I'd have to agree - a bunch of bullshit..
Jul. 28th, 2005 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sitaangelThis is a crock of bulls---. Please Email Secretary of Interior Gale Norton to refute her letter which follows this first one that is also full of lies. Cross post Barbara
Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior
Dept. of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240
gale_norton@doi.gov
-----Dear Editor:
America is facing a crisis on our public lands because of
ever-increasing populations of mustangs and burros that are exceeding the
carrying capacity of the land. The Interior Department, through the Bureau
of Land Management, manages these herds by removing thousands of animals
from the range each year and whenever possible placing them in good homes
through our adoption or sale programs. We have reached a point, however,
where the number of mustangs and burros in our holding facilities is
threatening to overwhelm our resources to take care of them. We need the
help of America’s horse lovers.
We ask you to consider running this short article from Interior
Secretary Gale Norton asking your readers to help solve this crisis.
If you have any questions, please contact me.
Hugh Vickery
Senior Public Affairs Officer
Office of the Secretary
Department of the Interior
(202) 501-4633
Wild Horses and Burros Need Your Help
By Gale A. Norton
The crisis facing wild horses and burros on public lands has reached
a critical point. Horse lovers have the knowledge and resources to help
resolve this crisis. Now is the time to do it.
Currently, some 32,000 wild horses and burros run free on public
rangelands in the West managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Without
natural predators, these free-roaming animals reproduce quickly. If left
unchecked, this population growth would lead to starvation or dehydration
for many wild horses and burros.
To keep this from happening, the bureau removes 10,000 wild horses
and burros from the range each year and offers them up for adoption. The
American public adopts 6,000 to 7,000 of these animals annually, leaving
thousands of mustangs in the bureau’s
holding facilities at a substantial cost to American taxpayers. In fact,
holding costs exceed $20 million a year, more than half of what the Bureau
will spend on its total wild horse and burro program in 2005.
In recognition of these adoption limits, along with the high cost of
keeping older mustangs in holding, Congress recently passed legislation
that directs BLM to sell wild horses and burros that are over 10 years old.
The law applies to about 8,400 animals. The goal was to place these animals
with buyers committed to long-term care.
The sales program faced a crisis in April, however, when two buyers
resold or traded their horses to others, who then sold the horses to a
processing plant. In response, BLM, working in partnership with Ford Motor
Co., intervened quickly to save those horses that had not yet been
slaughtered.
The bureau also suspended its horse sales for a month, during which
time the agency revised its procedures to deter such incidents. In
addition, the agency worked with all three U.S. horse processing plants to
limit the possibility that any more horses would end up at those plants.
The bad publicity has stalled the sale program. While the BLM has
resumed sales, it has much work to do. So far the agency has sold more
than 1,400 horses and burros, meaning some 7,000 remain to be sold this
year. These animals need good, caring, permanent homes.
We are asking those who have the ability to take care of these horses
to contact the BLM at 1-800-710-7597 or e-mail the agency at
wildhorse@blm.gov. For those who would rather adopt a younger horse, click
on the Department of Interior’s Web site at www.doi.gov/horse.
Many people, however, who would like to help do not have the land and
facilities to care for an untrained animal. Those who are not in a position
to buy or adopt a wild horse or burro may want to make a tax-deductible
donation to the Save the Mustangs fund, established by Ford Motor Co. in
partnership with the BLM and Take Pride in America, a national volunteer
organization. The Web site is www.savethemustangs.org.
Working together, we can preserve the 7,000 wild horses and burros
that must be sold. In so doing, we will be protecting living symbols of
Western history and icons of the American spirit of freedom.
Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior
Dept. of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240
gale_norton@doi.gov
-----Dear Editor:
America is facing a crisis on our public lands because of
ever-increasing populations of mustangs and burros that are exceeding the
carrying capacity of the land. The Interior Department, through the Bureau
of Land Management, manages these herds by removing thousands of animals
from the range each year and whenever possible placing them in good homes
through our adoption or sale programs. We have reached a point, however,
where the number of mustangs and burros in our holding facilities is
threatening to overwhelm our resources to take care of them. We need the
help of America’s horse lovers.
We ask you to consider running this short article from Interior
Secretary Gale Norton asking your readers to help solve this crisis.
If you have any questions, please contact me.
Hugh Vickery
Senior Public Affairs Officer
Office of the Secretary
Department of the Interior
(202) 501-4633
Wild Horses and Burros Need Your Help
By Gale A. Norton
The crisis facing wild horses and burros on public lands has reached
a critical point. Horse lovers have the knowledge and resources to help
resolve this crisis. Now is the time to do it.
Currently, some 32,000 wild horses and burros run free on public
rangelands in the West managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Without
natural predators, these free-roaming animals reproduce quickly. If left
unchecked, this population growth would lead to starvation or dehydration
for many wild horses and burros.
To keep this from happening, the bureau removes 10,000 wild horses
and burros from the range each year and offers them up for adoption. The
American public adopts 6,000 to 7,000 of these animals annually, leaving
thousands of mustangs in the bureau’s
holding facilities at a substantial cost to American taxpayers. In fact,
holding costs exceed $20 million a year, more than half of what the Bureau
will spend on its total wild horse and burro program in 2005.
In recognition of these adoption limits, along with the high cost of
keeping older mustangs in holding, Congress recently passed legislation
that directs BLM to sell wild horses and burros that are over 10 years old.
The law applies to about 8,400 animals. The goal was to place these animals
with buyers committed to long-term care.
The sales program faced a crisis in April, however, when two buyers
resold or traded their horses to others, who then sold the horses to a
processing plant. In response, BLM, working in partnership with Ford Motor
Co., intervened quickly to save those horses that had not yet been
slaughtered.
The bureau also suspended its horse sales for a month, during which
time the agency revised its procedures to deter such incidents. In
addition, the agency worked with all three U.S. horse processing plants to
limit the possibility that any more horses would end up at those plants.
The bad publicity has stalled the sale program. While the BLM has
resumed sales, it has much work to do. So far the agency has sold more
than 1,400 horses and burros, meaning some 7,000 remain to be sold this
year. These animals need good, caring, permanent homes.
We are asking those who have the ability to take care of these horses
to contact the BLM at 1-800-710-7597 or e-mail the agency at
wildhorse@blm.gov. For those who would rather adopt a younger horse, click
on the Department of Interior’s Web site at www.doi.gov/horse.
Many people, however, who would like to help do not have the land and
facilities to care for an untrained animal. Those who are not in a position
to buy or adopt a wild horse or burro may want to make a tax-deductible
donation to the Save the Mustangs fund, established by Ford Motor Co. in
partnership with the BLM and Take Pride in America, a national volunteer
organization. The Web site is www.savethemustangs.org.
Working together, we can preserve the 7,000 wild horses and burros
that must be sold. In so doing, we will be protecting living symbols of
Western history and icons of the American spirit of freedom.
