slaughtering wild horsesWild horses have long been the victims of U.S. government aggression by “intentional” slaughter. In the 1830s the Choctaw Indian Pony was ordered destroyed to separate the Native Americans from their war mounts. They were a gentle breed that would carry women and children over the nefarious “Trail of Tears” after Native Americans had been ordered to relocate from their ancestral lands to the reservation in what is now Oklahoma. They were also the preferred war pony for Native Americans during the Indian/settler wars, because of their agility and speed. Some settlers hid a few so that today we have almost 300 surviving Choctaw ponies roaming free on private reserves.

We are now seeing a replay of the 1830s, but now it’s a different story: cattle, oil, gas, mineral rights, solar, and wind farms have made wild horses and the BLM a fatal mix.

slaughtering wild horsesThe Trail of Tears is another story of U.S. aggression against a people who only wanted to live free, wherein 16,000 Cherokee people were forced to travel 1,200 miles, walking and riding; 4,000 died. Likewise our wild horses and burros want to be free and to live out their lives without being chased to death by helicopters or captured and sold to slaughterhouses by individuals who lack compassion for living creatures. This is not the end they deserve!

I have written, researched, and spoken to individuals about the plight of our mustangs but have failed to learn how many of these wild horses and burros have been captured from their rightful place on public land (roaming free as they are meant) and sold to slaughterhouses in Mexico. What I have learned is that some 140,000 horses are sold to slaughterhouses in Mexico annually; the thought of these majestic animals reaching that end angers me. This needless slaughter must be stopped, even if we must march on Congress to make it happen!

Over 92 percent of horses sent to Mexico for slaughter are healthy and in good shape. They are able to live out productive lives. These horses would be sold, donated, or otherwise provided a new home; however, kill buyers outbid legitimate horse owners and rescuers at auctions, robbing horses of ever having a second chance at life. Right after the auction, the horses are boarded onto trucks for their last ride in life.

Modern western civilization considers horses companion animals and not part of any food chain. We would no sooner eat a horse than our dogs! But this is not how some people feel; horses and dogs are a delicacy for many people around the world. Slaughtering wild horses and dogs for food is something I don’t understand.

slaughtering wild horses
Ken Salazar

Unfortunately, we have agencies that employ monsters like Ken Salazar, a cattle rancher and neighbor of the now infamous Tom Davis, who have no concern or compassion for wild horses or for America’s heritage. The BLM has been fully aware of him slaughtering wild horses but have turned their back on the laws that protect them. Former Secretary Salazar, our number one lawbreaker, gets a free pass from liability.

Within two weeks of his confirmation in 2009, Ken Salazar began shipping truckloads of horses to Tom Davis, Salazar’s neighbor and business associate. Salazar is a fifth-generation rancher; ranchers throughout the western U.S. lobby for the removal of mustangs from public lands to make room for their cheap, taxpayer-subsidized livestock grazing. The livestock industry has been a very vocal advocate for slaughtering wild horses.

In my opinion, if a rancher doesn’t have enough grazing land to raise cattle or sheep, he should not be in ranching but should find a different profession or raise fewer animals that his land would be capable of supporting. It is not my job or the public’s job to subsidize ranching that isn’t necessary as evidenced by the 779,000 ranchers who have shown that this grazing permit program isn’t needed to support their ranching or ability to be in business. There are about 800,000 livestock operators and cattle producers in the United States. Of those, fewer than 21,000 benefit from the Forest Service and BLM grazing programs in the West. We don’t need these federal land leeches who promote slaughtering wild horses and burros that belong on the land more rightfully than cattle or sheep. The wild horses and burros should rightfully be protected, not slaughtered.

When ranchers like Salazar and Davis lobby for removing and slaughtering wild horses, they engage my ire.

If I am going to subsidize ranchers by financing their cattle and sheep grazing and feed, am I not entitled to a part of their profits? Why is it that the BLM does not make a profit on cattle and sheep grazing? Perhaps they need to raise the grazing fees — or better yet, end this worthless program.

This to me is just another range war, but instead of the cattle vs. sheep wars over government grazing lands in the 1880s, now we have cattle and sheep ranchers against the horse — an animal that has no protection against the rim-rocking of the powerful cattle lobby and no ability to fight back against a worthless BLM that itself is no better than a domestic terrorist.

