If we could list every single one of you in the credits at the end of the video, we would. Why? At every step, it has been you – your calls, emails, donations, and action – that has propelled this movement.
We’ve fought for wild horses and burros in court, warding off threats to wild herds and their lands. We’ve joined with elected officials in retaining all-important slaughter restrictions in the federal budget. We’ve been able to document the BLM’s inhumane roundups to hold them accountable and bring public awareness of the issue to a whole new level. And through press and media attention, we’ve grown our movement to new heights, as more people than ever have become champions to these threatened, majestic creatures.
The U.S. Department of the Interior is proposing to destroy thousands of public records including those related to the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Progam. AWHC and other wild horse protection groups believe that many of these records are valuable to research and our advocacy and litigation work. Their destruction could significantly hamper our efforts to protect wild horses and burros. Please take action today.
Members of the AWHC team attended the Devil’s Garden wild horse sale and adoption event this weekend in Alturas, CA where 45 horses were placed. We have serious concerns about the safety and welfare of the horses in the pens in the Modoc National Forest under the management of the Modoc County Farm Bureau. While every person who took a horse appears to be a legitimate trainer or rescue, the remaining horses are far from safe, because in less than two months, the Forest Service plans to sell any horses for $1 a piece without limitation on slaughter. Read our firsthand account below.
Next week, the BLM helicopters will descend on the Silver King HMA in eastern Nevada, kicking off the winter roundup season. A total of 1,600 wild horses and burros have been targeted for removal over the next two months. Read on to find out what herds are being targeted.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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’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!
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:
Call Your Congressmen and Senators at 202-224-3121. Here’s what you need to say:“I’m [name] and I’m a constituent. Please ask Rep./ Senator [Name] to contact the Appropriations conference committee to urge them to reject the Stewart Amendment calling for the mass sterilization of wild horses and burros. This would undermine 50 years of protection and is counter to the wishes of the 80 percent of Americans who want our wild horses protected and humanely managed. Thank you.”
Click hereto send a follow up email to your elected officials on Capitol Hill.
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!
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.
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.
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!
