As for “War Horse,” Spielberg said he hopes the movie raises people's awareness and encourages them to be kinder
to animals.
“In this day, people don't have exposure, they don't have interaction with horses,” he said. “I hope
this movie makes people appreciate the innate and natural intelligence of horses. And I also hope this movie brings an awareness
to the plight of horses both after World War I and the plight today in a very sad turn of events in which the slaughtering
of horses is being permitted for food as a renewed export industry, which makes us all very sad.
Regarding the ban that has been lifted on funding the USDA Inspectors at the possible reopening of
the slaughter plants in the United States -
Removal of the defunding language in the appropriations bill is only a small part of what is needed to open financially
successful slaughter facilities in the US. In all the hullabaloo, people seem to be forgetting one important thing
- American horses, domestic or wild, do not pass the European Union's newest safety standards for human consumption. Our domestic
animals are not bred for food and are given frequent doses of medications that render the meat unsafe for human consumption.
Wild horses need to be dewormed when removed from the range and fall into the same category. EU's new rules and regs will
prevent the import of horse meat into their countries in the very near future.
Another thing to remember is H.R.2996, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011. If passed, this would amend
the Horse Protection Act to prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling
or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption.
So where does this all lead us? Will we return to the days when horses of all descriptions were led to wholesale slaughter
for use as dog food? Will we allow breeders to go back to the days when they slaughter horses simply because they are the
wrong color? I have no problem in saying that those horse organizations who celebrate the opening of horse slaughter facilities
in the US are those who are looking to profit from the wanton slaughter of American horses.
I sat with Wild Horse Annie Today
I sat down with Wild Horse Annie today. We had quite the conversation. I complained of how convoluted her law had become,
how it was now a life sentence for the very animals it was intended to protect. She listened quietly, never uttering a word.
“ We really need your help.” I told her. She offered no reply.
The grass surrounding us was cool & refreshing, the day warm & clear. I closed my eyes and imagined a band of wild
horses grazing peacefully nearby. How fitting it would have been. But alas ! Imaginings are nothing more than imaginings.
There were no wild horses and Wild Horse Annie was not going to answer.
Beside me was a small and unassuming grave marker. In that, it was much like the woman buried there. Beneath the name Velma
B. Johnston, Wild Horse Annie and the dates March 5, 1912 - June 27, 1977 are three mustangs, running wild and free. As I
ran my fingers across the relief and looked closer at the image, I realized there was something unexpectedly ominous portrayed
there.
The running mustang trio has reached the edge of a dangerous precipice with no choice left but to jump. The last of the
three is rearing and looking over his shoulder as if deciding whether to fight or flee. Tears started flowing when I put the
scene in the context of the battle we’re waging today. I started sobbing like a crazy fool and blurted out, “
Help me! I don’t know what else to do.”
It was then that a voice came to me,
a gentle but strong whisper in my ear.
“FIGHT” it said, “ Fight like a wild stallion.”
By Carrol Abel
Velma "Wild Horse Annie" Bronn Johnston
Animal Rights Activist. During the 1950s in Nevada, she exposed the cruel and legal methods used by ranchers, hunters,
and "mustangers" to remove wild horses from public lands. "Wild Horse Annie", as she was later known, led a grass roots campaign,
which involved school children writing letters to Congress, in protest of the treatment of the horses. Public outrage and
the innumerable letters written to Congress, resulted in the passing of several pieces of legislation that banned the use
of aircraft and land vehicles in the capture of wild horses. In 1971, former President Nixon signed into law the Wild Free-roaming
Horse and Burro Act, which banned the capture, branding, and death of wild horses on public lands. The 1961 movie "The Misfits"
depicts some of the roundup methods used by the "mustangers" of the 1950s. Johnston died of lung cancer at 65.
