Two of the mares at Skydog saved from the “the line of those waiting to die.” Action item at the bottom of this article. PLEASE take a moment to recharge… and charge. (photo courtesy of Clare Staples)
We took a moment from running the range to stop and visit a friend, Clare Staples, as she creates her vision. Skydog Ranch is a sanctuary for our American mustangs that have lost everything when they are removed from the range and find themselves in bad situations, often at the slaughterhouse door.
Last May we met Clare at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Broken Arrow facility in Fallon Nevada. BLM “manages” more wild horses than all other jurisdictions combined. The Broken Arrow facility is a very personal heartache for us at WHE.
click image to read “Broken Arrow, broken heart.”
“Let’s go to the range and heal a bit and I can show you where some of your horses come from,” I offered.
I went to get Clare from her room in the morning to make the drive to the range. When the door opened she was still in her clothes from the day before. She told me she had been editing her pictures all night from the holding facility and she just wanted to go back home, it hurt.
I convinced her to go out looking for horses. We did… and it was wonderful.
Click image to go to story about the visit to the range
We stayed in touch and Clare took some mares from Broken Arrow that were part of the “rainbow” herd she was building in her sanctuary. It took a year to get those horses out of that facility. BLM claims to do “all it can” to place wild horses into good homes, but it took a year to get those mares out of Broken Arrow. (Just one more piece of the BLM propaganda that drives me a bit insane).
Clare invited me to see the dream she was making a reality at Skydog. Sitting with the mares, in the evening when the day was winding down, is an experience I can not describe. Stuck out of public view with little to no chance of adoption, after a year of requesting these mares, they were safe from the slaughter push that threatens our wild horses. The big inventory number on their hips now meaningless, they are no longer “those waiting to die.” They are no longer the forgotten ones that have no “the slaughter truck is coming” massive fundraisers or horses from well known herds that have adoption events.
These three mares represented the tens of thousands of wild horses I have witnessed with my own eyes removed from the range. Minimized to nothing but an inventory number by the government and forgotten by the public when the helicopter blades stop spinning.
Our wild ones need you to remember them. You must pick up a phone and call your Senator now.
Killing wild horses is not ok.
Cutting the budget for the BLM wild horse and burro program by 10 million is not ok when not one subsidy to public land ranching is touched. Public land ranching loses the tax payer $150 million a year, it is not a money maker but a money pit that produces less than 3% of beef utilized in industry.
Keep your calls as brief and polite as possible.
Always ask for an email to send information to. We all have that moment where we say “I wish I said this or that.” Sending a follow up email allows you to continue the conversation.
The most important thing you can do for our wild ones is call, be calm and authentic.
Making your call, (an example video at the bottom of this page).
Find your Representatives: https://www.govtrack.us/
Senate Interior Appropriations Committee members: https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/subcommittees/interior-environment-and-related-agencies
Enjoy the slideshow from the open house at Skydog and then PICK UP THE PHONE!
OUR MAIN WEBSITE http://WildHorseEducation.org
Categories: Wild Horse Education
You must be logged in to post a comment.