Seven Tears Into the Sea
Phantom Stallion Series
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Grass Roots Horses !
visit
GrassrootsHorse.com
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 5:40 PM 1 comments
Monday, April 19, 2010
Wild Horse Poet
Dear Readers,
Katie said I could share her poem with you & this is what inspired her:
I had just read your post on you blog titled, Death in the Desert. The picture and blog just sparked something in me. That video that was posted as well showed what happens to happy, healthy stallions and their families and it gave me inspiration to show what it's really like, or what I imagine it to be, from the stallion's view. The heartbreak he feels at seeing his mares and foals diminish, till there is only one left.
What the BLM is doing just kills me, and I'm sure many others, but for some reason, not the BLM workers.
I'm glad you like the poem, it's one of my favorite things I've done.
photo by Cat Kindsfather
Blind by Katie Bucklein
From the Mustang's View
Are you just blind?
Can't you see what you're doing to me?
To me and my family?
I remember just yesterday
Just yesterday I was playing with my foals
Nipping their hooves and racing through the wind with them
Just yesterday, I was happy and carefree.
Then, overnight, I smelled men
I rushed my family to our hiding place
Hoping no one would find us, “Stay silent” I say
We stayed there, shaking and scared.
We awoke to the sound of buzzing
A giant, silver bird flew through the sky
My family screamed and ran
The little foals falling behind, I tried to stay with them.
We were funneled through strange-looking grass
Grass that stood straight up
Grass that didn't blow in the breeze
My family grew tired, giving in to the silver bird.
We were forced, screaming into a silver tunnel
A silver tunnel with no way out
We were locked in, fearing for our lives
We huddled close, trying to remain comforted with our family.
Near the end of the journey in the silver tunnel
I began to smell horses
Horses that I didn't recognize
I puffed up my chest, ready to fight for my family.
We were funneled out of the tunnel
I raced around my family, trying to keep them together
I heard my foals whinnying for their mothers,
Their mothers were gone; I was left with my young foals
I am pushed into a crevice that leads to other horses
I see a few that look like my mares
I rush to them, eager to rejoin them
But I soon find out that these are other stallions, just like me.
I look around for my foals
They're gone from sight
I look for my mares
I can't see them anywhere, they are gone too.
I turn back to the stallions, looking for a friendly face
I see none
One lone black stallion in the back catches my eye
I move toward him.
“What is this place?” I ask the black stallion
He raises his head and looks at me
“The end. No way out.” He says.
I look around, scared that I will die here.
A short while later, I am pushed once again into a strange ring
I recognize my mares and rush to them
They whinny in greeting and we nuzzle each other
We can't find our foals anywhere.
Suddenly, a hot stick is pressed against me
I jump away and scream
I see a man, holding the stick and pressing it to a mare
I charge him but another man slaps me with a long stick.
My mares are collapsing
I feel my legs shaking but remain standing
I must remain strong for my mares
We are once again separated and pushed back into the strange rings.
I remain next to the black stallion,
Breathing deeply and glancing around at other stallions
I hear neighs that sound familiar
I raise my muzzle and neigh back, longing for my freedom.
I never once again see my foals
I catch glimpses of my mares
They are slowly diminishing
Until only a few are left.
I ask the black stallion again,
“What is happening to my family?”
The black stallion sighs and looks sadly around
“They are dying, just like mine.”
These words scare me
I want my family back
I want my freedom back,
I wish to be running through fields again, playing with my foals.
Won't someone help me?
I don't want to live like this
I have been here for many months,
Never again seeing my family.
I catch word of one of my mares still alive
I wish I could see her,
To see which mare is left
But I never do.
My foals are all gone
No longer living on this earth
What strange creature is doing this to us?
What have we done to them?
Someone save us
I want to run again,
To be out of this strange ring
With the strange food and strange customs.
I am alone
Alone with hundreds of stallions that I do not know
None are my sons, all grown up
What has happened to them?
I raise my muzzle once again,
Neighing loudly into the wind
Wishing to be out on the mountains again,
And then I collapse onto the ground, breathing deeply.
As I close my eyes one last time,
I feel the black stallion sniffing my neck
“Save my family if you see them.”
I whisper to him, one last time.
I take my last breath,
Exhausted and scared
Never understanding what is going on
Or why.
Are you just blind?
Can't you see what you’re doing to me?
To me and my family?
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 4:24 PM 2 comments
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Librarians' Wishes Are Horses
photos by Cat Kindsfather
Library budgets slashed! Librarians fired! Libraries closed!
As a mother, writer and reader, these decisions make me heart sore and angry.
One of the reasons I bought my house is because it's a short walk down a dirt road and across the street to the nearest library; it's now open 10 hours a week.
Although there's not enough money for libraries, America's wild horses are pursued in multi-million dollar helicopter roundups, then confined in dirty, deadly feedlot style corrals.
The price to catch and process ONE horse -- $3,000
Proposed budget increase to BLM's wild horse program -- $12 million
Price of buying new lands to put Western mustangs on-- $42 million dollars
Most taxpayers would rather see these funds spent on books, librarians, and the improved future of children.
Librarians: what could YOU do with a few wild horses worth of Federal funding?
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 11:20 PM 2 comments
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Death in the Desert
Photo by Craig Downer
" What you are seeing are the remains of a wild horse, discovered by Craig Downer, Terri Farley, and Don Molde on a recent excursion into the Calico Mountains looking for the living remnants of the herds..."
To read a report by biologist Craig Downer and human observer Elyse Garder, click here:
Humane Observer Blog
This wide-ranging blog includes feelings and facts, comparing the past and present plight of the Calico Range horses, their capture, captivity and Craig's coverage of our first trip back to the Calico range following BLM's disastrous round-up.
Best,
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 3:36 AM 2 comments
Friday, April 09, 2010
Virtual Visit to Your Horses
Hola Readers,
On March 28, mustang advocate Tara Kain took these photos at the wild horse holding pens in Fallon & she is allowing me to share with you.
Above, you'll see some phantom foals, whose births and deaths are not recognized by BLM until the foals are branded.
High spirits can get you hurt in crowded conditions, but these two mustangs have found a somewhat open spot for play.
This mustang's chest shows signs of the pigeon fever which BLM first said was 1) impossible this time of year 2) showing up at Fallon, but not worth treating.
What will that do to wild horses' chances of being returned to the range or transferred to other BLM facilities? And if BLM deemed these same horses healthy when they came in off the range AND say the time of year AND soil conditions aren't right to transmit the disease at the Indian Lakes facility, where did it come from? Some are suggesting horses were infected in the trucks of their captors.
The Cattoor family website claims the company has "humanely" rounded up 150,000 wild horses, burros and wild cattle. Horse experts have mused that one of the main symptoms of Pigeon Fever, seeping pus, might remain behind in even a washed trailer. If it wasn't completely disinfected, they tell me, it could become a crucible of contamination.
I know some of my readers are experienced with Pigeon Fever. What do you think?
Adios,
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 2:22 PM 4 comments
Monday, April 05, 2010
Ghost Dancer: still there
Dear Readers,
The Medicine Hat mare with the magnetic mood is still at the Indian Lakes BLM holding facility in Fallon.
She's shown here, photographed by Mark Terrell, just a few weeks after capture.
In these two photos -- one by Craig Downer and the other by Tara Kain -- she's been put in a pneumatic cage,vaccinated, hung with a red rope and numbered tag, then neck branded. You can see the freeze brand on her neck if you look closely. It will be there forever.
She looks thinner, even though food is delivered at the fence.
I'm calling this mustang Ghost Dancer because she once roamed Native American lands and the Ghost Dance ceremony was one of rebirth.
That's what I wish for these horses, a return to the range where their spirits can run free again.
Best to you all,
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 2:52 AM 4 comments
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Phantom foals
photo used by permission of Cat Kindsfather
Three things to think about:
1) Newborn horses like the dun foal above -- trying to rise and nurse despite a broken leg suffered in a corral crowded with adult horses -- do not exist in the world of BLM until they are branded.
2) Only one vet is under contract to care for the thousands of mustangs in BOTH the Fallon and Palomino Valley facilities.
3) Despite promises to welcome the public at wild horse gathers and holding pens, program manager Don Glenn allows NO humane observers at the wild horse facilities except "by appointment"
If you object, please sign this petition to President Obama, asking for
an immediate moratorium on wild horse roundups
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 2:00 AM 7 comments
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Let 'em Run
Dear Readers,
The captive wild horse above is the reason that I've barely talked with you since biologist Craig Downer and I returned from BLM's Fallon corrals, Sunday, then searched out remnants of the wild herds of the Calico range on Monday.
Every spare hour since then, we've worked toward this:
FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST WILD HORSE ROUNDUP SEEKS RETURN OF 1800 HORSES TO NEVADA RANGE
When photographer Cat Kindsfather enlarged this photo, she realized that the seepage from this mustang's awful wound had pulsed all the way down to his hoof.
This callous cruelty cannot be allowed to continue.
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:26 AM 3 comments
Friday, March 26, 2010
Fallon Foal Death
Mare stands guard over new foal, photo by Tara Kain
There's a new set of hooves in Heaven.
BLM's death tally for the week doesn't show what happened.
However, visitors are allowed to tour the tax payer funded Indian Lakes wild horse facility. It's land-locked inside a private ranch in Fallon, Nevada, but opened once each week by reservation only for two hours.
Three observers from the CalNeva Cloud Foundation and photographer Cat, visited Sunday, March 21 and took photos, video and notes.