Tom Davis and other large BLM buyers pay $10 a head for horses captured by the BLM. They sell these horses to kill buyers who pay around $500 a horse. Tom Davis bought 1,794 horses from the BLM and paid them $10 each or a total of $17,940. He sold them immediately to kill buyers, generating $897,000 and a profit of $879,060 through a fraud scheme to acquire slaughter horses that by contract he was not allowed to resell to kill buyers. Yet he did.

slaughtering wild horses
U.S. Attorney John Walsh

I have even personally attempted to speak with U.S. Attorney for Colorado John Walsh, but when he heard I wanted to discuss his failure to bring criminal charges and possibly a civil complaint against Tom Davis and that I was from the media, he went dark and most likely hid under his desk. I have learned that to mention wild horses and the BLM in the same sentence evokes a state of panic in both the BLM and law enforcement. Everyone goes into hiding at the mention of wild horses and the BLM and for good reason: this agency is at the top of the Obama administration corruption list, and that list is a long one.

I want to acknowledge and thank two organizations that continue to make a difference: The Wild Horse Freedom Federation and the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, an 11,000-acre reserve where Dayton O. Hyde continues to save wild horses and the land they inhabit. Hyde, with his passion for life, allows our wild horses to remain wild and free and to reproduce while living out their lives as they are meant to.

You can view some of the lucky horses Hyde has adopted and set free here. You can even become a sponsor and help feed them, which is always greatly appreciated.

Hyde even has Choctaw Indian Ponies on his reserve where they roam free and breed naturally.

There are other preserves attempting to make a difference, but we need more.

We also need more U.S. Attorneys with the backbone to go after the lawbreakers who are slaughtering wild horses and put them where they belong: in prison!

Thankfully, one U.S. Attorney for Utah had the guts to prosecute some of these criminals in United States of America v. Robert W. Capson, at the time 60 years old (case number 2:11 cr-00813-1 DAK), and United States of America v. Dennis K. Kunz, at the time 58 years old (case number 2:11 cr-00813 DAK).

But while these case resulted in two guilty pleas to felony charges, there are probably hundreds of these criminals still roaming free and still selling our wild horses and burros to Mexican and Canadian slaughterhouses.

slaughtering wild horses
Photo: BLM Nevada / CC BY 2.0

Horses have a range of emotions just like humans. They feel pain, loss, fear, and joy. They are happy and sad. They grieve at the loss of a friend, and they love to play! So when the helicopters come and the round-ups begin, family units are broken up, and friendships are destroyed.

When you see photos like I show in this article (if you have the stomach to look at the horses and what they go through as their life is terminated in this inhumane manner) look here. Be forewarned what you will see may make you sick and angry. These photos of workers slaughtering wild horses are graphic evidence and of an adult-only nature. Pay particular attention to Exhibit 13.

Not able to speak with Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh, I decided the next best approach to get to Tom Davis is a qui tam lawsuit. A qui tam lawsuit is a type of whistleblower claim brought against an organization that is engaging in fraud against the government. There is enough evidence of Tom Davis’ fraud to warrant such a lawsuit. But the courts protect these fraudsters unless the whistleblower has direct knowledge, and not indirect knowledge through the media or a government investigation, of the fraud. The best person to bring such an action when the government refuses is an employee of the BLM or even someone from the office of the Inspector General who actually conducted the investigation and referred the matter to Walsh, who afterward went into hiding. See Rockwell International Corp. v. United States, 549 U.S. 457, 467-75 (2007).

So unless we get someone from the BLM on our side as a whistleblower, Tom Davis goes free while Walsh refuses to act, goes into hiding, sips his coffee, and enjoys his donut with his feet up on his desk.

Maybe BLM employees might consider stopping this fraud when they learn they are entitled to a 30 percent recovery (reward) of any fraud damages and forfeiture the courts assess against the perpetrators under 31 U.S.C. 4729, the False Claims Act. If you want to read more about the False Claims Act, go here.

Tom Davis could be liable for three times the damage he caused the government. If the costs to the government to deliver the horses to Davis were $140,000, as we have already learned, Davis could be liable for $420,000.

slaughtering wild horses
Photo: BLM Nevada / CC BY 2.0

Plus there is a civil penalty for each horse or burro he obtained and sold under false pretense, a minimum of $5,000 and a maximum of $10,000 per horse or burro, which could mean a judgment against Davis of more than $8,970,000 based on only a $5,000 penalty for each incident. A final judgment could be over $9,390,000, of which more than $3,000,000 would go to the BLM employee who files the qui tam lawsuit on behalf of the government — enough to retire from this criminal agency and never look back!

