Lawsuit Filed to Challenge Triple B Roundup

Posted Jul 6, 2011 

Courtesy of  Laura Allen 

Animal Law Coalition

A lawsuit has been filed to try to stop BLM's planned round up and removal of at least 1,726 wild horses from 1,682,998 acres of the Triple B, Maverick Medicine and Antelope Valley herd management areas (HMAs) in eastern Nevada.

Plaintiff The Cloud Foundation describes, "The wild horses of the Triple B, Maverick Medicine and Antelope Valley HMAs are free-roaming on the remote high desert mountains and valleys of east central and northeast Nevada--north of Ely, south of Elko on the Utah border. They have been characterized as a diverse, colorful, intermingling herd with some possessing old mustang origins. Many wild horses descend from an old Shoshone Indian herd known for pintos and paints, as well as a number of medicine hats, horses sacred to Native Americans".
Only 472 horses would remain after the Triple B roundup, and the mares would all be treated with an immunocontraceptive drug, PZP, to prevent pregnancy for up to 2 years.  This would leave an unnatural sex ratio of 60% male.
46,000 cows and sheep would be allowed to remain to graze.

According to the Bureau of Land Management, the 1,726 wild horses, with about 975 acres per horse, are destroying the range. But apparently 46,000 cows and sheep are having no effect at all on the condition of the range or water. The BLM refused even to consider the effect of so many cows and sheep on the range, let alone reducing their numbers.

As the Complaint filed by Plaintiffs The Cloud Foundation, Craig Downer and Lorna Moffat explains, "Those that are not re-released (about 1,700) would be transported by big rig trucks to long term holding facilities in the Midwest of the United States, where they would live out their lives in confined, zoo-like conditions, separated by sex or sterilized, wild and free-roaming no more.
"Family members would be permanently separated-stallions and mares from each other, and mares and stallions from their foals. Long-term family bonds would be forever severed.  Incarcerated in long-term holding facilities in the Midwest, stallions would be gelded, mares would typically be separated from the gelded stallions, and the acres per wild horse in these fenced facilities would be only a tiny fraction of what it is in their natural homeland in the HMA."

The BLM is required to justify its brutal roundups and removal of wild horses and burros from the range in Environmental Assessments called EAs. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, "whether by Environmental Impact Statement or Environmental Assessment, the agency must ‘study, develop, and describe appropriate alternatives to recommended courses of action in any proposal...'" 42 U.S.C. §4332(E). The implementing regulations provide that this consideration of all reasonable alternatives is "the heart of" the environmental analysis. 40 CFR §1502.14.

EAs when issued in cases recommending roundups of wild horses and burros are typically cookie cutter reports go something like this: The few wild horses and burros, as in this case, are causing degradation of the range and water sources; the range cannot support the horses and most or all are "excess" which must be removed.

Typically, these EAs fail to mention the numbers of livestock that are more likely the culprit of any range degradation or lack of water. There are any number of cases where the evidence establishes that, in fact, the range can support the few wild horses that under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, 16 U.S.C. §§1331 et seq., are supposed to be protected from "capture", "harassment" and "death" and managed at "the minimal feasible level". Only "excess" horses, those that represent an overpopulation, can be removed. The goal is to maintain a "thriving ecological balance".

In this case the Decision Record ("DR"), Finding of No Significant Impact ("FONSI"), and Final EA ("FEA") were issued on May 17, 2011. True to form, BLM claims the few horses are degrading the range. As the plaintiffs' point out, "the BLM [fails to] explain how any noncompliance with land standards ...is not primarily the result of livestock grazing, which is about eight times higher and more intensive than grazing from wild horses". Complaint, par. 36.

The roundup was to have begun by now but the BLM delayed it pending a July 14, 2011 hearing before the Nevada federal District Court on the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the roundup and removal.   
(read complete article here)

H.R. 305 Set for Mark Up

Jul 28, 2010 

By Laura Allen 

Representatives Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL) and Steve Cohen (D-TN)  wasted no time in introducing at the start of the 111th Congress a bill, H.R. 305, Horse Transportation Safety Act, which would ban the use of double decked trailers for all horse transport.

