The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has been engineering a plan to eradicate the Sheldon Range wild horses in Nevada. USFWS claims that the Sheldon horses are non-indigenous and feral, and therefore not protected by law. The reasons given for their removal are to protect the water resources and to enhance the populations of pronghorn antelope and sage grouse, two species that bring in revenue from special hunting permits. However, a paper published by USFWS found that wild horses, in reasonable numbers, have no demonstrable adverse affect on these species.
USFWS’s plan, if implemented, would make it impossible for rescues and individuals to directly adopt small numbers of Sheldon horses, as has been done in the past. The “more efficient” plan allows for only mass adoptions of horses to three “carefully screened” agents. The agents will be paid $300 per horse to take them by the truckload. There is no doubt that many of these horses will end up at auction, and ultimately at slaughter. In fact, 40 Sheldon horses bought by one of the agents were recently “bought back” from a slaughter plant by the agent who had previously “adopted” them from USFWS.
Also disturbing, USFWS has announced that they are planning another gather of Sheldon wild horses in June—in the middle of foaling season! A gather at this time represents a cruel assault on the pregnant mares, who may abort their foals, as well as risks to the new-born foals, including foals being separated from their mothers, trampled to death, or run to exhaustion. USFWS has offered no explanation for the unusual timing for the upcoming gather.
America’s wild horses are an icon of the west. The Sheldon Range horses are the very same horses that made it possible for the US government to conquer the west.
Please contact the US Fish and Wildlife Service directly and ask them to put a halt to their plan to eradicate the SheldonRange wild horses! Go to
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/...id=790&type=AN and write a letter to The Honorable H. Dale Hall, Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Click here to see a sample letter to Congress as a guide.
Also, please contact your senators and representatives today and ask them to urge USFWS to put a halt to the plan to eradicate the Sheldon Range wild horses until the proper environmental studies have been conducted, and until the safety of any captured horses can be ensured!
It is urgent that both Congress and the Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service hear from you immediately! Thank you for your support on this issue.
