This past December, in collaboration with Utah citizen, Robert Hammer, we filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior to stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from performing risky and inhumane surgical sterilization surgeries on federally-protected wild mares recently rounded up in Utah.
And, we’re happy to report that this morning, government attorneys informed our lawyers that the BLM is dropping their plans to conduct inhumane sterilization surgeries on wild mares in Utah.
Not only is this a huge victory on behalf of the wild horses of Utah, but this is also the THIRD time that AWHC’s legal action has blocked the BLM from proceeding with the controversial surgeries in wild mares!
The new leadership of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — someone who AWHC supporters like you pushed your members of Congress to confirm — no doubt played a key role in the BLM’s decision to drop plans to conduct these invasive and risky surgeries.
When in Congress, Sec. Haaland was a champion for wild horse protection, signing onto a letter spearheaded by AWHC and the Animal Welfare Institute, calling on the BLM to abandon plans to conduct sterilization surgeries. She also co-sponsored a House amendment to promote fertility control as a humane management option.
And this morning, we saw the effects of having wild-horse friendly leadership in Washington!
While today was a big win, your support is still critical to our efforts to ensure that wild horses and burros maintain their freedom and remain protected from special interests. We are already gearing up for necessary legal action to defend wild horses in Wyoming, California, and other states against proposed federal actions to decimate wild herds.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service are currently preparing for the upcoming roundup season, and as such, have released several disastrous plans for mustangs and burros that need your immediate attention.
We’ve told you recently about a lot of roundups planned and we know sometimes this news can be overwhelming. But don’t forget — the power to stop this is in our hands, and we are gaining more support every day … with the public, in the scientific community, in state legislatures, and on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers know that wild horses and burros have a loud and powerful constituency and we must keep raising our voices for change so that they are truly protected on our public lands.
Please take a few moments to read about the latest roundup plans below, and then ACT!
The BLM recently released a plan that would permanently remove 3,500 wild horses — or nearly 40 percent of the state’s wild horse population — from 2.5 million acres of habitat in the “Wyoming Checkerboard” in the southern part of the state. The plan calls for drastically reducing the population to the low Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs) in five federally designated Herd Management Areas (HMAs): Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek, Great Divide Basin, White Mountain, and Little Colorado.
This mass roundup plan will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. It will cost these historic wild horses their families, their freedom, and, for many, their lives. The cruel policy is driven by commercial interests, in particular, the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA), whose members graze their cattle and sheep on public lands and view the horses as competition for cheap grazing. Since 2011, AWHC has been involved in litigation against the RSGA to defend the wild horses in this area and has amassed numerous court victories, including at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. We intend to continue the legal fight to defend Wyoming’s wild horses and to rally public opposition to this plan.
Please weigh in now in opposition of this disastrous plan!
The U.S. Forest Service plans to step up its assault on the Devil’s Garden wild horse herd in California’s Modoc National Forest. Its years-long battle against these historic wild horses began in 2012, when the agency attempted to reduce the size of their habitat by 22,000-acres. We went to court and we stopped them. Pursuant to an appellate court ruling, the Forest Service must consider those 22,000 acres as an active part of the horses’ habitat.
Now, the Forest Service has released an “AML Implementation Plan” that is only being sent to “stakeholders”. The plan reduces the Devil’s Garden wild horse population to just 206-402 mustangs (down from 1,900 today) to achieve an “Appropriate” Management Level that was set based on the illegal elimination of 22,000 acres of the horses’ habitat. The plan does not evaluate the appropriate population size for the larger habitat and is based on the policy of allocating most of the forage in the area to commercial livestock. Indeed, the agency permits an incredible 3,700 privately-owned cows and 2,900 privately-owned sheep to graze in the mustangs’ habitat! And if all of that wasn’t enough, the Forest Service has rejected our offer to implement a humane fertility control program to actually manage the horses effectively in the wild, instead of relentlessly rounding them up with helicopters, penning them, and selling them for $1 a piece.
AWHC is considered a stakeholder with the ability to comment on this plan, but we represent all of you — the American people — and believe that you should also have a say. So please join us in signing onto our letter opposing this inhumane and expensive management plan.