Saturday, March 20
a pale dun foal is born to a buckskin mare
Sunday, March 21
11:00 Members of the public arrive to tour the Fallon facility. Director John Neill is their guide and he waits for a late arrival
11:37 tour begins
11:45 visitors observe buckskin mare and newborn foal in a pen with other adult horses. Foal looks like "he had melted into the contours of the ground" according to one observer and Mr. Neill said the foal was a weak newborn from the night before.
12:30? Sometime during the tour, members of the public notice a nursery pen with just six mare and foal pairs inside and wonder why the buckskin and her foal aren't with them*
(RIGHT: As adult horses move, mare makes a protective barricade of her body, photo by Tara Kain)
1:45 Tour ends, passing by the buckskin mare and her foal. Mr. Neill agreed with visitors that foal might be sick and indicated he would check on it. If necessary, a vet would be called. He added that volunteers from WHOA might be asked to bottle feed the foal if it couldn't rise to nurse.
2:00 as observers depart, foal is still down.
Monday, March 22
no deaths are listed on the BLM's facility update, so CalNeva Cloud observers hope for the best
Tuesday, March 23
9:55 am
Still no deaths listed for the weekend**, but one observer calls and talks to John Neill who says "the colt was euthanized." She understands Neill to say the vet had determined the colt had a broken femur and must have been kicked.
The caller commented, "Oh, that's why he never got up."
Neill replied, "No, he was up that morning nursing." Sometime after that, he speculated, the colt must've been kicked."
Neill said the foal was destroyed via chemical injection.
(with freedom tantalizingly close, mare urges foal to rise and nurse, photo by Tara Kain)
Friday, March 26
I reached John Neill at Palomino Valley wild horse corrals and he answered my questions about the Medicine Hat stallion I've told you about before and this foal.
He clarified two points from the timeline above:
* "Once we know the colt's strong, we put them in the nursery pen" along with their mothers
** Live births are not entered into BLM's system until horses have been freeze-branded, which takes place after four or more months.
Since foals delivered "in facility" are not listed as born, they are not listed as dead. So, they are not posted on BLM's online Calico Round-up updates.
John Neill described the last hour of the little dun's life.
"He was down during the tour. Afterward I went out to check on him and he was packing a right hind leg and he had to be put down."
"When did the vet come?" I asked.
"He didn't."
"Was it a compound fracture so that you could see it was broken?"
John answered, "I could just tell, so I took care of it."
After our call ended, my English teacher brain flashed to "I am cruel only to be kind." Hamlet, I remembered, and knew that if I were watching over a newborn foal with a fatally fractured femur, I would not want it to suffer.
But "Hamlet" ends with a stage strewn with corpses.
I tried to get confirmation that such a leg injury is easily diagnosed, but the two vets I consulted disagreed on both diagnosis and prognosis.
John Neill told me "We have births daily and if something happens like this or there's a bad mother, we can't track them all accurately."
Is it fair to the public that our mustang foals are born and die without notice?
This is not Neill's decision; it is BLM policy. As with so many other BLM policies, the numbering of lives and deaths are rough estimates.
That's wrong.
There are no disposable mustangs. Taxpayers have no disposable income, especially for a system they hate.
There must be a moratorium on the capture of our wild horses, before a ruined system erases an entire species.
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 1:17 PM 4 comments
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Medicine Hat is Missing
Dear Readers,
Three wild horse advocates searched for this captive horse today.
photo by Mark Terrell
They couldn't find him. If BLM can't supply photo verification that he's still there, we need to know what's happened to him.
Those of you who read my books know that I'm partial to sorrel horses like Hoku and sassy little bays like Ace, but this horse, because of his flashy coloring SHOULD be easy to follow through BLM processing.
I will ask BLM if I can go out and search the corrals this week.
You can see more photos of your mustangs in the feedlot in Fallon here
I'll let you know what happens next.
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 9:18 PM 4 comments
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Visiting Day at the Feedlot
Dear Readers,
Two hours each week, the public is allowed to see their captive wild horses at the feedlot style corrals in Fallon, Nevada. So I went today.
What I hated most was a group of young ones trying to do the truly joyous "let's run!" thing and have four of them end in a pileup because there were so many in such a confined area. Lots of fresh freeze brands on the mares. Even the ones in hospital pens.
I will transcribe my notes soon, but I have to say the most surprising thing I heard
was that the gather/facility death toll was LOWER than than it usually is because the Calico horses are less "crashy" (further defined as prone to spooking) than horses from other herd areas.
The official death toll posted by BLM was up to 57 on Friday and one member of our group was told four more died Saturday.
Oh, and the word "processing" (for vaccinations, freeze branding, age determination, etc) has been struck from BLM vocabulary and the official word is "preparing."
I'm sure that makes it feel better.
T.
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 9:50 PM 4 comments
Thursday, February 25, 2010
BARREN
Rachel Yoder - Artist
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:20 AM 5 comments
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Saving a Stallion
photo by Mark Terrell
Wild Horses of Nevada
Dear Readers,
I'm in love with this horse, a Medicine Hat stallion, captive at BLM's Fallon corrals.
Although I have very mixed feelings about naming wild horses, in my imagination he has a name. And a story. During the last two days I've been writing it. I can't seem to stop.
I hope to keep track of him and see that he's set free in the spring.
Do you know any stories about Medicine Hat horses? Please respond to this blog post if you do, and we can share what you know with other readers.
Best to you,
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:25 AM 8 comments
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Why is BLM so fussy?
photo by Deniz Bolbol shows how close choppers get to wild horses
The BLM announced a strict new visitation policy to the Fallon wild horse facility.
Ten people each week, on Sunday for two hours will be allowed to view the horses. This INCLUDES humane observers.
read more at In Defense of Animals'blog
Their excuse? BLM staff has lots of work to do, branding, vaccinating, etc.
This excuse concerns me because I've watched these tasks go on at the Palomino Valley holding pens and not only didn't I interfere, but no one huffed around saying, "I can't work when you're looking at me, Terri."
In fact, no one seemed to notice I was even there.
So why is BLM being so fussy now?
photo by Mark Terrell (watch for more!)
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 4:50 AM 9 comments
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Range runners in captivity
Dear Readers,
I just returned from the Fallon facility and learned that a mass gelding of mustangs begins on Monday. I haven't transcribed my notes yet but when I asked why the "tours" will end (they will resume on selected Sundays), Susie Stokke, the BLM staffer leading us around said "we have work to do" and verified that they would be gelding about 900 stallions and colts old enough to be weaned.
It's going to be an awful, bloody business and it's made worse by the cage.
I've seen these used to contain horses for vaccinations and freeze branding, but missed the fact that the metal cage can be turned and rotated so the gelding can be performed through the bars.
Stokke verified that every male horse will be gelded. It's standard procedure, she said, like neutering cats, so that there won't be "indiscriminate breeding" by adopted horses.
I'll write more later, and share photos from Mark Terrell, an amazing wild horse photographer who accompanied me, but this issue has a time element, so I've contacted In Defense of Animals and the Cloud Foundation for help. I've also heard from Holly Hazard of the Humane Society of the United States.
If there's any chance that the Calico horses will be preserved as a heritage herd -- and I saw once more the unique characteristics of these horses which made them the model for the fictional Phantom's herd. One smoky dun with dread-locked mane just stole my heart, but then so did a fuzzy bay baby and a majestic Medicine Hat stallion who carried himself like royalty in exile.
If these male horses are all castrated, there's no do-over. The gene pool for the Calico Mountain horses will have been reduced to the few horses BLM left on the range, and though they may be hardy survivors, nothing will ever be the same.
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 12:55 PM 5 comments
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Killing colts as world watches makes BLM uneasy
A rest before dying/photo by Lora Leigh
Dear Readers,
Someone at BLM has realized we're watching, and we care.
After nearly 2000 beautiful horses were captured and injured, the Calico Complex round-up was halted.
Now, the Eagle territory round-up has been postponed:
Ely, Nevada – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has determined there is not adequate time to safely conduct the proposed Eagle Herd Management Area (HMA) gather prior to the beginning of foaling season, and therefore, will defer issuing a decision on the proposed gather until later this year after the foaling season.
We're having an impact.
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 4:08 PM 7 comments
Saturday, January 23, 2010
BLM: giving new meaning to THE DEAD OF WINTER
After being rounded up on private land and trucked to the facility on private land, the horses still are not safe.
BLM confirms deaths of wild horses in their "care"
At least six horses have died in captivity, most recently a foal run so hard, his back hooves sloughed apart and began detaching from his legs.
We have requested an autopsy by an impartial veterinarian.
To my knowledge BLM has not responded.
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 9:44 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Captured Calico Wild Horses Denied Shelter from Storms
Captured Calico Wild Horses Denied Windbreaks
BLM’s double-standards leave nearly 1000 captured mustangs in the cold
Fallon, NV (January 19, 2010)— 956 wild American mustangs rounded up off public land by helicopters in the past two weeks now stand in a feedlot-style Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contracted holding facility outside of Fallon, Nevada on private land. The new Fallon facility is not equipped with shelter, windbreaks or protection of any kind for the horses. High winds, rain and snow are expected to continue through the end of the week. In Calico, herds can move to sheltered canyons for protection from the harsh winter weather. Yet, in Fallon, they are deprived of adequate protection despite recommendations from wild horse advocates. This is in direct opposition to BLM’s own standards.
“I’m confused by the double standard. Before members of the public are allowed to adopt a wild horse from BLM we must prove we have adequate shelter. Why doesn’t BLM have to meet the same standards?” asks Ann Evans, adopter of three mustangs.
