ACTION ALERT: Stop the Eradication of Colorado’s Wild Horses (Mesa Verde National Park)
The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign has a new action alert for the Mesa Verde National Park wild horses.
In 2013, the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado announced its intent to rid the park of wild horses that have roamed the public lands there for more than a century. The plan was delayed after the public — including thousands of AWHPC supporters — weighed in against it. Now the park has revived its proposal to remove these beautiful horses, who are not protected by federal law. The Mesa Verde horses desperately need our help! Please weigh in again in favor of humane management and against eradication of this historic herd! Take action today and be sure to share with friends and family!
What’s New with Roll? White Line Disease
Only five short weeks ago, Roll’s hooves were in good shape. When we brought him up to the tack barn today, he was not at all lame.
However, when our farrier Dean Geesen arrived this morning to do his hooves again we found that Roll had some fairly advanced symptoms of White Line Disease in his left hind foot. I am just happy that we were able to catch this fast-growing fungus as soon as we did.
Our other equines are not getting done as frequently as Roll was. We opted to do him every five weeks instead of every 6-8 weeks because of the severe founder he had before. We wanted to be sure to keep his feet balanced so that any hoof growth would not begin to offset that balance. There is no telling how far this fungus would have progressed in another 1-3 weeks!
I am so happy that I kept a copy of the article that appeared in the American Donkey & Mule Society’s Brayer magazine in the July/August 2007 edition about White Line Disease. I have kept all issues because here is a wealth of useful information in the Brayer Magazine that now serves as my Longears-Equine Encyclopedia! We called our veterinarian Greg Farrand and he was able to come to the ranch quickly to help assess the situation.
Roll’s left hind foot had a gap in it after Dean cleaned out the fungus of about 4” along the outside of the foot from back to front by ½” wide and almost 1 ½ inches deep. Dean said he had not seen a case of White Line in Colorado in 13 years. Typically it manifests itself in more humid climates, however Colorado has recently been unusually humid as we experienced with fungus in the hayfields earlier this year. It was a very acute and severe onset!
It was so wide and deep that my Ranch Manager Chad could get his finger into the cavernous space. It was a real concern that it had gotten this bad in such a short time.
We had shoes on Roll’s hind feet to keep him from dragging them and wearing down his toes. Keeping a shoe on the left hind foot was not going to be an option since there was nothing to nail the shoe to on one side of his hoof. We talked about whether or not to cut away the affected hoof wall. Since Roll is a draft mule and has such large feet, we decided that keeping the “cavern” clean would not be too difficult, so we opted NOT to cut away the hoof wall right away. He would need all the support left on that foot for as long as he could get it. A smaller foot would have to be pared away immediately to treat it effectively.
We wanted to salvage the hoof wall to keep his overall balance and the balance of his feet intact as much as we could. We decided that it would be better if we just didn’t put any shoes on the back again rather than causing an imbalance by shoeing the right foot only.
For the first five days, we planned to clean the “cavern” daily, rinsing it with iodine astringent, packing it with gauze dipped in the iodine and then well wrung-out to prevent too much moisture from collecting in the affected area. When dealing with astringents and the like, it is advisable to wear gloves! We took measurements of the hoof so we could accurately monitor his progress. Since this is to be a daily process, we are grateful for Roll’s impeccable manners and cooperation!
We talked about whether or not to use an “easy-boot” to hold the gauze in, but decided that duct tape could do the job nicely. It would be easy to replace daily and would not trap moisture like the “easy-boot” could because the duct tape would erode as he walked on it. This would allow the air get to it and keep it drier to promote healing.
We also decided that it might be prudent to be proactive and put shoes on his front feet since he will no doubt be throwing his weight forward if the White Line Disease begins to cause any pain. Right now, he is sound and not lame at all. That is definitely encouraging.
This process will need to be repeated every day for as long as it takes for the foot to be rid of this fungus, but instead of using the astringent iodine, soon after the initial four days, we will x-ray him to get a baseline and make sure we know what we are dealing with. Then going forward, we will use a more diluted form of iodine like Providone-Iodine, Betadine or a product called “White Lightning” that has been developed specifically for this purpose. According to our veterinarian Greg Farrand, these are all antiseptic rinses and any of them should work fine.
