Stop the Killing and Waste of Tax Dollars

This is what it looked like on a summer morning on public land in Idaho last month.

And this is what it looked like hours later, after the Bureau of Land Management's "gathering" of the wild horses by helicopter, chasing one wild stallion relentlessly. According to the Cloud Foundation, "In the Challis round up in Idaho round up just last week six horses were killed, six foals were orphaned and the majority of the 400+ horses lost their freedom. All this destruction when the range looks the best it has in over 80 years according to local residents."



You can read more about it here.

It reminds me of the strip mining sites I've seen. Is this the future of our great American West? Cloud's herd is also scheduled for a round-up in September. Please take a moment and help.

(Both photos by Elissa Kline, published on wildhorsepreservation.com, July 2009.)

Horse Boy

There was an amazing story on the CBS Evening News a couple weeks ago (this post was completed on May 10). A boy with autism who didn't talk was put on a horse by his dad, and he began to speak. The parents went all the way to Mongolia to learn about the healing power of horses. Read more here.

And speaking of equine therapy, there's another facility called "Hero Hearts EquiCenter, Inc." that is going to be having activities in June, including the Hero Hearts program for veterans. Their e-mail address is heroheartsequicentr@yahoo.com.

Another Outrage

Normally I don't follow celebrity stories, but the one on the trustees disbursing Leona Helmsley's estate disturbed me for two reasons. Leaving the dogs out of it, I was dumbfounded that "trustees" could disburse money against the deceased's wishes. After reading the New York Times article, I learned she had a statement that left some of the disbursement to her trustees. But it wasn't intended to be the vast majority, I'm sure. And by all accounts, Ms. Helmsley did not even like people.

How strange is it that there were death threats against her dog because it inherited $12 million (a judge reduced to $2 million). The judge then gave her grandchildren $6 million although they were "explicitly" left out of the will.

So dog charities were given $1 million of $136 million disbursed. What this says to me is the lack of regard people have for "poor, dumb animals" (my wording) compared to people. I don't dispute the value of medical research (which probably is using dogs as lab animals), but I think Ms. Helmsley's wishes were ignored. The bottom line is, make your will crystal clear. And I personally hope Ms. Helmsley is haunting her brother, grandsons, lawyer, and friend. What a difference that money could have made in the millions of homeless animals killed each year because they are inconvenient to humans. (Photo of Maltese like Trouble, Helmsley's dog, from pets911.com.)

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
--Mahatma Gandhi

Happy Earth Day!

An Outrage

(UPDATE to Blog of January 14)

The man who was on trial for beating and dragging his horse behind his truck was found NOT GUILTY by a jury on felony animal cruelty charges. And the man is a geriatric nurse!

Read more here.

Kachina, the abused horse, is now leaving peacefully at Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary. Here she is running free with some PMU (Pregnant Mare Urine) horses. These are horses that were used to make the drugs Premarin and others.

The Magic of Misty

I follow the blog of a naturalist and field biologist who mainly writes about birds, and his latest posts were about a trip to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. After the first post, a lot of women commented that it was great that he was seeing so many birds, especially many on his life list, but what about the ponies?

Like my mother and me, they had read Marguerite Henry's "Misty of Chincoteague" about the wild ponies that lived on Assateague, a neighboring island of Chincoteague. The book is based on a true story of a wild pony foal that was adopted with her mother by the Beebe family from one of the yearly roundups to raise money for the Chincoteague Fire Department. I have my mother's copy as well as my own. It was one of many beautiful horse books Ms. Henry wrote and Wesley Dennis illustrated. I once wrote a letter to Ms. Henry and told her how much the book had meant to me and my mother. She sent me the postcard below. Ms. Henry got Rheumatic Fever at the age of 7, which kept her out of school for several years. She learned to love reading and later writing.

I always wanted to go to Chincoteague with my mother and see the wild ponies. That did not happen, but it is still on my life list. I always wanted to adopt one of the ponies, too. There is an organization called The Feather Fund which makes that dream come true for little girls and boys every July during Pony Penning Days in Chincoteague, Virginia.

(Book image by applebybooks.net)
UPDATE 4/5/09: The pony pictures and a video were posted today on Mon@rch's website.

Earth Mothers

The theme of Women’s History Month (WHM) is “Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet” featuring Rachel Carson, "the founder of the contemporary environmental movement, as the iconic model of the theme. Rachel Carson's work provides an admirable model for comparison." I have her book “Silent Spring” which I haven’t read, but I think about what it would be like if there were no birds (which is why it has that title) all the time. The quote on the WHM poster is "The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction." Sadly, she died of cancer at the age of 56.

Also being honored is Jane Goodall, the wildlife researcher, educator, and conservationist. Ms. Goodall, along with other pioneers like Dian Fossey, focused her research on the animals' relationships with each other more than their male counterparts did.

"What I find really fascinating is the way in which people's questions about the inner lives of animals have changed over the years. After lectures people used to be totally fascinated with the question of what do they do about death? More recently, as we've gradually broken down the barriers, again and again, I am asked, do they have souls? This reflects, I think, a change in the way people are thinking? --Jane Goodall, "The Dance of Awe," A COMMUNION OF SUBJECTS: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics, ed. By Paul Waldau and Kimberly Patton.

There's more information on the Women's History Project WHM web pages.

Tucson Rodeo Parade--Horse Abuse?

Channel 13, KOLD Tucson, showed this You Tube video of a downed horse that was kicked and had its tail pulled when it would not get up during the parade on Thursday morning. The video begins with the horse lying on the ground; it is not shown what happened before. It is being investigated, and a veterinarian who had not seen the video said sometimes it is necessary to kick a horse when it has colic because if it doesn't get up, it will die. Well, supposedly the man tried to re-enter the parade and was not allowed to, so I would say the horse did not have colic. The parade is billed as the longest non-mechanized parade in the country, and according to its web site there is "zero tolerance for animal abuse."

They do have a lot of rules concerning safety of the animals, participants, and the parade viewers, especially after a 5-year-old girl was killed in 2007 when her horse was spooked.

I also found a video claiming electric shocksare used on the bucking broncos. That video is a lot clearer, and I don't think it could have been altered but I'm not an expert. The group that posted it says the rodeo claims the horses are "born to buck." I went to a few rodeos when I was young and from that and reading about it, I came to my own conclusion that except for the barrel racing, a lot of cruelty was involved.

UPDATE by Channel 13 on March 10: The rodeo parade committee now says the horse was ridden in the rest of the parade, and they visited the horse later and found no signs of abuse. But incredibly, there are no veterinarians present along the parade route, although they may consult the ones at the rodeo grounds. Since this is the longest non-mechanized parade in the country, that is totally unacceptable.