The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) just submitted its report to Congress on the future of their Wild Horse and Burro program.
In this plan, the agency outlines the removal of as many as 20,000 wild horses from public lands per year and leaves the door open to permanent sterilization of mares through an inhumane surgical procedure.
Here is where we need your help: Congress has 60-days to weigh in on this plan. At the same time, members of the House and the Senate are working on the next appropriations bill to fund the government for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, which begins on October 1, 2020.
The House Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman, Raul Grijalva, and fellow wild horse champions in both chambers of Congress are advocating for the inclusion of language that would require the BLM to utilize humane, reversible fertility control with the money they appropriate to the agency.
The language would also prohibit surgical sterilization of wild horses and burros on the range.
The Bureau of Land Management just issued its long-overdue report to Congress on how the agency plans to proceed with managing America’s wild horse and burro population.
Before I go into more detail, I want to briefly summarize the most troubling aspects of this report and the failed approaches the BLM is advocating for:
The BLM’s plan would authorize mass roundups to remove up to 20,000 wild horses per year; culling wild herds by 70%;
For the first time, the permanent sterilization of mares through an ineffective and inhumane procedure would be utilized;
Private contractors would be enriched by the BLM tripling the population of wild horses in crowded holding pens and pastures;
This plan would carry a cost of $1 billion to taxpayers over the next five years and that’s only a portion of the cost expected for its two-decade timeframe.
There are three major takeaways I want to provide about this plan, and as grim as it sounds, I also want to remind everyone that this isn’t set in stone: We have time to stop it from happening but in order to do so we’re all going to need to get involved.
Takeaway #1: Continuing On A Path to Failure
The BLM’s new plan is based on two faulty premises: the need to reduce wild populations to the “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) of 27,000 animals on 27 million acres of land, and the reliance on mass roundups and removals to get there.
Both premises have been discredited by the nation’s top scientific body — the National Academy of Sciences — which concluded that these management levels are “not based in science” and that mass removals are not only ineffective but also counterproductive and unsustainable.
And that doesn’t even take into consideration the massive cost to taxpayers and the cruelty inflicted on these innocent wild horses and burros. Or the fact that this plan, with its astronomically high price tag, is setting the stage for the mass slaughter of these treasured icons.
Takeaway #2: Only Congress Can Require the BLM to Change Course
Last year, Congress appropriated a $21 million increase for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program, but specified that the funds would not become available until the agency submitted a report to Congress detailing its plan for managing America’s wild herds.The 60-day clock is now ticking and during this time Congress has the opportunity to weigh in on the mass roundup and warehousing plan.
Additionally, the House and the Senate are currently working on the next appropriations bill to fund the government in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, which begins on October 1, 2020.
The good news is that Rep. Raul Grijalva, Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has direct oversight over the BLM, has expressed his intent to hold the BLM accountable.
He and several other members of the House and Senate have requested that FY 2021 Appropriations legislation include language to require BLM to utilize humane, reversible fertility control instead of spending all of its funding to round up more wild horses and burros, and to prohibit the agency from cruelly sterilizing wild horses and burros via invasive and risky surgical procedures.
To convince Congress to include this legislative language, we will have to overcome opposition from the Big Ag lobby and Big Humane groups (Humane Society of the U.S., ASPCA as well as Return to Freedom, a wild horse sanctuary), which last year opposed similar language to require BLM to utilize humane fertility control and prohibit surgical sterilization. That means we all need to weigh in now!
Takeaway #3: We Can Do This!
Against insurmountable odds, the movement to protect America’s cherished icons has achieved incredible successes.
And it’s important to remember that the American public is very much on our side: Nearly 80% of Americans do not support mass roundups or the sterilization of wild mares, and believe that these icons deserve to stay on the public lands they call home.
Through mobilization, advocacy, and public education campaigns, we’ve saved wild horses from extinction and slaughter before. Now, we’re being called to work together to do so again.
Here are two ways you can get involved so we can make the most of this window of opportunity:
Click here to ask your Representative and Senators on Capitol Hill to support appropriations language to require BLM to implement humane management.
Thank Rep. Grijalva for being the top champion in Congress for America’s wild horses and burros. As Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, he is a powerful ally!
We’ve got less than a week to spring into action if we want to weigh in on plans that will affect nearly 2,000 wild horses in the state of Oregon.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) have both proposed wild horse management plans to target four different herds in the state that could, if they move forward without opposition, result in the removal of thousands of wild horses.
Action Alert #1: Stop the BLM from Removing 1,850 Horses From Three Herd Management Areas Deadline: Monday, May 18th
The BLM is accepting public comments on a 10-year plan for three Herd Management Areas in Oregon’s Barren Valley Complex, covering nearly 1 million acres of public lands.
While the plan contains some encouraging components, including the implementation of humane, reversible fertility control before any roundups take place, it still calls for the removal of 1,850 wild horses over ten years.
Since the BLM has not prioritized roundups in this area for nearly a decade and the local BLM office has made an effort to utilize fertility control in local herds, this is a unique opportunity to support and expand fertility control programs to manage the horses humanely on the range.