Yesterday, members of the public reported an inhumane lack of windbreaks. No apparent effort has been made to tie canvas tarps on fences to block the howling wind and the anticipated driving snow. On Friday January 15, advocates asked local Nevada BLM staff, Directors and top-level Department of Interior (DOI) under-secretaries to intervene on behalf of the horses by creating wind blocks.
"Those that care about the welfare of the wild horses or burros are asking for minimal protection for these vulnerable animals. Wild horse families are being ripped out of their natural environment where they can take care of themselves, separated from their family members and incarcerated on a windswept plain outside Fallon where they have no ability to protect themselves from the elements. BLM then tells the public their actions are for the good of the animals,” states Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation (named for the famous wild horse Kathrens has documented for the PBS/Nature series)
The DOI and BLM responded that at the just constructed Fallon facility “weather is not that extreme to require wind breaks for healthy horses. . . they do not require protection from the elements to maintain good health. . . .there is nothing to be concerned about from an animal well-being standpoint.” Thus, no actions to protect the captured horses have taken place, not even for foals or sick horses. Advocates contend that the horses are more prone to strangles (equine distemper) due to the lack of adequate protection.
“When these horses were rounded up, some where limping and wet with sweat. They are now terribly traumatized, depressed and confused. Their immune systems are compromised, making them more vulnerable to illness, like strangles (equine distemper) and death,” explains Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist, third generation Nevada native, and witness to the Calico roundup.
“BLM continually tells the public and the media that the wild horses are starving and must be removed from the range. Yet, the BLM provides them with no shelter in dangerous weather conditions where the horses will burn fat reserves attempting to keep warm. No reputable rescue would place any horses in a situation like Fallon,” stated Hilary Wood, President and Founder of Front Range Equine Rescue..
When asked about the lack of windbreaks the BLM indicated that the contractor who built the facility was not asked to provide any shelters or windbreaks. BLM zeroed out a portion of the Dishpan Butte wild horse herd in Wyoming solely on the basis that the wild horses did not have cover according to BLM Program Chief Don Glenn.
“We owe so much to these mustangs—it’s a dishonor that our government does not provide wind protection from the harsh elements,” said Elyse Gardner, humane observer, Calico and Pryor Mountains roundups
The Cloud Foundation and the public call on Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar, to stop the Calico roundup and take immediate action against the cruelty and mismanagement of the BLM's wild horse and burro program. Canvas tarps are affordable and readily available at various outlets in the Reno/Fallon area.
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 7:34 PM 1 comments
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Calico Horses on the run
It was a bittersweet day on the Calico range. The sage smelled spicy-clean and the mountains soared to meet the skies, but never, all day, was there silence.
Wildlife trails have been graded into roads for huge trailer trucks and the incessant beat of helicopter blades sliced through me.
People who think horse lovers anthropomorphize these animals should have been there today. These creatures have strong family bonds.
>Stallions battle minutes after they were forced from thousands of acres into tiny corrals.
BLM staffer: They're just fighting because they're crowded.
No, they're doing what they know; protecting a few square feet of ground and their families.
>Mares and foals are separated, able to see each other, but crying back and forth, wondering why they can't nuzzle or touch.
BLM staffer: They're a poor looking bunch.
>Hills resound as horse flesh slams metal corral bars and then, from a ridge, a black horse moves stiffly and calls to his family. They call over and over again, but the black hesitates.
BLM staffer: Don't worry, they'll get him in the next load.
Not band, not herd, or even bunch, but these wild creatures are named by the way they're transported away from home. And there's no attempt at understanding the confusion of this horse who's always know safety is with the herd, until today.
I'll tell you what, though, you all: I am more fired up than ever to fight for these horses.
This can't be allowed to go on.
Pictures soon.
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:47 PM 4 comments
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Fallon, Nevada: home of BLM's secret corrals and Coyote Killing Tournament
Image from Coyote Wild magazine
Dear Reader,
There's so much to love about Nevada, but this weekend in Fallon (where the brand new BLM mustang corrals are surrounded by private lands), they're holding a coyote killing tournament.
But that's not all... a similar event is being held in Burns, Oregon this weekend and Twin Falls, Idaho's Tater Derby will give prizes for dead wolves, foxes and bobcats as well as coyotes.
I can't help thinking about Singer, Jake's coyote pup from my books and then...
WOW! Do you think there could be a link, here? Like, when BLM says wild horses have no natural predators?
Best,
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 12:06 PM 6 comments
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
HORSE VANDALS?
Dear Readers,
Okay, I know I wasn't there.
And I didn't answer the call from the anonymous tipster.
But please read this story and tell me if it rings true to you.
Running wild in the cemetery?
Here's the thing: what would a horse get out of kicking over tombstones?
Use your heads and tell me what you think, ok?
Best,
Terri
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:23 PM 5 comments
Monday, January 04, 2010
A STALLION NAMED FREEDOM loses everything else
Pursued by a helicopter, Freedom's herd heads toward a trap
Update From The Field
By Craig C. Downer, Wildlife Ecologist
and Elyse Gardner, Public Observer
January 2, 2009
Below are the photos of the roundup that took place today (Saturday, January 2, 2009) showing how the captured band stallion, "Freedom," valiantly fought for and regained his liberty although he had to leave his family of 8 adult mares and 2 colts. Jumping a 6-foot fence and immediately thereafter breaking through a barbed wire fence and injuring himself, this was an awe-inspiring, do-or-die effort demonstrating the loathing of captivity to a wild horse and his need for freedom. We can only pray for his recovery from the injuries the sustained from the barbed wire.
FOR THE COMPLETE STORY, VISIT: http://humanitythrougheducation.com/
Additional Note: On New Year's Day, the BLM rounded up 10 wild horses but only captured 9 because a 6-month old foal died en route. APHIS vet at the scene, Dr. Al Kane, reported that after being chased by the helicopter for "1/4 mile" the little foal was behaving strangely, lying down periodically. It is reported that the pilot radioed Dr. Kane that this foal was having problems and Dr. Kane went out to see the foal who was found dead. Dr. Kane said that he did a necropsy in the field and discovered congenital heart defect and said that foal couldn't have handled any exercise and probably wouldn't have lived to adulthood. They left the body in the field and refused to allow the public observers to witness the body.
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:02 AM 5 comments
Friday, January 01, 2010
Ripped from the Range
Frozen sweat, confused eyes, shattered families, suffering in secret
BLM's 2010 Gifts to the Wild Horses of the Calico range
NYTimes photo
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 3:57 PM 3 comments
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
"Dances with Wolves" and "Phantom Stallion” Authors Speak Out Wild Horse Roundups
Dear Readers,
The meeting with Senator Feinstein's office was great. The rally was busy and featured a formerly wild burro, a miniature horse named Fergie and a huge Mastiff dog as big as either of them!
Keep your eyes open for press reports ; I talked with lots of reporters.
Photos as I get them!
Here's what else happened...
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 11:33 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Keeping Wild Horses Wild -- in San Francisco?
TOMMOROW in San Francisco, Chicago, London, Los Angeles and Idaho, peaceful demonstrations against the round ups of wild horses are planned.
If you can come to one of these peaceful demonstrations, please do!
And yes, I'll be in San Francisco. As a fourth-generation Californian who had her first real job in San Francisco, I've always admired the open-hearted and open-minded city and it is, after all, named after Saint Francis, patron saint of animals and the environment.
If you come to the rally in San Francisco, please come up and talk with me! Our password will be the Phantom's secret name. That will tell me you're one of my readers!
For more information on the wild horse rallies, check out
The Cloud Foundation
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 7:29 PM 1 comments
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Wild Horse Facts & Fictions
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 2:20 PM 1 comments
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Too Early for BLM to do the Happy Dance
Dear Readers,
Sadly, the judge did NOT grant the injunction to stop Monday's round up, but we have half a victory.
He DID say that BLM has no legal right to stockpile horses in long terming holding pens, so they might want to hold off on the Calico round up until they know what they can legally do with those horses.
In Defense of Animals has already set Plan B into motion. Among the things we're doing is asking President Obama to give the horses a Christmas reprieve.
He did it for a Thanksgiving turkey, didn't he?
Hugs to all,
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 3:23 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
How the Grinch Stole Equus -- N O T
Dear Readers,
There much sad truth in this video, but I think the horses' nerve and verve will make you smile! click here to see the clip,
Starring Secretary Ken Salazar as the Grinch
Can you see a visual reference to all of your letters asking for the horses to stay free?
Hold a heart full of good wishes for Judge Friedman today, and hug them close, hoping he rules in favor of the horses on the Calico range.
Best,
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 12:42 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Wild Horse Tourism in the West
Dear Readers,
People come from all over the world to see the West's wild horses. Read the latest news here:
Virginia City News
And while you're there, answer the opinion poll. It's on the left side of the story, about halfway down (not that easy to see at first glance). Anyone lucky enough to live in wild horse country should know Nevada is "fence out" country when it comes to wild life, so that's what I picked.
Best,
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:08 AM 0 comments
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Wild Horse News Galloping at You!
Dear Readers,
I'm amazed that the Phantom's story has led lots of you to be interested in what happens to live wild horses. The power & magic of words, has never been clearer to me.
Using notes from In Defense of Animals, here's a bit of what happened while I was in Washington, D.C.
>Lead attorney William J. Spriggs tells the judge a dozen (or so) BLM wild horse mistakes he's NOT there to discuss, saying those issues were for another day.
>Mr. Spriggs summarizes our case: the indiscriminate roundup of thousands of horses from the Calico range is illegal; so is holding 30,000 + wild horses in captivity, since that action was never authorized by Congress.
