Story by Scott Sonner of the Seattle PI
Too Little, Too Late?
RENO, Nev. — The U.S. House approved an amendment on a voice vote Wednesday that would cut the Bureau of Land Management‘s budget by $2 million in protest of the agency’s wild horse roundups that some critics say are too costly and others say are inhumane.
“It is just a drop in the bucket when you are talking about this overall cost problem we are facing, but it is one I hope will send a very strong message to BLM to treat these mustangs in a humane way,”‘ said Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., co-sponsor of the amendment.
Over the past 10 years, the cost of BLM’s wild horse management program has tripled to $64 million. About $37 million of that was spent last fiscal year on housing the gathered horses at BLM corrals and leased pastures – a 30 percent increase from the previous year, said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va.
“Instead of using that to fix this broken wild horse management problem, they permanently removed another 10,000 wild horses and burros and put them into tax-funded long-term holding pens,” he said.
BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington said the agency had no comment on the House vote.
Moran said there were once millions of wild horses in the West, but today there are more in captivity in BLM holding facilities – about 40,000 – than the 30,000-plus that roam the range.
Congress declared the horses protected in 1971.
“We said they were entitled to the greatest protection possible as they were fast disappearing from the American landscape,” said Moran, also a co-sponsor of the amendment to an omnibus spending bill still under consideration in the House before it moves to the Senate.
“But rather than maintain them in their natural state and allowing them to be free, we capture them, often causing harm and death,” he said.
The Interior Department‘s Office of Inspector General said in a report on BLM’s program in December that it found no evidence of inhumane treatment of animals and concluded the roundups are necessary to cull the overpopulated herds, which naturally double about every four years.
The office added, however, that BLM needs to step up its research into population control methods for wild horses to help curb the spiraling costs of rounding them up. At the end of the last fiscal year, BLM was managing 38,365 wild horses and burros in 180 different herd management areas on federal lands covering about 32 million acres in 10 western states.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said during House debate on Wednesday that he agreed there is a major problem’ with BLM’s management of wild horses and livestock on public land.
“It is too expensive and problematic for multiple uses on public lands and conserving western range lands,” he said.
Related Articles
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- The BLM’s Internal “Investigation”: The Fox Guarding the Henhouse (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- NV Congresswoman Speaks Out on Obama BLM Animal Cruelty at Wild Horse Stampede (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- BLM Denies Wild Horses are “Stampeded” (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- Interior Department Urged To Remove Official Responsible for Cruelty During Wild Horse Roundup (yubanet.com)
- Obama Administration Continues Acts of Animal Cruelty at Antelope Wild Horse Stampede (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- DOI/BLM Dupe Public and Congress in Covert Wild Horse Land Grab Scheme (ppjg.wordpress.com)
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Hallelujah!!!!! Let’s pray and fight to zero this out completely!!!
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finally we are getting some attention…..Dan Burton, you rock!
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Harder I say!
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This is merely a ploy to placate the public.
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Be careful here. This is a BLM budget cut, not a round-up budget cut. BLM may insist they no longer have funds to feed the horses in long term so they must euthanize them. This is truly what I expect next from BLM.
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Rob Pliskin has just called me from D.C. and there is more on this but he is going to check the facts, this morning. Will be back to all of you as soon as I have some verified information.
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RT, thank you for your attention to this matter:o)
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Thanks, R.T.
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This scenario haunts me also. I truly fear for them.
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I hope this is just the beginning of a serious look into the doings at DOI/BLM. As of late it seems the only agency that occupies the news more is the DOD and that’s only because we are fighting oversees again.
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Let’s hope this is our “foot in the door.” It’s not enough in itself, but it’s publicity which we desperately need. We just have to keep on keeping on. The word IS getting out. I just hope and pray it’s not already too late.
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Dear Suzanne, I agree !!! They need more than just a spanking !!!!! This a Small but good step in the right direction for the Mustangs…………..
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The 2-million is only a symbolic gesture, the antelope roundup alone is over 1 mill..so it does not really cut the roundups..but they also did not give them the extra 12 million they have been asking for..This now goes to the senate-they can strip them of funding for the roundups..those 111 HMAs that have been zeroed out need to be reopened for wild horses and horses taken out of LTH facilities and put back on those HMAs for a start, cattle and sheep drastically reduced and in balance with multiple use, HMAs are designated as primarily but not exclusively for the use of the wild horses..its about time BLM is forced to follow the laws instead of making this stuff up as they go along-so everyone..call your senators today! Its the most important call you will ever make
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Another foal step ahead,I pray.
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Drop in the bucket or LEAK IN THE DIKE
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Got the feeling we are being Patronized???????
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Ahhh, Arlene it appears your cynicism toward this august and honorable federal agency is rising close to the level of my own!
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Dear Wambli Okyie 2 million may sound like a lot , if you are a one person, but to them its hardly a slap on the wrist, The BLM needs some shaken up and 2 million to them is a laugh !!! Not even to be worried about , there needs to be major disapproval , by Congress and The Senate,the BLM has literally gotten away with murder, abuse of the lowest kind and used our money to do it !!! This does not compute for any taxpayer who thinks they are taking good care of our Mustangs……… Just how Stupid does the BLM think we are with that who shot the MARE story ???? Of course one of them did , we cant get near them,,,, And we WOULD never shot any of Our Mustangs for Petes sake , how ignorant is that ???? Only thing I can say is its a start, The Senate needs to step up and so does Congress The BLM is snowing them also !!!!!
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I hate to sound ungrateful, but it needs to be $20 million. Still praying the horses’ suffering can be stopped altogether. Thanks, as always, for the update. Bless you, R.T.!