Action Alert #2: Protect the Ochoco National Forest Horses Deadline: Sunday, May 17th
At the same time, the U.S. Forest Service is targeting a wild horse herd in Oregon’s Big Summit Wild Horse Territory in the Ochoco National Forest.
The agency is seriously proposing an “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) for the area as low as 12 wild horses. That’s right, one dozen.
At the highest level, the AML would be 57 — that would translate to just one wild horse per nearly 500 acres of public land. Meanwhile, the Forest Service allows as many as 2,200 (!) privately owned sheep and lambs to graze there for periods of time, all at taxpayer expense.
In its Environmental Assessment (which is required by law), the Forest Service admitted that the Big Summit wild horses could be in genetic depression and reducing their numbers substantially, as they are proposing, will worsen this, threatening the future of this herd.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the Forest Service is also considering the use of dangerous sterilization procedures as a management tool for these protected wild horses.
Thank you for taking action. If you can also share this email with even one or two friends, you will help us build the response we need to defend thousands of wild horses in Oregon.
Over the past couple of months, our nation has been tested, our spirits have been tried, and we’ve had to navigate what a new “normal” looks like.
During this difficult time, tens of thousands of you have continued to step up in a time of great uncertainty and peril to give a voice to the wild horses and burros who don’t have one.
This Tuesday was #GivingTuesdayNow, and truth be told, we didn’t know what to expect. We know that many of you aren’t in a position to give and that these are unprecedented times of struggle and heartache for so many.
But thousands of you shared our messages with friends and family and hundreds of you, from all across the country, chipped in what you could.
Not only did we reach our fundraising goal, which will allow us to replenish our foal rescue fund and support our work to save Wyoming’s horses (and so much more!), but you’ve also lifted our spirits.
Our staff and volunteers are incredibly grateful for your contributions to our work, especially now. You are the reason we can continue to do the work we do.
We wanted to share with you an important example of how your support is making a difference. This past month we had a powerful showing in defense of Wyoming’s wild horses during the Bureau of Land Management’s public comment period for their Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout Plan.
Our policy counsel, Brieanah, was able to send off a jaw-dropping TWELVE-THOUSAND+ public comments from all across the nation in opposition to this cruel plan. Each of those names on every page, is a powerful testament to what we can accomplish when we stay committed, stay engaged, and work together.
From all of us here at AWHC, thank you for being a part of our herd. Stay healthy, stay safe, and stay hopeful. We will get through this together.
As many of you know, we’re in the midst of foaling season. That’s when pregnant mares welcome the newest additions to their families and herds to the world.
But with the excitement of welcoming a new life into the world comes risk and danger.
With AWHC volunteer fertility control darters in the field every day in Nevada’s Virginia Range, our team is often the first responder to foals in need. Working through a local coalition of organizations, orphaned and injured foals are rescued, stabilized, provided veterinary care, and nursed back to health so they can be adopted into forever homes.
For the last several years, AWHC has been proud to support the local effort through our foal rescue fund. This year, we’re providing foal rescue kits to rescue volunteers so they have everything they need to save these innocent babies’ lives. Our rescue fund also assists with veterinary bills, care and transportation of foals to sanctuary/training facilities.
Our foal kits are small, compact, easy to carry into the field — Because when a foal is hurt, the difference between recovery and not making it can be a matter of hours, if not minutes.
Inside each are essential emergency supplies, including but not limited to: disinfectant, colostrum (formula) and electrolytes to help stabilize the foal, bandages to cover any exposed wounds, blankets for foals in shock or for transport, and medical equipment in the event volunteers need to perform life-saving care.
These kits have all the things we need in a really organized way. We can bandage [foals] up quickly and prepare to get them to a vet ASAP. Before we had these kits, my bags were a mish-mash [of supplies]. I would have to dump everything out on the range to find what I needed, these kits make it easy and it’s really great for our entire team, especially when time is not on our side.”
– Tracy Wilson, rescue volunteer & member of AWHC fertility control team
The local volunteers work incredibly hard. And I want to ensure this foaling season that they have every resource at their disposal when crisis strikes so they can save these foals and get them the care they need to heal, recover, and find their forever homes.
The only “crime” wild horses have committed is being born wild. With a fair resource allocation, our public lands could easily support the existing wild horse population — and claims to the contrary are being promoted by the livestock industry, which has everything to gain from the horses’ elimination.
NO wild horse should be cruelly stampeded by helicopters, trapped and sent to crowded holding pens.
NO mare should have her ovaries barbarically removed through an outdated surgical procedure that has been condemned by veterinarians, animal protection groups, and scientists.
NO foal should be separated from his or her family and sold off in auctions, sometimes for as little as $1 (in the case of horses removed from Forest Service land).
AWHC is fighting to make sure that wild horses and burros are protected. And we’re getting results — we’ve delayed roundups and proven that they are unnecessary with our model fertility control program. We’ve prevented the BLM from conducting dangerous and inhumane sterilization surgeries that would endanger individual horses and threaten wild herds. We’re currently fighting to stop the BLM from rounding up 3,000 wild horses in Wyoming and to prevent the Forest Service’s ‘horse dumping’ policy.
We’ll be the first to say it: It can be difficult to stay up to speed with the complex issues affecting our nation’s wild horses and burros. With so many federal agencies, acronyms and applicable laws, it’s easy to get confused.
