The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
We are thrilled to announce the pre-sale of our 2019 calendar, American Wild, featuring the stunning photography of amazing wild horse and burro photographers and AWHC friends!
All proceeds will be used to fund our advocacy, litigation, field, and rescue programs.
Pre-order yours today, they ship on November 28!
Thank you!
– AWHC Team
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
We wanted to let you know that we have just received word that the Bureau of Land Management is dropping the controversial experiments to surgically remove the ovaries of wild mares in Oregon in response to our collaborative lawsuit with The Cloud Foundation, the Animal Welfare Institute and photographer Carol Walker!
We now hope that the agency will reconsider all plans to conduct this inhumane research and focus instead on humane, scientifically recommended forms of population management, including PZP fertility control.
We couldn’t have entered into this lawsuit without your support. Thank you for standing with us and our wild horses and burros.
Gratefully,
Suzanne Roy, Executive Director
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
The Forest Service’s roundup of the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory is ending this week, with the permanent removal of over 900 horses from their federally-designated habitat on our public lands in the Modoc National Forest. To date, thirteen horses have died, including one foal. In addition, three mares have miscarried, likely due to the trauma of the roundup. Seven of the horses euthanized after showing symptoms of pigeon fever, a contagious but generally non-fatal bacterial infection. Despite the outbreak, the Forest Service plans to hold an adoption/sales event next weekend. And, the Forest Service still intends to sell older horses by the truckload for $1 a piece without limitation on slaughter after 60 days. See the latest update on the Devil’s Garden roundup and speak up for these iconic horses by clicking below.
Late last week, we won a preliminary injunction to halt the BLM’s planned barbaric spay experiments in Oregon. The action was part of a lawsuit filed by AWHC, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and The Cloud Foundation aimed at blocking the BLM from performing risky and inhumane sterilization surgeries on wild Oregon mares recently captured from the Warm Springs Herd Management Area. The had BLM planned to begin the experiments this week. Learn more by clicking below.
Last night’s election results changed the playing field for many issues, including the fight to protect wild horses and burros. The power shift in the House of Representatives makes it extremely unlikely that the Interior Department’s agenda of mass roundups, sterilization and slaughter will become reality, but making proactive change in a divided Congress is going to take real work. Meanwhile, developments in states may open the door to driving change at the local level. Read about some key election results that have implications for wild horses and burros by clicking below.
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
This morning a federal judge in Oregon granted our request for a preliminary injunction to stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from proceeding with controversial experiments to surgically remove the ovaries of wild mares in Oregon. The experiments were set to begin this month. Due to the experimental design, which requires conducting the procedure on pregnant mares, the injunction effectively means that the research may not proceed for a year, if at all.
It was the second time this week that our attorneys were in federal court fighting against the government’s war on wild horses. And it’s the second time in two years that our legal action has stopped the BLM from proceeding with these cruel surgeries.
We’re pleased that Judge Michael W. Mosman recognized the strong public interest in humane treatment and protection of wild horses and we’re grateful to our co-plaintiffs — The Cloud Foundation and its Executive Director Ginger Kathrens, the Animal Welfare Institute and photographer Carol Walker for joining us in this fight!
It’s time for the the BLM to reconsider its plans to conduct this inhumane research and focus instead on humane, scientifically recommended forms of population management, including PZP fertility control.
This is an important first step in the fight against inhumane surgical sterilization of our wild horses and burros. We will continue to keep you updated.
Have a good weekend, and thanks for standing with us!
– The AWHC Team
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
In an effort to continue our education mission, AWHC sent candidates running for federal and statewide office in Nevada, California, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon a survey to determine their stance on protecting wild horses and burros, as well as population and land management. We’d like to thank those who responded to the survey for their time in answering the questions, and hope that you find this information useful.
To see if any of your candidates responded to our survey, click here.
AWHC is a non-partisan organization and support for wild horse and burro protection comes from both sides of the political aisle. We urge our supporters to vote next Tuesday and hope that all candidates elected will respect the will of the American people to protect our iconic wild horses and burros on our Western public lands.