The bill, H.R. 305, which could end cruel horse transports, has, however, been in committee ever since. Until now. The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is expected to mark up or consider the bill this week.
What You Can Do
Find committee members here and fax or call members and urge them to vote YES on H.R. 305.
Find out if your U.S. Representative is on the committee, and, if so, be sure to tell him or her that you are a constitutent! Regardless, urge your representative to support H.R. 305, the Horse Transportation Safety Act, which bans use of double decked trailers to haul horses and promotes highway safety for everyone. 
You can reach committee members, your Representative and the House leadership through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Call the committee:(202) 225-4472 or (202) 225-9446. Fax the committee: (202) 226-1270

More about the proposed law
There is a USDA regulation banning the use of double decked trailers to transport horses to slaughter. 9 CFR 88.3  But the USDA has also said it does not have the resources to enforce the regulation, giving the industry a virtual green light to continue using double decked trailers to haul horses to slaughter.  Also, the law allows horses to be hauled in double decked trailers to destinations other than slaughter houses. So, horses are routinely hauled long distances in double decked trailers to some destination close to the slaughter house. Once there, they are then transferred to another vehicle which takes them to the slaughter house.
Double decked trailers can have ceiling heights as low as 5'7". (The industry standard for vehicles to transport horses is 7'-8').  According to the USDA, an equine can be 8 feet tall when standing on all four legs and close to 12 feet tall when rearing. 
The bottom deck of a double decked trailer has 3" I Beams every 12" on center to support the top deck.
Steep and narrow ramps with metal floors cause the horses to slip and fall, causing injuries. Horses are forced to jump down into a narrow opening leading to the bottom deck; they are often injured as a result.
Because of the low ceiling heights horses cannot raise and lower their heads and necks for balance. Horses routinely throw their heads and rear, unlike cattle, hogs, goats or sheep for which these double decked trailers are designed.  Horses suffer head and back injuries because of the low ceiling height, the 3" I beams, and overhead ramp storage.
They are held on these trailers in this way for more than 24 hours at a time without food or water. Many suffer serious injuries during these arduous journeys to slaughter and are trampled and even killed.
Sometimes the upper deck collapses. There have been a number of accidents involving over full double decked trailers, most recently a horrific one in Illinois. The double decked trailer crammed with frightened Belgian horses overturned, killing 17 horses and injuring many more.

Judge Grants Media Access to Tuscarora Wild Horse Roundup

By Laura Allen

Animal Law Coalition

July 16, 2010

Nevada U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks has lifted the injunction prohibiting BLM from proceeding with the Tuscarora roundup. The judge has also denied plaintiff Laura Leigh's motion to delay the roundup until August, after the foaling season.
But the judge then ruled, "As to Leigh's First Amendment challenge to the closure of public lands during the gather, the court shall grant Leigh's temporary restraining order. Leigh argues that a blanket closure of 27,000 acres of public land on which the Tuscarora Gather is going to take place is a prior restraint on her First Amendment rights because she will be unable to observe and report on the health of the horses and the BLM's management of the gather. The court agrees [and]... finds that the blanket closure ... is unconstitutional". The BLM can, however, draft a "more reasonable closure".
"The court's order in no way [a]ffects the BLM's closure of the airspace above the 27,000 acres of public land. The court finds the closure of airspace to be constitutional and necessary". (A copy of the Order is attached below for downloading.)
In deciding to allow the roundup to proceed now instead of later, Judge Hicks was persuaded by BLM's last minute "review" filed yesterday by a BLM team that claims the horses dying or suffering from dehydration or water intoxication were in that condition prior to the roundup. The "review" states that a BLM contractor found Tuscarora wild horses without water and said "the next 24-78 hours is critical". BLM recommended rounding up as many horses as possible and warned of a "potentially high mortality" rate.  Horses showing signs of dehydration on the range would be left to die.
Leigh pointed out, however, that there was no mention by BLM of a drought or dehydrated horses in the Tuscarora HMAs until after her lawsuit was filed. She disputed the "hastily assembled" "review" by BLM:

The Defendants' admit they do not grasp the issue causing the high mortality rate of the horses they run into catch pens. We discover they had not calculated a drought by mid-July or that horses would run out of available water by mid-July although they had studied the probable effects of their intended Gather the several months preceding the Gather, beginning in January 2010. No other BLM document discusses or addresses "drought" for range management in the year 2010 in the Owynee, Rock Creek or Little Humboldt areas. It was in fact, only after suit was filed did these emergency conditions become newly revealed.

