Recently I became interested
in the issues faced by Wild Horses in our country. I did some digging
and what I discovered disturbed me
so much that I took a trip to Nevada to see “with my own eyes.” The
legislative nightmare surrounding these horses leaves you with a very
real sense of how voiceless they have become. And how difficult it
is, due to special interests, to get a logical response from those
in authority.
As a horse-rescue person I
am familiar with the adage “Maybe
you can’t change the whole world, but you can change one whole
world.” So I started to look at the possibility of adopting a
wild horse.
As with all “breeds” there exist differences in bloodlines.
This statement rings true for wild horses as well. Some have more “Spanish
blood,” some a greater human manipulation in their histories.
Each herd is then shaped by the natural environment and challenges
of each. I fell in love with the Sheldon.
The horses at Sheldon National
Wildlife Refuge exist in primarily three horse herd groups. Traits
general of the horses in the herds
of Sheldon are 15+ hand size, bays, sorrels, and white facial and leg
markings. It is also widely claimed, by those that have known these
horses in their own lives, that they have “good minds.” The
groups appear to rarely mix so each group also has specific characteristics.
The horses called the Catnip/Round Mountain herd seem to be a bit
flashy. Some sorrels with flaxen manes and tails, overo pinto sorrels,
palominos, some buckskins. Fish Creek herd horses are larger bays and
dark brown horses, some tobiano pintos. Those of the Badger herd appear
Thoroughbred/quarter horse, sorrels, chestnuts, and bays.
So I began to see if I could
find a horse from the Fish Creek herd that needed a home. Not an
easy task I discovered. Sheldon is not part
of the BLM, the agency most of us think of when we think “wild
horse.” The horses that exist within the boundaries of the refuge
do not have the consideration, however mismanaged, that the BLM offers.
The wild horses at Sheldon are considered nothing more than an invasive
species!
Sheldon wild horses are the product of an evolutionary genetic pool
that consists of original wild horses, ranch horses, and cavalry remounts.
In the early part of the 20th century ranchers turned their saddle
horses loose on the range.
During World War I, ranchers such as Harry Wilson went into business
with the federal government raising horses for the Army. Wilson provided
Standardbred mares acquired from the Miller and Lux ranches and the
government furnished Thoroughbred studs.
Over 1,700 head of Wilson horses
ran from High Rock Canyon north to the Oregon border, including all
of the present day Sheldon National
Wildlife Refuge." (From "MUSTANG COUNTRY”)
Sheldon Wildlife Refuge was
created in 1931, to provide habitat for wildlife and is under the
jurisdiction of the US Fish & Wildlife
Service. At that time horses were believed to be a feral invasive species,
and management law plans are still based on that assumption.
From the 40’s- the 60’s
our federal government leased land to cattle companies operating
on and around Sheldon.
In 1971 something truly remarkable happened. In response to public
pressure, both houses of Congress unanimously passed a bill. Congress'
intent clearly was to protect and preserve America's free-roaming horse
herds and proscribe methods by which the Secretaries of Interior and
Agriculture were to manage those herds.
§ 1331.
Congressional findings and declaration of policy
Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros
are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West;
that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation
and enrich the lives of the American people; and that these horses
and burros are fast disappearing from the American scene. It is the
policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be
protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish
this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as
an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.
During the 70's and 80's, ranchers in the vicinity of Sheldon gathered
horses, keeping the ones they wanted for saddle horses, and turning
the remainder loose.
How it came about that the legal protections afforded most of America's
free-roaming horses failed to include the herds at Sheldon is still
unclear to me. Apparently Congress assumed that free-roaming horses
and burros were found on BLM and US Forest Service lands, and somehow
did not specifically include US Fish and Wildlife Service lands and
the National Parks Service lands in the 1971 Act. I have tried to find
any legal documents that actually describe the issues of standing and
legal responsibilities over these horses and no clear explanations
or documents have come to light.
Like all good “soccer moms” I
turned to the World Wide Web. This is what I found.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service (USFWS) manages Sheldon NWR. The USFWS is different from
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The
mission of the NWR system is to administer lands and waters for the
conservation and restoration of fish, wildlife, plant resources and
their habitats for the benefit of the American people.
So how that translates into a reality that provides the horses at
Sheldon no protection under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros
Act of 1971 that supposedly expressed the overwhelming wishes of the
American people is unclear to me.
However the defined mission of the US Fish and Wildlife Service appears
not to include practical and humane management of free-roaming horses
and burros, and therefore the Service can argue that the intent of
Congress doesn't apply to them.
As a result these horses cannot
be placed through the BLM's Adopt-a-Horse program. A situation has
been created where an agency without the appropriate
infrastructure to manage, gather and place horses and burros through
qualified adoptions, or even hold them until they can be suitably placed
is tasked with this responsibility without adequate support or management
criteria. Thus another bureaucracy has been created where our tax dollars
are "well spent."