That’s why we’re going to break it down for you TOMORROW, April 30, with the launch of our ‘Wild Horses 101’ webinar series. You can RSVP here.
We’ll be discussing the origins of wild horses in the Americas, Wild Horse Annie and the beginning of the movement to save America’s wild horses, some of the major policies and proposals being implemented and considered by the Bureau of Land Management, and so much more!
We want this to be an interactive and engaging experience, so during the webinar, you will have the chance to ask questions and we’d be glad to answer them.
We hope to hear from you and look forward to speaking with you all,
American Wild Horse Campaign
P.S. — If you already registered before the webinar was postponed, you do not need to register again.
This past weekend, AWHC launched a major initiative, #KeepWyWyld, as part of our national effort to prevent the Bureau of Land Management from moving forward with a plan known as The Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout.
If it moves forward, irreversible damage will be done to Wyoming’s cherished wild horses and half of the state’s wild horse habitat will be gone for good.
That’s why I’m reaching out to you now. Since launching this initiative just last week, the outpouring of support has been incredible. In fact, it’s exceeding all of our expectations.
But if we’re going to succeed and save these horses, then we all need to do our part and we don’t have much time. Which is why we’ve outlined five ways you can get involved and provided an update on how we’re tracking toward our goals ahead of the April 30 deadline for public comments.
Here Are 5 Ways You Can #KeepWyomingWyld This Weekend
April 30 is the deadline to submit public comments in opposition to the Bureau of Land Management’s Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout proposal, which would result in more than 3,000 wild horses being rounded up and permanently removed from public lands.
That gives us less than ONE week to PROVE to the BLM that the American people oppose this devastating mustang eradication plan.
Wyoming’s tourism slogan is “Don’t Fence Me In,” and the state’s iconic wild horses symbolize that sentiment. In fact, the Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Loop in the Checkerboard is promoted by the state’s tourism boards as “something you and your family will never forget because Sweetwater County’s cherished wild horses are living examples of a wide-open landscape and untamed frontier spirit.”
Incredibly, the BLM’s plan would eradicate every single wild horse from the viewing loop, fencing these symbols of the wide open West in dismal feedlots!
Write to Wyoming’s tourism boards here and ask them to join our efforts to prevent the destruction of the iconic Wyoming Checkerboard mustangs.
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon has the power to oppose and potentially change the course of the Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout. In fact, his state is looking to purchase a large chunk of these lands from Occidental Petroleum and could designate the area as a recreational resource in which wild horses are protected.
Take part in AWHC’s national petition drive to demonstrate the immense public pressure in opposition to the eradication of Wyoming’s wild horses.
If we’re going to save these horses, then we need to get everyone involved, including our friends, family, and coworkers.
So many people who love wild horses aren’t aware of what’s at stake in Wyoming — And just a couple minutes of their time can make a difference.
Add a frame to your Facebook profile picture in support of Wyoming’s wild horses here
Change your Facebook cover photo and upload Instagram stories in support of the horses here
Start a Tweet storm and get people talking on Twitter about this issue here
Our legal team has been heavily involved in fighting back against attempts by the BLM and the livestock industry to round up tens of thousands of wild horses, permanently remove them from public lands, and perform dangerous sterilization surgeries on mares. We’ve been fighting the attempt to eradicate the Wyoming Checkerboard horses since 2011.
Not only have we achieved a number of important legal protections but also our legal team has scored victories in fourteen separate lawsuits filed over the last nine years!
The future of the Wyoming Checkerboard wild horse herds is in danger. The Bureau of Land Management’s proposed Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout would result in the state losing more than HALF of its wild horse habitat.
Nearly 40% of the state’s wild horse population would be roundup and removed from the wild — all to allow the livestock industry and private ranchers to replace them with cattle and sheep after targeting the state’s wild horses for elimination for years.
That’s why on this Earth Day, we’ve set the 24-hour goal of raising $10,000 toward the AWHC Wyoming Legal Defense Fund.
We know this is a difficult time and many of you are not in a position to donate right now.
But at a time when the BLM is threatening to round up as many as 20,000 wild horses per year and proposing the eradication of Wyoming’s Checkerboard horses, your support is what allows us to: continue spreading the word about this cruel and costly plan, organize throughout the country in support of America’s wild horses, fight back in the courts through our legal team, operate the world’s largest humane fertility control program for wild horses, and so much more.
P.S. — We’ve gone to court three times to defend the Wyoming Checkerboard horses — and each time we’ve won. Now we’re gearing up for a fourth legal battle … and this one is literally the last stand for these iconic mustangs. Please help if you can.
At the beginning of this week, we reached out to you about a devastating plan being proposed that represents an existential threat to Wyoming’s wild horses.
The stakes have never been higher for Wyoming’s Checkerboard wild horse herd: Over 3,000 of them could be rounded up and removed from public lands while nearly 2.5 MILLION acres of wild horse habitat could be permanently eliminated.
Here Are 5 Ways You Can #KeepWyomingWyld This Weekend
April 30 is the deadline to submit public comments in opposition to the Bureau of Land Management’s Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout proposal.
