........................... Below is from the TB Friend's blog posted on Monday, June 13, 2011. The blog is written most Monday's through Friday's by the owner of Thoroughbred Friends, Joe Shelton, from Woodland, CA ....
With such a busy weekend, it is difficult to focus on a single subject. But I wanted to tell you about Tias. Pronounced Tee Us. 9 years old, Tias came to us and asked if I could recommend a riding instructor close to her home.
Tias has been studying horses since the age of 5. Tias can talk the talk. She knows about tendons and navicular. Tias easily recites the anatomy of a horse. She tells me Misty has a sore back, and so do you Joe.
Huh?
.....
Tias then said: You should give out links to the slaughter houses. If people saw what happens to a horse, you would have more adoptions. Then you could rescue more horses.
I think people can imagine. And if they really want to watch, it is easy enough to find.
Then Tias added: On your website you should tell the world to quit breeding. I figured it out when I was 6.
--------------Here is my comment: -------------
So, if a six year old can figure this out, why can't Sue Wallis, Conrad Burns, Charlie Stenholm and a host of other people who pretend to be horse lovers? Ask yourself what Wallis' and company gets from opening a horse slaughter plant and why, if they love horses so much, they have expended so much money and effort in trying to kill them by the hundreds of thousands?We spend so much time trying to dispell in our horses the notion that we are predators and want to eat them. Turns out, for some horse owners, it was all a lie. Sorry, we do want to eat you after all. We just pretended we didn't.
Here's the info on the vote - thanks to Deb from Americans Against Horse Slaughter. The format isn't the best but this was all that was available. I swiped this from Deb's website. She also sent a PDF but it's basically the same. Republicans are at the top, Dems at the bottom.
Never mentioned in the EA's, the damage cattle do to the rangelands must be acknowledged. Here is the Sierra club's view.
Restore our Western Wildlife Heritage! Help Remove the Adverse Impacts of Livestock Production on Our Public Lands
Grazing in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona. America's arid western public lands are at risk from taxpayer-subsidized livestock production.
Livestock grazing occurs on more federal public lands than any other commercial use, affecting more than 260 million acres – an area the size of Texas and California combined! Additional impacts related to livestock grazing – including water diversions, wildlife killings, and mile after mile of fencing - further threaten the wildlife and wild character of these public lands, including habitats important to many of our most imperiled species of plants and animals.
In the United States, livestock grazing has contributed to the listing of 22 percent of federal threatened and endangered species—almost equal to logging (12 percent) and mining (11 percent) combined. No other human activity in the West is as responsible for the decline or loss of species as is livestock production. The Sierra Club has placed a high priority on protecting and restoring native wildlife and habitat to our public lands by seeking management changes that will correct livestock impacts. In some locations, this may require an end to commercial livestock production.
Every wild horse in this collection lives in an area targeted for roundups, beginning July 1, 2011, shown in the order in which the roundups will likely take place (starting with July). Wild Herd Areas include Triple B’s, Maverick-Medicine, and Cherry Springs.
When ordering, we suggest setting the beginning month as July 2011.
Updates on the members of each band shown will be published throughout the coming year on GrassrootsHorse
Proving the History of Wild Horses and Burro’s in Nevada:
This is an excerpt from a 1906 article in the Montreal Gazette proving that the ranchers are full of self righteous BS and their claim that wild horses are not WILD, is nothing but a cowardly lie in order to attain their cruel agendas. It reads:
“The traveler often wonders at the large herds of horses found along the lake, seen in the desert along Walker lake below the Walker Indian Reservation. These horses are wild, not range animals gone wild, but wild horses. They are as unrestrained as the horses that once covered the planes with the buffalo and antelope, and no doubt can trace an ancestry free from the hackamore for half a dozen generations back. “
This article was written in 1906 when population in Nevada was almost nonexistent except for the few mining towns like Hawthorne which at that time consisted of 6 house. Long before the cattle ranchers settled there. The writer states that for at least 6 generations these horses have been wild and free, effectively proving their wildness for over 220 years at a very minimum and also proving that thousands of them roamed the planes with the buffalo before white men even settled the continent.
America once was great planes where the buffalo and the horses roamed in peace. There used to be over a million, now we are down to the last 20,000 if even that many; an independent unbiased count has never been done.
