Listen to this carefully…. this is the betrayal.

“Hope” died of hoof slough (feet falling off), Calico Complex 2010. Click photo to go to story.

When I talk about the “pain” I feel as an American watching what is happening to our wild horses and burros THIS is what I am talking about. I was raised in a family where you served your country, because to do so was an honor. I was raised in a family where being an “American” was a driving force to serving in World Wars where my grandpa left a family at home who was “on a list” as of German heritage… and may have been interned. I was raised in a family that was silent when the TV blared the National Anthem before a baseball game. I was raised in a family that said the pledge of allegiance as if it were genetic code…”with Liberty and Justice for all.”

Our wild horses and burros are a lawful user of public land. Living as resilient survivors with hardly anything they thrive in that Freedom… or so we thought. Once WE were that resilient survivor… the were no “problems,” only “opportunities.”

I sit on that range and am pierced through my very American heart. I feel betrayed by my government’s lack of recognition of the living being that represents MY interest on MY public land, be subjugated and abused as the rights of private profiteers over run my rights. “Liberty and Justice for all,” has been replaced with “it only has worth if it represents a dollar.”

MY Constitution WAS based on Liberty, Freedom, Equality, Bravery and sheer Grit of those that faced charges of treason for signing that first Declaration of our Independence. Is there a dollar figure that represents Liberty, Freedom, Equality,Bravery and sheer Grit? Are we that genuinely see success as more than a bank account so outnumbered that hope is lost?

I sit on the range and weep for our symbol of Freedom, the wild horse, and what my country is becoming. Yet that “genetic code” I was born with makes it impossible to walk away as those that value “profit lines” destroy our equal right to an interest that’s value fuels the soul… the spirit of a wild horse. I believe we are not outnumbered. I believe we will change the management of wild horses. I believe America can be great again….

Thank you for letting me “vent” here. I am studying briefs and arguments made by our government about how they wont do right by the horses and deny anything is wrong…. as this program gains an attention as they lie about everything from wild horses going to slaughter (and Salazar himself is implicated) to court documents that state “all horses were handled humanely on the range,” (after 3 TRO’s by Federal Judges that disagree). A BIG part of WHY I began this crazy “ride” is to tell a story the American media ignored… one that speaks MY soul as an American. I am an Advocate… but I am a journalist. The concept that a journalist is an machine that types a non-emotional, bi-partisan (bi-polar) report is a cop out. As a kid I watched Cronkite cry…

Please watch the below video and FOLLOW the work for the wild horses at Wild Horse Education. We need your help. http://WildHorseEducation.org

Strong language alert

click image below to go to my website

Jackson Mountain stallion watches his mares after arrival at PVC. They will be separated here, he will go to the stud pens and they with the mares.

from the desk of Laura Leigh, President of Wild Horse Education (follow ongoing work at wild horse education website)

It is very hard to describe the personal experience of the current state of the issues that Wild Horse Education is addressing for our herds.

On one hand this has been an extraordinary physical marathon of range work, in all kinds of weather, under all kinds of physical extremes. Dust, mud, blistering heat and frigid temperatures take a toll on equipment and ones physical body. Files are massive and the quantity of documentation fills drive after drive and causes laptops to choke. The vehicle makes new sounds every time it is shaken, bounced, bumped and run in sub freezing temperatures or high heat, your physical body begins to mirror the creaks and groans. The very real need to expand this aspect of the work is apparent. This aspect of the work is what gives us the ability to demonstrate a first hand knowledge of the range and present accurate information toward gaining real changes as we try to bring an honest conversation to the management of wild horses and burros to the agency itself, the public, legislature and if needed, the Federal courts. You make this part of the journey looking like a character out of “Mad Max,” or other post apocalyptic film, half the time. You forget to brush your hair, have no time to clean your clothes and your equipment is a mishmash of devices pieced together that looks like it shouldn’t even run but is a powerful editing tool.

On the other hand this work requires diligent research and organization. Thousands of hours of video footage, hundreds of thousands of still photographs, assessment documents and grids, reference material and the hundreds of documents filed in court. You have to focus, wear the right glasses to read,  remember to shower, and raise your vocabulary above the guttural sounds that your dog finds acceptable as conversation on the road.

Then there is another aspect, communication with the public. Somewhere between being a “range rat” and an “accountant” you need to remember the social skills to engage the public in a conversation that relays what you “gained” on the range, digested in the “library,” in a manner that speaks to the daily lives of “normal.”

Many of you have written wondering what it is like to do this work… the best way I can describe it… it is like carrying a bag filled with “hats.” Some of the hats you have worn before and they fit well, others don’t fit quite right but when you wear them in enough storms they shrink and mold and become familiar.

