A truly heartbreaking scene

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

For 15 long days now, America’s iconic wild horses have been under attack.

The scenes we’ve witnessed already are truly heartbreaking: America’s wild horses chased down by helicopters for miles in the scorching summer heat. Frantic mares separated from their terrified foals, roughly captured, and held for several hours without any food.

Photos taken by our field rep on July 4. He nicknamed the brave mare “Lady Liberty” and her terrified foal, “Baby Sam,” after witnessing the heartbreaking scene of their separation and capture at the Range Creek roundup.

AS WE WRITE, our field representative is onsite at the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) roundup at the Swasey Herd Management Area in Utah, which began today. It’s the second assault on Utah’s wild horses this month. Right now, BLM helicopters are stampeding wild horses, including tiny foals, driving them into traps and forever robbing these majestic mustangs of their freedom.

Our wild horses and burros are in for a long, cruel summer as the BLM rounds up and removes MORE THAN 5,000 of them from public lands in Utah, Colorado and Nevada by the end of September. And the agency is already laying the groundwork to extend these roundups into the fall and next year. We must take action to protect them, Erica.

Our representative is in the field right now — observing, documenting, bearing witness to this heartbreak. Our staff and legal team are ready to challenge any attempt to block public observation and hold the BLM accountable for any abuses that violate the agency’s own animal welfare guidelines. We’re doing everything we can to protect our iconic wild horses and their tiny, precious and terrified foals. Can you help us?

Let’s take a quick look at the situation on the ground so far this roundup season:

• TODAY, BLM helicopters descended on the Swasey Herd Management area in Utah. The goal? To round up and permanently remove 550 horses and reduce the population to just 100 horses on public lands where over 12,000 sheep graze each year.
• On July 1, the BLM began the roundup and removal of wild horses from the Range Creek HMA. The first several days of the operation were closed to public viewing as the trap site was located on private lands and the property owner refused permission, but our field representative was there to document and observe the roundup scenes as soon as permitted. You can READ the day-by-day account, and see the heartbreaking scenes for yourself, here.
• In August, the BLM plans to continue the assault on Utah’s wild horses with the roundup and removal of 500 wild horses from the Sulphur HMA.
• Also in August, the BLM will turn its sights to Nevada, where the agency intends to roundup and remove an astounding 1,600 wild horses and 200 burros from the Shawave HMA located 50 miles northeast of Reno.
• Then in September, the BLM will wrap up its summer roundup season with a massive roundup in Nevada’s Diamond Complex, targeting nearly 1,200 wild horses for permanent removal from their homes on our public lands.

This outdated approach to population management is not only unscientific, it’s cruel and inhumane. We are working hard to change this — in Congress, in the courts and in the field by showing that humane management works. We need YOU more than ever to keep showing up, speaking up, and supporting our work. Together, we will do everything in our power to protect America’s wild horses.

Thank you for your support, Erica. Our wild horses — and their continued freedom — depends on all of us.

American Wild Horse Campaign

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