So I went back to the web to find a place to adopt a Sheldon horse.
A quick search provided the following list:
Forever Free Mustangs
Sisters, OR
(541) 923-6124 (this phone number was out of service when we tried
to call them in mid-June, 2006)
mustangs@outlawnet.com
Carr’s Wild Horse and
Burro Center
4844 Couts-Carr Rd
Cross Plains, Tennessee 37049
(615) 654-2180
(615) 654-4655 fax
carrsholding@aol.com
Gary Graham
W. Highway 6
Las Lunas, New Mexico 87031
(505) 565-8457
(505) 859-0690 cell
grahamhorses@msn.com
Brian Day
Refuge Manager
Sheldon NWR
(775)941-0200
Again all of this info is easily found on the internet. What I found
turned my stomach.
First I discovered the process Sheldon uses to find suitable homes
for horses and burros that the agency rounds up.
It all starts by making it
impossible for rescues and individuals to directly adopt small numbers
of the Sheldon horses directly from
Sheldon. Sheldon allows only groups of horses to go to three supposedly
screened agencies. The US Fish and Wildlife Service pay these "agents" $300
per horse to take them by the truckload! Is your head spinning yet?
To me it appears that these
agreements are basically Federal contracts for services totaling
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Also I can’t
find any process for selecting agents or contractors that involves
any public bidding process. But that becomes a simple “sidenote” to
what I found next.
I called Brian Day four times
in the last week asking how to adopt a horse. My calls go direct
to voicemail and I have yet to receive
a call back. It’s summer time; maybe he’s on vacation?
Carr’s response seemed
to be for real. I was given a date and a dialogue was actually begun
about an adoption.
I located some information posted regarding Forever Free.
In conversations with potential
adopters, Flora stated that FFM had placed 680 Sheldon horses last
year, but when asked by Mr. Holland
to confirm the number of horses and the timing, she became vague. When
asked if FFM received $300 per horse, she responded "not for all
of them". When asked for specifics, she became increasingly defensive.
She stated that they had been careful to get them good homes and to
make sure they did not go to slaughter. In conversations with others,
Flora indicated they placed yet another "load" in January
of this year and expected the next load in June. The timing of the
gathers would indicate that FFM was able to place large numbers of
horses within months or even weeks of their arrival. More
tellingly, Forever Free Mustangs has admitted that approximately 40
of the horses they originally adopted were found in a slaughter
pen and had to be "bought back.”*
How can Forever Free place
so many horses, so fast? In the rest of the world it just doesn’t
work that way.
Then I looked into Gary Graham.
Apparently encouraged by
the incredible efficiency of the Forever Free Mustangs adoption
process,
Brian Day, Sheldon Fish and Wild Life
Service Refuge Manager, sent a letter to potential adopters in May
announcing the new policy of funneling all horses through agents. The
letter states "I have made it abundantly clear to all of them
that the worst thing that could happen to this program is to have horses
end up in a slaughter facility." In the letter he announced that
they had found a third agent and that a thorough screening had shown
this man to be of the highest integrity. The new agent's name was Gary
Graham and his address was later given as 440 W. Highway 6, Los Lunas,
New Mexico. A background check on Graham returned only the address
and telephone number given by USF&W, but the address was a different
matter.
The Graham address is virtually a Grand Central Station of horse
slaughter. It is well known to the purchasing agents of the BelTex
slaughter house in Texas. A summary check of their records showed
that one Bill Owen used the same address when he delivered dozens
of loads of horses to slaughter even as the Steffans were having
such remarkable success finding "local adopters".
But the slaughter connection to Gary Graham's address does not end
there. A physical check of the location revealed that it is the home
of the Southwest Stock Yard run by one Dennis Chavez. Dennis Chavez
was also busy delivering horses to BelTex during the period of FFM's
adoption success, but using the address 24 Dallies Road, an address
that is virtually the same property as that of Gary Graham and Bill
Owen! And as if this were not enough, it is the address used by one
Leon Spain when he delivered slaughter horses to the Dallas Crown
slaughter plant in Kaufman, Texas.*
*This information comes directly from documents posted in 2006 by
a special research group: Susan Pohlman, Valerie James-Patton and John
Holland signed many of these documents.
This information was gathered
in 2006! This is not a “new” situation.
These horses have virtually no protections. They leave the Refuge unbranded,
unidentifiable. How many have crossed our borders and into a slaughter
plant by an industry that appears to be completely subsidized by tax
dollars, and supported by an agency (Sheldon NWR) that does not have
the ability to cope with wild horses with a standard that at least
is attempted by the BLM!
The 2006 Gather
In June of 2006 the Sheldon NWR ordered a gather of wild horses. They
had their specially screened contractors ready to take horses and the
contractors would receive $300.00 a head for each horse they removed
from the gather. The public was assured that gathers are safe and not
done during foaling season. Yet extreme measures were taken to attempt
to hide all activity from the public. Police were hired, gates were
installed and a two-mile distance was then established for the public.