>The Justice Department attorney defends BLM's decision by attacking the plaintiffs (I'm one) by claiming no one would not be harmed by the removal of 80-90% of the horses on the Calico range,
>He likens helicopters to sheep-herding dogs, and says on-the-range determinations of the horses’ health is impossible because BLM can't get within a mile of them.
>The DOJ attorney insists the 1971 Act forces BLM to maintain a healthy range for multiple purposes.
> Mr. Spriggs remarks that he wasn’t sure what law the DOJ attorney had read, since we were talking about the WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSE and BURRO Act!
>Honorable Judge Paul Friedman asks great questions & observes that this is an interesting case, but asks for some additional information on case law because he wants to give a decision on the round-up before Christmas
>The legal team at Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney is fired up and working hard for the horses.
> I was thinking of you and wishing you could be there!
>Please keep your fingers crossed and pray for a good ruling for the wild horses!
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 3:22 PM 0 comments
Saturday, December 19, 2009
CALICO MUSTANGS
Dear Readers,
I'm going to be out of the reach of Internet and cell, where the wild things are, for twenty-four hours.
Before I go, though, I wanted you to see how the Calico horses really look. Check this out on YouTube: Starving and Inbred Horses?
The judge in this case plans to have a ruling before Christmas.
More info for you soon.
Hugs,
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:59 AM 0 comments
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Stealth Round-Up during BLM Meeting
Huddled horses in BLM corrals were rounded-up while I was in the Monday meeting; now they have no shelter, no windbreaks
Dear Readers,
On Monday,
>BLM said the ratio of livestock to horses is: 8,000,000,000 / 30 000 but still blamed wild horses for range damage
>BLM brushed aside communications from Americans who want mustangs to run free. Saying people are ill-informed, BLM insists entrapment,capture and confinement best serve the wild horses
>BLM wild horse advisory board would not agree to read even a few of your letters
>While a snowstorm raged outside, during the hours BLM insisted the public and humane observers were always welcome to watch gathers, BLM had helicopters in the air, making a stealth round up of horses slated for capture in August 2010.
At least one mare was killed and other horses, including a number of foals, were injured.
Right this minute, those horses stand in corrals -- as shown above -- without shelter or even windbreaks.
Brynna, one of my favorite PHANTOM STALLION characters, was a BLM staffer, and I've dedicated books to real BLM staffers, but the Bureau is running amok and using my money to do it. Even if their actions are technically legal, they are sneaky and shady.
So, I'm now a plaintiff in a lawsuit to stop the BLM's roundup of the Calico horses.
On Wednesday, I'll be sitting in a Washington, D.C. court room listening as BLM and Safari Club International fight for the capture and transport of wild horses to "preserves" where they]ll live in "non-reproducing herds." That means there will be no foals.
Soon enough, they'll be "preserving" nothing; they will be empty.
Yes, life is tough for America's wild horses, but you're standing up for them and I'm standing up for them and you.
More later,
Terri
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 7:58 PM 5 comments
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wild Horse Sorrow
BLM Investigating Possible Shooting Deaths of Wild Horses in Northern Washoe County, Nevada
Investigators from the U. S. Bureau of Land Management are looking into the suspected shooting deaths of up to six wild horses on public land along the Nevada-California border about 45 miles northeast of Susanville, Calif.
The bodies of six mustangs were discovered Saturday, December 5, by a helicopter pilot working on a wild horse round-up in the BLM’s Buckhorn Herd Management Area in Washoe County, Nev. BLM staff members who went to the scene said five carcasses were found in one area, and another was found about a half-mile away.
Officials said several of the animals had evidence of gunshot wounds. They estimated the animals had been dead for about two weeks.
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 5:07 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
A guest blogger???
Hi everybody,
This is Matt, Terri's son. My mom's busy battling the BLM right now, but I wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to read the article The Associated Press did about the government's plan to round up 25,000 wild horses and ship them off to uncertain fates in the East and Midwest.
I'm not nearly as much of a horse person as my mom is, but earlier this year, she and I took a bunch of writers and publishing people to check out a herd of wild horses in the desert near Dayton, Nevada. I was a lot more excited about going off-roading and hanging out with some of the young female writers than I was about actually seeing the animals (because, let's be honest, when Terri Farley's your mom, you see a lot of horses (-: ), but either way, it seemed like a good way to spend a Sunday morning.
If you haven't seen wild horses before, it's tough to explain why it was so cool to walk among them. As I mentioned, I've been around plenty of livestock and am not much impressed by most of it, but wild horses are about as close to the ponies at the fair as a red fox is to your wiener dog. Up close, they seem to be about 80 percent horse and 20 percent woolly mammoth. Their caveman dreadlocks alone are worth the trip.
We all walked right up near them (they'll let you know if you get too close, believe me) and just watched for a while. The New York publishing folks' minds were blown, and I wasn't far from joining them. You think of creatures like as being pretend, or so foreign that they might as well be, like Bengal tigers or monitor lizards. But no, they just hang out in the West's deserts, and unlike tigers, they don't bother anybody. At worst, they run away if you're bugging them. You can (and should) go see them sometime, assuming they're still around.
That sounds overly dramatic, but it isn't, really. If the BLM's plan goes through as written, the wild horses will be precious few and far between. I can't get into the facts and figures the way my mom does, but I was a reporter for five years, and I can share a couple of things that might help you make your mind up about the BLM's plan:
1. It will be a difficult and expensive project that will result in the deaths of at least some of the horses. That's all par for the course when forcing wild animals to do things.
2. It is not clear how the horses will adapt to their new homes, nor that they won't have to be moved again at some point.
3. There is little if any actual, independent evidence that the wild horses need to be relocated at all, at least for the reasons the BLM has put forth (overpopulation and starvation). The BLM hasn't kept proper track of the horses for years due to budget concerns, and yet they claim to know exactly how much the horses are eating and how fast they're breeding? As a reporter, I'm going to have to say: Citation needed. A full study would, one assumes, cost a lot less than hunting and trapping 25,000 animals and shipping them across the country. Maybe we ought to give that a try first.
Anyway, here's the link if you missed it the first time: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/08/us/AP-US-Wild-Horses.html?pagewanted=all . Please link to this page and encourage your local reporter or blogger to investigate this story and how it applies to you. And most of all, if you oppose the BLM's plan, act NOW in real life. Don't know how? Just ask Terri.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:41 PM 7 comments
Grass Roots Horses !
visit
GrassrootsHorse.com
Labels: BLM, Cloud Foundation, Grass roots horses, helicopter roundups, IDA, mustangs, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 5:40 PM 1 comments
Monday, April 19, 2010
Wild Horse Poet
Dear Readers,
Katie said I could share her poem with you & this is what inspired her:
I had just read your post on you blog titled, Death in the Desert. The picture and blog just sparked something in me. That video that was posted as well showed what happens to happy, healthy stallions and their families and it gave me inspiration to show what it's really like, or what I imagine it to be, from the stallion's view. The heartbreak he feels at seeing his mares and foals diminish, till there is only one left.
What the BLM is doing just kills me, and I'm sure many others, but for some reason, not the BLM workers.
I'm glad you like the poem, it's one of my favorite things I've done.
photo by Cat Kindsfather
Blind by Katie Bucklein
From the Mustang's View
Are you just blind?
Can't you see what you're doing to me?
To me and my family?
I remember just yesterday
Just yesterday I was playing with my foals
Nipping their hooves and racing through the wind with them
Just yesterday, I was happy and carefree.
Then, overnight, I smelled men
I rushed my family to our hiding place
Hoping no one would find us, “Stay silent” I say
We stayed there, shaking and scared.
We awoke to the sound of buzzing
A giant, silver bird flew through the sky
My family screamed and ran
The little foals falling behind, I tried to stay with them.
We were funneled through strange-looking grass
Grass that stood straight up
Grass that didn't blow in the breeze
My family grew tired, giving in to the silver bird.
We were forced, screaming into a silver tunnel
A silver tunnel with no way out
We were locked in, fearing for our lives
We huddled close, trying to remain comforted with our family.
Near the end of the journey in the silver tunnel
I began to smell horses
Horses that I didn't recognize
I puffed up my chest, ready to fight for my family.
We were funneled out of the tunnel
I raced around my family, trying to keep them together
I heard my foals whinnying for their mothers,
Their mothers were gone; I was left with my young foals
I am pushed into a crevice that leads to other horses
I see a few that look like my mares
I rush to them, eager to rejoin them
But I soon find out that these are other stallions, just like me.
I look around for my foals
They're gone from sight
I look for my mares
I can't see them anywhere, they are gone too.
I turn back to the stallions, looking for a friendly face
I see none
One lone black stallion in the back catches my eye
I move toward him.
“What is this place?” I ask the black stallion
He raises his head and looks at me
“The end. No way out.” He says.
I look around, scared that I will die here.
A short while later, I am pushed once again into a strange ring
I recognize my mares and rush to them
They whinny in greeting and we nuzzle each other
We can't find our foals anywhere.
Suddenly, a hot stick is pressed against me
I jump away and scream
I see a man, holding the stick and pressing it to a mare
I charge him but another man slaps me with a long stick.
My mares are collapsing
I feel my legs shaking but remain standing
I must remain strong for my mares
We are once again separated and pushed back into the strange rings.
I remain next to the black stallion,
Breathing deeply and glancing around at other stallions
I hear neighs that sound familiar
I raise my muzzle and neigh back, longing for my freedom.
I never once again see my foals
I catch glimpses of my mares
They are slowly diminishing
Until only a few are left.
I ask the black stallion again,
“What is happening to my family?”
The black stallion sighs and looks sadly around
“They are dying, just like mine.”
These words scare me
I want my family back
I want my freedom back,
I wish to be running through fields again, playing with my foals.
