A Wild Mustang And Burro Redemption! December 4, 2008

Nevada wild mustangs

(Photo courtesy of Bonnie Jo Mount – The Washington Post)

You are invited to attend a cyber-party honoring America’s wild mustangs and burros!

Please bring your joy, your big heart and plenty of tissues! Party is taking place right now in this post. Tell your friends!

(What do you bring to a wild mustang party, you ask? Plenty of carrots and apples? Well, wild mustangs won’t know what those food items are, but I’m sure they’d appreciate the thought!)

You know those 30,000 wild mustangs and burros in BLM captivity facing euthanasia and slaughter that I’ve been blogging about relentlessly? The ones we’ve been fighting to save, signing petitions for and contacting our legislators about?

They’re SAFE!

I read the article linked below, and cried with joy.   

Click here: A Dramatic Rescue for Doomed Wild Horses of the West – washingtonpost.com

“Madeleine Pickens, wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, made known her intentions to adopt not just the doomed wild horses but most or all of the 30,000 horses and burros kept in federal holding pens. Lifelong animal lovers, the Pickenses just a few years ago led the fight to close the last horse slaughterhouse in the United States.

Madeleine Pickens is looking for land in the West that would be an appropriate home for the horses.

She is working with the BLM staff to adopt the horses, said Henri Bisson, the bureau’s deputy director, while the agency persuades Congress to shift $20 million in funding to feed and protect the horses now in captivity for another year. As backup to Pickens’s offer, he said, two other groups, both animal rescue organizations, have expressed similar interest in adoption. “We are very hopeful that euthanasia won’t be necessary this year,” he said.”

Things like this restore my faith in humanity and in the horse-sized hearts of animal lovers everywhere.

Some of the best miracles in life remain those man-made, when people pool their resources and good intentions in the name of our precious animals that have no voice of their own.

T. Boone Pickens and Madeleine Pickens, my hat is off to you! Thank you for saving the day and the lives of America’s mustangs and burros!

Best of all, these animals will remain FREE — running free across the West as they’ve done for centuries.

“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” Bells are ringing all around the world!

Now, off I go to find more tissues.

Author’s Note: Now that an hour has passed and my boots are back on the ground again, as I would swear I was walking on air, this is great news, but it’s only great news for the 2008 mustangs and burros. There remains a serious, fatal issue for these equines that MUST be solved. Without public outcry and changing legislature, the horses aren’t safe for good. Nothing less is acceptable.

Did you know that the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act used to offer hard-fought-for, full protection to the wild mustangs and burros, and resulted from an unprecedented public outcry much like ours, today?

Click here: The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign

Then, in 2004 Senator Conrad Burns slipped in a secret amendment that stripped away these protections without public knowledge or debate. One tragic consequence of this unethical action was the legal round-up and slaughter of America’s wild mustangs and burros. 

Click here: The Conrad Burns Wild Horse Slaughter Amendment

I guess the question is, is that okay with you? This is YOUR country, YOUR wildlife, YOUR tax dollars. These are YOUR horses and burros. 

It might not be you, it may be your children or grandchildren who fall in love with horses both domestic and wild, however, the horses and burros are counting on us to do what’s right NOW — for our future generations, and for theirs.

So please, take a moment to sign the petition to save the mustangs. The petition can be accessed through the wild horse badges on my home page. We still need support through your ongoing signatures so we can save ALL the horses! 

Have you already signed the petition, but haven’t gotten your fill of changing the world? The petition below

Click here: American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign Petition

 calls for a Congressional inquiry into the government’s wild horse management practices.

Heart-felt thanks go out to all those who’ve signed the petitions or called their legislators on behalf of America’s horses.

(And p.s. — thank you Jupiter and Venus!)

The Conyers-Burton Prevention Of Equine Cruelty Act Of 2008. July 29, 2008

Shooting Star, a wild Nevada Mustang foaled in a killbuyer’s feedlot, on arrival.

With much excitement for America’s horses, both domesticated and wild, there is a new bill being presented to Congress in the people’s ongoing attempts to end the slaughter of America’s horses for human consumption.

Called the Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008 (H.R. 6598), this legislation will prohibit the sale and transport of horses for the purpose of human consumption, effectively ending the agony of horses being transported/exported long distances to Mexico and Canada for slaughter, sometimes on double-decker trailers intended for cows, and without food or water.

This new legislation differs from the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S.311) because its focus is the inherent cruelty of horse slaughter. Because of this, it has been referred to the Judiciary Committee for consideration. The Committee Chairman, Representative John Conyers, is the lead sponsor of the bill. It is very possible that this bill has a greater chance of being enacted than the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, which has been stalled (most likely deliberately) in Committee since April 2007.

The Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing in regard to this bill on Thursday, July 31st, 2008, and the Humane Society of the United States President Wayne Pacelle will testify in support of the legislation. Testimony is presently being collected from Americans who do horse rescue, and who man the front lines of this awful, heartbreaking situation.

This is exactly what America’s horses need — protection and championing.

Let me shout it from the rooftops — Americans do not eat their pets! Pets are family, not food! Horses are considered pets and companion animals, not livestock or meat!

Why are we exporting our family members onto foreign dinner plates? Money, greed, and because the people who do so are counting on Americans to either not know, or not care.

We care! We care about the horses!

Shooting Star today.

All three horses in this photo were saved from slaughter.

(photos by Emily Murdoch)

Want to help? Please write, call or email your Representatives today, and urge them to support the Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008. Your voice is God’s, for these horses.

Want the low down on horse slaughter, and a timeline for anti-slaughter legislation? 

Click here: LEGISLATION:  American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 311)

And for this current legislation:

Click here: Congress Addressing Horse Slaughter Cruelty in New Federal Legislation | The H

Want to see the Humane Society’s undercover slaughter investigation?  

Click here: Take Action: Watch Our Undercover Footage of U.S. Horses Exported to Mexico fo

 (WARNING — This is not for the faint of heart. Contains graphic images, and it’s heartbreaking.)