Sincerely,
Suzanne
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Today is the last day for our Devil’s Garden fundraising campaign. We’ve been working around the clock fighting to protect California wild horses from roundup and slaughter. Read on for an update about our efforts, and please chip in now to help make sure these innocent wild horses are not sold for slaughter.
On Wednesday, outside of the U.S. Forest Service headquarters in Vallejo, California, 75-100 advocates protested the inhumane and illegal planned roundup and sale of the Devil’s Garden wild horses.
Thank you to everyone who came out! This protest was a huge moment in this fight to save wild horses from slaughter – and it’s a fight we can win.
Here’s everything we’re doing right now to secure protections for these horses:
Legal: We teamed up with the Animal Legal Defense Fund to file a lawsuit last week to block the sale of wild horses without restrictions on slaughter. Our legal team has been successfully litigating over the Devils Garden wild horses for five years. We’re confident we can win this latest case to protect wild horses from slaughter – with the right resources. Support our legal efforts!
Legislative: We’re working with both federal and state legislators to put a halt to this crisis and enforce protections for these horses. Assemblymember Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) has been joined by 22 other members of the California legislature in opposing the Forest Service’s cruel plans, and Senator Dianne Feinstein is working to end this abuse by the Forest Service. Help us keep up the fight.
Long term: Before this crisis began, AWHC was working with the Forest Service on a plan to introduce a humane, scientific pilot program for sustainable population management. Our PZP birth control program has proven to be a successful range management solution everywhere it’s been tried. Support our efforts to bring long-term, humane management to wild horses across the country.
Placement: We’ve created a Devil’s Garden Placement Assistance Fund to help support safe placement of Devils Garden horses. Chip in today!
If the U.S. Forest Service gets away with selling wild horses for slaughter, it will set a horrific precedent that will open the floodgates to slaughter of thousands of federally protected mustangs.
We won’t let it happen – and with your help, we’ll win this fight.
Thanks for standing with us, and with the Devil’s Garden horses.
Suzanne
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Today, we’re organizing a rally at the U.S. Forest Service Region 5 headquarters in Vallejo, California to protest the roundup of wild horses from the Devils Garden Wild Horse Territory and the pending sale of captured horses for slaughter. Even if you can’t make it in person, we need your help to raise awareness for the issue online during our rally.
Support our protest against the sale of wild horses without limitation on slaughter by joining our virtual sit-in today.
We could be working toward humane and sustainable wild horse management – instead, we’re working around the clock to make sure these horses are not sold by the truckload for a $1 a piece. Supporters across the country have come forward to voice their support for saving these horses. We need that energy today.
Make your voice heard TODAY! Here’s how you can help:
Leave a message on the Forest Service FB Page
Leave a message on the Modoc National Forest FB Page
Tweet at Forest Service Region 5
Tweet at Forest Service National
Tweet at the Modoc National Forest
Share and RT posts from our account @FreeWildHorses
Here’s a sample message to share:
“Save wild horses from slaughter! I oppose the U.S. Forest Service rounding up wild horses in California and selling them without limitation – where they could be sold by the truckload for $1 a piece to be butchered for horsemeat. #ProtectWildHorses
While we’re protesting at the Forest Service in Vallejo today, we’ll be counting on you to raise awareness of this issue online and across the country. If we all raise our voices, the Forest Service will have no choice but to change their plan of mass roundups, sale and slaughter.
Message, tweet, and share your support of America’s Wild Horses with the hashtag #ProtectWildHorses, and let’s tell the Forest Service we won’t stand for this government-sponsored cruelty.
Thanks!
Grace Kuhn, Communications Director
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Before the U.S. Forest Service announced its plan to sell captured Devil’s Garden wild horses without limitation on slaughter, AWHC was working with the agency on a plan to introduce a humane, scientific pilot program for sustainable population management.
In fact, we were (and remain) ready to implement a PZP birth control pilot program in the Garden, and to work with ranching permittees to explore compensation for retirement or reduced use of livestock grazing permits on the public lands in the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory.