Wild Mustang Coalition.org is the information site for the nonprofit organization - The Wild Spirit Horse..http://www.thewildspirithorse.org
An Act Of Congress "Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses
and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; (and) that they contribute to the diversity
of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people ..." (Public Law 92-195, December 15, 1971)
WILD HORSES by Finbarr Winters
Cork, Ireland
Each morning that I wake up I can’t help
but feel so grateful When I look around and see what God Decreed was our birthright. The Mississippi river The
Grand Canyon And the freedom of an eagle As it spreads it mighty wings and takes to flight.
Like wild horses As
they roam across our ranges Are a symbol of the freedom That we all enjoy today. No barriers to hold them No boundaries
control them Wild horses remind me Of the spirit that helped build the USA.
The Trans-American railroad Will
Rogers highway Majestic Rocky Mountains The backbone of our land. Lines of covered wagons The dustbowl and the
desert The dream, the hope, the prayers, Mastered by the power of 2 bare hands.
Wherever man has left his footprint in the long ascent from barbarism to civilization we will
find the hoofprint of the horse beside it. ~JOHN TROTWOOD MOORE
In 1971, an unprecedented public outcry moved Congress to unanimously pass the Wild Free-Roaming
Horse and Burro Act, granting federal protection to America's wild horses and burros as “living symbols of the historic
and pioneer spirit of the West […] that […] contribute to the diversity
of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people.”
NetPosse.com Idaho Alert - TX - Missing AQHA Black
Reining Stallion - Van Zandt County - June 3, 2008
Colonel's
Might "DOC" - Missing in bad divorce. Suspect husband is hiding him in the se Smith/ne Cherokee counties area. Doc belonged
to wife prior to marriage, and she is afraid she will never see him again.
This horse is on medication for ulcers
and will become sick without them. Husband could contact local vet to treat ulcer or even to geld him, so please post in all
local vet offices, feed/tack stores, etc.
Please keep an eye out for this stallion, and email Claudette and let her
know you have her support!
reply:
stolenhorse@netposse.com Home of Idaho Alerts for Missing Horses --Join NetPosse - Never underestimate the power of one! Purchase
microchips and farm security signs at SHI --Proceeds help continue SHII's educational and victim support programs.
NetPosse.com Stolen Horse Alerts for Stolen/Missing
Horses and more ...
A stolen horse could be a long distance in a short
time period. Please pass this to your associations, list groups, council members, friends and ask them to do the same.
If you put information on your website please link the info to NetPosse.com. SHI will be updating information and has the
only flyer ready to print and post for those who want to help. The Internet is great for spreading the
word but success stories show that most horse are found from a flyer. Thank you very much for your generosity in helping these
victims. -- Debi Metcalfe , President--Stolen Horse International.
Please watch the below film, there have been many stories told from the back of a horse, this film tells one from the
heart of one. Please help save the american mustang...before it's too late.
Spirit: Stallion of The Cimarron
Wild horses aren't free
Failure to enforce a 1971 law endangers the mustangs it was supposed to protect.
By Deanne Stillman June 2, 2008
It's not news that America is a cowboy nation, but it may surprise many that we are destroying
the horse we rode in on.
Since the early 1970s, mustangs -- wild horses -- have been protected under the Wild Free-Roaming
Horses and Burro Act, spearheaded by Velma Johnston, a.k.a. Wild Horse Annie. In 1950, she saw blood spilling out of a truck
on a Nevada highway, followed it, and then witnessed injured and dying mustangs being offloaded at a slaughterhouse. She led
a battle to stop the cruel roundups, resulting in the passage of federal protection signed into law by President Nixon in
1971.
Under that law, horses are to be "considered in areas where presently found as an integral part of the system
of public lands." Their management falls to agencies inside the Department of the Interior, primarily the Bureau of Land Management,
which culls the herds based on the land's grazing capacity and what's required to sustain the wild horse population. But the
government also balances the needs of horses against other uses of the range -- and that means corporate cattle ranching.
Today, instead of being protected, mustangs are in danger of being "managed" out of existence.
