Yet another plan rejected by the BLM to provide sanctuary for wild horses and burros who have been rounded up from their protected lands and robbed of their freedom while federal holding pens are bulging with them:
MARTIN GRIFFITHS reports for the Associated Press:
The federal Bureau of Land Management is rejecting a proposal from the wife of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens to create a sanctuary in Nevada for wild horses removed from public rangeland around the West.
Agency Director Bob Abbey released a statement Friday to The Associated Press saying Madeleine Pickens’ plan wouldn’t save American taxpayers money and doesn’t include enough water and grazing area for mustangs.
Abbey also criticizes Pickens’ media campaign supporting the sanctuary.
The BML chief says some of her information requires clarification and context, and other information is “just plain false.”
via San Francisco Chronicle at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/01/21/state/n141445S83.DTL#ixzz1BiFFlUFR
Tuesday's Horse 
This was taken off the home page of the BLMs adoption site
An Act Of Congress
“Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; (and) that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people …”
(Public Law 92-195, December 15, 1971)
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THERE IS ONE WAY TO FIND OUT EXACTLY WHAT THE BLM HAS BEEN DOING WITH THE HORSES AND THE MONEY. FILE A LAWSUIT FOR AN AUDIT AGAINST THE BLM FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS. THE GULF IS DYING AND THE OIL HAS NOT STOPPED I SENT A REPORT TO MAUREEN. SHARREL YOU ARE RIGHT I AM AFRAID THAT ANY HORSE 10 AND OVER THEY WILL START SENDING TO SLAUGHTER.
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Just return the horses to their ranges, oh wait it is now occupied by cattle. The BLM just wants to make their blood money on slaughter of these treasures. Madeline Pickens has the land and resources to support the horses. The BLM & their cronies are making a fortune on stockpiling the horses. I believe that all the horses in their possession will be shipped to slaughter.
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And now it is not just the cattle ranchers, although they are soon to be squeezed out too (the small ones, not the big corporate ones of course). Did you see the earlier comment on this post by Maureen about the energy and mining companies? How we can fight this and win I don’t know, but we must.
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It wasn’t costing taxpayers a penny if they had left them to roam free on our national lands. Why pen them up and burden the taxpayer with the cost ……. because there’s a bigger picture here. Catch ’em, pen ’em, feed ’em, do this until the cost is ridiculous then use that factor to influence people to rebuild the slaughter houses.
Do you honestly think they plan to keep thousands of horses for their lifetime of 20 or 30 years! Mustangs are the only horses free of the medications that domestic horses receive so they are prime for the meat market with the new rules EU has in place. What man who is having a hard time feeding his family in this lousy economy is going to vote to keep feeding these horses.. you tell me. The cattle people ought to get the smile off their faces too. If this economy doesn’t straighten out, no one will be buying their steaks. Thank you Washington! Once again you feel you have to fix something that isn’t broke.
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Thanks Sherrel. I thought about that too, about wild horses being free from medication. Then I asked someone who adopted a wild horse and she told me about the papers she received with him stating all the medications he had been given when the BLM “processed” him. So their meat will have residues along with domestic American horses.
I don’t think the BLM cares about toxic horsemeat, but if the goal is to supply horsemeat without drug residues — and who wouldn’t pay a very high price for that? — then it would be very easy for BLM contractors to separate out a few hundred head at a time and sell them straight to the slaughterers, wouldn’t it? No branding, no eyewitnesses at roundups, no eyewitness at holdings pens, holding pens on private land instead of public. It is all too convenient and too easy. And that would also help explain why BLM numbers of wild horses rounded up and stuck in storage never add up.
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The mustangs aren’t totally free of medications, including Bute. I don’t know if there are any records kept on which horses have been Buted, or if they’re marked in any way. I have a link on this somewhere and will try to find it.
As for Madeleine’s proposal, I figured the BLM had shot it down when I received her post about the ad in Politico. I’d like to see Bob Abbey refute her proposal point by point (Which we all know isn’t going to happen!), but maybe she’ll put something out on the whys and wherefores.
I don’t understand the water issue, since the ranches had run livestock and they obviously had to drink. I don’t think Madeleine would have bought any ranch unless it had water rights on the property and the allotments. She planned to grow alfalfa, which means the ranch(es) must have irrigation rights.
Madeline was putting forth a new model for wild horse management, and it’s almost impossible to convince the government (especially the DOI/BLM) there’s a better way to do anything when there are so many massive political egos and millions to established contractors involved (which I think was a big factor).
And if her ecotourism plans had been successful, the wild horses could have been considered a “beneficial use”. Ranchers in Nevada and other states can’t have that, because they would have to permit water.
Winecup/Gamble tried for a LTH contract a couple of years ago, and that ranch has plenty of water, including a pretty big lake, and many acre feet of irrigation rights. They were denied, because the backward-thinking “Elkins” didn’t want to allow a precedent for keeping wild horses in “cow and sheep country”. They opposed spending government funds on wild horses, which I find interesting since the funds are being spent anyway – just in other states.
The Elko County Commisioners also had a fit about the W/G property taxes, which I don’t understand, because I think W/G would have paid taxes as a working ranch. The tax issue may have contributed to the decision about Madeleine, because her foundation is non-profit.
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How much did the “Good ‘ol Boys’ in Nevada hand under the table to BLM, so that Madeleine couldn’t do this FOR the horses?
BLM doesn’t want to save them, or to take them out of LTH.. Hell, they’re killing them like crazy @ Palomino Valley/Broken Arrow.. But we can’t see them there, that Holding Facility is CLOSED to the PUBLIC..
Pay Sale Authority price @ $10 a piece for them, Madeleine.. Then they are OURS and YOURS… You can do this, for our Mustangs and Burros…
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ATTN: Bob Abbey horses can also eat hay that can be provided. Way to keep funneling money to the hands of animal abusers. Where is all this money REALLY GOING? If BLM says it you can gaurantee its a LIE.
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Just another lie from BLM who do not want to give up the money for thier horse roundups – in other words “Job Security” for BLM. We need to get rid of this entire department and create a bureau that will protect our National Heritage/Treasure (Our Wild Horses). Good God what will it take to get rid of these people in our government? Where are the protections against such cruel and unnecessary acts by these people? Mrs. Pickins has a wonderful proposal that could also serve as a tourist attraction that would bring more people to our State to see these wonderful, beautiful animals. They are nothing short of criminals with a license to kill. I am just appaled at the lack of supervision these people are subject too! They think they are God!
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