WP/AP: Wyoming Group Buys 200 Wild Horses From Agency

Wyo. Group Buys 200 Wild Horses From Agency
Associated Press
Monday, March 21, 2005; Page A17


RENO, Nev. -- Although a new law lets the federal government sell certain wild mustangs for horsemeat, the first ones auctioned off have been spared from the slaughterhouse.

The 200 animals from Nevada that Wild Horses Wyoming bought from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are roaming free on thousands of acres near Laramie, Wyo....

***

About 37,000 wild horses and burros roam the Western range, about 9,000 more than the BLM has said the range can sustain.

BLM and Interior Department officials have said they hope to find homes for horses affected by the law. But wild horse advocates fear the animals will end up as horsemeat for human consumption overseas or as dog food.

Wild Horses Wyoming and rescue groups are trying to save the horses by buying them. The Wyoming group purchased the mustangs recently put up for auction, all of them mares, for $50 each....


(NOTE: Wild Horses Wyoming "is soliciting money for its efforts by selling horse sponsorships.")


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51951-2005Mar20.html

time, thank God. But we need more.

I never understood the discrimination /preferntial treatment given to certain animals.

Hundreds of thousands of cows, pigs, goats, lambs, chickens, turkeys are most brutally murdered in slaughterhouses everyday, and yet some people find the thought of slaughtering wild horses horrifying..just as they do the idea of dog meat consumption in Korea.

Matter of fact -- the 'Animal Cruelty' laws don't apply to "Food" animals. So if you toss a puppy out of the second floor window of an apartment building, you may go to jail for being an "cold hearted sadistic psycho" who should be locked up in prison, but if you are a slaughterhouse worker and slit the throats of fully/half conscious cows hanging upside down from one leg, and watch it die a slow gruesome death writhing in pain -- you are just doing your job. Hah !

Read the book by Gail A. Eisnitz if you wan't excruciating detail.

http://www.ca4a.org/info/slaughterhouse/

experience pain and suffering. BUT remember that in THIS context horses ARE considered food animals. We don't eat them here, but the meat is shipped for human consumption.

cows screaming before they are slaughtered. I don't eat meat. There are way too many good thing made with Non-GMO soy out there today!

:(

:thumbsup:

It might save me from the coming $3 a gallon future.

I've wanted a horse since I was five.

I googled them and wild horse advocates say this group looks suspicious; the sale was done in secrecy, and there's no way to check up on the horses.

These people might sell the horses for slaughter and then collect bogus "sponsorship" money.

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3016129&nav=168XKCXa

Regarding why horses are special creatures, if you don't love horses it might be a waste to try to explain. I've heard one person say it's because when horses allowed themselves to be domesticated and to serve mankind - they brought us out of the caves. Without the horse, civilization would have been impossible. Horses allowed us to contact other cultures, when those journeys on foot would have been impossible. Something within us remembers the debt that we owe these magnificent creatures. I would rather starve than eat horsemeat.

horses are very special to humanity.

I really really hope this bunch is on the up & up....

Not sure which is the worst horror - horses being slaughtered in this country for animal feed or shipped overseas for human consumption. Makes me sick in my heart.

special to humanity as horses but you can still ride me.

I only have gelded horses, so you may wish to reconsider :evilgrin:

is right on!

"....they brought us out of the caves. Without the horse, civilization would have been impossible. Horses allowed us to contact other cultures, when those journeys on foot would have been impossible. Something within us remembers the debt that we owe these magnificent creatures."

Very eloquent, my friend. Thank you for saying it.

You showed a very philosophical and holistic thinking that is sadly rare in this so-called "civilized" world.

and I really hope this company turns out to be all right for the horses. It sickens me that this bill was passed in the first place, and I hope all of the animals can be rescued.

I don't think you have to be a horse lover to realize why slaughtering those horses would be a travesty. I think, personally, that _all_ creatures are special, and it surprises me a little to see the outrage over the horses from people who think little of the other petty cruelties they may unknowingly support every day (not you, but generally speaking). But your post was beautiful. Do you know of a reputable rescue organization where donations could be sent to help purchase these guys? :hi:

http://www.fund4horses.org/info.php?id=212

Also there's a petition to sign in Activism and Events: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=106&topic_id=15203#15377

Thanks for your kind words. I do worry about where my meat comes from, and I try to only buy organic but sometimes I slip up because of costs. My personal belief is that eating meat is not immoral in and of itself; but factory farming practices which treat the animals like products and not living, feeling creatures are absolutely immoral.

