Fighting for our cherished wild burros

Today, we’d like to tell you the story of Jolene and Porter. But first, we have a crucial ask. Can you chip in to help us hit our $200,000 end-of-year fundraising goal? Every donation helps us make a difference in the lives of wild horses and burros, and we need your support to continue our important programs in 2024.

Photo by Steve Paige

Jolene and her baby Porter are from the Porter Springs Herd Management Area (HMA) – which Porter is named after – located in Nevada’s 2.2 million acre Blue Wing Complex. For years, thousands of wild burros and wild horses roamed these lands freely. But the photo you see above was taken just before a massive roundup in 2022 that changed the lives of many of these animals forever.

Over 800 burros and 1,000 horses were chased down by helicopters and captured in the 2022 Blue Wing Complex roundup. Even worse, the BLM publicly reported that 12 deaths occurred during the operation – including many older burros who had lived their entire lives wild and free, only to be rounded up and needlessly euthanized due to conditions like “pre-existing fractures.”

The BLM is now coming for their herd again in 2024. The agency is planning to round up over 300 wild burros in July, and there’s no telling whether burros like Jolene and Porter will be able to remain free.

AWHC is the last line of defense for these innocent animals. We’re fighting in the field, in the courts, and on Capitol Hill to put an end to helicopter roundups and to conserve the lands that wild burros and horses inhabit. Can you please chip in to support our work to end the suffering of our wild herds? Your support means so much to us, and to burros like Jolene and Porter.

The trauma of the Blue Wing Complex did not end when the roundup did, Meredith. AWHC’s investigations team dug further into the story of what happened both during and after the roundup. We got to work filing critical Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to expose the truth about the consequences of BLM helicopter roundups, and it was far worse than what the agency told the public.

Our FOIA requests revealed that in little more than a month, 31 Blue Wing burros died from Lipemia/Hyperlipidemia — a deadly and preventable blood disease that burros are particularly vulnerable to, often induced by extreme stress and nutritional deprivation. This stress, caused by helicopter roundups, leads to some burros losing their will to live, ceasing to eat, and wasting away. In addition to the 31 deaths, another six burros bled to death due to gelding complications.

That’s a total of 37 burros whose deaths would have been hidden were it not for the vital work of AWHC’s investigations team. We’re fighting to stop helicopter roundups and to secure the humane conservation of our wild herds. But until we make that happen, we must continue to expose the full impacts of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program and hold the agency accountable. Can you chip in towards our End-of-Year goal to help us continue this important work?

Thank you for standing up for our wild burros!

– Team AWHC