Heavy Cop Presence at Twin Peaks Keeps Contractor Hiding Place Off Limits
By Steven Long, Photos by Terry Fitch, 
TWIN PEAKS, CA (Horseback) – A heavy police presence protected America and the federal Bureau of Land Management wild horse chase contractor from four journalists and no anti-BLM activists at the “gather” held today at Twin Peaks, according to Horseback Magazine’s R.T. Fitch at the site. There were two reporters and a photographer representing the Texas based magazine, as well as a videographer working for the New York Times, a paper which was provided unfettered access earlier this week while other media organizations and citizen observers were kept at bay.
“Why are we being kept away,” the Times photog asked, incredulous that she wasn’t given the same deferential treatment as her colleagues had been afforded earlier in the week before Horseback Online exposed BLM’s media favoritism and attempt spin its story to the powerful national paper.
She was told the captured horses were being held on private land and the landowner had prohibited outsiders from coming on his property, the usual reason BLM has refused access to its trap sites.
Fitch reported there were four armed BLM rangers, one armed sheriff, and multiple agency staff members guarding the two horses captured Friday from the intruding press. She took a photograph of the cars of personnel protecting the contractor from the press. The stampede helicopter and its operators have been the subject of intense scrutiny after scores of horses have died at recent “gathers.” The roundup was called off at 9 a.m. because the helicopter from Cattoor Livestock Roundups of Nephi, UT. could find no horses.
Fewer and few wild horses are to be found in the West in the wake of relentless roundups by the federal agency. Critics allege they are clearing the animals from the land so it may be leased for cattle grazing.
The chief of the BLM’s security detail at Twin Peaks has refused an on the record interview with Horseback regarding the reason for such a heavy police presence being paid for by the American taxpayers when there has never been an apparent threat.
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The BLM needs to be shut down! We need to organize and keep the pressure on these contractors to allow the people to watch over these “gathers”. You might think they were hiding another holocaust. Shame shame shame.
Oh Mustang land Leased for $$$$ for cattle.. Mustangs don’t bother anyone they eat and go on……..They are hiding something from the public the cruelty probably in the roundups …..Lord Jesus by your mercy and power we committe these people and their ways into your hands for justice to your creatures the Mustangs and Burros who live peacefully in your name I pray…………..
Who says the price of horses is depressed? The government probably paid a million dollars a piece for those two!
LOL. Sadly, probably correct.
How absolutely ludicrous. Too bad those armed “guards” don’t earn their pay going after some real lawbreakers but they wouldn’t have the guts. What are they so afraid of ? Could it be the truth ?
I read recently where much more oil drilling is planned for our public lands. The cattle may have to move then too.
Common sense tells us gas drilling contamination will likely go into our beef supply via water and air supply (by slip-shod companies). The contaminated beef will likely be fed to us in fine cuts from the local grocer resulting in our own contamination. If you eat it, it’s time to stake out a few acres and raise your own beef. Because of the Haliburton loophole in environmental law, there is currently little regulation on natural gas drilling affording a multitude of slip-shod companies to get rich and run. The FDA just recalled a halfa billion chicken eggs with salmonella (one of 2000 strains). What makes us think the BLM would treat wild horses with any more concern? Corp America + Gov’t + Money = disaster for the rest of us.
It’s just a matter of time and America will see no more Wild Horses in the open and the reason is called “BLM” Bureau of Lying Maggots who far exceed the law and have Washington on their side. The Cattle Ranchers are next they think they have it good now but Washington is just setting you up and then your land is next and the land your leasing which is our public land of course of which we are not allowed on. The East is taking over the West, 1st it was the Native Americans, now it’s the Mustangs and Wild Horses and then here it comes Cattle Ranchers after all is said and done our public lands shall be drilled into, shoveled into and blasted into all for GREED, GREED, GREED. I feel sorry for our Wild Horses and pray for our country because the Holocaust of the Wild Horses is now in session under the Dictatorship of the ” BLM “
Love the new name for Blm Bureau of Lying Maggots!
