7 ‘federally–protected’ American Mustangs have died on Day 1 (Saturday, July 10) of the Tuscarora Roundup in Nevada. BLM has suspended the roundup at least until Wednesday. They continue not let any public or independent observers watch or be present at this roundup. These horses died due to dehydration from being run an unknown distance in 90-deg. plus heat. BLM press release online here – this is irresponsible and cruel mismanagement of a globally-signigicant and historic wild species– the wild horses of the American West. BLM Press Release online here. Please call Secretary Salazar and demand that he stop the tax-payer funded disaster in Tuscarora before more mustangs are killed. Phone: 202-208-3100 Fax: 202-208-6956 E-Mail: feedback@ios.doi.gov (send free online faxes via faxzero.com) More information in our press release online here.
Tags: Tuscarora
thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com 
July 12, 2010 at 11:26 pm |
What we feared has come and the wild ones are dying at the hands of the contractors who are obviously not walking or even trotting the wild horses into the traps. They are, again, running our wild horses to death. Killers! This must stop. mar
July 12, 2010 at 11:31 pm |
Ignorance and greed has once again killed 7 more innocent & helpless mustangs. These contractors need to be stopped.
July 12, 2010 at 11:35 pm |
2 more dead @ fallon and now this, they need to stop! NOW!
July 12, 2010 at 11:41 pm |
actually, 8 horses are dead, as 1 was euthanized due to a fractured leg suffered in the holding pens, I’d like to see the dried up water holes, I’d like documentation, and yes, they need to let us know what is to be done with the horses they already have in custody.
July 12, 2010 at 11:48 pm |
After reading the BLM Press Release all I can wonder is how long were they driving these large herds of horses and why didn’t they know where they were going?? I do not believe they were all hanging out within 10 to 15 miles of the trap site but were driven there. BLM was gathering them and pushing them away from water?? The horses were not “looking for water” because they know where the water is! There is not a drought. I was there in May and there was more snow on the mountains when I left in early June than when I arrived. There have been thunder storms and rain. This is one huge mistake by BLM. mar
July 12, 2010 at 11:50 pm |
Here is another Brand New example of the BLM trying to blame the horses for what they have done to them! mar
July 12, 2010 at 11:51 pm |
Common sense. Running these horses in this weather is a given for disaster. Esp. newborn/days old foals and mares who have given birth.
Just what I wrote too>>>Dehydration, hyperthermia (heat exhaustion)>*Heat stroke means death.
Again the BLM glosses over the truth: “dehydration?!” No, much more. And this is same ole just like Calico, only then heated, sweating, freezing…hypothermia. Pneumonia. We might never know.
It just gets worse and worse. And again, when you think you have heard, seen it all…more and more…
This is a horror. Our hearts were broken and now our fears confirmed.
Media needs to get this one.
Some help! Feel so helpless. Call Salazar, Obama? We’ve been there, done that for months and months. Petitions, emails, demonstrations…
I just called BLM 4 times…get busy signal, auto hangs up.
Pray for these poor innocent souls. Alive, injured, sick, dying, dead.
Lord have mercy. Yes, I am here crying.
July 13, 2010 at 12:03 am |
The press release wasn’t attached to this post. Where can I find it?
July 13, 2010 at 12:06 am |
RIGHT NORA, HAVE WE GOT A PRESS RELEASE?
July 13, 2010 at 12:25 am |
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July 13, 2010 at 8:40 am |
Did I read this correctly? These horses died due to “insufficient water in the area?” What the heck does THAT mean? Are they saying these horses were dehydrated before the round up was started and died as a result of that pre-existing condition rather than because they were rounded up?
The spin doctoring makes me queasy.
Also, I though Bob Abbey had stepped out of the BLM picture to deal with the MMS and the oil spill in the Gulf.
July 13, 2010 at 9:52 pm
It means the BLM is a knee-jerk reactive rather than pro-active wild horse and burro management bureau and needs a complete makeover.
The sooner the better.
July 13, 2010 at 12:28 am |
This was so predictable. Are 7 deaths the final number? Outrageous!
July 13, 2010 at 12:29 am |
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July 13, 2010 at 12:58 am |
I have faxed my comments to Salazar, but we all know hell will freeze over before HE does anything. There are two lawsuits pending. I want to know WHY these idiot judges won’t issue at least a temporary injunction! What are these fools doing in judge’s robes??