The prognosis is encouraging. We know we need to make sure the “cavern” is cleaned out thoroughly each day and the gauze and tape are kept clean upon application. This is a long-term therapy and will take 14-18 months to grow back out…if it can. Although White Line Disease is very similar to thrush, it is not a stable management issue like thrush. The onset is quick and there does not appear to be a consistent explanation as to exactly where it comes from. To be pro-active, we added a few more inches of pea gravel to his run so that when the snow melts and the mud mixes with the old pea gravel, we won’t have mud to pare out of the “cavern.” The pea gravel is less likely to mesh with the fungus and should be easier to clean. This is just the beginning of yet another challenge in Roll’s journey and we will do follow-up posts to keep you informed on Roll’s progress as we usually do. Roll would truly appreciate your thoughts and prayers!
Happy HoliBrays from SYALER Rescue
Thank you to all who have sent not only generous donations, but kind notes as well. I am thrilled to announce that last week’s ‘featured’ donkeys, Elmo, George, and Madeline, have been adopted and will be going together to a wonderful new home for the holidays! And thanks to your donations, our “Hay-O-Meter” continues to rise closer to our fundraising goal of $15,000.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Christmas & New Year Greetings
Our friends at the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign sent out a holiday greeting that we wanted to share. We are proud to support their work on behalf of the wild horses and burros.
Favorable Horse Provisions in Tax Extender Bill Passed by Congress
Congress has passed a tax extender bill called the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 that includes several provisions important to the horse industry and supported by the American Horse Council.
At the end of 2014, a number of favorable tax provisions for horse owners, breeders and businesses expired. In all, over sixty tax provisions expired; some applied to all businesses, including the horse industry, and one was specifically applicable to owners of race horses. All of the provisions extended are retroactive for all of 2015.
Importantly, the bill would reinstate 3-year-depreciation for all race horses for two more years. From 2009 through 2014, race horses could be depreciated over three years, regardless of when they were placed in service. This change, which eliminated the 7-year depreciation period for race horses and made all race horses eligible for three-year depreciation, expired at the end of 2014. The just passed extender bill would reinstate 3-year-depreciation for race horses placed in service after December 31, 2014 through 2016.
Congress Approves Omnibus Bill
Congress has passed an omnibus appropriations bill, which will fund the government through September 30, 2016, was passed by Congress. This bill is a package that includes all 12 of the FY 2016 appropriations bills, and will fund government agencies and programs until the end of the fiscal year, September 30, 2016.
The omnibus bill contains several provisions that impact the horse industry, including reforms to the H-2B temporary guest worker program, the U.S. Department Agriculture (USDA) FY 2016 appropriations bill, defunding of horse slaughter, and reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).
In Memory of Jay Kirkpatrick
It is with deep sadness that we inform you of the passing of Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, a true pioneer in the field of humane 
wildlife management. Dr. Kirkpatrick, the founder of the Science and Conservation Center, passed away earlier this week from a brief but serious illness. He will be greatly missed.
His passing is a terrible loss for the wild horse community. Our deepest condolences go to his wife and his colleagues at the Science and Conservation Center who are like family to AWHPC, as Dr. Kirkpatrick was.
Jay was a rare “scientist with a heart” and he dedicated his life to reducing the suffering of wild animals by developing a humane alternative to lethal management practices. The PZP fertility control vaccine that he developed and perfected (as affirmed by 30 years of published science) has kept countless wild animals – from wild horses to deer to bison and even elephants – wild and free by protecting them from capture and killing.
“I’m not a bunny hugger, but I’ll never attend another gather as long as I live. They’re flat-out inhumane,” he told National Geographic in 2009 describing BLM wild horse roundups. “There are three reasons why these gathers are an unsatisfactory solution to the problem of numbers. Firstly, it’s genetically irresponsible to be constantly pulling off young horses whose genes will never get expressed; secondly, every time you pull horses out, the reproductive efficiency of the horses that remain increases. And thirdly, the behavioral consequences for the horses are profound.“
Jay was a visionary, a humanitarian and a shining example of what one person can accomplish in his lifetime. We are so proud to have called him a friend and a colleague. Measures have been taken by the Science and Conservation Center to prepare for this transition and the seamless continuation of the work that he was dedicated to for 45 years.
