Tag: USFS

Wild Horses and Burros Need Your Voice TODAY!

R.T. Fitch's avatarStraight from the Horse's Heart

Information supplied by Daniel Cordero Fernández

“We must relentlessly call Congress until they ask for mercy and remove the two offending sections legalizing wild horse killings and enabling horse slaughter in Appropriation Bills…”

photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Focus on all the member of the House and Senate appropriations committees but also contact your own Congressman and two Senators. This is because, in all likelihood, the two pro-slaughter sections (one removing the USDA slaughter inspections ban and other adding language to allow BLM to kill and sell for slaughter wild horses in holding) will be passed by the appropriations committees since western pro-slaughter folks have the majority and they have already discussed the matter and have allegedly agreed to pushing this to the full Congress to bring horse slaughter back. In my humble opinion, it is a done deal.

When contacting both your own legislators and…

View original post 630 more words

Wild Horses & Burros: Congressman Chris Stewart Violates U.S.C. Title 18 – Conspiracy to Defraud the United States

R.T. Fitch's avatarStraight from the Horse's Heart

Press Release: Citizens Against Equine Slaughter

“Congressman Stewart Reports a 41% increase in WH&B population in less than 5 months – IMPOSSIBLE!”

Citizens Against Equine Slaughter has found evidence that the Department of the Interior (DOI), Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and at least one Congressman are guilty of violating 923. 18 U.S.C. § 371—Conspiracy to Defraud the United States:

“The general conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371, creates an offense “[i]f two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose. (emphasis added).”

Congressman Stewart Reports a 41% increase in WH&B population in less than 5 months – IMPOSSIBLE

We find that Chris Stewart did stand in front of a Congressional Appropriations Subcommittee for the Department of the Interior in 2016, addressing the BLM FY 2017 Budget. He…

View original post 728 more words

Politics Of Wildfire: A Burgeoning Government Business Enterprise?

R.T. Fitch's avatarStraight from the Horse's Heart

an open letter from Capt. William E. Simpson II – USMM Ret.

“Everywhere in the world wherever a species of large herbivore has its population depleted or eliminated, vegetative (fuels for fires) materials (grasses & brush) become excessive resulting in a scenario where catastrophic wildfires take-over on an annual basis…”

Twin Peaks HMA Rush Fire on Rye Patch Road August 18, 2012 (Photo by BLM)

Somehow over the past century the notion of what it is to be a ‘civil servant’ and having the great privilege of serving ‘We the People’ has morphed into the current notion of being elected as a demigod, and being above the people. We see it all around us today in politics… so that statement is self-evident.

I think we’re getting snowed by many officials and politicians, and it’s to the point now where they don’t even seem to care if we even know or…

View original post 2,392 more words

Wild Horse Freedom Federation files two additional FOIA lawsuits against BLM

debbiecoffey's avatarStraight from the Horse's Heart

Wild-Horse-Freedom-FederationPO Box 390, Pinehurst Texas 77362

(800) 974-3684

For Immediate Release: July 5, 2017

Wild Horse and Burro Advocacy Group Funds Two More Lawsuits over Bureau of Land Management Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Violations

Pinehurst, TX – Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF) has announced that it has recently filed two additional FOIA lawsuits, so it is currently funding five Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits, that allege the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated its duties under FOIA. Records sought are in connection with the BLM’s Wild Horse & Burro Program. Debbie Coffey, V.P. and Dir. of Wild Horse Affairs for Wild Horse Freedom Federation, and Wild Horse Freedom Federation are the Plaintiffs. The lawsuits are pending in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, DC.

Attorneys Daniel J. Stotter of Corvallis, Oregon and C. Peter Sorenson of Eugene, Oregon filed the lawsuits.

View original post 224 more words

Are wild horses & burros being categorized for slaughter?

debbiecoffey's avatarStraight from the Horse's Heart

Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation at Palomino Valley

SOURCE:  The Cloud Foundation

Press Release:  For immediate release

Are Wild Horses being Categorized for Slaughter?

Colorado Springs, CO 07-01-2017 – The Cloud Foundation received an anonymous tip that Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and/or top Bureau of Land Management officials have ordered all wild horses currently in short term holding facilities be categorized by weight and age in anticipation of the approval of the federal budget.  The current recommendation for this budget would allow for “sale without limitation” many or most of the wild horses currently in holding.  This, of course, can eventually lead to the barbaric slaughter of our iconic wild horses.  The tipster stated that this categorization was to ensure the BLM was ready to ”ship out” horses older than five years of age.  The only place to “ship out” these horses would be to slaughter. …

View original post 230 more words

Speak Up for Wild Horses — Before It’s Too Late!