It’s disappointing that the U.S. Forest Service has prioritized mass removal and sale for slaughter instead of taking a step toward humane and sustainable wild horse management. This is particularly true since their plan violates both the intent of Congress and the laws of California, which has banned the cruel practice of horse slaughter for two decades.
So now we have to fight back — and let them know that choosing slaughter over humane range management is unacceptable to the American public.
Here are the steps we’re taking to fight back against this cruel and illegal plan:
We believe that we can win this fight — but only with your help. Thanks for standing with us.
– American Wild Horse Campaign
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
If we don’t stop it, the federal government will sell hundreds of wild horses, including those pictured below, for slaughter.
We just filed a lawsuit to block this horrible plan, and we need your support.
Unbelievably, in less than 90 days, the U.S. Forest Service intends to offer federally-protected wild horses for sale without limitation on slaughter. The horses — who are being rounded up right now from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory in the Modoc National Forest near Alturas, California — will be sold by the trailerload for $1 a piece. Kill buyers will be allowed to purchase these wild horses and truck them across the border to Canadian slaughter plants, where these American icons will be butchered and turned into horsemeat for human consumption overseas.
Not on our watch.
The Forest Service’s roundup and slaughter plan is one of the most brazen acts of destruction we’ve seen this year. And all so that ranchers who hold grazing permits in the Forest can put MORE cattle on our public lands.
If everyone steps up, we can stop this. Please donate now to stop wild horse slaughter and help us reach our $20,000 fundraising goal by this Friday.
Thank you!
Gratefully,
Suzanne Roy, Executive Director
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
By now you’ve probably heard about the situation in California, as a thousand federally-protected wild horses are being rounded up from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory in the Modoc National Forest. Hundreds of these iconic mustangs are in danger of being sold without limitation on slaughter. AWHC is working on numerous fronts to address this crisis – and our activism is working.
Here’s an update on the work we’re doing:
Here’s how you can help:
Bottom line: Our activism is working. The Forest Service has already decided to extend the time during which horses will not be sold for slaughter. The horses aren’t safe yet, but we’ve got their attention and we must keep pushing!
Thank you for all of your support in saving the lives of these wild horses.
– AWHC Team
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
The U.S. Forest Service is planning to round up and remove 1,000 wild horses from California’s largest federally-protected habitat area – the 233,000-acre Devils Garden Wild Horse Territory in the Modoc National Forest near Alturas. Even worse, the Forest Service intends to sell captured horses age 10 and over “without limitation,” allowing kill buyers to purchase a truckload of 36 horses per week for slaughter! We can’t let this happen – especially in California, a state that has banned the cruel practice of horse slaughter (including export for slaughter) for two decades! The roundup starts as early as next week, so time is of the essence.
Late last week, AWHC, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and The Cloud Foundation filed a motion for preliminary injunction to stop the BLM from performing risky and inhumane sterilization experiments on wild mares in Oregon. The BLM plans to begin the experiments — which involve a veterinarian placing his hand into a mare’s abdominal cavity via an incision in her vaginal wall, manually locating the ovaries, then twisting, severing and removing them by using a rod-like tool with a chain on the end — in early November. Check out our press release below, with more information on this critically important legal action.
On Tuesday, the BLM began the roundup and removal of wild horses from the Warm Spring Herd Management Area (HMA) in Oregon. The BLM intends to round up 100% of the wild horses and burros in the Warm Springs HMA (approximately 800) AND permanently remove 685 horses and burros from their homes on our public lands in this area. The agency wants to use 100 of the captured mares in the brutal sterilization experiments described above. Read our field observer’s reports from the roundup below.
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Next week, the National BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meets for the first time since the BLM delivered its disastrous and deadly report to Congress.
Our team will be there. But we need you to submit public comments to this committee now so they know where Americans stand.
This board is supposed to represent stakeholders that include the public, science, wild horse advocacy, environmental and wildlife concerns. It’s time for its members to stop doing the bidding of the special interest livestock lobby, which continues to profit greatly from the BLM’s mustang roundup program. We need to be heard because the majority of Advisory Board members certainly aren’t representing the wishes of the American public. That was obvious when the board voted to recommend the mass destruction and sale for slaughter of the nearly 50,000 wild horses and burros in holding facilities. Only one member of this Advisory Board – our friend and colleague Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation – voted no.
