Monthly Archives: May 2014

“When the people become involved in their government, government becomes more accountable, and our society is stronger, more compassionate, and better prepared for the challenges of the future.” — Thomas Jefferson

Part Two – 29 Wild Horses Killed by Bureau of Land Management And the U.S. Forest Service; to establish an Open-Debate Platform for the Public, to take part in improvement of our Government Agencies and their conduct, by demanding accountability and transparency and making Public honest and truthful information on how our taxpayer money is spent.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that our current government needs to have more transparency, more accountability. Not the political type, as that is contrary to reality and fraught with falsity, distasteful and hate-directed propaganda mostly. Discussed here is the responsibility aspect of accountability, and nothing more can exemplify the necessity for this than the Wild Horse Herd Roundups.

Within this aspect we have not only the Bureau of Land Management (BLM); we also pay, with taxpayer dollars, for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) completing horse roundups as well, rounding horses up off of Forest Service Lands – which is Public Lands. This government agency also guilty of false information to complete horse roundups . . . Gone, in total, is honesty and integrity within, specifically, both government agencies mentioned.

Yes, the best example is the Transparency and Accountability in Government Contracting Act of 2007 – passed in the Senate, but ignored in the Congress to this day. There is no doubt our government agencies remain within a quagmire of incompetence, and thus lack integrity and responsibility to actually manage American taxpayer dollars appropriately. Sadly, the accountability and transparency act above had to even be mentioned, none the less ignored and demonstrating an overwhelming lack of integrity by our government officials . . . but moving onward. . .

What do we mean by integrity in the context of government? Or the circumstances of governance today that does nothing more than weaken its meaning. Few disagree that integrity is one of the qualities most to be valued in public officials. We use the notion of integrity expansively as a general, all-purpose yardstick against which to measure public conduct. Yet it is an elusive concept, especially in relation to government and government officials.

Accountability and Wild Horses on Public Lands

Over the past few years and within the western United States, for false reasons (the reasons well referenced and established as fact to be false) America’s Heritage of Wild Horses are being rounded up as if some type of disposable rubbish, and by BLM and USFS agencies. Their misinformation for conducting such roundups is quite lethal, not only a cause for destruction of America’s Heritage — our Wild Horses, but our wilderness areas as well.

In an attempt for accountability, when speaking with a BLM representative, this journalist was given nothing more than lies in regard to the death of twenty-nine wild horses rounded up at Murderer’s Creek, Oregon. Noticeable was the fact this BLM employee did not feel compelled toward not only any type of responsibility or accountability in the matter of being truthful, but was not intimidated by the lack of integrity obvious when answering straight forward questions in regard to transparency issues for public and tax payer information purposes.

The roundup took place not only on BLM Public Lands (25%), but Forest Service Lands also (75%). Apparently, the BLM representative and the individual In-Charge of overseeing the roundup did not realize, or knew — but did not care, that their inventory system from the roundup, detailed spreadsheets, were quite telling-in-detail of the occasion (also backed by payroll vouchers). The spreadsheets listed the outright death of these twenty-nine Wild Horses, and under the categories’ of Capture Date – Capture Herd Place – Disposition, et al . . .

Accountability and Responsibility Displaced

Then we get to the Department of the Interior (DOI) — BLM/USFS vouchers. For this discussion we will not get into the fact, but acknowledge existence of hiring people who live within the area, as Private Contractors (relatives?), or Forest Service neighbors and friends?

Obviously these people were unqualified to accomplish a reasonable and responsible roundup — i.e. just by objective reasoning and due to the certainly questionable and highly suspect killing of twenty-nine wild horses, and many more horses simply disappeared — as facts do not lie — the paperwork obvious – or is it? Is there something else they are covering up even worse than twenty-nine Wild Horses killed, and if caught doing so?

So we read from the DOI voucher (keeping in mind this is one payment voucher of 24 similar paid vouchers, but different payment amounts given, but all approximate similar amounts) disposition that taxpayer’s paid the amount of $21,000 to roundup 20 Wild Horses (as listed on voucher Transaction #20 (Delivery Order), AG04M3C090050/AG04M3D100007/0) and the roundup, must we not forget was and remains unnecessary and generated by misinformation from both the BLM and Forestry.

Then we go to yet another voucher and another $20,000, but this time there is no amount of Wild Horses shown that were rounded up, so who knows what tax payers paid for here? Perhaps 20 more Wild Horses rounded up? And on it goes, until . . .

