Advocacy NOW!

This is a Wild Horse & Burro Action Blitz, comments are needed no later than Monday 5p ET.  We just learned of an important budget hearing scheduled for Tuesday, March 9, where Secretary Salazar is testifying on his proposed FY2011 budget which includes funding for the broken wild horse and burro program.  

We need to make sure the senators at Tuesday's hearing hears loudly from Americans that this program needs serious reform - that roundups must stop and no funding should be given for a "preserve" in the midwest or east.

YOUR voice is needed - let's do what we can to try to get congressional members to address the horrible wild horse and burro program at each hearing Salazar attends.  TAKE ACTION NOW and PLEASE ask your friends and family to take action.  

March for Mustangs – March 25^th

A rally and protest co-sponsored by The Cloud Foundation, The Equine Welfare Alliance , Friends of Animals and many more!

When: Thursday, March 25^th

Time: 1:00-3:00pm, Press conference and speakers at 1:30pm (Hope Ryden, author "America's Last Wild Horses," Filmmaker Ginger Kathrens, Author RT FItch, Friends of Animals Director Priscilla Feral, Filmmaker James Kleinert and many more- including special guests to be announced)

Where: Lafayette Park located directly across from White House at 16 Street and H Street, NW). Around 3:00pm protesters will march with sign to the BLM office at 1849 'C' Street.

Plus Mustangs on the Hill II: On Friday morning we’ll meet and brief people on meeting with their Represenatives in meetings to save the mustangs. Please schedule an appointment with your Representatives for Thursday morning or Friday. The first Mustangs on the Hill last September made a lot of important impacts for wild horses-- please schedule meetings now and make the most of your time in DC.

Plus: Special Screening of the new documentary on our wild horses and burros in the west: Disappointment Valley... A Modern Day Western by James Kleinert on Wednesday evening, March 24th from 6:00-8:00pm atBusBoys and Poets, location 14th & V street (map here)

Driving? Check out the Ride Share to connect with other advocates in your area to get to DC - Click here

Why: BLM’s cruel and poor mismanagement is destroying a vital piece of the American west. The American public is sanding up for our horses and burros- please join us in a March for Mustangs, rally and protest.

Roundups increased significantly in 2000 in the Bush years and they haven’t let up under the Obama administration.  12,000 wild horses and burros are scheduled for removal from our public lands this fiscal year alone. These helicopter roundups come at enormous expense to our wild herds and to the American taxpayer.

Recently the roundup of 1900 mustangs took place in the Calico mountains of Northwestern Nevada during the dead of winter, ending early in February when BLM realized the herds were far smaller than estimated. To date 60 horses have died due to this roundup and the death toll continues to climb daily. This does not include the 30 plus mares that have aborted their late-term foals in the feedlot style corrals in Fallon, Nevada where the horses are being held. Two foals had their hooves literally separate from the bone after the helicopters ran their families for miles over rocky and sharp volcanic ground.

Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversees the BLM, has decided there is no room left for our mustangs on their designated lands in the west. The Secretary and has proposed purchasing private land in the East for our Western wild horses. This only adds to the financial and humane train wreck that the Wild Horse and Burro Program has become.

So rather than spending over thirty million dollars this fiscal year to remove our wild horses and burros from the range, let’s protect them on their western lands. The intent of Congress’ 1971 Free-roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act was not to warehouse our allowed to live in freedom in self-sustaining numbers on western rangelands designated primarily for their survival. Drastic change is needed in the management of wild horses and burros if they are to survive, as wild animals, into the future. Wild horses benefit the land as they evolved in North America and they represent our living history in the west.

Annually we lose $123 million running a taxpayer subsidized grazing program is often referred to as “welfare ranching” due to the small fees charged to livestock permittees. The rate is currently the lowest allowed by law—$1.35 per cow/calf pair per month. This rate needs to be raised to over $9.00 in order for the program to break even. If cows were removed and horses allowed to stay, we’d save even more—including our valued mustangs. Holding the 1900 Calico horses alone in a feedlot style facility amounts to a staggering cost of over $10,000 per day!

But change is on the way for our wild horses and burros! Some 25 protests have been mounted from coast-to-coast including Chicago, LA, NYC, Denver, Las Vegas, Reno, and Sacramento since late December. Thousands of people have braved the cold and come out with their families to hold banners and signs demanding that President Obama react to the hideous mistreatment of our spectacular wild horses and respond to the incredible waste of taxpayer dollars on a broken program that only lines the pockets of powerbrokers and cattle barons. Now is the time to say enough is enough. Open the gates and return our wild horses to their rightful ranges.

Please take action for our wild herds.  An immediate moratorium on all roundups is needed! This must be followed byhearings and investigations on BLM mismanagement; accurate and independent assessments of just hwo many wild horses we have left and the real range conditions. Then we need to develop a  sustainable plan for our wild herds on our Western public lands and restore their protections set forth in the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Moving our wild horses in non-reproducing, broken families to the East is not the answer.

Join us on Thursday, March 25th for a Mustangs March on Washington and take action today to save these incredible animals who are currently being managed to extinction.

Take Action

-       Call President Obama 202-456-1111

-       Call your Senators 202-224-3121

Visit www.thecloudfoundation.org for more information

Thanks to Vivian Grant of Int'l Fund for Horses for these wonderful images!

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Outrage Protest, Las Vegas February 18th and Feb 19^th  2010

America's Dirty Little Secret Goes On and On – CAUTION advised! 

Please VOTE to STOP cruel BLM round ups of WILD HORSES!

Please VOTE to STOP Horse Slaughter!

Want the TRUTH about the Wild Horse & Slaughter issues...?
Start watching HERE! Also, Fallen Grace a film by Voluntary Instinct Productions featuring Willie Nelson

 Saving America's Horses A Nation Betrayed Preview Trailer
– Produced by Humanion Films

An American Horse is Slaughtered Every 5 Minutes in Canada or Mexico! –Family Pets, Sport Horses, Race Horses, Wild Horses...

SAVING AMERICA'S HORSES captures the truth about the controversial issue pf horse slaughter through the voice of our Nations most out spoken experts on the topic. The Preview Trailer presents the inspirational tone of the film while also serving to raise awareness for the CAUSE. SAVING AMERICAS HORSES A NATION BETRAYED depicts a country divided and inspires great hope for the protection of all horses and burros. Its a tender yet honest look at the reality that our American horses are born into, the love, joy and respect they give us and in contrast, the complacent mindset of those who profit from the sordid practice of horse slaughter.

The BLM Slaughter Conspiracy 
“Pure propaganda” was Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spokesperson Tom Gorey’s reaction in a recent AP interview when asked about the growing accusations that his agency is in the process of virtually exterminating the very herds of wild horses and burros that it is supposed to protect. MORE.....

Recent Wild Horse Protest – Photo courtesy of The Cloud Foundation