Big Oil and Mustangs/Ruby Pipeline

Mustangs are federally protected horses and the remnants of the Wild West lore that strikes a chord in most American hearts. They have been a icon of our culture as Americans for hundreds of years and for the most part, have roamed the west in peace. Except in the summer when the federal government comes charging in.

This year Big Oil came riding into the west, with the government in close formation and wants the mustangs out of their way. The Government and its long-standing cozy and corrupt relationship with big business, sealed the horses fate recently with the Bureau of Land Management's roundup of 36,000 mustangs.

The El Paso Corporation's Ruby Pipeline wants to construct it latest line right through the mustang herds and BLM signed off on it, no questions asked. There was another option, an alternate route on land that was already disturbed that did not go through the herds, but it would have cost more.

Well heck fire pardners, ain't no sense cutting into those big ol' profits just 'cause of a few wild horses is there?

BP, one of the shippers of the proposed line, was contacted about this and stated; "Why are you contacting us? We're just a shipper, we aren't building the line." Go away son, you're botherin' me.

BLM rounds them up with helicopters and sends the horses into a panic stampede to drive them to designated areas. Some horses are "run" this way for eight miles in 90 degree weather. Foals have run their hooves off, mares have aborted their foals from the exertion and many others have dropped dead of exhaustion or become so lame they had to be shot.

The horses are housed in "government holding pens" and are dying of dehydration at an alarming rate. 11,000 of them are penned up "butt to butt."

BLM came down off the fence and declared they "were the Bureau of Land Management, not the Bureau of Wildlife, not the Bureau of Horses." BLM advances one of the reasons they are rounding them up is due to overcrowding, starvation and sickness. The horses come in without any of those alleged physical conditions, if they make it through the terror roundup unscathed which many do not, and decline rapidly once the government pens them up.

Terror on the high plains all in the name of profit for big business.

They are conducting the summer roundups this year without allowing any public access to the operation, nor are they allowing any other oversight or scrutiny of most of the horses when they arrive at the selected government holding areas. In the past, BLM has allowed "visitor's days" to potential adopters and oversight of the roundups by animal rights groups.

T. Boone Pickens' wife, Madeline Pickens, came forward to take responsibility for the horses, 30,000 left (6000 have died) and purchase the land for an eco-sanctuary from the Dept. of the Interior (that's Ken Salazar.) First, they liked the idea and then they balked at it. No reason given, other than a flat out refusal from Salazar. His department is using excuse after excuse to not do anything sensible on this issue or anything else the DOI has their hands in.

The government has plans to go after 6000 more soon, they must see a need to replace what they have killed so far having some perverted reason we do not begin to understand.

But there is one more player in this story; the cattle ranchers. They are a powerful lobbying group and they don't want competition for grazing land from the mustangs. Never mind who was there first, just get those mustangs off the land so we can make more money Washington or you will feel our horns.

It is corrupt, barbaric and torturous. It is also against the law, but when you make the laws, you don't have to follow them yourself, just make sure everybody else does and don't upset your big donors and lobbyists. Do as I say, not as I do.

When big oil and big beef says run the government starts hoofing it.
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