That gives us less than two weeks to PROVE to the BLM that the American people oppose this devastating mustang eradication plan.
Wyoming’s tourism slogan is “Don’t Fence Me In,” and the state’s iconic wild horses symbolize that sentiment. In fact, the Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Loop in the Checkerboard is promoted by the state’s tourism boards as “something you and your family will never forget because Sweetwater County’s cherished wild horses are living examples of a wide-open landscape and untamed frontier spirit.”
Incredibly, the BLM’s plan would eradicate every single wild horse from the viewing loop, fencing these symbols of the wide open West in dismal feedlots!
Write to Wyoming’s tourism boards here and ask them to join our efforts to prevent the destruction of the iconic Wyoming Checkerboard mustangs.
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon has the power to oppose and potentially change the course of the Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout. In fact, his state is looking to purchase a large chunk of these lands from Occidental Petroleum and could designate the area as a recreational resource in which wild horses are protected.
Take part in AWHC’s national petition drive to demonstrate the immense public pressure in opposition to the eradication of Wyoming’s wild horses.
If we’re going to save these horses, then we need to get everyone involved, including our friends, family, and coworkers.
So many people who love wild horses aren’t aware of what’s at stake in Wyoming — And just a couple minutes of their time can make a difference.
Add a frame to your Facebook profile picture in support of Wyoming’s wild horses here
Change your Facebook cover photo and upload Instagram stories in support of the horses here
Start a Tweet storm and get people talking on Twitter about this issue here
Our legal team has been heavily involved in fighting back against attempts by the BLM and the livestock industry to round up tens of thousands of wild horses, permanently remove them from public lands, and perform dangerous sterilization surgeries on mares. We’ve been fighting the attempt to eradicate the Wyoming Checkerboard horses since 2011.
Not only have we achieved a number of important legal protections but also our legal team has scored victories in fourteen separate lawsuits filed over the last nine years!
For nearly a decade, the Checkerboard wild horse population has been a top target of the powerful Rock Springs Grazing Association and the livestock industry. Now, the Bureau of Land Management is preparing to bend to their demands and deal a devastating, irreversible blow to Wyoming’s wild horses.
The scope of the proposed plan is unprecedented, and will result in the destruction of the magnificent wild horses of the Wyoming Checkerboard. If we fail to generate a massive show of force, these horses will be lost forever.
Today is a major milestone for us. One year ago, we signed an agreement with the State of Nevada to launch a PZP fertility control program for the famed Virginia Range wild horse herd in Nevada. It’s now the largest humane wild horse fertility control program in the world.
Our mission was to prove that there is an effective and cost-efficient way to humanely manage wild horse populations without expensive roundups, crowded holding corrals, or dangerous sterilization surgeries.
We’re proud to announce that this program hasn’t just been a success, it has exceeded all expectations. And we wanted to give you an inside look at this historic program as we expand on this work in the months ahead.
↓ Watch The Video ↓
In our program, volunteer darters deliver the safe and effective fertility control vaccine PZP remotely to wild mares on the range. The vaccine is 97% effective in preventing pregnancy and is an excellent tool to keep wild horses in balance with their environment.
And, unlike the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) $81 million-a-year roundup program, our program is cost-effective and most importantly, keeps wild horses where they belong: in the wild.
From the get-go, there were skeptics: “How do you expect to deliver fertility control in such a large wild horse population in such a vast habitat area?”
But we didn’t back down from the challenge. Our team — including our incredible volunteers — worked hard, day-in and day-out. And tens of thousands of you supported this work along the way.
Over the course of this past year, our mostly volunteer team delivered over 1,700 fertility control treatments (primers and boosters) to more than 950 mares in the 300,000-acre Virginia Range. That number represents nearly 80% of the reproductive-age mares in this roughly 3,000-horse mustang population.
The Stunning News? Our team actually OUTPERFORMED the BLM’s own program to administer fertility control!
We didn’t do this alone. This successful effort would not be possible without our village of partners and supporters — the Nevada Department of Agriculture, political and business leaders, including Governor Steve Sisolak, Assemblyman Jim Wheeler, tech company Blockchains LLC and real estate developer Lance Gilman, to local wild horse organizations, our amazing team of dedicated volunteers, and generous supporters like you.
I hope that you feel as proud as I do of this work, our team in Nevada, and what we have all achieved together.
Even as we celebrate these accomplishments, we know that this work is far from over. The BLM and the livestock industry continue to push for a multi-billion dollar plan to round up and remove more than 100,000 wild horses from public lands in the next ten years.
We’ll continue to fight back using every resource at our disposal. And, even during these difficult times for our country, we’ll work to expand our operations in Nevada — home to more than half of the nation’s remaining wild horses — to continue to show that wild horses can be managed humanely and to ensure that America’s mustangs stay wild and free.
Many of us have more time on our hands these days and we wanted to give you some important news and provide some interactive materials about wild horses that you and your family can utilize while staying at home.
A Hard-Earned Victory for California’s Devil’s Garden Wild Horses
Back in 2018, AWHC joined forces with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and California local advocate Carla Bowers to file a lawsuit to stop the U.S. Forest Service from selling California wild horses for slaughter. The horses in question were captured in fall 2018 from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory in northeast California’s Modoc National Forest.