At the beginning of
the 20th century, there were about 2 million mustangs in the wilderness; according to the government, there are about 23,000
on public lands in the Western states now, and more than half are in Nevada. Wild horse advocates, however, say the number
is much lower. Because the animals have been "zeroed out" from at least 100 of their 300 official herd areas (contrary to
the 1971 law's provisions), they may be on the brink of no return.
Many cattle ranchers have long regarded wild horses
as "pests" that steal food from their herds. The livestock lobby has tried to dismantle the wild horse and burro law through
four U.S. administrations, and it has the political clout to push policy toward a mustang-free America.
In 1990, the
Government Accounting Office looked at the situation: "Wild horses are vastly outnumbered on range lands by livestock. ...
Wild horse removals have taken place in some areas not being damaged by widespread overgrazing." Since then, cattle have
continued to flourish on the range. Today, at least 3 million cattle graze on the same public lands where mustangs make their
living.
One of the stockmen's victories has been a rollback in the 1971 law. When mustangs and burros are culled from
wild herds, they are warehoused by the government and offered for adoption. In 2005, the rules were changed. Now, if horses
aren't adopted on the third try, they "strike out," becoming eligible for sale to the lowest bidder along with mustangs more
than 10 years old (not old for a horse). This means an eventual ticket to the slaughterhouse.
This policy is aggravated
by federal grazing studies that, because of a lack of funding, are often out of date in terms of horse populations and favor
the livestock lobby's version of "appropriate management levels."
"AMLs are frequently inaccurate and not determined
in accordance with the law," says Patricia Fazio, an environmental historian who has monitored the mustang situation for more
than two decades. "Where oh where has scientific management and substantive public input for federal lands gone?"
Wild
horse populations also endure other stresses, such as unscheduled "gathers" during drought. (No other animal is rounded up
under such conditions, and the horses aren't returned to the range after being given a drink.) And none of this is helped
by media that parrot the view that the mustang is an invasive species.
In fact, mustangs are native to this continent,
linked by DNA to horses of the Pleistocene. They evolved in the North American West, crossed the Bering land bridge to Asia
and Europe, and then died out on their native turf in the Ice Age. They returned with the conquistadors in the 16th century,
and for the next 300 years, roaming free or put to work as trailblazers, Indian ponies or cowboy transportation, they were
an essential part of the West.
By the end of the 19th century, mustangs, along with the rest of the Wild West, were
heading toward anachronism. A hydra-headed horseflesh industry arose. Mustangers ripped into the herds, trapping horses and
selling them for chicken feed, or dinner in France, or service in foreign wars. So many were taken from 1920 to 1935 that
the era is known in some circles as "the great removal."
Today, the roundups continue under cover of what is left
of the law. Mustang posses are tax subsidized (although lone operators with guns hunt horses illegally as well). Federal contractors
hunt "humanely" by helicopter. During the last eight years, about 75,000 wild horses have been taken from the land. There
are now more wild horses in government custody than on the range.
Eighteen years after the first GAO investigation
of the wild horse and burro program, a new one is underway. Perhaps it will uncover the absurdity of protecting wild horses
and burros by reducing herds in unwarranted numbers, allowing them to languish in government corrals and making it ever easier
to send them to slaughter.
In the meantime, our heritage is being stripped from the land, with roundups scheduled
through the year. Now is the time for an immediate moratorium on wild horse removals, at least until population studies are
brought up to date.
"We need the tonic of wildness," Nixon said, quoting Thoreau when he signed Wild Horse Annie's
legislation. "Wild horses merit protection as a matter of ecological right, as anyone knows who has stood awed at the indomitable
spirit and sheer energy of a mustang running free."
Deanne Stillman's latest book, "Mustang: The Saga of the Wild
Horse in the American West," will be published June 9 by Houghton Mifflin.