The BLM is seeking public comments on a roundup and removal of wild horses from the Sulphur HMA in Utah.
In 2017, the Beaver County Commissioners in Utah filed a lawsuit seeking to force the BLM to remove all “excess” wild horses from the Sulphur HMA. The request sought to eliminate hundreds of federally-protected wild horses from their habitat in order to reduce the competition with domestic livestock. AWHC and our coalition immediately filed a Motion to Intervene in order to protect wild horses on the range. Earlier this year, the case was settled out of court.
Now, the wild horses are back on the chopping block. The HMA is made up of 265,711 acres of public and private land and is currently home to an estimated 414 wild horses. However, the BLM set the “Appropriate” Management Level for this HMA at just 165-250 wild horses. The plan calls for achieving the low AML, leaving just one horse per every 1,600 acres! At the same time, like most of the areas where wild horses live, the BLM allows thousands of sheep and cattle to graze within the HMA. Please take action today.
The U.S. Forest Service recently released a Territory Management Plan for the Heber wild horses, a unique band of horses that reside within the Apache Sitgreaves Forest in northern Arizona. This plan will decimate this historic population, leaving as few as 50 horses on nearly 20,000 acres of public land! Meanwhile, the agency permits thousands of cattle to graze within the horses’ habitat.
These horses have been the target of brutal shootings in the Forest that have left 28 dead since 2018. Enough is enough. We must speak up loudly for the Heber wild horses and demand better treatment, a fairer plan, and ultimately, justice!
We have an opportunity to ban the transportation of horses across state lines in “double-decker” trailers.
Transporting horses in double-decker trailers is both dangerous and cruel, and can result in significant injuries and even death for horses. These trailers are designed for much shorter species, and fail to provide enough headroom for horses — forcing them to stand in painfully cramped conditions during long-distance transport.
There is some good news: Many states have already banned the use of these inhumane trailers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has prohibited the use of these trailers as a means of transporting horses to slaughter.
But there is no permanent federal law to prevent horses from being transported in these dangerous trailers for any other reason.
U.S. Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN), Dina Titus (D-NV), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) have introduced the Horse Transportation Safety Act in Congress to ban the transportation of horses across state lines in “double-decker” trucks or trailers.
Meredith, please take the following steps right now to help us ensure the safe transportation of horses:
Call your U.S. Representative and urge them cosponsor the Horse Transportation Safety Act, H.R. 921. When you call your representative, use the following script:
“Hello, I am a constituent, and I’m calling to ask you to please cosponsor the Horse Transportation Safety Act, H.R. 921, to protect horses from being transported in dangerous double-decker trucks and trailers. Thank you.”
Will you join us in supporting this critical bill to protect the safety of all horses? Using these double-decker trucks and trailers is a cruel and inhumane practice that often results in needless deaths of horses in transport.
Today marks 2 years since we relaunched our PZP fertility control program in the Virginia Range in Nevada. We can’t believe it’s been 2 years already!
Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) is a scientifically-proven fertility control vaccine given to female horses on the range through an injection via remote darting with an air rifle. It’s administered in a two shot process — the first is a primer, which is then followed by a booster approximately two weeks later. The vaccine prevents fertilization and pregnancy via an immune response that does not affect the horse’s hormonal system.
The result is a humane and cost efficient way to control wild horse populations, rather than subjecting wild horses to brutal helicopter roundups!
We signed our Virginia Range Fertility Control Cooperative Agreement with the Nevada Department of Agriculture 2 years ago, today, with support from Nevada Assemblyman Jim Wheeler, Blockchains CEO Jeff Berns and Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak. And Erica, we’re happy to report that we’ve celebrated some pretty big successes since then!
Take a look below at some of our PZP program’s successes to date:
Right now, we are early into foaling season, Erica, but so far we are trending with 62% fewer foals born on the Range compared to this time last year. Even better, the current numbers reflect a zero population growth, which is fantastic given our goal of humane population reduction in this herd whose habitat has been dramatically reduced by development! These numbers will continue to fluctuate and change as we get further into foaling season, but it is a very promising start.
Here at the American Wild Horse Campaign, we run a Foal Rescue Fund to provide vet and critical care, safe transportation for baby foals in need of medical attention, and the creation of field kits to provide immediate treatment to foals while volunteers are on the range.
