Last Chance for Animals (LCA) urges everyone to attend the peaceful rally to oppose wild horse roundups. Wild
horse preservationists are organizing an informative and peaceful rally this Wednesday January 6, 2010 in Los Angeles
at 11:00am in front of Senator Diane Feinstein's office building, asking the
senator to help secure a moratorium on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundups
of wild horses living on public lands in the West. The rally coincides with week two of a massive
BLM roundup and removal of 2,500 wild horses living in the Calico Mountains
Complex in northwestern Nevada.
Another BLM roundup is scheduled to begin January 15 in Utah
and a second Nevada
roundup is slated for February.
The
peaceful rally is being organized by members of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign coalition and will feature actor Wendy Malick, supermodel
and activist Tatjana Patitz, award winning author Deanne Stillman and Petrine Mitchum, daughter of
legendary actor Robert Mitchum and author of Hollywood Hoofbeats, a history of horses in Hollywood.
It is one of many rallies
taking place across the country and internationally to protest the U.S.
government's destructive wild horse policy.
The BLM intends to remove up 12,000 horses from their
western ranges in 2010 and place them in Midwestern holding facilities, where
they will join the 33,000 wild horses already being warehoused by BLM at
taxpayer expense. The number of horses in the BLM's Midwestern warehouses
exceeds those left on the range.
What: Peaceful Rally for America's Wild Horses
Where: In
front of Senator Dianne Feinstein's Office
11111 Santa Monica Blvd, Suite 915, Los Angeles, 90025
When: Wednesday, January 6, 2009 11:00am-1:00pm
Who:
Members of the American Wild Horse
Preservation Campaign coalition, including: Return To Freedom, American Wild
Horse Sanctuary, In Defense of Animals, Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue and The
Cloud Foundation
"An
immense amount of tax dollars are being spent on the removal of wild horses
while less intrusive and less costly 'in the wild' management alternatives
exist," says Neda DeMayo,
founder of Return to Freedom American Wild Horse Sanctuary and a spokesperson for the
Campaign. "Americans want their wild horses to remain free and protected on the
ranges where they currently exist. We are asking that the original spirit and
intent of the Wild Free Roaming horse and Burro Act be upheld so that our
grandchildren's children will know the herds, who are a vital link to our
western heritage".
"Coalition members are calling on Senator Feinstein to
once again become a champion of America's
wild horses," said Elliot Katz, DVM, president of In Defense of Animals.
"It's wrong to move America's
wild horses off their rightful western ranges to put in BLM warehouses in the Midwest. Since the horses are removed to make more room
for livestock grazing, why not move the cattle to the Midwest
and leave the horses alone?"
Jill Starr of Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue exclaims "How
ironic that the very symbols of American freedom are quickly
becoming prisoners of hypocrisy. The iconic American mustangs are
soon to be just ghosts blowing across our dusty deserts haunting our memories
and that is all we will have left one day to remind us of what our country once
believed in and stood for!"
Lise Stampfli Torme, a wild horse advocate and
Cloud Foundation volunteer stated: "We are outraged that BLM is proceeding
with this roundup under a cloud of controversy and against a US District Court
judge's recommendation. The agency has moved the capture points to private land
where the public cannot see how their contractors are treating our living
legends. An immediate moratorium on all wild horse roundups must be implemented
until the BLM's broken wild horse management program can be reformed."
Launched
in 2004, the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign was formed as a uniting
and grassroots tool to help protect America's wild horses on their
rightful ranges, on our public lands. The campaign is represented by a
coalition of 50 diverse organizations collectively representing over 10 million
people nationwide.
For more information on this peaceful protest:
Contacts:
310-301-
7730
For the Animals,
Campaigns Department
