BLM Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board Meeting Overwhelmed with Disgruntled Equine Advocates

The Press Conference in it’s Entirity

(Oklahoma City) – Equine Welfare Advocacy organizations, the Cloud Foundation, Respect4Horses and Wild Horse Freedom Federation held a unified press conference during the lunch break of the BLM’s Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board meeting at the downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Sheraton this day. The press conference covered the topics of horse slaughter, which Oklahoma politicians are attempting to fast track laws to bring it into their state, and the gross mismanagement of America’s wild horse and burro herds by the Department of Interior’s (DoI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Press from all four major networks were on hand while advocates from around the country quickly filled up the existing 60 chairs available and soon the room was packed with the crowd standing and pouring out the door into the hallway to hear the equine advocacy leaders speak.

Simone Netherlands, natural horsemanship trainer, founder of Respect4Horses and principle organizer of the event, opened with an informative presentation on exactly what is happening in the state of Oklahoma with the fast-tracking of legislation to allow predatory horse slaughter plants to be able to slaughter American horses so that their flesh can be shipped overseas to satisfy fringe foreign pallets. With the roaring support of over 150 spectators it soon became apparent that the bulk of the audience were from Oklahoma and the concept of horse slaughter coming to their state is not an option that they would care to endure.

Dr. Lester Friedlander, DVM and former USDA Veterinarian, next spoke to the inhumanity of horse slaughter and the suffering it causes to an animal that is not intended to be a food animal.

R.T. Fitch, author, writer, blogger and president of Wild Horse Freedom Federation, spoke to the issue of the BLM selling wild horses to known kill buyers for slaughter and produced BLM bulk sales and state brand department documentation, obtained through a WHFF FOIA, which proves that BLM contractors have been selling BLM wild horses to kill buyers.

Lisa Friday, member of the Cloud Foundation’s Board of Directors, displayed graphic pictures depicting the cruelty of BLM helicopter roundups and gave eye witness accounts of abuse during the last BLM helicopter stampede conducted in Utah.

Emmy Award winning cinematographer and the creator of the PBS’s “Cloud” series Ginger Kathrens closed out the educational and informative conference by outlining the broken program and gross mismanagment of our last remaining wild horses and burros and offered sane and humane ways to manage the herds on the range versus attacking them with helicopters, destroying their families and sentencing them to concentration camps for the remainder of their lives.

“I think that the advocates and press walked away with much more knowledge and information on the cruelty of horse slaughter,” stated Dr. Friedlander, “I would travel around the world to save one horse and I think that with arming the audience with this information my translate into saving hundreds of horses if not thousands.”

Organizer, Simone Netherlands said, “I hope that we did a service for the people of Oklahoma, today. They are extremely unhappy and disgruntled over what their state government is attempting to pull off and the over the top attendance of the conference is a clear indication that these citizens want to be heard as well they should”

“I was shocked by the number of attendees,” said Lisa Friday, “Both the state of Oklahoma and we as an advocacy are lucky to have so many great people who truly care about the welfare of horses.”

R.T. Fitch said, “I hope that this sort of active engagement and the high volume of unhappy Americans begins to sink into the skulls of the bonehead BLM. After attending the first day of the Board meeting most of these advocates now know when the BLM is lying and attempting to pull the wool over their eyes; it’s when their lips are moving. We are not stupid.”

“It has been years since the BLM has seen that sort of attendance and today they got nothing but a huge dose of more bad press.” stated Ginger Kathrens, “All those great people want is what is best for their state and for the wild horses out west; we are exceedingly lucky to be supported and to be able to give back to such a great bunch of positive and compassionate people.”

Immediately following the press conference a rally was staged outside with dozens of signs, banners, chants, circulating horse trailers with banners and even a miniature horse participating.

Day two of the BLM’s board meeting commences tomorrow, Tuesday, and be viewed live on www.blm.gov/live.

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