We’re pleased to report that this litigation blocked the Forest Service from selling the Devil’s Garden wild horses for slaughter, giving Congress time to act.
In December, after U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, 66 members of Congress, and 22 members of the California State Legislature joined the public in opposing the slaughter plan, Congress passed legislation to prohibit the Forest Service from destroying healthy horses and selling them without limitation on slaughter.
This is the same prohibition that Congress has long imposed on the Bureau of Land Management. We’re grateful to all the AWHC supporters who donated to support our litigation, which played a critical role in securing this prohibition on slaughter of wild horses and burros under U.S. Forest Service jurisdiction.
But, the Devil’s Garden Wild Horses Still Aren’t Safe Yet (Action Alert)
In fall of 2019, the Forest Service rounded up and removed 499 more wild horses from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory. The majority of the horses have been adopted or sold, some, disturbingly, for $1 a piece. Approximately 100 wild horses — including older horses, pregnant mares and foals — remain in corrals in the Modoc National Forest.
Unlike the BLM, which has halted sales and adoptions of horses and burros during the COVID-19 crisis, the Forest Service continues to dispose of these federally-protected animals for $1 a piece. Worse, a single buyer can purchase 24 horses at a time, and the government will transport them for free, including to states as far away as Arkansas and Florida!
The Forest Service has no adequate system for vetting potential buyers or following up after horses are purchased to ensure their welfare.
By selling horses in bulk for $1 a piece and shipping them for free across the country with no safeguards to protect them from abuse and slaughter, the Forest Service is creating an avenue to sidestep Congress’ slaughter ban.
We’ll be the first to say it: It can be difficult to stay up to speed with the complex issues affecting our nation’s wild horses and burros. With so many federal agencies, acronyms and applicable laws, it’s easy to get confused.
That’s why we’re going to break it down for you on Thursday, April 16, with the launch of our ‘Wild Horses 101’ webinar series.
We want this to be an interactive experience! Which is why we’re encouraging you to submit questions so we can address them as we tackle some of the most important topics.
Our first segment will go over the history of wild horses and how we arrived at the place we are now. We hope you’ll tune in.
And Finally, A Fun Activity For The Kids At Home
We know that many of you are juggling a number of responsibilities at home, and for those with young kids, we’re offering a way to keep them entertained!
We took a bit of inspiration from Velma Johnston, aka “Wild Horse Annie,” who was the influential wild horse advocate responsible for some of the most important wild horse protections on the books. As part of her campaign to save America’s mustangs, she organized a wildly successful children’s writing brigade that generated national support for mustangs and led to the passage of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
AWHC hopes to harness that spirit again by getting kids involved in the fight to save our mustangs. A great place to start is with our official children’s activity book: it’s available completely for free and includes coloring pages, a word search, and writing prompts!
That’s our news for the week… our best wishes to you and your loved ones during this difficult time.
We hope that this email finds you well and safe during these difficult times for our nation and our world.
We need to let you know that, despite the disruptions caused by COVID-19 on day-to-day life, our work to protect wild horses and burros continues.
In fact, Congress is working now on appropriations legislation to fund the government for the upcoming fiscal year (which begins on October 1). This presents both dangers that we must remain alert to, and the opportunity to make progress against the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) mass roundup and sterilization plan.
We’re pleased to report that several wild horse champions in Congress are stepping up to protect wild horses.
House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (Arizona), Congresswomen Deb Haaland (New Mexico) and Dina Titus (Nevada), and Congressman Steve Cohen (Tennessee) are officially requesting that language be added to any appropriations measures that would:
Require more than 10% of the budget of the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program to be utilized to implement a humane fertility control program utilizing the proven birth control vaccine PZP;
Encourage the BLM to form public/private partnerships with non-profits to expand these programs as alternatives to mass roundups; and
BAN federal funds from being used for dangerous surgical sterilization procedures.
If adopted, this would represent a HUGE step forward toward actual reform of the BLM’s broken wild horse and burro roundup program, as well as a HUGE victory in our fight to protect these iconic animals across the West.
From the safety of your homes, and utilizing but a minute of your time, you can make a difference in ensuring that Appropriations Committee members include this critical language to protect our treasured horses and burros in Fiscal Year 2021 spending legislation.
My name is Deb Walker and I’m AWHC’s Field Representative here in Nevada. I coordinate our amazing team of volunteers on the Virginia Range implementing the world’s largest humane management program for wild horses.
AWHC reached out on Monday asking for donations of $30 to cover the costs of the cornerstone of this program — the $30 fertility control vaccine known as PZP. We’ve had an incredible response and outpouring of support since then.
As a result, we can cover the costs of 321 (!) annual vaccines for wild mares. Our team of volunteers is working hard and I want to let them know we have the supplies we need to not only maintain this program but to expand it!
Nevada Field Representative
American Wild Horse Campaign
Read Our Previous Message Below:
We know that this is a difficult time for the country and for many of you. If you are not in a position to financially support our work, we completely understand. But for those of you who can, give us a moment to explain why we’re asking for $30.