We have also provided funds to help build a critical foal care nursery, and to retrofit a retired ambulance to ensure that foals can be safely transported to get the care they need.
On the Virginia Range, saving foals is a real community effort and we are proud to play a key role in it. On March 22, two AWHC fertility control volunteers came across a wild horse band with a tiny baby foal named Hazel.
They quickly realized the foal wasn’t with her mother and instead was with a guardian mare who wasn’t able to feed her. The team tried but was unable to locate her family. That’s when the community coalition sprung into action. The range management team at Wild Horse Connection (WHC) was contacted. WHC secured permission to help the foal, then dispatched the Technical Large Animal Rescue Team (TLAR) to execute the rescue mission.
The filly went to LBL Equine Rescue to receive care while the local groups tried to locate her family. Hazel perked up with the loving care she received all night! Using their field knowledge and AWHC’s extensive wild horse identification database, the TLAR team tried to find Hazel’s mother the next morning — but a reunion was ultimately unsuccessful.
Foals are so delicate, and any seemingly healthy one can crash quickly. That was the case with Hazel.
She had to be rushed to the vet clinic, where they put her on an IV and antibiotics after discovering she had intestinal inflammation and four different bacterial infections. Hazel also needed a plasma infusion to fight the infections, but she was quite the little fighter and the vets made sure she received the best care possible!
We’re happy to say, Hazel was released back to the rescue on March 30th!
Our Foal Rescue Fund is helping to cover Hazel’s mounting vet bills. This is why our Rescue Fund is so important — we’ve helped fund the local nursery where Hazel is being cared for, we’re purchasing kits that help provide immediate medical care in the field for quickly crashing foals, and we’ve provided resources to help retrofit a retired ambulance that is used by the TLAR rescue team to transport critical care foals to safety.
The more funds we raise for our Foal Rescue Fund, the more we can help tiny, vulnerable foals like Hazel and support the wonderful local volunteers and groups who work night and day to protect the Virginia Range horses in Nevada.
We could lose 40,000 wild horses if you don’t act TODAY!
SJR 3, a resolution that calls on Congress to fund brutal helicopter roundups of at least 40,000 of Nevada’s cherished wild horses and burros, is being pushed by cattlemen, big game hunters and wildlife trappers who want to profit from the public land where wild horses roam.
Nevada’s wild horses belong to all Americans, so we need everyone to weigh in against this bill today.
Please send an email to the Nevada Senate Natural Resources Committee and tell them that you oppose SJR 3: SenNR@sen.state.nv.us. Be sure to use the subject line “I oppose SJR3.”
Personalized emails will make the most impact! Use these talking points when sending your email:
SJR 3 supports brutalizing Nevada’s wild horses and burros and decimating their wild populations so cattle can graze the public lands where they live.
SJR 3 is against the wishes of 86% of Nevadans who want to protect and humanely manage wild horses and burros.
SJR3 supports spending $1 billion or more in taxpayer dollars on the failed approach of roundups instead of long-term solutions like fertility control.
SJR3 will harm Nevada ecotourism and business development because few of these iconic animals will be left for visitors and residents to enjoy.
SJR 3 would lead to slaughter because the cost of rounding up and incarcerating so many wild horses and burros would quickly become untenable.
It’s critical that you weigh in against SJR 3. Please email SenNR@sen.state.nv.us now!
Young horse lovers can get excited! A new trailer for the upcoming movie, Spirit Untamed has just been released, including Taylor Swift’s re-recorded song, “Wildest Dreams.”
In the movie, a girl and her new friends must save a wild herd of mustangs from rustlers. That sounds a lot like what the American Wild Horse Campaign is working on!
This movie provides a great opportunity to not only inspire a new generation of young horse lovers, but it also speaks to the very important issue of protecting wild horses.
In fact, right now, the Bureau of Land Management is planning to round up and remove hundreds of Onaqui wild horses from the West Desert in Utah. We are putting together an action plan to protect this beloved herd and preserve their freedom, but we need your help.
Here at the American Wild Horse Campaign, we are thrilled about the news that Deb Haaland has been confirmed by the Senate to be the next U.S. Interior Secretary.