Thanks for standing with us and our wild horses and burros,
The AWHC Team
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Wanted to make sure you saw that we’re suing BLM. Can you chip in to support our efforts?
Today, we filed a lawsuit in Oregon to stop the BLM from conducting cruel and dangerous sterilization surgeries to remove the ovaries of wild mares.
The BLM’s plans violate the U.S. Constitution and three federal laws – and they pose a serious, dangerous threat to wild horses. Our suit asks for an immediate injunction to stop these experimental procedures from moving forward.
We can win this in court but we need your help. Donate now, and help us stop the BLM’s cruel sterilization experiments.
The experiments are gruesome and painful: a veterinarian inserts his arm into a mares’ 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 procedure is outdated, inhumane and will subject the mares to life-threatening complications. The National Academy of Sciences itself warned the BLM that it is too risky for field application, but the BLM just ignored that warning.
We know the agency is bought off by special interests, which is why we must turn to the courts to stop this. We can win this case, and we’ve teamed up with our colleagues at The Cloud Foundation and Animal Welfare Institute to ensure that we do!
This legal strategy is costly. Please donate now to help us fund this lawsuit and keep it going!
Starting next month, the BLM plans to start rounding up 100 percent of the wild horses in the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in southeastern Oregon. An estimated 685 horses will be permanently removed and another 100 mares will be surgically sterilized. Chip in now, before it’s too late for these mares.
We need your support to win this fight.
Thanks,
Suzanne
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
We’re filing suit to stop cruel sterilization experiments — can you donate to fuel our fight?
Today, we filed a lawsuit in Oregon to stop the BLM from conducting cruel and dangerous sterilization surgeries to remove the ovaries of wild mares.
The BLM’s plans violate the U.S. Constitution and three federal laws – and they pose a serious, dangerous threat to wild horses. Our suit asks for an immediate injunction to stop these experimental procedures from moving forward.
We can win this in court but we need your help. Donate now, and help us stop the BLM’s cruel sterilization experiments.
The experiments are gruesome and painful: a veterinarian inserts his arm into a mares’ 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 procedure is outdated, inhumane and will subject the mares to life-threatening complications. The National Academy of Sciences itself warned the BLM that it is too risky for field application, but the BLM just ignored that warning.
We know the agency is bought off by special interests, which is why we must turn to the courts to stop this. We can win this case, and we’ve teamed up with our colleagues at The Cloud Foundation and Animal Welfare Institute to ensure that we do!
This legal strategy is costly. Please donate now to help us fund this lawsuit and keep it going!
Starting next month, the BLM plans to start rounding up 100 percent of the wild horses in the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in southeastern Oregon. An estimated 685 horses will be permanently removed and another 100 mares will be surgically sterilized. Chip in now, before it’s too late for these mares.
We need your support to win this fight.
Thanks,
Suzanne
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
We’re just 4,864 signatures away from our goal to encourage the BLM to stop the roundups! It’s crucial that we reach our goal for signatures this week, as we plan to take our petition to the national wild horse and burro advisory board meeting coming up in October. If we can show this strength in support of stopping the roundups, we could push the BLM to change their tactics of abuse. Help us raise awareness, and put an end to the brutality of BLM roundups. Sign the petition today.
The BLM Burns District Office in Oregon announced last week that it will begin controversial experiments to remove the ovaries of wild mares next month. Now, AWHC along with the Animal Welfare Institute and the Cloud Foundation are evaluating all possible means to stop the experiments, including litigation. We have also been working to expose the BLM’s collusion with the pro-slaughter group, Protect the Harvest and its perverse program to showcase spayed fillies who have undergone this barbaric surgery. Read more below.
Great news! Our friends over at FLOAT have extended our limited-edition Keep Wild Horses Wild apparel for another week! This means you still have time to show your support for wild horses and our work to protect them!
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
We just wanted to let you know that there are only a few more days left to order our latest Keep Wild Horses Wild design before it’s gone forever! The campaign ends on Monday … be sure to snag yours today!