July 13, 2010 at 1:01 am |
Our wild horses are not expendable. 10 horses have died this weekend. That is 10 too many. mar
July 13, 2010 at 1:15 am |
[…] Deadly Tuscarora Day 1 (thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com) […]
July 13, 2010 at 1:56 am |
Ann Lawrence said this at RTs;
And where are all the industries that we horseowners support– feed/clothing/tack/trucks/trailers/vets— they should raise such a stink that the President would finally take notice.
This is the truth. Where are all the people who make a living of four horses and us?? Why do they not come forward and sponsor the work being done to save our wild horses??? mar
July 14, 2010 at 11:18 pm |
Where ARE they? Good point.
July 13, 2010 at 2:00 am |
Those fiends knew it was too hot to run those horses. They knew there were tiny foals who would die. They knew the horses would hyperventilate from fear. The fact is that those people committed a crime against helpless horses. If there is a federal law that protects those horses and if they are being removed from land that is there to protect them, why isn’t law enforcement or the Judicial system protecting the horses? Why was a Judge too spineless to take a stand for what was right, and instead just admonished BLM to not move the horses?
Clearly there is a real problem with Salazar, too many animals die, wolves, horses, and all the animals on the Gulf Coasts who, as I understand it, are dying because of Salazar’s not requiring the safety precautions from BP when they drilled the well. But, here is the BLM, this agency has persecuted horses for years, capturing them and selling them in auctions, many of which resulted in very evil, abusive, cruel people buying these beautiful horses cheap, and those horses were abused, starved, deprived of medical attention, and many were sold for slaughter and some just died from abuse. Now BLM runs the horses to death, imprisons them in unbearable conditions, shoots them, causes them to abort, kills Stallions by castrating them, runs the hooves off foals then shoots them. Do they do anything any worst than this in third world countries? I think not.
July 13, 2010 at 2:18 am |
We all waited and knew that our wild ones would suffer and die at the hands of all these madmen. What a terrible disgrace that these loving and trusting creatures would be shown the cruelest and harshest treatment that could ever be imagined. I cry with all of you. How do we stop this madness. Phone calls to the BLM? No one there is listening.
July 14, 2010 at 11:20 pm |
Our congress and our elected officials are the ones that need the heat on this. They need to be contacted early and often, all of them, from the top down. This is where the pressure needs to be. Light the fire and hold their feet to it.
July 13, 2010 at 2:38 am |
But maybe there is light!
It appears that many factions for our wild horses are already at work.
For one, Madeleine Pickens has put out a press release today and will be on “Issues” with Jane Velez Mitchell, (((TOMORROW))), July 13!
Hoping this time the manure will hit the BLM fan…and it will be horse in their face.
Apologies. Sometimes one reaches her max with the BLM atrocities and “police state,” immune to the law, public outcry and animal cruelty…and…murder!
Praying the BLM has stepped over the line, one more time, too far.
July 13, 2010 at 3:12 am |
We need more law suits!!
July 13, 2010 at 3:39 am |
In 1970/71, letters flooded the offices which mattered.
Today, we are using email which can be easily deleted. And probably does!
Our many phone calls which never get documented or acknowledged…
The only thing that matters is investigative journalism that exposes the evil that is going on, and legal action that has to be addressed!
Our protests, which are physical evidence of the angry, heartfelt and rightful opposition to the needless, unlawful and inhumane treatment and systematic annihilation of our much loved wild horses and burros by our country’s citizens, whose moneys are paying for this evil atrocity.
We have to have physical evidence, exposing journalism and more legal action!
The MORE the BETTER!!!!!
July 13, 2010 at 9:20 am |
Question: Were there foals among the dead, or is the BLM not counting foals in this round up? If I remember correctly, foals aren’t counted, as a rule.
I don’t trust the BLM to provide accurate mortality rates, and my guess is that foals were in the round up mix. They are so fragile at this stage in their development and extremely vulnerable.
As so many have stated before, if I treated my own horses like this — running them to the point of exhaustion and dehyrdration in 90 + heat — I’d be charged with animal abuse. Why is the BLM above the law?
