By Steven Long, Photos by Katie Fite and Cattor Livestock Roundups
Exclusive from Horseback Magazine
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – A federal helicopter chase contractor has acknowledged there was plenty of water in an Elko County, Nevada wild horse area, contradicting what government lawyers told a U.S. District Judge last month.
More to this Story ~ Photo by Katie Fite
She said that many of the horses in a large herd management area just didn’t know it was there and were kept in pastures far away.
In an exclusive interview with Horseback Magazine, Sue Cattoor of Cattoor Livestock Roundups, Inc. said the Owyhee River, the border of their most recent wild horse stampede dubbed the “Tuscarora Gather,” has enough water for vacationers to camp and fish, plus multiple trails leading down to water’s edge giving access to thirsty animals including horses.
A disturbing photo of a dead Palomino Wild Horse surfaced on the Internet and in news reports last week. The picture, taken by Western Watershed Project Biodiversity Director Katie Fite shows the horse laying in rocks below a cliff. Wild horse activists say the photo demonstrates the cruelty of a government program wasting millions of dollars that is out of control. Many of them believe that a Cattoor helicopter drove the horse over a cliff….
Click (HERE) to Read Complete Story at Horseback Magazine
Astounding Video of Tuscarora by Laura Leigh
“Take THAT Debbie Collins -wildhorse@blm.gov” ~ R.T.
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Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Good one Steven Long. mar
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Ms. Debbie, I suggest you trade in your heels for hiking boots, get some horse s**t on your shoes and find out what you’re really “PR”ing about.
FYI: I’m not an “activist”, I’m an “advocate”. Big difference.
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My FYI – “activist” vs. “advocate” – was not aimed directly at Ms. Collins. I have had no personal conversation or communication with her. In my humble opinion, “activist” was an unfortunate choice of words in this otherwise excellent article. My bad on not being more specific.
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We are trying to train Steve to use “Advocate” versus “Activist” (it’s a daily mantra with Vicki Tobin) but you know the saying about teaching old cowboys new tricks…love him anyway.
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I personally prefer the American Public to activist or advocate.
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Taxpayers.
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None of these people can ever be given the public trust again. They are in the “Three Strikes” catagory. The Department of the Interior should no longer be in charge of our Wild Mustangs or our Wild Burros. All of the terribly tragedy could have and should have been stopped at the TOP.
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Astonishing, absolutely astonishing. So blm killed these horses in effect just because of …………….what???? And these are the people who swear they tell the truth. Yes Steve this is a bomb and I hope it goes off all over Salaczar, Abbey and every employee of the blm who has ever stood there bold face lying. Shame on you all and shame on the snarky Ms Deb. How about checking that little attitude at the door. Good job of reporting Steve, thank you.
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MAKE it go all the way to Abbey, Salazar, Glenn, the President.
Send Steve’s story to your Congressman, your Senator, your local newspaper, TV station. They have been caught in a lie that we knew they were telling and it was told by their CONTRACTOR who does the killing, you know, old Dave Cattoor indicted for stealing wild horses via helicopter and selling them to slaughter.
This is your chance, spread Steve’s story to anyone who cares about animals…let it fly, set it free as it has wings.
May the Force of the Horse be with YOU!!!!
R.T. Fitch Author – “Straight from the Horse’s Heart” The Force of the Horse®, LLC 1-800-974-FOTH http://www.rtfitch.com http://www.sfthh.com
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That explaination is a vat of cow sh**.. I am too angry to address everything she said that was a lie, but I will. She is trying to dig herself out of her grave any way she can..She knows she is TOAST..Her future is over, and she is foaming at the mouth like a dog trying to save her A**.
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I have to at least say this-that mare is not OLD and Suzie could not make a diagnois of “blind” from a helicopter, she is not a horseman nor is she a vet..as a matter of fact..she has no credentials that I know of. whatso ever…do you Sue? Do I have credentials Sue? Damn right, a boat load of them and so do the people who have gathered evidence against you ..you backwoods upside down HICK..sorry I am not calmed down enough yet..LOL
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oh ya, on a purely personal note..would someone call the fashion police on her and get that woman a makeover!
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Or a role in Deliverance, the Sequel.
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Sandra, you’re right on.
“… if we see something that has a pre-existing injury or if something is extremely old and needs to be put down, they will euthanize it in the field,” Cattoor said.