Won't someone help me?
I don't want to live like this
I have been here for many months,
Never again seeing my family.
I catch word of one of my mares still alive
I wish I could see her,
To see which mare is left
But I never do.
My foals are all gone
No longer living on this earth
What strange creature is doing this to us?
What have we done to them?
Someone save us
I want to run again,
To be out of this strange ring
With the strange food and strange customs.
I am alone
Alone with hundreds of stallions that I do not know
None are my sons, all grown up
What has happened to them?
I raise my muzzle once again,
Neighing loudly into the wind
Wishing to be out on the mountains again,
And then I collapse onto the ground, breathing deeply.
As I close my eyes one last time,
I feel the black stallion sniffing my neck
“Save my family if you see them.”
I whisper to him, one last time.
I take my last breath,
Exhausted and scared
Never understanding what is going on
Or why.
Are you just blind?
Can't you see what you’re doing to me?
To me and my family?
Labels: mustangs, Phantom Stallion reader, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 4:24 PM 2 comments
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Librarians' Wishes Are Horses
photos by Cat KindsfatherLibrary budgets slashed! Librarians fired! Libraries closed!
As a mother, writer and reader, these decisions make me heart sore and angry.
One of the reasons I bought my house is because it's a short walk down a dirt road and across the street to the nearest library; it's now open 10 hours a week.
Although there's not enough money for libraries, America's wild horses are pursued in multi-million dollar helicopter roundups, then confined in dirty, deadly feedlot style corrals.
The price to catch and process ONE horse -- $3,000
Proposed budget increase to BLM's wild horse program -- $12 million
Price of buying new lands to put Western mustangs on-- $42 million dollars
Most taxpayers would rather see these funds spent on books, librarians, and the improved future of children.
Librarians: what could YOU do with a few wild horses worth of Federal funding?
Labels: budget, federal funds, libraries, mustangs, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 11:20 PM 2 comments
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Death in the Desert
Photo by Craig Downer
" What you are seeing are the remains of a wild horse, discovered by Craig Downer, Terri Farley, and Don Molde on a recent excursion into the Calico Mountains looking for the living remnants of the herds..."
To read a report by biologist Craig Downer and human observer Elyse Garder, click here:
Humane Observer Blog
This wide-ranging blog includes feelings and facts, comparing the past and present plight of the Calico Range horses, their capture, captivity and Craig's coverage of our first trip back to the Calico range following BLM's disastrous round-up.
Best,
Terri
Labels: BLM, BLM round ups, Calico Complex, Craig Downer, Elyse Gardner, mustang deaths, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 3:36 AM 2 comments
Friday, April 09, 2010
Virtual Visit to Your Horses
Hola Readers,
On March 28, mustang advocate Tara Kain took these photos at the wild horse holding pens in Fallon & she is allowing me to share with you.
Above, you'll see some phantom foals, whose births and deaths are not recognized by BLM until the foals are branded.
High spirits can get you hurt in crowded conditions, but these two mustangs have found a somewhat open spot for play.
This mustang's chest shows signs of the pigeon fever which BLM first said was 1) impossible this time of year 2) showing up at Fallon, but not worth treating.
What will that do to wild horses' chances of being returned to the range or transferred to other BLM facilities? And if BLM deemed these same horses healthy when they came in off the range AND say the time of year AND soil conditions aren't right to transmit the disease at the Indian Lakes facility, where did it come from? Some are suggesting horses were infected in the trucks of their captors.
The Cattoor family website claims the company has "humanely" rounded up 150,000 wild horses, burros and wild cattle. Horse experts have mused that one of the main symptoms of Pigeon Fever, seeping pus, might remain behind in even a washed trailer. If it wasn't completely disinfected, they tell me, it could become a crucible of contamination.
I know some of my readers are experienced with Pigeon Fever. What do you think?
Adios,
Terri
Labels: Cattoor, Fallon, Indian Lakes, mustangs, phantom foals, pigeon fever, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 2:22 PM 4 comments
Monday, April 05, 2010
Ghost Dancer: still there
Dear Readers,
The Medicine Hat mare with the magnetic mood is still at the Indian Lakes BLM holding facility in Fallon.
She's shown here, photographed by Mark Terrell, just a few weeks after capture.
In these two photos -- one by Craig Downer and the other by Tara Kain -- she's been put in a pneumatic cage,vaccinated, hung with a red rope and numbered tag, then neck branded. You can see the freeze brand on her neck if you look closely. It will be there forever.
She looks thinner, even though food is delivered at the fence.
I'm calling this mustang Ghost Dancer because she once roamed Native American lands and the Ghost Dance ceremony was one of rebirth.
That's what I wish for these horses, a return to the range where their spirits can run free again.
Best to you all,
Terri
Labels: Craig Downer, Fallon, Indian Lakes, Medicine Hat, mustang, terri farley, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 2:52 AM 4 comments
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Phantom foals
photo used by permission of Cat Kindsfather
Three things to think about:
1) Newborn horses like the dun foal above -- trying to rise and nurse despite a broken leg suffered in a corral crowded with adult horses -- do not exist in the world of BLM until they are branded.
2) Only one vet is under contract to care for the thousands of mustangs in BOTH the Fallon and Palomino Valley facilities.
3) Despite promises to welcome the public at wild horse gathers and holding pens, program manager Don Glenn allows NO humane observers at the wild horse facilities except "by appointment"
If you object, please sign this petition to President Obama, asking for
an immediate moratorium on wild horse roundups
Labels: BLM, Don Glenn, Indian Lakes, mustangs, Palomino Valley, phantom foals, pigeon fever, terri farley, wild horse deaths, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 2:00 AM 7 comments
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Let 'em Run
Dear Readers,
The captive wild horse above is the reason that I've barely talked with you since biologist Craig Downer and I returned from BLM's Fallon corrals, Sunday, then searched out remnants of the wild herds of the Calico range on Monday.
Every spare hour since then, we've worked toward this:
FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST WILD HORSE ROUNDUP SEEKS RETURN OF 1800 HORSES TO NEVADA RANGE
When photographer Cat Kindsfather enlarged this photo, she realized that the seepage from this mustang's awful wound had pulsed all the way down to his hoof.
This callous cruelty cannot be allowed to continue.
Terri
Labels: BLM, Craig Downer, Fallon, lawsuit, mustangs, terri farley, wild horse deaths, wild horse injuries, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:26 AM 3 comments
Friday, March 26, 2010
Fallon Foal Death
Mare stands guard over new foal, photo by Tara Kain
There's a new set of hooves in Heaven.
BLM's death tally for the week doesn't show what happened.
However, visitors are allowed to tour the tax payer funded Indian Lakes wild horse facility. It's land-locked inside a private ranch in Fallon, Nevada, but opened once each week by reservation only for two hours.
Three observers from the CalNeva Cloud Foundation and photographer Cat, visited Sunday, March 21 and took photos, video and notes.
Saturday, March 20
a pale dun foal is born to a buckskin mare
Sunday, March 21
11:00 Members of the public arrive to tour the Fallon facility. Director John Neill is their guide and he waits for a late arrival
11:37 tour begins
11:45 visitors observe buckskin mare and newborn foal in a pen with other adult horses. Foal looks like "he had melted into the contours of the ground" according to one observer and Mr. Neill said the foal was a weak newborn from the night before.
12:30? Sometime during the tour, members of the public notice a nursery pen with just six mare and foal pairs inside and wonder why the buckskin and her foal aren't with them*
(RIGHT: As adult horses move, mare makes a protective barricade of her body, photo by Tara Kain)
1:45 Tour ends, passing by the buckskin mare and her foal. Mr. Neill agreed with visitors that foal might be sick and indicated he would check on it. If necessary, a vet would be called. He added that volunteers from WHOA might be asked to bottle feed the foal if it couldn't rise to nurse.
2:00 as observers depart, foal is still down.
Monday, March 22
no deaths are listed on the BLM's facility update, so CalNeva Cloud observers hope for the best
Tuesday, March 23
9:55 am
Still no deaths listed for the weekend**, but one observer calls and talks to John Neill who says "the colt was euthanized." She understands Neill to say the vet had determined the colt had a broken femur and must have been kicked.
The caller commented, "Oh, that's why he never got up."
Neill replied, "No, he was up that morning nursing." Sometime after that, he speculated, the colt must've been kicked."
Neill said the foal was destroyed via chemical injection.
(with freedom tantalizingly close, mare urges foal to rise and nurse, photo by Tara Kain)
Friday, March 26
I reached John Neill at Palomino Valley wild horse corrals and he answered my questions about the Medicine Hat stallion I've told you about before and this foal.
He clarified two points from the timeline above:
* "Once we know the colt's strong, we put them in the nursery pen" along with their mothers
** Live births are not entered into BLM's system until horses have been freeze-branded, which takes place after four or more months.
Since foals delivered "in facility" are not listed as born, they are not listed as dead. So, they are not posted on BLM's online Calico Round-up updates.
John Neill described the last hour of the little dun's life.
"He was down during the tour. Afterward I went out to check on him and he was packing a right hind leg and he had to be put down."
"When did the vet come?" I asked.
"He didn't."
"Was it a compound fracture so that you could see it was broken?"
John answered, "I could just tell, so I took care of it."
After our call ended, my English teacher brain flashed to "I am cruel only to be kind." Hamlet, I remembered, and knew that if I were watching over a newborn foal with a fatally fractured femur, I would not want it to suffer.
But "Hamlet" ends with a stage strewn with corpses.
I tried to get confirmation that such a leg injury is easily diagnosed, but the two vets I consulted disagreed on both diagnosis and prognosis.
