The News as We See It by R.T. Fitch ~ President of the Wild Horse Freedom Federation
Public Scrutiny Allegedly Forces BLM to Act on Unacceptable Conditions
Last spring, the Butterfield Canyon Wild Horse and Burro facility, in Herriman Utah, gained worldwide attention when wild horse advocate Lisa Friday video taped and uploaded to YouTube through the Cloud Foundation a heart wrenching recording which documented the local wild horse prisoners so mired in mud and manure that they could nor did not move during her four-hour visit. Friday’s calls for assistance went unheeded until the video went public and only then did the BLM launch another of their infamous internal investigations where it was determined by the BLM that the BLM was, of course, not at fault but it was noted that an excess of mud and manure had accumulated but it was the fault of local weather conditions.
With this in mind and winter once again fast approaching the BLM began on Wednesday to ship the facility’s wild horse prisoners to other locations, 64 went to Gunnison Federal Prison with the remaining 167 to be sent to undisclosed locations and utlimatly typical long-term obscurity. The facility will then be closed to the public over the winter with the possibility of not re-opening next spring.
In a recent statement to the Salt Lake City Desert News BLM’s local Field Office Manager Jill Silvey said, “It was originally purposed to be a seasonal facility and just prep horses over the summer. It is really not the ideal location to (winter) horses.” Yet it was used as a year round facility for the past 15 years.
But the closure of the controversial facility does not sit well with one local equine enthusiast, Lisa Wisner, who told local KSL news;
“To me, it’s like taking the Liberty Bell and shipping it to Gunnison. No one’s going to be able to view the Liberty Bell.”
Likewise, other wild horse advocates have had similar feelings about the wild horses held at Gunnison Prison; as with most BLM wild horse concentration camps access is restricted and the public is unable to monitor the facility conditions and/or the condition of the wild horses that are stripped from their rightful public lands.
The true future of the horses imprisoned at Butterfield remains open-ended while the long-term plans for the facility are unknown at this time.
Related articles
- NY Times Climbs into Bed with BLM, AGAIN (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- Federal Judge Orders BLM to “Answer” Wild Horse Inhumane Charges (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- Federal Court Keeps Watchful Eye on BLM Wild Horse Pilot Conduct (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- Wild Horse Advocate Files for Halt to Alleged BLM Wild Horse Helicopter Abuse (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
- BLM Remains Silent Over Wild Horse Helicopter Ruling (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Heart-breaking and shameful. It’s hard to imagine anything more vicious than the BLM.
LikeLike
Vicious is putting it lightly! I HATE the BLM! Nasty excuses for human beings they are!!! And while our so called government stands by and does absolutely NOTHING to help this situation, OBUMA, may you rot in HELL. You wanted the title of president, you got it, illegally, but you got it! You are totally responsible for ensuring all programs are run right. America wants your resignation!!! You are UNFIT for running our country. Get out now while you still can.
LikeLike
Anyone with a lick of sense could see what was bound to happen to the horses kept in this landscape. GoodLady, I agree with you ~ the BLM is vicious
LikeLike
Let me tell you how I feel about them…….
BLM is out to scalp anyone–horse/human/elk/fish–that stands in its way–they are ruthless/godless/inhuman/unholy–a scourge in the biblical sense.
Evil– right out of hell.
LikeLike
I totally agree with you!!!
LikeLike
Thank goodness those wild horses in Utah weren’t forced to stand in those conditions another minute but their fate behind locked doors is frightening also as I discovered for some of our Twin Peaks Mustangs.
The prison at Carson City, Nevada was given 26 of our Twin Peaks wild horses (including 6 stallions ages 4&5) so that the inmates could use them with #1 gelding experiments and #2 PZP experiments. Apparently the man (photo in article – link below) doing the actual gelding is a BLM vet – or so I am told – but why send them to the prison for the gelding process? There were more than enough geldings that could have been sent to the prison from STH if they were only going to train them to be ridden and adopted.
As for the fertility study (article link below) – PZP and GonCon (a permanent fertility control?) have both been studied / used for years – so why do they have to continue to experiment on these Mustangs? In addition, this will only result in more foals forced into the system. And again … why behind locked doors?
Article and photos of Mustangs being gelded at the Carson City Prison:
http://www.lvrj.com/news/convict-cowboys-train-horses-seek-redemption-at-nevada-camp-126078013.html
Article about the Mustangs being used for fertility control study at Carson City Prison:
http://themustangproject.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/fertility-control-team-starts-trials-of-pzp-formula-that-should-provide-3-4-yrs-of-fertility-control/
LikeLike
And don’t some of the wild equines in the NV prison system/care/custody magically becomes State of NV property and go to slaughter? Thought that happened a few months ago (not to be confused with the TX prison equines).
