Lompoc, CA RTF News: Biden's Wild Horse Budget; Spirit's Special Visitor

[Dianne]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Return to Freedom <wildh...@returntofreedom.org>

Subject: RTF News: Biden's Wild Horse Budget; Spirit's Special Visitor

Date: March 29, 2022 at 4:47:59 PM MDT

Reply-To: outr...@returntofreedom.org

Wild horses at RTF's San Luis Obispo, Calif., satellite sanctuary. Photo by Meg Frederick.  Biden Budget Calls for $16.1 Million Increase for BLM's Wild Horse Program  President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget proposal, released on Monday, includes $153.1 for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program, up $16.1 million from the FY 2022 budget signed into law earlier this month.  “Excess wild horse and burro populations undermine the health of public rangelands and adversely affect other uses of the lands and the species that depend on them,” reads the BLM budget section (see page 2). “The (Interior) Department looks forward to continued dialogue and support from Congress to achieve (Appropriate Population Management) levels and a fiscally sustainable program.” The budget proposal provides no detail beyond those two sentences.  Congress must not write BLM a blank check. It falls to appropriators to hold BLM’s feet to the fire on using taxpayer funding to implement proven, safe and humane fertility control in a manner that can truly phase out the agency’s decades-old, failed practice of trying to manage wild horses and burros by removing them from the range.  Congress must not allow BLM to continue aggressively removing wild horses and burros from their home ranges with the vague promise that the agency will implement fertility control when it reaches its own arbitrarily low population targets. BLM has promised to use fertility control before and failed to do so, resulting in higher population numbers on the range and in off-range holding even as the agency decimated family bands and herds at one Herd Management Area after another.  Lawmakers must press BLM to implement proven, safe, and humane fertility control now — or the failed cycle of capturing and warehousing America’s wild horses and burros will not end. Simply doing more of the same will result in skyrocketing costs and further suffering for wild horses facing yet another roundup.  CONTINUE READING TAKE ACTION: TELL CONGRESS IT MUST PRESS BLM ON FERTILITY CONTROL Scarlett Nguyen shares time (and apples!) with Spirit.  Spirit's Magical Day with a Special Visitor Scarlett Nguyen is a bright, kind and confident girl who just turned 8. She was diagnosed with a genetic disorder that will lead to total blindness and went from normal vision to legally blind in just six months. Scarlett was stable at that level of sight for about a year and a half, until recently.  Scarlett’s parents, Cindy and John, made the 270-mile drive from their home in Modesto, Calif., to RTF’s headquarters sanctuary in Lompoc, Calif., so that their daughter could meet Spirit while she had some vision remaining. Her brothers, Dylan and Luke, and her grandma, Michelle, also made the trip. Scarlett’s passion is horses. She lives and breathes all things Spirit, right down to wearing a Spirit bow in her hair, and is a fan of wild horses, in general, even arranging her toy plastic horses into herds at "sanctuaries" in her home. About a year ago, she rode a horse for the first time as a reward for all of the Braille lessons that she works so hard on. “She always says she wants to be free, just like Spirit,” her mother, Cindy, told us. CONTINUE READING AND SEE MORE PHOTOS Burros at RTF's San Luis Obispo satellite sanctuary. Photo by Patti Walsh.  We Need Your Vote to Compete for Grant Funding!  Time is running out! This round of voting at My Giving Circle's website ends Thursday.  Please give us your vote as we compete for grant funds to care for more than 450 wild horses and burros. It takes just a moment to vote and a $1,000 grant would pay for more than 2 tons of much-needed hay!  CLICK TO VOTE! PLEASE MAKE A DONATION TO RETURN TO FREEDOM TODAY AND SUPPORT OUR LIFESAVING WORK I PREFER PAYPAL Contact Us  Return to Freedom  P.O. Box 926 Lompoc, CA 93438  Phone: (805) 737-9246  http://returntofreedom.org/contact/