Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. — John Adams
Horse Advocates state clearly, from fact, that there is no need for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse Herd Roundups, a sub-agency of the Department of the Interior (DOI). Many also think there is no longer a need for such a contempt-oriented government agency as the BLM! Also these same employees at the BLM tell the American public / taxpayers, to pretty much go to hell, when the same taxpayers state clearly, the BLM programs bogus, unwanted, and many criminal at best.
Much of the public/taxpayer base wants the wild horse herds left alone, and remain on public lands — and many taxpayers very much aware that it is the BLM that lies about catastrophes and necessity of management paradigms; in truth, the BLM management paradigms are only political agendas directly involving graft or profits while taking taxpayer money criminally.
The unnecessary roundups cost taxpayers millions if not billions of dollars yearly. Yet this reality, this “thing” our government refers to as “acceptable abuse” or “acceptable expenditure” after their non-fact based and false documentation toward reasoning for the roundups, and everything connected with it, can and should be considered nothing more than mis-use of taxpayer money as well as criminal in nature.
The fact, or truth, is the horse roundups remain contrary to it’s program that established the endeavors of such a useless need, contrary to management principles, contrary to science, contrary to Congressionally passed law and policy, remain and certainly abusive to the horses. . . And yet. . .
The Bureau of Land Management Incompetence = Criminal
Awkwardly, BLM and DOI operate contrary to any values that prescribe decency, morals, non-abusive behavior, and law. Just within the matter of the Wild Horse Herd Roundups and their holding facility management guidelines and principles, one can become thoroughly disgusted with the BLM and DOI.
The treatment of animals, when simply observed, is wrong and on many different levels. Taxpayers continue to pay for this mismanaged operation of abusive Wild Horse Herd Roundups, abuse-oriented storage of these same Wild Horses, and once again the BLM simply tells taxpayers to go to hell when questioned about the obvious abuse and even death of America’s wild horses. . . Yes, arrogantly, the old “. . . everybody is wrong but us attitude. . .” And as we all acknowledge, this unreasonable of all paradigms becomes quite costly, both monetarily and life threatening.
One example of many: The payment process to those who do the helicopter roundups, in one government contract person’s opinion and after perusing several BLM contracts with private contractors, states, “It is an abomination. They pay contractors essentially unearned money, with no proper parameters or checks and balance systems toward quality of work or restrictions on abuse or death of the horses. Way too many items left out of contract to actually adhere to government contract guidelines. . .”
Facts abound not only about and toward the most litigated and costly government agency in America’s history, but the BLM was investigated in the early 1990’s in regard to severe criminal activity throughout this agency. By the way, those investigated have become those in upper management, supervisors, and other levels of responsibility. Mysteriously, with 2,000+ felony arrest warrants compiled, and several hundred misdemeanor arrest warrants signed and ready to serve, the warrants discontinued the night before, with no reason given other than orders given from higher up.
This exists volumes of information about questionable contracts, conflict of interest issues, contractor hiring practices, roundup methodology and violation of both policy and law, and wasted taxpayer money – both criminal and due to: BLM incompetence; sever animal abuse toward horses and outright killing them without excuse or (saddly) due to mistreatment of the horses.
There exist also Federal Court cases won that demonstrate and show repeated Constitutional violations by BLM staff, management, and law enforcement; Federal Court case that show BLM incompetent in their decision making (billions of dollars lost with this one in court and attorney expenses, Justice Department attorneys’, etc…); harassing of American’s by BLM staff and law enforcement; blatantly ignoring Court Orders and on many occasions; employee misconduct and even theft and other criminal activities and situations; conflict of interest between Director’s of the BLM and DOI, as well as top and mid management personnel; and the list goes on!
Many American’s wonder why this agency exists
Every bit of information mentioned above, noteworthy evidence against the BLM and DOI employees, is indeed backed by witnesses, certification of fact, scientific reports which are often arrogantly ignored, data, photos, and videos of all this obvious questionable conduct that indeed is both costly to the taxpayer and could be considered criminal in nature.
Then, ironically, something happens to all of this precise information collected. All of it becomes eligible to fit into whatever extreme characterization is most politically expedient at the moment for BLM or DOI employee management or Directors, or media people in the agency to spew to the Public-At-Large.
