New opening at HSUS for wildlife protection director

Please no crazy wild horse advocates need apply. No namby-pamby applicants needed either. We need a good, solid, credible voice for wild horses in this job, someone who won't back down nor act without logic or facts. (Something wild horses advocates are almost always guilty of doing). If you know anyone who qualifies, please ask them to apply.

Wild Horse & Burro Program Director, Wildlife Protection

in which HSUS is involved; provide guidance to HSUS staff on HSUS policy, strategy and rationale on various wild horse and burro related issues; seek out media opportunities; initiate and respond to media requests relating to legislation, cruelty and other wild horse and burro protection issues; assist in efforts to develop membership and funding potential for the wild horse and burro protection program. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in related field along with five years of experience, and demonstrated interest in, wild horse and burro protection and related federal, state and local laws and policies is highly desired. Strong knowledge of equine issues and immunocontraception preferred. 

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the nation’s largest animal advocacy organization, is seeking a Wild Horse and Burro Program Director for its Wildlife Protection department.  The main responsibility of this position is to promote and advance the protection, humane treatment and management of wild horses and burros on private, state and federal lands. Other duties include, but are not limited to: manage and direct existing staff working on wild and burro work; develop and implement a public information campaign for wild horse and burro advocates, concerned citizens and others to educate interested parties on the program and the HSUS’s vision for wild horse and burro management in the U.S.; organize, coordinate, and lead wild horse and burro protection coalitions, working groups, etc., 

Do nothing Congress puts horse slaughter back in play

The writing is on the wall. Republicans will hold government spending and the new appropriations bill hostage in their attempts to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act and not enact any new Appropriations bills.

Conrad Burns was right when, in an article from a month or more ago, he was quoted as saying he doubted the Ag Appropriations bill would pass and that Congress would vote on a continuing resolution that would keep the 2012 Appropriations bill in play (the one with the de-funding of USDA inspectors in horse slaughter plants language removed).

This is just what Valley Meats in NM is counting on should the current lawsuit against them by HSUS and Front Range be dismissed or should our side lose in court. We have until the end of October to lobby Congress to pass the new bills or we could see horses being slaughtered in New Mexico in November.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-republicans-seek-obamacare-delay-debt-limit-hike-142043324--business.html

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Floating a strategy for thwarting "Obamacare" in autumn fiscal debates, House Republican leaders on Tuesday pledged to demand a one-year delay to the health reform law in any deal to raise the federal debt limit.

They also unveiled a strategy to withhold money to implement Obamacare in connection with a stop-gap funding measure that would keep government agencies open from October 1 to December 15."

And this came in an email from my Arkansas Senator John Boozman:  

Federal Spending: The fiscal year begins October 1^st and Congress hasn’t passed appropriations bills so we have to rely on passing a continuing resolution to fund the government. We will work to rein in spending and reduce the cost of government so we can continue to provide the necessary services and continue our efforts to cut back on wasteful programs that are abusing taxpayer dollars.

What he means is that no appropriations bill will pass until and unless they are able to de-fund or repeal The Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare). 

In the meantime, our anti-slaughter leaders are at yet another worthless conference when they should be exhorting us to call and demand that our government be funded and that the people's representatives do their DAMN jobs.

Navajo Medicine People Speak Out against Horse slaughter

http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/08/navajo-medicine-people-oppose-horse.html

Terri Farley blogged her tweets from last Saturday's Fallon auction. This is a must read. Many thanks to Terri for this.

http://terrifarley.blogspot.com/2013/08/these-little-ponies-went-to-market.html

Great research from AWHPC

I don't know how I missed this from AWHP, but it is great. Of course, the BLM will say the allocations aren't always used, but that is beside the point. Those HMA's were originally to be used principally for wild horses under the 1971 law. That wording was decimated by the multiple use mandate of the Federal Land Policy Management of 1976 and amended in 2001, but the percentages are so lopsided that the bias is hard to deny, even by the BLM.

http://wildhorsepreservation.org/media/survey-inequitable-allocation-forage-bureau-land-management-herd-management-areas#.UhE50bG7Dhs.facebook

One good decision here:   http://www.returntofreedom.org/murderers-creek-wild-horses/

Interesting article (part of which is below) on the use of PZP on wild horses, if you can ignore the title, that is. Read past the mention of one mare being darted and not having a foal for 10 years. She was actually darted at least 5 times.

http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059985227

WILD HORSES:

Taking back the West -- one contraceptive dart at a time

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

Greenwire: Monday, July 29, 2013

• RESIZE TEXT RESIZE TEXT
 
• EMAIL&NBSP EMAIL
• PRINT&NBSP PRINT

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Josie, a buckskinned mare that roams the Book Cliffs here, had given birth every year from 1996 to 2003.

First, there was Joker. And then came Classy, Teardrop, Jolene, Gunshy, Jolie, Haywire and an unnamed colt. All but one were removed from the range -- with federal taxpayers picking up the tab.

And Josie? She was spared the ravages of having that ninth foal by a retired teacher named Marty Felix.

A volunteer with the nonprofit Friends of the Mustangs, Felix crawled on hands and knees through sagebrush and around juniper pines to sneak within 40 yards of Josie and shot her with a 4-inch fertility dart. That was in April 2003.

"It's been 10 years since she's had a foal," Felix, 65, said during a recent visit to the range northeast of Grand Junction. "She's 22 years old and she looks like she's 10. She looks fantastic!"

High Country News ... provides more spin on wild vs feral

http://www.hcn.org/blogs/range/feral-vs-wild-horses

Feral vs. wild horses

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Monica Gokey | Apr 11, 2013 05:00 AM

The question of whether mustangs in the West are feral versus wild is a controversial one; it’s got a knack for appearing in the comment section of many a mustang story. Mustang advocates are adamant the wild horse is a bona fide North American wildlife species – on par with deer, elk, bison and pronghorn. Scientists, ever the party poopers, beg to differ.

Horse evolution is well documented in North America’s fossil record – first as a small dog-sized animal that walked on five toes over 50 million years ago, on to larger equines that bore their weight on single hooves. Horses went extinct on North America some 12,000 years ago – likely due to some cocktail of climate change and overhunting by man – but not before they migrated over the land bridge into Asia (where they further diversified into asses and zebras).

6 Million roundup contract awarded to Sun J.

Is this for one year? ugh.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/feds-sign-6m-helicopter-contract-wild-horse-and-burro_714436.html