.
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Yes, let’s hope others will listen and follow suit. The BLM does not know what shame is. Nor does cocky Obama whose real origin remains a mystery to many.
BLM ignored Congressman Grijalva’s request of last fall to stop all round ups, specially the one of Cloud’s herd which prompted the national outcry. Let’s hope the Bureau of Livestock and Mining will be stopped, as it needs to be dissolved and the WHB program run by another source.
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I would imagine a great number of federal agencies need to be either dissolved or at least have conflicts of interest separated, as was done with MMS. Only time and continual monitoring will tell whether MMS corruption has been eliminated.
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I have already decided not to vote for one of the incumbent senators in my state–a senator that I have always voted for in the past. The other one is hanging in the balance.
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I’m with you, Louie! I’ve already informed my Senators and the President – I don’t HAVE a Representative, long story – that if they don’t at least make SOME effort, they will NOT be getting my vote no matter who is running against them. If necessary, I will abstain – won’t be the first time – before I vote for anyone who hasn’t even lifted a finger to help our horses and rectify the blatant malfeasance in the entire DOI.
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That was the wrong agency to put the Wild Horse and Burro Program under, in the first place. From the onset, it was conflict of interests.
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I HAVE A MUSTANG IN TRANING RIGHT NOW WHO THEY TRAPPED AND SHIPPED EAST .SHE WAS ADDOPED 3 TIMES AND NO ONE COULD DO ANYTHING WITH HER SO SHE WAS BRANDED WITH THE 3 STIKES BRAND AND SENT TO A RANCH IN NEBRASKA WHERE SHE WAS STAVED AND HAD TO BE TAKEN FROM THERE TO MINNASOTA HOOVED ANIMAL RESCUE .SHE WAS 11 MONTHS IN FOAL AND WAS NEALY DEAD. SHE IS NOW ABLE TO BE RIDDEN ON TRAIL AND IS A GOOD LITTLE MARE HER NAME IS RIOJO….WITH TRUST ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE I BELEIVE….
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You just made my day! Super!
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This is encouraging from Mary Landrieu. She has so much on her plate yet she has now reminded us she is still watching out for the wild herds. Last Fall she gave BLM one year to get a better program off the ground and all BLM has done is enlarge the Public Relations dept. and create some catch words for the bureau. Landrieu was not afraid to say BLM was wrong for the job. If Obama is still not listening we will keep on with all efforts and land BLM ourselves. mar
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Excuse me, the major thing that BLM has done is continue the Roundups while many have asked for this to stop. mar
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Let’s try out this math = 1/2 the land that is supposed to is naturally holding1/2 the horses. The other half of the horses are in artificial holding for $30 million a year.
Solution – Return the other half of land and wha la – no more horses in artificial holding and no more $30 million for artificial holding!
Then only “reduce” herd sizes based on real science, Pre adoption numbers and in some humane method. Use natural predation number 1.
Get BLM out of wild horse business completely! They are too historically and politically intermingled with ranchers – going through revolving doors – they must be removed from this program entirely.
And while at it, let’s save even more – over 1/2 billion dollars a year and just get rid of all the cattle on public lands – never to return – no more need to kill the mountain lions either. Rearrange those checkerboards – that must be done once and for all. The days of range wars may have seemed brutal, now try to take on 200 million to 300 million taxpayers nationwide.
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Senator Landrieu!!! we need more like her ! A Senator with a sharp mind and heart to boot. A very unique combination. The solution is so simple, yes indeed return the horses to their home….most of them if not all are castrated anyway. So they won’t populate, and give their land back, then set up nice permanent corrals, like a bait and trap, with saltblocks and water, then it would be easy to capture them as a family unit, and take some of the wenlings off if necessary, then open the gates and back they go! One could also administer Birth control, if necessary. However when the ecosystem normalizes, there won’t be “overpopulation”. Of course this is too simple and straightforward!
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Corrals on PUBLIC lands with guaranteed independent observation throughout. And BLM, lose the weapons. We are not and never will be like PETA. Cooperation, not confrontation, is in order.
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Anne-Marie – right on! I love you all who write in simple structure to the point that I cannot seem to write in novelette style.
Linda, apparently, and that is a big “apparently”, BLM has received threats and some folks have taken to block their way at roundups. I know their hearts are in the right place, if this even did actually occur, but that has not helped us – just my opinion.
If these really did occur – then BLM does have to right to protect themselves, I cannot condemn them for that.
Knowing myself I would probably tell those gun toters “thank you for protecting us advocates”. Give them cookies. Why not? Then watch them squirm!
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Roxy, perhaps the BLM has received threats from the “lunatic fringe”. Is there independent confirmation anywhere? And if law enforcement can’t protect them, what are they there for? They should be out doing something more productive – like writing tickets or apprehending real “bad guys”.
Some of the most memorable pictures from Vietnam protests were people placing flowers in the barrels of National Guardsmen’s rifles. Maybe we should try cookies shaped like horses.
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And cost effective…but we seem to be the only ones looking for a win-win situation..
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Sandra, that is so correct thank you for reminding us.
BLM just charges a head with blinders on – oh, they “say” they want to cooperate even pretend to listen, make promises that we want to hear with no intent what so ever in followig them, and at every turn they stab us in the back! BLM – that is NOT how you create conversation – but that IS of course your strategy – a failed one because we are not going away.
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OK. How about a reality check…
Senator Landrieu:
“…………..It is hard to fathom that hundreds of our wild horses have died at the hands of the federal agency entrusted to protect them……”
Hmmm. Let’s try “thousands”, not “hundreds”.