July 13, 2010 at 11:35 am |
THE CONTRACTORS SHOULD BE NAMED IN ANY LAWSUITS
July 13, 2010 at 1:54 pm |
ABSOLUTELY! Totally agree, Louie. Abuse is abuse, and there should be legal consequences.
Added to that is the fact of Mr. Cattoor’s indictment and guilty plea. Having violated federal law, this man should not benefit from government contracts. He’s a convicted criminal.
True, the fines he paid were a joke. (One fine was something like $10, if you can believe it.) But that’s not the point.
The Cattoors continue to harm horses — and I’ll bet you a nickel that if the latest round up hadn’t been halted by the BLM, this contractor would’ve pressed on, no matter how many horses died at their hands. It’s all about the $$$$$, which they’re probably still being paid by contract, even if the helicoptors have temporarily stopped flying.
July 14, 2010 at 11:27 pm |
Yes. First and foremost! As well as all state elected officials, Obama, Salazar, Abbey and all the top people.
Also all veterinary departments of whb program, all veterinarians associated with the BLM.
You name it. All private parties who “harbor” America’s public herds by contract to the US GOVERNMENT WHB Program — all need to be named.
Governors, and while you are at it, go after those shady committees that the BLM nurtures, such as the RACs and the rest.
Our corrupt evil officials have many faces and many names — they all should be identified! And named in the lawsuits!
So be it!
July 13, 2010 at 2:36 pm |
These deaths were a forseeable result from stampeding them in the heat.
Overdriving horses is against the law in Nevada. If the range is dry, don’t stampede them. Agree with the posters – DA needs to look at charges under Nevada law including Cattoor. He has plenty of our money to pay for a lawyer.
The gloves are off. With Tuscarora, BLM has sent a message of violence to Americans. They’ve killed horses before, and tried to spin it, but since the arrogant roundup of Cloud’s herd, the game has changed. They didn’t halt the roundup because it was killing horses, they halted it because of public outrage and media coverage.
They hurried the roundup on a weekend ahead of a lawsuit. Like Calico.
This time though, the judge has not yet ruled on injunctive relief, and 8 horses are dead. So far. Tying up is not a good thing, and real horsemen avoid it.
The wild horse & burro program needs to be shut down and revamped, starting with the firing of Ken Salazar. The BP oil spill and these deaths are on his watch. Salazar and his cronies have to go.
BLM says they round up horses for their own good. If killing 8 in one day is for their good, BLM bureaucrats & subcontractors are sociopaths. They need to be committed to a program for the criminally insane (not on the taxpayer’s dime) and the money taxpayers are paying for their salary & benefits redirected to anti-bullying programs in the schools.
July 13, 2010 at 5:38 pm |
We need to write letters to Congress, the White House and media outlets like ABC, NBC, MSNBC, etc. We must be tireless in this practice. Our elected officials do hear us and sometimes even listen, especially our local officials. We must not get complacent. Get out your pens and paper, research your local official’s mailing addresses and send those letters, day after day, week after week until our numbers are so great, we cannot be ignored by the likes of Ken Salazar and company. We owe this much to our wild friends. I do this in the name of my own mustang/draft mare, Pumpkin, who at the age of 25, is still a noble horse, more wise than her domestic counterparts. I know she is counting on us to help spare her relatives in the herds that are left in the wild. Let our voices be heard!
July 13, 2010 at 6:19 pm |
BLM has said they are in the northern section of Owyhee. The far northern section of this HMA is a well cared for cattle range with newly fenced allotments and water only for cows. Just south of this is a valley with the Little Owyhee River. The horses have been squeezed into the poorest section of their own range by the cattle allotments in the north and the cattle allotments iand the huge open pit mines in the south. I have been to both ends. The north central area where the horses are in this case is driest. The southern section has reservoirs and ditches carrying water out to the cattle. There was plenty of water in late May. For cattle. The horses own resources have been taken from them, under multiple use, and they are fenced from much of the cattle range. To say there are no fences in the roughest and driest area where the horses have been left and the cattle are not brought to is not saying much by the management that has created this problem. We all know the HMA is the horses’ range and they have been kept from the best of it for many years. I do bear witness to this. The horses have not created this problem. BLM and the contractors have planned this and they have called the reason for this removal to be drought. Yet there s much water on this HMA and it is being used by cattle and mining very intensely. mar
July 13, 2010 at 6:38 pm |
Since you’re really familiar with this area, you probably have an answer to these questions. I’ve been wondering, do ranchers who use public lands pay for any of the fencing — construction and maintanance — any of the water that’s re-directed for their livestock or any other of the so-called “range improvements?” Or is this all tax-payer funded?