Eight Bells for Eight Belles
A petition urging Churchill Downs to honor Fox Hill Farms' deceased filly Eight Belles by ringing eight bells:
Bob Richter: 'Horse slaughter on the border' tells a difficult story
Web Posted: 09/28/2007 06:02 PM CDT
The front page of Sunday's Express-News is dominated by a disturbing report and a horrendous photograph of something that
I'd guess most of us never have seen, nor want to see.
Lisa Sandberg's story, “Horse slaughter on the border,” illustrated by Jerry Lara's graphic photos of horses
being hacked to death in a Mexican "killing box" and then strung up to bleed to death, dramatizes the usually untold story
of what happens to Black Beauty when she gets old or can't run.
It's a vile situation that was set up when a federal court ordered the closures this year of the last three U.S. slaughterhouses
for horses: two in Texas, one in Illinois. While hailed by animal rights groups, the ruling didn't end the butchering; it
just moved the process across the border, to Mexico and Canada.
After you've read the piece and seen the photographs, you might be wondering what purpose is served by writing about a
process that occurs, albeit under the radar, daily in U.S. meatpacking houses where barnyard animals are butchered and processed
to become main courses on U.S. dinner tables.
There's a distinction, Express-News Managing Editor Brett Thacker contends:
"Yes, we slaughter cows, pigs and chickens by the millions every year in this country, but the practice of butchering and
eating horses induces a certain cringe factor. Thanks to their special place in American lore, horses have earned a status
similar to dogs and cats as companion animals, not beasts to be killed for consumption.
"The fact that it's socially unacceptable is a big reason the government shut down the slaughterhouses in Texas and Illinois.
Now, some entrepreneurial sorts have found a way around the ban and are making a few dollars by trucking the horses across
our borders. By shedding a light on the practice with this story, maybe Congress will follow through and close this export
loophole."
That justification notwithstanding, Lara's photos taken inside a Ciudad Juarez slaughterhouse were particularly lurid.
Several were published with Sandberg's story, making it easier for her to describe the process. About 30 more photos, shot
the same day, are here on MySA.com.
Lara, whose long body of work here at the Express-News includes scores of sensitive, artistic photographs, said officials
were "very accommodating" to his wants and "took pride in the facility," but he was troubled by the Juarez shoot.
"As kids growing up in the U.S., we are bombarded with images in movies, paintings and photographs of the majestic horse.
Seeing it reduced to a step in the food chain was trying. Seeing the animal stabbed, at times repeatedly, was tough."
Pam DelaBar is a bona fide local animal lover – a trained animal abuse investigator, horsewoman and president of
the World Cat Congress. She disagreed with the closure of the Texas slaughterhouses where, she says, horses were killed humanely
and the meat was shipped to places where it is legal and desirable to eat, including zoos.
"This is the fallout, this is the other side of that legislation," DelaBar said, "that horses won't be humanely slaughtered,
or they'll be starved to death."
Animal welfare advocates who lobbied to outlaw horse slaughter in this country now are lobbying Congress to outlaw the
shipment of horses across the border for slaughter. As Sandberg wrote: “No one disputes that slaughter-bound horses
have it far worse today than they did before .....”
While editors here expect an outcry, “Horse slaughter on the border” is an important story, and the newspaper
is justified in publishing it. However, my gut tells me that even if Congress bans shipment of U.S. horses across international
boundaries, the law won't work any better than current U.S. law does in stopping immigrants from illegally crossing our borders.
What do you think?
Bob Richter is the Express-News public editor. His opinions are his own. Contact him at (210) 250-3264 or brichter@express-news.net.
Read his blog at MySA.com, keyword: publiceditor.
H.R.249 Title: To restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and
burros. Sponsor: Rep Rahall, Nick J., II [WV-3] (introduced 1/5/2007) Cosponsors (17) Related Bills:H.RES.331 Latest Major Action: 4/26/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and
referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. House Reports: 110-93
Please go to the BLM Mustang page to see how you can help.