I’m hopeful that the Senator is vowing to continue to work for a humane and reasonable solution, but the wild equines need a bit more than sincere talk; they need immediate relief. The Senator and like minded Congressional reps can start by demanding Obama MAKE THE USDA/DOI STOP ROUNDING UP EQUINES FOR 2 REASONS: 1-WE DON’T KNOW HOW MANY ARE LEFT, STERILIZED OR DEAD 2-THE REDUCTION OF “WHERE CURRENTLY FOUND” REDUCED TO HALF THE ACREAQGE WITH COWS AND SHEEPS STILL GRAZING IS NOT MULTIPLE USE.
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I agree we need more than words. At least she still speaks to this crisis. More will be coming. It is my opinion the real numbers of wild horses still on the range is lower than the majority guesses. This is not yet addressed but will not go away. It would be extremely helpful if people in states with horses would count them this year. Before and after roundups. Use all means to do this. Fly, drive, walk and ride out and count your horses and let’s put a citizens figure to the wild ones. We may be very surprised. I bet we are shocked. Fall is coming and weather will cool. Let’s do a census in every state! The importance of this may help save those still free. Do it for them; the wild ones.
We are learning first hand about the real uses of HMAs and can see how the horses have been continually confined into areas smaller and isolated. Multiple use has not been present in a manner that has recognized the legal presence of wild horses. They remain an after thought and any plans seem to encompass removals. This is illegal and contrary to their legal presence on their ranges. Mining, energy projects and cattle still dominate where the wild horses have a legal right to live. They are disappearing with their lands. Seeing is believing. mar
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Mar…my point to Senator Landrieu and Reps Grijalva, Rahall are that the equines are running (literally) out of time to correct this sanctioned, taxpayer funded massacre.
Maybe they are working behind the scenes and coming up with real action.
In the meantime, the leadership has the right to suspend massacres (roundups, removals, running hooves off, pushing off of cliffs) RIGHT NOW and they don’t!
Executive Branch does the budgeting and requirements….Congress authorizes and appropriates. Big important point. And they (Congress) can shut down activites in a heartbeat. Check out the situation Johnson and Nixon faced with Vietnam.
Our biggest problem is the House of Lords (Senate) and Reid. Pelosi and the Dem majority isn’t helping either.
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The longer they return silence and nothing better the more I blame them for their inaction and deliberate shelving of this issue they have been hearing about for months from so many. So this will continue to escalate as BLM has literally begun to fight us as we become more and more a threat to them This alone is costing horses lives. This fight has become as ugly as it can be. The deaths of horses are on our heads as well the longer it takes to stop this. Their lives are depending on us. When we cannot save lives as in Owyhee it is only right we shoulder this burden. mar
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Denise – I’m not saying this to be snarky but but just to paint an accurate and whole picture – which Republicans are helping?
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Tim Bishop is right there with Mary and has signed everything that we as Horse Advocates want signed. Please go and thank Tim Bishop of Coram, NY and show your gratitiude for standing tall with us and for what is right and decent.
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Luv Ms Mary, Barbra Boxer and will give my support and thank you to Tim..lets hope we can grow this list of honest politicians and rally around them with support come election time…WHERE are our western senators?? I do not want to see form letters back..come out to a gather in your home state while you are in recess..trust me there is one going on every week!! Ask for your elected officials to attend..ask your govenors.
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Western Senators? Probably hiding under piles of gold-laced rocks, money or cow patties!
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Yea Tim!!!!!
I don’t live in NY – And historically eveyrone I have written to out of state does not accept my e-mails upon entering my zip code and the ones I have called have actually hung upon me – either just after they ask me where I live or when I mention wild horses. And I think Boxer (San Francisco area?) was one of them – but I could be wrong.
Please pass on our gratitude to him.
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But I want to add – Barbara Boxer can hang up on me anytime she wants as long as she is for wild horses.
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My gratitude to Senator Landrieu. TJ Great to hear about your mare. I am happy that she has found peace with you.
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Jeannie, thank you for posting that information. We should all show our support and gratitude for congressmen who are helping us.
Timothy H. “Tim” Bishop is a politician from New York and the current Congressman for New York’s 1st congressional district.
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When you read the book on Wild Horse Annie, you see that most of the help she got was from eastern states. Too many conflicts of interest in the west.
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Yeah, I’m sure that heavily entrenched special interests are still the situation in western states, especially Nevada. It would take a crowbar to pry those guys from their positions – and a BIG one at that!
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Louie that makes perfect sense.
I just posted earlier today my latest epiphany that the public lands are in the hands of a “polically incest subculture” – Congress, ranchers, BLM, even law enforcment, maybe even the courts, just all passing through the same crime family revolving doors – “round and round you go”, except instead of “and where you land no body knows” – they KNOW excatly!
It is their subculture through and through, all wrapped up in checkerboard land sales, water rights and welfare.
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Roxy, the book about Wild Horse Annie is well worth the read. It is the same battle being played out all over again–same plot–different players. I purchased mine through the International Society for Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB). This is a wonderful sanctuary that is doing some fantastic research. They have three herds that they have managed to preserve. All proceeds from the book sales go to them. Pull up the web page and read.
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First of all Obama does nothing right or haven’t you noticed that yet?Horses are my most favorite animals and I take care of them here in our retirement community unless I have shoulder surgery in the fall.We ride when my grandchildren come to visit.My grandbabies favorite horse died .Fireball was old.Leave the wild horses alone for heavens sake.Adopt them if you want to but they come with high vet bills.I have wanted a horse since I was a tiny little girl but we could never afford one, now we can.RIDE RIDE RIDE!!!
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