LikeLike
Can someone tell me why they are doing these experiments at a prison? Are the inmates scientists? Who on earth is doing these experiments? Prison guards, cons?
LikeLike
Sounds to me like the prisoners are the lab techs! This need to be exposed. We need to get this on paper from the warden. What are our horses doing in this place and who authorized these experiments?
SHOW US THE PAPERWORK, GUNNISON PRISON!!!!
LikeLike
I agree Mar. What is going on at these prisons? Sounds like the animal version of Mengele and the experiments they did on prisoners.
LikeLike
Nothing makes sense here that the BLM gets their hands on. If they are going to KILL our country’s horses, THEN DO IT THE HUMANE WAY AND PUT THESE POOR HORSES OUT OF THEIR MISSERY! GOD IS WATCHING AND JUDGING. YOU HAD BETTER CHANGE YOUR WAYS BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! He created animals for His purpose. They were not put here for YOU to mistreat.
For God’s sake as well as yours, you’d better do the right thing NOW. He’s coming back, and SOON.
LikeLike
The reduction in AMLs for wild horses and burros; the reduction and zeroing out of HMLs for wild horses and burros, the continuous, relentless and progressive reduction in the number of wild horses and burros the BLM FRIVOLOUSLY decides will stay on OUR public lands and the HUGE WASTE, FRAUD, and ABUSE of our hard-earned tax dollars to inflict clear CRUELTY, TERROR and DESPICABLE behavior is CLEAR evidence that the BLM is eradicating our wild horses and burros. The BLM is a rogue agency and every single employee needs to be FIRED. Congress needs to create a new agency and move the FTEs from the BLM to the new agency where the CLEAR mandate is to PROTECT and PRESERVE our wild horses and burros and ONLY intervene when absolutely necessary.
LikeLike
Well, DOI/DOA clearly have conflicts of interest over those natural resources and wildlife that they are charged with protecting versus “cashier at the 99 cents candy store” for resource sucking trolls.
LikeLike
Dr. Marini, you say what is on all our minds so perfectly. Thank you.
LikeLike
Isn’t Herriman where the seized 64 horses on the killbuyer truck located? Also, just how many wild horses does Gunnison Prison know have? I think these prison programs need a bit of investigating. Just a little too secretive.
LikeLike
I believe so…and RT commented on that when folks asked “where are the seized equines?”. Believe it is either the first or second blog post on the arrests and seizures when they initially happened (in the archives about 3-5 weeks back at SFTHH).
LikeLike
Yes, I recall that too. I also think we need an update on these horses. Watch them be in danger of the same thing when they move all these horses to undisclosed locations.
LikeLike
This program is an abomination. They have SO f’ing many horses they cannot keep up with taking care of them. Aaarrggghh.
LikeLike
What wild equines they can’t magically make disappear via faux counts, range conditions, roundup deaths, STH/LTH….they will come to Congress with a plea for mass euthanasia. MARK MY WORDS!…they already tried it once.
LikeLike
Yep. They’ll blame the economy that no one is adopting, not their criminal program. 2000 horses adopted last year. The program is an abomination. Absolute abomination.
LikeLike
SWH – They don’t even give it an honest try. When public pressure gets a little too intense they will do a few cosmetic thiings to provide eye wash for the public but they still continue to hide what is really going on by restricting access even further. The BLM and its hirelings obviously have no real interest in providing proper care for the horses. After all, they intend to eventually eradicate them so why bother. Nothing will significantly change until congress gets off their fat behinds, shuts down all BLM equine operations, fires everyone responsible for this debacle, and creates a separate, independent department to preserve and protect, not roundup and destroy. No lateral transfers to such a new agency would be permitted for anyone currently in BLM equine operations. Funding, closely monitored by congressional oversight, would have to be restricted for use only in preservation of the few remaining in the wild and possible rescue and return to the ranges of the tens of thousands being held in STH and LTH. Then they should vigorously prosecute the ones that have been running this despicable, criminal program, including the cruel and inhumane contractors. But, as John W. used to say – “That’ll be the day.”
LikeLike
Excellent points Wambli, but I would advocate a nonprofit with wild equine experience (multiple ones like Cloud Foundation, etc) be put in charge of the wild equines and work within DOI/DOA. They could be given private sector NFP grants and/ or the appropriated Congressional funds for the management of wild equines given to DOI/DOA currently. Heck!…Fed and state governments can’t “privatize” fast enough.
LikeLike
So glad to see more of you have realized BLM is not ever going to be the guardian our wild ones need. Calling BLM out on all these issues is necessary.