Advocates have been blamed for “. . . the sky is falling complex. . .” and “. . . the facts Advocates portray as real driven by their emotions only. . .” or recently, “. . . the NAS Report” (Scientists find BLM incompetent and using bad science for decision making) portrayed as “being nothing more than propaganda done by Horse Advocates.” The fact is the BLM hired scientists as Independent Contractors, to complete a “Truthful Evaluation” on BLM techniques and management principles in regard to wild horse herds and the roundups. The NAS Report (i.e. independent research scientists) found BLM to be “Incompetent in policy, not following the legal aspects of management of the horse herds, and the roundups not needed what so ever.”
The problem is this, the NAS is a government organization, and sub-hired private contractors–Independent Research Scientists, to research and assimilate the report over a two year time period. The NAS was contracted by the BLM/DOI to find out what the problem was with their inefficient and ineffective methodology. The group of research scientists did so, and at a cost to the taxpayers millions, and yet the BLM now ignores the research because it does not fit in with their excuse-paradigm to Senators, Congressmen, and other legislators they feed misinformation to on a constant basis.
BLM Employee Incompetence Abundant
Yes, we can conclude very easily that longevity within a career ambition should be made of much sterner stuff. We can also conclude that distributing false information, propaganda, lies, and innuendo coming from our American taxpayer based public/government employees are wrong.
After all, it is taxpayer property and the BLM and DOI consistently abuse, steal, or label taxpayer and American property as insignificant entity, which costs the taxpayer often millions of dollars yearly within itself, and by just plain old bad reasoning by government employees. I also speak of the continuous expenditures for situations and items unnecessary to do or have, and give a “zero” return to the taxpayer.
Yes, the Wild Horse Herd Roundups are only a small item, yet costly in the billions to taxpayers — and unneeded; especially when considering the non-payment or special interest and politically driven next-to-nothing payments for our Public Lands usage, especially by foreign corporations or mining — and fees often not paid at all, amounting to billions upon billions of dollars —
What’s Going On?
This is really the heart of what the Horse Advocacy is about. The rule of law is dependent upon a government that is willing to abide by the law. Disrespect for the rule of law begins when the government believes itself and its corporate sponsors to be above the law.
But need we discuss, or write here, about the laws and policies being ignored, and even changed at times, to arrange nature into a political paradigm. I think not right now, as research by the reader of this article, when accomplished, is much more memorable.
The only situation provided here, since this should be of concern for every American, is to actually accomplish the research and discover these vast amount of situations the BLM and DOI disregard, favoring corporations and political agendas instead!
This has to do with all American’s and not only our quality of life, but the quality of life for us and our families, for our animals, our nation’s wildlife, and our overall existence toward not becoming corporate pawns, and paying our tax money only to support corporations! History becomes quite clear, and the BLM’s management paradigm, favoring use of our public lands by corporations, at little to no cost, is the road toward total destruction of our public lands and eventually America! It is obvious and ongoing as this article is written.
HORSE ADVOCATES
More generally, the question of whether Horse Advocates do their job? Yes, it is good and brings out not only honest perspective, but forces irresponsible government agencies, as the BLM and DOI to keep responding to the public. When accomplished consistently, and the same old excuses, toward their innocence when indeed the innocent, horses in this case, are being abused, and even tortured and killed at times, then the truth becomes quite obvious over time.
Yes, there exists horse abuse! Yes there exists unnecessary death rates of wild horses due to ignorance of private contractors’ working for the government! And yes, there is criminal behavior at almost all levels of the BLM and no matter what the venue, i.e. wild horse herds, logging, mining, energy, and on and on. . .
It has simply become a matter of survival for the Wild Horses, and Horse Advocates are the people who defend these animals who remain defenseless without Advocates.
We can, as humans, expect no less from any man or woman, and to do what is right — and in this case what is right is defending our Wild Horse Herds from malicious and dishonest people! — John Cox, Horse Advocate
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Just a few items the Public should be aware of while the BLM mismanage our Public Lands, and at a great cost to do so. This certainly, at times, becomes far more than BLM employee incompetence and reverts to criminal behavior that should be approached right now, not 20 years from now!
1. BLM approves construction of 50,000 new natural gas wells in southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming, despite the threat to national parks and local air quality. Wild Horse Herds and HMA’s liquidated from this Bad Science (manipulated data) – Bad Decisions criteria.
2. A report by the National Academy of Science, ordered by the DOI and administration, concludes that it is safe for people to drink water with as much as 20 parts per billion of perchlorate –- that level is 20 times the standard recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency two years ago.