Leigh offered to visit the herds and attempt to verify BLM's claim a roundup must proceed immediately because of drought.
At least Leigh and other members of the media and public will be allowed to monitor BLM's roundup.
For more on this case and the Tuscarora roundup, read Animal Law Coalition's report below.
Update July 15, 2010: Nevada federal District Court Judge Larry Hicks has issued an injunction prohibiting BLM from proceeding with the Tuscarora roundup. 
The BLM had temporarily suspended its Tuscarora roundup of wild horses initiated in the intense summer heat just days ago on July 10, 2010.
BLM halted the roundup after public outcry over the deaths of horses now said to number 12 including 3 foals.
Based on BLM's representation the roundup would not begin again until Sunday, July 19, 2010, the judge set a hearing on July 14 on a motion for restraining order filed by plaintiff Laura Leigh to delay the roundup until August and compel BLM to allow access to the roundup by the media and the public.
The judge explained that he was then informed despite BLM's representation to the court, BLM Director Bob Abbey had issued an order for an "emergency" roundup of the horses prior to the hearing.  

Judge Hicks ordered, "Based on this change in the BLM's position, the court finds it necessary to grant an immediate injunction preventing the Tuscarora gathering of wild horses until further order by the court."

Go here for more on the planned Tuscarora roundup of 1,438 wild horses in the 482,191 acres of the Owyhee, Rock Creek, Little Humboldt Herd Management Areas. In proceeding with the roundup on July 10, BLM basically ignored thousands of citizens who submitted letters and emails in protest during a period of public comment on the planned roundup.
An appeal of BLM's decision to round up wild horses in the Tuscarora HMAs has been filed with the Interior Board of Land Appeals by In Defense of Animals and Craig Downer, a wildlife ecologist. BLM, however, can resume the roundup while the appeal is pending.
The dehydration, the deaths, the cruelty (cont'd)

MO Pro Slaughter Bill Still Alive!!

By Laura Allen
Animal Law Coalition
 
Update May 7, 2010:  The pro-horse slaughter provisions from Missouri H.B. 1747, that were sneakily buried in S.B. 795, an unrelated bill, were NOT withdrawn or removed by amendment from S.B. 795 on May 5 as previously reported.

At least 1 anti-slaughter lobbyist at the Capitol that day was given to understand the pro-slaughter provisions had been removed prior to the House vote on the bill. That was not true.  Also, last week state Sen. Dan Clemens said there would be no further legislative progress on H.B. 1747, the pro-horse slaughter bill, leading citizens to believe the bill was dead for this session. In the meantime, the pro-horse slaughter provisions were simply quietly buried in S.B. 795.

The Missouri House of Representatives debated the House Committee Substitute version of S.B. 795 this past week amidst a strong public outcry against the horse slaughter provisions buried in the bill. The pro-slaughter provisions were originally in H.B. 1747 introduced by state  Rep. James Viebrock. For more on this and how these provisions came to be buried in S.B. 795, read Animal Law Coalition's reports below.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
S.B. 795 is currently in a conference committee because the Senate has refused to concur in the House Committee Substitute which passed the House with amendments, including the pro-horse slaughter provisions. If you live in Missouri, find your state senator here and urge them to reject the pro-horse slaughter provisions from H.B. 1747 that are buried in S.B. 795.   Find Missouri Senate leaders here (just click on their names) and a list of all Missouri state senators here.
Contact Missouri's Governor Jay Nixon and First Lady Georganne Nixon. Here is more contact info for the governor:

Office of Governor Jay Nixon
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
(573) 751-3222

Tell them horse slaughter is cruel and inhumane and has no place in American culture!

http://www.animallawcoalition.com/horse-slaughter/article/1160

TN Horse Slaughter Bill attempts to pave the way for the construction of a horse slaughter house in the state.

By Laura Allen

  After stalling in 2009, Tennessee state Rep. Frank S. Niceley's pro-horse slaughter bill, H.B. 1428 as amended, (S.B. 1898 in the Tennessee Senate) is on the calendar for the House Finance, Ways and Means Budget Subcommittee to be heard on April 7, 2010.
The bill as originally proposed had nothing to do with horse slaughter. Under an amendment H.B. 1428 would attempt to pave the way for the construction of a horse slaughter house in the state. 
In 2009 the House Agriculture Committee adopted the amendment to H.B. 1428.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Write and then call each committee member and urge them to vote NO on H.B. 1428.
Go here to find Tennessee legislators including your own if you live in the state and also write (faxes or letters are best) and then call and urge them to vote to H.B. 1428/S.B. 1898.
Email Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen phil.bredesen@state.tn.us and tell him you oppose horse slaughter and H.B. 1428/S.B. 1898. Send him a link to this article.

Don't let this bill pass. Even if commercial horse slaughter was legal in the U.S., which it is not, horse slaughter houses don't bring revenue or jobs to states or communities. Instead, they bring horrific odors of dying and dead horses, blood literally running down the streets and clogging drains, illegally dumped or discharged waste, burdens on wastewater treatment and sewage systems, financial loss, and terrible animal cruelty.

