Cloud’s band. Photo by Ginger Kathrens |
The agency in charge of managing wild horses, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is planning on rounding up all the horses in Cloud’s herd and removing 70 of them, plus some foals, beginning September 1. All mares that have foaled before will be given a two-year contraceptive drug, PZP-22, which is still in the experimental phases in the wild. The Cloud Foundation, which I started in 2005 to protect Cloud’s herd and all wild horses in the west, is opposed to this massive roundup. Noted geneticist Dr. Gus Cothran has written that the minimum population for this herd to maintain genetic viability is 150 to 200 horses. With this removal, Cloud’s herd would be left at only about 120 horses plus some foals.
In order to remove 70 horses the BLM will roundup older horses. I am fearful that many of the horses I have known since birth, which have lived their entire lives in the wild and that you have seen in the Cloud programs, will be removed. Many of the horses you’ll meet in the next Cloud program, Cloud: Challenge of the Stallions, may be gone from the wild by the time this program airs.
At this time the wild horses in the Arrowheads are healthy — some are even fat on the abundant grasses and wildflowers in the Arrowheads. The BLM states that the horse range can only support 120 horses and is being degraded. At this time about 40 horses live exclusively off the range, in the adjacent National Forest lands, where they are considered trespassers. In reply to the Cloud Foundation’s legal appeal, the Forest Service has postponed the building of a fence that would keep horses out of their historical range in the Forest Service lands.
I hope that Cloud and his family and herd will continue to live free in their wild home.
Please visit www.thecloudfoundation.org for more information, photos and action alerts if you are so inclined.
- Ginger Kathrens
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I am so very sad about this. I hope the Cloud Foundation can stop the BLM before this comes to fruition.
very sad
i’m saving to stop this!
i hope that the cloud foundation can stop this drama from playing out
Hopefully a generous landowner will be able to adopt a bunch of the mustangs and give them a happy ending. Can’t imagine living my whole life free, then rounded up and expected to “comform” to a domesticated life.
This is very discouraging…with only 120 potentially left, what would be the generic outcome of this loss as noted above by Dr. Cothran? The loss of these animals will leave a big hole.
Hey Ginger,
I greatly enjoy your Cloud program, it’s truly awesome! As for your BLM conflict, I sincerely do believe that you just may to close to the sentimental side of the story.
It seems unnecessary and cruel. I echo what’s been said, and hope the BLM will be stopped.
Let the horses live in their natural habitat, let’s not upset the nature, please?
this will be a great lose to every american ,with out these Mustangs history would not be the same,sad that the media is not even given this issue any airtime.
Thank YOU for all that you have done! I have called and emailed everyone that I can…..shall it now take an act of God to stop this round-up on Tuesday?
Please protect Cloud’s herd and all wild horses in the west! They need to be in their natural environment.
It is time to pray. My friends and I have been writing and calling everyone thinkable. We all know that this is wrong and misguided. Now it will take an act of God to help the Obama Administration see the light and put an end to this
unnecessary round up. Keep Cloud and his herd in your thoughts and prayers tonight…
Cloud’s herd has been given 2 more days!
Read the latest news at TheCloudFoundation.org.
New UTubes – see them!
Keep calling and e-mailing – keep up the pressure!
pray for cloud’s herd…….. keep them in your thoughts
UPDATE – The round up has come and gone,
Make up your own mind – watch day by day accounts on thecloudfoundation.org and other links provided there.
If you feel moved, please join in contacting elected officials. Listings and The Cloud Foundation points on that website, but write what is in your heart.
There is still time to have old Grumpy, old Conquistador and other 10 plus old horses returned – it is cruel to have them live out their latter days in a pen instead of free in thier homes, or worse sold (sale – Burns Act – slaughter).
ADOPTION UPDATE -
At the cloudfoundatin.org Twitter, old Conquistador has been adopted by “a friend” and will leave the pens tonight for his new home. However, the fate of the other older horses is still unknown. Ultimatley they should all be returned to the Pryors where thier elder wisdome is needed, to live out thier lives gloriously with their families at home. But only if we fight for it – if you can attend “Mustnags on the Hill” Sept 29, Washingon, DC rsvp thecloudfoundaotin.org. Talk to your sentors at this event, get S 1579 ROAM passed and the horses returned to their homes. You and I are going to make this happen, not someone else! All the links needed to call, e-mail, fax your sentors and the President are on the Cloud Foundation web site.
Tom sounds as though he feels that the subject matter was approached in a “sentimental” light, thereby possibly decreasing it’s value? What the hell is that supposed to mean? You wouldn’t happen to be siding with the Ranchers on this issue, would you???
What happened to Cloud when they rounded them up. He wasn’t killed was he? Dam that DLM they have people on there that prob. don’t even own a cat or dog and yet rounding up these magnificent horses and slaughter them is so cruel. The Ranchers are grazing on L OUR LAND, YOURS AND MINE. They rent it for about a dollar an acre and can kill anything that comes on it. WHY DO THEY HAVE THIS RIGHT WHEN IT’S OUR LAND NOT THEIRS
Hi!! Im a 5th grader and I am trying my best to stop people taking the wild horses land and the those roundups!! I hope people will stop!
~Sierra
Let nature cull the herd from the young, sick and the old. The mountain lion’s job is to do this and quite well. Oh wait, what’s happened to the lions? Not all managements are all wise and powerful. If anything the BLM should have a feed supplemnet program when needed and a free range program. We the People, the tax payers have already paid for this service time and time again. It is unthinkable to think of these animals as just numbers and meat to be sold. Shame on the BLM, its the same old issue the BLM versus the people with consciousness,(the ability to feel, think and react.) Please people talk to anyone who will listen, talk to your represenatives. Lets save these beautiful animals. We are the trespassers the horses are being trespassed upon!
Uh, first of all horses were culled (extinct) from North America about 13,000 years ago along with Camels, that’s right, only horses were reintroduced by European explorers. So, from a purley scientific approach they’re invaders. The show is a bit too sentimental, you name these horses and treat them like your pets, you do more harm than good, because any ecologist with half a brain sees that show as soooo one sided. I’m not siding with the BLM or the ranchers or the shows producer, all I want is some facts to make up my own mind, not sentimental sqaulor. All Gods creatures are beautiful, not just horses. Why don’t you name the mountain lions that slaughter the horses too. Like Sparky or Killer. Your show would have more validity if it introduced some balance to the facts, like how much land does it take to support one horse or what are the downsides to having too large of a herd. “some are even fat on the abundant grasses and wildflowers in the Arrowheads”. ??? What if they’re fat on some rare native wildflowers that exist only in the Arrowheads and the horses are eating them into extinction?? People, these ARE beautiful animals, but they can do a lot of damage to native fauna and wildlife. How about some balance here.