If you would like to express your gratitude for Dr. Kirkpatrick’s tremendous contributions to the fight to prevent suffering and keep wild horses and other wild animals wild and free, please visit our Facebook page below.
Even More Good News from AWHP – Update on 21 Virginia Range Horses
It’s going to be a very happy holiday for 21 Virginia Range mustangs who were captured by the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA) and rescued under a cooperative agreement negotiated by AWHPC that allows us to purchase the horses before the NDA sends them to a slaughter auction! Very special thanks and gratitude goes to Madeleine Pickens and her Saving America’s Mustangs/Mustang Monument in Nevada, and to Wayne Guest and his Bright Starts Rescue and Horse Sanctuary in Georgia for stepping up to provide a permanent home to these beautiful horses. Best of all, the family groups get to stay together! Thank you to all the AWHPC donors who provided the resources necessary to purchase these horses from the state and transport them to their new homes.
Action Update – Fight for Wyoming Wild Horses Moves Forward
REUTERS/Miguel Vidal
Our fight to hold the Bureau of Land Management accountable for its illegal rounding up of 1,263 wild horses from the Wyoming Checkerboard in the fall of 2014 continues. We recently filed our opening brief with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. We are challenging the lower court’s decision to allow the BLM to subvert the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act by using a request from a landowner to remove horses from private lands as an excuse to permanently remove them from over two million acres of public lands as well. If allowed to stand, this ruling could place wild horses and burros across the West at the mercy of a few local property owners who want them gone. The legal issues at stake are so important that a group of distinguished environmental law professors has filed an Amicus brief in support of our position.
Meanwhile, the BLM is still accepting public comments on an Environmental Assessment (EA) the agency produced to correct previous legal violations related to the Checkerboard roundup. If you have not yet done so, please submit your comments today. Let’s take this opportunity to weigh in against the agency’s audacious trouncing of federal law and in favor of an alternative that would return some of the captured Checkerboard horses to their rightful homes back on the range.
Bans on U.S. Horse Slaughter & Sale of Wild Horses for Slaughter Included in Omnibus Spending Bill!
More great holiday news for America’s horses! The Omnibus spending bill that is making its way through Congress (with an expected final vote within the week) includes two important provisions for the protection of America’s horses.
- A ban on federal funding for USDA inspections of horse slaughter plants, which prevents slaughter plants from reopening on U.S. soil (p. 108), and
- A prohibition on the BLM’s destruction of healthy unadopted wild horses and burros and on the sale of captured wild horses and burros for slaughter (p. 714).
Thank you to our coalition partner the ASPCA for this excellent news and congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to protect America’s horses from the cruelest of fates – slaughter. Much work remains to be done to prevent the export of horses to slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico, but preventing the predatory horse slaughter industry from re-establishing in the U.S. is an important first step to stopping this horrific practice permanently.
Update from Chilly Pepper Miracle Mustang
Just a quick update to share some good news and a tiny bit of sad. The good news is that thanks to the beautiful and generous folks who are making it possible for these horses to stay safe, we were able to purchase some much needed groceries for the month of December.
What a beautiful Christmas present to be able to care for and feed God’s Creatures.
We were able to purchase another $600+ load of supplement buckets for the horses. These have protein and the extra nutrients these horses so desperately need in the winter weather.
We also were able to purchase a load of the most gorgeous hay we have ever seen from Oregon and we got a wonderful price on it.
Fantastic News! Forest Service Drops Plan to Roundup Salt River Wild Horses
Photo | Jennifer MaHarry Photography
The U.S. Forest Service announced that it has withdrawn its notice to round up and impound the wonderful Salt River wild horses who live in the Tonto National Forest near Phoenix, Arizona. This is a direct result of public pressure and a great example of how our government and elected officials can and should listen to the will of the people!
Since August, we have worked with our coalition partner the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group (SRWHMG) toward the cancellation of the impound notice in order to allow time to negotiate an agreement for the long-term protection of the horses on Salt River.