You don’t call an animal you claim to care about “something”. And shooting an animal from a helicopter isn’t euthanasia, it’s killing – plain and simple.
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I think the words she chose make it pretty clear how she views these animals… Things.
Things.
But then again, it shouldn’t be surprising.. The only way someone could even make a living doing this, is if they only saw horses as things.
If the horses weren’t the ones paying for her lack of compassion, I’d have pity for *her* and others like her because there is something inherently lacking or damaged in a person’s soul if they cannot view other animals who share this planet with us as more than “things”.
“One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr
There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties… The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.
–Charles Darwin
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First 2 things that popped into my head when Sue admitted her husband Dave shot the horse … a) Is he qualified to make that determination, especially from the air? and b) The situation gave him a chance to kill another horse, which I suspect he doesn’t mind doing in the least. Maybe it was his way of feeling in control and/or thumbing his nose at advocates. A little passive aggressive, but I’d buy it.
Sue’s lies are collapsing under their own weight. In the article, she was stumbling and back-tracking and it looks like she added a few new kinks to the storyline. Now that she knows advocates are going to prove that there really was water, the horses were some how in bad shape because there wasn’t enough food out there. Sorry, that issue’s already been documented.
I suspect that Miss Sue is going to be a major contributing factor to the downfall of the WH&P program. The BLM should have hired a PR person specifically for her … or sent her husband a roll of duct tape with intrustructions: “Keep her mouth shut!”
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My thoughts exactly, how the heck did she find her way around if she was blind? And who administered the eye test? O yeah I will be sending this story to everyone I know and don’t know. This is your government in action, have a nice day!
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Ok, you ran the mare over the cliff with the helicopter she is standing on a ledge..she got on the “LEDGE” by falling, there is no way in and no way out..that makes it a ledge..her foal was killed in the rocks trying to follow where her mother fell..you heartless bit**
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I think you are absolutely right. mar
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I thought the days of tieing tires to mustangs and running herds off of cliffs were over..then Someone turned this group of PSYCOPATHS loose in the desert, apparently the unibomber has a sister
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Very well put Sandra. I just sent this around to lots of folks with an introduction and instructions to keeping sending it forward–all over the world. This just could be Waterloo.
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My ♡ is breaking. The Cattoor helicopters totally freaked these horses out beyond belief in a very treacherous area. They are getting more and more out of control along with the BLM.
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YOu heartless SOBs this mare was on this ledge because YOU DROVE HER THERE WITH YOUR BLOODY HELICOPTERS!!!!! You are responsible for her and the others being disoriented!!! LEAVE OUR MUSTANGS ALONE!!! There are perfectly capable to taking care of themselves, it is only WHEN YOU INTERFERE WITH THEM that these tragedies happen. Another sleepless night ahead, mourning these poor souls and hoping that they have found peace despite the abuse they have had to endure.
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So Sue… you ran her up on the rocks days before and her baby broke it’s legs? Then Dave shot her.
But these are the result of “humane rescue operations” attempting to push horses into an area to get water?
Maybe if you just left them alone they would go to the water that they would usually use this time of year? Perhaps all the odd movement kept them out of normal patterns?
Or did you start pushing bands into unfamiliar territory days before the gather in your “pre-flight?”
It’s so interesting that not a single horse died up there, not one dead horse found testified to in open court by BLM, until the helicopters took to the air.
BTW: the Court documents that contain this photo DO NOT say it was run off the cliff. It is noted that this is simply not an area she would attempt on her own considering there is a clear trail not far from where her body was found. Be interesting to hear what the plaintif actually says when she can finally speak…
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We have the photos, the interviews and the eyes in the field to prove BLM has washed its hands of wild horses. Now, the trials must go on and judges must require proof, not take BLM’s word for anything.
The time for a moratorium is here and we have the momentum to get it.
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If the judge doesn’t agree to view this evidence then a complaint should be filed on HIM and the BLM.
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the judge agreed to hear the appeal on contempt charges today..supposed to be over at grass roots
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let us pray that instead of just hearing it he listens to it and isn’t a blind old son of a mare.
