The roundups this year are underway — and they’ve led to dozens of deaths of wild horses.
What’s worse is that most Americans are unaware of the tragedy that is happening on our public lands, funded by their tax dollars. That’s why we’re doing everything in our power to raise awareness of this abuse.
We need your help. Watch our new video that documents the atrocities of this year’s roundups, and share it with your friends and family.
Helicopters chasing horses to the brink of exhaustion, foals being run to death and separated from their herd, innocent animals being driven into barbed wire – as soon as people hear about all of this cruelty, they’re against it. And when people come together to demand action, lawmakers will take notice.
If we bring awareness to this issue – by alerting people to the abuse that is going on behind their backs, we can put enough pressure on lawmakers to replace these barbaric roundups with modern, humane and scientific management practices.
Over the last month, we’ve seen images of horses being rounded up, driven into barbed wire fencing, and chased by helicopters to the point of exhaustion. Foals have been literally run to death. Once healthy horses have been forced into holding pens, losing their freedom and their families forever.
So far this has been a deadly summer for America’s wild horses and burros.
It’s time for a freeze on the roundup program until a full investigation is completed.
BLM helicopters will take to the air again in September. Our tax-dollars should not be funding this abuse. Keep speaking out, and let’s stop these roundups.
We have just four days left to get our comments in to oppose the BLM’s plan to conduct barbaric sterilization experiments on wild mares in Oregon. The BLM intends to remove the ovaries of 100 mares via a surgical procedure (ovariectomy via colpotomy) that is associated with high risk of pain, hemorrhage, evisceration, infection and abortion for pregnant mares. Recently Colorado State University (CSU) pulled its association with the experiments, but BLM is proceeding anyway! Please protect wild mares from these risky and cruel surgeries by weighing in today!
Last week, Colorado State University announced that it is withdrawing from participation in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) mare sterilization research in Oregon. But the BLM is not letting the lack of academic affiliation stop it from proceeding with these barbaric experiments. Instead, the agency is just dropping CSU’s part in the study, which was to assess the harm to the horses from the study! Now the BLM will proceed without regard for or documentation of the pain and complications — including bleeding, infection and abortion — caused by performing the barbaric and risky surgery on wild mares. This is unacceptable, and we need to weigh in AGAIN to oppose the use of our tax dollars to fund these cruel experiments.
We criticize the BLM frequently for its mismanagement and mistreatment of our wild horses and burros, but when the agency is doing something right, we must acknowledge and support it. Such is the case in Colorado where the BLM is partnering with advocate TJ Holmes and a coalition of local groups to humanely manage the spectacular wild horses in the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area. Thanks to a robust fertility control program, no removals have taken place in this HMA for a number of years and no removals are planned. Now we need to weigh in to support the BLM’s proposal to prioritize bait trapping over traumatic helicopter roundups should removals be necessary in the future. Please add your name to our comments by clicking below!
The current Administration is promoting rollbacks of legal requirements for environmental review, public participation, and information disclosure that could have severe detrimental impacts on efforts to protect wild horses and burros. As always, we the people are the line that stands between these cherished animals and destruction, and we must continue to let Congress know that Americans oppose this Administration’s dangerous efforts to weaken legal protections for our wild horses and burros and the public lands they inhabit. Learn more by clicking below.
The BLM’s cruel roundup in Wyoming’s Red Desert ended last week, with the permanent removal 1,4444 horses from our public lands. Ten horses died in the roundup, including six foals, four of whom were literally run to death. Currently, the BLM is removing wild horses and burros from several public lands areas via bait trapping in Utah, Nevada and California, but the helicopters will take to the air again soon. See the latest info on the roundups and find out which herds are targeted next by clicking below.
The latest video captured by our observation team in Wyoming shows a mare trying to protect her foal while being rounded up by a helicopter and men on horseback with ropes. Later in the day, our observer photographed the exhausted foal lying lifelessly on the ground in a holding pen. By the next morning, he was dead.
Most Americans have no clue what’s happening on public lands at the hands of our government. The abuse of wild horses is taking a huge toll. Roundups are hardest on young foals, who are pushed too far and too fast in the summer heat. Half of the wild horse deaths so far in the Wyoming roundup have been foals. At least three were literally run to death.
Here’s the math: if everyone of us shares this petition with 5 friends, more than 1 million people will learn about this abuse. And if just 1 of those 5 signs our petition, we’ll double the size of our movement overnight.
This is how the BLM rounded up 30 wild horses last week in Utah:
Our team captured these photos of the helicopter hazing horses, causing some to crash through barbed wire. These photos have already reached 1.4 million people on Facebook alone!