R.T. Fitch's avatarStraight from the Horse's Heart

Source: Return to Freedom and endorsed by Wild Horse Freedom Federation

“At Wild Horse Freedom Federation we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Return to Freedom and their call for immediate action to save our dwindling wild horse and burro herds.  You can make a difference and the time to make that difference is “right now’.

Please take the actions, listed below, and be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves.” ~ R.T. Fitch, co-founder/president of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

photo by Carol Walker of Wild Horse Freedom Federation and Living Images

Word from Washington, D.C., is that it has been too quiet from wild horse & burro supporters. We must turn that around – *NOW* — before thousands of wild horses and burros are lost to foreign slaughterhouses or felled by bullets paid for by our own tax dollars.

Here’s how you can help America’s wild horses &…

View original post 280 more words

ANIMAL CRUELTY CASE VS. U.S. FOREST SERVICE SIDELINED

debbiecoffey's avatarStraight from the Horse's Heart

Source:  PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)

Map of Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests

Two Horses and a Mule Died of Dehydration in Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves Forest

Washington, DC — An attempt to criminally prosecute U.S. Forest Service employees for acts of cruelty to animals resulting in the death of two horses and a mule has been dropped, according to court records posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).  The dismissals followed an assertion of federal sovereign immunity in order to block prosecution in state court.

More than most federal agencies, the U.S. Forest Service uses horses and mules in its daily operations. Consequently, care and maintenance of equine livestock is an important duty on many national forests.

But there was a major breakdown of those responsibilities on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona.  In May of 2016, two horses (named Snip and Diesel) and a mule (named Little Bit) were…

View original post 182 more words

Journalists are in love with cowboys, and so wild horses will die.

Vickery Eckhoff's avatarVickery Eckhoff

Ryan Zinke, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, U.S. Secretary of the Interior

I’ve made a subspecialty out of writing to journalists about wild horses and, more importantly, cattle.

Below is a letter I wrote to Matthew Shaer of Smithsonian, whose May 2017 article, “How the Mustang, the Symbol of the Frontier, Became a Nuisance,”  is typical of how journalists cover wild horses. It is also typical of what senators can expect to hear today, June 21, when U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke testifies before the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee in support of the Trump budget plan, which will lift Congress’ ban on removing protections for wild horses and burros and selling them for slaughter.

This is not journalism that speaks truth to power. My solution is to speak truth to journalism. Here’s my letter, dated May 5, 2017:

Dear Mr. Shaer,

I read your Smithsonian article, “How the Mustang, the Symbol of the Frontier, Became a…

View original post 1,034 more words

Wild Horses Heading For Extinction: The Bureau Of Land Management And The Facts

R.T. Fitch's avatarStraight from the Horse's Heart

By Capt. William E. Simpson as published Western Journalism

“Any person or any agency who says that wild horses are not native to North America is just uneducated…”

First of all, let’s set the record straight:

photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Wild horses are an American native species, according to Ross MacPhee, Ph.D., Curator of the Division of Vertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Given this man’s impeccable credentials and experience, his findings are beyond reproach or debate.

Here is an article by Dr. MacPhee that is crystal-clear: Wild horses are native to America.

This finding is also shared by many other highly credible scientists, including Dr. Jay F. Kirkpatrick.

Any person or any agency who says that wild horses are not native to North America is just uneducated, misinformed or intentionally lying for some reason, usually motivated by…

View original post 1,297 more words

The High Cost of Cheap Grazing on Public Land

R.T. Fitch's avatarStraight from the Horse's Heart

By Andy Kerr as published on his Public Lands Blog

“Bovine bulldozers have caused more harm to the public lands than mining or logging…”

Private “Welfare Cattle” being herded onto BLM Antelope Complex in Nevada, while Wild Horse roundup was being conducted ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

It costs more to feed a domestic house cat than to graze domestic livestock on federal public lands.

This has generally been the case since the early 1900s, when the federal government first required ranchers to pay a fee for grazing their livestock on millions of acres of federal land, primarily in western states.

Each January the USDA Forest Service and the USDI Bureau of Land Management calculate what the federal grazing fee will be for that year. For 2017, it’s $1.87/animal unit month (AUM), down from $2.11/AUM in 2016. An AUM is the amount of forage…

View original post 768 more words