John Neill told me "We have births daily and if something happens like this or there's a bad mother, we can't track them all accurately."
Is it fair to the public that our mustang foals are born and die without notice?
This is not Neill's decision; it is BLM policy. As with so many other BLM policies, the numbering of lives and deaths are rough estimates.
That's wrong.
There are no disposable mustangs. Taxpayers have no disposable income, especially for a system they hate.
There must be a moratorium on the capture of our wild horses, before a ruined system erases an entire species.
Labels: BLM, Fallon, helicopter roundups, Indian Lakes, mustang, wild horse deaths, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 1:17 PM 4 comments
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Medicine Hat is Missing
Dear Readers,
Three wild horse advocates searched for this captive horse today.
photo by Mark Terrell
They couldn't find him. If BLM can't supply photo verification that he's still there, we need to know what's happened to him.
Those of you who read my books know that I'm partial to sorrel horses like Hoku and sassy little bays like Ace, but this horse, because of his flashy coloring SHOULD be easy to follow through BLM processing.
I will ask BLM if I can go out and search the corrals this week.
You can see more photos of your mustangs in the feedlot in Fallon here
I'll let you know what happens next.
Terri
Labels: BLM, Fallon facility, Indian Lakes, Medicine Hat, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 9:18 PM 4 comments
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Visiting Day at the Feedlot
Dear Readers,
Two hours each week, the public is allowed to see their captive wild horses at the feedlot style corrals in Fallon, Nevada. So I went today.
What I hated most was a group of young ones trying to do the truly joyous "let's run!" thing and have four of them end in a pileup because there were so many in such a confined area. Lots of fresh freeze brands on the mares. Even the ones in hospital pens.
I will transcribe my notes soon, but I have to say the most surprising thing I heard
was that the gather/facility death toll was LOWER than than it usually is because the Calico horses are less "crashy" (further defined as prone to spooking) than horses from other herd areas.
The official death toll posted by BLM was up to 57 on Friday and one member of our group was told four more died Saturday.
Oh, and the word "processing" (for vaccinations, freeze branding, age determination, etc) has been struck from BLM vocabulary and the official word is "preparing."
I'm sure that makes it feel better.
T.
Labels: BLM, Fallon corrals, feedlot, mustang deaths, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 9:50 PM 4 comments
Thursday, February 25, 2010
BARREN
Rachel Yoder - Artist
Labels: BLM, helicopter roundups, mustangs, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:20 AM 5 comments
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Saving a Stallion
photo by Mark Terrell
Wild Horses of Nevada
Dear Readers,
I'm in love with this horse, a Medicine Hat stallion, captive at BLM's Fallon corrals.
Although I have very mixed feelings about naming wild horses, in my imagination he has a name. And a story. During the last two days I've been writing it. I can't seem to stop.
I hope to keep track of him and see that he's set free in the spring.
Do you know any stories about Medicine Hat horses? Please respond to this blog post if you do, and we can share what you know with other readers.
Best to you,
Terri
Labels: BLM, Eagle Lakes, Fallon, Medicine Hat, mustang, phantom stallion, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:25 AM 8 comments
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Why is BLM so fussy?
photo by Deniz Bolbol shows how close choppers get to wild horses
The BLM announced a strict new visitation policy to the Fallon wild horse facility.
Ten people each week, on Sunday for two hours will be allowed to view the horses. This INCLUDES humane observers.
read more at In Defense of Animals'blog
Their excuse? BLM staff has lots of work to do, branding, vaccinating, etc.
This excuse concerns me because I've watched these tasks go on at the Palomino Valley holding pens and not only didn't I interfere, but no one huffed around saying, "I can't work when you're looking at me, Terri."
In fact, no one seemed to notice I was even there.
So why is BLM being so fussy now?
photo by Mark Terrell (watch for more!)
Labels: BLM, Eagle Lakes, Fallon, humane observers blocked, mustangs, Palomino Valley, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 4:50 AM 9 comments
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Range runners in captivity
Dear Readers,
I just returned from the Fallon facility and learned that a mass gelding of mustangs begins on Monday. I haven't transcribed my notes yet but when I asked why the "tours" will end (they will resume on selected Sundays), Susie Stokke, the BLM staffer leading us around said "we have work to do" and verified that they would be gelding about 900 stallions and colts old enough to be weaned.
It's going to be an awful, bloody business and it's made worse by the cage.
I've seen these used to contain horses for vaccinations and freeze branding, but missed the fact that the metal cage can be turned and rotated so the gelding can be performed through the bars.
Stokke verified that every male horse will be gelded. It's standard procedure, she said, like neutering cats, so that there won't be "indiscriminate breeding" by adopted horses.
I'll write more later, and share photos from Mark Terrell, an amazing wild horse photographer who accompanied me, but this issue has a time element, so I've contacted In Defense of Animals and the Cloud Foundation for help. I've also heard from Holly Hazard of the Humane Society of the United States.
If there's any chance that the Calico horses will be preserved as a heritage herd -- and I saw once more the unique characteristics of these horses which made them the model for the fictional Phantom's herd. One smoky dun with dread-locked mane just stole my heart, but then so did a fuzzy bay baby and a majestic Medicine Hat stallion who carried himself like royalty in exile.
If these male horses are all castrated, there's no do-over. The gene pool for the Calico Mountain horses will have been reduced to the few horses BLM left on the range, and though they may be hardy survivors, nothing will ever be the same.
Terri
Labels: BLM, Calico Comples, Calico mountains, castration, Fallon corrals, gelding, Holly Hazard, IDA, mustangs, the Cloud Foundation, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 12:55 PM 5 comments
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Killing colts as world watches makes BLM uneasy
A rest before dying/photo by Lora Leigh
Dear Readers,
Someone at BLM has realized we're watching, and we care.
After nearly 2000 beautiful horses were captured and injured, the Calico Complex round-up was halted.
Now, the Eagle territory round-up has been postponed:
Ely, Nevada – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has determined there is not adequate time to safely conduct the proposed Eagle Herd Management Area (HMA) gather prior to the beginning of foaling season, and therefore, will defer issuing a decision on the proposed gather until later this year after the foaling season.
We're having an impact.
Terri
Labels: BLM, Calico, Eagle Herd Management, foals die, wild horse deaths, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 4:08 PM 7 comments
Saturday, January 23, 2010
BLM: giving new meaning to THE DEAD OF WINTER
After being rounded up on private land and trucked to the facility on private land, the horses still are not safe.
BLM confirms deaths of wild horses in their "care"
At least six horses have died in captivity, most recently a foal run so hard, his back hooves sloughed apart and began detaching from his legs.
We have requested an autopsy by an impartial veterinarian.
To my knowledge BLM has not responded.
Labels: BLM, death, foal, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 9:44 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Captured Calico Wild Horses Denied Shelter from Storms
Captured Calico Wild Horses Denied Windbreaks
BLM’s double-standards leave nearly 1000 captured mustangs in the cold
Fallon, NV (January 19, 2010)— 956 wild American mustangs rounded up off public land by helicopters in the past two weeks now stand in a feedlot-style Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contracted holding facility outside of Fallon, Nevada on private land. The new Fallon facility is not equipped with shelter, windbreaks or protection of any kind for the horses. High winds, rain and snow are expected to continue through the end of the week. In Calico, herds can move to sheltered canyons for protection from the harsh winter weather. Yet, in Fallon, they are deprived of adequate protection despite recommendations from wild horse advocates. This is in direct opposition to BLM’s own standards.
“I’m confused by the double standard. Before members of the public are allowed to adopt a wild horse from BLM we must prove we have adequate shelter. Why doesn’t BLM have to meet the same standards?” asks Ann Evans, adopter of three mustangs.
Yesterday, members of the public reported an inhumane lack of windbreaks. No apparent effort has been made to tie canvas tarps on fences to block the howling wind and the anticipated driving snow. On Friday January 15, advocates asked local Nevada BLM staff, Directors and top-level Department of Interior (DOI) under-secretaries to intervene on behalf of the horses by creating wind blocks.
"Those that care about the welfare of the wild horses or burros are asking for minimal protection for these vulnerable animals. Wild horse families are being ripped out of their natural environment where they can take care of themselves, separated from their family members and incarcerated on a windswept plain outside Fallon where they have no ability to protect themselves from the elements. BLM then tells the public their actions are for the good of the animals,” states Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation (named for the famous wild horse Kathrens has documented for the PBS/Nature series)
The DOI and BLM responded that at the just constructed Fallon facility “weather is not that extreme to require wind breaks for healthy horses. . . they do not require protection from the elements to maintain good health. . . .there is nothing to be concerned about from an animal well-being standpoint.” Thus, no actions to protect the captured horses have taken place, not even for foals or sick horses. Advocates contend that the horses are more prone to strangles (equine distemper) due to the lack of adequate protection.
“When these horses were rounded up, some where limping and wet with sweat. They are now terribly traumatized, depressed and confused. Their immune systems are compromised, making them more vulnerable to illness, like strangles (equine distemper) and death,” explains Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist, third generation Nevada native, and witness to the Calico roundup.
“BLM continually tells the public and the media that the wild horses are starving and must be removed from the range. Yet, the BLM provides them with no shelter in dangerous weather conditions where the horses will burn fat reserves attempting to keep warm. No reputable rescue would place any horses in a situation like Fallon,” stated Hilary Wood, President and Founder of Front Range Equine Rescue..
When asked about the lack of windbreaks the BLM indicated that the contractor who built the facility was not asked to provide any shelters or windbreaks. BLM zeroed out a portion of the Dishpan Butte wild horse herd in Wyoming solely on the basis that the wild horses did not have cover according to BLM Program Chief Don Glenn.