These are the last survivors of the BLM policies, the survivors of the poisoning and shooting by the Mustangers, the survivors of hundreds of tough winters and summer droughts. They have evolved into the toughest horse in the world with the most beautiful and amazing natural herd dynamics. They can survive a lot, but they cannot survive longer than 4 days without water.
While many Americans have lost their homes or worry about losing their homes, and worry about finding or keeping their jobs, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) seems to be spending your hard earned tax dollars like high rollers.
The BLM has its hand out at appropriations hearings asking for even more money for their mismanaged Wild Horse and Burro Program. Where’s your money going?
Look at one example. Troy Adams/Broken ArrowUSAhas the contract for theIndian Lakes Road(AKA Broken Arrow) short term wild horse and burro holding facility inFallon,NV. How does a guy fromCalifornia, who sold a cloned cow, get enough knowledge in wild horse behavior, and enough ability in safely handling wild horses, to win a bid to manage a facility that can hold up to 3,000 of our wild horses?
Troy Adams/Broken ArrowUSAcontract with the BLM is for 5 years (1/01/2010 to 12/31/2015):
Base year (2010 – 2011) – $2,525,000 with an option for “additional labor” for$127,920 ($24.60 per hour, per laborer) to FREEZEBRAND, RETAG, TRIM FEET, ETC. (same tasks apply to years below)
Year 1 (2011-2012) – $3,640,875 with an option for “additional labor” for $130,468($25.09 per hour)
Year 2 (2012 – 2013) – $3,759,500 with an option for “additional labor” for $133,068($25.59 per hour)
Year 3 (2013 – 2014) – $3,832,500 with an option for “additional labor” for $135,720($26.10 per hour)
Year 4 (2014 – 2015) – $3,905,500 with an option for “additional labor” for $138,424($26.62 per hour)
So, the estimated 5 year TOTAL is $17,663,375, with optional “additional labor” adding $665,600 to that the total is ($18,328,975). (Note: The money in this contract is based on estimated feed days. See details of this at the end of the article.) _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Over $18 million in 5 years. And since Troy Adams supplies the land, pens and corrals the first year, and it’s not an expense every year, why is there such a huge increase in the amount of money for in the remaining years of the contract?
The contractor (Troy Adams) supplies: land, pens, corrals, feed, salt, minerals, water and personnel for general tasks.
The BLM: pays for veterinary care, a farrier, hoof care (hey, are we paying for thistwice, since TRIM FEET is listed above?), the working chute (squeeze chute), and prepares the paperwork for shipment of animals to other locations, prepares all wild horses and burros prior to shipment and paperwork related to vaccination or “other action taken.”
One surprising item in this contract, on Page 5 of 15 (7 a.) is that this facility had to get permits required for a ConfinedAnimal Feeding Operation (CAFO) according to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. So, in more ways than one, it seems that our wild horses are considered to be, and are being treated as, livestock.
IS THERE BREACH OF CONTRACT?
In record keeping:
The contract stipulates on Page 4, (section 3 e.) that the contractor (Troy Adams/Broken Arrow USA)“Provide regular observation on a daily basis of horses and burros on site and a record keeping system that documents the frequency and results of observations.”
Note that on Page 9 G.2 – CONTRACTING OFFICER’S REPRESENTATIVE (COR) AND/OR PROJECT INSPECTOR “The COR or PI does not have the authority to modify or in any way amend the terms of this contract.” (The COR is John Neill, BLM manager of Palomino Valley and the PI is BLM employee Ross Ruf.)
In a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA), I asked for records that the BLM contract with Troy Adams requires that he keep.
In a July 15, 2010 letter of response from Amy Leuders (she’s now the Acting Nevada BLM Director), she stated that “Formal records for daily observations have not been required or maintained. Verbal communications on facility updates and animal observations are conducted daily to the COR by either the facility veterinarian, project inspector or facility contractor.”
There are veterinary reports. But, are the only horses Sanford observes daily the sick horses in the sick pens? Does Richard Sanford walk around the entire property every day to look at all of the horses, or does he just make a quick stop at the sick pens? (On tours, it took us about two hours to walk around and observe about 1,900 of the horses on the property, and even then we felt rushed.) Richard Sanford is also hired as a vet for horses at the BLM’s Palomino Valley facility, and the drive between the two locations takes about an hour each way.
To my knowledge, I haven’t received any documents with any notes or any observations by Troy Adams. Does Troy Adams notice anything, and if so, what is it?