Our best hope of getting to Davis is a BLM employee with direct knowledge. That would also send a message to these individuals that if they break the law, the law will break them!

A separate action should be considered against Ken Salazar for malfeasance in public office to recapture his salary.

As long as the government protects Davis and Walsh remains in hiding, Davis is free to continue to buy wild horses and burros from the BLM and sell them to slaughterhouses in Mexico. To this day, Davis is still buying and selling horses to slaughterhouses by acquiring mustangs from the Native American reservations for resale through a loophole: Native American land is not under control of the State or, in most cases, federal laws. Indian reservations are separate nations and have their own laws.

The next idea is to petition to have the wild horses and burros listed on the endangered species act list. Certainly some breeds should already be on that list.

But at the level at which the BLM has removed thousands of these animals from their rightful pastures and allowed them to be sold to slaughter, those still alive should be further protected. They are more important to our heritage then either the cattle or sheep that are part of our food supply. The BLM has reduced these majestic animals to less then 25,000 roaming free. The government has endangered their survival, and they need protection.

A species is added to the endangered species list when it is determined to be endangered or threatened because of any of the following factors:

—The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range.

—Overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes.

—Disease or predation.

—The inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms.

—Other natural or manmade factors affecting its survival.

One way is the petition process.

Even more should be done. There should be a broad coalition of interested parties who come together for our common cause — one board representing the hundreds of separate organizations — to save our heritage and stop criminals from slaughtering wild horses: a united front in which the group can approach members of Congress to pass legislation like that proposed by Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico and use the force of numbers and finances to get opponents out of Congress. Our wild horses and burros deserve their own lobbyists and their right to roam free and to live.

According to the USDA, nearly 100,000 equines were exported from the U.S. to Mexico and Canada in 2008 for slaughter. That number has steadily increased until approximately 140,000 American horses are now sent to Mexico annually for slaughter.

slaughtering wild horses
Horse meat

2015 year to date: 88,558 horses were sent to Mexico for slaughter, last year 109,906 horses were sent to slaughter.

The reason for this criminal activity is the value of the horse by its weight. Slaughter houses will pay based on the market. The average price might be 50 cents or 60 cents per pound — and in many cases even more.

Kill buyers pay anywhere from $0.25 to $0.90 per pound of horse.

As an example, see below the Nov. 11-12, 2014 Auction Market Report. Here’s what it lists:

—Solid broke riding horses were in strong demand.

—Weigh horse market was outstanding.

—Top-weight horses brought $0.68 per pound.

—Horses weighing1,050 pounds and heavier averaged $0.42 per pound equaling $441 to the seller.

—Horses weighing 950-1050 pounds averaged $0.40 per pound.

—Horses weighing 900-950 pounds averaged $0.38 per pound.

—Horses weighing 850-900 pounds averaged $0.34 per pound.

—Horses weighing 800-850 pounds averaged $0.33 per pound.

—Horses weighing under 700 pounds averaged $0.27 per pound.

John Salazar, while head of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, was approached by Davis, who was interested in slaughtering wild horses within the state. Davis intended to obtain a grant to open a slaughterhouse in Colorado but Salazar declined to help Davis obtain the grant.

Ken Salazar knew, or at least should have known, Davis’ penchant for slaughtering wild horses. In fact, Davis was an open advocate of taking all BLM-captured horses to the Mexico slaughterhouses.

Davis is still determined. Since 2010, he has been seeking investors for a slaughterhouse of his own in Colorado. He is a neighbor of Ken Salazar and has business interests in common with Salazar.

slaughtering wild horsesThere is no question that the BLM has some master plan to kill off all our remaining wild horses and burros; otherwise, why would Obama, in his infinite wisdom, appoint first a cattle rancher and then an oil man to head the agency?

We cannot undo the senseless slaughter the BLM has allowed, but we can demand that those responsible are prosecuted and imprisoned as an example to others who would turn their backs on their responsibility and their obligation to protect these iconic animals and to us, the citizens of the U.S.

When I think about people like Tom Davis and Ken Salazar I think what Albert Camus said: “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.”

I think that about sums up the BLM.

