Two-Week-Old Wild Horse Shot and Killed Before California Roundup
Dear Friends,
Please take some time to read up on this disturbing story of a two-week old foal being brutally shot to death near where the latest wild horse roundup by the Bureau of Land Management in California at Twin Peaks is taking place. Please note the photos below are actual photos and are very alarming.
Sincerely,
Madeleine Pickens
Sacramento, CA (August 13, 2010)—The body of a wild horse foal was found near the site of the Twin Peaks roundup Wednesday by Craig Downer, wildlife ecologist and Cloud Foundation Board member, and Christy Davis, wild horse advocate. Davis, an experienced horse woman, examined the foal for any broken bones. What she found was an apparent rope burn on a rear leg as well as a gunshot wound.
“It seems as though the foal was shot in the gut,” Davis states. “It looked as though the foal was abused, lassoed around the hind legs and dragged.”
The foal, approximately 2 weeks old, was killed prior to the start of the controversial Twin Peaks Herd Management Area roundup in Northern California. When Davis told BLM officials about finding the gunshot foal, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee, Carman Prisco, told Davis she must be confused and the dead animal was an antelope. Photos taken by Downer confirmed that this is indeed a wild horse foal.
Photographs taken at the capture site, set on sharp lava rock, reveal blood stains within the trap.
Mustang advocates ask BLM law enforcement to conduct a thorough investigation into the abuse and death of the federally protected wild horse—killed before independent contractor, Cattoor Livestock, began rounding up wild horses with helicopters.
Field reports from those on the ground noted a severely injured white stallion that suffered head trauma supposedly from fighting with other stallions in tightly packed transport vehicles. Even though the injury was serious, the BLM contractor was quoted as saying a vet “might need” to be called. The whereabouts of that stallion are currently unknown. Another stallion was off loaded into a pen with eight mules that attacked him, causing traumatic injuries. This incident was also brought to the attention of the BLM by public observers.
Advocates were told yesterday that there were no injuries, yet when they went to look at the horses in holding, the area was blocked off. They were told that they could not access the area because the “injured horses” needed to rest.
Injuries are not uncommon in roundups and underscore the need for public access, says Ginger Kathrens, Director of the Cloud Foundation and EMMY Award-winning producer.
“Access is absolutely essential and is granted by the Constitution,” says Kathrens. “The ‘acceptable’ suffering of these horses is simply not acceptable to the caring public.”
Laura Leigh, Cloud Foundation Herd Watch coordinator, agrees.
“If this is what we see when the BLM actually allows us in, what happens when they black out their actions to the press and public?” asks Leigh, plaintiff for the Owyhee round-up that ended July 20 in Nevada, “The time for real Congressional intervention is long overdue.”
The recent round-up in Tuscarora, Nevada—also run by Cattoor Livestock—resulted in the deaths of thirty-six wild horses.
