The DC District Court Judge denied our request for a Temporary Restraining Order. We are not giving up on these horses though– KEEP CALLING YOUR SENATORS and CONGRESS PEOPLE, All MEDIA OUTLETS and tell your friends– this is another treasure being destroyed if we can’t stop this unneccessary, callous and massive roundup.

We will do our best to keep you updated- the round up is scheduled to begin tomorrow, Thursday Sept. 3 and over the next few days or week the BLM plans to remove over 70 horses– from older mares and stallions to young foals. Don’t give up.
Who Has Been Hired to Round Up Cloud’s Herd? Wednesday, 02 September 2009 14:28

Dave Cattoor is a contractor hired by the BLM to perform wild horse round-ups. He and his wife and son run a business largely funded by the American taxpayer to harass and remove wild horses and burros. He was indicted by a federal grand jury and pled guilty to illegally hunting wild horses, aiding and abetting in 1992. He rounded up protected American mustangs, corralled into pens, loaded them into trucks, and hauled them to a slaughter house in Texas where they lost their lives. It was government theft and animal abuse. Among wild horse and burro advocates, he has a reputation of being cruel and inhumane. Photographs of newborn foals run to exhaustion, found hog tied on the range, horses and burros bleeding from their nostrils, broken legs and injured during exhausting gallops to captured pens are displayed on many wild horse and burro web sites.

He is currently being investigated by the Department of Interior Inspector General for procurement fraud. It is known from federal contracting web sites that he has earned 13 million dollars since 2000 for which records are available. It is believed he has earned more than 21 million dollars since his conviction. Both he and his wife spoke separately before the Wild Horse and Advisory Board in 2009 and advocated for the continued use of helicopter round ups in an attempt to influence the boards recommendation to continue their lucrative contracting business. Federal law prohibits the use of contractors that have been convicted of a crime. Generally, a indictment would eliminate a contractor from consideration. However, Mr. Cattoor has been rewarded and made a millionaire many times over by the BLM despite the public outrage.

Fully knowing the public’s concern about Mr. Dave Cattoor ‘s inhumane practices, the BLM Billings, Montana office have denied humane groups request to placed humane observers on the ground with full access during the Pryor round to ensure animals are treated humanely. Wild horses advocates have advised the BLM Billlings office as well as BLM officials in Washington DC that foals only day old and heavily pregnant mares are among those the contractor plans to run long distances for captured.

Click Here for more information about Dave Cattoor

Click Here to see a Helicopter Removal Pictorial
Article from Honoring Freedom: The Ride to Save America’s Wild Horses Wednesday, 02 September 2009 14:18

American Indian Leaders and others concerned about BLM’s wild horse management gather for Ceremony to honor the land and pray for the safety of the horses

Download PDF Here
Legal Battle to Save Clouds herd Wednesday, 02 September 2009 12:37

See Documents Who Has Been Hired to Round Up Cloud’s Herd Tuesday, 01 September 2009 15:02

Click Here to visit The Cloud Foundations YouTube page.
Congressman Raul Grijalva calls for BLM to stop Roundup Friday, 28 August 2009 00:00

Congressman Raul Grijalva calls for BLM to stop Roundup not only of Cloud’s Herd but of all Wild Horses and Burros

Download full PDF here!
Crow Elder & Historian Speaks Against Roundup Tuesday, 01 September 2009 00:00

Howard Boggess, Member of the Crow Tribe of Indians, Elder and Historian talks about the Pryor Wild Horses he’s known all his life. Mr. Boggess discusses what could happen if the roundup of Cloud’s herd goes forward on Sept. 4th. Everything that is against the law for me they are planning to do to these horses. This is a very sad thing as far as I’m concerned. The horses have lived here for over 200 years. Even under the harassment of the BLM they’ve survived since 1971.
Keep calling Secretary of Interior Salazar, BLM Director Bob Abbey, the Billings BLM Office and President Obama.