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34 COMMENTS

  1. I think the same thing, if a rancher does not have his own land for ranching, or not enough land for all his livestock, he or she should find other work. Or learn how to SHARE our land. Maybe they skipped kindergarten?

  2. Mr Ferm you said that that the Federal land is (The rightfull pastures) of these wild horses . Please tell us why other than it is your opinion. The federal (or private) land is no more the horses rightfull pastures than the river banks are the rightfull land of the tamerisk plant. (Weed). Neither species is native to this area. If these horses are native species then enlighten me. When you use the endangered species act to argue your point I argue that it is nonsense. Should we welcome invasive species just because a group of people love them. I think not.

    • The Spanish Mustangs were here long before the pilgrims. Look it up; they are more native than you or me (unless your ancestors came over with Coronado and stayed.

    • The modern horse evolved from the erliest known horse ancestors in NORTH AMERICA. This is not my opinion, it is FACT based on fossil records and DNA investigation. Horses originated in NORTH AMERICA over 50 million years ago. Thousands of complete, fossilized skeletons of Eohippus have been found in the Eocene layers of North American strata, MAINLY in the Wind River basin in WYOMING. Eohippus lived 30-50 million years ago. I will fast forward all the evolving where they grew bigger and their teeth adapted from fruit and foliage to leaves and grasses but it is highly interesting reading and I heartily invite you to study it. The early horses spread into the Old World and South America and there diversified into various species including assets, zebras, the domesticated horse and Przewalskis horse. Horses existed in Both America until about 12,000 years ago when all Equidae in North America became extinct. The cause of extinction is a matter of debate but given the suddeness of the event and because thes. animals were flourishing for millions of years, whatever happened was quite unusual and deathly abrupt.DNA genetic findings suggest all North American fossils of caballine type horses, which include domesticated horses and Przewalskis , as well as South American fossils…belong to the SAME species. E. fetus.

    • first of all Mr Sanders, the horses were here first. and if you paid attention in history class if not for horses we wouldnt even have this country. the ancestry bloodline of these animals is critical to the ecological balance in this country. horses also keep underbrush that starts alot of these brushfires at bay which makes them beneficial at preventing forest fires. if they hadnt dam near stripped them all from California they woulndt be having the worst wildfires in history that take 6 months to put out. let that sink in and do some research before condemning these icons. also the wild horse and burro protection act was passed in 1971 because this has been going on for longer than most people know about but they violate this law every day and get away with it. they are already protected, or suppose to be and instead they are being driven to extinction. every species driven into nonexistence is one more step closer to humans.

  3. Its just all a vicious circle. The BLM is a disgrace . I would like to point out and i am assuming that the ranchers referred to in this article are rich business men ranchers. Not your everyday rancher who is trying to make a living from his ranch, because the BLM is screwing these guys too. Money and power can make some bad people. The slaughter of these wild horses by the rich and government is total sickening.
    Doesn’ t are constitution protect these horses in any way?

  4. Thank you so much for caring about these sacred animals. And trying to make their situations public. Please do not give up!

  5. Excellent article, from someone who has the grit to expose this bloody FRAUD! This issue is a disgrace to America. To treat the one animal who has helped so many diverse cultures to colonize this continent…..this is NOT what they deserve!

  6. Please continue to save these beautiful wild horses and burros from slaughter. I have signed every petition I get to stop the roundups and still it goes on. These beautiful animals should remain free on the land they have always known. They have done nothing to deserve this cruel horrible treatment and then end up for slaughter. It makes me upset every time I read this. Don’t give up because there are many people behind you! Save the wild horses!

  7. Well stated Mr. Ferm, and thank you.
    Another point for consideration is the question of income taxes and did Tom Davis pay income taxes on the large amount of money he got for selling our wild horses and burros to slaughter? I know that tax evasion doesn’t seem too important until you realize that the notorious criminal Al Capone was not imprisoned for murder and extortion but he WAS eventually imprisoned for tax evasion. We need to push for an audit of Tom Davis’ income taxes and hopefully that would put him behind bars for a long time.
    In addition of course, the BLM employees ALL need to be imprisoned for their conspiracy to sell our wild horses and burros to slaughter via Tom Davis and others. They also are guilty and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. It won’t bring our wild ones back from their terrorized death but we owe it to them to keep fighting.

