International
'Hearts for Horses' Campaign
Authoring Change for Wild Horses and the Readers who
Love Them, author Terri Farley partners up with The
Cloud Foundation to launch the International ‘Heart
for Horses’ campaign!
When government helicopters stampeded the last wild
horses out of the snowy Calico Mountains into traps
outside of the public’s view, Terri Farley, author
of HarperCollins’ best-selling PHANTOM STALLION
series based on the Calico mustangs, decided to take
action.
“The true privilege of any wild horse is to live a
life of freedom, surrounded by their family in the
land of their birth. Fewer and fewer have that
privilege,” says Cloud Foundation founder, Ginger
Kathrens, whose films and books about Cloud and his
wild herd are real-life adventures. “Terri’s books
may be fiction, but they capture so realistically
the drama of living wild and free. And, like her
wild horse characters, she too has grit and
determination. She is not afraid to stand up and
speak for our mustangs who seem to have no voice or
place in the Obama Administration.”
In
response to her readers, Farley partners with The
Cloud Foundation to launch the Hearts for Horses
campaign which answers the question: What can I do
to help the mustangs?
Visitors to PhantomStallion.com, TerriFarley.com and
TheCloudFoundation.org will find the Hearts for
Horses campaign—a list of ways they can work to
protect wild herds. Launched today, the campaign
will continue until a moratorium on all roundups is
in effect. A moratorium is necessary to provide time
for hearings regarding the BLM’s mismanagement of
wild herds on the public’s land and to create a
sustainable plan for wild horse and burro management
in the West.
Supporters are encouraged to cut out paper hearts;
decorate them with glitter and messages before
sending them to First Lady Michelle Obama. They can
make short YouTube videos showing the plight of the
horses, print out petitions, find reading lists,
articles and more ways to get involved.
Farley devoted much of 2009 to bringing the world of
wild horses into classrooms, libraries and
conferences. Most recently, she’s been interviewed
by the national media and addressed rallies to save
America’s wild horses and burros.
The
writer isn’t sure she’s cut out for activism, but
says PHANTOM STALLION fans leave her little choice.
“When my stories show readers that they should speak
up for what they believe, even if their voices
shake, I can’t very well sit home at my computer
with a cup of tea and a cat on my lap, can I?”
comments Farley.
Already Farley hears from hundreds of readers daily.
“I max out my email limit constantly,” she says.
Understandable as the PHANTOM STALLION series has
sold over a million copies internationally.
“These kids are readers and they love wild horses,”
she says. “They’re giving themselves a crash course
in democracy so they can be sure Congress knows what
they’re thinking. Their letters speak of the balance
of nature, compensatory reproduction and viable herd
genetics. I guess they’re learning some biology,
too. So, really, they shouldn’t be dismissed as
teary-eyed kids. They’re writing from their heads as
well as their hearts.”
The
most recent BLM roundup ended weeks ahead of
schedule and 600 mustangs short of their 2,500 horse
goal with BLM saying they “were satisfied” and
stating that 600 mustangs now remained on the half
million acres, formerly the last stronghold of the
American wild horse. Before the hasty ending, at
least 39 horses had died including two foals (under
a year old) who literally had their hooves run off
as a result of the roundup. Many of the horses shot
or euthanized were old mares (females). Some were in
their twenties. More than 30 mares have
spontaneously aborted their foals in the corrals
resulting from the stressful winter roundup.
Advocates expect that number to increase.
The public cannot be sure how many horses will die
as the BLM begins “processing”—gelding (sterilizing)
the stallions and freeze-branding all 1922 captured
mustangs. BLM is denying humane observers and the
public the right to visit the facility after
Saturday February 13th. With the pending lawsuit,
advocates state the BLM must not castrate the
stallions since there is a possibility of returning
them to the wild. If the lawsuit does not protect
the Calico horses then their eventual fate is to be
warehoused at taxpayer expense, joining 34,000
mustangs already in holding. There are now far more
wild horses in holding than in the wild.
The assault on some of the horses closest to
Farley’s heart—the Calico herds—convinced her to
join a federal lawsuit to stop the roundup. Farley
became a plaintiff in the case In Defense of Animals
v. Secretary Salazar in December 2009. The
preliminary injunction to stop the roundup in
December was denied but the animal cruelty case will
be heard April 30, 2010 in Washington.
“These round-ups aren’t being done to save the range
or protect the horses,” says Farley, “and you don’t
have to be a conspiracy theorist to suspect they are
being conducted in response to special interests
with deep pockets.”
She devoted 2009 to talking about wild horses
instead of writing about them, readers approve, but
are impatient. Farley is eager to get back to her
computer, to the West she can control with a
keystroke, but she refuses to let the mustangs
disappear without a fight.
“I don’t want to grow old in a world where kids
believe wild horses only lived in fairy tales—like
unicorns.”
Take Action - Visit:
http://www.phantomstallion.com/hearts_for_horses.shtml
and
http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/kids-corner
Other Links of interest:
Photos and graphics and drawing courtesy of Terri
Farley
