Assault Planned on Last Stronghold of Wild Horse Herds – Demand a Stop to the Calico Removals

Snowy Dawn - photo Living Images by Carol Walker

2,700 Wild Horses to be Rounded Up in Dead of Winter

Despite a significant public outcry, BLM plans a helicopter round up to remove thousands of wild horses in northwestern Nevada, an area called the Calico Complex in a remote and starkly beautiful landscape of volcanic outcrops, steep canyons and wide valleys. It is home to the last stronghold of the once large herds of American mustangs that roamed the west by the millions.

The attack on Calico is scheduled to begin on December 28th following a delay after In Defense of Animals filed a lawsuit in late November. This case will be heard in mid-December but in the meantime BLM plans to continue through the dead of winter. Calico is a challenging environment in winter when bitter winds howl and blizzards are common. If BLM were truly interested in preserving wild horses they would not run them over treacherous terrain in winter when all wildlife are simply trying to survive by expending the least amount of energy possible.

Regardless, BLM intends to round up from 2486 to 2747 mustangs, taking away from them what they value most. . .their freedom and the families. They plan to release only 264 horses (80 mares, all treated with infertility drugs, and 184 stallions) back onto .5 million acres of our public lands, and incarcerate the rest in holding facilities already bursting at the seams. Taxpayers pay over $100,000 a day to feed these captives who were removed to make room for more welfare cattle on public lands. Because only 264 wild horses will be turned back into four herd areas, each herd will be genetically non-viable and left vulnerable to inbreeding.

A spokesman for BLM denies that the agency is managing our wild herds to extinction, but actions speak louder than this hollow promise. Only token, remnant herds will remain in this, the last stronghold of the wild horses. The onslaught is scheduled to begin December 1 and continue through the end of February 2010.

The Cloud Foundation is asking you to stand up for these horse and demand that the round up be halted. It is nothing more than government sponsored cruelty.

Call (202) 456-1111 and email President Obama
Call (202) 224-3121 and email your Congressional Representatives
Call (202) 208-7351 and e-mail Interior Secretary Salazar

And share this story with the media

Thank you

photo Living Images by Carol Walker

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/action-alerts/195-comments-needed-to-stop-calico-roundup

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Tags: BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Cattle, Cloud Foundation, Nevada, Public land, United States Secretary of the Interior

2 Comments to Assault Planned on Last Stronghold of Wild Horse Herds – Demand a Stop to the Calico Removals

Mary Ann Simonds
December 12, 2009

Thank you for covering the wild horse situation. After 37 years of studying wild horse culture and applying it to our domestic horses, we are on the brink of loosing all truly wild horses in the world. Because horses easily become domesticated, some view that this is justification for eradicating all wild horses. If this happens we will not only loose any genetic diversity that nature dictates, but we will loose the social culture of wild equids. There is a lot to be learned from wild horses that can help us better understand our own domestic horses. Thank you for covering this situation.

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