  8. It all seems like a conflict of interest to me, starting with Obama appointing a rancher and crook as, Salazar is, whose neighbor is a murderer of animals, and probably doesn’t pay taxes, on money he makes on the suffering animals. I don’t pretend to be well informed on all of this, but intend to study everything I can, and would gladly march with any one to bring awareness of this issue, we need to get rid of the crooked political powers, that have made the issue happen. I am sure there are many non horse people that have no idea what is going on, but would be upset if they knew. The damn government is crooked.

    • So agree with you. I’m from Britain, and feel very distressed by this. IT’S unbelievable the corruption. Money is so evil, and the people that would do anything to get it.

  9. Wow..that said it all! So sad to see how much of a reality it is that the BLM gets to kill more animals the way they are ,in the name of greed and money.I just don’t understand and pray for a resolution .These animals have been around longer than anyone and deserve to live !

  10. Thank you Mr. Fern for being a fierce advocate and supporter of the wild horses.
    Leeches like Salazar need to be voted out/ replaced in congress and exposed for the federal crime they are committing in the name of the “almighty dollar”.
    Shame him until they get rid of him – Obama has compassion, make it impossible for him to overlook Salazar’s criminal activity

  11. The BLM has been a disgrace for many years, getting political on this issue isn’t going to help the Mustangs. I fought for many environmental issues during the Bush/Chaney administration, take a look at their list of transgressions! Take politics out of this, we MUST concentrate on the Mustangs!

  12. 14,000 years ago there was a huge drought on the North american continent and in lands surrounding the Nile-this led to early man roaming more to find food and the development of Blood type A
    the agrarian bloodtype-people resorted to eating grass seed -then planted it-i’m a sub teacher for K-12=those documentaries we use to teach with can sure educate the teacher too-this drought might have killed the horses on our continent.

    • Debra, the fossil record evidences numerous radiocarbon dated equid fossils from this continent which date from 11,000 YBP to around 700 YBP. If you are teaching I encourage you to do more research into the evolutionary history of horses in the Americas.

      To Mr. Ferm, what reasons (if any) were given not to prosecute either Salazar or Davis in the sale of wild horses to slaughter? The laws were broken, and this is not disputed, so how does “hiding under the desk” allow anyone to escape legal consequences? It doesn’t work for regular citizens and surely is no excuse for elected or even appointed officials.

      Please pursue this further; there can be no legally justifiable reason not to pursue prosecution in this very clear case. Allowing lawbreakers to walk away with a profit while officials do nothing is the opposite of being a nation of laws.

      Worse, to allow this makes us all co-conspirators complicit in allowing further such illegal activities.

  13. The information that came out in a Peer White Paper investigated by a D.C. watchdog organization called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in April 1997 proved to me beyond any doubt that the BLM was sending wild horses that they had rounded up to slaughter. The White Paper is called HORSES TO SLAUGHTER
    Anatomy of a Coverup within the Wild Horse & Burro Program of the Bureau of Land Management. April 1997.
    This same organization has just written another Investigative Report of Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse Buyer. Oct 23, 2015. All of this information can be found at their website http://www.peer.org
    The older Peer paper can be found in their archives. In December 2004 a amendment to the 1971 wildhorse law, wildhorses and burros over 10years old -as well as younger ones that have been passed over for adoption at least three times -are eligible for sale , a transaction in which ownership passes immediately from the Federal Government to the buyer. (Note:It has been and remains the policy of the BLM not to sell or send any wild horses or burros to slaughter) This information can be found on the BLM website.
    As I have said a number of times before I consider it very doubtful that there are 50,000 wildhorses being boarded on ranches or farms in the US since i read the first Peer White and the second paper proves it. This is one of the reasons that the BLM refuses to ever give out the names or addresses of the boarding ranches siting privacy which is nothing more than a smoke screen. You would wonder why the secrecy, because they have sent all of the 50,000 horses to slaughter the past 20 years. they don’t have the 50,000 to show anybody. You wonder too just where did all of the taxpayer money go that should have gone to taking care of the horses. The BLM has been committing fraud against the US taxpayer for decades and they need to be sued and forced to either tell a judge where the horses are at or admit they sent them to slaughter. There was a pkg of horse meat found in a store in Europe that had a label on it stating that it was grass fed wild horse meat from the USA.

