Virginia Range Wild Horses at peace.
PROTECT MUSTANGS NEWS RELEASE
RENO, Nevada (September 20, 2012) –- Virginia Range Wild Horses at peace.[/caption]Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund spearheaded and SAVED 23 Virginia Range wild horses from going to the kill-buyers last night. The herculean effort was lead by Shannon Windle, president of Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund. Country singer, Lacy Dalton’s group Let ‘Em Run Foundation also raised funds for the rescue.
Last night many wild horse advocates and groups from the greater Reno area joined forces to help with transportation and foster care to make this rescue effort a success. The list includes the Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund, Let ‘Em Run Foundation, Alliance of Wild Horse Advocates, Horse Power, The Starlight Sanctuary and more to be listed soon.
Protect Mustangs joined in to help with outreach, raise awareness about the issue and contact Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval to stop the sale.
Donors contributed from across the USA and abroad to save Nevada’s indigenous wild horses from being sold to kill-buyers who sell the horses to slaughter plants.
A staff member of the auction house was bidding as well as a kill-buyer against the wild horse advocates. Is this legal for the house to drive up the bids?
During the auction, a thin Virginia Range wild horse mare sold for over $500. while a stocky domestic buckskin sold for $200. A wild mare and foal sold for $1000 which is grossly abnormal at a livestock auction frequented by kill-buyers.
Advocates paid more than $11K to save the horses–more than three times above market value.
31 additional wild horses will arrive at the auction house next week. More than 60 wild horses have been rounded up and face a horrific end if more foster homes, adopters and donors are not found quickly.
Essential donations are also needed to feed the wild horses rescued tonight who will live in foster care until they are adopted.
Donations may be sent to the Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund.
Governor Brian Sandoval ignored public outcry and took no action to save America’s iconic wild horses from going to an auction frequented by kill-buyers tonight.
“We hope Governor Sandoval realizes that outside of Nevada 80% of Americans are against horse slaughter,” explains Anne Novak, executive director of California-based Protect Mustangs. “This could be a pivotal point in his political career–the point where he tarnishes himself to the extent that he will never win the hearts of the 80%. He still has time to take action and become a hero and we hope he does.”
Follow Protect Mustangs on Facebook for updates
http://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs
LINKS OF INTEREST
News 4 reported on the story on the 11:00 News Sept 19th:
http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/default.aspx
Hidden Valley Wild Horse Protection Fund:
http://hiddenvalleyhorses.com/main.php
Let ‘Em Run Foundation:
http://www.letemrun.com/index.html
Lacy Dalton bio, president of Let ‘Em Run Foundation:
http://www.letemrun.com/Lacy-Bio.htm
Governor Brian Sandoval:
http://gov.nv.gov/
Information on the Virginia Range wild horses:
http://www.aowha.org/war/virginia_range0901.html
Protect Mustangs:
http://www.ProtectMustangs.org
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.
Tuesday's Horse 
9-20-2012 the NvDOA is a rogue agency filled with overpaid arrogant employees who are vindictive, greedy, rude and gun-toting sociopathes…in other words they enjoy torturing people, who care, and animals…add our NV Governor to that category too. Can’t wait for the next election. Goodbye Sandoval. These people are laughing all the way to their banks.
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I’ve been at many, many auctions over the past 40 years, however, even though of course I’ve experienced “shill” bidding of people themselves, or their friends and/or family perhaps placing “shill” bids, this was absolutely outrageous what happened last night at the Nevada Livestock Marketing sale yard….in fact, a very well known kill buyer placed bids on the first Virginia Range horse that went through, they stopped at $200, watched another few horses go through, and then left the auction entirely rather than be involved….its a sad state of affairs when even a kill buyer walks away from the sale because of this nonsense.