“We owe so much to these mustangs—it’s a dishonor that our government does not provide wind protection from the harsh elements,” said Elyse Gardner, humane observer, Calico and Pryor Mountains roundups
The Cloud Foundation and the public call on Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar, to stop the Calico roundup and take immediate action against the cruelty and mismanagement of the BLM's wild horse and burro program. Canvas tarps are affordable and readily available at various outlets in the Reno/Fallon area.
###
Labels: BLM, Calico Complex, Cloud Foundation, mustangs, round-ups, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 7:34 PM 1 comments
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Calico Horses on the run
It was a bittersweet day on the Calico range. The sage smelled spicy-clean and the mountains soared to meet the skies, but never, all day, was there silence.
Wildlife trails have been graded into roads for huge trailer trucks and the incessant beat of helicopter blades sliced through me.
People who think horse lovers anthropomorphize these animals should have been there today. These creatures have strong family bonds.
>Stallions battle minutes after they were forced from thousands of acres into tiny corrals.
BLM staffer: They're just fighting because they're crowded.
No, they're doing what they know; protecting a few square feet of ground and their families.
>Mares and foals are separated, able to see each other, but crying back and forth, wondering why they can't nuzzle or touch.
BLM staffer: They're a poor looking bunch.
>Hills resound as horse flesh slams metal corral bars and then, from a ridge, a black horse moves stiffly and calls to his family. They call over and over again, but the black hesitates.
BLM staffer: Don't worry, they'll get him in the next load.
Not band, not herd, or even bunch, but these wild creatures are named by the way they're transported away from home. And there's no attempt at understanding the confusion of this horse who's always know safety is with the herd, until today.
I'll tell you what, though, you all: I am more fired up than ever to fight for these horses.
This can't be allowed to go on.
Pictures soon.
Terri
Labels: BLM, Calico Complex, round up, terri farley, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:47 PM 4 comments
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Fallon, Nevada: home of BLM's secret corrals and Coyote Killing Tournament
Image from Coyote Wild magazine
Dear Reader,
There's so much to love about Nevada, but this weekend in Fallon (where the brand new BLM mustang corrals are surrounded by private lands), they're holding a coyote killing tournament.
But that's not all... a similar event is being held in Burns, Oregon this weekend and Twin Falls, Idaho's Tater Derby will give prizes for dead wolves, foxes and bobcats as well as coyotes.
I can't help thinking about Singer, Jake's coyote pup from my books and then...
WOW! Do you think there could be a link, here? Like, when BLM says wild horses have no natural predators?
Best,
Terri
Labels: bobcats, Burns, coyotes, Fallon, fox, Nevada, Oregon, Twin Falls, wild horses, wolves BLM
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 12:06 PM 6 comments
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
HORSE VANDALS?
Dear Readers,
Okay, I know I wasn't there.
And I didn't answer the call from the anonymous tipster.
But please read this story and tell me if it rings true to you.
Running wild in the cemetery?
Here's the thing: what would a horse get out of kicking over tombstones?
Use your heads and tell me what you think, ok?
Best,
Terri
Labels: cemetery, getting a kick out of vandalism, wild horses, Wyoming
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:23 PM 5 comments
Monday, January 04, 2010
A STALLION NAMED FREEDOM loses everything else
Pursued by a helicopter, Freedom's herd heads toward a trap
Update From The Field
By Craig C. Downer, Wildlife Ecologist
and Elyse Gardner, Public Observer
January 2, 2009
Below are the photos of the roundup that took place today (Saturday, January 2, 2009) showing how the captured band stallion, "Freedom," valiantly fought for and regained his liberty although he had to leave his family of 8 adult mares and 2 colts. Jumping a 6-foot fence and immediately thereafter breaking through a barbed wire fence and injuring himself, this was an awe-inspiring, do-or-die effort demonstrating the loathing of captivity to a wild horse and his need for freedom. We can only pray for his recovery from the injuries the sustained from the barbed wire.
FOR THE COMPLETE STORY, VISIT: http://humanitythrougheducation.com/
Additional Note: On New Year's Day, the BLM rounded up 10 wild horses but only captured 9 because a 6-month old foal died en route. APHIS vet at the scene, Dr. Al Kane, reported that after being chased by the helicopter for "1/4 mile" the little foal was behaving strangely, lying down periodically. It is reported that the pilot radioed Dr. Kane that this foal was having problems and Dr. Kane went out to see the foal who was found dead. Dr. Kane said that he did a necropsy in the field and discovered congenital heart defect and said that foal couldn't have handled any exercise and probably wouldn't have lived to adulthood. They left the body in the field and refused to allow the public observers to witness the body.
Labels: BLM lawsuit, Craig Downer, Elyse Gardner, Freedom, round ups, stallion escapes, terri farley, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:02 AM 5 comments
Friday, January 01, 2010
Ripped from the Range
Frozen sweat, confused eyes, shattered families, suffering in secretBLM's 2010 Gifts to the Wild Horses of the Calico rangeNYTimes photo
Labels: BLM gather, Calico Complex, mustangs, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 3:57 PM 3 comments
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
"Dances with Wolves" and "Phantom Stallion” Authors Speak Out Wild Horse Roundups
Dear Readers,
The meeting with Senator Feinstein's office was great. The rally was busy and featured a formerly wild burro, a miniature horse named Fergie and a huge Mastiff dog as big as either of them!
Keep your eyes open for press reports ; I talked with lots of reporters.
Photos as I get them!
Here's what else happened...
San Francisco, CA (December 30, 2009)—In a special press conference Michael Blake, Academy Award-winning author of Dances with Wolves and Terri Farley, author of the popular Phantom Stallion book series join together at 5 P.M. in the Rex Roth Room at Hotel Rex, 562 Sutter Street in San Francisco to protest the dead-of-winter roundups of wild horses on Nevada's Calico Range. The two authors want the American public to hear their stories and stand up for the wild horses and burros before they exist only in books. They ask the public to write President Obama requesting a moratorium on wild horse and burro roundups until the American public can work with Congress to create a sustainable plan to protect our legends of the West.
Less than one percent of humans who live in America have ever seen wild horses running free according to Blake, "I have spoken with many of the few who have and each has said the view they made will never be forgotten."
The Nevada roundups have special meaning to Blake, whose new book, Twelve, the King, is a tribute to the wild stallion he adopted. Blake explains, "After surviving a brutal capture in Nevada, he never had anything put on his back and was given all-access to the ranch."
Farley will speak on the importance of wild horses to modern children, of the Bureau of Land Management's lopsided science, and share eye-witness accounts of riding the Calico range. A land of sagebrush, pinion pines and snow-capped peaks, the range is not only the setting for her popular Phantom Stallion series, but the site of multi-million dollar roundup in progress because the BLM insists the horses have damaged the range.
"BLM must cowboy up and make the corporate ranchers pay for the damage their livestock has done to the range," Farley said. "Nevada is wild horse country, and you only have to look at the galloping mustangs Nevadans voted onto their state quarter and mustang license plates to see that most of us want it to stay that way."
Farley and her fans fear that if BLM continues roundups like Calico, where they are removing 80-90% of the mustangs to add to the thousands already in captivity, that the days of free-roaming horses will end.
"The last truly wild horse may already have been born," Farley says. "Though Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar claims moving wild horses to Eastern and Midwestern pastures will preserve them forever, these sterilized and shelved horses are treated more like strawberry preserves than a living legacy of the West."
Blake's Dances with Wolves praises the gritty beauty of the real old West just as his upcoming On the Road with Michael Blake takes an honest and admiring look at today's West, and he agrees that the West's wild horses must be left to run free.
"As remarkable as a distant sight of wild horses can be it remains the tip of a glorious iceberg. The actual lives of wild horses reveal to humanity the privilege having a life on the planet earth and how vital it is to respect the privilege."
—Michael Blake
"Since humans first huddled around campfires, stories have been told of wild horses with wind in their manes, fire in their eyes and freedom in their hearts. Those horses eluded capture, and scorned the comforts of civilization. Americans have insisted they want their wild horses to live that way, forever."
—Terri Farley
# # #
Labels: BLM rount up, Diane Feinstein, Michael Blake, terri farley, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 11:33 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Keeping Wild Horses Wild -- in San Francisco?
TOMMOROW in San Francisco, Chicago, London, Los Angeles and Idaho, peaceful demonstrations against the round ups of wild horses are planned.
If you can come to one of these peaceful demonstrations, please do!
And yes, I'll be in San Francisco. As a fourth-generation Californian who had her first real job in San Francisco, I've always admired the open-hearted and open-minded city and it is, after all, named after Saint Francis, patron saint of animals and the environment.
If you come to the rally in San Francisco, please come up and talk with me! Our password will be the Phantom's secret name. That will tell me you're one of my readers!
For more information on the wild horse rallies, check out
The Cloud Foundation
Labels: protest, round ups, Saint Francis, San Francisco, terri farley, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 7:29 PM 1 comments
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Wild Horse Facts & Fictions
Dear Readers,
I'm proud to have been interviewed as a voice for our horses.You can read this most recent article at the link below my quotes and I hope you will
"There are millions of cows and thousands of horses," said Terri Farley, a Reno author who joined the lawsuit against the BLM roundup. "So tell me, who is eating the grass?"
Farley, who said she has observed range studies and researched the issue for years, said the BLM "needs to look at its science on this." She said the gathers, coupled with birth-control methods used on horses that remain on the range, will eventually "zero out" the ranges, leaving no wild horses at all.
"(The BLM) says they are doing it for the good of the horses," she said. "I lean towards the conclusion they are doing it for the good of the cattlemen.