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/donate-now

The Bureau of Land Management is rounding up and eliminating 12 herds (650 horses) off 1.4 million acres in Nevada right now– next they plan to destroy Cloud’s herd with a massive removal of 70 horses that would include OLDER HORSES and YOUNG FOALS.
Many of the horses you have come to love in the Cloud shows and will meet in the new Cloud show on October 25th will lose their families and their freedom next week. By zeroing out whole herds and reducing others to below genetic viability, the BLM is circumventing the will of Congress. The House just passed the Restoring of American Mustangs (ROAM) act and the Senate will review this bill (now S.1579) when they return from recess in September. Is BLM just trying to do as much irrevocable damage to America’s wild horses as they can before Congress can act?
This round up will start on September 1st unless we can stop it. Removing 70 horses will destroy this unique little Spanish herd, leaving them well below the bare minimum for genetic viability. The range is in great condition and the horses are healthy. This removal should be stopped. Please do all you can to help! Listen to Ginger Kathrens on Endangered Stream Live– a special edition show “Angels for Cloud”

National Call in Day for Cloud is Friday, August 28th — SPREAD THE WORD! Have your kids call in and write too– These horses need to be preserved for future generations and we must act NOW

1. Call/write/fax President Obama as often as you can—this herd is a national treasure and should not be wiped out by a government agency. Please flood the phone lines with calls! Phone: 202-456-1111 or 202-456-9000 Fax: 202-456-2461
E-mail Obama

2. Ask Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to stop this round up
Call: 202-208-3100
Write: feedback@ios.doi.gov

3. BLM Director Bob Abbey, tell him to halt this round up– he must reconsider his agency’s actions
Call: 202-208-3801
Fax: 202-208-5242
Robert_Abbey@blm.gov

4. Call and write your own Senators and Congress people- tell them that Montana is allowing the destruction of Cloud’s unique and historical wild horse herd. Politely express your outrage and ask them to help stop this round up. Find your state offices here

Listen to Ginger Kathrens NOW on “WFL Endangered Stream Live”

REMEMBER: National Cloud Call-In Day is FRIDAY, AUGUST 28th!

Thank you to everyone for signing the petition- we only need about 400 more signatures!

Stop the Round ups of Cloud ~ His Herd & Wild Horses & Burros)

Let them ROAM ~ FREE

We live in the best of times and the worst of times ~ Charles Dickens .

STAND YOUR GROUND with Ginger Kathrens of the Cloud Foundation.
How to help ASAP ~ See Below!!

1.
Drastic Removal Planned for Cloud’s Herd
Watch this 30 second video by Ginger Kathrens
Newsletter
http://webmail.aol.com/43792/aol/en-us/Suite.aspx
VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qp_EXnlXxg

2. Write and SPEAK OUT!! Clouds and his Herd are on the roundup list now….. Don’t let this round up & death sentence happen. What do you do? Address and e-mail below.

3. Go into silent vigilance of hope prayer and meditation for Cloud and his Herd and all the Wild Horses

4. Send this E-mail to Director of the Interior ASAP!
Time is of the essence. “Cloud and his family (herd) could be killed before his October 2009 movie comes out on PBS.”Ginger Kathrens

Email Ken Salazar and the Bureau of Land Management now! There is an easy format below you can use just add your name.

To this e-mail: exsec@iosdoi.gov

Mail: Ken Salazar
Department of Interior
1849 C Street , N.W.
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: 202-7351
http://www.doi.gov/contact.html

Dear Kenneth Interior Secretary Salazar,

Interior Secretary Salazar and the Bureau of Land Management I’m asking you to stop the Roundups of Cloud and his Family!

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment in THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT’S (BLM) DECISION to continue THEIR plan to euthanize or hold in captivity thousands of wild horses and burros and ROUNDUPS ~ AT THE EXPENSE OF THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER.

The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act (1971) was created with the hope of managing healthy herds of wild horses and burros on healthy Western rangelands. With the goal of managing the sizes of these herds, the BLM believes that wild horses and burros consume unfair amounts of forage on BLM lands. “On March 3, 2009, it was stated by a BLM representative that the forage depletion on public lands leaves cattle with nothing to eat. Contrary to that statement, a Wild Horse Ecologist, Craig C. Downer, of Nevada, stated in his speech (Wild Horse Speech With Tables And Charts, Wild Horse Summit, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 2008) that wild horses and burros only consume a mere 5.6% of the forage consumed by livestock on BLM land. “

It is not necessary to hold these wild horses and burros in captivity or round them up for slaughter (an expense to taxpayers). THE Cloud Foundation OFFERS an Alternative Herd Plan & SOLUTION. (The Cloud Foundation Web) This was given to the BLM in June 2009.