Listening to our local tv news about twenty minutes ago, Jim Barbee of the NV Dept of Ag comes in with bogus crap of that “horsemeat is a commodity and prices fluctuate every day”….well I have news for this propagandist that is trying to fool the tax paying public who are FOOTING THE BILL for the UNNECESSARY captures of these horses,we are footing the bill for the horses maintenance at the sale yard while awaiting auctioning, we are footing the bill to pay for the FOUR armed NV Dept of Ag officers that were present at the sale (and this was HIGHLY unusual because there is usually only a Dept of Ag brand inspector at the kill sales) and probably getting paid OVERTIME since it was evening when the horses went through, AND then the STATE OF NEVADA collected A LOT of money for the sale of the horses that the tax payers were forced to pay for all of the above associated with their capture, AND then the sale yard collected MUCH HIGHER SALES COMMISSIONS, so that sale yard owner bidding and running the price up Mr. Barbee is going to probably found to be illegal because the higher prices the horses sold for affected positively on the sale yard in higher commissions to them….oh, back to the commodity thing Mr. Barbee…..I went directly into the sale yard office when I arrived there yesterday afternoon and was told the commodity pricing on horse meat on 9/19/12 was $10-$20 per 100# of body weight….I then also checked on the Internet for current commodity pricing and it was the same as I was told….so seeing that the heaviest horse that went through was perhaps 1000#, see if you can do the math Mr. Barbee….and then I also rescued/bought a 14 year old Titled Mustang gelding who is saddle trained, weighs 845# per the sale yard scale, is sound and in good health and it ONLY cost me $161 including sales tax…..THAT was the pricing +/- that every, single one of the untrained Virginia Range wild horses should have sold for if that vile pro-slaughter monster hadn’t run the prices up…..Govenor Brian Sandavol needs to step up and stop this crap because I for one as a tax payer, and even if I wasn’t a horse advocate, think this whole thing is a load of sh*t and I don’t want my tax dollars going to pay for this sort of dirty dealings that benefit the State of Nevada and Nevada Livestock Marketing LLC and smack the tax payers in the wallet. The Nevada Department of Agriculture, the State of Nevada, the Nevada Livestock Marketing owners AND the Govenor of Nevada Brian Sandavol should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves to resort to these crummy (and perhaps illegal?) behavior, back door dealing, and toilet tactics.
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This is why it is so important to vote out of office all those holding office who do not support the horses and burros!!
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It all depends on who gives the highest donations to the Gov’s reelection campaign.
This is the same reason the politicians in DC will never pass any bill that stops US horses from being sent to slaughter because all of them are bought off.
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I agree completely Barbara. They agree with “the deepest pockets”.
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God bless ALL who accomplished this. The kill buyers are indeed A**ES.
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The Nevada Dept. of Agriculture and Governor Sandoval set these wonderful horses up for this life-threatening situation by allowing ranchers to strip the nutritious vegetation earlier this year. In my opinion and based on my field inspections, this was all a big plot to get rid of the wild horses and give the gruesome blood money to the killer buyers! The majority of Nevadans are not being heard on this issue, but ignored, including myself, a wildlife ecologist. I left a detailed message with Sandoval office and offered my book: The Wild Horse Conspiracy (available now as improved edition on amazon.com).
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To bad the kill buyers are such a**es to run up the bids higher than they would pay for kill horses. They know the rescuer’s have limited funds, jerks.
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Get the politicians off their butts and overload their offices with calls and e-mails to pass SB1176 and HR2966. Sandoval will not be the hero, only the problem.
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This is a great accomplishment. I am curious as to why these horses need to be purchased from kill buyers? Rescue groups should be able to rescue directly from endangered areas and not have to pay a ransom,thereby being able to feed and care for many more.
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i think that is the idea the sobs (im sorry to all female dogs) want the horses dead and gone. the man in the governors office DOES NOT HAVE THE BALLS TO STAND UP TO THE SOB IN THE BLM
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9-20-2012 God bless you all and the Virginia Range wild ones!!!!!
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