It is President’s Day weekend. It is also our founder’s birthday. We take a moment to have a chat with long-time advocate, Laura Leigh.
Laura Leigh, journalist for Horseback Magazine and founder of Wild Horse Education, at Stone Cabin two days after the Ninth Circuit Ruling now simply referenced as “Leigh V Salazar.”
A chat with Leigh
Q: It’s your birthday. What is your most memorable birthday since beginning advocacy?
A: That’s a hard one. My birthday falls in February and that is a really busy time of year. The first one to come to mind is when I was at the Stone Cabin roundup (Feb. 14, 2012) and my access to actually assess capture was being restricted. On my way back to town my phone started pinging so much it was like popcorn. I pulled over and started listening to messages. Everyone was excited and wanted me to call right away. Apparently, we had won a massive victory in the Ninth Circuit on First Amendment grounds! We had not expected a ruling for months. It was the best birthday “present” ever. Things became much more human between BLM and the public, at least for a little while.
Q: What do you mean by that?
A: Hard to explain. In a nutshell, there were those on all sides of this equation that did not want attention drawn to the win and BLM took full advantage. I know BLM has built an entirely new narrative since 2016 and used big corporate agreements like “bubble wrap” to insulate themselves.
Today, that court ruling has helped journalists report on things like police brutality and was even called “the gold standard” case on First Amendment Freedoms in a court case that resulted in a restraining order against the federal government when they tried to keep the press from covering the Portland riots. The only place it does not seem to matter is at wild horse roundups; almost like a daring us to try to find the resources and time to take them back to court. It’s a bit “crazy-making.”
(Laughter) Too heavy for a fast chat. But watching a roundup as a member of the reporting media, and that is what we are, even standing at a trap’s wings, is not as dangerous as covering a riot or war zone. As far as I know, no national security is breached by telling people what happens at a BLM trap. It is a bit absurd that as camera equipment gets better, and politics gets weirder, BLM comes up with new “safety” parameters and our access to observe gets worse. Just sayin’ if it was safe for me to sit less than 100 ft (basically the height of a ten-story building) from a trap with a 300mm camera, it is safe for me to sit there no matter how long my lens is.
Q: Let’s leave the heavy subject. What is the one question you get asked the most?
A: The one question I get asked the most is: “How can you keep doing this?” with some reference to the frustrating politics and/or the brutality I see, or edit and work to formulate some strategy to change.
I truly, deeply love our wild ones and our public lands. If the obstacles and “impossibilities” cause you to stop, there is no hope of changing something, anything. Just take one day at a time; learn, try and then learn from mistakes, try again. Advocacy for anything wild is a lifelong commitment. There will always be a profit driven interest wanting what the wild needs to survive. I think just accepting that there are no magic wands, one single fix, can help longevity.
Q: What is one fix you want to see in 2024?
A: I would really like to, finally, see rulemaking for an enforceable welfare policy.
I have always found it so insanely bizarre that BLM fights so hard against progress on the “welfare front.” We actually had to fight in court (another 6-year battle in the courts) simply to gain the internal standards we have today that BLM call the “Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program” or CAWP. In 2015, they created the “beta,” or draft version. All they did was type “permanent” on the memo instead of going through the standard process of policy making (“rulemaking”).
This is an absurd and obscene fight. Isn’t this the one thing, no matter what side you sit on, that we should all agree on? Abuse is not ok. Why is gaining an enforceable welfare policy even something we are fighting about?
Just put the thing out for public review and comment and formalize it!
Q: What are you doing for your birthday?
A: Working. I have notes on two cases (Pancake and Stone Cabin) to get to the attorney by Monday. Then I can toggle back to organizing some of the investigative reports and touch base with our volunteers tackling other projects.
Might seem strange, but I love to cook. I will find time to bake something. I’m hoping to get a blueberry pie in the oven.
Have a Happy Birthday Laura. Thank you for being a steadfast pillar of WHE working for our wild ones.
We need your help to continue to document, expose, work toward reform with lawmakers and litigate. Our wild ones deserve to live free on the range and free from abuse.
Thank you for keeping WHE on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our treasured wild ones.
Categories: Wild Horse Education
You must be logged in to post a comment.