Right now, our observer is in Wyoming’s Red Desert, where the BLM is rounding up 1,400 wild horses from our public lands. At least six horses have died in the first five days of the roundup, including:
Two foals who were run to death. (“capture shock”)
One foal who was euthanized after breaking his leg
A six-year old stallion who was “injured and blinded by another stallion on a trailer”
Get your comments in today on a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) plan to round up and remove almost 200 wild horses from the North Hills Herd Management Area (HMA) in Iron County, Utah. This is an area where the agencies allow a maximum of 60 horses on 74,000 acres of land (1 horse per 1,233 acres!) while authorizing over 1,000 sheep and the equivalent of 147 cow/calf pairs to graze on the same public lands. Please click below to submit your comments to oppose the roundup and support humane management of this Utah mustang herd.
Photographs taken by AWHC photographer Steve Paige of a helicopter nearly hitting wild horses and causing them to crash through barbed wire at the BLM roundup underway this week in Utah are sparking public outrage. AWHC has called for an investigation of the obvious violations of the agency’s own animal welfare policies at the roundup, which is taking place in the Bible Springs Complex and Sulphur Mountains HMA. The photos of the mistreatment of wild horses have been seen by nearly a million people on social media and are raising public awareness about the government’s cruel treatment of these federally-protected icons. Read more on our roundup coverage and complaint to the BLM by clicking below.
AWHC has teamed up with the Animal Welfare Institute to fight the BLM’s plan to conduct cruel surgical experiments on wild mares to remove their ovaries. The barbaric experiments will put wild mares at risk of “death and extreme pain” due to a risky, invasive surgery that is “brutal and risky and clearly threatening to the welfare an safety of these mares’ lives,” according to equine veterinarian Robin Kelly. Worse, most of the mares will be pregnant, and the experiment is designed to determine how many will abort their foals after undergoing the barbaric procedure. Read more by clicking below.
The fate of America’s wild horses and burros is in the hands of Congress… again! Last year, the Senate blocked a House attempt to legalize the mass destruction of wild horses and burros in holding and on the range. This year, the House is at it again, with Fiscal Year 2019 Interior Appropriations language that would authorize the BLM to manage wild horses and burros in non-reproducing or single sex herds via surgical sterilization of these iconic animals on the range. It also directs BLM to lay the groundwork for the mass killing of horses over the age of 10 — barely middle age for a wild horse. The Senate version of this legislation does not contain the mass sterilization or killing provisions. The differences between the two bills will be reconciled in conference committee, and we need our Senators and Reps. to stand strong to ensure that the Senate version of the legislation once again prevails.
In the face of massive community opposition, the BLM has suspended plans to capture and remove approximately 50 wild horses from the beloved Fish Springs herd near Gardnerville, Nevada. Earlier this month, over 300 local citizens packed the firehouse to oppose the BLM’s roundup plan and more than 200,000 citizens have signed a petition calling on the BLM to cancel plans to remove the horses from their homes on the range. The local business community and many Nevada political leaders added their voices in support of the Fish Springs horses as well. The BLM had intended to set up bait traps this week to remove horses, but now says it will work to find “community-based management solutions that are in the best interest of both the area residents and the wild horses.” Read more about this positive development below.
The BLM’s summer roundup season is now in full swing. Signaling its intent for America’s wild herds, the agency has increased its short term holding capacity and has openings to incarcerate nearly 15,000 more wild horses and burros in these feedlot pens. The BLM is using this increased capacity to round up nearly 10,000 wild horses and burros this year. Increasingly, the BLM is using “emergency” as an excuse for these roundups, enabling the agency to skirt legal requirements for analysis and public comment. And, the BLM’s plan to conduct multiple roundups simultaneously is making it difficult for advocacy organizations to document and provide humane observers for the mass capture of mustangs and burros from their homes on our public lands.
AWHC wants to give a huge shout out the tech company Blockchains, LLC which is now the largest landowner at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, near Reno, Nevada. Blockchains is strongly committed to protecting the estimated 1,000 Virginia Range wild horses who call that area home. Recently, the company went above and beyond for the horses by immediately addressing an emergency situation threatening the lives of 70 wild horses. The horses’ water source dried up to just a trickle. Many were in poor condition as they were not leaving the site to graze, but rather were standing around waiting desperately to get even the tiniest of sips from the trickling spring.
As soon as the company learned about the situation, Blockchains immediately sprang into action, giving us access to deliver water to the horses and arranged for use of a water tank on the property. Even better, Blockchains has funded the creation of a reliable, year-round solar water source for wild horses and other wildlife in the area. Learn more and watch our video by clicking below!
