Save the mustangs, save the cows!
Hi Fans,
Sorry for the grim blog today. A dear friend, who lives near my former home in Massachusetts, wrote Mom about a government plan to do away with thousands of my wild friends and relatives. These are fellow mustangs that are currently held in holding pens out West. I am bringing this to the attention of my fans and hope you will take some action to prevent the killing of horses whose only crime is munching forage on the range where cattle come first. Well, not exactly. It's the people who want to make money off the sale of beef that come first. The cattle get slaughtered, quartered, and pressed into packages sold at the grocery market.
Personally, I like cows a lot, and I know ranchers need to make a living, but maybe they could raise sheep or lamas for wool instead of raising animals to eat. I wish Americans would refuse to eat cows. They give us milk for our coffee, and there are other nice foods to eat, like grain. As for me, I get along fine on that, plus hay, grass, carrots and stud muffins. Okay, enough said, here is my friend's letter. She tells you what you can do to help the American Mustang, your country's National Treasure.
Love, Winnie
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Dear Ann,
You might like to know about (well, you WON'T like this!) a new plan by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to slaughter 30,000 wild Western horses and, if I understand correctly, burros.
The horses and maybe the burros are already penned up, at huge taxpayer expense, ready to be rounded up in August -- next month -- for slaughter.
Apparently Secretary Salazar thinks that they've been eating too much grass on the plains they've roamed for goodness knows how many thousands of years.
A lovely woman named Madeleine Pickens, President of the National Wild Horse Foundation, http://www.madeleinepickens.com/sanctuary-qa/, is organizing to stop this.
Being a genuine American Mustang, and all, perhaps you'd like to help.
Here's a link (or will be, if Mr. Albino will kindly intervene) to a 4 July 2009 article about this, entitled, Wildhorse Mass Extermination Planned by Secretary [of] Interior Salazar; Stop This: http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/6125.
Ms. Pickens and the Foundation propose instead the use of horse birth control to limit the size of the herds (this works in the East), and a large Wild Horse Sanctuary.
There's a petition to Secretary Salazar that people can sign if they support saving the wild horses. It's at http://capwiz.com/madeleinepic.....38;type=AN
And of course they can contact their Senators and Member of Congress. A change in the law will require the Secretary of the Interior to protect the wild horses.
H.R. 1018 was introduced into the House on 02/12/2009 to protect our wild horses and burros. Bill Sponsors are Representatives Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ); Legislative Status: In Session.
About H.R. 1018, the website (www.hus.org) of the Humane Society of the United States says:
"In addition to preventing the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses, H.R. 1018 prevents wholesale killing of healthy wild horses, prioritizes on-the-range management over roundups (including immunocontraception as a population control strategy that will save tax dollars), and prohibits particularly cruel round up methods, such as the use of helicopters and other airborne devices."
So our Senators and Members of Congress need to hear from those of us who use phones and computers! Passing this legislation would be a win for wild horses and for taxpayers alike.
And people can tell Secretary Salazar directly at the Department of the Interior what they think of his wholesale slaughter plan.
Just click on www.doi.gov and click on the 'Contact Us' link near the top of the homepage.
People may also phone Secretary Salazar at 1.202.208.3100; email him at feedback@ios.doi.gov; or scroll down that page to the form for sending questions or comments.
Or, of course, they may do all of the above!
I knew that you, Mr. Albino, Winnie, and the wonderful people and horses you are meeting would want to do everything you could to help.
Now I'm off to tell the compassionate people at www.firedoglake.com (click on the Oxdown Diaries button), who informed me about the wild horses, about y'all and your and Winnie's trek!
Happy trails and best wishes,
Your friend Sarah
Sorry for the grim blog today. A dear friend, who lives near my former home in Massachusetts, wrote Mom about a government plan to do away with thousands of my wild friends and relatives. These are fellow mustangs that are currently held in holding pens out West. I am bringing this to the attention of my fans and hope you will take some action to prevent the killing of horses whose only crime is munching forage on the range where cattle come first. Well, not exactly. It's the people who want to make money off the sale of beef that come first. The cattle get slaughtered, quartered, and pressed into packages sold at the grocery market.
Personally, I like cows a lot, and I know ranchers need to make a living, but maybe they could raise sheep or lamas for wool instead of raising animals to eat. I wish Americans would refuse to eat cows. They give us milk for our coffee, and there are other nice foods to eat, like grain. As for me, I get along fine on that, plus hay, grass, carrots and stud muffins. Okay, enough said, here is my friend's letter. She tells you what you can do to help the American Mustang, your country's National Treasure.Love, Winnie
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Ann,
You might like to know about (well, you WON'T like this!) a new plan by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to slaughter 30,000 wild Western horses and, if I understand correctly, burros.
The horses and maybe the burros are already penned up, at huge taxpayer expense, ready to be rounded up in August -- next month -- for slaughter.
Apparently Secretary Salazar thinks that they've been eating too much grass on the plains they've roamed for goodness knows how many thousands of years.
A lovely woman named Madeleine Pickens, President of the National Wild Horse Foundation, http://www.madeleinepickens.com/sanctuary-qa/, is organizing to stop this.
Being a genuine American Mustang, and all, perhaps you'd like to help.
