Cloud Foundation Collaborates with Over 90 Conservation, Wild Horse Organizations, Advocates and Journalists to Reveal Economic Disaster for US Taxpayers.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, USA, December 17, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Cloud Foundation (TCF) and over 90 other wild horse/conservation organizations and individuals are issuing a challenge to media outlets nation-wide to examine Bureau of Land Management (Bureau) data before reporting further on wild horse issues and roundups.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (Bureau) has issued 119 press releases to date telling the media that wild horse roundups protect rangelands from destruction and save taxpayers money. The Bureau’s own records show that livestock grazing inside wild horse territory causes rangeland damage.

In an alert sent to over 900 media outlets last week, professional journalists urged their colleagues to look at the Bureau’s own data regarding rangeland health, its Public Lands Livestock Grazing Program and the exorbitant cost of removing wild horses from public lands to accommodate privately owned cattle and sheep.

A compelling fact sheet accompanying the alert showed the Bureau’s rangeland health data overlaid on satellite maps. The maps clearly show widespread damage caused by commercial livestock within wild horse herd management areas in southeastern Wyoming. Up to 97% of forage is allocated to privately owned livestock within this federally designated wild horse habitat. Those supporting the alert state that American citizens have a right to know the facts about how their public lands are used and how their tax dollars are spent.

The U.S. government spends millions of its citizens’ tax dollars to roundup wild horses and burros from public lands each year. These lands were designated as protected wild horse and burro habitat in the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The Act states clearly that this habitat must be “devoted principally, but not necessarily exclusively, for their [wild horses/burros] welfare.” And yet in almost all Herd Management Areas, the majority of forage is allocated to commercial livestock rather than to the federally protected wild equines.

The Bureau’s current plan will reduce wild horses/burros to just 27,000 on 27 million acres of public lands. The agency will spend $59 million taxpayer dollars to roundup the animals it terms “excess.” The cost of warehousing those animals is about another $43 million annually. If the government then turns around and replaces those wild horses with cattle, it will earn a meager $955,800 in grazing fees. It’s hard to imagine a worse deal for American taxpayers.

The Cloud Foundation and other signatories are calling on media to accurately report on government actions, informing the American public of the facts, rather than repeating rhetoric.

The Cloud Foundation (TCF), a 501(c)3 non-profit is dedicated to the protection and preservation of wild horses and burros on our public lands, The Cloud Foundation advocates for protecting natural wild equid behaviors, repatriation of wild horses to zeroed-out Herd Areas, and for equal allocation of forage within Congressionally designated Herd Areas.

Western Watersheds Project • Wilderness Watch • Western Wildlife Conservancy • Sequoia ForestKeeper^® • Friends of the Bitterroot • Conservation Congress • Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance • Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project • Georgia Earth Alliance • The Cloud Foundation • Center for a Humane Economy • Animal Wellness Action • League of Humane Voters • In Defense of Animals • Wind Dancer Foundation Inc. • Equine Advocates • Habitat for Horses • Equine Collaborative International, Inc. • American Equine Allies/Awareness • US Horse Welfare and Rescue NC • Citizens Against Equine Slaughter • South Carolina Horseman's Council • Wild Beauty Foundation • Red Birds Trust • Save Our Wild Horses • Northern Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Partners • Andean Tapir Fund and branch Wild Horse and Burro Fund • Grassroots Coalition for Wild Horses and Burros • Friends of the Heber Wild Horses • Heber Wild Horses Freedom Preservation Alliance • Windwalker Ridge Mustang Sanctuary • Central Oregon Wild Horse• Wild Equid League Colorado • Wild Equid League New Mexico • Western Horse Watchers • Marr Plan For Wild Horses • A*W*E Coalition North America • Devils Garden Wild Horse Emergency Rescue • Love Wild Horses^® • Sandy Sharkey Photography • Mary Hone Fine Art• PJ Kaszas Wild Horse Photography Collective • Kim Newman Photography • Lynne Pomeranz Photographer • KimerleePhotography • Bonkers For Burros • Saoirse Pastures • Garnsey's Feral Acres • Ambleside Farm

Dana Zarrello
The Cloud Foundation
+1 423-521-5867
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