Just last week, U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon and seven of his House colleagues sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, who oversees the Forest Service, asking the agency to listen to public, which wants these horses preserved. Previously, Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake and Governor Doug Ducey expressed their strong support on behalf of their constituents for protection of these horses.
Huge congratulations go to the SRWHMG and its president Simone Netherlands for their tireless work to protect these horses. They have organized tremendous public support and have spent years doing critically-important, boots-on-the-ground work as stewards and documentarians of this very special herd.
Highway Bill with Recreational Trails Program Nears Final Passage
Highway Bill Nears Final Passage, RTP Included
Today, the House of Representatives passed the final version of a multi-year national highway bill known as the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or the FAST Act. The Senate is expected to pass the bill Friday and the President has said he will sign it. The bill reauthorizes the Federal Highway Administration’s Recreational Trails Program (RTP) for the next five years and provides $85 million annually for the program.
The bill has been working its way through Congress for most of this year. During the Congressional process several attempts were made to eliminate the RTP Program from the bill. These attempts were defeated because of strong support from Congressional champions of the program and grassroots support from recreational trail users, including many equestrians. Grassroots support played a very important role in making sure RTP was included in the final bill. The AHC appreciates all the individual horsemen and organizations that contacted their Members of Congress in support of RTP.
Since its inception RTP has provided money for thousands of state and local trail projects across the country, including many that benefit equestrians. RTP provides funding directly to the states for recreational trails and trail-related facilities for all recreational trail users. It is funded with a portion of the gas taxes paid into the Highway Trust Fund by recreational off-highway vehicle users.
It is a victory for all recreational trail users that RTP was reauthorized and will be available to fund trail projects around the country for the next 5 years.
If you have any questions, please contact the AHC.
Regular Maintenance for your Equine
Equines need routine and consistency in their maintenance and training program to keep stress levels low and to promote healthy bodies.
Do We Need a ‘Mustang-Safe’ Label for Beef?
A group of wild horses are rounded up in Eureka, Nevada. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Any company that sells tuna—one of the most popular foods eaten globally—has the option of including a “dolphin safe” label on its product. Monitored by Earth Island International, the label ensures that your tuna was harvested without the use of drift gill nets, which often accidentally trap dolphin. The general idea behind this specialized labeling initiative is simple enough: Consumers should know if one animal species was killed in order for us to harvest another one.
Of course, the concept is necessarily discriminatory. An incalculable number of non-food animals die to bring food animals to our plates. Billions of rodents perish to grow corn and soy for animal feed; billions more are killed when rainforests are cleared for grazing cattle; and—if we want to throw insects into the mix—a nearly infinite number of them are exterminated as a sort of by-catch to accommodate humanity’s steady diet of meat, eggs, and dairy.
But—justifiably or not—dolphins are in a special category. Not only are dolphins unusually intelligent creatures, but they are non-threatening to humans, threatening to sharks, beloved performers at SeaWorld, popular stuffed animals, and frequently anthropomorphized for the purposes of television entertainment. For these reasons, humans (in Western cultures at least) have invested dolphins with a special status. Whatever the precise nature of that status, it’s enough to make dolphin protection a priority on a can of tuna fish.
Many Americans share the view that there’s something sort of majestically sacred about mustangs, at least sacred enough to prevent welfare-ranchers from selling us subsidized beef at the supermarket.
To accept this preferential logic compels us to lend other iconic animals special status as well. The most notably comparable case might be the wild horse—or mustang. Western ranchers holding permits from the Bureau of Land Management to graze cattle on public land compete with mustangs for access to forage within designated wild horse habitats. While 2014 year-end grazing receipts show the equivalent of at least 37 cattle for every wild horse on grazing lands managed by the BLM, mustangs aren’t in any way privileged beyond the soft protections offered by the 1971 Wild Horse and Burros Act. As a result, public-land ranchers routinely call on the BLM to round-up wild horses and remove them from federal land, preserving the forage for cattle. The BLM pens the captured mustangs in a holding facility, from which few are adopted and most die in captivity. Thousands, as revealed by a recent investigative report from the Department of the Interior, have been sold to “kill buyers” and shipped to Mexico for slaughter.