In the last week, we’ve seen the attacks against wild horses escalate dramatically:
The BLM has resumed selling wild horses and burros by the truckload. The new rule allows BLM to sell up to 25 horses at a time without specific approval and will attract shady buyers and increase the chances of wild horses and burros entering the slaughter pipeline. Can you help us fight back?
The House of Representatives passed a spending bil that authorizes widespread surgical sterilization of wild horses and burros on the range using procedures for mares that are too horrific even to describe. Now it’s up to the Senate to stop this cruel plan. Can you help us mobilize grassroots support to convince the Senate to stand strong?
The BLM is galloping ahead with its plan to remove 44 horses from the Fish Springs range in Nevada against the wishes of local citizens and the business community, who cherish these wild horses on OUR public lands. Can you help us mobilize opposition to this cruel plan?
And that’s not to mention the helicopter roundups that will start in less than two weeks… thousands of wild horses will lose their families and freedom; some will lose their lives. We need to be on the ground to document this barbaric practice and hold BLM accountable. Can you fuel our observation efforts?
This is a huge moment for our advocacy work — but I’m not worried, because I know that we’ve got the best advocates in the world on our side. Thank you for all of your support.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recently weakened a policy enacted six years ago to prevent the sale of wild horses and burros for slaughter. The 2013 rule, implemented after BLM was exposed for illegally selling almost 2,000 horses to a known kill buyer, prohibited the BLM from selling more than four horses per buyer without written approval from the Assistant Director of the BLM. The new rule allows the BLM to sell up to 25 horses to one buyer at a time, with no restrictions on the number of times that someone can purchase horses.
At his confirmation hearing, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke pledged to work with, not against, local communities by “being a listening advocate instead of a deaf adversary.” But now his BLM is turning a deaf ear to the pleas of the community of Gardnerville, Nevada to preserve the Fish Springs wild horses, a locally-important and cherished herd. The BLM is steamrolling over the community by plowing ahead with plans to remove 44 horses from this small herd. Tell Secretary Zinke to live up to his promise to listen to local communities by honoring the wishes of the Gardnerville community to protect the Fish Springs wild horses.
There’s still time to comment on the BLM’s plan to conduct invasive and risky sterilization surgeries on 100 wild mares in Oregon. Two years ago, the BLM cancelled plans to conduct the experiments amidst public opposition and legal action by AWHC and The Cloud Foundation. Now the agency is at it again — this time pairing the archaic surgeries with a mass helicopter roundup that will forcibly remove 685 wild horses from their homes on our public lands in the Warm Spring Herd Management Area. We must pull out all the stops to shut down this cruel plan… again!
Six years ago, the BLM was exposed for illegally selling almost 2,000 wild horses for to a Colorado kill buyer who sold them to slaughter plants in Mexico.
In response to the scandal, the agency adopted a rule preventing the sale of more than four horses to one individual without written approval from the Assistant Director of the BLM. The rule was a safeguard against the sale of horses for slaughter.
But now, the BLM has rolled that back — and is selling wild horses by the truckload again!
The new rule allows BLM to sell up to 25 horses without special approval, and places no restriction on the number of times an individual can purchase horses.
At $25 per horse, this creates an powerful incentive for shady sales to unscrupulous buyers. The number of mustangs entering the slaughter pipeline is bound to skyrocket!
We’re mobilizing now to fight back — working with our allies on Capitol Hill, getting the word out to the national media about BLM’s latest move and exploring legal options. Can you help fuel our rapid response?
We’ll keep you updated on all of our efforts over the next few weeks. Thanks for standing with us.
The BLM has been rounding up horses for decades now through brutal helicopter stampedes only to stockpile them in holding facilities. For the last two years, the agency has been asking Congress for permission to kill and slaughter these federally protected icons.
So far, Congress has said no, so now the BLM is turning to the next best thing: surgical sterilization of horses, endangering individual lives and setting our wild herds on a slow walk to extinction.
Beginning this fall, the BLM plans to conduct invasive surgeries on 100 mares captured in Oregon. A veterinarian will manually twist, sever and remove the mares’ ovaries with a rod-and-chain like tool. The surgery is painful and risky, and will be done under non-sterile conditions – all reasons why the National Academy of Sciences recommended against the procedure.
Worse: most of the mares will be pregnant and the surgery will cause many to abort their unborn foals.
The BLM thinks removing mares’ ovaries and castrating stallions is the way to manage these animals on the range, even though they know it will take the wild out of wild horses by destroying their natural behaviors.
We have to make sure the American people see what is being done to wild horses with their tax dollars. Help fund our efforts today.