Keep in mind that the maximum amount of Wild Horses to be roundup within this HMA, i.e. Murderer’s Creek area, was not to exceed 200 horses. The BLM Inventory sheets already show, and paid for by the way, 258 Wild Horses rounded up. Also, we as taxpayer’s for this travesty, are not shown anywhere within the USFS paperwork where an estimated 328 Wild Horses were sent, nor their disposition, as also paid by taxpayer’s. Did they go to slaughter, and Kill Buyer’s collect the profit — so taxpayer’s paid for the roundups and the Kill Buyer’s obtain the profits? It has certainly been done before by BLM and Forestry personnel! Did they go to other reservations or rescues, or holding facilities?

Then there is transaction #7, in the amount of $107,615, apparently paid to the roundup Private Contractors’ – Delivery Order #INL12PC00123/INL13PD00798/0. Is this yet another 100 horses rounded up?

Or yet another, Transaction #10 in the amount of $214,000, apparently to the Burns BLM, Delivery Order #INL12PC00123/INL12PDO1580/0 and for the Murderer’s Creek Roundup. . . Is this yet another 220 horses rounded up, or a distinct payment for something else, yet designated as going to the Murderer’s Creek roundup? Who knows, as there exists no transparency or explanation to the taxpaying public!

And on it goes, folks, and as already mentioned, a situation contrived by falsified information, lies, innuendo, and above all well referenced misleading Environmental Statements and bad science.

A government investigation is in order, you say – we all say? By who, our government that often defends this type of obvious criminal behavior, and passing it off as nothing more than information from mis-aligned advocates? Nope, this is from government documents, from the source – it is obvious horses have disappeared, in vast numbers. It is obvious there is criminal behavior within the Murderer’s Creek Roundups! Accountability? Transparency?

The overwhelming truth is, yes, taxpayer’s do pay for bad decisions brought about by bad science, make no doubt of this as being a matter of fact! Those Administrators who neglect good science simply want their budgets enhanced and their payroll increased, that’s all – to hell with America’s wildlife, and our proud heritage as well – such as the Wild Horses roaming free on our Public Lands, and within the beauty of our environment!

Integrity and America’s Public Lands

The least that integrity requires of a public official is that he or she not be corrupt in obvious ways: soliciting or accepting a bribe, or accepting a gift or favor in return for official action. Such conduct is generally criminal; so the added fact that it displays a lack of integrity is beside the point. So also, integrity requires that one not take some action or fail to take some action because of a perceived benefit to oneself, even if the benefit is incidental and not a reward. But again, profiting from a conflict of interest also is generally subject to criminal or regulatory sanctions.

Although we sometimes have to draw painful distinctions between what is and what is not within bounds, the principle is reasonably clear. Formal mechanisms for preserving integrity in government go no further than corruption and near corruption of this kind. There is also much conduct for which official sanctions are out of the question and which we should hesitate to call corrupt, but which nevertheless raises issues of integrity. It is also in this area that we are most in need of a better understanding.

Conclusion

Within the FOIA material received here last week, questions abound upon each perusal of the same material. A little integrity, add to that an amount of responsibility toward the American taxpayer’s, and thoughts toward humane treatment toward animals given, then sprinkle with a little transparency, and all of this goes away. Sometimes the simple things in life are so bewildering to those whose shroud of dishonesty has become common-place. How sad.

But if transparency does exist one day, then things would have to operate within a non-questionable and honest methodology – management and honest science would have to prevail. Bad decisions would then be just that, a bad decision. Relief from unnecessary expenditure’s would happen as attrition, and taxpayer’s would have to pay less taxes.

Humanity benefits, because there is nothing hidden, no ugly secrets that may escape for public scrutiny – Yes, life much easier with transparency and accountability – those who are responsible for the crime, are those that go to jail for the crime!

Whether or not official government policy is at stake, such conduct has become routine, simply the way public officials behave and are expected to behave. It is not, I think, because public officials individually have less integrity today than in the past. I do think, however, that what passes for integrity in government and public life is diminished. There is less expectation of honest, forthright, committed behavior, and so we take less notice when it is absent. We are used to spin, to handlers, to glib phrases and euphemisms as part of government. The likely consequences for a democratic society are not encouraging.

The Department of the Interior has become in truth, simply phrased, a corporate puppet. Money rather than our wildlife or environment becomes their decision maker – it is quite obvious good science is no longer a part of this government agency.

