Hot Tracks
BREAKING NEWS
Videographer Laura Leigh posted the stunning video above on YouTube of a foal being chased at close range by a BLM helicopter during the recent Calico Mountains roundup of wild horses in northern Nevada. The “gather” has sparked street protests from coast to coast and abroad.
The footage shows a foal who appears to have difficulty keeping up with his stampeding mother after an alleged 15 mile chase, yet the helicopter relentlessly pursues the herd. Later footage shows a foal limping in captivity and another foal lying on the freezing cold ground. The reclining foal reportedly died later after losing his hooves, following this chase or one just like it. He was the second foal to parish under these circumstances.
– Horseback Magazine
These are your taxpayer dollars at work, conducted by a criminally convicted government contractor responsible for horrific fatalities in previous wild horse roundups.
What is happening to the remaining wild horses the BLM have removed and put away out of public view, refusing to report on any further deaths or the circumstances in which the horses die?
What does it have to take to move the President of this country, Interior Secretary Salazar and members of Congress, to call an immediate halt to these atrocities and investigate and prosecute those responsible for these heinous crimes?
Captured Mustang, imprisoned by the BLM. Please keep up pressure on the White House to call a halt to all wild horse and burro roundups and order an investigation into BLM conduct in its handling of the Wild Horse and Burro Program. Image by Kurt Golgart.
BLM abruptly cancels Eagle Herd wild horse roundup
by MAUREEN HARMONAY |The Examiner.com | Feb. 7, 2010
Just one day after suddenly calling a halt to the roundup of wild horses in the Calico Mountain Complex in Nevada, the BLM has just as abruptly postponed its planned “gather” of 500 horses in the state’s Eagle Herd Management Area (HMA), a 670,000-acre trace in eastern Nevada that is roughly the size of Rhode Island. The BLM had previously announced plans to remove all but 100 of the horses who roam there, beginning on Valentine’s Day.
In a press release issued this weekend, the BLM attributes its unexpected change of plans to the fact that “there is not adequate time to safely conduct the proposed Eagle Herd Management Area (HMA) gather prior to the beginning of foaling season.” But it’s also possible that it is deferring to the increasing public outcry against its inhumane tactics. At least 39 horses are known to have died during the just-concluded Calico roundup, and In Defense of Animals (IDA) announced last week that it will file a lawsuit against the BLM in an effort to permanently halt the Eagle Herd gather. Read full story >>
CALL TO ACTION
Don’t Take My Home
View this powerful tribute to America’s wild horses, and telephone President Obama.
Even in light of breaking news that the BLM has concluded the Calico Complex and cancelled the Eagle Herd wild horse roundups in Nevada, more roundups are scheduled.
Please ask President Obama to 1. call for an immediate halt to all wild horse and burro roundups and 2. order an investigation into the Bureau of Land Management’s handling of the Wild Horse & Burro Program. Comment Line: 202 456 1111. White House Switchboard: 202 456 1414. If you cannot reach the White House by phone due to blizzard conditions in DC, please email the President here >>
Horse Meat Faces Ban in Italy
Horses may soon be kept in the stable and off the table in Italy reports The Telegraph. Photographer unknown and not originally filed with this report.
Italy is the largest consumer of horse meat in Europe with more than 48,000 metric tonnes eaten every year and it is a common dish among youngsters because of its high iron content.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation 213,000 horses are slaughtered in Italy every year but now politicians from all parties are considering banning its slaughter and sale.
Francesca Martini, a minster with the Italian health ministry and a member of the ruling Right-wing coalition, has put forward the bill, arguing that the “dignity of horses should be respected”.
The motion is already on the desk of the Italian parliament’s culture commission and has won considerably cross party support with opposition centre-Left MPs also backing it.
Among those leading the call for a ban is Italy’s agriculture minister Luca Zaia who says horses should not be eaten and instead “considered just like cats and dogs”.
Mr Zaia said: “I have always been against the slaughter and consumption of horse meat. Horses are fine animals and should be treated as such, they should not be eaten.” Read more >>
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