The Cloud Foundation Expands Lawsuit to Protect “Cloud’s” Wild Horse Herd – Foundation includes Forest Service in lawsuit
Washington, D.C. (July 23, 2010)—On July 21 the Cloud Foundation, Front Range Equine Rescue and author/advocate Carol Walker filed an amended complaint in Federal District Court to add the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to their current suit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The suit challenges both agencies’ rejection of a Natural Management Approach for the herd and the planned construction of a two-mile long fence which would cut off the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Herd from crucial summer and fall grazing lands they’ve used for centuries. This small herd is the world’s most famous and the last remaining in Montana, sometimes called “Cloud’s herd” for the now-15-year old band stallion who TCF Director and plaintiff Ginger Kathrens has documented for the popular PBS Nature series. The herd traces its history back to the horses of the Spanish Conquistadors, the Lewis and Clark expedition horses, and Crow Indian War ponies. Plaintiffs contend that the USFS and BLM are engaging in illegal treatment of these federally-protected mustangs and that the Pryor Wild Horses are entitled to use lands in the Custer National Forest, currently not included in the designated range…. continued online here
Read the filed complaint online here: Second Amended Complaint Pryors
Cloud grazes in the Custer National Forest lands- July 2010
thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com 
July 23, 2010 at 8:10 pm |
What IS the problem with these people!!!??? They have a gem here in the Pryors that attracts untold tourism for the area, and they don’t get it, people come to see the horses, wildlife and wilderness, NOT cows,
July 23, 2010 at 8:51 pm |
I am outraged by what has been done to the Mustangs, which I consider illegal and uncivilized. I am shocked at what is now being allowed by our government. This makes me have such utter contempt for Kenneth Salazar and the BLM, because so far as I am concerned what has been done to the Mustangs is both savage and corrupt. I hope that lawsuits against these barbarians will continue, and I will support them in every way in the hope that we will eventually see an ethical and noble Judicial system that will have the courage to protect the horses and to stand up against a government that has allowed this atrocity toward our Mustangs, who are an American Heritage.
July 24, 2010 at 1:26 am |
Geez, wasn’t it enough that the BLM raped pillaged and plundered this herd last fall????
Ginger’s said that the only reason Cloud wasn’t removed last fall is because he’s famous (thank you Ginger!). But they took Image and Ember and fortunately for them they have a wonderful new mama in Deb Little.
But I worry about the others who aren’t as famous as Cloud. What is their fate???
What about leaving mother nature to handle things like she always has???? Why does man always have to interfere thinking they know best when its obvious they don’t????
July 24, 2010 at 1:35 am |
This fence project has been looming and I do wish you success with this effort and I believe in the expansion of the herds lands to include what they have been using over the centuries. There is no reason this cannot be done but for the foibles of your opponents.
Good luck, give these horses what has been theirs and then some, mar
July 24, 2010 at 2:09 am |
I wonder if Matt mentioned this fence project (Matt Dillon of the Mustang Center in Lovell). Anyone know?
It is so frustrating that American citizens have to sue to government for its failure to uphold the laws of the land.
July 24, 2010 at 4:08 am |
Matt recently stated he ‘knows the Forest Service does not want the horses’ there. Funny. When the Pryor roundup was on there were some Forest Service people who had commented they did not know all the ‘Forest Service’ horses had to be removed. They also said they were aware that people came there to see the horses. This is as ever a very delicate subject. But it makes no sense for all parties involved Not to work toward a positive end together. mar
July 24, 2010 at 2:22 am |
After reading the whole amendment thingy I’m keeping fingers and tootsies crossed…
July 24, 2010 at 3:03 am |
“A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.” Proverbs 12:10. Thank you Cloud Foundation for caring for the horses in the Pryors. I will be calling and writing to Obama and DOI daily, as well as keeping you in my prayers.
July 24, 2010 at 3:29 am |
Think this could be just a bit of vindictiveness on the part of our public servants? They should change their mascot to
“Smokey the Robber Barron”.
July 24, 2010 at 12:19 pm |
BLM and Ken Salazar, are totally out of control and are destructive, in my opinion. Salazar is a rancher and his family are ranchers? He is in collusion with ranchers? He hates wolves, evidently, and spearheaded slaughter of wolves, although we wrote myriad letters and called. I have seen no remorse in him whatsoever in his not initially imposing the regulations that might have saved the lives of eleven men in the explosion and oil spill that has also killed thousands of birds, Dolphins, turtles, and sea life of all kinds. I see no ethics nor any type of compassion at all toward the Mustangs, just a deranged attitude that is not acceptable to taxpaying American citizens who are tired of being stomped roughshod in our efforts to protect the innocent and helpless horses who are being sacrificed, tortured, killed and destroyed. I think it is clear by now that this administration doesn’t care about our concerns nor our outrage. YES, I agree that BLM has people running this onslaught on horses who are vindictive and who are overly impressed with themselves since Salazar allowed contempt of court order and the continued torture of horses in secret. This running of horses should have never been allowed to begin with, it is cruel, inhumane and barbaric. We need civilized Americans running our government offices. This continued murder of horses and small foals, this insane removal of horses using false pretenses to do so, has been and will forever be a blight on this country. It will go down in history as a catastrophe, and this administration will be held accountable and will be remembered as responsible for the ruination of what is our heritage. I think a congressional hearing should be held and that ALL persons responsible for this atrocity and this cruelty toward American Mustangs should be investigated and that the persons responsible should be prosecuted. That is my opinion.
July 24, 2010 at 4:17 pm |
It only seems logical that this Amendment emphasizes that the forest service land is and always has been part of the historic range for the Pryor herd. When the range was established the range didn’t include all their historic range and this is correcting this omission–the land was theirs to begin with. When we were there last weekend, the large majority of the herd was on forest service land and not “their legal range” because there were still snowfields there and endless high mountain meadows on which to graze. I was there with 3 little kids (10, 7 & 7 years) who spent the 2 days reveling in the fact that they were on Cloud’s mountain watching not only him, but baby horses, Boulder, Cloud’s mother, and the stallions sparring. And the future protection of this herd (and many more like them in the west) relies on these kids and their generation. They identify with Cloud, Spirit, and all those horses that make it real to them. They aren’t just pictures in a book or on the internet, but REAL wild horses. May our collective energy forces be with TCF, FRER and Carol Walker, as well as the Pryor horses!
July 24, 2010 at 9:42 pm |
Amen!
July 25, 2010 at 4:43 pm |
just wonder WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS FENCE AND WHAT IS THE COST TO AMERICAN TAXPAYERS??
why put a fence across a wilderness area – whats the point
just plain stupid