LINK TO THIS ARTICLE

KY Bill to Create Pro Slaughter Board Passes Senate

KY Bill to Create Pro Slaughter Board Passes Senate

By Laura Allen 

Animal Law Coalition

Update Mar. 31: Other than changing the name from "an Act Relating to equines" to "an Act relating to agriculture", the Kentucky state Senate has passed H.B. 398 by a unanimous vote.

H.B. 398 has already passed the Kentucky House. This fast tracked bill would create a board openly named for the pro-horse slaughter organization, "Equine Health and Welfare Alliance".

The bill goes back to the House for approval of the minor title amendment.
What the Equine Health and Welfare Board will do
This Board would "[a]ssist, advise and consult" the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet "on equine health and welfare issues" and "[a]ct to maintain the health, welfare, and safety of equines". The Board would have the authority to hold public hearings, collect data and issue regulations. The board would be authorized to "develop regional centers of care for unwanted, abused, neglected, or confiscated equines", create minimum standards for rescue and retirement operations that would include a "voluntary certification" process; and advise on laws "affecting equine health, welfare, abuse, and neglect issues"; identify "critical areas of need" for veterinarians and "others". The Board would report annually to the Governor and the Cabinet and Legislative Research Commission on its work.

One of the first duties of the Board will be to assess the scope of the so-called problem of "abandoned" or "unwanted" horses. The Alliance acknowledges the information disseminated is largely hearsay. Indeed, much of it is false, planted by pro-slaughter interests in an effort to see horse slaughter return to the United States. Horse slaughter, of course, is not driven by numbers of so-called abandoned or unwanted horses, but instead a demand for horsemeat largely as a delicacy in some foreign countries. The USDA reports more than 92% of horses purchased and sent to slaughter are healthy. Nonetheless, horse slaughter proponents pretend slaughter is a service to dispose of "abandoned" or "unwanted" horses to get the public to support their seedy, cruel practice.    

The bill is sponsored by Kentucky state Rep. Tom McKee of Cynthiana.
Makeup of the Board
It is unlikely that this Board will actually promote anti-cruelty laws and other measures to promote horse welfare. The Board is simply a front for pro-horse slaughter interests that will surely recommend slaughter as an equine "welfare" measure and at the same time control the rescues operated by horse protection advocates who oppose slaughter.  All under the authority of the Kentucky state government.

Under the bill, H.B. 398, the Board will have 13 voting members including the  secretary of the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet; the state veterinarian, a  representative of the University of Kentucky Gluck Equine Research Center; one representative of the University of Louisville Equine Industry Program;  executive director of the University of Kentucky Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center, or the executive director of the Murray State University Breathitt Veterinary Center;  chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture;  chairman of the House Standing Committee on Agriculture and Small Business; one  representative of the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation with an interest in equine issues; one  veterinarian representing the Kentucky Equine Health and Welfare Alliance Inc.;  one member representing the Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association; and one member to be appointed by the Governor from a list of three (3) nominees submitted by Kentucky Horse Council; and two members at large appointed by the governor and who live in diverse regions of the state and who represent equine breeders and owners and agricultural interests.

An amendment to the original bill added more representatives of equine education programs in several other Kentucky colleges or universities and one, yes, one member of the equine rescue community.
The Board would not be able to interfere with the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority or the Kentucky Board of Veterinary Examiners.

The Kentucky legislature is also fast tracking a bill to create a Livestock Care Standards Board that would have the authority to determine standards for care and treatment of livestock including equines.
 
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Oppose this bill, H.B. 398. This is nothing but a power grab by pro-slaughter interests. If this bill passes, they will have a state sanctioned Board to push for the return of horse slaughter to the U.S., oppose the federal legislation to stop all slaughter of American horses, and control the rescues of advocates working to save horses from slaughter. Kentuckians don't need an industry weighted Board to improve the laws protecting horses or come up with ways to improve their care. They can decide these issues themselves through their local and state governments.

Contact Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and urge him to veto this pro-slaughter bill, H.B. 398.
Go here to read how you can help pass the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, H.R. 503/S.B. 727, now pending in Congress.

LINK TO THIS ARTICLE 

Another "Front" for Horse Slaughter

Pro-slaughter interests have once again used a state legislature to advance their agenda to return horse slaughter to the U.S.  

