Inside PBS Blog

It is sad to think in the 21st century our gov't would be willing to kill these animals in the name of bureacracy and greed!!!

Can't there be any place, even one single place left in the continental U.S. that is truly wild? I say mark off an area on the map and don't allow humans to intervene in that place. EVER!

My heart is breaking at the thought that Cloud, his herd, and other herds like his, might be murdered at the hands of our government. We must rally! Contact your government officials, sign the Care2 Petition and other petitions like it...get your voices heard that you won't stand for this kind of foolish and utterly brutal decision. WE are the government. We make the decisions, and if enough of us have decided that these horses will be safe, then we will make it so. Stand up for them in every way! Call your Senators, go to president Obama's website and write him, write VP Biden. Don't stand still in your heartbreak over Cloud...speak out and save his life and the lives of countless others. Please.

Watching some of the comments last night by the BLM. They say most Americans did not realize most of the horses lived in desert areas so they had to remove them to save them. Maybe they should rethink those comments. The Pryors at 8,000 feet are lush with green grasses etc. Plus the horses are very healthy. I introduced a doctor to the Cloud info. His comment was that these horses are sturdy and almst fat...Where are the starving horses. He's now getting his horse people into action.

The antiquated organization called the BLM needs to justify its purpose. These Spanish colonial horses live in a lush green summer range and move down the mountain in the winter. There is a reason they are also called "desert horses." They have survived on Pryor Mtn. for hundreds of years before the BLM was in existence. Doesn't this tell us something? What's wrong with leaving these mustang icons alone this special place and letting nature take its course? Man seems to love to control nature. The development of our civilization, or any other civilization for that matter was dependent on these animals. They are a valued part of our American heritage. I'd rather my taxpayer money be spent differently than the millions of dollars the BLM spends each year "managing the wild horses and burros and keeping 33,000 of them in holddng pens." Keep up the great work Ginger and America is mobilizing behind you. Washington needs to listen.

Herman Melville:

"Most famous in our Western annals and Indian traditions, is that of the White Steed of the Prairies; a magnificent milk-white charger, large-eyed, small-headed, bluff-chested, and with the dignity of a thousand monarchs in his lofty, over-scorning carriage. He was the elected Xerxes of vast herds of wild horses, whose pastures in those days were only fenced by the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghenies... The flashing cascade of his mane, the curving comet of his tail, invested him with housings more resplendent than gold-and silver-beaters could have furnished him. A most imperial and archangelical apparition of that unfallen, western world, which to the eyes of the old trappers and hunters revived the glories of those primeval times when Adam walked majestic as a god, bluff-browed and fearless as this mighty steed."

“The march of conquest through wild provinces, may be the march of Mind; but not the march of Love.”

Today BLM Robert Abbey and DOI Ken Salazar present a push to bypass S 1579 ROAM with a lame attempt to appease wild horse advocates. You can find the Press Release and Accompanying letter from Ken Salazar to Harry Reid on thecloudfoundaaation.org (with notable exclusion from the cc list of Landrieu and Grijalva).

Though, in my opinion, not all of the details are wholly worth throwing out, they are few and far between. I ask them: Why create new preserves when you won't disclose to the American People where the current preserves are located? Why not return the over 10 million acres to the wild horse already legislated to them? On The Cloud Foundation site blog you will also find a preview of an investigative report to air this Sunday.

What the BLM is doing is totaling wrong and they know it. I believe the BLM is putting the long-term survival of wild horses at risk by disturbing the genetic viability of the herds and we cannot let this continue! Enough is Enough! Not
only is this a tremendous cost to
the tax payers, but completely
unncessary. Horses have a legal
right to stay on the land and
they should be protected.

Please protect these beautiful animals and allow them to roam free. I am shocked that the government wastes our valuable taxes on harassing these precious creatures.

So, now what? I watched the Nature show and saw the 3rd installment of the story of the wild horses. Then at the end I find out that most of them have been captured and sold off. Why? I still see no reason for this. What is this BLM's reason for this? They are not destroying anything. It's only 150 horses....on how many millions of acres? Just makes no sense, whatsoever. Where is the live chat that I can get on?!

