Fwd: Massive Roundup Still Planned for Cloud's Herd

[Guest guest]

Massive Roundup Still Planned for Cloud's Herd

Please act now to stop the destruction of this Unique Spanish Herd

 

Dear Friends of Cloud’s Herd in the Pryor Mountains;

 

We are doing everything we can through political and legal avenues to save Cloud’s herd but BLM is set on putting helicopters in the air starting around September 1st. They plan to roundup all the horses and remove over 70, including older horses, mares and foals.

 

The BLM and the Department of Interior are not listening to the public. They appear to be disregarding even Dr. Gus Cothran, a noted equine geneticist, who told the BLM, again, that this unique Spanish herd must be managed at minimum levels of 150-200 to keep the herd viable. Read Dr. Cothran's letter here.

 

BLM's plan to remove to 70 horses is unnecessary and unwise. This places more horses in danger- few good homes are available in the currently flooded horse

market. Older horses are at risk of being bought by killer buyers and others may end up in government holding at risk of being killed by the BLM. Watch my YouTube piece on this issue here. Some may even be put down after capture. This happened to horses during the recent Challis Herd round up and in the Sand Wash roundup last fall in October (view YouTube piece here).

 

 

Call and email President Obama and Vice President Biden and tell them that yo

u do not want a misguided agency destroying Americas wild horses. 202-456-9000 or 202-456-1111 or write. Tell them to intervene on behalf of the Pryor Wild Horse Herd! The BLM appears to be on a rampage to manage wild horses to extinction.

 

Send this brief press release (copy and paste from below) to media and friends- we must stop this unnecessary roundup now. In the Challis round up in Idaho round up just last week six horses were killed, six foals were orphaned and the majority of the 400+ horses lost their freedom. All this destruction when the range looks the best it has in over 80 years according to local residents. Read more about the Challis herd round up

here.

 

I'm pleased to share some good news! Judge Rules to Save West Douglas Herd in Colorado. After more than a decade of legal battles and BLM's efforts to zero out the West

Douglas herd in western Colorado, a judge has ruled against the BLM and in favor of the horses. This ruling is due to the enormous efforts of attorney Valerie Stanley (The Cloud Foundation's attorney) and the Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition, especially Toni Moore and Barb Flores and others on the western slope, who have worked for years to save this small, historically significant herd.

 

Never give up. Keep calling and writing.

Thank you and happy trails,

 

Ginger Kathrens

Volunteer Executive Director

The Cloud Foundation

Check out our new website at www.thecloudfoundation.org

 

A Stallion is rounded up in Challis, Idaho- photo by Elisa Kline. July 2009.

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

Bureau of Land Management on Rampage to Destroy Famous Wild Horse Herd

For Immediate Release August 10, 2009

Cloud and the wild horses of Montana’s PryorMountains are world famous but fame it appears is not going to protect the20herd from a drastic government round up planned to begin September 1st in their spectacular wilderness home.

There are currently only 190 wild horses (one year and older) living in the PryorMountains. The BLM plans to remove 70 of them, plus foals. According to the foremost equine geneticist, Dr. Gus Cothran, 150-200 adult horses are needed in the herd to ensure their genetic diversity, which is vital to their long term survival.

These 70 horses would be placed in jeopardy. Any horses over 10 years of age can be bought directly by killer buyers and transported over the Northern border to Canadian slaughterhouses or south into Mexico. Younger horses not adopted would be put into government holding with 33,000 others that the BLM has removed from the wild and has proposed killing because they can no longer afford to feed them.

BLM cites poor range condition as the reason to remove the horses but abundant snow and rain for the past two and a half years has produced wonderful range conditions according to all who have visited Cloud and his herd. The Agency is not listening to anyone. They want this herd gutted. Nearly all the mares returned to the range would be given an experimental two-year infertility drug, PZP-22.

This helicopter round up is just one among many that the BLM is trying to complete, perhaps before the Obama Administration can catch up with what is going on.

The PryorMountain wild horses are descendants of the Lewis and Clark horses who were stolen by the Crow Indians in the early 1800's. They can be traced further back to the horses brought over with the Spanish Conquistadors in 1500 making them one of the most Spanish of all wild horse herds in North America.

Please contact The Cloud Foundation for more information

www.thecloudfoundation.org, info, 719-633-3842