ACTION ALERT: Stand Against Illegal BLM Checkerboard Roundup
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is accepting public comments on an Environmental Assessment (EA) issued to correct legal violations in the way it conducted the massive 2014 Wyoming Checkerboard roundup, which permanently removed 1,263 federally-protected wild horses from the range. By using a request from ranchers to remove wild horses from private lands as an excuse to eradicate horses from public lands, the BLM has set a dangerous precedent that puts wild horses at the mercy of private landowners who want them gone. We continue to fight this legal travesty in the courts, and we must take a strong stand as well during this public comment period. Please take action for wild horses.
Latest Updates from Chilly Pepper Miracle Mustang Rescue
Hi Folks, Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.
A quick summary of what is happening with the wild ones and some of our current expenses are as follows:
We moved the 18 horses to the facility we have been working on. PTL everyone safe and sound.
Fuel costs for this move $ 125.00 our truck
Emergency truck repairs $ 575.00 rescue truck
Fuel Costs truck (panels) $ 97.00
Fuel Addt’l Truck & trailer $ 97.00
Fuel 3rd Truck & Trailer $ 97.00
Additional manpower $ 200.00
Approximate costs to set up pens, round up, separate and safely move 18 horses to new location. $ 1191.00
(7 of the folks involved (including us) donated all their time and effort and as usual, did not get paid a penny) Matt gave up two days on a job in NV to help us get this done, as weather was a huge factor and time had run out to move these horses.
American Horse Council November Tax Bulletin Update
The American Horse Council is the national association representing all segments of the horse industry in Washington DC. They are a valuable association that works to protect all breeds, disciplines and interests by communicating with Congress, federal agencies and the media plus the industry itself. Their latest Tax Bulletin has been released and covers:
- Expired Tax Provisions under Consideration as Congress Approaches Year End
- The Return of Reason in Treatment of “Past Losses” in Section 183 “Hobby Loss” Cases
Click Here To Read The Bulletin
Buckeye the Mule!
Photo by Jenny Majors and Pixel Pony Photography
A recent article at the Chronicle of the Horse had us excited to share the story of Buckeye, an 8 year-old Appaloosa mule who has been showing off the versatility of mules with his skills in the arena.
When Buckeye first came to owner Christina Gregory, he was a little green under the saddle after being mostly used as a driving mule for an Amish family. After some initial work with Christina, he began training with 22 year-old Samantha (Sammi) Majors.
Sammi began him with dressage and earlier in the year he was impressing judges and scoring consistently in the high 60 and low 70 percents in recognized shows. This fall she decided to add jumping in preparation for a show. “He loves jumping. For a long time we would work on dressage stuff and school him over cavalletti, and he always loved it. We’d be doing a 20-meter circle, and if we went anywhere near the cavalletti he would try to pull me to it,” said Majors. “As soon as we started jumping he took an immediate liking to it. That’s all he seems to want to do now is jump, jump, jump!”
Buckeye and Sammi Majors in the Hunter Hack class at the North Carolina State Fair Mule and Donkey Show. Photo by Shane Shiflett
He recently returned home from the North Carolina State Fair Mule and Donkey show with plenty of ribbons, winning Most Colorful Mule class, Hunter Hack class, Coon Jumping, Pleasure Driving-Single Mule, reserve champion Pleasure Driving, the Turnout Class and Reinsmanship.
Read the whole article here and visit Buckeye’s Facebook page.
Giving Tuesday & American Wild Horse Preservation
AWHPC is working with local partners to implement real solutions to Keep Wild Horses Wild and Free. Under a first-of-its-kind cooperative agreement, we’re partnering with the State of Nevada to humanely manage an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 wild horses in the Virginia Range, which spans over 430 square miles in the Reno area. By next year, we expect this effort to be the largest humane wild horse management program in the world!
These programs can work to Keep Wild Horses Wild. Will you help?
Your contribution, no matter the size, will help us achieve this goal and have tangible results for wild horses:
- $10 will buy 10 yards of raw materials for fencing to keep wild horses out of harm’s way.
- $20 will help keep a small family of wild horses safe on the range for a week through a diversionary feeding program aimed to keep horses out of neighborhoods and roadways.
- $40 will fund a diversionary feeding effort to keep a medium-sized family band of horses, such as King’s family, out of harm’s way for a week!
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