Hiding his cruelty behind “Indian Washing” and Green Washing.
FEDERAL WILD HORSE AND BURRO ACT was passed BECAUSE the states could not be trusted to manage the Wild Horses and Burros as Wildlife due to their GREED-driven CONFLICT OF INTEREST.
The Alpine Horses are up for bid as horses for slaughter
No one can see them in advance of a Public Auction BID.
The 1971 Federal WH&B Act was passed BUT, now the FEDS are doing the same things the states were.
Each Presidential administration has had CONFLICTS OF INTEREST and has selected Secretaries of the Interior and U.S. Department of Agriculture with CONFLICTS OF INTEREST to the Nation’s Native Wild Horse. We believe largely due to the FARM Bill Kickbacks since 1933.
They have, in turn, brutally and negligently mis-managed the wild horses and burros they were required to protect from Conflicts of INTERESTS.
Adding insult to INJURY, in the last decade two state’s Governors, of Utah (since 2017) and New Mexico (since 2013), have worked with the federal government to SCAPEGOAT FIRST PEOPLES, especially Navajos, for the eradication and slaughter of the nation’s native Wild Horses.
Why? Because no US politician wants it known that they are acting against the will of 80% of Americans. This way they can blame and proclaim that “First Peoples are Sovereign,” so, “it’s out of my hands!” but, “I Love Horses!”
Now comes Arizona’s second term Governor Ducey. He refuses to protect the Alpine horses unlike his protection of the Salt River horses. He too joins the blame game.
He has the fiduciary responsibility to protect as Az state’s wildlife (17-101,17-102 and more). Instead, he colluded with the feds to round them up illegally as trespass livestock.
But the Alpine Wild Horses DO NOT meet the Federal Definition’s criteria for “Livestock.” 29 CFR Section 780.328
These wild horses have been illegally rounded up and are at risk, or are being sent, to cruel and illegal shipment and slaughter through Mexico, right down route Az Rt191, to LIVE shipments around the globe (per United Nations data obtained by WHOA).
JUSTIFYING THE SLAUGHTER
Governor Ducey and the Forest Service are apparently hiding behind the stamp of approval from both the USDA FS Region 3 Veterinarian, who hails from the Laguna Pueblo and the Center for Biologic Diversity.
INDIAN WASHING
“A SAVAGE IS NOT ONE THAT LIVES IN THE FOREST, A SAVAGE IS THE ONE THAT DESTROYS IT” Unknown, quoted by Ron Toahani Jackson (Navajo)
However, sadly, Governor Ducey, USDA FS Region 3, and the Department of Interior, are hiding behind the faces of a few First Peoples, (notably women) attempting to scapegoat all Sovereigns for the massive round ups, eradication, and slaughter, of our nation’s native wild horses, including the Az state’s Alpine Wild Horses.
We are calling it “Indian-Washing,” it’s just like “Green-Washing!”
Meet Dr. Tolani Francisco DVM (Laguna Pueblo) wild horse and burro coordinator for the U.S.D.A. Forest Service Region 3.
She took this position so she could “properly represent the horses!”
However, during the UTAH Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Meeting of 2018, https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/wildhorse_2018AdvBrdMtgSLC_roughcuttranscripts.pdf,
and in her current “coming out” video at: 2022 Alumni Fellow – Dr. Tolani Francisco, DVM 1990., Dr. Francisco advocates for using “ALL THE TOOLS” (meaning lethal ones) for “managing” wild horses and burros and blames the “tribes”.
Dr. Francisco strongly implies that on this matter she is speaking for all the tribes, but she names no names! (See minutes 34 – 39.)
Ms. Francisco does not speak for the Navajo or any other Nation. She is a USDA FS veterinarian, and that is the entire extent of her authority.
Whatever the case, no one is stopping Sovereigns from wildlife management as they see fit on their Sovereign lands.
WHOA does not endorse grouping Sovereigns and throwing them all under the bus. Nor are we interested in wild horse laundering, or false-drought-engineered disaster events, such as Cameron of which WHOA has proof, and of which Dr. Francisco also refers to at the Advisory Board meeting, apparently for use as PR to push people toward slaughter, and ALL THE TOOLS.)
“We don’t have a lethal outlet for horses owned or unowned.”
“. . . we started working with New Mexico State University, Dr. Sam Smalage . . . we want to really engage the tribes in New Mexico and Arizona. . . .” There is too much here for this post but we will discuss it in another.
“We’re not able to implement all the tools in our
tool box. . . because we don’t have slaughter in
the United States any more.”
Indian Washing Alert!
Wait for it . . .
“Other tribes, I will be honest with you, are probably
doing things that people don’t want to talk about.”