The BLM holding costs for the BLM in 2009 are $33 million, and in 2014 it is estimated to be $85 million. This business plan will help unravel the problem that the BLM has created in gathering horses off the range land at the tax payers’ expense.

1. Stop the BLM from managing our wild horses and Clouds Herd to extinction.2. Halt all round-ups of wild horses until range conditions and herd numbers can be verified.
3. Return wild horses in holding to the 100+ herd areas (19+ million acres) that have been zeroed out.
4. Expand the Pryor Mountain. Wild Horse Range for Clouds Herd & protect herd at viable population level of at least 150 adult horses until range is expanded.

Sincerely thank you for any and all consideration to saving our National Treasure and Cloud‘s Herd and family.

You’re Name (_______________________)

http://www.conquistadorprogram.org/blmcourt_d... DRAFT PLAN
For Immediate Release Contact: Patricia Haight, Ph.D., (480) 430-2294, pathaight@yahoo.com Julianne French, 520-309-5791, J_French@cox.net

Nevada and Pryor Mountain in July and August of 2009 Roundups fact or fiction. History will tell. Opps my bad will not do for the United States citizens who love and cherish these beauties.

Source: Barbara Ellen Ries, Advocate for Cloud Foundation.
If you think we being harsh read documents from the BLM draft and we will see if Cloud and his Herd lives to ROAM FREE. I hope this draft was just some humans having a bad day and not reality. I believe “The Truth shall set the Horses free one way or another.”
Barbara Ellen Ries, Arizona Horse Advocate and Pro-ROAM

If your organization can help please e-mail me at ~ spirithorsebr@aol.com

Barbara Ellen Ries, spirithorsebr@aol.com

Be Bold,
Speak out Tell friends
family and emial your local state and President Obama
~ “Join the Cloud Foundation

Over 40% of America’s wild horses have been removed from the wild from 2000-2008 alone and if the agency responsible for managing our wild horses, the Bureau of Land Management, does not change we are in danger of losing the last of our wild horses. Over 100 herds have been zeroed out from the over 19 million acres legally designated for their use. The BLM needs to return wild horses to these areas—over 30,000 are currently in government holding.
As few as 13,600 wild horses remain in designated public land herd areas in ten western states in America, among them is Cloud’s herd in the Pryor Mountain area of Montana and Wyoming. Only 25% of our wild herds are currently at genetically viable population levels! Cloud’s herd is one of these although a massive round-up planned for August 2009 would change this. The round-up would result in 60 horses losing their families and their freedom, including some horses who have lived their entire 20+ years in the wild. We must stop the destruction of Cloud’s herd and work for the sustainable future of all our wild horse herds across the west.Congressmen Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) have stepped forward to make real and positive changes to the Wild Horse and Burro program with their recently introduced bill HR 1018. Please write to them to thank them for their hard work. You can read Ginger Kathrens’ comments and suggestions to the congressmen here.

Here is a short list of government contacts — please write, e-mail and/or call on behalf of Cloud and all our wild mustangs.

Contact the following agencies and representatives
PRESIDENT:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comment line: 202-456-1111
http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

CONGRESS:
1. Stop the BLM from managing our wild horses to extinction.
2. Halt all round-ups of wild horses until range conditions and herd numbers can be verified.
3. Return wild horses in holding to the 100+ herd areas (19+ million acres) that have been zeroed out.
4. Expand the Pryor Mountain. Wild Horse Range for Cloud’s Herd & protect herd at viable population level of at least 150 adult horses until range is expanded.

Congressman Nick Rahall (D-WV)
2307 Rayburn HOB
Washington,DC 20515
(202) 225-3452
email

Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
1440 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
ph (202) 225-2435
fax (202) 225-1541
Email to: Laurel.Angell@mail.house.gov

Your US Senators and Congress people

Montana Senator Max Baucus (D)—specific to Cloud’s herd
511 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington DC, 20510, phone: 202-224-2651
e-mail from: http://baucus.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Montana Senator Jon Tester (D)—specific to Cloud’s herd
204 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington DC, 20510,
phone: 202-224-2644, e-mail from: http://tester.senate.gov/Contact/

Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee:
304 Dirksen Senate Building, Washington, DC 20510
phone: (202) 224-4971, Fax: (202) 224-6163, e-mail all 23 members at http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
Reinstate wild horse protections removed in 2004 by the Burns Rider and include language in the bill that would prevent BLM from destroying healthy wild horses.

DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR- BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
1. Work to expand the legal boundaries of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range to include the historic and current use areas in the Custer National Forest. This will allow for a truly viable herd of 200-300 mustangs.
2. Keep the population at a viable number of at least 150 adults until range expansion is achieved. This will allow for the preservation of the rare Spanish genetics of the herd. Bringing in horses from other herds is ill advised, unnecessary and costly.
3. Do not remove older horses
4. Work to protect the mountain lions that have kept the herd at zero population growth in years past. Natural management should be the goal.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar \
DOI, 1849 C Street NW, Washington DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-7351, exsec@ios.doi.gov

BLM Acting Director Ron Wenker & Acting Deputy Director Mike Nedd
1849 C Street NW, Washington DC, 20040, phone: 202-208-3801 Ron_Wenker@blm.gov, Mike_Nedd@blm.gov

Don Glenn BLM Division Chief of Wild Horse and Burro Program
BLM Washington Office, 1849 C Street NW, Rm. 5665 Washington DC 20240
Phone: 1-800-710-7597 or 202-208-3801, Fax: 202-208-5242, wildhorse@blm.gov

Jim Sparks, Field Manager BLM -Billings Field Office
5001 Southgate Drive, Billings, MT 59101
phone (406) 896-5223, fax (406) 896-5281
Jim_Sparks@blm.gov

United States Department of Agriculture
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250
Email: AgSec@usda.gov

FOREST SERVICE
Ask the following people to please work with the BLM to expand the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range to include the historic and current use areas in the Custer National Forest. This will allow for a truly viable herd of 200-300 mustangs.

• Abigail Kimbell, Chief USDA Forest Service
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, D.C.
20250-0003


phone: (202) 205-1661, e-mail: akimbell@fs.fed.us
• Mary Erickson, Acting Forest Supervisor- Custer National Forest
PO Box 130, Bozeman, MT 59771,
p. 406-587-6701, mcerickson@fs.fed.us
• Chris Worth, Acting Deputy Supervisor
1310 Main Street, Billings, MT 59105
phone: 406-657-6200, cworth@fs.fed.us

Please write letters to the editor, ask that your favorite radio and TV hosts cover this story and last but not least, please tell your friends and family about wild horses and ask them to join the Cloud Foundation in helping to protect and preserve wild horses on our public lands.

List compiled by The Cloud Foundation, March, 2009 ~ http://www.thecloudfoundation.org

Please share this press release with local and national media, friends and colleagues, and voice your concerns wtih our government’s management of our wild horses directly to President Obama at ww.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/. We need change in the Wild Horse and Burro Program to protect our wild horses. Thank you.

PRESS RELEASE

June 11, 2009- for immediate release

Documents Reveal BLM Secret Plan to Destroy Wild Horses

Documents obtained from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) via the Freedom of Information Act by a Phoenix-based non-profit, The Conquistador Program, reveal shocking and detailed plans to destroy healthy wild horses in government holding facilities as well as those still remaining in the wild on public lands.

BLM employees as well as a USDA veterinarian held weekly “Implementation Team” meetings beginning in July of 2008 in which they discussed and developed strategies aimed at ridding BLM of thousands of mustangs. In October they completed a 68 page document entitled “Alternative Management Options”. Tactics included in this document are reminiscent of those used to wipe out Native American tribes in the 1800s.

The BLM team created scenarios for killing mustangs using barbiturates, gun shots, or captive bolts. Bodies would be disposed of through rendering, burial or incineration. They discussed killing 1200-2000 wild horses per year. The document states that “the general public would be prohibited from viewing euthanasia.” Additionally, the Team felt that “increased support from public relations and management staff would also be needed to insulate those doing the actual work from the public, media and Congressional scrutiny/criticism.”