Well said, Wendell. The horses represent the West, freedom and wide open spaces. It will all be gone soon if DOI/BLM is allowed to proceed. The American public, with their heads in the sand, will wonder what happened.
Wendell,
You’re right on!!! GREED is what it’s all about and it’s a very sad situation for our country. We need a miracle to right the wrong, and who knows, maybe that’s just what we’ll have if enough good people speak out.
Last week I contacted several companies,Sam’s Club for one to ask where the beef and ground beef that is sold in their stores come from. I was told that beef is shipped to the US from all over the world because the US can’t raise enough to cover the demand. So I think the welfare ranchers are going to expand their herds. These horses are being removed for more cattle grazing. But the gas wells will go in as well as the mineral extractions and pipelines. I don’t think we will be able to stop it, some of it but not all of it. This government and the corporations want this land there are billions of dollars to be made and they are not about to turn loose of it.
Herd being overgathered and then set up for dysfunctional social structure. It seems the last priority for the BLM is the true thriving of the wild horses in the wild!
This is a good one. Armed guards protecting a convicted criminal as he commits more crimes against the law and severe inhumane treatment of animals?!?!
Ronnie
You are exactly correct. A convicted felon(for a crime against a horse which resulted in the death of a horse), is currently being paid to gather these horses. Only in America, how asinine is that?
Myself and many other organizations and advocates were also present on that perticular day. About 13 of us total. Many came from miles and miles, and only for that day, including the humane society with cameras, and a celebrity.
The prior day, when they had let the NY Times Photographer get close to shoot pictures, BLM had rounded up horses in a very nice fashion, as far as possible at least. The helicopter gave them time, stayed far behind, let them trot and even walk in, and then they gave them a half hour break before starting the sorting process and loading them into the trailer. They also loaded them in the easier to get into trailer, instead of the one with the impossibly steep ramp. The NY times didnt see any cruelty of horses jumping over each other, or over the panels, or being shoved together too tightly. BLM didnt even so much as get out their walmart bag whipsticks!
I am not drawing any official conclusions, (or maybe just a little) but being there the whole week and seeing how they told us the day prior that they had finished for the day, and then rounded up another 65 horses after we all left- And seeing as how the helicopter already found some horses but let them go- and seeing as how they flew the other day with much more wind than that day, I honestly think they were feeling the heat and got couardly. They were afraid to give anyone damning footage.
Its a clever strategy because they knew that the next day there would be hardly any advocates and they could go about business as usual. And they know that all we have now, is our complaint that they didnt bring in any horses. We all go home without footage.
What we need to do is have a heavy presence like that, on every roundup day, at each roundup, and perhaps we can at least protect the wild ones from the excruciating rush that the BLM is usually in, which is the cause for most of the roundup injuries.
I am really worried about the horses at twin peaks now that many advocates left. If anyone, anyone at all, has some time to go there, just to observe and take footage, please go. It is worth it, the horses need us there. We need more wild horse warriors. We need advocates to follow up on the injured at Litchfield corals, we need advocates to go check out how the horses are doing at Palomino valley, where they are getting processed already.
Dont be afraid of the BLM cops, or the P.R. people, they really keep up a good pretence of being nice, and as long as you do the same, you have nothing to fear. Anyone can go and be there, anyone can do it. At least they will take it a little easier on the horses, and if they dont, then at least we have the footage.
So grab your cameras, and plan your next work vacation to a BLM roundup near you!
Thank you,
Simone.
I am truly losing it. . .everyone in Washington literally is beginning to sound exactly like Ken Salazar — when I hear “them” on the radio, or TV — (I know, the old fashioned devices I listen to. . ). Even the Department of Defense people SOUND (I mean, the quirks of speaking they have . . .) just like Ken Salazar!!! All the same VOICE PRINT.
NOW, FOLKS, ASK YOURSELVES AGAIN: WHAT WERE ALL THOSE STRANGE LIGHTS IN THE NIGHT SKIES OVER OUR WESTERN STATES, AFTER ALL??