Page 4 of 15 (3 g.) states: “Death of animals must be recorded with each animal’s identification number and physical description, or if the brand is unreadable, a good physical description.”
Online, it looks like the facility didn’t start recording the freezemarks of dead horses until May 28, 2010, and the veterinary reports didn’t start recording freezemarks until May 22, 2010. Just a gender and age doesn’t seem like a “good” description. It doesn’t take a huge effort to add something like palomino or roan or bay.
Even if updating this information online had become too much of a task, there should have been more detailed records available for a FOIA request.
Also, Page 4 of 15 (3 f.) states that the contractor “Provide a record keeping system that identifies the pen location, sex, age group and quantity per pen of inventory animals. The contractor will update the form on a bi-monthly basis.”
In handling and safety of the horses:
The contract stipulates:
Page 4, (3 j.)Contractor is to provide personnel that are intimately familiar with the health requirements of equines.
Page 4, (3 k.) Have personnel with knowledge, skill and ability to safely handle wild horses and burros.
Page 4 (4 a.)All horses shall be handled, treated, and maintained in a humane manner.
Over 200 horses have died at this facility in less than 14 months. Descriptions seem vague, so it’s difficult to get exact counts of how many horses died of certain causes, but, just a quick estimate in general of some of the causes: it seems like about 40 from hyperlipemia/general metabolic failure (trouble adapting to hay) with about another 32 from poor condition/unable to maintain weight. About 27 died from spinal/neck injuries, of which about 8 spinal/neck injuries happened IN THE SQUEEZE CHUTE.
About 15 euthanized because of leg/shoulder/pelvis fractures. There are about 40 “unknown” causes of death. About 9 foaling complications, about 6 gelding complications (3 of these were pulmonary hemorrhages from anesthesia) and about 5 deaths related to criptorchid (euthanized for this or after surgery for this). Why would the BLM even geld horses with criptorchid? (Criptorchid means the testacles haven’t descended and they don’t produce fertile sperm.) About 12 deaths from pneumonia and respiratory infections. About 5 were euthanized due to club foot. About 3 with sloughed hooves.
It’s important to note that neither the BLM nor the contractor seem to keep any documentation on individual foals until they’re 4-5 months old, when the foals are given a freezemark.
There’s a small house on the front of the property at theIndian Lakes Roadfacility, and when I attended tours, it looked like this house was used to house some of the workers. Judging by the vehicles outside, it appears they could’ve been seasonal workers or wranglers. There’s a lot of unemployment inNevada, so were seasonal workers or out of work cowboys paid $24.60 an hour?
More importantly, seasonal workers who might’ve been living on the property, or any other people living in that house, have access to our wild horses 24/7. Were any criminal background checks done on those seasonal workers or people living on the property? What oversight is there by the BLM of workers who have access to our wild horses?
The online weekly facility reports stopped giving the cumulative deaths for horses around August 21, 2010, giving the reason for stopping as “due to the fact that it no longer reflects only Calico horses.” Are they keeping track of horse deaths according to Herd Management Areas?
There is no longer any public access to this facility, even though your tax dollars are paying for it. It seems that photographs and video documenting what the public saw on tours caused the BLM a negative “image” problem. Troy Adams signed contract modification 0002 on 3/22/2010, for public tours for 5 years (until 2015), so was it a breach of this contract that the tours were stopped?
It seems like on most days, Troy Adams gets paid a lot of money just to (maybe) walk around and look at the horses once a day, call John Neill (unless the vet or PI call John) and maybe order hay and supplies.
Sweet. I want his job. How did he get so lucky?
There is little accountability by and NO public access to the Indian Lakes Roadfacility. These issues are part of a First Amendment Rights lawsuit filed against the BLM by Laura Leigh in LEIGH v. SALAZER. You can find out more about this athttp://wildhorseeducation.org
(Note: original BASE YEAR contract dated 5/27/09 was for $25,000, with a modification for base year dated 1/19/2010 for an additional $2,500,000)
The money in this contract is based on estimated feed days. The contractor is reimbursed based on the actual number of feed days per month. A feed day is defined as: “The price to feed one animal for one day, except mare pairs, which count as one animal feed day.” (mare pairs are a mare and her foal). The contractor is paid for a guaranteed minimum quantity of 137,500 Animal Feed Days, and the maximum is 4,562,500 Animal Feed Days for the life of the contract.