Mar 16, 2010 

With permission by 

Laura Allen, Animal Law Coalition

They have pushed through the Wyoming legislature a new law, H.B. 122, introduced by Wy. State Rep. Sue Wallis who is also the self-styled Executive Director of the United Organizations of the Horse, which is said to unite The United Horsemen's Front, The United Horsemen's Alliance, and The United Horsemen's Political & Legal Action Fund.  "Front" is probably the most appropo name for this collection of horse slaughter supporters. Front for pro-horse slaughter interests.
It's not clear that when Wyoming residents elected Wallis as a state representative, they understood she would act as a shill for pro-slaughter interests.

The new law allows the Wyoming Board of Livestock to "send for slaughter" any abandoned, estray, feral, or abused animals under their control. The Board can already sell these animals at auction so including the phrase "send for slaughter" in the law doesn't add to the Board's current authority.  It just sends the message that horse slaughter is acceptable, even desirable.  

The new law also states that the Board "may enter into agreements with licensed meat processing plants to process meat from livestock disposed of by slaughter.  The processed meat shall be sold to:
(Cont'd) 


Laura Allen is founder and executive director of Animal Law Coalition, a 501c(4) non-profit that provides animal legal news and resources to attorneys, government officials, teachers, students, animal welfare advocates and the public to encourage them to join the fight against animal cruelty. Animal Law Coalition also drafts and lobbies for legislation and gets involved in litigation to promote animal welfare. Laura has been a trial and appellate attorney for more than 20 years, practicing in several state and federal courts. She is a member of the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court, several professional associations, and advisor to animal welfare organizations. Ms. Allen has lobbied for the passage of legislation to ban horse slaughter in the United States and has drafted state resolutions to support that effort. Laura Allen is a Co-Founder of the Wild Capture Awareness Campaign, a board member of Wild for Life Foundation, an Executive Advisory Board Member for the WFLF Humanion Films feature documentary film project, "Saving America's Horses, A Nation Betrayed".

An Open Letter to President Obama

By Laura Allen, Animal Law Coalition

Published with Permission  

• Horse Slaughter

I did vote for you. I was intrigued by your call for "change". You signaled a dramatic new course, one of openness and inclusion.  Certainly I applauded your choice of Joe Biden as vice president, a staunch animal welfare advocate.

The promises
During the 2008 campaign you said, "Federal policy towards animals should respect the dignity of animals and their rightful place as cohabitants of our environment. We should strive to protect animals and their habitats and prevent animal cruelty, exploitation and neglect.... I have consistently been a champion of animal-friendly legislation and policy and would continue to be so once elected." You announced that you had co-sponsored legislation to stop the sale for slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros. During the election you signed on as co-sponsor to the bill to ban horse slaughter for human consumption.  When asked specifically during the campaign, "Will you support legislation ...to institute a permanent ban on horse slaughter and exports of horses for human consumption", you gave an unqualified "Yes". (HSLF questionnaire)
Today, in January, 2010, you are presiding over one of the deadliest, most cruel and unnecessary government roundups of wild horses ever documented by BLM. 

As of this writing, more than 2 dozen horses have been killed by helicopters used by your administration to run them off their legally protected herd areas and corral them in long term holding pens. The hooves of two little foals have literally torn off as they ran for their lives from the BLM. BLM's Richard Sanford DVM reported on one, "Multiple hoof sloughs were noted and the foal was euthanized for humane reasons. The cause of these hoof abscesses/sloughs was most likely hoof trauma from the gather operations."

Several mares have also aborted spontaneously or miscarried. This after being forced to run miles from a helicopter and trapped in a corral, terrified, traumatized and forever separated from their herds, their families. A long time BLM official whom you promoted to the job of Assistant Director for Renewable Resources and Planning in the BLM, Edwin Roberson, claims the spontaneous abortions are "the result of the poor condition of many of the older mares and ... directly related to lack of forage on the range." Except that they weren't miscarrying on the range and didn't do so until after they were forced to run hundreds of miles, extremely afraid, and lost their families and freedom forever. Your administration would have us believe that the mares all miscarried in the past few days because of years of eating the forage on the range and it had nothing to do with the severe trauma of the roundup they had just endured?

The nearly 2,000 horses that have now been removed from their herd areas are contained in an open, dirt arena, basically a feedlot, with no windbreaks or other protection from the weather. Visit Saving America's Horses - A Nation Betrayed, for more information on this deadly roundup.

(Cont'd) 

Youtube Question to the President: 
“What’s it Going to take Mr. President, to Save America’s Horses?”
AAHS & WFLF Joint Statement: Rise Up America!