Today I sit at the computer organizing three active cases against the Federal government. Two of them speak to the objective of gaining a humane handling policy for wild horses and burros, one of them speaks to access to animals from range “through ultimate disposition, adoption, sale or death.” I am organizing depositions, documents and editing video footage for various purposes.

High Rock, 10-30 (Leigh) 6 escape the trap

I wanted to “touch base” with the followers of the blog and say “whew” as we gain the first step in the conversation at Owyhee toward gaining a “humane” objective in the ten year plan and “where’s the #@*! coffee?” as we start to compile and hone the effort on access. The work we are doing on land use plans and investigations such as the slaughter issue are also still in progress AND I have to get back out on the range.

Yes, there is an extraordinary amount of work that needs done YESTERDAY. There are tools that as an advocacy we do not have and must literally build. But this is not without hope… we are building the tools and creating the language for conversations based on first hand observation… we are gaining a conversation that can lead to changes… that can grow to more changes. It IS movement.

As a MOVEMENT we must recognize that fact and gain momentum. If there is an opportunity, no matter how small, if it is not seized the moment passes. The road to change leads to change as the road of apathy leads to apathy, the road of depression leads to depression. We are on the road to change…. it may be a two track in the dessert but eventually (even if you have to travel off-road a bit) it leads to a highway.

Best to you.

Laura

Happy Holiday… may 2013 bring peace

Please visit http://wheblog.wordpress.com and http:wildhorseeducation.org

To see what I have “been up to” recently.

Working….

Sick horse today… going to go sit with her.

Merry Christmas.

Made this for my mom in 2010…

This blog will remain as an archive of material.

I am unable to keep up this blog at this time. I hope to be able to get back to writing here soon.

Click picture of Owyhee roundup to go to WHE blog

click to go to WHE (Wild Horse Education) blog

Last year I was at the first day of Barren Valley on 9/11. This year donations are down and I can barely hang on to participate in the conferences that all of this work has enabled. We have been bashed, smashed and ridiculed for this work… our pictures and information utilized by so many…

Today I should be on the road to Pancake as a roundup begins. Today I should be in the field creating the documentation to address ongoing issues. But we can’t.

Donations are now down…. But this was last year. We know it is still an issue that seriously needs to be addressed… I am still trying. The cases are solely supported by http://wildhorseeducation.org

If you can help your donations are desperately needed to keep the legal cases, documentation and effort alive. http://wildhorseeducation.org

What Does America Stand for?

I come from a long line of people that felt service to country was an honor.

My Grandad served in both World Wars. In the second WW his eldest sons went with him. Uncles served in Korea. My dad was too young and became a police officer and volunteer fireman. Many family members still live in the New York area. We had a family member missing that day as his office was in the Trade Center… he was ok but it was a very frightening time.

I am reposting an article I wrote that was published in a few venues over the winter… it just strikes me as appropriate for this weekend.

What Does America Stand For?

Our founding fathers made an incredibly brave stand and wrote the Declaration of Independence. They knew by making a stand for what they believed in that they would not win an across the board popularity contest.

Next came the great Constitution of the United States.

The premises within that document began to build the consciousness of a nation. When I walk through the law libraries and touch the pages (yes, I feel books give a sense that the electronic age desensitizes) you literally feel the development of the identity of this nation.

Case law that demonstrates the evolution of the premises within the Constitution can literally remind you of the pride that is “America.” Sometimes it appears this occurs in spite of ourselves. Civil and human rights cases exist that when you read the cases themselves there is shame that what seems like a “no brainer” in current times was actually an issue that had to be decided within the judicial system. The pages are filled with “bad children” being given rules filtered through the guidelines our “founding fathers” left for us.

Within the Bill of Rights a concept was so important to our “fathers” that it was listed first. (The right to bear arms was second).

“The founding fathers gave the press the mission to inform the people and promote the free flow of facts and ideas, however untimely or challenging or disagreeable those facts and ideas may be.” — Katharine Graham, publisher, The Washington Post, 1973

The concept of a free press is to allow the public an opportunity to investigate and report on the activities of it’s government without fear of reprisal and censorship. The intention is that the true power of decision making in a Democratic society comes from an educated public conveying ideas to a representative that then advocates those positions in debate within a Senate and House toward shaping our nation.

Within the dialogue of “Wild Horse and Burro Program” implemented by the BLM we have a serious breakdown of this process. Plain and simple the public, Congress and often BLM employees themselves are seriously uninformed.

There is currently a lawsuit that has been patiently waiting to actually be heard within the judicial system.That case has been joined in an Amicus brief by the Reporters Committee for a Free Press and the National Press Photographers Association. (This case is also one I am Plaintiff).