There is very little left that the government is not engaged in "managing". With the current effort by the federal government to manage all our health care it seems that maybe thinning out the wild horse population is a precurser to what we humans have to look forward to. The term "management" has an ominous tone to it. Must we all be managed? Cannot we just be left to our own devices, just like the wild horses?
Mark Benson
Jupiter, Florida

I love horses and I think the idea of wild horses has a romantic appeal. However, a problem that is overlooked in most of the comments posted so far is that these horses are a non-native species. As such they pose a population pressure on native species, and are capable of spreading disease to wild and domesticated animals. So, the BLM (apparently the bad guys) is really doing the right thing from a conservation standpoint. Their decision making process is usually quite well informed and in the best interest of the ecosystem.

I own a beautiful elderly burro that was picked up by the BLM in 1982 so for that I am grateful. Killing them on the other hand is simply reprehensible. I also know folks who have wild mustangs from the BLM and love them dearly. But the idea of euthanasia is not the answer. I would say I have mixed feelings about the BLM.

Unfortunately I was only able to catch the last installment of this series. But what I did see was some of the most amazing footage of these beautiful and magnificant animals, roaming FREE, as they should be. Why are we allowing our government to do this to them? It is wrong and we all need to do something about it. Where will it end? I agree with some of the posts I've seen here, that our government needs to start controlling the HUMAN population and let animals and WILDlife be wild, as they were before we humans starting destroying the planet!!

The federal government allows cattle and sheep to graze on federal land for little or no cost to the rancher, but somehow there is no room for wild horses. Of course, wild horses don't vote! If it wasn't for the horse, how then would the west been "won"? I think we should have room for these symbols of all that is good and wild in all of us. Support the wild mustangs! Donate to the Wild Horse Sanctuary in the Black Hills of South Dakota or any of the other sanctuaries.

I am 14 years old and love horses. I love nature and what God has put here on earth for us to enjoy. I do not understand how we "manage" horses or wild animals by injecting them with infertility drugs and killing them. This is unacceptable and should be against the law. If I were to kill any animal for anything other than eating it, I would be put in jail. Why is it alright for the government to do this and then call it "management"? They'd call me a felon and put me in prison if I did it! I think it's a horrible thing to teach children.

This takes my breath away in a good and a bad, as a fellow horse lover and rescuer/their friensd I love seeing them happy and free. But what are these goverment officals prolbem they were not hurting anyone. Or the land no more then us humans do, they were on a remote mountian where humans could not live why not let them stay. They can control the populations and watch them so I am so mad they sold them! We can buy domestic horses no need to take wild ones. And next the will want to round up wild rabbits! We keep taking away our histoyr and destroying nature, I am 23 and scared for the future. I want to do all I can to fix what the iodts are doing to nature and other people.

THANK YOU THANK YOU very much for filming Cloud and his beautiful family you are truely wonderful for following them and I thank you. It is truely sad that man has to interfere with God's cretures. What a sad ending to a wonderful life of such a beautiful animal. I hope God is more forgiving of us than how we have treated his world and the animals he created for us to live among.God forgive us all.

The BLM has rounded up thousands of horses and are going strong again this year. Last year we heard that they could not afford to care and feed the horses because of the expense. This year their budget was doubled ..so now they are rounding up hundreds of horses. One herd just had 100 horses taken, and they will be in pens for up to 6months before they have a chance to be adopted. That is totally unnecessary. We all need to call our Senators, news media, radio stations, and have the BLM stopped from having any more round ups until this matter is investigated.Go to The Cloud Foundation.org and see the video Stampade to Oblivion, and other articles on the improper management of our wild horses. These wild horses live on public land and belong to the American people and should be protected Please make yourselves aware of what is happening and get behind the movement to save our wild horses before it is too late. They need our help to remain free, as they have for hundreds of years. Cloud and the Wild Horses are counting on us...let's not let them down.

Ginger, thank you for the wonderful programs about Cloud and the wild horses. I am encouraged by all the people who have responded and I expect you are too. I am disturbed by the inhumane and questionable way the BLM is proceeding. I hope you will keep us updated on The Cloud Foundation website. I signed the petition and will contact my congress people.

Where have common sense and humanity gone? Just hearing the word "round up" saddens my heart. These beautiful family herds that express the balance of the wind sky and earth should be cared for with compassion and allowed to be free and live in DIGNITY.