Scathing Seasons Greetings poster depicts wild horse abuse by BLM

PROTECT MUSTANGS PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO (December 20, 2012)–Citizens around the word are outraged at the BLM’s cruelty towards America’s native wild horses. The alleged federally protected mustangs are being rounded up and removed by the thousands only to be stockpiled in the Midwest at taxpayer expense. Some end up in the slaughter pipeline. During the current Owyhee roundup wild horse advocates documented mustangs being chased by a helicopter through barbed wire fencing. Protect Mustangs wants the roundups to stop and for the government to use the wild herds in Holistic Land Management instead to reverse desertification on public land.

Artist Michelle Guillot says she was inspired by the horrific scenes of wild horses being driven through barbed wire at the Owyhee Roundup in Nevada this month.

Cropped Michelle Guillot Poster. Click to view full-sized poster at Protect Mustangs.

“I was so appalled that I had to do something!” states Guillot. “How can the government hire helicopter contractors to push mustangs into barbed wire?”

She made the Seasons Greeting poster to let the world know what’s going on. Protect Mustangs is grateful to be able to release Guillot’s powerful message.

Public outrage is mounting and as a result, Protect Mustangs is organizing a Rally in San Francisco for January 2013. Date, time and place to be announced.

“The cruel roundups must stop,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “Congress needs to listen to the public. They must stop enabling the wild horse wipe out even if lobbyists are throwing cash around Washington.”

Protect Mustangs encourages Americans to meet with their senators and representatives to ask them to stop the roundups and use wild equids with livestock for Holistic Rangeland Management. This is a powerful solution for climate change–one that will reverse desertification.

The Petition to Defund and Stop the Roundups is circulating. Animal lovers around the world are encouraged to share it with their friends and request the United States Congress stop the cruelty and stop the roundups.

Michelle Guillot retains the copyright to the poster but encourages animal lovers to share the poster to spread awareness. She does not want the poster used for fundraising or commercial use.

The poster may be downloaded from www.ProtectMustangs.org
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Protect Mustangs is a California-based preservation group whose mission is to educate the public about the American wild horse, protect and research wild horses on the range and help those who have lost their freedom.

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RELATED VIDEO

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See more Owyee wild horse roundup abuse images at AWHPC >>

Sneaky BLM finagled permits, Greenies say

Cow and calf on public lands set aside especially for wild horses. Image by Kimberlee Curyl. (click to enlarge)

We thought this would be of interest to wild horses advocates. It demonstrates the BLM’s true agenda and the lengths they go to achieve it. Wildlife are rarely preserved for preservation sake in US. Wildlife are typically preserved for hunters to kill because of the lucre that comes from high-priced hunting permits. Thankfully our wild horses and burros do not have that worry. They are made instead to give way for cattle to feed America’s lust for beef. Burgers win; Mustangs lose.

Written by PHILIP A. JANQUART

Courthouse News Service Environmental Law reports:

BOISE, Idaho (CN) – The Bureau of Land Management secretly awarded grazing rights to one of Idaho’s largest companies, amid an ongoing lawsuit that challenges the BLM’s environmental reviews of thousands of acres of Idaho land, the Western Watershed Project claims in Federal Court.

“This case is a companion to W. Watersheds Project v. Salazar, Case No. 08-435-BLM (D. Idaho) (‘Salazar‘), an ongoing lawsuit challenging BLM’s grazing decisions and associated environmental reviews on the Battle Creek and other allotments in the Bruneau, Owyhee and Burley Field Offices in southern Idaho,” the complaint states.

“After Western Watersheds filed its Third Amended Complaint in Salazar, BLM transferred two grazing preferences on the Battle Creek allotment – which is at issue in Salazar - to the J.R. Simplot Company (‘Simplot’), and issued two new grazing permits authorizing grazing on the Battle Creek allotment. Although the parties were then (as now) engaged in active litigation over the Battle Creek allotment, BLM never provided Western Watersheds with any notice of its decisions to transfer the grazing preferences or issue the new grazing permits prior to issuing them. Indeed, Western Watersheds did not become aware of the new permits until after it filed its summary judgment motion in Salazar.”

The environmental group claims the permitting violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the Fundamentals of Rangeland Health, a set of regulations developed in 1995.

“Through these decisions and permits, BLM has systematically ignored the adverse impacts that livestock grazing is having on the Greater sage-grouse populations and habitat, as well as on the fragile native vegetation communities and high desert ecosystem.” the complaint states.

“Instead, BLM has hidden its grazing preference transfers and grazing authorizations from the public, and has permitted grazing without any examination of the ecological costs of livestock grazing at inappropriate times, at inappropriate levels and under inappropriate terms and conditions in violation of NEPA, FLPMA and the Fundamentals.”

The Battle Creek allotment includes more than 145,000 acres of BLM-administered public land and more than 20,000 acres of state and private lands, extending southwest almost 35 miles into the Owyhee Mountains and averaging nearly 12 miles wide. There are about 30 miles of streams in the allotment, including Battle Creek, Little Jacks Creek and Shoofly Creek, and 18 upland seeps, springs and wet meadows. More than 64,000 acres are considered sage grouse habitat.

Western Watersheds wants the grazing permits annulled, but a court order forcing the BLM to do an appropriate environmental analysis as required by law.

“Before transferring the grazing preference from Bruneau Cattle Company to Simplot, BLM refused to prepare an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement,” the group claims.

Instead, Western Watersheds says, the BLM issued a “Categorical Exclusion,” claiming extraordinary circumstances, and prepared two documents – which were held by the court in Salazar to be unlawful – that gave Simplot the right to graze cattle in the Battle Creek allotment.

“BLM misapplied its own 11-step test for determining the existence of ‘Extraordinary Circumstances,’” the complaint states. It claims the BLM “failed to examine the highly uncertain and potentially significant environmental effect of permitting grazing on Battle Creek allotment, especially in light of the collapse of sage grouse populations and degradation of sage grouse habitat.”

Western Watersheds is represented by Todd Tucci, and by Natalie Havlina, with Advocates for the West.

– Report Source: Courthouse News Service Environmental Law >>

– Image Source: Kimberlee Curyl (not filed with original source).