Congress asks for information and the BLM will chose an “independent” organization (read “pro-slaughter”) to do an investigation or an investigation occurs in house. The reports are continually bias or outright filled with omissions and inaccuracies. Would we allow the tobacco industry to self-police? Would we make an appointment before showing up to do a search of a crime scene with a suspected perpetrator?

It appears yet again that an “independent” review is being prepared for the BLM by those chosen by the BLM. Those doing the review were supposedly on site Wednesday and Thursday of last week. I was not given the same access to the trap that they were. Activity at holding was very different when the government observers showed up with BLM public relations.

Last week Representative Burton made these statements to the House as a proposal to cut the BLM’s budget in a “slap on the wrist” gesture was made: “It seems to me that we ought to be frugal with the public’s money. We ought to cut the Bureau of Land Management’s budget so that we can save the money and save the mustangs.”

The wild horse advocate community has expressed sincere gratitude toward Burton. He has demonstrated bravery displayed by our founding fathers in bringing this dialogue into a forum that has the power to effect the change needed.

But in all honesty how can any dialogue be effective if that dialogue addresses symptoms of a long standing problem without taking the time to look for the root cause? Any symptomatic reaction has the potential to create a reality that has consequence worse than the current situation. A full investigation of the program and the consequence of placing the implementation of the 1971 Legislation into the hands of an agency with an apparent conflict of interest and often literally “inbred” with those that perpetrated the actions that spurred the need to pass the 71 Act in the first place is sorely absent. Why would any “change” be expected to be implemented any differently? It’s like changing the product you put in a meat grinder… it still comes out in the same fashion.

Until a dialogue actually begins to exist that addresses the root causes, arbitrary boundaries and policy that caters to special interests, the change needed to protect the “living symbol of the pioneer spirit of the west” will not happen.

If the information about the hands on care being done “humanely,” the most basic premise of the 71 Act, remains in the realm of “content control” … how can dialogue in any real fashion exist?

The first step in achieving that dialogue are independent observations that can only occur when the rights of the public to investigate and formulate opinion is protected. The closed door facilities must be open. Records must be made available in a timely manner for review without the need to file Freedom of Information Act requests. The ability to independently observe the hands on actions of contractors and government employees must occur on an extended basis and not in “periodic windows” at the discretion of those under scrutiny.

“I have taken an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States more times than I can count,” said attorney Gordon Cowan, “that’s what this case is all about.”

BLM Jackson Mountain Roundup Ends Under Continued Controversy

Jackson Mountain 2012

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has concluded operation in the Jackson Mountain removal of wild horses that began under the veil of an “emergency.”

On June 8, 2012 the operation began during BLM’s own prohibited “foaling season.” BLM prohibits the use of helicopters during roundups from March through June in all but emergent conditions. Yet the Record of Decision signed by District Manager Gene Seidlitz claimed the entire operation needed to occur regardless of the fact that the agency only justified an emergent condition in the South West quadrant of the Herd Management Area (HMA).

On June 16, 2012 Laura Leigh, founder of Wild Horse Education, filed a legal action against the roundup operation. The claim asked that the BLM be held to the parameters of their own rules, that only emergent areas constituted any action. The Judge ruled in Leigh’s favor on June 20. Judge Howard McKibben reviewed all documentation supplied by the agency and Leigh and determined that Leigh was correct.

However the agency played a word game and expanded the scope outside the quadrant that they determined the emergency to include the entire South of the HMA. At the time of the hearing more than 300 animals had been removed, including the area of concern, to relieve pressure off the stressed range and operations could have ceased entirely until July 1. The agency continued operations not justified in the EA. The hearing itself was an emergency hearing and the time required to hold this agency to any specifics of conduct was limited.

“Specific, accountable language is avoided by BLM at all costs,” said Wild Horse Education founder Laura Leigh, “a great example is the pretense of a humane care policy in the Record of Decision. In meetings prior to the start of the operation specifics of conduct were agreed to. Not one of the specifics made that document. Reassurances were given that those specifics would be followed during operation. In truth I witnessed one of the most careless, unnecessary runs I have ever seen that actually left me shaken for weeks.”

READ the FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://wildhorseeducation.org/2012/07/08/jackson-wild-horse-roundup-ends-questions-continue/

Jackson Mountain stallions arrive at PVC.

The first win at Jackson came after three weeks of working (by invitation) on issues at Jackson. BLM was not proactive in addressing a situation we saw in that area before. They attempted to use a justified issue (regardless of the root cause) to create a broad sweep action that was actually against their own policy. We made no headway in discussion so instead we won in Court.

