Wild Horse and Burro Preservation Groups Announce Phoenix Press Conference and Rally to Call for Immediate Halt to Roundups

Horse News

By R.T. Fitch on March 6, 2011 • ( 20 Comments )

Released in association with HfH Advisory Council

Dances with Wolves Author, Michael Blake, to join author Deanne Stillman, and filmmaker Ginger Kathrens in a wild horse advocates’ press conference on Thursday, March 10 preceding BLM Advisory Board Meeting

Phoenix, AZ (March 6, 2011)— The Cloud Foundation, Respect4Horses, The Habitat for Horses Advisory Council, Grassroots Horse, and American Wild Horse Advocates will hold a special press conference on the current state of America’s mismanaged wild horses and burros. Groups are calling for an immediate halt to all Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundups that are destroying the last of America’s wild herds at enormous and escalating taxpayer expense. The media and the interested public are encouraged to attend this public press conference at the Phoenix Sheraton Downtown Hotel (340 N. 3^rd street) from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 10^th.

Michael Blake, Academy Award-winning author of Dances with Wolves will join renowned author of Mustang, Deanne Stillman and Emmy-award winning filmmaker, Ginger Kathrens along with other informative speakers who have been on the ground at recent fatal roundups across the West. The event will precede the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Public Advisory Board Meeting on Thursday afternoon and Friday at the same location. Advocates will protest to stop the roundups from 12:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. following the public comment period of the meeting.

“Americans need to stand up to save what’s left of our wild horses and burros.  We no longer have millions. The removal forever of the animals that played a key role in allowing America to be settled by humanity is not only wrong…it is done with criminality,” states Michael Blake. “The BLM and the Secretary of the Interior should be in court… defending themselves. Stop them now America.”  

A few hundred wild burros and wild horses still remain in Arizona but more are slated for permanent removal in the coming year. Remnant herds of wild horses and burros live in only 10 western states, including Arizona, but their future is tenuous. The agency responsible for their protection and preservation, BLM, is managing them to extinction. While the cruel and costly roundups continue, the BLM has no idea how many wild horses remain in the wild. An independent statistical review, using BLM’s own numbers, reveals a population of less than 18,000 wild horses on Western ranges. Currently the BLM has stockpiled more than 40,000 wild horses and burros in costly government holding, leaving millions of acres of legally designated wild horse and burro ranges empty. Advocates are calling for the return of wild horses and burros to the 24 million acres of designated lands cleared since 1971. Only 180 of the originally identified 339 herds remain in the wild. The BLM continues to “zero out” herds each year without proper justification.

The groups, supported by advocates from coast to coast, will join together in Phoenix to demand that the BLM call off all scheduled roundups immediately while solutions are proposed and considered to sustainably and naturally preserve these legally protected wild herds. Currently the agency’s wild horse and burro program is under an investigative review by the National Academy of Sciences, as called for by 54 members of Congress and several Senators in 2010.

Schedule of Events:

Thursday March 10^th:

11:30am- 12:30pm: Press Conference at the Phoenix downtown Sheraton Hotel, 340 N. 3^rd street.

1:00 pm -5:00 pm: BLM Advisory Board Meeting begins

7:00pm-8:00pm: Candlelight vigil for the wild horses and burros who have died and suffered at the hands of the BLM beginning in front of the Sheraton

Friday March 11^th :

8:00am – 9:00am BLM Advisory Board Meeting resumes

9:00am- 12:00pm: Public Comment period of meeting, press encouraged to attend.

12:00am – 2:00pm Demonstration/ Protest beginning in front of the Sheraton Phoenix downtown hotel (340 N. 3^rd street)

1:00pm – 5:00pm BLM Advisory Board Meeting concludes

Links of interest:

Independent Report to Defund Roundups: http://bit.ly/gCyiu0

Video calling for Defunding of Roundups: http://bit.ly/hL0eOj

American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/

Respect 4 Horses http://www.respect4horses.com/

Habitat for Horses Advisory Council http://www.hfhadvisorycouncil.org/

Grassroots Horse http://www.grassrootshorse.com/

American Wild Horse Advocates http://www.awha.info/

54 Members of Congress protest BLM management http://bit.ly/gFJDs1

“This is Extermination, Not a Rescue” 1993 LA Times article by Michael Blake http://bit.ly/EnaR_MB

BLM Boss Not Engaged with Wild Horse Range Reality http://bit.ly/eLOVbr

Stampede to Oblivion: An Award Winning Investigative Report from CBS Las Vegas: http://bit.ly/iiNNYs

American Herds – “What’s Left?” http://americanherds.blogspot.com/2009/12/whats-left.html

Unified Moratorium letter and 200 signatories  http://bit.ly/6ck87L

Shortlink to this release:  http://www.box.net/shared/qkfnixzpkm

Related Articles

• Event: Wild Horses and Burros Need Your Voice (thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com)
• Obama’s BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board to Meet in March (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
• OIG Joins BLM in Propaganda War Against Iconic Wild Horses and Burros (rtfitch.wordpress.com)
• OIG Fails in Investigation of BLM (thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com)
• Action Alert: Wild Horse Advocates to Rally at BLM Meeting (rtfitch.wordpress.com)

Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs

Tagged as: BLM roundups, Bureau of Land Management, cloud foundation, Cruelty to animals, Grass Roots Horse, HfH Advisory Council, Horse, Michael Blake, Mustang, Obama Administration, Phoenix Arizona, Public land, respect4horses, United States, Wild Horse, Wild Mustang