January 16, 2008

• The United States Human Society has provided an easy way to urge America's Senators to QUIT STALLING and get on reversing the Burns Amendment that stripped the last remaining protections from slaughter from America's wild horses and burros. Click Here to be herd!
• Tuesday's Horse, a blog for the International Fund 4 Horses posted an article titled The Horse On The Hill, which details smear campaigns and misinformation running rampant in our major media sources bought with the blood money of slaughtered horses. Unable to get letters published that provide evidence to refute the slaughter industries frenzied PR campaigns, reporters are hanging up because they don't want to hear anything but what they have been paid to say (my words, not theirs!). The author counters with a reminder that January 22, 2008 is National Call In Day for Horses where the people have the opportunity to let our representatives know we have not been bought and want the slaughter of America's horses stopped, here or across the borders! Click Here for complete details on how you can help!!!
• Australians are getting ready to defend their wild horses with their lives! Spokesperson Peter Cochran for the Bush Users Groups stated, "We're left with no choice. This is a government which takes absolutely no notice of the people...." Click Here to read the full story.
• The Nevada Appeal has published an article about a new plan between a group of wild horse advocates and an industrial park owner intending to provide a "habitat management project" for about 450 of the Virginia Range wild horses. Click Here to read the full story.
• An article posted by The Times presents conflicting numbers and information on the National Wild Horse & Burro Program. First it says tens of thousands of mustangs roam freely on public lands, then it says thousands of removed animals are available each year, then it finally gets it right by reporting that free-roaming horses have disappeared for six states and fewer than 25,000 still remain on public lands. It finishes with a complete error by reporting that Montana, not Wyoming has "other significant populations". http://mywebtimes.com:80/ottnews/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=351685
• The World Wildlife News has posted American Wild Horse Preservation Campaigns Action Alert on the need for public input for BLMs management plans for a rare herd of wild pinto burros in Utah due on or before January 23, 2008. Click Here to read the full article.
• KOLO-8 News reported on the January 11, 2008 meeting of the Nevada Commission for the Preservation of Wild Horses but ya wouldn't know it from the way the article is written! It begins with a quote from Allen Biaggi, Nevada's State Director for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, who oversees nine different departments in Nevada and the Nevada Commission for the Preservation of Wild Horses is one of them. Now becoming the spokesperson for the Commission instead of the Commission itself, Director Biaggi testified that Nevada could sue the feds for more money to "manage" wild horse herds. (my emphasis) Translation - removing them since that seems to be the only real "management" that has gone on in Nevada for years! This bright idea was started when Wyoming sued BLM and came to a consent agreement (totally illegal by BLM owns regulations!) to manage wild horses at some number pulled out of a hat for convenience sake, not because this was the population the range could support. Every since, Nevada has been salivating over the idea with Nevada's Wildlife Commissioners leading the way on threatening to bring lawsuits against BLM on several occasions since. Apparently, the Wild Horse Commission is jumping on board too. Click Here to read the full article.
• Return To Freedom was the big winner in the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Equine Fund grantees as they were awarded a $300,000 three-year sponsorship to expand educations and outreach programs supporting their conservation efforts. Click Here to see the full article and ASPCA's other grant recipients.
• "Mustang Blue" posts on the Save Our Mustangs My Space about the wild horse removals conducted in Wyoming in November. Click Here to read the full article.
• About 70 wild horses and burros will be available for adoption in Mobile, Alabama from January 18th through the 20th. Click Here to view full article.
• Award winning author Deanne Stillman has proudly announced the release of "Mustangs: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West" available for pre-order at Amazon and is due out in June 2008. Deanne has been compiling information, stories and facts to create this accounting of our wild horses for almost 10 years. We are all eagerly anticipating its arrival! Thank you Deanne!!!! You can place your order now at: http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0618454454/104-7106821-2507123?SubscriptionId=15VEWHERF6Q30X94NX82
• The Bureau of Land Management in Utah has bombarded the public with FIVE Draft Management Plans for establishing how public lands will be managed within the next 10-20 years. These plans will become the guiding foundation for HOW Utah's wild horse and burro herds will be administered and grant BLM the future authority of what they do to those herds. Land use plans are huge documents that require hours of study of BLMs proposals. Posting five of them all within the same few months is yet another effort by land managers to overwhelm the public and consequently, discourage public awareness, participation and involvement.
  
  To access ALL currently proposed Draft Management Plans, go to: http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/prog/planning.1.html
• Moab Draft Management Plan - Public Comments - Closed
• Vernal Draft Management Plan -Supplemental - Public Input Due by January 3, 2008 Public Comments - Closed http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/vernal/planning/rmp/draft_rmp_eis/draft_rmp_eis.html
• Kanab Draft Management Plan - Public Input Due by January 10, 2008 - No Wild Horse or Burro HMAs are in this planning area. http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/kanab/planning/draft_rmp_eis.html
• Richfield Draft Management Plan - Public Input Due by January 23, 2008 http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/richfield/planning/rmp/draft_rmp_eis.html
• Monticello Draft Management Plan - Public Input Due by February 8, 2008 http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/monticello/planning/draft_rmp_eis.html