Letter to the President on BLM Horse Management

November 06, 2009

President Obama

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

We, the members and supporters of Friends of Animals, located in every state and in several countries, firmly oppose the Bureau of Land Management’s proposal to round up and remove yet more of free-roaming wild horses and burros from U.S. public lands in a scheme to place the horses in holding sites, sterilize them, and privatize them, all at U.S. taxpayers’ expense. There are few sustainable or genetically viable herds left, and they must be respected: not sterilized, not privatized.

At the beginning of the 20th century, 2 million mustangs roamed free.(1) Today, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar tells reporters, “We have a huge problem — out-of-control populations of wild horses and burros on our public lands.”(2) But the reporters also note that 37,000 free-roaming horses and burros remain on public lands. (The actual number varies depending on the estimate being cited, and might be far less than that.) The round-up policy itself is the huge problem, as it has resulted in the accumulation of tens of thousands of horses by the BLM and the question of what to do with them.

At the same time these small communities of free-living horses and burros are under attack, ranchers graze several million cows and other domesticated animals on public lands. Animal agribusiness is notorious for its heavy use of fuel and water, a driving force behind environmental damage, and a leading generator of greenhouse gases. The blame for the degraded, overgrazed condition of western public lands lies with cattle ranching, not free-roaming horses and burros.

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Rock Creek (DC) Deer: Friends of Animals on the Record

November 02, 2009

The U.S. government has proposed to intrude, with weapons and chemicals, on yet another group of deer on public lands. They are required to adhere to the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) when proposing such action, and countering their proposed must be done also under the NEPA.

It is unreasonable to kill deer or other free-living animals for eating the plants that sustain them after we have fragmented their habitat. Great thanks to our members for supporting our work, so that we are able to push back, defending this community of deer and by extension all animals affected by the government’s proposal to control them, as well as the peace and safety of the surrounding community.

Friends of Animals submitted comments to the U.S. National Park Service for the official record on 2 November 2009. Friends of Animals and the specific signatories to this statement strongly support “Alternative A: no action” against the deer in Rock Creek Park.

The “too many of them” claim everywhere paves the way for the domination and control of free-roaming animals — first predators, then the prey. Friends of Animals would like to call upon the community to raise its collective voice against shooting and pharmaceutical control of free-living animals.

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Wild horse debate gallops on

October 27, 2009

By William M. Welch, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — The Obama administration’s first try at resolving the debate over the wild horses of the West has not gone over well with some.

Animal rights groups say that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s proposal to relocate thousands of mustangs to preserves in the East and Midwest would compound years of federal mismanagement of the horses.

They want the 37,000 horses now roaming federal lands in the West to remain despite the risk of starvation and conflicts with cattle. In response to Salazar’s proposal, they reiterated their stand during the Bush administration: let the mustangs run loose on millions of acres of federal land where beef cattle are raised.

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Friends of Animals Mourns the Passing of Dr. Gordon Haber

October 17, 2009

Gordon Haber

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. - Albert Einstein.

by Anai Rhoads

AnaiRhoads.org — Friends of Animals mourns the passing of a dear friend, Dr. Gordon Haber. Gordon was a co-worker in the cause of fairness in this world, but entirely unlike your typical activist. Without an interest in furthering his own name, Gordon inspired others to join in the cause to save the most misunderstood and wrongfully feared animals in all the world - the wolves. Gordon’s passing should not be the end to a lifetime of work devoted to the wolves he respected and loved so dearly, as he left behind an encyclopedia of knowledge - research that will benefit those who will now follow in his footsteps.

For decades, Gordon advocated for wolves who wandered outside of the Denali Park National Park and Preserve’s boundaries, where they constantly ran the risk of being hunted or trapped. In his early 20’s, he began studying wolves as a temporary park service employee. It was 1966.

Gordon Haber quickly became a prominent figure, battling it out with other biologists in the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game - and overcoming a multitude of obstacles to protect his revered Toklat wolf pack.

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