This is a critical role for not only the management of America’s wild horses and burros, but also their ability to roam freely and stay wild.
We applaud this historic nomination and look forward to Secretary Haaland’s inspired leadership in the fight to protect America’s public lands and wildlife. She has long been a champion for reforming the mismanaged federal wild horse and burro program, and we look forward to working with her to implement sensible solutions to humanely manage these majestic animals — which 80% of Americans want to protect.
This is a HUGE victory for wild horses. The American Wild Horse Campaign successfully launched a grassroots push, which resulted in over 5,000 letters sent to Senators all across the country in support of Deb Haaland’s confirmation.
Now we have a wild horse-friendly Secretary of the Interior who we will work with to put the brakes on the BLM’s plans for mass roundups and inhumane sterilization of wild horses.
The work has just begun and Secretary Haaland will need our unwavering support to overcome opposition to reforming the BLM’s mismanaged wild horse and burro program.
The stakes are high. Right now, the beloved Onaqui wild horses of the West Desert in Utah are scheduled for roundup and removal starting July 1. The Bureau of Land Management is still planning to conduct brutal sterilization procedures on captive wild mares from the Confusion HMA in Utah. And Congress has begun its annual Appropriations process and is considering funding for the BLM’s inhumane Wild Horse and Burro Program.
It’s official! Rep. Deb Haalad has been confirmed as the new Secretary of the Interior! As the first Native American nominated to this position, Secretary Haaland has bravely broken through barriers and the significance of her leading the Department of Interior cannot be overstated. Her historic and inspiring confirmation is a ray of hope for all Americans who cherish our public lands and wildlife, and especially our magnificent wild horses and burros.
Before the Senate’s historic vote to confirm her nomination, Secretary Haaland tweeted:
Indeed as a Congresswoman from New Mexico, Secretary Haaland was a champion for the environment and our public lands – including the protection of the wild horses and burros that call them home. Secretary Haaland brings a new ethic to the table right where it matters most, at the heart of the Interior Department.
In the House of Representatives she:
Co-sponsored a historic House amendment, initiated by AWHC and our coalition partners in DC, requiring the BLM to redirect $11 million of the Bureau of Land Management’s annual budget towards PZP fertility control, rather than mass roundup and removals.
Cosigned a bipartisan letter, urging the Senate to pass the fertility control amendment.
Took a stand against the BLM’s brutal surgical sterilization procedures, urging it to instead use humane, scientifically proven fertility control methods.
With Secretary Haaland at the helm, we are moving in the right direction — towards the protection and preservation of America’s iconic wild horses and burros. AWHC looks forward to implementing sensible solutions to humanely manage these majestic animals that 80 percent of Americans want to protect.
This summer is going to be a hard one for our cherished wild herds. Their freedom, families, and even their lives are going to be on the line.
Right now, helicopter roundups are paused until July 1 for foaling season. But shortly thereafter, one of the most beloved herds in the country will again be targeted for removal: the wild horses of the Onaqui Mountains in Utah. We have a plan in place to attempt to stop the operation from proceeding and we need your support.
In August, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to conduct brutal surgical sterilization procedures on captive wild mares from the Confusion HMA in Utah. We have already filed suit to stop them and will need the resources to continue what could be a long, drawn-out battle.
Congress has already begun its annual Appropriations process, considering funding for the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. Will it continue to throw money at the mass roundup and removal of wild horses and burros, or will it require the agency to shift focus to humane, on the range management of mustangs? The outcome depends on us. We need your assistance to help keep our team on Capitol Hill.
While there is much at stake for our wild horses and burros, there are also big opportunities to create meaningful change with a new administration, Interior Secretary, and BLM Director. But time is of the essence — we must act now.
Here is your latest news on all things wild horses and burros!
Wild Horse Champion Haaland Heads to Interior Department
On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold a confirmation hearing to consider the nomination of New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland for secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Secretary-designate Haaland would be the first Native American to head this department that oversees more than 450 million acres of public land in the nation.
AWHC has had the pleasure of working with Secretary-designate Haaland in Congress. As chair of the Public Lands Subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee, she has worked to reform the inhumane and expensive federal wild horse roundup program by supporting humane solutions, such as PZP fertility control, and has opposed the brutal surgical sterilization procedures the BLM continues to pursue.
