Len Johnson Productions presents Last of the Spanish Mustangs

ABOUT LEN & THE MUSTANGS

Len Johnson has 20 years experience in broadcast and print and has worked as an anchor and reporter in Chicago, Phoenix and Baltimore. Blah, blah, blah...okay, so why make documentaries while holding down a full-time job?

Because I need the money. And, everyone I know who stays in local news for more than 20 years is a little off kilter. So somewhere, I’m going to have to make a transition. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good people in the business of tv news. But there are a lot of bad people who care more about their hair and selling out to car dealers who sponsor their programs than in telling a good story. I have a degree in journalism and find that while you get to tell a few good stories in television news, you never really get to tell the REAL story. That is what I want to do.

I started out wanting to tell the cowboy’s side of wild horses. I wanted to follow a Bureau of Land Management “cowboy” on a roundup. I had been told the wild horse population was exploding. I was told wrong.

Wild horses are true underdogs, and people connect with that. But American wild horses are being wiped out to support foreign appetites. Horse meat is a delicacy in Europe and Japan and they pay big bucks for it over there. There are three US horse slaughter plants—two in Texas and one in Illinois.

Horse slaughter is against Texas law, but a federal judge has allowed the rich Europeans to continue to slaughter. They do it in poor black neighborhoods and are cited repeatedly for environmental violations. In short, horse slaughter is a lawbreaking mess.

Finally, Congress voted to ban slaughter for one year. Now, the horse slaughter industry is working with the US Department of Agriculture to keep operating DESPITE congressional mandate and a ban on slaughter being SIGNED INTO LAW just last year! You can write Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns to voice your opinion, but it will fall on deaf ears. I think it’s better to write the governors of Texas and Illinois.

Wild horses are being taken off the range not to manage America’s public lands, but to support the foreign horse meat market. Think it’s great for America’s economy? The workers are mostly undocumented, and are worked long hours for low pay. The money goes to Europe.

This documentary centers on the Cerbat mustangs in Arizona, which face heavy kill from mountain lions and the constant threat of government removal. The BLM estimates their numbers at around 90...but there are really around

40 at the most. I go up there to see the animals. The BLM doesn’t, by their own admissions. At times, the BLM will round up a Cerbat if a rancher complains, and it is my belief that the herd will be gone in 20 years.

I also show the three US slaughter houses for what they are: Rich, manipulative, lawbreaking, intimidating ambassadors of a US horse holocaust. They will keep wild and domestic horses in peril as long as they operate.

Just wait for my next documentary! I wish I could reveal it now, but don’t want to tip off the wrong people.