The saddest of all parts of this conclusion, is the fact that BLM and the U.S. Forest Service, and other government agencies, have become nothing more than part of a corporate criminal empire within our government of today. For this Veteran, and others who have fought for the stability and laws and Heritage of this country, this is a sad day for this writer to have to write this obvious circumstance onto paper. Very sad and is a let-down, our government today.

“Corrupt influence is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder; it loads us more than millions of debt; takes away vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution.” –Edmund Burke

Wild Horse Herd Theft – Interview with a government private contractor (from 1992 BLM Investigation)

The illegal activity continues to this day, just as at that time. Below is one of many questions answered by an informant, questioned by one of a few honest BLM Agents. This particular discussion outlines how the BLM’s Private Contractors steal horses, in this portion the Agent asks the informant who is involved in the illegal activity:

“Agent: Is this a pretty good organization? This sounds like something that’s pretty well planned out, it’s a big organization.

Informant: Well, its very well set up, you know. There’s nobody that participates in it that isn’t well known and don’t know what’s going on.

Agent: Do you feel like there’s people inside the BLM that know about this practice, that are a part of this practice?

Informant: Sure. We can’t operate unless they’re standing there.”

(For the entire informative packet and interview see Horses Led To Slaughter, Anatomy of a Cover Up in the Wild Horse and Burro Program, PEER White Paper, Number 14, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Washington D.C. 20009-1125.)

Today’s BLM the same as Yesterday’s BLM

Recently a series of FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) BLM documents arrived, to include Bureau of Land Management documents. Upon perusal, there exists far more to these documents, a scenario of events unfold. So here is a first installment of a few — and make no doubt, the number here is twenty-nine Wild Horses died at Murderer’s Creek or within the Burn’s Corral!

If we are correct in our assumptions, than the figures of horses killed at other roundups, the true numbers are far more than we estimated or even assumed. More perusal of BLM documents needed of other roundups as well. What we have accomplished is uncovering the technique done by BLM / Forestry pipeline and methods to actually “Hide” the death of wild horses or shipping horses to slaughter, e.g. to different corrals or areas, the more remote the better . . .

This also points, sadly, to the ever-present liquidation process of America’s Wild Horses from America’s Public Lands, and at Taxpayer Expense! I state this as fact, because the taxpayer’s, despite the millions upon millions of taxpayer money spent for these roundups, receive nothing – corporations receive all the benefits, and many of those are not American corporations or pay very little in taxes each year.

So our American Heritage, America’s Wild Horse Herds are being wiped out as I write this – and using “Our” tax money to do so, which amounts to Taxation Without Representation! Time for Change!

Deductive Reasoning and Conclusive Methods

These documents enabled us to not only track a Wild Horse Herd Roundup using Bait and Trap techniques, but they also developed quite a story (scenario) of a BLM / Forestry Cover Up in regard to Wild Horse Herd Roundups . . .

Within the confines of this article we will explore just the documentation. Sadly these documents outline clearly a tale of death for “twenty-nine Wild Horses” from the Murderer’s Creek (i.e. BLM document designation OR0019) area.

Why or how in regard to the death of these Wild Horses, who knows, as a BLM employee had blacked-out or erased that information from the spreadsheet made available via the FOIA. Ironically, neither was it Confidential or Secret information of any type, nor would harm the Security of the United States military or government. So one must ask, why is the information blacked-out? This question answered when we perused the Inventory, Statement of Work, Horse Count Records (partial), and Vouchers associated with Murderer’s Creek Bait and Trap Operations.

The Bait and Trap Capture of Wild Horses

This particular roundup within the contract was to “. . . capture and removal of up to 200 horses . . .” (i.e. STATEMENT OF WORK, Murderer’s Creek Territory Bait Trap-Oregon, #5. Capture / Removal Numbers . . .

From September 15, 2012 (authorized start date) through April 31, 2013 – “. . . up to 95 horses . . .” “The remaining 105 horses shall be captured and removed from October 1, 2012 through April 31, 2013. . .” (i.e. ibid, from Statement of Work #5).

Clearly from another document received, there were 268 Inventoried Wild Horses Captured, this according to actual Inventory Numbers given to the Wild Horses rounded up from Murderer’s Creek (designation — OR0019), between the contract period of September 15, 2012 to April 31, 2013. This particular document creates many more questions that need answered.

Further, other documents attest to a total of 623 wild horses captured (Forestry vouchers, et al.). This is another 355 wild horses also taken from the Murderer’s Creek area, supposedly; OR, are taxpayers paying for stolen horses or wild horses taken in excess from other HMA’s in a criminal fashion, and designated as Murderer’s Creek inventory?