Because Secretary-designate Haaland is a champion of protecting our public lands and the wild animals that inhabit them, her nomination faces stiff opposition from the oil/gas, mining, and livestock industries. So, today, we’re asking everyone who cares about wild horses and burros and our public lands to take just a moment to call your Senators in support of her confirmation.
Please call Senator Michael Bennet at (202) 224-5852 and Senator John Hickenlooper at (202) 224-5941
You can say, “Hello, I am a constituent of Senator [Name] and I am calling to ask that they please support the confirmation of Deb Haaland* for Interior Secretary. Her leadership is necessary to protect our nation’s public lands and natural resources, including our federally-protected wild horses and burros. Thank you.” *pronounced like the country, Holland.
New BLM Wild Horse and Burros Advisory Board Member Called Wild Horses a ‘Protein Source’
Speaking of a new Interior Department, former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and his illegally serving Bureau of Land Management (BLM) director William Perry Pendley will go down in history as the worst stewards of our nation’s public lands. The past four years have seen an unrelenting assault on the environment, wildlife, and America’s wild horses and burros.
Before they left town, Bernhardt and Pendley appointed Beaver County, Utah Commissioner Tammy Pearson to represent the “public interest” on the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. Pearson is a flagrantly corrupt choice for this position. A 40-year public lands rancher whose allotments are in wild horse Herd Management Areas in Utah, Pearson has lobbied and testified for wild horse roundups and in favor of horse slaughter.
She discounts the strong opinion of the American public against the slaughter of wild and domestic horses as “romanticizing” an animal that the “whole rest of the world” considers a “protein source.” In her 2017 testimony before the Utah legislature, she blamed horses for all the damage in the areas where her cattle graze and claimed that wild horses there were suffering from overpopulation and starvation. You can listen to her testimony below.
AWHC opposes this unscrupulous appointment and believes it violates a conflict of interest provision under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, so we’re taking action. We’ll keep you posted and in the meantime, be sure to check out our Op-ed about her appointment, published yesterday in the Grand Junction Sentinel. >> Read More <<
We’re Fighting for Humane Management With Science
Instead of the unscientific approach of mass helicopter roundups, humanely managing wild horses requires a more sophisticated method that relies on fieldwork and on-the-ground knowledge of the horse or burro populations a particular BLM district is managing.
AWHC aims to harness science and technology to advance the goal of humane management of these iconic animals. AWHC already runs the largest humane wild horse fertility control program in the world. Now we’re excited to be partnering with WildMe, a non-profit that builds open software and artificial intelligence for the conservation community with the goal of protecting at-risk species.
Our goal is to develop an algorithm that will identify individual horses from photographs, something that will greatly enhance the efficiency of our fertility control efforts while providing a mechanism for accurate censusing and tracking of wild herds, using citizen science for the collection of data.
Currently, our Virginia Range fertility control program volunteers identify horses manually by photograph, based on our extensive database of more than 3,000 horses cataloged by color, markings, social affiliation, location and any other identifying features. It’s a method that works, as evidenced by our record of delivering over 3,000 fertility control treatments in less than two years. However, it is time-consuming. Having an algorithm that allows a volunteer to take a photo, run it through the software and come up with the data file on that specific horse will make the process of identifying mares in need of PZP treatment much faster – something our volunteers — who are often in the field under punishing weather conditions – will greatly appreciate!
The research should be complete by June and we should know at that time whether the algorithm (PIE) being tested will work for horses. We’ll keep you posted. >> Learn More <<
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! It’s a day to celebrate love and we need to look no further than our magnificent wild horses to appreciate the true meaning of this emotion.
Wild horses live in tightly-knit communities. Mares never stray too far from their young, stallions fight to protect their families from danger, mutual grooming is a daily occurrence, and herds hold vigil when one of their own passes away.
We wanted to spread some love of our own with you today in the form of downloadable Valentines for the sweetheart in your herd!
Your love for wild horses and burros inspires us every day. Thank you for everything you do to create a brighter future for these amazing animals.
We hope that you have a beautiful Valentine’s Day!
