Government Lawyers Mislead Federal Judge on Wild Horse Water
By Steven Long
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – When Laura Leigh, an author, artist, journalist, and litigant chased the BLM into the desert to observe wild horse capture after a federal judge told her she could do so, she wasn’t allowed to see horses – but she did see water.
Judge Larry Hicks lifted his temporary injunction and permitted the federal Bureau of Land Management to capture horses in the fierce July desert heat of Nevada. As in previous death chases, the result was predictable. Horses dropped after being relentlessly stampeded by a roaring helicopter owned by BLM contractor, Cattoor Livestock Roundups out of Nephi, Utah. The federal agency had lied to the judge, telling him that death by thirst was imminent if they weren’t removed.
Thus far, 21 horses and foals have died after the latest high summer stampedes.
Hicks granted the plaintiff, Leigh, a first amendment stake in the chase. He told her it was unconstitutional for the BLM to ban her from observing the horses. In reply, the agency pulled off a cowboy hat trick of sorts in the desert. They moved the trap, the pen where the wild animals were to be driven, onto private land in a mountain canyon out of sight and then told the sheriff’s cops to arrest trespassers, including the litigant who had just won the right to see what BLM was doing in their “gather” first hand.
While Leigh didn’t get to see the objects of the BLM chase, North American Mustangs, she spotted something equally important and precious in the desert – water at the fenced off Desert Ranch Reservoir.
“While the reservoir is located on BLM public land, the water in the reservoir is privately owned (i.e., the private owner holds the water rights in accordance with State of Nevada water law),” said BLM’s Washington spokesman, Tom Gorey. “The reservoir is mostly fenced, but the fences are constructed in a manner that allows wild horses access to the privately owned water in at least three locations. As a result, wild horses are able to move freely to and from the water using the large gaps in the fencing. In short, access to the reservoir water by wild horses is not blocked.”
If access to the water hole was open in three places, Leigh had caught the BLM lying to a federal judge.
“Desert Ranch Reservoir on public land is less than 5 miles from the trap site,” Leigh told Horseback Magazine late Monday. “BLM has the authority to utilize resources on private property to deal with emergencies. (BLM Director Bob) Abbey declared this issue in Owyhee an emergency.”
Gorey acknowledged late Tuesday that there is water available to the horses that are being stampeded by the BLM contractor.
“In general, water within the Owyhee Herd Management Area (HMA) is provided primarily by unfenced public land reservoirs (water catchments),” he said. “There is also one spring, called Bookkeeper Spring, which is located on unfenced private land within the HMA. This spring is normally adequate to water a small number of wild horses, but because of drought conditions, there is very little water available for use this year.”
Claiming extreme drought conditions, the BLM has delivered more than 30,000 gallons of water to the horses in the Owyhee HMA since Monday.
By admitting that water on public land is privately owned, Gorey raised a significant issue. What was the federal government thinking when it privatized an asset as precious as desert water, selling it out of government control? Moreover, when was it sold, for how much, and to whom?
“My assumption is that the BLM has never held the right to this water,” Gorey said.
It the government doesn’t own the water on federal land, who owns it?
Gorey has promised to research the ownership issue of water BLM lawyers claimed was nonexistent, so scarce, the deaths of hundreds of otherwise healthy horses and foals was imminent.
“Why did the BLM choose to press a stressed population through the round up instead of stabilizing the situation and waiting?” Leigh asked. “The claims made in the report given to a federal judge outline a population so fragile that BLM projected would be dead in three days (if the agency was not allowed to round them up.)”
Leigh has filed briefs charging the BLM with contempt of court.
Documents Filed by Laura Leigh
http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/07.19.10_Motion_for_Contempt-Relief.pdf
http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/07.19.10_Declaration_for_Motion.pdf
http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/07.19.10_Exhibit_A-DOI_letter.pdf
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The BLM pulled the 75% mortality rate out of their hat at the 11th hour. Who has ever heard of something so over-the-top and if it WAS truly an emergency, to move the horses, wouldn’t it had been a better option to rehab the dehydrated horses on site versus chasing them for 10 miles in the desert heat assuring the death of many?
The BLM is truly out of control.