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lets just see how this fits into the rest of your story..you have claimed most of these horses are too young to have known this water was there, so they never came to water..and yet..here we have a mare with a foal..you claim is ‘old” who is right near the trail to water and instead choses to throw herself off the cliff..Hmmmm are you thinking she maybe saw Thelma and Louise and it was a copycat thing? Why not just say she was blind old had been eating locoweed and had post partum depression..heck if you are gonna lie go for the whole package..but then i guess you figured those campers might have seen something huh, and you were going to need a story..even a crazy one..what if the FBI was looking for those campers to interview..would that make you nervous..and for gods sake how can you confuse a campsite for a gather site…Katies professional job is to look for evidence on the range..a bit of a difference between a tent stake and a fence pole hole.
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was googling around contracters stuff and kept coming up to this outfitters” Idaho camper group”
those fishing and camping people, was this the outfitter guide company? Wish someone would call them and ask questions. Those ‘campers’ need to step up and tell what they saw.
http://www.oregonrafting.com/index.cfm/pid/23/tripID/10/Owyhee/River/Rafting/Trip/5-Day/?gclid=CIfOgN2qoKMCFQTXnAodAnEStQ
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I could not have done a better job of presenting both sides of this story. Great job. Bob Winkler, Publisher, The Desert Independent.
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Did you used to be a high school English teacher in the Chicago area?
If so, do you still pull the wings off flies (alleged by my fellow 15-year-old cronies) (“Winkler”) lol
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So what you are suggesting in this fairytale HMA is that only young mares have babies and they do not know where water sources are so therfore their babies never learn where water is and thats why so many died? -there are no lead mares in the herd then because they are the ones that take the herd to water, actually no one makes a move to water untill the lead mare does..did you forget to remember that fact about herd horses? Now I can see where that might be the case after these gathers when you kill all the old horses remove the lead mares who have some age on them and leave the younger horses…but not now..My range and HORSE sense tells me you had “pre gathered” alot of these horses and pushed them to an area where there were limited water sources, and they probably were a little disorientated, exhausted and heat stressed..sounding familiar Sue? The next day you had planned to push the rest of the horses on in to the gather pens, and low and behold you came out the next morning and there were 4 dead horses at the gather pens and horses starting to go down where you had left them..and Boy Howdy, thats when you started calling every number you had, crying on the phone to everyone..and what were the first words out of your mouth? “I am going to get blamed for this”….and so it shall be…sayeth the Lord…
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“She said that many of the horses in a large herd management area just didn’t know it was there and were kept in pastures far away.”
So sue, if they were “kept” in those herd mangment areas far far away, how did they all arirve in this area simutaneously? what was that number quoted to me on the 12th around 200 horses? hmmm, someone must have brought them there…hard to keep up with all these lies isn’t it..getting harder to remember what you just denied…that you didn’t pregather these horses, as a matter of fact i was told you swore you hadn’t previously driven those horses that were staggering around the desert..
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Wild equines don’t know how ro find or get to water? What a mahrooon!!!!!! Just more evidence that BLM and the Catchtoors don’t know anything about horses except how to kill ’em. ASSHATS!
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Here’s my personal favorite:
“….“If they are wildlife, then why don’t they issue a license for them to be hunted?” she asks….”
Okay, dumbass….let me walk you through that gem of a thought process.
Hmmmm….
(1) not all wildlife is allowed to be hunted or fished you twit!
(2) there seems to be some disconnect in your brain as to that little thing known as the 1971 ACT…they’ve been given special status you idiot! Or can’t you read?
(3) and you seem to be “hunting” them, killing them and getting paid to boot…so what’s the complaint, you cow? (apologies to cattle everywhere).
I want to know WHY anyone would hire these unqualified, cruel and incompetent creeps to do anything with equines….because they own trailers and helicopters?
Can’t wait to see how the judge finesses this little tidbit.
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I know, Denise. That one got me, too.
Just off the top of my head I can name about 3 dozen wildlife species that are not hunted, either because they’re protected, it’s illegal, they aren’t desirable on the dinner plate or they aren’t even given much attention. Blue tailed skinks. Don’t hunt them but they are definitely wild life!
With all the money US tax payers have handed over to this woman and her family over the years, you’d think she could afford to educate herself.
I hope she just keeps talking and talking and talking… and digs her hole deeper and deeper and deeper … It’s kind of painful to watch, but somehow gratifying at the same time. Kind of like popping a zit! 🙂
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Yee Gads….”Kind of like popping a zit!”