Speak Up for the Wild Horses and Burros of the Surprise Complex on the California-Nevada Border
Once again, the BLM’s reliance on unscientific “Appropriate Management Levels” for wild horses has set the stage for the roundup and removal of over 1,000 mustangs that call Nevada’s Surprise Complex home. What’s worse, the BLM “doesn’t manage” for wild burros in this area, so every burro living there will be captured and removed as well. The BLM’s goal of leaving only 283 mustangs in the Complex — just one horse for every 1,400 acres — would open even more land to the thousands of sheep and cows allowed to graze on public lands in the area.
This means once more, we need to speak up for a better way: Replacing brutal and inhumane helicopter roundups and cruel sterilization procedures with humane and proven fertility control methods.
Will you speak up for the Surprise Complex horses and burros today? Submit a public comment advocating for use of the PZP birth control vaccine and revising the plan that favors commercial livestock over federally-protected wild horses and burros. >> Take Action <<
One Nevada Roundup Nears End, Another Set to Begin
Since before the New Year, AWHC’s Field Representative has been onsite for the vast majority of the roundup and removal of wild horses from the Eagle Complex outside of Panaca, Nevada. Braving the frigid winter elements and grueling days, he has been the only member of the public on the ground to document the daily operations and bring the news to you. As is routine, the BLM sometimes keeps public observers so far from the capture site that documenting what’s happening is close to impossible. At the Eagle roundup, the BLM has also prevented daily observation of temporary holding pens, making it dififcult to assess the condition of the just-captured horses in a roundup that has had an unusually high number of deaths.
This roundup is the third time in four years that the BLM is removing wild horses from the Complex. At the time of this email, 872 wild horses have been captured in the current roundup and 22 have lost their lives.>> Read the Report <<
Here are a few heartbreaking images from the operation:
Once the Eagle roundup is over, BLM-contracted helicopters will move on to the neighboring Silver King HMA beginning on or about February 5. This HMA consists of 574,962 acres of public land and is currently home to just 343 wild horses, including the 2020 foal crop. The BLM wants the public to believe that this nearly 900-square-mile habitat can only support 60-128 horses and it intends to permanently remove up to 258 of these federally protected animals from their homes on our public lands. This one roundup of a wild horse population that is clearly not overpopulated could cost taxpayers more than $14 million over the lives of the horses removed.
Our field representative will be onsite at the Silver King roundup to witness, document and bring you the latest on this unjust system that we are all working so hard to change.
Records Reveal Veterinarians Didn’t Back Plan to Brutally Sterilize Wild Mares
One of the more egregious plans the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released over the last several years for the “management” of wild horses is the proposed surgical sterilization procedure called ovariectomy via colpotomy.
This outdated procedure is a blind surgery in which a veterinarian inserts his arm into a mare’s abdominal cavity through an incision in the vaginal wall, manually locates the ovaries, then twists severs and removes them using a rod-like tool with a chain on the end. The surgery is outdated, inhumane and dangerous, and will result in pain, suffering, and potentially life-threatening complications for wild mares.
Despite multiple lawsuits, federal injunctions, and overwhelming congressional and public opposition, the BLM continues to push this option, culminating in its most recent decision to move forward with conducting this procedure on wild mares from Utah’s Confusion Herd Management Area (which AWHC promptly sued to stop). Throughout it all, the agency continues to say that veterinarians are in support of the procedure, though recently obtained records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) tell a different story.>> Read More <<
Meet the Mustang: Rapunzel
AWHC operates the world’s largest humane fertility control program for wild horses in the world on Nevada’s Virginia Range. And as such, the team of darters and documenters have come to know many of the 3,000 mustangs that are part of the program!
In our newest series, the volunteers who make this program a success will introduce you to the mustangs they have spent time with on the range, often watching them grow up. First in this series is the story of Rapunzel, written by Deb Sutherland, a volunteer who had the pleasure of watching this beautiful mustang take her very first steps in the wild. >> Read More <<
A new year, a new administration, and wild-horse friendly leadership at the Interior Department and on the House Natural Resources Committee. Thisis our moment to make real change for wild horses and burros this year — the 50th Anniversary of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
Urging the government to declare our nation’s wild horses and burros as historic and cultural resources, prioritize humane fertility control over roundups and prohibit cruel mare surgical sterilization as a management tool.