“Minutes from these meetings as well as the Draft Plan reveal what amounts to ‘the final solution’ for the American mustang,” states Ginger Kathrens, filmmaker and Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation. “Despite a huge outcry from the American public last year regarding BLM plans to kill wild horses in holding, the agency is still pressing forward with a plan to destroy our American mustangs both on and off the range.”

Division Chief of the Wild Horse and Burro Program Don Glenn told The Cloud Foundation that “no decision has been made to move forward on a large scale with this plan, yet.”

BLM meeting minutes speak for themselves. “Security at facilities and at gathers would need to be increased to combat eco-terrorism. Having the people that are willing to put down healthy horses at gather sites could be a problem. Having vets putting down healthy horses at preparation facility[ies] could also be a problem.” Meeting minutes reveal the psychological toll that employees would pay—“have counseling for employees and contractors that have to euthanize the healthy horses because it is very stressful.”

The report created an option in which wild horses of all ages could be sold “without limitation”. In other words, horses could be sold directly to killer buyers in unchecked numbers. The Team admitted that “some wild horses will go to slaughter”.

“Once they are gone, they’re gone” says Karen Sussman, President of the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros. “To lose this incomparable species would be a travesty.”

Team Members formulated ways in which they could circumvent the National Environmental Policy Act, asking “How many (wild horses) could be euthanized during a gather (roundup) without having NEPA?” BLM discussed ways to circumvent the federal carcass disposal law (43 CFR 4730.2). Conversations included how many wild horses could be rendered at the Reno Rendering plant or “disposed of in pits”. The Team concluded that “there will not be large numbers of horses euthanized during gathers or in the field. This is due to state environmental laws.”

Recommendations include the creation of gelding herds, and sterilization of mares to create non-reproductive herds in the wild in place of natural herds. The team recommended changing the sex ratio from the normal 50% males and 50% females to 70% males and 30% females. Then the experimental two-year infertility drug, PZP-22, would be given to all mares that are returned to the wild. Plans call for rounding up the wild horses every two years to re-administer the drug.

“Mares on the drug will cycle monthly and, with the altered sex ratio, the social chaos will be dangerous and on-going,” Kathrens explains. “Any semblance of normal wild horse society will be completely destroyed.”

Kathrens has spent 15 years in the wild documenting mustang behavior for her PBS television documentaries which chronicle the life story of Cloud, the now famous pale palomino stallion she has filmed since birth. “Even Cloud and his little herd in Montana are in serious danger if BLM implements these options,” she continues. “The BLM plans a massive round up in Cloud’s herd beginning August 30, 2009.”

The BLM will not guarantee that Cloud and his family will remain free.

BLM Alternative Management Options

BLM Implementation Team minutes

Thank you for any help you can give.

My wife and I lived in Reno, Nv from 79 thru 93 and in Fallon, NV from 93-98. Since then we have lived in Henderson, NV. While living in Northern NV, we spent almost every free day 4 wheeling Northern Calif and Nev. We were always so happy to see a small herd of mustangs running free. The BLM would like them all dead along with all the ranchers. The BLM so they do not have to bother with them and the ranchers want every available bit of grassland for there herds. Prior to WWII, tens of thousands of mustangs roamed these same ranges. They were turned into flight andbomber jackets and meat for the grocerry stores. I know, I was forced to eat the course horsemeat as a child.

While 4 wheeling all over much of Northern Nev and Calif, we seldom encountered herds of wild horses. Sometimes we would stumble on entire herds that had been murdered by ranchers and/or vandals. Very few people were ever prosecuted and those that were either got off or got a slap on the wrist.

We were so saddened by the plight of the wild horses. It’s the say story over and over. Politics and greed. Ever wonder why the BLM increased the adoption rate from under $50 to $125 per head. Less would be adopted and more would be euthanized.

Please do not give up your plans for the wild horses, and I thank you for them and my wife and myself.

Bob Sands

An associate of mine and myself have been granted a Patent for a product addressing “ALTERNATIVE ENERGY”. It is a new way of heating your home that has never been thought of before. Our product can be used for residential, commercial or industrial heating. It is a completely “Green” approach and will undoubtedly create an entirely new industry.

It is my hope that someone who screens these replies would alert Mr Pickens that we would love to talk to him. I’m not sure how to contact Mr. Pickens.

Hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Bill Percy cell # 201-230-9874