Popular and beloved wild horse herds are being targeted for mass helicopter roundups and removals. Pregnant mares in Oregon are facing horrific surgeries that will cause pain, suffering and abortions of their unborn foals. Environmental laws enacted to allow the public to speak out against proposals like these are being trampled. We must fight back.
The threats against our wild horses and burros have never been steeper. The policies the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is promoting could literally spell the end for these icons on our Western public lands.
We only have a few weeks to raise the money we need to launch our campaign to fight back. We must build a firewall of protection and set legal precedents for wild horses and burros against these devastating assaults.
Two years ago, public opposition and legal action by AWHC and The Cloud Foundation caused the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Oregon to cancel plans for invasive and risky sterilization experiments on wild mares. Now the agency is at it again. This time the BLM has paired the archaic surgeries with a mass helicopter roundup that will forcibly remove 685 wild horses from their homes on our public lands in the Warm Spring Herd Management Area. We must pull out all the stops to shut down this cruel plan… again!
If you have a horse in your life, then chances are you also have a relationship with at least one equine veterinarian. We need you to contact him/her. The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) – the professional association of horse vets – has circulated to its members a draft position statement on wild horse and burro management. It’s based on one-sided information provided by the BLM and endorses lethal management methods. We need caring veterinarians to correct this information. Learn how you can help below.
The Fish Springs wild horses near Gardnerville, Nevada have a worldwide following. They are an important ecotourism resource for the community and are managed humanely by a local organization at no cost to taxpayers. But now the BLM is trampling on the wishes of the community by galloping ahead with the capture and removal of at least 44 of these cherished horses. The wild horse family bands that we have all come to know and love will be shattered. The local community will be devastated. Help us stop this now.
Sophia and her baby Grayson are living peacefully on our public lands in the Fish Springs area near Gardnerville, Nevada. They have no idea that this month, the BLM will begin trapping and removing members of their herd and sending them to holding facilities. Babies like Grayson, only months old, will be taken from their moms if the BLM deems them to be “weaning age.” Mares like Sophia will be separated from their stallions. The Fish Springs wild horses families that we have all come to know and love will be shattered.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The Fish Springs horses are managed humanely with birth control through a partnership with the Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates – at no cost to taxpayers. It makes no sense to take these cherished wild horses away from the community that loves them and is managing them free of charge to the government.
Please take action to save the Fish Springs wild horses. Here’s what you can do today:
Make the calls to Nevada officials.
Nevada State Director Mike Courtney: 775-861-6400
Senator Dean Heller: 702-388-6605 and 775-686-5770
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto: 702-388-5020 and 775-686-5750
Representative Mark Amodei: 775-686-5760.
Nevada residents can say,“As a Nevadan, I ask you to stop the BLM from removing Fish Springs horses from the range and taking these cherished mustangs away from the community that loves them. Please tell the BLM to accept the community’s proposal to humanely manage the Fish Springs horses and save taxpayers $1.5 million by leaving them on the range and controlling the population with birth control. Thank you.”
Non-Nevadans, please say:“As a taxpayer, I ask you to stop the BLM from removing Fish Springs wild horses from a community program that manages them at no cost to taxpayers. I will be much less likely to spend my tourism dollars in Nevada if the BLM is allowed to destroy this cherished wild horse herd. Thank you.”
Reach out to these elected officials through social media by clicking here.
Attend the community meeting to stand up for the horses:Thursday, July 12, 6 pm – 8 pm, Fish Springs VFD, 2249 Fish Springs Rd., Gardnerville, Nevada. We need to pack the room with citizens willing to stand up for our horses!
Sign the petition – help us hit 200,000 citizens speaking up to save the Fish Springs wild horses. Sign here.
Thank you for taking action to save the Fish Springs wild horses.
Earlier this week, we wrote you about the urgent need to speak up for the wild horses in the Onaqui HMA in Utah. Many of you had trouble with the BLM site that was accepting public comments, so now we have secured an easier and more reliable way to submit comments.
The famed Onaqui wild horses who live on our public lands near Salt Lake City, Utah need your help. In just a few months, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will begin removing these beloved horses from the range. Families will be shattered and 379 of these magnificent animals will lose their freedom forever. In honor of Independence Day, please take a stand for these iconic Utah mustangs who are protected as national symbols of freedom.
I oppose the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plan to proceed with this Proposed Action that would round up 90 percent of the Onaqui herd and permanently remove 379 horses from the range.
The EA is inadequate because it failed to consider a number of critical impacts and alternatives. The final EA must revise the Proposed Action to include managing the population with fertility control, not removals, as recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. The BLM should reduce livestock grazing pursuant to 43 C.F.R. 4710.5(a) and increase the AML for this area to accommodate current wild horse herd numbers. The original Herd Area territory should be restored to active management status, thereby increasing the size of the Onaqui HMA to the 507,681 acres originally designated by Congress.
