Author Visits BLM Wild Horse & Burro Auction In New Hampshire

It was a chilly Friday, June 5th on the New England coast, where fog, mist and occasional rain marked the arrival of the enormous BLM ( Bureau of Land Management) caravan of tractor trailer trucks loaded with 70 wild mustangs and burros to the Hilltop Equestrian Center in Somersworth New Hampshire. At least that is what I understood from the review in the Eagle Tribune the previous week in terms of their numbers. The makeshift “pens” used to control and divide the horses and burros up by age, size and I believe, gender, were a sorry excuse for shelter or even containment, too small and inadequate spaces for the animals to really stretch their legs after a long road trip, and not nearly enough room for all to get to the soggy hay, which was all that was afforded to them. It was difficult enough to witness this humiliation first hand, but almost impossible to imagine what it must feel like to these once regal, roaming spirits to be in this broken place, in this broken condition. Their ribs shown through, especially the “yearlings”, from lack of proper nutrition, and lack of room to move for most of their young lives. They tangled in their small spaces, trying to get to food and water, many having open gashes from trying to defend themsleves in too small a space, no where to run, trapped in a corner of the “pen”.

Present were a trainer, offering demonstrations and discussion as to what works with reaching and gentling these wild creatures, however, I did hear her talk of their fear of humans, their first experience with Man having been their often brutal capture, traumatic tagging, shots and freeze branding procedures. Also present were two BLM hands responsible for moving the animals to New England. I spoke with “Steve” and met “Sam” his mascot mustang, to learn more about their travels. It was documented as to where the horses had been captured, their approximate age, and the process of the auction taking place the next day was explained with enthusiasm. I looked hard at all the “previewers”, searching their faces to try to determine whether they were truly there to adopt, or would these babies go over the border to Canada? Surely a possibility with bidding starting at only 125.00. Photos from the paddock where they were held will be posted shortly, along with any record I can recover regarding the results of the auction the following day, which I was unable to attend. I was told by Steve that 46 of the horses had been adopted via the internet prior to their arrival. How does one screen for qualified adoptees on the internet, I wondered?

Would that I had enough land and a place or the resourses to adopt them all and turn them out to pasture, for that is the least of what they deserve, being stolen from their “herd families’ where they have the best chance for survival.

According to the Eagle Tribune, it has been 7 years since mustangs were brought into New England for auction, as there had been a hiatus on transporting the animals from their BLM pens. If the BLM pens are anything like what I saw, these horses will lose their health and weight and spirit in a nanosecond. Surely we can do better with our tax dollars.

Please write your legislators and tell them how you want your tax dollars spent, by restoring protective lands that rightfully belong to the herds and were established for the protection of these beautiful animals, so the herds can grow and be humanely managed back to the level which was originally earmarked by the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971. That number is 50,000 ( although I believe it could and should be higher than this).

Currently, there are more mustangs in BLM holding pens than there are in the wild. This is not right!! Further, petition your legislators to pass laws that make sense towards humane herd management. There is important and relevant legislation pending at this time, which begins to address fairly some of the issues at hand, and which restores some of the protection originally afforded the American Mustang. Check the links on my earlier entry to see what your legislator has done! Ask them to petition the BLM to release captive horses back to their natural habitat, and to have their lands be restored in areas known to be home to the herds, lands that may harbor natural predators, where natural predators ( such as the grey wolf) are being restored. In doing so, allow the balance of nature work towards natural populations that will balance themselves. To the extent this cannot address all the needs of humane herd maintenance, ask them to restore humane slaughter within our borders for the sick and disabled, rather than force them to suffer needlessly on long hauls to other countries where they meet an even more sordid and cruel fate. Thank you for your help.

Please, help by going to the links in this blog and contacting your legislators, let them know how important it is to preserve our national heritage in humane and sensible ways. Tell them to please… Help Save the American Wild Horses from annihilation oversesa, and further suffering over our borders.

Saving The American Wild Horse

Horses are my passion, and I’m not the only one who feels that way.  Their beauty, grace and strength have been celebrated throughout time in history, religion, mythology and art.  Horses first landed on American soil in the early 1500s with the Spanish conquistadors who brought them aboard ships destined for the New World.  Over time, the horses escaped or were left without an owner and roamed free and wild.  Their numbers swelled to two million. 

 

But by the time the federal government passed a law in 1971 to protect these herds of wild and beautiful creatures, only about 50,000 were left roaming America’s open spaces. More than 1 million horses were captured and tamed for World War I duty; the rest were slaughtered by chicken feed and dog food companies, and hunted down for sport.  The hunting methods were cruel and vicious with helicopters and motorized vehicles chasing them to exhaustion and then weighing the collapsed horses down with tires until slaughterhouse trucks retrieved them. They were stampeded off cliffs, shot down at full gallop, or corralled and massacred, then dumped into mass graves.

 

The carnage stopped because the public took action.  Petitions and letters flooded Congress and called for America’s wild horses and burros to be protected from further slaughter.  The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 was passed and the horses were safe, for a while.  The law has been revisited repeatedly since then by special interest groups and weakened to the point where the sale of “excess animals” from public lands led to more animals being sold for slaughter.

 

That’s why places like the Wild Horse Sanctuary are crucial to the survival of these beautiful, gentle and stately animals.  But sanctuary is costly and finite, limiting how many horses can be saved.

 

Saving the American Wild Horse is a compelling documentary narrated by Viggo Mortensen, Sheryl Crow, Peter Coyote, and directed by Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, James Kleinert.  The film delves into the politics behind the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) controversial policies regarding wild horses on public lands and exposes how the current massive Western land grab by oil, gas and mining corporations exploiting over 30 million acres of natural Western lands in the areas of New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and others is jeopardizing the fragile future existence of America’s wild horses and burros.

 According to the filmmaker, Saving the American Wild Horse documents the struggle of an animal that has long symbolized freedom, individualism and unbridled passion; all traits that exemplify what humans strive for in their finest hours. Through interviews with scientific experts, ranchers, historians, wild horse owners, animal rights activists, environmentalists and others the filmmaker examines the origins and effects of the recent “Burns Bill” which gutted the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 and cleared the way for the slaughter and removal of a vast majority of the wild horse herds. Saving The American Wild Horse will screen at the Newport Beach Film Festival on April 30th, 2008.  www.newportbeachfilmfest.com  To learn more about the American Wild Horse, how you can help strengthen protection laws and support the distribution of this very important documentary, visit these websites: 

http://www.wildhorsesanctuary.org/about.html

http://www.animalsvoice.com/PAGES/features/horses.html

http://www.theamericanwildhorse.com/index.html

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/166841148

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/about.html

 

I’ve created this blog with the hope that I can garner support for their mission, increase awareness, create a vision for humane treatment of these regal, intelligent animals who have served mankind so faithfully and reach the legislators who can facilitate change and put a stop to this unnecessary, senseless tragedy. Horses are an integral part of the American experience, our history, and our legacy.  They deserve a far better fate, a secure and peaceful place to live out their lives, and together, we have an obligation to our own legacy as Americans to be the ones who make that happen.