Sarge, a “sooty” palomino stallion from Fish Creek, has become a real celebrity. The notoriety given to this stallion is centered in extreme controversy. The uproar over the herd Sarge comes from did not begin two weeks ago, it began when the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act was passed. The Act created federal jurisdiction over America’s wild horses and burros on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service (USFS) lands. The Act was put in place to stop “mustanging,” a brutal practice where wild horses were captured in horrific fashion and sold off for dog food or to be ground up for fertilizer and chicken feed. The federal government took jurisdiction away from states, counties and ranchers. Those protections were under attack from the day the Act passed.
Links to history of Fish Creek: http://wildhorseeducation.org/?s=fish+creek
Most recently states, counties and ranchers have tried to usurp federal protections on multiple fronts. One of these “fronts” is Fish Creek.
The county and ranching community is vehemently opposed to the management plan at Fish Creek. They are trying everything they can to stop a plan designed to gather data to protect and preserve the wild horses AND the resource they require. The court upheld the BLM decision to move forward with the plan and even ousted the ranchers from the docket. The county is keeping the case alive to remove (and even destroy) the wild horses of Fish Creek.
Powerful and well funded proslaughter groups that share the “state right” agenda, have joined the fight against Fish Creek.
If you care about Sarge take the time to read and learn. The push against Fish Creek (and a plan to manage wild horses based on hard data) and the rest of our wild horses and wild places, is going to intensify to a fever pitch. The best thing you can do right now to preserve and protect our wild horses is to think hard before you act. Responsible actions are what we are after in wild horse and burro management, we want the reactionary practices that ran this system into the ground to end.
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Sarge is doing well this morning. He is eating and healing from his ordeal. He has been vetted and will continue to be monitored closely.
Keep in mind there IS an investigation into what has transpired at Fish Creek. The information being provided covers months of documentation. We will continue to update you on Sarge and the situation at Fish Creek. When the time comes we will alert you to act for accountability to the law.
The Act to protect our wild horses and burros must finally be held to the intent of the law. Do not forget that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommendations and that the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Plan (CAWP) exist. Putting them into practice however appears to require another fight. Both avenues were “hard won” and a big part of the equation into why Fish Creek, and YOUR wild horses and burros, need you to be in the present and stop the addiction to the sound bites of the past. As you become a voice for our wild horses as an educated advocate, you become a powerful force. Change is coming, let us make sure it is to preserve our wild ones, not to see mustanging begin again.
Pictures of Sarge today.
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Keep us on the range, in the courts and on the front line. http://WildHorseEducation.org/donate
Links about Fish Creek:
http://wildhorseeducation.org/?s=fish+creek
8/`17
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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