wild horses

RACE TO SAVE NATIVE HORSES GROWS MORE CRITICAL

By Miriam Raftery

Photo:  Kupa, one of the last dozen descendants of San Diego's heritage herd, has died of a rattlesnake bite. His owner is asking the County to protect  the remaining herd descedants under the County's MultipleSpecies Conservation Plan.

April 17, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – Kupa, one of only a dozen descendants of San Diego’s heritage herd of wild horses, has died. Kathleen Hayden made the announcement “with a breaking heart” on Facebook yesterday, stating that “during the night, our four-year-old Coyote Canyon stallion, Kupa, was bitten in his eye by a rattlesnake and died.”

Hayden is cofounder of Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza, a nonprofit in Santa Ysabel.  For years, she and her foundation have been fighting to gain protection for the heritage herd. The federal government has long refused to recognize horses as native species worthy of protection, believing they were brought here by European explorers.

But on March 23, 2023, Science published a report by 84 researchers who concluded that horses evolved first in North America and later crossed a land bridge over the Bering Strait to Eurasia. There are ancient fossils found in the Anza Borrego desert and Carlsbad  predating the early Spanish and English explorers to bolster that claim, as well as references to Native American horses in writings of Sir Francis Drake in 1580.

Those findings have reignited the urgent call to save wild horses and try to repopulate San Diego’s heritage herd on public lands, before it is too late.


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LOCAL ADVOCATE CALLS ON CALIF. ATTORNEY GENERAL TO PROTECT WILD HORSES

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Bureau of Land Management, wild horses, unspecified location

November 18, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) -- Kathleen Hayden of Santa Ysabel, co-founder of  Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza, has long fought to restore San Diego county’s heritage herd of wild horses. Now she’s joined a fight to save wild horses in Double Devil Corrals at Alturas, California, where the federal government has authorized a roundup and sale of hundreds of wild horses.

Hayden has penned a letter to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra urging him to enforce California Fish and Wildlife’s mandate to add our state’s wild horse herds to the list of protected native species in order to halt the sale. She cites fossil evidence indicating that California wild horses are descendants of indigenous species.

Below is Hayden’s letter:


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22 CA LEGISLATORS JOIN GLORIA IN DEMANDING THAT FEDERAL GOV'T STOP INHUMANE ROUNDUP OF WILD HORSES IN MODOC NF

 

East County News Service

October 17, 2018 (San Diego) – Approximately 1,000 of California’s wild horses are currently being rounded up by the federal government with many at risk of being sold for potential slaughter by the United States Forest Service (USFS). Today, California State Assemblymember Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) and 22 of his legislative colleagues demanded the USFS cease this inhumane roundup and protect these wild horses from slaughter.


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READER'S EDITORIAL: BLM SHOULD TURN OVER DEED FOR TRANSFER OF SAN DIEGO'S LAST WILD HORSES

 

Editor’s note:  We first wrote about Kathleen Hayden’s efforts to restore the Coyote Canyon heritage herd of wild horses locally in January 2013. Read article. But in July 2013, she was served with an eviction notice and forced to  give up the last descendants of San Diego’s wild horses. Despite a 2012  support  letter from Congressman Darrell Issa and a 2014 letter from a genetics expert confirming that the horses are rare and of historic significance as descendants of Spanish Colonial horses,  the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has done nothing to protect or return them--and now is not turning over the deed of transfer, Hayden says  Now she has penned an open letter to  the House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop questioning the legality of the transfer.

Dear Chairman Bishop,

Please investigate the transfer of the BLM Federal CA Coyote Canyon Wild Horse Herd area (20,000 acres)  to CA Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  In response to Ca State Senator Joel Anderson's request for the deed, Parks claim it doesn't exist.


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BLM WITHDRAWS PLANS FOR SURGICAL STERILIZATION "RESEARCH" ON WILD HORSES FOLLOWING LAWSUIT BY FRONT RANGE EQUINE RESCUE

 

Nonprofit Horse Rescue Group Challenged Inhumane Experimental Surgery

East County News Service

Photo:  Wild mustangs, Bureau of Land Management

September 9, 2016 (Hines, OR) Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER), a national nonprofit working to end the abuse and neglect of horses through rescue, advocacy and education, announced today that, just six weeks after a lawsuit filed by FRER, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has withdrawn its program to perform experimental sterilization of wild mares in Oregon. The BLM’s decision was formally vacated by the Interior Board of Land Appeals this morning.

FRER’s suit contended that the BLM’s intention to conduct surgical experiments on 225 wild horses, many in various stages of pregnancy, and potentially thousands more horses over time, causes harm and suffering in violation of federal law.


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FUTURE OF WILD HORSES LOCALLY IS IN PERIL: EVICTION NOTICED SERVED

 

 

Update July 15:  The property owner has granted a brief stay to allow Coyote Canyon Caballos d'Anza more time to relocate the herd.  The nonprofit group asks public help to contact federal and county elected officials and the Bureau of Land Management to urge that relocation on public lands in San Diego be approved and expedited.  Actions that could be taken include the county adding these wild horses to its protected species list and the BLM approving the horses for relocation to the Beauty Mountain area in northeast San Diego County.

By Miriam Raftery

July 14, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) – Plans to restore San Diego’s heritage herd of wild horses to public lands is in peril. An eviction notice has been served on the nonprofit organization that recently found and brought back the last descendants of San Diego’s original wild horses.  Unless the property owner backs down, the horses will be evicted on Monday, July 15.


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FOR “MUSTANG MAN” WHO DARED TO DREAM, A SPIRITED JOURNEY CONTINUES

By Miriam Raftery
Video by Billy Ortiz  https://www.facebook.com/LakesideCaliforniaHistory/videos/1389484353508/

 

There comes a time in life when a person may decide to take a chance—to do something wild, so daring that it challenges the spirit and nurtures the soul.


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WHOA! HORSE SMUGGLERS NABBED BY BORDER PATROL

 

By Miriam Raftery

 

October 19, 2010 (Campo) -- A tip from the Campo Minutemen led to apprehension of two men charged with smuggling horses across the international border on Friday.

 

“Campo Minutemen have twice observed a new occurrence at the border this month—horses,” a blog entry posted by the group stated.


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RUNAWAY HORSES READY FOR NEW HOMES: COUNTY ACCEPTING ADOPTION APPLICATIONS STARTING TODAY

 

April 8, 2010 (San Diego)--Horses that ran rampant through the streets of Chula Vista are ready to be placed into new homes. No owner has come forward to claim the animals, which are being held at the County shelter in Bonita. Since no one has claimed the horses, County Animal Services will begin accepting applications for adoption today through April 17.


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HORSES STAMPEDE THROUGH STREETS OF OTAY MESA


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