That was pretty good, Nora! I hope no one reading is eating breakfast.
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If the contractor doesn’t run them to death then the BLM gets to ‘care for’ the wild horses.
Life becomes even worse for many. Even worse for the older wild horses the BLM considers worthless and sells for 10 bucks to anyone or even sends ‘free’ to places they call sancuary. Here is some of the over 200 wild horses the BLM sent to one of their ‘inspected’ ranches
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I notice that the Cattoor kids are also in the family business to carry on after mom and dad. I would like these people kept far away from our wild horses. I agree with Louie. 3 Strikes-contract cancelled. There is no reason the contract needs to be renewed year after year.
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I would think that with Mr. Cattoor’s criminal history, especially since it involved wild horses, that he would have been prevented from being hired by the BLM in the first place. Does anyone know what the requirements are to get this contract?
As for Mrs. Cattoor’s above remarks, in my opinion, it would appear she is trying very hard to save her and her husband’s own skin with her explanations and in turn has thrown the BLM under the bus with her admission of plenty of water being available for the horses. She knew about the impending lawsuit so it would stand to reason she knew what lies the BLM told the judge to continue with an “emergency” roundup. Can she and/or her company be held liable?
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When most humans see a horse or animal stuck out on a ledge or stuck, they call rescues who heroically try to recover the animal…when the Killtoors see a supposedly distressed animal, they shoot it and answer questions later.
Priceless!
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Denise, I agree with you. And all of us here, we would be trying to help the rescuers after they arrived.
The question I have is, what exactly is the verbage in the contract which gives the Cattoor’s the authority to kill a horse or burro? Or any of their contractors for that matter. To my knowledge, none is an equine vet, thus rendering them unqualified to make that decision in my opinion – especially from the distance of a helicopter. As our taxpayer dollars are paying for this, does anyone know where a copy of the contract can be viewed?
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http://www.wildhorseroundups.com/
compare this story put up on her website by Sue, somewhat different from what she told steven, here we hear the Helicopter was used to try and haze the horses either up or down the rocks depending on which paragraph you are reading..many inconsistancies…please read and note those discrepancies.!!! comments needed!
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Why are they running these horses over the most treacherous terrain –rocks and boulders, ledges? And the poor foals with brand new legs. What on earth did these people do to these horses? Horrifying.
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Here are the reasons I have heard so far why the horses couldn’t find water from
sues mouth to your ears and why they died
too much water-too little water water- sources unknown to horses(who have lived here for over 40 -100years)-horses were not from this HMA area(but just decided to come over and see what the fuss was all about)-horses were too old, too young, were blind -albinos-(wonder where she got that fiction)thus fell off of cliffs-as do their foals-horses will die when they see water(2 horses dead on the edge of a reservoir with water on star ridge) Horse is shot on one side of the river in the rocks but will magically be transported to the other side…by what aliens? Please add to this list and send it to Jon Stewert…
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This was a tough read.
Gee wilackers–how come a man who has a conviction against him for running wild horses and sending them to slaughter is now playing judge jury and executioner???? Why isn’tn he taking a vet along in the helicopter with him??? Or egads–get a humane observer onboard to really see the situation. I think that if Laura or Elyse were there and could say–it was a life threatening injury and this was the kindest thing to do–it would alleviate alot of the anger.
But oh no–Dave Cattoor who believes that wild horses are livestock takes on the roll of judge jury and executioner. They don’t even give us close up photos that show the injury or blow the pics up so they are readily seen. What’s wrong with this picture????
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the blm just put out this press release…..:
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/elko_field_office/blm_programs/wild_horse_and_burro/owyhee_rock_creek.html
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So, they removed 1200 and left 200 remaining. Why are they decimating these herds? The Utah Prison now has more wild (formerly) than left they left on their protected lands of thousands of acres. Why are they removing 80-90% of the horses everywhere they go? They have got to stop this insanity.
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OK, Sue does not mention any BLM officials in the copter just her husband and the pilot, this press release does not mention it says the contractor found the horses. Only one place has the blm materialized out of thin air a blm official in that copter. How many seats does this copter have?
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They left 200 horses on almost 500,000 acres. Pitiful.
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What a crock. I suppose you bleeding hearts voted for Pres Negro. Good we are eliminating these feral screws!!!
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