In Nevada’s Virginia Range, AWHC operates the world’s largest humane management program for wild horses. Next week marks the one year anniversary of the establishment of this historic initiative to prove to the world that there is a humane way to manage wild horse populations that doesn’t require mass roundups, crowded holding corrals, dangerous sterilization surgeries or slaughter.
The cornerstone of this highly successful program is the remote darting of wild mares with the scientifically proven fertility vaccine known as ‘PZP’. Our work on the Virginia Range continues uninterrupted despite the COVID-19 pandemic and our volunteers are working hard, day-in and day-out, to vaccinate these mares.
The price of a single mare’s annual PZP vaccine is just $30.
Compare that to the tens of thousands of dollars the Bureau of Land Management spends on the roundup and long-term holding involved in the removal of a single horse.
Let alone the $5 BILLION figure the Acting Director of the BLM is citing as the cost of a plan to round up over 100,000 horses from public lands over the next decade, with the goal of rounding up as many as 20,000 in 2020 alone.
We know that this is a difficult time for the country and for many of you. If you are not in a position to financially support our work, we completely understand. But for those of you who can, give us a moment to explain why we’re asking for $30.
In Nevada’s Virginia Range, AWHC operates the world’s largest humane management program for wild horses. Next week marks the one year anniversary of the establishment of this historic initiative to prove to the world that there is a humane way to manage wild horse populations that doesn’t require mass roundups, crowded holding corrals, dangerous sterilization surgeries or slaughter.
The cornerstone of this highly successful program is the remote darting of wild mares with the scientifically proven fertility vaccine known as ‘PZP’. Our work on the Virginia Range continues uninterrupted despite the COVID-19 pandemic and our volunteers are working hard, day-in and day-out, to vaccinate these mares.
The price of a single mare’s annual PZP vaccine is just $30.
Compare that to the tens of thousands of dollars the Bureau of Land Management spends on the roundup and long-term holding involved in the removal of a single horse.
Let alone the $5 BILLION figure the Acting Director of the BLM is citing as the cost of a plan to round up over 100,000 horses from public lands over the next decade, with the goal of rounding up as many as 20,000 in 2020 alone.
The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comments on a ten-year plan to round up and remove nearly 80% of the wild burros in the Black Mountain Herd Management Area in Arizona.
Your voice is needed today to speak up for one of the nation’s largest and significant remaining wild burro populations.
The wild burros of the Black Mountain Herd Management Area (HMA) in Arizona live in a 1.1 million-acre habitat that runs along the Colorado River, from the Hoover Dam to the north to the Needles Bridge in California to the south.
These amazing animals are highly adapted to the Mojave desert environment where they are an important part of the ecosystem — digging wells that make water available to other important wildlife species.
But now they’re being targeted for mass roundup and removal by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under pressure from hunting and livestock interests that view wild burros as pests.
The BLM is now accepting public comments on a ten-year plan to remove 1,700 wild burros (nearly 80% of the herd in the HMA!) as well as skew the sex ratio of the wild population to achieve 6 males for every 4 females — a manipulation that could increase aggression and disrupt the natural behaviors and social organization of these highly intelligent animals.
Instead of mass roundups, the BLM needs to protect this unique burro population and humanely manage it by ending the eradication predators in the area and implementing fertility control if natural controls are not sufficient to regulate the burro population size.
P.S. — If you are not in a position to donate but would still like to support our work, please use AmazonSmile when you shop online and a portion of your purchase will go toward AWHC. Shop using AmazonSmile here.
After years of fighting back in the courts and mounting public opposition, the Bureau of Land Management will not conduct cruel sterilization experiments on Oregon’s Warm Springs wild horses.
One of the most inhumane and cruel ways the Bureau of Land Management outlined as a way for “management” of wild horses is the ovariectomy via colpotomy procedure.
This procedure involves manually severing and removing a wild mare’s ovaries in an invasive and outdated surgical procedure that has been called “barbaric” by veterinarians and deemed by the National Academy of Sciences to be too dangerous for use in wild horses.
Not surprisingly, nearly 8 in 10 Americans oppose this procedure — and we’ve sued twice and successfully blocked the BLM from subjecting innocent wild mares to this cruel and risky surgery.
In 2016, our lawsuit prompted the BLM to cancel its plan to perform ovariectomy via colpotomy on 225 wild mares — many of them pregnant – rounded up from the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in Oregon.
In 2018, we sued again, when the BLM proposed to conduct the same experiments on the same group of mares, many of whom were now nursing dependent foals. This time, the court granted our motion for a federal injunction and the BLM again dropped the project.
In 2019, the BLM resurrected the plan incredibly for the third time! We immediately brought the new proposal to the court’s attention, and just last week, the BLM informed the court that it would not proceed with the third proposal.
In each case, we built a coalition, marshalled resources and did what it took to stop these horrific experiments, which veterinarians confirmed would cause extreme pain, bleeding, infection, miscarriage and would interfere with the mares’ ability to nurse and care for their dependent foals.
But that doesn’t mean the BLM will stop trying to surgically sterilize mares. In fact, the agency right now is preparing a management plan for the Swasey HMA in Utah that includes ovariectomy via colpotomy as a management tool.