We need to demand answers and get these people into discussions.
For those going to the Board meeting out East, I hope, in the 2 days they are meeting, that there will be a dialogue with advocates. We have gone too long on empty promises for more meetings and workshops. I think they realized last summer in Denver they could not lead us by the noses so they simply never gave us another chance to meet and talk with them. This time we need to make them work with us!!!!
LikeLike
Close holding facilities, not HMAs. Return our horses to the wild!
LikeLike
Does anybody have an update about the Herriman horses that were seized on their way to slaughter? Wasn’t there a federal investigation taking place? Everything the BLM does is so shady.
LikeLike
Apparently, that like everything else the BLM does is classified top secret. Those horses were taken to Herriman, almost positive. Now where are they going? God, these horses have been trucked all over hell.
LikeLike
I don’t know if this good or bad. I know conditions were worse than horrid but to some extent the horses could be monitored. Now with the horses being sent God knows where this can’t happen.
Just wondering if monitoring the horses isn’t part of First Amendment? This isn’t se ret military stuff. We want to know about the horses, we pay for them with our tax dollars. I don’t want to be told by politicians “oh the horses are just fine. Trust us.” I want to know for myself by folks I’ve come to know here and trust.
LikeLike
Monitoring isn’t First Amend…that’s DOIs/DOAs job; access to the monitoring, reports, data, responses, counts roundups IS First Amendment.
LikeLike
Denise, regarding your coments on my earlier post, I totally agree with you that it would be much better to turn the management over to a private concern sfaffed by people that know and appreciate horses. Even as I wrote what I did I was gritting my teeth at the thought of creating another federal agency since they all seem to be so susceptible to corruption and mismanagement, if not immediately then further down the trail – just seems to be the nature of the bureaucratic beast. WO
LikeLike
ALL concentration camps/holding facilities need to be closed.
LikeLike
The prison system is having enough problems. If BLM continues to send America’s captured Wild Horses and Burros to the prisons, then the BLM director should be stationed there, instead of in D.C. They could, no doubt, use some assistance shuffling the paperwork.
LikeLike
The prison guards are NOT happy campers, either. The prison system is just as corrupt and the BLM/Department of Interior. There is unrest on the inside AND the outside.
LikeLike
So many prisons are being privatized now too for maximum capitalism profit. Why don’ they publicize what is going on with these horses if it is such a great rehabilitative program? Or is it? Can horses just disappear? You bet they can!
LikeLike
This is disgusting and is inexcusable. Doesn’t anyone out there have any pull with the media?
LikeLike
Right now BLM is going after media that liberal America enjoys. When they white wash this crisis in a publication be it the New York Times or this months irresponsible article in Outside Magazine, BLM is telling the public lies and using these publications to do it. We need equal time. The ‘Outside’ piece is under the heading of ‘Fueds’ so we should say we are the ‘opposition to BLM’ and demand to have our say.
I will post the link to the article.
LikeLike
This is one of the worst articles I have ever read. This makes this the 3rd liberal magazine that I am familiar with, who should know better, but has fallen for the BLM/Corporate line and Public Relations scam. First it was Mother Jones then High Country News and now it is Outside Magazine. We need a press person for the wild horses to work with all this mess and help do damage control and correct the bull being shoveled to the public.
Read this and be amazed… I cannot even figure out where some of this BS has come from!!!!
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/politics/Live-Free-or-Die.html
LikeLike
LIVE FREE OR DIE BY Will Grant, published in “Outside Magazine” November , 2011;
he West’s Wild horses are in trouble. Not because there are too few of the iconic equines, but because there are too many—80,200 at last count. Since 2007, when the feds banned commercial horse slaughter, the population of western ferals has exploded. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which is charged with managing them, was budgeted $75 million this year, mainly to corral more than half the population into what amounts to a permanent limbo of massive feedlots and fenced pastures.
The BLM has tried everything from sterilizing mares with contraceptive darts to castrating stallions, but nothing has succeeded in reducing their numbers. Now, with federal deficits mounting, the Government Accountability Office has told the agency it must fix the problem: get the population under control and—the larger conundrum—do something with the nearly 42,000 already in captivity. The wild-horse program, which was taken over by longtime mustang advocate Joan Guilfoyle in August, is expected to publish new regulations this fall calling for more contraception and fewer costly roundups, and for paying private citizens to look after captive horses.