I actually think hunting an elk with one quick and clean shot, butchering it, and storing and eating the meat is a more moral practice than going to the supermarket for a lb. of ground beef wrapped in plastic, and shipped from who-knows-where in an 18 wheeler burning diesel fuel into the environment thus causing global warming. I very much respect people who cannot allow themselves to eat meat, though. I think it's something one has to seriously consider. :hi:

Anyway, if you've heard about Peak Oil, you'll know that people will need to stop eating meat because it will be too expensive to produce and ship in a few years. I've stopped eating red meat, because of mad cow disease.

Wow, this got to be a long post. I was afraid it would - vegetarianism can be a tricky/scary topic. :-)

I'm sorry I brought the meat thing up, actually - I think I sounded judgmental, which I really didn't mean to do, and I don't want to get the thread hijacked by talking about it. I actually tend to agree with you on the things you brought up, and thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt on my easily-construed-as-rude comments. :hi:

I post in the Groupe Francophone forum and it has been difficult for me to prevent myself from posting some giant flame-bait asking why French people think it's OK to eat horsemeat.

I think it's a pretty similar situation to ours, but I really didn't think you were rude at all. I think people need to be aware of what they are eating and where it comes from. I think it's also nice to give thanks, even if one isn't religious or spiritual, then at least to the earth, for the food she gives us. :hi:

Now I've taken this thread in a whole 'nother direction.

Back to the PRETTY HORSES !!!

FYI

I have spoken to the head, Karen Sussman, quite a few times. She is a courageous woman and I admire her greatly. Her job isn't an easy one.

http://www.ispmb.org/index.shtml

I'll definitely post something when I do find out...

22 March 2005


A group committed to saving 5,000 of America's wild horses from the slaughterhouse has bought a first instalment of 200 at auction, and the animals have already been released onto open land in the north-western state of Wyoming.

Wild Horses Wyoming is one of several organisations to have sprung up since the passage last December of a new American law that permits the government to sell wild horses, also known as mustangs, to the highest bidder at auction without regard for what their final fate may be.

"We are in the business of saving horses," said Sean Mater, one of five partners in the company, which paid $50 (£26) each for the animals, all mares. The animals were put up for auction in Nevada by the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that oversees the millions of acres of free range-land in the American West. Horse lovers in the United States have been galvanised into action after the new law was passed at the end of last year. Supported by rancher associations, it was designed to help the government thin out the wild horses, which have grown to a population of around 37,000. The ranchers say they harm the range, which is otherwise grazed by cattle.

more...

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=622450

BLM announces sale of 610 animals to Indians in Dakotas

By SAMANTHA YOUNG
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- More than 600 wild horses gathered from public lands will be sold to Indian tribes in the Dakotas, the Bureau of Land Management announced Monday.

The Rosebud Sioux of South Dakota and the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota are the first tribes to buy hard-to-adopt and aging horses that the government is allowed to sell to the public.

They purchased the animals for $1 each, BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said.

The transaction was permitted by a law approved by Congress in December that directed the BLM to sell wild horses and burros that are more than 10 years old or have been unsuccessfully offered for adoption at least three times.

The 610 horses will be delivered to the tribes from short-term holding facilities in Nevada and government-funded sanctuaries in Oklahoma and Kansas, Gorey said.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Mar-22-Tue-2005/news/26126962.html

that would prohibit the decimation of these creatures?? I just stumbled upon it-- nothing ever in the news, of course.

March 10, 2005– A companion bill to H.R. 297 is introduced in the Senate

Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), introduces S. 576, a companion bill to H.R. 297, which would restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses and burros. In his moving speech, Senator Byrd quotes from British Poet Ronald Duncan’s Ode To The Horse: "Where in this wide world can a man find nobility without pride, friendship without envy or beauty without vanity? Here: where grace is laced with muscle and strength by gentleness confined. He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent; there is nothing so quick, nothing less patient. England’s past has been bourne on his back. All our history is his industry. We are his heirs; he our inheritance. The Horse."

http://www.wildhorsepreservation.com/resources/news_briefs.html