3. Evidence surfaces that Bush administration quietly changed rules, allowing oil companies to skip environmental requirements when drilling in National Parks.
4. Former BLM employee sues the bureau for wrongfully firing him when he refused to comply with orders to downplay toxic and radioactive dangers at a Nevada copper mine.
5. BLM overestimates the potential amount of natural gas underneath Colorado’s Roan Plateau, stating that the gas reserves could power the country for nine months. A USGS report concludes that the tapped gas supplies could actually power the country for only 6 days.
6. EPA experts accuse Bush administration of altering science on poor air quality over National Parks.
7. Mine Safety and Health Administration demotes and relocates a top official for accusing the agency of covering up facts during the investigation of a massive coal slurry spill in West Virginia.
8. Bush administration deletes key information in letter urging the United Nations to remove Yellowstone from a list of endangered World Heritage Sites.
9. Bush administration claims that environmental laws restrict energy development in the West despite government findings that the vast majority of public lands are open for oil and gas drilling.
10. Interior Department claims that polar bears can be adequately protected from oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge despite government studies showing the opposite to be true.
11. Bush administration grants a Kentucky coal company a reprieve from obeying federal law, allowing mining to continue without a permit (eventual cave-in and 18 minors killed).
12. Hundreds of government wildlife scientists report political pressure, scientific distortion.
13. Court records reveal that a Bush administration political appointee in the Interior Department conspired with industry lobbyists to support the California Farm Bureau’s lawsuit against her own agency. After a series of emails and telephone calls Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald tried to scuttle scientific recommendations that favored protecting endangered fish and wildlife habitat by limiting the amount of water diverted for irrigation. Although, administrators have changed, the same people within upper management still exists.
14. NOAA orders federal biologists to rewrite a report that had concluded harmful effects on endangered salmon from a federal plan to divert millions of gallons of water from rivers in Northern California to the southern part of the state.
15. USFWS fires Florida scientist who publicly criticized the agency for using faulty science when approving eight development projects in the critical habitat of the endangered Florida panther.
16. Government biologist resigns after accusing the Bush administration of politicizing science, and illegally disregarding his advice leading to the massive fish kill in the Klamath River.
17. Evidence surfaces that USFWS employed false data to conclude that the Florida panther’s survival is not in jeopardy — when in fact the panther population is severely dwindling.
18. Federal officials deleted information used in a cost-benefit analysis of its recovery of the endangered bull trout, falsely concluding that protecting the species would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
19. Bush administration admits to hiding three reports regarding Klamath River policies, which suggest that protecting water levels would benefit both wildlife and the economy through recreation. However, the administration later chooses to divert water for agriculture, leading to a massive fish kill.
20. NMFS whistleblower accuses the Bush administration of forcing his agency to violate the Endangered Species Act by overruling concerns that diverting water from the Klamath River for irrigation would harm fish. Subsequently, a massive fish kill resulted that later was linked to the administration’s decision.
21. Industry lobbyists convince the Mineral Management Service to weaken sperm whale protections, which they complained hindered the oil and gas industry.
22. Interior Department abruptly reverses its decision that drilling in the Arctic Refuge would harm polar bears.
23. Top Bush administration political appointee at Interior reverses earlier findings that air pollution from a proposed coal power plant in Kentucky would significantly hamper visibility at the nearby MammothCaveNational Park.
24. EPA records reveal, for the third time, that the agency’s proposal for regulating mercury pollution from power plants copied passages — in some cases word for word — from memos written by a law firm representing the utility industry. It just so happens that the head of EPA’s air program and his chief counsel were both partners at the firm before President Bush installed them at the agency.
“I am convinced that I would have been again asked to change my conclusions, or that the biological opinion would be re-written by someone else based on a less rigorous examination of the scientific evidence and without an appropriate level of caution. … Properly conducted, objective science always describes the amount of uncertainty present in a conclusion. However, it appears that this agency, and others under the current administration, routinely abuse the science by giving inappropriately high significance to very small amounts of scientific uncertainty, if that uncertainty supports a desired outcome. Not only does this lack of caution and misuse of science adversely impact natural resources, it misleads the American public about how science and the scientific method work.” — from Mike Kelly’s resignation letter, May 18, 2004
Preservation of America's Wildlife 