Stop the Massive Removal of Cloud's Wild Horse Herd

Please continue to support this cause. We are particularly concerned for a 19 year old stallion, Conquistador, who the BLM has caught because of his age and now could face barbaric cruelty through the slaughter process. He should be released.  Please help.

"Number to Call"

House Committee of Natural Resources- 202/225-6065


Points to make on behalf of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses "Trigger_band_in_trap AE9-5-09"

1. Release the older horses- horses over ten need to be returned to the range, it is cruel and inhumane to remove these horses and they are not appropriate adoption animals and should not be added to the already full BLM holding facilities. They deserve to live out their lives in freedom.

2. Reduce the number of horses to be removed - taking 70 horses out of this small herd will bring what is truly a historical treasure down to genetic non-viability."

The agency claims its main concern is managing livestock on public land, and horses, which they say competes with livestock for grazing. Kathrens points out that cattle ranging is a powerful lobby and permitees pay very little to graze, hence the term “welfare rancher.” Managing the horses, she goes on to say, “is not based on science, not based on overpopulation, not based on whether animals are starved.” The BLM claims resource damage and deteriorating forest conditions as a reason for the roundup, yet the Cloud Foundation has observed excellent conditions on the range this year. Other interests may be at work as well. Aerial surveys are being done to revive old uranium mines in the Pryor Mountains. Opening these mines would prove to be a destructive force on public lands.

According to law, the BLM is required to manage wild horses at “the minimal feasible level” and under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, “protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death.” Additionally, the House of Representative just passed the Restore Our American Mustangs (ROAM) act and the Senate will review this bill in September. “The fact that the BLM thinks it can totally eliminate wild horse herds simply has to be challenged legally,” says Kathrens. “It’s about time that this agency and this program shaped up and became accountable to the American public. There’s very little that we know of – there’s a lot that goes on behind closed doors, a lot of secret meetings and a lot of deals that I don’t think anybody knows about.”

Right now 33,000 wild horses are confined in holding pens, being fed at a cost of $100,000 a day at taxpayers’ expense. These horses, who have been terrorized and traumatized, have lost their freedom and their families. (Even horses set for release are not kept with their families.) After capture, less than ten percent are found homes. Horses over 10 years old and those offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least three times are not legally protected. Thousands have been sold for transport to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico.

Horses don’t qualify under endangered species protection laws because they are considered non-native to North America. Kathrens disputes this, as horses occupied the area thousands of years ago, and their flourishing upon reintroduction attests to their natural place in the ecosystem. Cloud’s herd was managed naturally by the state’s mountain lion population before the BLM encouraged, and even paid, hunters to kill mountain lions. Provided we protect the mountain lion, she says, “Pryor Mountain is the perfect opportunity for nature to work its plan.” Kathrens, who always loved horses, became intrigued with the social structure and gentle communication of horses in the wild the first time she observed them, in 1993. “Leave them there,” she says. “Let them be free.”