Wasn’t there another lie by BLM in Federal Court? that they would wait until this past Sunday to start the Owyhee roundup, when in fact the plan was to start on Wednesday, even as their jaws flapped in Federal Court? How long does it take to indict a perjury case?
As a US taxpayer, I can’t afford this. I’m paying my employees – BLM — to lie and go against my best interests, then I’m paying government lawyers to defend their lies, maybe even make up new ones in Federal Court.
If these bureaucrats worked for me – which they do – I would fire them on the spot.
How is it that the BLM uses the same arguments in courts, the rulings go against them, and they still end up doing exactly as they choose to do? Damned with the laws or the peoples wishes! They are surely a rogue organization but how are they gettin’ away with all they do wrong? Seems like there’d be more that we can do to stop them.
Agree totally with RT about the in place servicing of these horses, the miles running in the heat of summer was bound to kill many, and it sure did! Why isn’t there more that can be done?
Just love it when a government official, Tom Gorey, is “making assumptions” about water on BLM Public Lands. You know what they say about “assumptions”! ass–u—me And what kind of salary does he draw to kill horses?
isn’t this just another case of malicious and crooked lawyers doing the devil’s work in the name of the law and getting away with it? when does it stop? crooked lawyers and a corrupt judicial system on maui, hawaii wiped me out of everything i owned after tieing me up legally for four years. legalized extortion is no different from crooked lawyers bending the truth to suit their needs and thus destroying our precious resource, the wild horses!
BLM-Bureau of Lies and misinformation. Talk about Government out of control. The BLM along with the DOI has sold every person including its favorite welfare recipients into Public economic slavery in this country and no body but a small group of us seems to care. Its time for a large group of us to just turn up at these gathers and forcibly enter them They cant arrest every one of us. Get cameras in there and get this documented. This deal really pisses me off beyond words.
We need a large group of people on Horses to “Gently” move these animals to somewhere the BLM cannot touch them,the BLM is very Crooked and would like nothing more than to eliminate the wild horses
for there own greed….
If the BLM claims all of these wild horses were in imminent danger of death from dehydration, why aren’t there dying/dead cattle and other wildlife in the area too?
As I said before, there were not anycattle in the gather area. the wild life left long before the water dried up.
I urge everyone to check out Jane@CNN.com -Jane Velez-Mitchell’s 7/13/10 interview re wild horses. There’s a Ruby 700 mile gas pipeline which the BLM authorized to slice through 5 herd areas. Call your Senators and those Senators in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to REQUEST A HEARING ON SENATE BILL 1579, the Wild Horse and Burro Act. It’s been sitting in this committe a year now while these horses are being rounded up. It would restore alot of the protections they had under the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971. It passed the House last June/July, 2009.
Call President Obama’s Comment Line: (202) 456-1111 and the Comment Line for the Dept. of the Interior (202) 208-3181. Check out Madeleine Pickens’ website – she wants to pay for and create an eco-sanctuary for these horses and burros and has been hitting delays and opposition.
Our horses are suppose to be protected on our public lands. This is a disgrace. The BLM and the Dept. of the Interior need to be stopped in their actions against the wild horses and burros.
Ask for an investigation of the BLM and Ken Salazar and taking the authority for the wild horses and burros away from the BLM.
I cannot believe how broken our system has become. The agency that’s responsible for protecting these horses and burros is the main threat to their existence and the American people are mostly oblivious to the whole thing! I’m sick of it! I’ll be at the next march for the Mustangs in Washington bet on it!
I have tried 3 TIMES to post this information on the comments section of 8newsnow.com and they will not publish it! This is relevant, please connect the dots! Last December, 2009, Nevada Dept. of Agriculture was nailed for selling mustangs to known kill buyer Ole Olsen:
http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/nevada-wild-horses-headed-to-slaughter/
Here is Animals Angels investigation of Ole Olsen’s Moses Lake WA feedlot! http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/InvestigationoftheslaughterhorseindustryinWashingtonStateMay2008externalreport.pdf
Shame on you Channel 8 News for trying to help cover this up!
Debbie, please upload photo of branded mustang bound for slaughter to http://www.cnn.com/feedback/tips/newstips.html
Also, everyone please contact Rick’s List on CNN, he says “sound off about whatever’s on your mind”, so let’s all sound off.