Few people think these kinds of incremental changes will work, but one person who’s willing to pitch in on the private- sector side is Madeleine Pickens, wife of billionaire finan cier T. Boone Pickens. In 2010, Pickens bought two ranches in Nevada, where she’s attempting to obtain equine grazing rights to more than half a million acres. She’s suggested turning the spread into Mustang Monument, a park where visitors can observe horses roaming free on the range, but the BLM has so far balked. “The government in this country is busted, and it’s got a $75 million horse problem,” Pickens says. “The BLM has some one who wants to work with them and who’s got the money to do something, and they continually find a reason not to change.”
Trouble is, the BLM believes Pickens’s ranch can support only 970 animals, and her proposed annual care price of $500 per horse, which the government would pay, is actually $25 more than it’s currently spending.
The issue is particularly contentious because of the abuse the animals have endured over the years. Until President Richard Nixon signed legislation to protect them in 1971, mustangs were crammed into railcars and shipped to dog-food plants. To deliver the beasts to their fate alive— mustangs don’t herd like cattle do—wranglers handi capped them by sewing their noses partially shut with thongs of rawhide, cutting ligaments in their knees, and gut-shooting them.
Despite the emotional response mustangs inspire, it’s a misconception that these 80,200 steeds descended from Iberians left behind by 16th-century conquistadores—mesteño is Spanish for “stray.” As far as the BLM is concerned, even a scraggly 4-H pony turned loose on public land is a mustang. In fact, there are fewer than 1,000 true Spanish mustangs, the most famous of which make up the 167-strong herd living in the Pryor Mountains along the Montana- Wyoming state line.
One family in particular, the Tilletts, have looked after the Pryor herd over the years. It was Lloyd Tillett who, in 1968, alerted reporter Hope Ryden to the BLM’s plan to cull it. “Dad was afraid the BLM would lose all its start,” says Lloyd’s son Hip Tillett, 53, referring to the animals’ bloodline. Lloyd saved a handful of mustangs to preserve the stock, and Ryden’s ABC Evening News story sparked such an outcry that Interior Secretary Stewart Udall called off the cull and set aside the Pryor Mountain Horse Range. Hip Tillett has broken and trained mustangs his entire life.
But when it comes to those 42,000 captives, there are no easy answers. Adoption numbers have steadily declined since 2004, and even Pickens can’t afford a seven-figure feed bill. Tillett is among the few people willing to face a harsh reality: we may need to consider reopening the slaughterhouses.
Outside Magazine, November 2011
LikeLike
I can’t stand all the bs..I certainly will send my comments to the Outside Magazine. How about talking to people who are trying to protect them. Until this reporter or any other from the magazines experience a slaughterhouse first hand they should shut up. It just goes to show how much research goes into some of these articles. Just leave them on the range, we don’t need 40,000 and climbing in a facilities at tax payers expense. So out of touch with what is going on.
LikeLike
I agree, Gail. And, I don’t really care to read such mindless suggestions by Outside Magazine.
All BLM did in what they considered “solutions” were for the most part cruel and inhumane, and ineffective. I always ponder on why they are stealing the land that belongs to the horses while they mutilate and kill the horses by barbaric measures or neglect.
The only two remedies that are good for the horses would be for them to stay on their own land where they have always been a beautiful symbol of freedom and our heritage, or to cooperate with Madelaine and let her provide more acreage and a beautiful and happy, safe place for the horses.
Anybody who suggests slaughtering the horses is, in my view, a very sick and demented human being. Considering our history with horses, their being our partners, and how without them we could not have settled this country, I call people who want to kill them or eat them to be soulless.
LikeLike
So now the BLM has started shipping the wild horse prisoners UNKNOWN locations? Do we know whether horses that are sent to Gunnison Federal Prison are treated well? I don’t consider it LEGAL for the remaining 167 to be sent to undisclosed locations and long-term obscurity. I think taxpayers and voters in this country should know what these heathen BLM public servants paid by us, the taxpayers, are doing to the wild horses they have abused, tortured, killed and for which in my humble opinion they should fry in hell. Also, WHY is BLM so opposed to working with Madelaine Pickens in her attempt to provide appropriate lives for the Mustangs? What kind of government do we now have that allows a mere government agency to run horses down with helicopters, injure, kill and then incarcerate these beautiful horses in mud and mire? It is evil, uncivilized, barbaric and beyond contempt.
LikeLike
Good questions all. We need to ask ourselves what kind of agency would prefer horses be sent to a prison, a literal one for hardened human criminals (not the ususal holding prisons for innocent wild horses), than to a huge sanctuary on lands just like the lands they already live on and run by a wild horse lover and potentially visited by thousands of wild horse lovers. I believe over the past 12 months Gunnison prison and received hundreds and hundreds of our wild horses. I didn’t realize they were set up to corral hundreds and hundreds of wild horses. I think we need to find out.
LikeLike