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our limited edition Keep Wild Horses Wild apparel! For the next six days, our friends at FLOAT will donate $8 for every shirt sold to the American Wild Horse Campaign.
Please visit float.org/awhc and SHOP today – there are lots of fun colors and styles to choose from! This is a great way to support our work to protect America’s wild horses and look fabulous! Don’t miss this opportunity!
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Our opponents’ primary goal for the last two years: strip protections for wild horses and burros from federal appropriations legislation.
This week, they failed yet again. The House and Senate Appropriations Conference Committee agreed on a “continuing resolution” spending measure that will maintain protections for wild horses and burros against mass slaughter and cruel sterilization tactics.
We know that the the continuing pressure our movement is putting on Congress is making a difference. But this stopgap funding bill only goes through December 7.
It’s another victory for horses, and another set-back for our pro-slaughter opponents – but the fight continues right now. They think they can wear us down in fight after fight, but they’re wrong.
Our team has never stopped fighting. Tens of thousands of supporters like you have made calls, signed petitions, and emailed Congressional offices. And our team of AWHC lobbyists has been working the Hill to educate and pressure lawmakers.
And all of this work has been against the backdrop of one of the most cruel and brutal summers of roundups we’ve ever seen. Just this week, an “emergency” roundup in Nevada removed 359 wild horses by water and bait trapping – and, in Utah, the BLM captured 151 wild horses from the Muddy Creek HMA.
It’s hard to imagine how lawmakers and special interests continue to pursue cruel policies of roundups and slaughter. But while they remain on the wrong side of history, our movement will keep fighting for these innocent and majestic animals.
Keep it up!
Thank you,
Suzanne
P.S. Your donations go directly to these critical lobbying and advocacy efforts. Every time Congress delays action on these spending bills, our organization has to re-up its effort once again.
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
We wanted you to know immediately: The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations just announced that a Joint House and Senate Conference Committee meeting will take place tomorrow, September 13th, to begin discussions on finalizing Fiscal Year 2019 Appropriations legislation (H.R. 6157) – including funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Wild Horse and Burro Program.
This committee will decide whether the final spending bill will include dangerous House language, known as the Stewart Amendment, that would authorize the BLM to manage wild horses and burros in non-reproducing and single-sex herds by subjecting them to risky, invasive surgeries (video).
If passed by the full Congress, this would spell the beginning of the end for the iconic, free-roaming mustang herds of the American West. Do not let Congress undermine over 50 years of wild free-roaming horse and burro protection…Please, take action today!
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Thank you for taking action to stop the devastating Stewart Amendment from becoming law. Together we can save our nation’s iconic and cherished wild horses and burros!
– The AWHC Team
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our limited edition Keep Wild Horses Wild apparel! For the next six days, our friends at FLOAT will donate $8 for every shirt sold to the American Wild Horse Campaign.
Please visit float.org/awhc and SHOP today – there are lots of fun colors and styles to choose from! This is a great way to support our work to protect America’s wild horses and look fabulous! Don’t miss this opportunity!
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
On Tuesday, BLM will resume rounding up wild horses with helicopters. Wild horses will be traumatized, terrified, driven for miles and trapped in pens. They will lose their families and their freedom, forever.
We’re not letting BLM get away with it.
Our field representative will head to Utah tomorrow for the BLM’s roundup in Muddy Creek — a 443 square mile public lands area swarming with private cattle but where fewer than 200 horses roam.
Last month, our field representatives documented BLM helicopters chasing horses into barbed wire in Utah, and literally running foals to death in Wyoming. This cruelty would be happening out of the public eye if not for work to expose it.
Our roundup documentation and humane observation program is not cheap. But it is critically important. Often we’re the only eyes on the roundups besides the ranchers, who want the public lands cleared of wild horses so they can graze more cattle and sheep.
The fix is in for our wild horses and we’re exposing it every way we can. And bringing it to the doors of our lawmakers, who have the power to demand change.
Our field representative leaves tomorrow… will you help us keep him in the field?
Thank you.
Suzanne Roy, Executive Director