We must stay vigilant and ready to jump to action to continue to defend wild mares from this brutality. Our victories in Oregon prove that when we work together and fight back hard, we win.
P.S. — If you are not in a position to donate but would still like to support our work, please use AmazonSmile when you shop online and a portion of your purchase will go toward AWHC. Shop using AmazonSmile here.
We hope that you and your loved ones are staying safe and well during this difficult time.
Like you, we are doing our best to stay up to date on the evolving COVID-19 pandemic and also wanted to take this opportunity to share with you a number of developments about our continued work during this time as we take necessary precautions in advocating for our nation’s wild horses and burros.
A Victory For The Salt River Wild Horses In Arizona
This past weekend, we reached out to you about the legislation introduced by AZ Rep. Kelly Townsend. HR 2858 threatened to block lifesaving humane management of the famed Salt River wild horses and was widely opposed not just in Arizona, but also by tens of thousands of Americans all across the country.
Due to concerns over COVID-19, the public was discouraged from attending committee hearings or providing public testimony on legislation. Townsend had publicly stated that her legislation was on hold, only to schedule the unpopular and controversial bill at the last minute for a Monday hearing when the public couldn’t attend.
More than 8,000 of you messaged Townsend and members of the committee to cancel this hearing in a tremendous, last-minute show of force in defense of the Salt River wild horses.
And … good news! The state legislature will only be addressing essential legislation before adjourning at the end of the week, meaning that this dangerous and controversial bill is effectively dead (but we will be carefully monitoring this until the session is officially over to be certain).
Our Work In Congress and On Capitol Hill Continues
As the country faces both a financial and public health crisis, imaginably, this past week was one of the most consequential in Washington, DC in many years.
Most federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, have moved all but the most essential personnel to telework and Congress is doing the same.
This doesn’t, however, put a stop to the legislative work happening in Congress nor will it delay consideration for millions of dollars in additional funding to ramp up the roundup, removal, and potential sterilization of tens of thousands of wild horses in the West.
In fact, Congress’ biggest legislative vehicles, the Fiscal Year 2021 appropriation bills which fund federal agencies and their programs, are currently being drafted with the goal of concluding in the next four to five weeks. We’ve previously highlighted the President’s FY 2021 budget, which asks Congress to throw even more money at the BLM’s broken and inhumane wild horse and burro program (you can read more about it below).
Our fear is that the current appropriations bills will become “must-pass” legislation tied to addressing COVID-19 and the financial crisis, meaning that language and funding that threatens wild horses may slip through as the public focuses on other issues.
That’s why our team was on Capitol Hill last week meeting with Congressional staff in order to have early and influential input on this process in defense of wild horses and burros. Now that Congressional staff, as well as many of our own staff, are working remotely, we’re utilizing every technology available to stay in contact throughout the appropriations process.
The AWHC Legal Team Takes New Steps To Defend Wild Horses In Court
Just as our work in Congress continues, so too, does our work throughout the court system.
Last week, the government filed a motion in our lawsuit against the BLM to stop its proposed ovariectomy via colpotomy experiments on wild mares. Oral arguments are set for March 20th in Portland, Oregon, which has declared a state of emergency.
As a result we will be attending the hearing and providing oral arguments via telephone. This suit is critically important — We partnered with The Cloud Foundation and The Animal Welfare Institute on this suit which is responsible for the BLM decision to abandon its plans to conduct cruel sterilization experiments.
Five days later, on March 25th, our legal team was expected to appear in San Francisco for oral arguments before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in our lawsuit challenging the BLM’s plan to castrate wild-free roaming stallions in Nevada’s Triple B Complex.
We recently got word that the Courts will be canceling oral arguments for that week meaning that we will either have our hearing rescheduled or the case will be decided on the written briefs submitted previously.
Late last week, AWHC Government Relations and Policy Counsel filed a lawsuit over the BLM’s failure to respond to multiple requests under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking information on various aspects of BLM wild horse and burro policy.
We are seeking records related to a number of secretive meetings between Interior secretaries and BLM officials with livestock special interest groups that may have influenced federal wild horse and burro policy. By failing to provide these records, the BLM and Interior Department have violated the law — So we’re taking action.
Hard At Work: Service Is Uninterrupted At The World’s Largest Wild Horse Fertility Control Program
The great outdoors is, fortunately, one of the safest places to be during this pandemic. That means that our team’s incredible work running the world’s largest wild horse fertility control program on the Virginia Range in Nevada continues on.
Last year, with far fewer resources and staff, our volunteer team of darters outperformed the BLM in providing the birth control vaccine PZP to wild mares — shattering expectations and proving the naysayers wrong.
Each day, we’re proving that there is a better, humane, and far more cost effective way to manage wild horse populations. And each vaccine costs just $30.
Our work continues and we’re so grateful to have your support along the way. Please stay healthy, stay strong, stay safe and stay tuned. We’re all in this together!
While February may be the shortest month of the year, we made the most of each and every day, organizing a handful of national efforts to protect America’s wild horses and burros.
The numbers speak for themselves:
A Show Of Force In Support Of Arizona’s Famed Salt River Horses
Five years ago, AWHC joined up with our local coalition partner the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group to prevent the mass roundup, removal, and slaughter of the famed Salt River wild horses in Arizona.