"People may remember when they saw their first wild horse, but will they know when they've seen their last? I think the last wild horse may already have been born."
She said the argument that activists are fighting the government gathers on the basis of romance alone -- the iconic image of herds running free -- is easy to make, but not accurate.
"It can be a persuasive argument because it fits in with the idea of crazy cat ladies and things like that, but that's why I've made it a point to educate myself," Farley said. "... I'm not buying the BLM's numbers. It's as though they are being eliminated on a whim. If it's about range damage, then look at that. If it's about a different political issue, then we need to look at that."
Labels: BLM, mustangs shot, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 2:20 PM 1 comments
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Too Early for BLM to do the Happy Dance
Dear Readers,
Sadly, the judge did NOT grant the injunction to stop Monday's round up, but we have half a victory.
He DID say that BLM has no legal right to stockpile horses in long terming holding pens, so they might want to hold off on the Calico round up until they know what they can legally do with those horses.
In Defense of Animals has already set Plan B into motion. Among the things we're doing is asking President Obama to give the horses a Christmas reprieve.
He did it for a Thanksgiving turkey, didn't he?
Hugs to all,
Terri
Labels: BLM lawsuit, In Defense of Animals, Judge Friedman, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 3:23 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
How the Grinch Stole Equus -- N O T
Dear Readers,
There much sad truth in this video, but I think the horses' nerve and verve will make you smile! click here to see the clip,
Starring Secretary Ken Salazar as the Grinch
Can you see a visual reference to all of your letters asking for the horses to stay free?
Hold a heart full of good wishes for Judge Friedman today, and hug them close, hoping he rules in favor of the horses on the Calico range.
Best,
Terri
Labels: children 's letters, children's books, Grinch, Secretary Salazar, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 12:42 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Wild Horse Tourism in the West
Dear Readers,
People come from all over the world to see the West's wild horses. Read the latest news here:
Virginia City News
And while you're there, answer the opinion poll. It's on the left side of the story, about halfway down (not that easy to see at first glance). Anyone lucky enough to live in wild horse country should know Nevada is "fence out" country when it comes to wild life, so that's what I picked.
Best,
Terri
Labels: eco tourism, mustangs shot, Nevada, tourism, Virginia City, Western vacations, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:08 AM 0 comments
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Wild Horse News Galloping at You!
Dear Readers,
I'm amazed that the Phantom's story has led lots of you to be interested in what happens to live wild horses. The power & magic of words, has never been clearer to me.
Using notes from In Defense of Animals, here's a bit of what happened while I was in Washington, D.C.
>Lead attorney William J. Spriggs tells the judge a dozen (or so) BLM wild horse mistakes he's NOT there to discuss, saying those issues were for another day.
>Mr. Spriggs summarizes our case: the indiscriminate roundup of thousands of horses from the Calico range is illegal; so is holding 30,000 + wild horses in captivity, since that action was never authorized by Congress.
>The Justice Department attorney defends BLM's decision by attacking the plaintiffs (I'm one) by claiming no one would not be harmed by the removal of 80-90% of the horses on the Calico range,
>He likens helicopters to sheep-herding dogs, and says on-the-range determinations of the horses’ health is impossible because BLM can't get within a mile of them.
>The DOJ attorney insists the 1971 Act forces BLM to maintain a healthy range for multiple purposes.
> Mr. Spriggs remarks that he wasn’t sure what law the DOJ attorney had read, since we were talking about the WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSE and BURRO Act!
>Honorable Judge Paul Friedman asks great questions & observes that this is an interesting case, but asks for some additional information on case law because he wants to give a decision on the round-up before Christmas
>The legal team at Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney is fired up and working hard for the horses.
> I was thinking of you and wishing you could be there!
>Please keep your fingers crossed and pray for a good ruling for the wild horses!
Labels: BLM lawsuit, Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney, Judge Paul Friedman, mustangs shot, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 3:22 PM 0 comments
Saturday, December 19, 2009
CALICO MUSTANGS
Dear Readers,
I'm going to be out of the reach of Internet and cell, where the wild things are, for twenty-four hours.
Before I go, though, I wanted you to see how the Calico horses really look. Check this out on YouTube: Starving and Inbred Horses?
The judge in this case plans to have a ruling before Christmas.
More info for you soon.
Hugs,
Terri
Labels: BLM lawsuit, Calico Complex, mustangs shot, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 10:59 AM 0 comments
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Stealth Round-Up during BLM Meeting
Huddled horses in BLM corrals were rounded-up while I was in the Monday meeting; now they have no shelter, no windbreaks
Dear Readers,
On Monday,
>BLM said the ratio of livestock to horses is: 8,000,000,000 / 30 000 but still blamed wild horses for range damage
>BLM brushed aside communications from Americans who want mustangs to run free. Saying people are ill-informed, BLM insists entrapment,capture and confinement best serve the wild horses
>BLM wild horse advisory board would not agree to read even a few of your letters
>While a snowstorm raged outside, during the hours BLM insisted the public and humane observers were always welcome to watch gathers, BLM had helicopters in the air, making a stealth round up of horses slated for capture in August 2010.
At least one mare was killed and other horses, including a number of foals, were injured.
Right this minute, those horses stand in corrals -- as shown above -- without shelter or even windbreaks.
Brynna, one of my favorite PHANTOM STALLION characters, was a BLM staffer, and I've dedicated books to real BLM staffers, but the Bureau is running amok and using my money to do it. Even if their actions are technically legal, they are sneaky and shady.
So, I'm now a plaintiff in a lawsuit to stop the BLM's roundup of the Calico horses.
On Wednesday, I'll be sitting in a Washington, D.C. court room listening as BLM and Safari Club International fight for the capture and transport of wild horses to "preserves" where they]ll live in "non-reproducing herds." That means there will be no foals.
Soon enough, they'll be "preserving" nothing; they will be empty.
Yes, life is tough for America's wild horses, but you're standing up for them and I'm standing up for them and you.
More later,
Terri
Labels: BLM, mustang, phantom stallion, Safari Club, terri farley, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 7:58 PM 5 comments
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wild Horse Sorrow
BLM Investigating Possible Shooting Deaths of Wild Horses in Northern Washoe County, Nevada
Investigators from the U. S. Bureau of Land Management are looking into the suspected shooting deaths of up to six wild horses on public land along the Nevada-California border about 45 miles northeast of Susanville, Calif.
The bodies of six mustangs were discovered Saturday, December 5, by a helicopter pilot working on a wild horse round-up in the BLM’s Buckhorn Herd Management Area in Washoe County, Nev. BLM staff members who went to the scene said five carcasses were found in one area, and another was found about a half-mile away.
Officials said several of the animals had evidence of gunshot wounds. They estimated the animals had been dead for about two weeks.
Labels: BLM, mustangs shot, wild horses
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 5:07 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
A guest blogger???
Hi everybody,
This is Matt, Terri's son. My mom's busy battling the BLM right now, but I wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to read the article The Associated Press did about the government's plan to round up 25,000 wild horses and ship them off to uncertain fates in the East and Midwest.
I'm not nearly as much of a horse person as my mom is, but earlier this year, she and I took a bunch of writers and publishing people to check out a herd of wild horses in the desert near Dayton, Nevada. I was a lot more excited about going off-roading and hanging out with some of the young female writers than I was about actually seeing the animals (because, let's be honest, when Terri Farley's your mom, you see a lot of horses (-: ), but either way, it seemed like a good way to spend a Sunday morning.
If you haven't seen wild horses before, it's tough to explain why it was so cool to walk among them. As I mentioned, I've been around plenty of livestock and am not much impressed by most of it, but wild horses are about as close to the ponies at the fair as a red fox is to your wiener dog. Up close, they seem to be about 80 percent horse and 20 percent woolly mammoth. Their caveman dreadlocks alone are worth the trip.
We all walked right up near them (they'll let you know if you get too close, believe me) and just watched for a while. The New York publishing folks' minds were blown, and I wasn't far from joining them. You think of creatures like as being pretend, or so foreign that they might as well be, like Bengal tigers or monitor lizards. But no, they just hang out in the West's deserts, and unlike tigers, they don't bother anybody. At worst, they run away if you're bugging them. You can (and should) go see them sometime, assuming they're still around.
That sounds overly dramatic, but it isn't, really. If the BLM's plan goes through as written, the wild horses will be precious few and far between. I can't get into the facts and figures the way my mom does, but I was a reporter for five years, and I can share a couple of things that might help you make your mind up about the BLM's plan:
1. It will be a difficult and expensive project that will result in the deaths of at least some of the horses. That's all par for the course when forcing wild animals to do things.
2. It is not clear how the horses will adapt to their new homes, nor that they won't have to be moved again at some point.
3. There is little if any actual, independent evidence that the wild horses need to be relocated at all, at least for the reasons the BLM has put forth (overpopulation and starvation). The BLM hasn't kept proper track of the horses for years due to budget concerns, and yet they claim to know exactly how much the horses are eating and how fast they're breeding? As a reporter, I'm going to have to say: Citation needed. A full study would, one assumes, cost a lot less than hunting and trapping 25,000 animals and shipping them across the country. Maybe we ought to give that a try first.
Anyway, here's the link if you missed it the first time: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/08/us/AP-US-Wild-Horses.html?pagewanted=all . Please link to this page and encourage your local reporter or blogger to investigate this story and how it applies to you. And most of all, if you oppose the BLM's plan, act NOW in real life. Don't know how? Just ask Terri.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
Labels: mustang, Nevada, phantom stallion, terri farley, wild horses, young adult
Permalink to this blog post
Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:41 PM 7 comments