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Rescued wild horse finds home Published: October 14, 2009  Photo by Ken Odor
By Ken Odor jodor@goochlandgazette.com “I have made this a passion of mine,” said Lisa Friday in a recent interview at her home near Rockville, as she talked about adopting “Rain,” a wild mustang from a herd living in the Pryors Mountains in Wyoming. Friday travels most weeks as a Director of Human Resources for 24 hospitals operated by Community Health Systems. But when she’s at home, she devotes herself to her family and her horses. In September she traveled to Lovell, Wyoming, where the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had rounded up more than 50 wild horses for adoption or sale. Friday adopted “Rain,” a two-year-old mare descended from the stallion “Cloud,” made famous by documentary filmmaker Ginger Kathrens, executive director of the Cloud Foundation, whose films on wild horses have aired on public television. According to the BLM Web site, a December 2004 amendment to the 1971 wild horse law makes animals over 10 years old – as well as younger ones that have been passed over for adoption at least three times – eligible for sale, a transaction in which the title of ownership passes immediately from the Federal government to the buyer. Although the December 2004 amendment directs the BLM to sell “without limitation,” the BLM has not been selling any wild horses or burros to slaughterhouses or to “killer buyers,” according to a section on the question and answer section of the BLM Web site. Since that amendment took effect, the BLM has sold nearly 3,700 wild horses and burros. But at stake are about 37,000 wild horses and burros that roam lands managed by BLM in 10 Western states. BLM maintains that number is about 10,000 animals greater than the land can support. Friday counters that the BLM would rather sell grazing rights to cattle owners than let the wild horses occupy the lands. She and others in the movement to protect the horses are pushing the U.S. Senate to pass the ROAM (Restore Our American Mustangs) Act (S. 1579) which is currently in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Friday says that thousands of acres intended for the management of the wild horses have been eliminated since 1971, and the number of horses has been drastically reduced. Friday started riding about 15 years ago and says she has either bought or rescued a horse every year since she met her husband James Seay 10 years ago. The couple lives with their horses on a 300-acre farm that has been in the Seay family for more than 100 years. Friday first saw Rain on September 25. She brought her to the farm within a week. “The whole process is bittersweet,” said Friday. “The young horses are ripped from their families. They know who they are.” “The sweet part is knowing that I was able to save her life,” she said. To find out more, visit the BLM Web site at www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro.html and the Cloud Foundation at www.thecloudfoundation.org.
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Kim Kloeppel of Missouri | Oct. 18, 2009, 10:22 AM
I am so happy that Rain has a happy ending. Heather | Oct. 18, 2009, 02:17 AM
While it’s wonderful that Rain has a caring family- she didn’t need “rescuing”, I take offense to that word. She was out there living free in the Pryors with her family, and the BLM came with a helicopter, chased them for MANY miles, rounded them up, and “adopted” them out. They didn’t need rescuing- they were healthy, well fed and free, now they are less in number, and that doesn’t bode well long- term for the plight of the American mustang. I hope she will always be special, and safe. There are many thousands now, who are not. Mar Wargo of Pagosa Springs, Colorado | Oct. 18, 2009, 01:34 AM
It is a very happy moment to see Rain doing well with her new family. She is indeed a lucky filly. Our horses were entrusted to The Bureau of Land Management to be managed on their own lands. They have been systematically stolen by BLM from the American people with a dozen excuses and known that ring true. To wade through the lies and misinformation is a baffling trip through an agency that does what it wants for its own reasons. These wild horses deserve to run free upon their own lands and as many as possible should be returned to the wild from holding. Please take action to save Your Wild Horses. Do not believe the figures or any information from BLM. Find the truth. Help stop all roundups, Demand a Moratorium so the horses will continue to live in the wild. They are being managed to extinction. Please help save your wild horses. MKW Janet Ferguson of Midwest | Oct. 17, 2009, 09:08 PM
I urge anyone interested in the impending complete destruction of some of these herds to get up to speed on the issue and take any kind of action they can within their ability to advocate for this beleaguered species. Please read all you can get your hands on and verify your facts. Let your elected officials know where you stand, early and often. We are living in a very dangerous time for all of creation, including our own species, however, the ruthlessness shown by the Bureau of Land Management in tandem with our elected officials’ negligence in their duty to protect and manage these herds ON THEIR LAND, IN THE WILD, has resulted in a race to destruction and desecration of our wild equids in the United States that is unparalleled anywhere in the world, except perhaps where dwindling wild zebras herds are slaughtered for stuffing the bloody maws of UE’s most elite diners. Patricia Kienholz of Spokane Valley, WA | Oct. 17, 2009, 04:30 PM
I am not a horse person but I can read and it seems to me that the BLM is doing their very best to eliminate the wild horse herds. These horses were here long before any of us and they should be allowed to remain free. I am of the opinion that the BLM probably wants to lease the land to a rancher for cattle grazing and the free horses are interfering with their plan. I did not see the CBS program. I am speaking only as an interested person who has watched our government do so many things that are detrimental to us…and now to the horses. Inasmuch as the horses cannot speak for themselves I have chosen to speak for them. LEAVE THE HORSES ALONE! They were here long before the BLM and let’s hope they will be here long after the BLM is gone. Linda | Oct. 14, 2009, 06:42 PM
Glad to see Rain has a good home. But the BLM has gone rogue in rounding up horses; CBS did an hour long investigative report this week: Page 1 of 1 pages
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