What we won was more language to build on. That language has been sorely missing in the Courtroom conversations. However with each win the vocabulary and the credibility of the documentation brought by us grows.

Example the win in the Ninth Circuit created language that allowed the Restraining Order won last year to pilot conduct to be turned into an Injunctive Order (active) last week. Even though the case in the Ninth is on another issue the conversation related to roundups as a non-resolved issue as the actual operation appears over. So the conduct issue was able to stand on the access issue.

That same conduct issue then created the venue to bring Jackson to a win. That win has added new language that can now be used to solidify that BLM can’t use an issue (regardless of cause) in one quadrant to justify a broad sweep action. That has again given the horses another “piece.”

Just as the case in Owyhee that brought the closure of public land (i.e. no observation at all) into the realm of unconstitutional action but failed to bring the foaling season issue to the plate because the conversational language and the credibility with the Court had not been established. But because of that win daily observation became a reality… with that came the other two cases on that stone.

I have been extraordinarily busy this past year, and even more so these last six months, creating a few avenues. I have been working with other journalists and in venues that will bring other issues into the light.

Every one of these stepping stones came from a seemingly endless marathon that has included traveling on dirt roads alone in ice storms to conferences with government personnel and Courtroom action. The work is every day, almost all day.

I have focused on my work that you all expect from me. Yet every time I have another win ugly voices raise in the chorus of derision. Not from the “other side” but ours.

In the last two and a half years the documentation and cases I have stood for and worked my fanny off compiling and researching have brought the horses precedent of language in the battle that has not existed before. Each case that Cowan brings on my behalf has walked out with a win. He does not charge us full fee ever and has done a good chunk of this work gratis because there are no funds. I am sick to death of listening to those that make full fees held up as “better” than someone like that.

And to put my “lifestyle” into perspective I own nothing but a few items of clothing, three cameras, a computer and my dog. I do not even own solely the truck I drive. I can’t even get new glasses.

So if you want to support this work, support it. If you don’t at least recognize the validity and use the stepping stones to further the cause.

I have to get up at 5. There are several issues that are very pressing right now in holding and on the range. More soon.

http://wildhorseeducation.org/2012/06/19/triple-b-scoping-letter/

Mare and foal that were run twice in one day only to be left without their band at Jackson Mountain

Jackson Mountain Wild Horse Roundup Gathers Lawsuit

On June 8, 2012 the Bureau of Land Management began a helicopter roundup of wild horses in the Jackson Mountain area in Northern Nevada. This roundup is occurring during foaling season. The BLM handbook on wild horse and burro management prohibits such activity.

The handbook states in part: “The capture of wild horses by using a helicopter to herd the animals is prohibited during the foaling season, which is defined as six weeks on either side of the peak foaling to assure that young foals are mature enough to be able to remain with their band during gather activities.”

Plaintiff Laura Leigh, founder of Wild Horse Education, has been attempting to dialogue with the Agency prior to the start of the operation and on a daily basis to resolve issues. Attorney Gordon Cowan of Reno Nevada filed the suit yesterday.

“It is with a sad heart that this lawsuit is filed,” states Leigh “the idea that this is foaling season and that extreme care must be taken does not seem to be understood. I saw one of the most egregious unnecessary runs I have ever seen at any roundup occur at Jackson Mountain and the urgency for change in behavior is still not comprehended on the ground.”

Leigh brought suit to last years BLM roundup of the Triple B complex that resulted in the Courts taking action and shutting down the operation. The BLM then did a review of the roundup and found that the alleged misconduct had occurred and they would take corrective action. The agency has to date not implemented any standard of humane care for handling animals.

Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva the ranking member of the House subcommittee of National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, in an interview with the Seattle PI, maintains the agency is conducting the roundup “under cover of an emergency,” but the situation facing horses around the Jackson Mountains does not meet the BLM’s own criteria for an emergency.

“All attempts to gain appropriate action through conversation are met with the statement that we are making baby steps,” said Leigh “but baby steps are not acceptable as the lives of these babies are continually placed in jeopardy.”

The legal action and documentation can be supported through contributions to Wild Horse Education http://wildhorseeducation.org

Links of interest:

Wild Horse Education: http://WildHorseEducation.org

Seattle PI piece on Jackson Roundup: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Congressman-criticizes-Nevada-wild-horse-roundup-3622153.php

New Zealand Horsetalk interview with Leigh on site: http://horsetalk.co.nz/2012/06/12/watching-these-babies-run-horrifying/

WHE analysis of BLM’s Triple B Review: http://wildhorseeducation.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/analysis_blm_revtb_2011_whe1.pdf