Continuing to demonstrate through boots-on-the ground work that humane management of wild horses is not just possible; it can be done. We’ll do this by working to expand our groundbreaking PZP program in the Virginia Range to other herds in the West.
Putting science at the forefront of wild horse management — we will be launching exciting new initiatives that analyze our PZP program data and create an economic report to highlight the missteps of the current mismanagement path and the cost-savings of an alternative approach.
Continuing to amplify our work and your voice on Capitol Hill while pursuing legislation to finally give our wild horses and burros the protection they deserve.
This is an ambitious agenda, but this is our year to fight hard for the change we want to see in the world. It will take every one of us stepping up however we’re able — whether it’s lending your voice, time, or money.
This is our time to prioritize, protect and elevate America’s iconic wild horses and burros and the public lands they call home. I’m so excited to see what we accomplish together in 2021. Thank you for standing with us – we can’t do this work without you!
It’s been a wild first two weeks of 2021, but we’re standing strong at AWHC for our wild horses and burros. We’re a few days away from a new Administration and our team has been pushing forward with our plan of action to protect America’s wild free-roaming horses and burros from mass roundups and slaughter.
Just this week, AWHC submitted its First 100 Days Wild Horse Agenda to the Biden Administration with an urgent plea to reform the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) wild horse and burro management program, which is careening toward fiscal and animal welfare disaster.
Urgent action is necessary in light of the BLM’s plan to round up 90,000 wild horses and burros from public lands over the next five years, a move that would triple the number of horses maintained in off-range holding facilities while decimating wild herds at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $1 billion.
This agenda can set the stage for progress and reform of BLM’s inhumane practices.
We’re hopeful that the new administration will take significant steps to rein in the BLM and its mistreatment of our nation’s wild horses and burros. By following our First 100 Days Agenda, the Biden Administration can take necessary first steps to finally granting these iconic animals the protection and humane management they deserve.
The last four years have been marked by an all-out assault on our public lands by the Interior Department under Secretary David Bernhardt and the illegally-serving BLM Director William Perry Pendley. America’s wild horses and burros have not escaped the destruction. Scapegoated for massive environmental damage to public lands caused by the livestock industry, these iconic animals face virtual extinction under the Bernhardt/Pendley Plan to cull wild herds by 70 percent.
Last month, the Sacramento Bee published a one-sided story on the Devil’s Garden wild horse herd, which gave a megaphone to ranchers who want the land where the horses roam for their cattle. The article dismissed wild horse advocates as having a romanticized view of wild horses, who the author believes are better off captured and fed in pens than living free in the wild. On Saturday, the newspaper published AWHC’s response in an OpEd entitled, “How to fix federal mismanagement of California’s wild horse population.” Read the article here.
AWHC continues to fight the mismanagement of the Devil’s Garden wild horses by the U.S. Forest Service, which recently announced that it was selling all wild horses captured in a fall 2020 roundup for $25 a piece. Previous sales of captured Devil’s Garden wild horses have resulted in many disasters, including the escape of two untamed mustangs who are still at large in Pennsylvania, the deaths of 9 horses from salmonella poisoning after being shipped to Florida, and 18 horses delivered to a remote Colorado property that can be inaccessible during the winter months.
Meanwhile, the Forest Service continues to charge ahead with roundups as its main management tool and declined AWHC’s previous offer to fund a pilot fertility control program for this herd, which is California’s largest and most significant wild horse population.
Another massive wild horse roundup is underway, this one in the BLM’s Eagle Complex in eastern Nevada. AWHC’s observer is on site to document this capture operation that aims to remove over 1,000 wild horses and reduce the population to just 139-265 in this 743,000-acre habitat area — that equates to as little as one horse per every 5,345 acres! The BLM is clearing the land of wild horses so that thousands of cattle and sheep can continue to graze this public lands area.
As with any roundup, the scenes we’re witnessing are truly heartbreaking. As of Jan. 15, 412 wild horses have lost their freedom in the Eagle Complex roundup and five have lost their lives.
Below Are Photos Our Observer Took During Eagle Complex Roundup:
Watch a clip from BLM’s first roundup of 2021:
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.