Cattoor the company that flies the helicopters took to the air. I will
add more info about the Cattoor contract later.
The FWS announced that the gather was done safely. It made a claim
that all the foals had arrived with their mothers. FWS reported one
injury involving a lip.
Reports began to come in of the various deceptions. Those listening
to radio transmissions during the gather heard talk of a horse that
broke a leg and was shot. A ground search began that turned up dead
and injured foals. Mares in the gather pens aborted.
Sheldon NWR was notified of the slaughterhouse connection with Gary
Graham. Out of the horses gathered Graham was still given 62, along
with his $300.00 of taxpayer money per horse. Are you outraged yet?
If you would like to see pictures and statements from eyewitnesses
go to this website.
Warning the pictures are not suitable for younger people.
http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/sheldon.html
July 2009, Challis, ID
A gather has taken place just recently in Idaho. A repeat process
plays out of more terror, death and needless cruelty. Of particular
interest is the absolute harassment of a single horse. The pilot flies
so close that the horse can actually kick at the helicopter. This is
your tax money at work.
Pictures at Challis, July 2009:
http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/resources/testimonialId09.html
Gather planned at Sheldon, soon
As I made my inquiries to find my horse I was told horses would be
available soon. Further inquiry has led me to the belief that a gather
will take place within the next couple of weeks.
So I attempted to try to find
ANY reason why this type of operation should be approved and funded
buy my government. I found the EA (Environmental
Assessment), I tried to compare to data from past gathers. The April
08 Final EA for Sheldon NWR is the document that will be used to base
the “interim” gather policy until a final plan is drawn.
Within the pages of the document I found inconsistencies in language.
I found data only collected in house used within the actual document.
Only within the public comments section are any real questions raised.
Questions that are simply negated by a reiteration of the data in the
document, no debate. However the most outlandish of the sources for
data used to support the current protocol for gathers comes from Cattoor.
The data that appears within
the Sheldon EA to support helicopter use as “safe,” during a gather, is produced from Sue Cattoor.
Sue Cattoor owns Cattoor livestock. Cattoor livestock holds a “no
bid” contract with the BLM to do the gathers. A “no bid” contract
is one that is awarded without accepting other bids from other contractors.
This contract over its term has netted Cattoor over 18 million taxpayer
dollars. In any other process of law her statements would be viewed
as biased due to self-interest and not considered as an objective recommendation
as her statements would go directly to the survival of her contract!
Even if her statements held validity it would not be appropriate that
they be used as the sole source for any decision, in any process, that
results in her receiving more of your taxpayer dollars.
The data used to justify the gathers themselves are no less suspect.
I can find conflicting environmental data easily on the net, but none
within the EA. I can find no truly impartial source within Sheldon's
document.
From looking at this process there is in truth no viable, impartial,
environmental reason for these gathers to take place at all. The data
appears to be constructed primarily to justify and perpetuate a business
venture: one that began without the planning or resources to ever attain
any real functional and sustainable ecological balance. It correlates
with no protocol adopted on a national level, provides no infrastructure
within the Sheldon NWR to handle the issue, and offers no protection
for the horses. What it does do is make me ask more questions.
From my point of view this is a clear cut example of the need for
current legislation sitting now in the Senate to finally create a national
standard that was intended in 1971.
S. 1579 actually is that doorway to begin the process of fixing the
problems in a very tangible way, for all of OUR wild horses.
I am asking more questions. I am finding more answers. I will share
them with you soon.
The answers aren't going to be found at Sheldon.
Laura Leigh
A concerned horse owner and artist
http://www.barndoorstudio.com
Current Action status:
There is a movement happening now to raise these questions and others
on a legal level to begin to protect the horses at Sheldon and our
national herd. The umbrella issues are beginning to take shape with
actions surrounding S.1579. But as national attention and resources
are drawn into the larger issues, the horses continue to be exploited.
The gather at Challis July 09, the one planned for the well-known “Cloud’s
herd” in the Pryor Mountains (BLM), and the almost voiceless
band at Sheldon NWR.
There may be a gather at Sheldon NWR within the next two weeks.
There is a chance that a legal effort made now can stall or stop the
prospective gather. A strategy is currently in play.
Lacy Dalton from Let ‘em
Run has stepped forward to be the focal point for a group effort
supported by AOWHA, WIN, and many other concerned
citizens.
Donations are needed
in the event legal action is required to prevent another Sheldon
Horse roundup.
Contribute
to the Sheldon Horse Emergency Fund
The Let 'Em Run
Foundation will act as the “bank” for
the Sheldon legal effort. They want to make it clear to all the donors:
NOTE: Your contribution
may or may not be needed. If you are so kind as to donate to this
effort, you will receive an email advising you that your credit
card donation was processed or cancelled, depending on if we are
or are not required to obtain legal assistance.Thank you for your
support!
