Nebraska Wild Horses

All of the Non-Profits are asking for MONEY!  Why did they assist with the 3 Strikes Issue – well, MONEY, they needed to get money and they DON’T know anything about Wild Horses. They just saw it as a way to get there name in the news and make money.  It’s economics, cry and wine to the Public theory.  Their saying, They’re stupid, the public that is, they’ll give us money and we can have pizza parties and drink scotch and we don’t have to do the RIGHT thing, just act like we are!  Times are tough for everyone, we don’t need non-profits around that do unjust to animals like Jerry Finch has in this event.  He’s doesn’t care about one animal, he makes you think he does so “he” can survive

Integrity is right out the window.

You CAN NOT vaccinate for salmonella, pigeon fever, bastard strangles and more! Horses in general carry many  other diseases that you can not vaccinate for, all Horses, both Domestic and Wild.

Layout-1_Page-1Pioneer Veterinarian Clinic, Dr. Henri Evard posted  2 letters, to his tests finding to be inconclusive for an overall Health Test.  The tests on the ONE fecal was negative with another still be in testing stages, negative on Rhino on the 3 horses he polled.  The test were not a summary of equal performance standards for the ratio of wild horses gathered.  More test are needed. Also stated that under advisement to any one who adopted any of these horses they are recommended to be quarantined for a period of 90 days, 3 months until further tests can be performed by a licensed veterinarian through a Vet pathologists.

If you are going to use the Bridgeport Fairgrounds please use caution as advised and Feed your horses up off the ground and use and independent water supply, do not use the drinking troughs at the grounds until they have been certified clean and disease free.

Caution was advised before they moved these and this request was IGNORED by the Sheriff and Jerry Finch, Habitat for Horses and HSUS, Scotlund Haisley.

Both Non-Profit groups have moved out of the area leaving any Bills that may still be incurred out there to be collected by a “Volunteer” and then sent on the HSUS office.

Several adopters are yet to pick up there adopted horses.  Leaving a volunteer to care for these. This volunteer is charging for feeding these until they are picked up when the feed was paid for by HSUS/Habitat For Horses, what is this, FRAUD,  many of the volunteers are upset that this was a slam-bam-get-out-of-town-sham before this whole mission gets found out to be a serious health issue with the horses.  These wild horses are now scattered over many states.

How many actual adopters are willing to come forth with the health issues?

One adopter in California is having serious major health concerns with her horses and now has contact the vet to do emergency testing on these before they die.  Again Jason Meduna call for help on the blog-chat rooms fell on deaf ears and now they have hung him out and now the real issues are coming up, Could it have been Meduna was right and the “people-public” that wanted to hang him could be liable for the wrong doings?

If your wild horse comes up sick and sickens your other animals please send your Vet Bills to both Jerry Finch and Scotlund Haisley for they led the pack on moving these before they were healthy enough to move on.

CLICK AND READ

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What caused the problem of Salmonella?

The Jackson horses had been eating a poor diet of brush. When they arrived at the Palomino

Center some of them had difficulty in transitioning to a diet of hay. Many of the animals were

very thin, in poor physical condition, and weak due to lack of forage and water resulting from

the extended drought, which caused normal levels of Salmonella bacteria, present in the

animal’s gut, increase to levels that made the animals sick (diarrhea).

A large number of the horses were in condition class 1 ½ or 3 based on the Henneke rating

system (thin or very thin). Most of the horses came in with snotty noses resulting from alkali

dust (due to drought), followed by a change in weather to hot days and cold nights.

Nebras4

10/06/07 at BLM’s Palomino Valley Wild Horse & Burro Holding Center. Courtesy of Wild Horse Spirit, Ltd.

Notice the DRAWN in Hips.  Ribs protruding. Tail bone visible. Look at the HOOF, anybody else would be cited and cruelty charges filed on them.  (Hoops, no feed here, hello!) Plenty of manure to spread salmonella though!

Wild horses captured from the Jackson Mountains Herd Management Area in NV. Photos taken on

This is October and the facility was closed down for 90 days and this would put them into January 2008.

Press Release

Nebraska Sick Wild Horses on the Move

For Immediate Release. Friday, May 7, 2009
Contact Ray Field, Wild Horse Foundation, Franklin, Texas

—Franklin, Texas—In less than 2 days, “Habitat For Horses” President Jerry Finch will do the most cruel and unusual event of the Alliance Nebraska Wild Horse Rescue Case that has been dominating the media.  Finch has stated that all the wild horses have had toxicology tests performed and Dr. Tom Furman confirmed on DSDZFM radio last Friday, May 1st that “he did not perform toxicology tests or any other tests besides Coggins and several necropsies.”   No horse has been given a clean Bill of Health to state if the wild horses are Healthy. Federal Law requires that before a veterinarian can issue such, a “Certificate of Health” the horse must be in range of weight/size ration limits and disease free” at least.

