Just copy and paste the letter
below and email your representatives. Use these links to find out who
your representative are:
Write your House Representatives
Write your Senator!
Date:
Dear
I am writing to request your leadership and support
of the following actions that I recommend be taken in order to save our
wild horses and burros. Over 12,000 of our wild horses and burros are to
be removed in massive roundups planned by the Bureau of Land Management.
The vast majority of these roundups are unnecessary and will cost the
American taxpayers over $30 million dollars initially and then millions
more in costs to feed and transport horses removed from the range.
Please enact an immediate moratorium on all roundups except those
determined to be a true emergency by independent sources. Over 35% of
our wild horses and burros will be lost this fiscal year alone.
Second, please call for an independent census to
determine the true numbers of horses left in the wild and the true
condition of their rangelands, thus determining the number of horses
that land can sustain. In addition, evaluate how many privately-owned
livestock are in that herd management areas and retire grazing permits
in all these areas. Less than 33,000 wild horses remain on our public
lands, down from an estimated 54,000 in 1974. Meanwhile, over 3 million
head of livestock graze on public lands - many owned by huge companies,
not by family ranchers. Federal public lands grazing is
estimated to be a $123 million/year net loss and the true cost to our
environment is much higher (estimated upwards of $500 million to $1
billion per year in damages). We would save money and wild horses by
simply paying legitimate ranchers not to graze.
Further investigations into the BLM's Wild Horse &
Burro program are called for. Secretary Salazar’s recent plan to move
26,000 wild horses to expensive eastern preserves in sterilized and
segregated herds is not the answer. The west is the home of the wild
horse and 54 million acres of public lands were set aside primarily for
their use as free roaming wild animals in 1971. Nearly 25 million acres
have since been taken away from them and it is time lands were returned.
In the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act, Congress
unanimously decreed and found that wild horses were “fast disappearing
from the American scene”. At the end of 2010 we’ll have lost over 60% of
the horses and burros that lived on the range in the early 1970s. The
Act clearly states: It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming
horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment,
or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area
where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the
public lands.
BLM, simply put, is not following the letter or the
spirit of the law. It is time to consider if this agency is capable of
managing our wild horses and burros on our public lands. The
mismanagement with our tax dollars must stop- beginning with a
moratorium on the massive roundups now underway.
This is a matter of great importance to my family and
me. Thank you for your immediate action and attention to our
disappearing herds.
Sincerely,