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Seems at last, we are at least being heard by some higher ups…Thank you Rep. Dan Burton!!! With the country so broke, why can’t more be taken away??? BLM & DOI both are absolutely OUT OF CONTROL!!!!! They both need to be knocked down below our level & then stepped on by all of us until they are all dead, then turn the horses loose & let them finish the work!! I have nothing but distain for the entire lot of them……..
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Anyone that has not already done so should go to the AWHPC website now and send a message to their senators and congressional representative strongly urging their support of this action. It is easy and free and only takes a few minutes to personalize the already prepared message. I copied the press release from the website with the Antelope Complex details to date and pasted it in addition to my own comments into the messages I sent. Maybe it will help get some attention to the urgency of the situation. We can hope so.
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Amen to that! A start in the right direction, at least. $2 million is a drop in the bucket to the BLM, but, it should at least send the message that EVERYONE is watching them now, &, the pressure & exposure will NOT stop, until they do. Talk about “wasteful government spending”!! It would certainly be a LOT cheaper to have kept all these wild horses in the wild,& free, than to constantly round them up & put them in holding facilities. All they really needed, maybe, was people who actually didn’t mind hard physical work, to go out & figure out a humane population control method, like temporary birth control for mares in large, quickly growing herds, or other humane ideas & alternatives. Just think what all that money they’ve been spending on destroying our national heritage, COULD have been used for instead, like feeding , housing, clothing America’s unemployed, & helping them get jobs, &, well, I could go on but I won’t, because WE already know what HEARTLESS IDIOTS they are!!
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For anyone wanting to comment on this quote that was included in the article in
Seattle PI:
http://www.seattlepi.com/letters/submit.asp
Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., a supporter of the roundups whose family has a ranch, said well-meaning’ horse protection advocates often from the East don’t understand that overpopulated herds destroy fragile grass ecosystems to the detriment of livestock and other wildlife.
“It is Congress that has caused the problems by saying we cannot slaughter horses, yet we are not supposed to keep them in pens. We are supposed to allow them to overgraze the West,” Lummis said.
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Exactly what we could expect from a Rancherette that wants the ranges for her own use and that of her cohorts. I wonder if all you ‘uniformed’ advocates from back east feel properly insulted by this cowgirl’s remarks implying that you just don’t know what you are talking about.
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Dear Wambli okiye , Us Eastern Girls Just consider the source, Then we laugh , then we resume to Fight tooth and Nail for what really matters here The Wild Mustangs…….. We from the East Totally appreciate and Love The Wild Mustangs and what they stand for and find the beauty each and everyone of them display and for their unselfish service that they represented throughout History to every American…………. no one will ever stop this Eastern Girl from doing everything she can to stop The BLM…………….and its disastrous Blundering, murdering Round ups from Hell…………. We believe they should be cherished and honored by all of America, and Im here to see that is what happens for them !!!!!
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It took me a couple minutes to realize this was the tip of Our Iceburg… so now we go for the body of the ice burg and stop the roundup money and the roundups!!!! This is so doable!! Thanks to all who have been working towards this for all these months. This was the way to go!! mar
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While I’m pleased that something was attempted, many here have raised my same concerns. Rep Jim Moran (VA and decent guy) was quoted in my local Hooterville Holler saying…”40k in holding and 30k left roaming”. Troubling because we all know roaming population is way below 30k, factor in sterilization (permanent and temporary) and his lack of command of the facts it becomes HIGHLY troubling.
Why is DOI/USDA allowed to lie like people breathe?
They (Congress) ought to take that 2 mil and pay for a 90 day audit by independent equine authority of ranges and holding….they (Congress) will be shocked to learn the numbers v. costs.
Moran did take the time to cite the 1971 Act.
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Here’s what I know about Washington this week. We have a number of advocates that are making the rounds visiting reps. I believe Ginger’s video is with them as is Honeybandit’s mom and his story. People were horrified, they said they just didn’t know that this crap was going on. Good discussions were had.
Many of us don’t live in Rep Burton’s home state. So he can’t respond if we write him. But I know I made a call a while back to thank him anyway.
This is a huge thing. As I read above someone said BLM will say they have no money to feed the horses they have. That has been my question all along. If they can’t afford to feed what they already have in prison–isn’t rounding up more just like hoarding????
When they complain they are out of money feeding–WE NEED TO BE PREPARED TO JUMP DOWN EVERY SINGLE MEMBER OF CONGRESS—WHY ARE YOU ROUNDING UP HORSES THAT YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO FEED. Leave them in the open where it isn’t costing the taxpayer a dime to live.
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Please do not forget to thank Congressman Jim Moran also. On the Animal Coalition COmmittee (sorry I can’t recall the exact name of it). He also backed this.
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It sends a message, but the program needs restructuring, and their conduct big change – trust is lost with BLM as they come across like a cult that evades any public scrutiny at ANY cost – the cruelty is not acceptable and they must be held accountable – 2 million is nice, but a drop in the bucket. BLM’s unacceptable actions must be investigated, cutting the budget some is not helping the horses unless the morons in charge are overseen by an outsource source who makes sure their conduct is fair – which is exactly what has not been improving – despite all the promises in Denver last June… their “humane” standards are sub-human, and their lies and inaccurate reportings are routine – all they care about is their PR gigs and image – we must maintain the public pressure and start protesting again. Keep the momentum.
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Time to light the fuse ppl. We need some more members from WY, MT, SD, ND, ID, NV. We probably need a whole lot more members PERIOD, when you consider how many Congressional men and women WE employee. 🙂
http://animalprotectioncaucus.moran.house.gov/membership.html
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In the words of the mobster chararacterized by Walter Mattheau in WHERE THE ACTION IS, “a little spankin’ with a bicycle chain”.
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Correction:
Who’s Got the Action?
Character: Tony Gagoots (Walter Mattheau)
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