July 13, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Nora, From what I understand the BLM pays for improvements. There are areas that get much attention and there are those where ranchers are far from happy with what BLM does.
There are instances where ranchers have waited for work and then done it themselves and been penalized for it. There are many who do make small improvements on their own. I am not sure they are supposed to. Yet, I have read where ranchers have done significant work to improve leased public land. So, like many things BLM does, this is another area where it is hard to say who did what. But I believe the removal of sage on these allotments and the reseeding was done by BLM. Troughs and the water are worked by the ranchers. Water pumps, like some housed and running on gas engines like I saw in very far north of Owyhee are maintained by the ranchers. The fencing I believe is done by the ranchers but they have to make arrangements to do it and get approval. Guzzlers would be paid for and maintained by BLM.
Since a cattle allotment can be used as collateral on a ranch for loans the ranchers are ever more possessive of these lands they lease. The system keeps favoring the rancher.
Wish I knew more. It seems very complicated but then everything about the use of our public lands seems to be that way. mar
July 14, 2010 at 10:26 am
Do you have a link to a map? I’d love to look over the area you’re talking about — just not sure which is the best map to look at.
July 14, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Nora, go to BLM Quick Facts and see the square top right with lists of maps… go to the HMA map page and scroll down to Northern Nevada. One of these will have the Little Humboldt, Rock Creek and Owyhee HMAs… Then look at a map of the area on a road atlas. Find Winnemucca and Route 80 and then little Midas and you are in the lower HMAs. Find the Little Owyhee coming down from the Oregon/idaho border. Owyhee is a huge HMA. You may be able to orient yourself by finding a couple land marks or a few curves in the river that match both maps. BLM maps suck… mar
July 13, 2010 at 6:59 pm |
Forgot to ask this: Did you happen to have a camera with you when you were out in HMA? It would be great to have photo documentation that this round up is not drought-related.
July 13, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Nora, I was there in the 3rd week of May. There was snow on the Snowstorm Mountains and and other ranges (and even more when we left the first week of June). The ditches carrying water out into the range from the reservoirs in the southern portions were full and overflowing. This is just into the very southern tip of Owhyee. Little Humboldt and Rock Creek were in areas of heavy open pit mining. This may be why 425 horses are ‘off the HMA’ as this mining and the heavy truck and employee busing traffic with it is very intrusive there.
I do have photos of water on the cattle allotments and range where there were thousands of cows. Both in the southern area and in the north. The area that the horses are being captured right now I did not reach. But the river is there. The horses were kept from the river by the presence of people according to BLM. This should not have happened. Is access to the river so small an area that the horses were afraid to approach?? Or were they only just pushed into the area the day before by the contractors and in need of water from being forced to move??
Water levels in northern Nevada are about 30% below average and going down. There is extremely heavy use of water that enters these HMAs by the extensive mining there in the area around Midas and the cattle, too. There are several reservoirs. Look at a map.
The areas in the north where we went through successive gated, fenced cattle allotments, the water is from wells with pump houses and some of it is hauled to troughs in other nearby fenced allotments. There is no horse sign within any of these allotments. There is still the Little Owyhee River. The dispersal of the water is obviously most controlled in the areas the horses have been gradually forced out of. When we were there it was very obvious how the resources were being used and by whom.
Because the water is under control for mining and cattle the areas where the horses are, where the river is their main water and what water holes and springs that may be there, the horses are not getting their share of their resources. mar
July 13, 2010 at 6:29 pm |
We defeat every evil by being persistent in prayer. Christ was persistent in prayer and we must follow His example to beat the ruthlessness of the BLM.
July 13, 2010 at 7:58 pm |
Add 2 more to the deaths. BLM finally got off their butts to post the Calico updates (Tuesday instead of Friday ‘cos not only can the NOT add, they also don’t know the days of the week). Unbelievable-they just keep killing them.
July 14, 2010 at 8:04 pm |
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