For Immediate Release
Sept. 3, 2014
Priscilla Feral, president, Friends of Animals 203.656.1522; feral@friendsofanimals.org
FoA to appear at Hartford courthouse in support of abused horses
Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, will be in Hartford County Courthouse Sept. 4 to make sure that Lisa Lind-Larsen of Redding—who was charged with two counts of cruelty to animals after her two mustangs, Chinook and Cheyenne (shown right), were seized from her property after being found emaciated and in eight inches of their own feces—is not allowed to get the horses back.
Lind-Larsen has had the horses since August 2004, when she acquired them from the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program.
Friends of Animals has reached out to the Connecticut Department of Agriculture to support the recovery of Chinook and Cheyenne, and to assist in finding them a permanent home at a sanctuary. 
This case hits home for Friends of Animals, as the organization just returned home from a protest of the BLM in Wyoming. When Friends of Animals learned back in July that the BLM’s scheduled wild horse roundup would eliminate almost all wild horses (800 to be exact) on the 1.2 million acre checkerboard land (alternating one mile square sections of private and public land for 20 miles on either side of Interstate 80) within three Herd Management Areas (HMA) in Wyoming, the organization sprang into action. It joined four other wild horse advocacy groups and organized a protest and press conference outside the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting on Aug. 24 in Riverton, Wy.
FoA staff members also spoke out during the public comment period about the plight of all wild horses, not just those in Wyoming.
FoA’s message was clear to the group that advises on national policy for wild horses—the BLM needs to lower the number of livestock on public lands, not wild horses—and stop being bullied by ranchers. They held banners and signs that read: BLM + Ranchers=Thieves, Stop Stealing Wild Horses from Public Lands; and Stop the BLM’s Criminal Reign of Terror, Protect Wild Horses Under Endangered Species Act.
“We are here because we want to transform the attitudes the BLM and other government agencies have toward wild horses—from the current one of persecution to one of protection,” Birnkrant said during the press conference. She went on to explain that the best way to protect wild horses is having them listed under the Endangered Species Act. It would provide needed regulation to end the roundups for good.
The case of animal cruelty in Connecticut demonstrates that the abuse caused from these roundups is far reaching. Who knows how many other horses ripped from their families on the range experience similar fates as Chinook and Cheyenne through the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program?
It's a crime that today there are more wild horses trapped in miserable holding facilities—approximately 47,417—than living free on the range. “Our goal is to stop the BLM's criminal reign of terror. FoA will be back in Wyoming in September to intervene if the BLM is allowed to go forth with the disgraceful roundup they have planned,” said Edita Birnkrant, FoA’s campaigns director.
FoA will also be in Danbury Superior Court Sept. 17 when Lind-Larsen faces her two criminal charges for animal cruelty for bringing harm to Chinook and Cheyenne.
Lind-Larsen’s civil action hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. at Hartford County Courthouse, 95 Washington St.
Photo from State Department of Animal Control.