US Forest Service Acknowledges US Respresentative Tom Udall's Request for
Postponement
After repeatedly denying (both publicly and personally) any such request, the
US Forest Service finally admitted that US Rep. Tom Udall had requested the
Forest Service postpone its planned roundup of Wild Horses in El Rito.
The US Forest Service has also denied any similar requests coming from
Governor Richardson's and State Rep. Komedina's offices, although both of those
offices also told WHOA that they would be making such a request.
Comments by Patience O'Dowd of WHOA:
These attachment show that contrary to John Merino's
statement on video at the Friday morning briefing
PRIOR to the start of the round up, he was aware that
Congressman Udall's office HAD INDEED ASKED HIM just
the day before to postpone this round-up in light of
the questions raised by the Wild Horse Observers
Association (WHOA).
This begs the following questions.
1. Why did John Merino feel he needed to keep this
request for a postponement secret, or evasively skirt
a forthright answer to the question?
2. Why did he not raise the issue to the appropriate
level?
3. Why did he feel so overly empowered as to
mis-represent Congressman Udall's request for a
post-ponement, whose office had worked so hard on this
issue for the people of New Mexico and for the Wild
Horses of New Mexico?
There are many other serious discrepancies such as
the environmental assessment statements about the
horse population count over 30 yrs vs what the Forest
Service is NOW saying; but one other MUST be
mentioned.
These horses have survived all the drought and the winter and the horses in
the US Foreset Service released photo look healthy.
It's also interesting that the environmental
Assessment was only on the horses. The cows were not
included.
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