Jenni escaped a lifetime of holding
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
For the past four years, our team has implemented the world’s largest humane fertility control program for wild horses on Nevada’s Virginia Range. This groundbreaking initiative has proven that there is a better way to humanely manage our nation’s wild horses – and now, we’re expanding this critical program to another herd in Utah.
The wild horses of the Cedar Mountain Herd Management Area (HMA) live on 200,000 acres of land deep in the Utah desert. These animals are truly majestic and magical, living free according to their own rules. The herd is brimming with color: pintos, buckskins, and roans abound.
This herd has been subjected to routine helicopter roundups in an unsustainable approach that has resulted in loss of freedom and family for countless wild horses. But now, we are implementing a humane fertility control program to keep these iconic wild horses in the wild, where they belong. So today, we’d like to tell you about a very special Cedar Mountain wild horse, and the importance of fertility control programs for western herds.
Jenni is a beautiful black pinto mare who roams the rough terrain of the Cedar Mountains. She was part of a large band, but sadly, when the helicopters descended on her family last year, they were all captured. We don’t know exactly how, but Jenni managed to avoid the fate of her family and escaped. The day after the helicopters left the area, we found her running all alone – it was heartbreaking.
The horses in this area are elusive, so it was only recently that we saw the brave pinto mare again. Thankfully, she was no longer alone – in fact, she was far from it. The mare not only had a new band of family members but also a small black foal with a white blaze and two white socks by her side. Her name is Ripley.
Jenni and her foal. Photo by Tandin Chapman.
By shifting the management of these horses towards humane fertility control instead of helicopter roundups, it is our hope that the Cedar Mountain mustangs like Jenni will never have to face the helicopters again, and her new foal will never know the trauma she endured. The cornerstone of this initiative is the remote darting of wild mares with the scientifically proven fertility vaccine known as ‘PZP,’ just like we do on Nevada’s Virginia Range.
Fortunately, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has given AWHC a federal grant that funds the Cedar Mountain program. But it’s critical that we sustain our flagship fertility control program in the Virginia Range and expand this approach to other herds in the West.
Jenni’s story encapsulates all of the things we love about wild mustangs – their tenacity, resilience, toughness, and determination to live a free life. Ensuring lifelong freedom for these special mustangs is why we are working collaboratively with the Utah BLM and the livestock permittee whose cattle graze in the mustangs’ habitat. We ‘re grateful for their support of our common goal to protect the horses and ultimately eliminate the need for helicopter roundups in their habitat.
The support of wild horse allies like you enables us to continue operating our humane fertility control program on Nevada’s Virginia Range, which has had a 66 percent reduction in the foaling rate since it began. Additionally, there have been no roundups on the Virginia Range since we started the program!
Thank you for your support in the fight to protect America’s wild horses.
— AWHC Team