Here's a link (or will be, if Mr. Albino will kindly intervene) to a 4 July 2009 article about this, entitled, Wildhorse Mass Extermination Planned by Secretary [of] Interior Salazar; Stop This: http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/6125.
Ms. Pickens and the Foundation propose instead the use of horse birth control to limit the size of the herds (this works in the East), and a large Wild Horse Sanctuary.
There's a petition to Secretary Salazar that people can sign if they support saving the wild horses. It's at http://capwiz.com/madeleinepic.....38;type=AN
And of course they can contact their Senators and Member of Congress. A change in the law will require the Secretary of the Interior to protect the wild horses.
H.R. 1018 was introduced into the House on 02/12/2009 to protect our wild horses and burros. Bill Sponsors are Representatives Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ); Legislative Status: In Session.
About H.R. 1018, the website (www.hus.org) of the Humane Society of the United States says:
"In addition to preventing the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses, H.R. 1018 prevents wholesale killing of healthy wild horses, prioritizes on-the-range management over roundups (including immunocontraception as a population control strategy that will save tax dollars), and prohibits particularly cruel round up methods, such as the use of helicopters and other airborne devices."
So our Senators and Members of Congress need to hear from those of us who use phones and computers! Passing this legislation would be a win for wild horses and for taxpayers alike.
And people can tell Secretary Salazar directly at the Department of the Interior what they think of his wholesale slaughter plan.
Just click on www.doi.gov and click on the 'Contact Us' link near the top of the homepage.
People may also phone Secretary Salazar at 1.202.208.3100; email him at feedback@ios.doi.gov; or scroll down that page to the form for sending questions or comments.
Or, of course, they may do all of the above!
I knew that you, Mr. Albino, Winnie, and the wonderful people and horses you are meeting would want to do everything you could to help.
Now I'm off to tell the compassionate people at www.firedoglake.com (click on the Oxdown Diaries button), who informed me about the wild horses, about y'all and your and Winnie's trek!
Happy trails and best wishes,
Your friend Sarah
posted by Wild Winnie
6 Comments:
Hello Ann, Winnie, Mr. Albino and Sarah,
Over at Oxdown Gazette at Firedoglake www.oxdown.firedoglake.com/ my name is acquarius74.
'wildhorses', wrote a comment about Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar making known that he was planning the big wild horse and burro slaughter and authorizing psychological counseling for those who were to commit the murders and devising means to protect them from the scrutiny of the public.
"wildhorses" was new to our little community at Oxdown, so I just wrote his diary for him quoting his in full. The story took fire and there were 103 comments last time I looked. I guess the nicest way I can put this is that Mr. Salazar would not be very welcome at Oxdown.
One of those 103 commenters was "greenwarrior" who told us your story which drew me like a magnet.
That in itself is a beautiful story: "wildhorses" ventures into new 'country' and speaks a few words which cut me to the core. I repeat his words to a larger group; "greenwarrior" responds with his story of you and the circle grows enclosing lots of us now, all of like spirit. Since it is a spiritual reaching out to plead for the lives of our wild horses, we might call our quest The Spirit of Winnie.
Lots of "coincidences" here; enough to think synchronicity. Each reader can think on that as they are bent...
You two fine women are gonna make it! And we're gonna do our best to save Winnie's relatives and friends.
I'll check in here for updates and post what I find at Oxdown Gazette. We have members spread all over the US and Canada, surely some along the way that you will be travelling.
God grant you His Grace sufficient for each day.
Miz Peg (acquarius74)
winnie u took the words right out of my mouth!!! stop the mustang slaughter!!! horses dont belong in anyones stomach Americans or Overseas!!!
Dear Winnie I think it is not right to slaughter the animals. They are the original horses of the Earth. WE can learn from them a lesson. A lesson of life. If they want to take some only take the ones that are injured or have rabies. ps. STOP mR.sALAZ
Thanks to everyone who writes in to stop horse slaughter, and thank you to everyone who is helping Winnie and me as we make this walk.
As a youngster, I got fame in my family for being the one who pleaded for the life of a tomato worm when my granny plucked one off a bush. Like lots of little kids, I could empathize with any creature (except, perhaps, the mosquito)! I sensed that animals valued their own lives like we do ours. When you have a relationship with a dog or horse, for example, you begin to see how very special that individual animal really is, and you see how they look to you for care and comfort. I think that's why most people don't want to develop relationships with livestock raised for meat, like cows and pigs. It would be hard to eat them, then. Our horses did so much work for us and we should not find them disposable now. Winnie is not useless, she is helping me carry gear, she is my vehicle when I need a ride, she helps pull me up the big hills (I put my arm around her neck for support), she makes me laugh with her antics, she is my rescue, really. I can't think of what her fate might have been if I hadn't decided to take her two years ago, and I don't like to think about what happened to the other horses with three strikes against them. We must try to save every horse that we can, and treat other animals right, too.
Dear Ann and Winnie,
I have written both Utah senators, my congressional representative, the Today Show, Brian Williams on NBC and a Salt Lake City local news venue. I am still working on it. I am hoping that this move will take off like a prairie fire and that more and more citizens will champion the cause of the Western horses and burros.
Keep up the good work, cousin.
Linda
Thanks Linda!
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