We all. Everyone of us. It is time to come togeather as a whole and put a stop to this. Like the Old saying says. Togeather we stand Divided we fall. So lets get togeather now and put an end to this slaughter of our wild mustangs, and donkeys, and also the part of our nations history. COWBOY UP EVERBODY. This is the day we should band togeather and get something don’t you think…
If only someone at the BLM would finally get sick and tired of the lies and the Horrific Happening to the Horses and GIVE THE BLM UP..In the meantime we keep fighting for Justice and Truth for Our horses and OUR tax dollars. They use our money and how grateful they are to lie to us and treat the horses like tomorrows news and yesterdays garbage. PRAYING
I agree, George. Are we willing to risk our own safety? To make material sacrifices? To stop eating meat, stop paying taxes, and even walk away from our homes if necessary? If not, then maybe there is as much greed and pathology in each of you as there is in them – and they know this, which is why it has been going on for years.
We put them in power. We can get them out, but not without sacrifice and an honest look in the mirror.
The government, judges and newstations are just part of this problem. Just sick of the BLM and their tactics. Ruby pipeline, which even BP said could have gone in another directions (would cost more, of course), open pit mining, do you believe that in this time of ’saving the planet’. Nothing illegal, immoral suprises me anymore. We must just keep telling officials this has to stop.
What a sinister plot to deprive the wild horses of the water they need to survive by humans whether employed by the government or not and what an abandonment of the Wild Horse Act and of these magnificent fellow beings themselves!
Reading each & every step of this roundup and it’s justifications by the Standard Bearers – Gorey, Overcast, Emmons – is tantamount to watching a large group of people tryin’ to crochet a blanket – without anyone knowing what the next stitch is supposed to be, just makin’ it up as they go along.
Fact: No ‘emergency’ existed until 12 Horses became ill & died from heat & dehydration related disorders. And Dir. Abbey put the breaks on. It had been a standard Roundup based on data nearly 9 months old.
Supposition: If due diligence had been conducted in a timely fashion – say the days or weeks leading up to the Roundup – wouldn’t the severe lack of water have been a known factor instead of the huge surprise it became?
Protocol: Never, as an agent of the BLM, under any circumstances, take responsibility for your own actions or inactions. Instead, place the blame on Advocates, for trying to keep you honest by insistence on Observation of the event, and the Wild Equines, for their inability to garner anything other than contempt from the agency charged with their ‘management’.
P.S. For all the comfy Bureauists who freely spend my hard-earned cash on a program that has consistently failed for over 20 years to achieve ANY of it’s own goals, please whip out the Webster’s and familiarize yourselves with the verb (a word indicating ‘action’) MANAGEMENT.
Until we can do something to warrant complete national media attention and coverage, it appears the wild horse gathers will continue by the BLM. The federal judges refuse to stop them, our legislators are still dragging their feet regarding the ROAM Act, and apparently there are not enough of us willing to sacrifice time and money to overwhelm Washington, DC with a really big March for the Mustangs. WE HAVE TO GET THE ATTENTION AND EAR OF PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THIS IS THE RIGHT TIME CONSIDERING THE EXPOSURE OF KEN SALAZAR’S AND THE MINERAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES’ HANDLING OF OIL DRILLING PERMITS AND OVERSIGHT RESULTING IN THE GULF OIL SPILL.
If we ALL gather at the next roundup, whether they let us or not, and the media is there when they start arresting us, then it will make national news. This should be on national news every night until every American knows they are funding genocide of protected species.
Before this gets too out of hand, let me remind you that the BLM is just ITCHING to brand us all “eco-terrorists” and then they will be able to keep us away for sure. Get too rambunctious and you are playing right into their hands!
It’s infuriating. I feel the same way, but if we lose our heads we will lose the horses too.
I thought I lived in America but apperently not instead I live in a society in which Govt officials can do as they please even with the help of Judges it was good what the Judge did to allow Laura Leigh to observe and see the water the horses need even though he did’nt know it was there. The ” Bureau of Lying Maggots ” have done it again CONGRATULATIONS on what you feel is a job well done I am and AMERICAN and I wish that the Govt would listen to the people instead of what’s in some of their wallets. I will continue to Pray since I know this is the only way to get things done, I was wondering what do you think God thinks of BLM and their dark hearts.