Along will Jill Star, President of Lifesavers out of Lancaster, California stated “The wild horses should not have been moved until determination was made of the health condition.”  The wild horses were moved anyway lead by Jerry Finch and HSUS, Humane Society of the United States, Scotlund Haisley, Director of Emergency Services through out other states.  State laws require that a current “health certificate” be available as they go through each state.  Upon inspection of the check points if the department of Agriculture inspects and see these horses are not of healthy criteria they can turn these vehicles back around to their originating point.

Dr. Evart was out April 30 to do more test work on 6 out of 211 horses to try and come up with some degree of illness.  Dr. Evart states that “there is something going on but without the necessary tests we will never know.”  6 is not a proper ratio to determine health issues.

Ray Field, Executive Director and Founder of the Wild Horse Foundation, the largest wild horse adoption center in the United States, second only to the Department of Interior, notes that 53 wild horses came in with disease and he lost 23 of the wild horses before the results could determine the illness and then another 6 after. Mr. Field’s states that the “wild horses were losing weight, falling from the hips to the ground, drawing in and becoming dehydrated with loose stools”.  You could notice the face was close to normal but when the horse looks at you and is trying to tell you something is drastically wrong. Any animal according to Field’s, can tell you when something is wrong if your tuned to the animal.

Anyone can google search the Jackson Hill Palomino Valley (Nevada) information and research to know that when the BLM set its’ gather up in that HMA, (herd management area), in July 2007 and the company used to gather these could not make it. The BLM knew that the horses did not have enough vegetation or water to hold them and did nothing.  When many citizens started to complain about the condition of the wild horses the BLM did make notice that over a hundred or so of the wild horses out in the area died from not enough water and food sometimes eating there own stools to survive. Overgrazing was due to 160 cows to 1 wild horse ration on federal lands.

Once the BLM removed these to Palomino Valley holding in late September early October, many horses were dying in the facility.  The APHIS (Veterinarians of Animal Plant Health Inspection Service) after a week or so decided it was best to close the facility for a period of several months according to the BLM statement.  The wild horses were isolated away from some other areas of the facility to protect them.  The APHIS determine it was “Salmonella” which is highly infectious and can be spread by contact, water and air borne.  There are no known preventative measures to take other than let it run its course.  If the wild horses or any horse recovers from it then they are carriers for life and can at any time regenerate the disease.

The accused did in fact receive many horses from the BLM Palomino Valley holding area in January 2008. This was at the end of the Quarantine Period, just as the BLM was opening its facility back up.  It is possible to leave a facility with “no signs” and then get sick after they arrive in a different climate, or due to stress or mishandling.  The BLM does not send out notices that “your new wild horses maybe infected”.  It’s the old rule, “Don’t ask – Don’t tell”.

While Mr. Field does not support what happened to these wild horses from anybody, he states, “That the wild horses should be given every chance to recover before they are moved.”  Clinical tests are crucial and must  rule out other diseases like Swine Flu so it would be prudent to take every precaution here.  If the veterinarians were concerned about the out break and not who’s paying the bills as much but protecting the integrity of medicine in the case.  Again, Mr. Field’s is stating the issue that the horses should be given the opportunity to recover.  If designated tests can prove they are “within limits” then move the horses to new homes and only then once all else has been ruled out.

It’s important to focus on the issue and the non-profits greed for money because they took on the challenge to save the wild horses.  In every context you read about, it was all about give us money. Both Habitat for Horses and the Humane Society of the United States have the financial accounts to not need the public’s money.

“It’s about greed and power”, states Field.  Moving these wild horses that are a part of our American Heritage and Legacy without regards to their health is irresponsible. Finch claims the horse are gaining weight at the rate of almost a hundred pounds in a week, while  Gina Berg had overheard a conversation with Jerry Finch in which it was stated about the sick horses; These horses are not adoptable, we are going to have to euthanize them.  Dr. Richard Porter of Nebraska-based KV Vet Supply, in an email statement, Porter said “I’m thankful for all those who responded so quickly to the rescue effort. I estimate my horse is at least 150 to 200 pounds underweight and will take several months to gain that weight back.

If Dr. Porter states it will take several months to regain the weight, then how can Finch claim the wild horses gained 50 – 100 pounds in a week?

