Outrage over secret documents planning to kill or slaughter 50,000 native wild horses

Preservation group asks for pro-slaughter activist to be replaced on national Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Panel

UPDATED 8:20 PM

WASHINGTON (February 10, 2012)—Protect Mustangs asks Secretary Salazar, overseeing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to replace the pro-slaughter appointment of Callie Hendrickson, for the ‘General Public’ position on the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board with a neutral person.

Hendrickson has a history of lobbying for slaughter and to zero-out wild horses. Protect Mustangs is concerned that the BLM has given the green light to plans to kill and slaughter the more than 50,000 American wild horses taken off the range as revealed in secret documents including one found on Wikileaks.

“We are opposed to BLM’s outrageous decision to choose a pro-slaughter and anti-wild horse activist for the advisory board,” states Anne Novak, executive director for Protect Mustangs. “It is fiscally irresponsible to roundup and warehouse more than 50,000 wild horses but to slaughter and kill them is a heinous act.”

The preservation group and members of the public are gravely concerned the BLM is preparing to kill the 50,000 wild horses in holding according to secret reports discovered by Dr. Pat Haight, President of the Conquistador Equine Rescue and Advocacy Program’s FOIA research in 2008. The report reveals planning for massive wild horse sales to slaughter and euthanasia on an epic scale that will wipe out the American wild horse.

Protect Mustangs recently learned about a Wikileak doc[ument] titled Federal Lands Managed by the BLM and Forest Service issued to the 110th Congress in February 2009 discussing how to “dispose” of wild horses.

“In destroying the last wild horses, the U.S. government’s BLM is continuing to destroy the planet,” states Michael Blake, author and Academy Award -winner for Dances with Wolves.

Protect Mustangs wants the BLM to honor their promise of ‘a new direction’—not continue to break the public’s trust.

“More than 80% of Americans are against horse slaughter,” explains Kerry Becklund, director of outreach for Protect Mustangs. “Wild horses are a national icon—they are beloved by the public from coast to coast.”

By taking the majority of wild horses off the land at great taxpayer expense, BLM created a fiscal problem. Some ask if it was to ‘help’ big business’ land grab. Now the mustangs are in the care of the BLM and killing them or selling them to slaughter is not supported by the American people.

“BLM is going against the public’s wishes by cruelly rounding up wild horses in secrecy and denying media access,” states Novak. “Are they now moving forward to slaughter and kill all the mustangs they took off the range? If so, this mustang massacre must be stopped.”

Source: Protect Mustangs Press Release

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Anne Novak, Anne@ProtectMustangs.org, 415-531-8454

Kerry Becklund, Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org, 510-502-1913

LINKS OF INTEREST:

— Secret documents (2008) reveal plans to destroy America’s native wild horses:

• http://bit.ly/wxph6e
• http://bit.ly/zw4wLZ

— Feb 2009 Wikileaks doc[ument] Federal Lands Managed by the BLM and Forest Service issued to the 110th Congress discuss how to “dispose” of wild horses: http://bit.ly/Asouv2

— Science finds American wild horses are native: http://bit.ly/wPExYA
— Cloud Foundation report on secret documents: http://bit.ly/ArZBZe
— Hendrickson, the activist against wild horses: http://bit.ly/x4PpVG
— AWHPC reports on advisory board stacked against mustangs: http://bit.ly/ypkkSL
— ASPCA & Independent poll shows Americans against horse slaughter: http://bit.ly/Acbi6n

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Protect Mustangs is a Bay Area-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.