From 2018 Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Meeting Transcripts in Utah.
“…these are tough decisions
that have to be made.”
“I wanted to make sure these horses were
being properly represented.”
Dr Francisco also states she is also studying the laws and that advocates and their lawsuits make this job hard.
WHOA has notified Governor Ducey and the USDA FS in two open letters that these Alpine Horses don’t meet the federal definition of Livestock so their categorical exclusion impoundment is not legal. We’ll re-send personally and ensure Dr. Francisco gets the letter.
We are reasonably sure per our Veterinarian Dr. Lester Friedlander a former USDA Veterinarian that these horses are in a line up for unspeakable cruelty with nothing formal safeguarding them thanks to Governor Ducey.
Here are the animal cruelty laws of Az which should be of both legal and humanitarian concern. https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/02910.htm
But!
Another Green Washing Alert!
Wait for it. . .
Dr. Francisco DVM says:
“Too much of one thing is not good.”
1.9 million non-native Cattle – BLM Public Lands (1)
2.1 million non-native Cattle on USDA FS Lands (2)
We have 92 million Cattle in the US (3)
(1)https://dailypitchfork.org/?p=1417(2)https://dailypitchfork.org/?p=920...(3)https://www.nass.usda.gov/Newsroom/2022/01-31-2022.php#:~:text=Of%20the%2091.9%20million%20head,States%20decreased%20to%209.38%20million…
GREEN WASHING
GREEN Washing the Slaughter of the Alpine Wild Horses
THE USDA FS is also apparently GREEN-Washing sale/slaughter of the ALPINE WILD horses behind the Center for Biologic Diversity (CBD) claims of harm to an endangered mouse.
Scapegoating Alpine Wild Horses as harming an endangered mouse that already has exclosures (that they use for CATTLE) near the habitat streams.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r3/home/%3Fcid%3Dstelprd3809040
allow cattle to the streams in various locations.
These exclosures are ONLY OK for CATTLE who push through fences, or Elk and Deer that jump them? Unlike horses?
“Below are images of just some of the water gaps/lanes near exclosures on the Lincoln and Santa Fe National Forests where livestock have full access to water. Livestock have been utilizing these gaps extensively with no apparent difficulties.”
Dr. Francisco DVM does not speak for the Navajo Nation; they have a Tribal Council.
According to section 5 under natural law of the fundamental laws passed by the Navajo Tribal Council:
All Life Forms have rights
Per Ron Toahani Jackson (Navajo) 10/2/2022
The Nohooka Dine’ (Navajo Elders and Medicine People) Oppose the Navajo Roundups and horse slaughter. The Nohooka’ Dine’ Resolution states:
“The Horse is our medicine and has helped us survive many hardships, they must be given respect and honored for their sacred place within the Creation, as they possess the same fundamental right to Life as we, Five Fingered Ones do, “states the Resolution of the Nahooka Dine’, traditional Navajo medicine people opposing the slaughter of the horse.
The Resolution states, “the capture, imprisonment and proposed execution of these horses represents a forced assimilation and destruction of our spiritual and cultural way of life.”
“We recognize that the capture, imprisonment and proposed execution of these horses is the same destructive cycle of actions that Our Ancestors endured, equal in destructive impact to our cultural way of life as the slaughter of the bison.”
Nahooka Dine’ state, “The Navajo Nation of our fundamental belief and understanding of K’é. The Navajo Nation’s proposed mass execution of horses erodes this basic fundamental belief and understanding that (Peaceably) Unites Us to One Another and to All Creation.”
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples requires both the Navajo Nation and United States governments to consult with Indigenous Peoples who are guaranteed the right to free, prior and informed consent.
The Navajo Nation government’s support and involvement in horse slaughter has been described as cruel, barbaric and reckless. The practice of capturing, removing and killing horses and burros from their native lands is considered by many – a continuance of the unspeakable assimilation of children into so-called “boarding schools” when Navajo children’s hair was cut and they were forbidden to speak their Dine’ language. Those opposed to the roundups and the killing have expressed grave concern for the impact these violent activities have on Navajo children, as they promote behaviors that lead to hate, domestic violence and drug abuse. It is the view of many people that the Navajo tribal government destruction of horses is a repeat of the gruesome mass killing of wild buffalo in North America as conducted by the U.S. government and commercial hunters that resulted in the near extinction of the American bison.
“We see this mass execution of our relatives, the horses, as the rotten fruit of a bad seed that was planted in the minds of our children in the earlier days,” states the Resolution.
“Our children must be taught to value life, otherwise they will treat their own lives recklessly and be drawn toward substance abuse, domestic violence, suicide and other behaviors that are not in accordance with Our Way of Life.”