Great news: our end of year fundraising totals are in, and thanks to your incredible support, we were able to reach our $125,000 goal and UNLOCK our donor match! Your support will make an enormous difference for wild horses and burros as we launch our ambitious 2021 agenda.
We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we know we can always count on you to lobby your elected officials, support our critical legal work, and raise awareness across the country about the plight of America’s magnificent wild horses and burros. This is a tough fight, but this movement has stood up to the challenge over and over again and we’ll do it again in 2021. Please read on for a recap of the 2020 accomplishments that we’ll build on and a preview of what your generosity will allow us to do this year!
Strengthened Political Support & Made History
We teamed up with our coalition partners and worked with members of Congress to introduce the first pro-wild horse legislation in over a decade. Passed by the House of Representatives, the bipartisan wild horse protection amendment would require the BLM to implement PZP fertility control to manage wild herds humanely on public lands. Although the final spending bill did not include the House-passed amendment, it did include strong fertility control language as well as other pro-horse provisions — a sign that Congress is well aware of our growing grassroots strength and increasing support on Capitol Hill for our cause. We have an incredible opportunity this year to make real change with the nomination of Debra Haaland as Secretary of the Interior and the continued leadership of Rep. Raul Grijalva as Chair of the Natural Resources Committee. Both are wild horse and burro champions who are committed to protecting these beloved animals and reforming the broken federal wild horse and burro management program.
Filed Suit to Protect Wild Mares
The day after the roundup ended in Utah’s Confusion Herd Management Area, our legal team filed suit to stop the BLM from conducting barbaric sterilization surgeries on many of the just-captured wild mares. This is our third legal action against the BLM for plans to conduct the risky and invasive “ovariectomy via colpotomy” procedure, and we’ve successfully held the agency off since 2016! Joining us as a plaintiff in the latest lawsuit is Utahn Rob Hammer, who has extensive knowledge of the Confusion wild horses and the public land area where they live. In 2021, we’ll continue to drive this case in the courts while we also work with Congress and the administration to eliminate this brutal surgery as an option for the management of our wild horses and burros, once and for all.
Created Accountability for BLM Roundup Abuse
While the COVID-19 pandemic made traveling much more difficult in 2020, we continued to address roundup abuse by sending humane observers to nearly every one of the many helicopter roundups conducted by the BLM and the Forest Service last year. This year we took a step beyond documenting roundups by launching an initiative to create a mechanism for enforcing the BLM’s Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program standards, which the agency routinely violates. We’ve teamed up with the Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard University Law School to develop a rulemaking petition to strengthen the BLM’s animal welfare guidelines and turn them into legally-enforceable regulations. The petition will be ready for submission to the new Administration this year. If it is not acted upon, we will have the option of litigating, so please stay tuned!
Proved Humane Management is Possible
Our in-the-wild management program reached new heights in 2020. Not only were we able to grant funds to boots-on-the-ground organizations in Arizona and Colorado to support their fertility control programs, we also achieved an unprecedented milestone in our own fertility control program in Nevada’s Virginia Range. Last month, our volunteers and staff surpassed 3,000 treatments administered to mares in less than two years, making this the largest free-roaming horse fertility control program in the world, according to the Science and Conservation Center! Just last week, the Deseret News — Utah’s second-largest newspaper — published a feature highlighting the success of our program. In 2021, we will continue to support local groups managing their herds, expand our fertility control program in the greater Reno area, and we’re working to expand our fertility control efforts to new herds in the West!
Launched Habitat Acquisition Project
We officially launched the pilot project for the American Wild Horse Conservancy, our new land trust, in 2020. The inaugural effort focuses on securing habitat for the famed Fish Springs Wild Horses who live on BLM and private land in the Gardnerville, Nevada area. The Conservancy overall will focus on critical land acquisition to secure key habitat for wild horses, grazing lease buyouts and compensation for reduced or non-use of grazing permits, and range improvements to improve the quality and quantity of habitat available for wild horses. We can’t wait to expand this innovative program in the coming year!
We have a lot of work to do, but together, we’ll make real progress for our cherished wild horses and burros in 2021. So stay ready, stay safe, and stay tuned!
