And this is what they do when we're watching?

Can you imagine what they would do if we weren't?

Look at the face of the Sun J contractor employee as he pinches

the mare's nose in the latch.

She tells him he is hurting her.

In the next pictures

he closes the gate on her face.

Is that a smile on his face?

All she did was reach up to touch the metal

and she got punished.

The rest is from Laura Leigh's blog 2/26

Working…

26022011

Working on photos and video… and an “end of roundup wrap-up” report.

Just came across this sequence and thought I’d share it… and explain a bit why I love these horses so much.

I am an American. My forefathers experienced great oppression… as did so many of the people of this world. They came to a new land of hardship to find freedom from that oppression and continued to experience it. So they wrote the “Declaration of Independance” and followed it with the Constitution of the United States.

The ideals of a free society of expression and thought… of a place where survival was not based on “pedigree” or station… but in theory everyone by his own will could build a life of their making. In practice it hasn’t worked as well as it could… but the premises are alive and well and as Americans (in theory) we defend those premises with our lives around this globe.

The spirit of the mustang… not based on pedigree, but on a tenacity and flexibility almost unrivaled by human or animal… an ability to adapt… a spirit of… well…

I’m an American… “Don’t tread on me”…. and if you do…. “Have a nice day.” (My fellow Jersians will understand that reference… for the rest of you it has a four letter word involved).

This mare was captured by violent stampede (just what it is), has had family ripped away, is in absolute unfamiliar ground surrounded by beings that are predatory and … I’ll leave the rest of my opinion out.

She stands in line to be branded and treated with a drug that will screw with her hormonal cycle for the next two years as she is pushed and prodded by these predators. She is curious and scared. She touched the metal… only to have her nose squeezed hard (look at the face of the human)…. but watch her reaction.

She could pay with her life in an instant by those that hold the powerful position… and then the (caring experienced horseman… where?… has to use the gate to control the wild horse) man squeezes her behind the door… wonder what would happen if cameras were not present? Just asking….?

I LOVE THESE HORSES!

2/.26

ouch!

let go!

so ya' wanna play?

you hurt me

you need to understand

Don't hurt me!

Then she gets her face squished for it

treated and released today

If that isn’t a “living symbol of the pioneer spirit of the west” what is? Hopefully soon she will begin to live with the respect and honor she should have had after Congress passed the 1971 legislation… maybe this program can evolve into this century?

I will have the full report as soon as I get through pics and notes…

We have a very busy four months coming up. We will have outlines and updates soon onGrassroots Horse. We need you to keep the legal battle and the ground work going… without you we have no wings.

Re-posting from Mesquite, Nevada Local News

No Horse On American Menus

Posting Date: 02-23-2011

By John L. Smith

Court is in session.

The court of public opinion, that is.

While the legal battle for the future of Nevada’s wild horses gallops on, both sides attempt to try their case in the court of public opinion with the beleaguered Bureau of Land Management lost in a political dust cloud.

For the self-appointed protectors of the horses, a generally liberal group, the forced removal of the animals has been documented as inhumane. The horses’ survival hinges on stopping the roundups.

For the representatives of the cattle and sheep ranching community, a conservative bunch if ever there was one, the roundups are essential to preserve delicate grazing lands. The future of their ranching lifestyle depends on it.

Lost in the increasing volume of the ongoing arguments is a simple question I’ll wager most Nevadans will relate to these days.
Are the state’s wild horses really such a clear and present danger to Nevada’s open range that the federal government can justify spending millions each year trying to round up the animals?
When we talk about BLM roundups, we’re not talking about a handful of cowboys with lassos. We’re talking about an all-out assault on the poor beasts with helicopters. If the government pursued Osama Bin Laden with half as much zeal as it chases those anvil-headed horses, he might have been in custody years ago.
There’s plenty of emotion to go around on this issue. Horse lovers who don’t live here claim to have the animals’ best interests at heart. Ranchers who have exploited public lands for generations are angry that wild horses share the range but claim to have a soft spot in their hearts for the critters.
But no one can reasonably argue that in the current economic crisis that it makes any sense to spend millions of taxpayer dollars chasing wild horses around the state’s great outback. That’s just plain dumb.
In 2009, the Calico Complex roundup cost $900,000 to catch and transfer 2,700 horses. Whether it did any appreciable good to the environment, or merely played havoc with the horses, is debatable.
As a public service, which of course means it’s unlikely to ever happen, the BLM should prominently post every dollar of taxpayer money it spends to roundup those horses.
It’s hardly surprising the horse huggers win in the media. Their 30-second commercial spots would be filled with mustangs running free across the desert. “We love horses,” the narrator reports. “We want to save them from being injured or killed. Please help us.”
And the contributions pour in.
On the other side, you have the BLM and their friends the ranchers and the horse slaughter crowd. (For some reason, the ranchers haven’t figured out that it’s not in their best interests to be embraced by the horse slaughter crowd.)
Their 30-second spot would look somewhat different than their opponent’s commercial. The narrator would say something like, “We love horses. They’re delicious.” Cut to the meat in a butcher case.
One of my favorite false arguments the horse slaughterers make is that Americans shouldn’t be so squeamish about equine flesh because it’s regularly consumed in France and parts of Asia. Who are they kidding?
At the risk of being downright provincial, the French eat snails on purpose. In some parts of Asia, dogs and cats are regularly consumed. Monkey brains are on the menu. And large bugs are available to the eclectic palate. (Just remember to ask for dipping sauce.)
Those who desire to move wild horses from Nevada’s open range will never win their argument by riding with the equine meat slaughter crowd. Until they figure a new strategy, this side of Paris, cattle and sheep ranchers will continue to lose their argument with the public.