  14. From International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB)
    http://ispmb.org/BirthControlDeaths.html

    They are facing the greatest threat of our lifetime…the EXTERMINATION and PERMANENT STERILATION of these American Icons by the very agency mandated by the law to protect them, the Bureau of Land Management.

    “I want to be very clear that there is NO OVERPOPULATION of wild horses and burros in our country. We only have half the number we had in 1971 when ISPMB and our first president, Velma Johnston were instrumental in getting federal legislation passed to protect these last living symbols of the American west.

  15. Thank you, Jack, for another great article.
    To those commenting on the origins of the Horse in North America, please note the comment from Anon but not forgotten. It has been shown beyond any doubt that the Horse originated and co-evolved here (see Cloud Foundation website under Education tab), but it is so important to help enlighten every single American that the Horse did NOT go extinct here. There are fossil records, and there are petroglyphs, there are records from explorers of other great nations, and there are oral traditions of our Native people whose opinions should not be dismissed; the evidence is more than adequate to prove Native status. BLM/FS says they will protect the horses whether or not they are Native, but we’ve seen how that has worked out. It will change the game when we all embrace the fact that they are indeed Native, and that they possess the ability to heal lands decimated by non-native species and the greed and ignorance of our own kind.

  16. I am a horse lover and have owned over 25 horses in the past 25 years or so. I protect them and take care of them. They are my passion and love. I want this noted as I go on to explain a few things. Yes the BLM is definitely mismanaging wild horses and burros. The picture you have of the ranchers is not quite accurate. The main reason for grazing livestock on open ranges and BLM leases is to keep the cheat grass grazed down so it doesn’t catch on fire every time it’s struck by lightening. There is a lot more depth to this problem than you can imagine. It is not going to be fixed any time soon. Nevada has a giant holding facility for thousands of mustangs and a few burros. Once they have been rounded up by helicopter, which is how most of them are captured, they are not stupid enough to get caught that way ever again. I can’t even begin to explain this. Please do more research before you draw conclusions that aren’t necessarily true. For example, the picture with the horses lying down was merely one lying on his side sunning himself. They are however, killed while being run so hard etc. There has got to be a way of cooperation to allow the horses a decent life and the ranchers the same. The ranchers and hunters build water reservoirs for these horses as well as the game in the area. They work hard to eke out a minimal living while America goes on eating beef and driving the prices up. I feel I’m rambling because the spectrum of this problem is overwhelming to say the least. People living in Washington DC have no idea how it works out here in the west. If ranchers had to take their cattle “home” and feed them hay, etc. none of us would be able to afford a hamburger. Meaning that hay is very expensive. It is all a cycle of life that has been interrupted by many people with no knowledge. Please don’t allow yourselves to continue as one without proper knowledge. I pray we get a resolve soon.

    • BS. I have no sympathy for the welfare leeching ranchers. Or their false sense of entitlement. They do nothing for the wildlife.

    • BS. I have no sympathy for the welfare leeching ranchers. Or their false sense of entitlement. They do nothing for the wildlife. Oh and the cattle that they graze damned near for free only supply 3% of Americas beef. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

    • Wow, thanks for a fantastic response. I agree with a lot of what you said. I have been the caretaker of 30+ horses when I was younger and can appreciate your experience. You bring up such a great point of how we here in America often blindly create the very problems we cry out against… very powerful. I would just like to second your plea for others (and article writers) to do more deep research.

  17. every BLM employee that has knowledge of this unspeakable crime against the historically wild horse becomes a co- conspirator and accessori to these crime. in 2007 I adopted 5 of these wild horse and they became great asset and frinds to my family . we want to help stop these crimes,.

  18. Mr. Ferm, first of all Thank you for raising so many important questions in this article and sharing what you know. I am a college student and use to be very involved with horse rescue.. not many people have seen the terror that horses live through as a result of abuse. Awareness is key to solving this issue so thanks for what you do to inform others. The only thing I would add to this is references. You present a wonderful amount of facts but perhaps others would feel more confident about the facts with some referential support. I don’t mean to critique. .. Just hoping to assist in the cause, thanks.

    • Lyn when reading the article please use your browser to open the light blue link… there you will be able to read the references….

  19. I WANT AND NEED TO DO SOMETHING… TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ENDEAVOR TO STOP THIS SEEMINGLY GREED BASED TOTAL DISRESPECT FOR LIFE, INNOCENT LIFE AT THAT… WHAT IS LIFE WORTH… ?

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