The Wild Horse Foundation and other large wild horse organizations knew this was not a quick fix.  Both Habitat for Horses and HSUS are running this like a Hurricane recovery drill thinking that all the owners will claim there animals.  It didn’t happen and they need to settle in for the long haul.

Both Jill Starr and Mr. Field were going to take 30 and 100 wild horses until HSUS moved in and upset the wild horse groups efforts, all for the sake of “cutting their teeth in on wild horses”.

Field continues to request that the “right thing” be done for the wild horses health sake and for the new owners sake. “Diseases spread, kill and contaminate”.

The Wild Horse Foundation is the largest wild horse adoption group in the United States. For more information visit, www.wildhorsefoundation.org Susan Calhoun, President, Ray Field, Executive Director. You can help by contacting them.


Horses found dead, starving in Nebraska

By Kerri Rempp, Chadron Record staff

More than 200 wild horses and burros were removed from the 3-Strikes Ranch near Alliance because of allegations of abuse and neglect, and ranch owner Jason Meduna, 42, was arrested last week on one count of animal cruelty. He posted 10 percent of a $20,000 bond and was released from jail.

The emaciated horses were legally surrendered last week to horse rescue groups Habitat for Horses and Lifesavers Foundation.

The ranch first came to the attention of law enforcement when Meduna contacted media and police last month regarding a mustang he believed to have been stolen. He also said someone had been poisoning his horses. Court documents indicate law enforcement interviewed neighbors who produced photos of horse carcasses allegedly left on Meduna’s property, as well as pictures of overgrazed grass and of horses reaching across fences in an effort to find food.

The court records also say the Morrill County Sheriff’s Department flew over the property April 9 and discovered a horse that appeared to have been down for days and a large number of horses in a corral with no evidence of feed. Earlier that week, the Bureau of Land Management visited the ranch to inspect five horses under BLM jurisdiction that were being boarded at 3-Strikes. Meduna told the BLM four of the horses had already died. The fifth horse, found in poor condition, was removed from the ranch.

An arrest affidavit cites BLM officials as saying that 175 horses were boarded at the 1,900-acre ranch.

Jerry Finch, of the Texas-based Habitat for Horses, found that Meduna’s ranch in Morrill County had pastures devoid of grass with little or no edible grazing. On April 26, Finch accompanied a sheriff’s deputy in a flyover of the property and discovered the bodies of more than 60 dead horses. Nearly all of the animals on the ranch were malnourished; their back, ribs and hip bones were very pronounced.

The horses were quickly moved to the Bridgeport Rodeo Grounds, where veterinarians and volunteers will examine and treat each horse as needed. Finch estimates that more than 30 stallions were comingled in herds, indicating that many of the mares may be pregnant. According to Jill Starr of Lifesavers Foundation, “the ultimate goal is to place these animals in homes and facilities capable of addressing their needs and where they will have the opportunity to thrive.”

But Ray Fields, founder of the Wild Horse Foundation in Texas, said transporting the horses to other locations may have been premature and could have aided the spread of contagious diseases. Fields said blood work and nasal swabs should have been conducted before the animals were moved. He said failure to do so could possibly mean the spread of salmonella and rhinovirus.

Salmonella can be spread through air, water and direct contact. It can be transmitted to humans.

Fields said he has talked to Meduna since his arrest and believes he may have inadvertently adopted horses that had recently recovered from a salmonella outbreak at an adoption center in Nevada. Fields claims Meduna adopted horses from Palomino Valley Adoption Center in January 2008 and said there is at least the possibility that some of the infected horses were sent to Nebraska. Then, when the horses became stressed again, due either to harsh storms with fluctuating temperatures that the area experienced, inadequate feed or a combination of both, the salmonella may have resurfaced.

“All it takes is one to break out with salmonella or rhino, and everybody’s got it,” Fields said. “(Salmonella) is extremely detrimental to animals.” Fields said he isn’t trying to excuse any alleged neglect, but he is concerned about making sure if the horses are diseased that they are stopped from spreading those diseases. Moving the horses before they were given a complete examination, including blood work-ups and nasal swabs, was a mistake, he said. Officials should have put at least considered the possibility of disease once they knew some of the animals came from Palomino Valley.

If salmonella is a contributing factor to the horses’ poor condition, moving them has spread the disease to every trailer used to haul them, as well as to the fairgrounds, which means more ranches and more horses could become infected. The disease can cause weight loss, dehydration and diarrhea and can live in the soil for more than 300 days.

Adoptions of the animals or moving them to the Texas and California-based rescue operations that have agreed to take them will further complicate the problem, Fields said.

He called for every horse to be tested immediately.

“This is about education. This is about prevention,” he said. “How bad do they want this disease to be spread?”