John L. Smith writes a weekly column on rural Nevada which appears on MesquiteLocalNews.com every Wednesday and in the print edition every Thursday. His Las Vegas Review-Journal column appears four times a week. You can reach him at jlsmith@reviewjournal.com.


Commentary
Posted Date: 02/23/2011
Exactly. It's ridiculous that the government is out there like a bunch of militants assaulting innocent wild horses AND wasting our precious dollars doing it. We need to stop this nonsense. Americans are compasionate to animals just in case Obama didn't know. Just stop it.
By: Lucille Matte

National Billboard Campaign Picks Up Steam

Reposting from Laura Leigh's blog

I had to post this .. the pens crammed full of horses, the wranglers smoking next to the hay, and the one horse throwing itself over the fence to get away and be able to return to its family.

All this yet observers are kept a mile and a half away in the interest of "safety." It blows my mind that they can do this with a straight face and continue to get away with it.

Another day.... Laura Leigh | February 18, 2011 at 12:57 am | Categories: Antelope, Wild Horses | URL: http://wp.me/pOAos-w6

Sent out reports and loaded video.

Will edit when time allows.

Snow fencing down all day at holding until BLM media and lead PR show up... then up it goes for "safety" by a contractor smoking a cigarette by the hay bales....

Safety? (photo by E. Buzan)

A horse fought so hard to stay with family that he literally flung himself over the fence... video when I can find time to edit... later (most likely same horse) vaulted cleanly over.

Threw himself over (E.Buzan)

Gorgeous stallion that I believe came in two days ago could be photographed and has evidence of a wound on his face....

Facial wound (Leigh)

Pens are literally packed as roads were too bad to travel this am.

Another storm coming over weekend....

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Pneumonia strikes young horses at BLM facility

As you read this article by M. Harmony, remember that the Indian Lakes facility is a privately operated facility and is closed to most public viewing except for invited professionals. This facility is being paid for by our tax dollars, though the public has no access and there is no verification of the treatment and conditions of the facility.

-- Lisa Griffith

Pneumonia is claiming the lives of young wild horses in BLM custody

These young foals were captured from the New Pass/Ravenswood Herd Management Area in Nevada on January 13th, 2011. They are among the horses sent to the Indian Lakes Road facility where the pneumonia outbreak is occurring.

Photo: BLM

February 10th, 2011 12:22 am ET

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Behind the closed doors of the BLM's Indian Lakes Road holding facility near Fallon, Nevada, pneumonia is suddenly claiming an alarming number of wild horses. During the week ending February 4th, 12 horses perished in the short-term holding pens known as "Broken Arrow"; eight of them were yearling victims of "secondary pneumonia." Upper respiratory disease has been rampant among the young horses confined at Broken Arrow since last June, and now it's attacking the latest arrivals, whose immune systems are at their most vulnerable.

These were otherwise healthy horses who were recently stampeded off their expansive ranges and captured in the dead of winter, as part of the just-concluded Eagle and Callaghan Complex roundups in Nevada. A total of 850 wild horses from these roundups were shipped directly to the Indian Lakes Road feedlot. According to the BLM's own reports, at least 37 of them are now dead, with 32 of these fatalities having occurred in the six weeks since the beginning of the year.

In a repeat of the pattern that emerged at the same facility after last year's Calico Complex roundup, other horses are starting to die or be "euthanized" as a result of what the BLM's veterinarian characterizes as "hyperlipemia," a condition of metabolic and liver failure caused by the extreme stress of the helicopter chase, entrapment, and ongoing captivity. Four of the horses who died at Indian Lakes Road in recent weeks were deemed to have perished from this roundup-related condition.

The BLM and its contractors like to pat themselves on the back by citing artificially deflated "gather mortality rates" in the vicinity of 1%. Indeed, in its press release announcing the conclusion of the Callaghan Complex roundup earlier this week, the BLM boasted that the gather-related mortality rate was .8%. But that's deceptive. The true cost in equine lives is much, much higher than that. It's dishonest to count only the horses whose lives were cut short at a trap site. The ones who fall in their wake are victims, too.