Keep in mind out of the way areas do promote this situation, as a less than average detection rate of criminal activity can and often accomplished, and is very popular with BLM employees and criminals, as previous undercover operations attest to in the years 1990 to 1994, et al. . .

This situation does have a finger-print so to speak, as designated on the “Paid Vouchers” under category – Feed / Care for Captured Horses, with Invoice Numbers – L12PD01580-01, L12PD01580-2, and L12PD01580-3R . . . All three vouchers are designated as “Murderer’s Creek Bait Trap” Contract Number L12PCO0123, and Delivery/ Task Order L12PDO1580 . . .

These vouchers attest to the fact a total of 623 horses were fed and transported somewhere – or were they? Could this be a False Report, or outright Fraud? Or, if true, where did the horses come from? Where did the Wild Horses go to? We can track only 258 —

If not Wild Horses, then stolen, or displaced from other HMA’s? And taxpayer’s supplemented the transportation of stolen horses to slaughter? Well, we have before, many times and within the BLM and now the Forestry, so why would this be any different, when the obvious is, well, obvious.

Witnesses within the area do attest to the fact, within that time-frame, well known Kill Buyer trucks out of California and a smaller one out of Nevada, who transports horses to slaughter, were seen on occasion. But no witness knows for sure where they may have stopped.

Dead Horses On Record (i.e. BLM Documentation)

Examples of recorded data on Spreadsheet is available here (1st two only, the remainder the same throughout the spreadsheet 1 thru 258 (twenty-nine listed as Dead) for total recorded captures, all similar inventory numbers and all designated from Murderer’s Creek area appropriately.

The brand is labeled with the HG or HM series, as inventory would dictate. The other categories, other than Dead, were “Eligible for Adoption” or “Adopted”, but we have no idea if this is true as they do not check . . . The “Capture Dates are recorded as 10/10/2012 to 12/19/2013 on this particular document.

10/10/2012 OR0019 Murderer’s Creek Food Trap HG1AAAAAC DEAD
10/10/2012 OIR019 Murderer’s Creek Food Trap HM1ACAEBD DEAD

According to this document, the end destination via travel voucher was Burns, Oregon BLM corrals, all twenty-nine Wild Horses listed as “Dead”, and as designated by the BLM’s Statement of Work details and mileage vouchers (i.e. Statement of Work, #12 Destination of Transported Horses, et al.).

Journalist: “There is a list of twenty-nine horses from Murderer’s Creek that died over there, or at your facility.”

Rob Stark (COR): “Well, we’ve only had three die at the Burns Corral.”

Journalist: “Then you are saying the horses in question died at the Trap Site? If that is the case then why did taxpayer’s pay the $1200 per horse for the capture and transport of dead horse’s?”

Rob Stark (COR): “I didn’t say they died at the trap site.”

Journalist: “But you just said you had only three die at the Burns corral in the past couple of years — but there are twenty-nine listed as “Dead” here, all designated in your Inventory, and assigned a Murderer’s Creek Capture Number. Then where did they die?”

Rob Stark (COR): “We have people out at the Trap Sites, myself included, that monitor if the trapped horses healthy enough to be transported.”

Journalist: “Then you’ve taken horses to the Burns Corrals and euthanized them, because they were sickly, or crippled? Or, you did not?”

Rob Stark (COR): “We would not bring them back to the corrals at Burns if sick.”

Journalist: “So you paid transport fees and Capture payments for supposedly trapped horses that were not transported, but Euthanized at the Trap Sites?”

Conclusion

Your guess is as good as mine on resolving this situation, especially the way our government agencies work, or do not work at all. BLM employees do not answer questions very well, and become vague at best (i.e. BLM Speak). One thing for sure is they always seem to be hiding something . . . But the vouchers and travel mileage clear, and when combined with the short Inventory of Wild Horses Captured, 258, and the Forestry’s vague but readable vouchers.

The numbers left out from a few Forestry vouchers, make no doubt we are discussing more, rather than less, horses captured. Because of these vouchers, and the overwhelming speculation that many Murderer’s Creek Wild Horses were sent to slaughter from the Forestry side, would make sense after reading their vouchers.

It becomes more than obvious that something needs to happen, and it needs to happen fast out at Murderer’s Creek. We can no longer depend on the honesty of either of these government agencies, or if there is and it exists, we simply have not found it yet –-

Sadly, for the Wild Horses . . . and it continues to break all of our hearts. The Investigation continues . . .