This is what happens at wild horse round ups. Babies get trampled as well as adults. If you have the stomach for it watch this still photo montage taken at a recent wild horse round up - warning - it's graphic and heart breaking... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPs3qg7CpMs
In 2006 when the historically brutal Sheldon Reserve round-up took place, the very one where the baby pictured above lost his life, Lifesavers went undercover to find out where the "removed" horses were going. Sheldon Reserve claimed to have "Adoption Agents" under contract and only their adoption agents would be able to receive horses taken from the Sheldon Reserve. It is important to note that Sheldoon paid each "agent" $300 per horse they accepted.
We learned of one "Adoption Agent" named Gary Graham of Los Lunas, New Mexico. This agent was suspected and reported to be closely connected to the slaughter trade. So Lifesavers sent a team to follow a truck of horses from the time it left the Sheldon reserve all the way to it's final destination. The destination turned out to be an address only yards, literally only yards, away from a notorious livestock auction that buys, sells and ships slaughter horses from New Mexico to Mexico. The horses were unloaded there and unfortunately there are no records of what became of them. We strongly believe that over the next few months all those horses were funneled through the auction and met their fate at the hands of Mexican slaughterers.
Another instance of mismanagement and lack of organization on Sheldon's part was the confiscation of neglected Sheldon horses by Canadian authorities. (Remember that Canada is another slaughter house mecca.) In this story it seems that the Canadian couple originally applied to adopt only two horses from the Sheldon round-up. When they were approved they were also asked if they could take an additional 34 horses. If that doesn't strike you strange - read it again. They wanted 2 horses - then were told that there was a truckful of horses coming their way with no other place to go. (Perhaps they were planning on secretly sending them to slaughter, but too many citizens watching them and they had to come up with plan b.) Well, the couple decided to take all the horses and the $300 that Sheldon pays to take the horses. That's almost 11,000 American dollars. The couple managed to sell most of the horses, but by the time the authorities were called they will had 17 horses that were not being fed or cared for.
That's the kind of thing we expect from Sheldon Reserve round ups and that is exactly why we are protesting future round ups. They are planning for another right now.
Lifesavers has a couple of Sheldon horses under its care. These two came from a private adopter. A call came in one day from a rescue woman in Oregon who had taken a group of Sheldon horses previously. She was over her head and told me that she was closing the rescue down. She couldn't afford to continue. She asked me to take some of the younger horses she had, but I explained that we were full already. As conversation continued she told me about two older mares that had come from the Sheldon group. She admitted that she couldn't catch them and that they still had their ID neck tags on them from the gather a year or so earlier. They were being kept in a small pasture with other horses.
I asked her about their hoof care and what she would do when their hooves became long and in need of trimming (assuming that they weren't yet). She told me that she would have to shoot them. SHE TOLD ME THAT SHE WOULD HAVE TO SHOOT THEM! I couldn't belive my ears. What kind of horse rescuer shoots wild horses instead of helping them?
Needless to say I made immediate arrangements with her to take the two older mares. We brought them to our sanctuary. About one week later I gentled the girls enough to remove their neck tags and sent them out on the 160 acres. Nature took care of the hoof trimming and to date the mares named Peace and Train are very happy and healthy.
Please help the Sheldon horses by contacting your House representatives and your Senators (www.congress.org) and ask them to support HR 1579. Also contact Ken Salazar at the Department of Interior and demand:
Round-ups be conducted with safety specifications and standards to ensure horses don't suffer needless injuries and fatalities;
That all wild horses, including Fish and Wildlife Service horses, have the same protection and management as wild horses managed by the BLM;
Only easily adoptable horses be removed and made available to the public. Horses unsuitable for adoption should either not be removed at all, or placed with appropriate wild horse sanctuaries of which arrangements should be made in advance of removal plans.
And absolutely NO ROUND UPS DURING FOALING SEASON.
Lifesavers currently cares for 275 previously rescued horses. Some from the Sheldon Reserve. Please help us care for these horses and horses that we will rescue in the near future. You may make a tax deductible donation by clicking on the link below.
Thank you for your support in most important ways: by contacting the officials mentioned above with your comments regarding the innocent wild horses facing another terrible round-up and by making your most generous donation to help Lifesavers continue its life saving work of rescuing and caring for 275 horses.