Finally, the EA must analyze these impacts: 1) BLM’s request to Congress for authorization to kill or slaughter unadopted horses on the animals themselves; 2) Mass removal on recreational use of the HMA for wild horse viewing and photographing; 3) Costly roundup/removal/holding of horses on taxpayers vs. leaving horses on the range and reducing livestock grazing; 4) Reduced ecotourism/wild horse viewing opportunities on the local economy.
Breaking news: We’ve just filed ANOTHER lawsuit against the BLM. This time, we’re challenging the agency’s decision to round up and permanently remove all wild horses from the Caliente Herd Area Complex –– an area of over 900,000 acres of public land in Nevada.
Almost 50 years ago, Congress unanimously passed a federal law to protect wild horses and burros – but that hasn’t stopped the BLM from taking away 41% of their habitat since 1971.
We’ve won litigation many times in the past, and created precedent that will protect horses for generations. These kinds of lawsuits are critically important, but they take resources.
The Caliente wild horses will be rounded up and removed from their homes on the range to clear these public lands for more private livestock grazing. The horses will be thrown into feedlot pens — paid for by our tax dollars.
Meanwhile, the BLM continually scapegoats a relatively small number wild horses for the destruction and overgrazing of public lands caused by massively larger numbers of domestic cattle and sheep.
This mass removal is one more chip away at the rights of wild horses and burros – but we’re standing up to say no more.
It’s time for the BLM to stop prioritizing ranching special interests and start honoring the wishes of Americans – that our iconic mustangs are protected and humanely managed on our public lands.
The Fish Springs wild horses in Nevada need your help. They’re loved and cherished by the local community and by people internationally. Thousands of citizens follow the stories of the magnificent stallions Blondie, Samson, Zorro, Blue, Shorty and their bands, including the recently born colt Grayson (pictured below with his mom Sophia), as they live their lives wild and free on our public lands.
Grayson and his mom Sophia sharing a tender moment on the range.
But now the Fish Springs horses are in danger. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to begin a trapping operation in July, targeting 70 of these beautiful horses for capture and as many as 45 for permanent removal from the range.
The action will shatter the families that we have come to know and love.
That’s why the agency needs to hear from YOU, the taxpayers, immediately. Please help us save the Fish Springs Wild Horses by taking the following actions:
1. Sign the petition
Your signatures will be hand delivered to the BLM and will make a strong statement about the support of Nevadans and other Americans for this beautiful and popular wild horse herd.
2. Call or email BLM Nevada State Director Mike Courtney: 775-861-6400 and mcourtney@blm.gov.
Here’s what you can say:
“I’m [name] calling from [state] to ask the BLM to leave the Fish Springs wild horses in Nevada on the range. It makes no sense to remove horses that are being successfully managed at no cost to taxpayers and warehouse them in holding facilities, costing taxpayers over $1 million. Please accept the community’s plan for the humane management of the Fish Springs wild horses.”
Thank you for taking action to save this beloved herd!
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering a plan to roundup and remove 600 wild horses from our public lands in the North Lander Complex in Wyoming. The agency is also proposing several controversial and dangerous alternatives for creating “limited-reproducing herds” that include vasectomizing and gelding stallions; adjusting sex ratios; surgically removing the ovaries of mares (“spaying”), segregating the horses into single-sex herds; and utilizing the controversial fertility control drug GonaCon in combination with one of the previously mentioned treatments. This plan, which once again reflects the BLM’s preferential treatment of privately-owned livestock, will devastate the wild horse population in the North Lander Complex.
The Senate and House Appropriations Committees have passed Fiscal Year 2019 Interior Appropriations legislation, which includes funding for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program. The Senate bill protects wild horses from mass killing, slaughter and sterilization, while the House version would authorize and funds mass sterilization of horses on the range. The full House and Senate must still vote on these bills, and then they must go to a conference committee, which will resolve differences and negotiate a final spending bill. This means that we must keep the pressure on throughout the summer and into the fall. Learn more by clicking below.
In February 2017, foals Trey and Divine were captured in a traumatic helicopter roundup in the Cedar Mountain HMA in Utah. AWHC staff members were on the ground filming, and documented Trey, a tiny colt, and his mother being relentlessly chased by the helicopter. They were ultimately separated. Their story could have ended there, but thanks to AWHC operations and legal consultant, Jenn Suarez, the story of these two little beauties has a happy ending. We could all use some good news right now, so please watch and share this heartwarming story!