The year after, our groups worked successfully for the passage of a state law to protect these horses in their historic habitat. But now, the future of the Salt River wild horses is in jeopardy once more.
A new state bill, HB 2858, seeks to amend the Salt River horse protection bill. As currently written, the bill would block lifesaving interventions that are necessary to save horses and safeguard the herd.
The legislation is currently in the House Rules Committee after passing in the Land & Agriculture Committee. State legislators, such as the Land & Agriculture Committee chair Rep. Timothy Dunn, have acknowledged that the bill’s language must be updated to address our concerns before bringing it for a full vote. This week, the bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Jay Lawrence, withdrew his support for HB 2858 after sponsor Rep. Kelly Townsend refused to amend it to ensure that humane management will continue to be allowed.
At the same time, momentum is building behind the petition launched by the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group and AWHC to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in support of a wildlife overpass, which would help ensure the safety and well-being of the Salt River horses: It’s already exceeded our goal of gathering 20,000 signatures!
Joining Forces To Prevent A Dangerous New Precedent In Utah
Photo by Rob Hammer.
This month, the BLM outlined a ten-year plan that would dramatically reduce the wild horse population in the Swasey HMA in Utah, down to as few as 60 horses.
The scary part is, the BLM is hoping to use this plan to establish a new precedent for wild horse population management for years and Administrations to come: One that relies on cruel roundups as well as dangerous surgical sterilization procedures.
Some of these procedures have not even been developed yet, let alone safety tested. Others — such as the cruel ovariectomy via colpotomy procedure that the BLM has been pushing for years — have been criticized by the National Academy of Sciences and veterinarians as too dangerous to perform in wild horses.
The BLM is not considering reductions to the number of privately-owned livestock in the area, further demonstrating that the BLM is more invested in defending the interests of the livestock industry than those of our wild horses and burros.
AWHC joined forces with the Animal Welfare Institute and The Cloud Foundation to submit 33-pages of public comments opposing this plan, including 13,800 of your signatures in a major show of force.
Nearly 70% Of Wild Horses Removed From Nevada’s Eagle Complex
Beginning in mid-January, the BLM began a massive roundup in Nevada’s 743,000-acre Eagle Complex.
When the roundup concluded in late February, 1,716 of the Complex’s 2,484 wild horses were forcibly removed; including 24 reported fatalities. Of those, over 1,600, or roughly 70% of the wild horses in the Eagle Complex, were permanently removed.
The BLM has set the Appropriate Management Level (AML) for the Eagle Complex at 139-265 wild horses, a number not supported by science, as the BLM continues its practice of imposing absurdly low population limits for wild horses in order to continue to allocate the vast majority of forage in wild horse habitat to subsidized livestock.
Roundup Slashes Size of Reveille Wild Horse Herd In Half
Another roundup in Nevada concluded this month — The Reveille Roundup resulted in the removal of 113 wild horses from public lands, equating to more than half of the wild horse population in the Reveille HMA.
Often times, our field representatives are the only members of the public onsite to view the roundup operation and ensure the BLM is in compliance with federal law and abiding by animal welfare guidelines. Without them present, it would be incredibly difficult, if not downright impossible, to hold the BLM accountable and report wrongdoing.
As in other areas, the BLM is continually rounding up wild horses in the Reveille HMA so that the public lands there can be primarily used for commercial livestock grazing. In fact, the annual equivalent of 2,000 cow/calf pairs graze a 650,000-acre livestock allotment that overlaps a portion of this HMA, while horse numbers are held at just 82-138.
There is good news out of this HMA, however. The BLM Battle Mountain District has been utilizing fertility control periodically in this herd, and it appears to have reduced the population’s growth rate, which will, in turn, reduce the number of wild horses removed in the future.
Start The Weekend On A Positive Note
Operation Fish Springs Rescue is complete! Over 140,000 of you signed a petition to the BLM to bring Samson and his family home, after the agency trapped and removed them over Thanksgiving weekend last year. Subsequent to launching the petition, advocates learned that the BLM had taken three other bands of beloved Fish Springs horses – those belonging to the stallions Rusty and Rocky and one recently acquired by the famous blue roan stallion Shadow.
Unfortunately, the BLM would not return these horses to their home on our public lands in Nevada, but thanks to a team effort, all of these horses have found a safe landing where they will stay together in their bands.
AWHC was pleased to play a key role in the rescue by taking responsibility for Rocky’s band (Rocky, Copper, Elisa, Luna and Luna’s son Jimmy) and Rusty’s band (Amber, Cinnamon, Belle and Belle’s son Luke) and Shadow, whom BLM would only adopt to a sanctuary after he was deemed “dangerous” following a fight with Rocky in the holding pen.
We are so grateful to AWHC board member Alicia Goetz whose Freedom Reigns Equine Sanctuary is providing a lifetime home for these horses, and to our Board President Ellie Price, whose team at Montgomery Creek Ranch, her mustang refuge, purchased Rocky’s band in the BLM online auction. Ensuring that 11 horses were secured in the BLM’s auction was no easy feat, but working together we got the job done!
