The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

News & Alerts

The Bureau of Land Management is moving fast — This past week alone the BLM concluded a roundup in the Challis Herd Management Area (HMA) in central Idaho and announced that the agency will be moving forward with a plan to reduce the size of the wild horse and burro population in the Twin Peaks HMA in northeast California by 80% over the next 10 years.

Challis Roundup: 295 Wild Horses Captured

The BLM forcibly removed 295 wild horses from the Challis HMA between Nov. 5 and Nov. 11 as part of the Idaho roundup. This week the agency is expected to complete a census flight to determine how many wild horses will be returned to the 169,000-acre area.

The vast majority of the wild horses removed from these public lands will not be returned to the wild. Many will spend their lives in the BLM’s holding facilities, or worse, face being killed or sold for slaughter if Congress pulls the plug on funding for their long-term care.

We can expect the roundups to be greatly accelerated if the Senate approves the $5 billion plan, pushed by the livestock industry and BLM’s Acting Director, which would reduce wild horse populations in the West to near extinction levels.

AWHC is working to ensure this plan is not implemented: Help us continue to organize against the greatest threat to wild horses and burros in generations by making a donation if you can.

You can read more about the Challis Roundup in this article from the Idaho Statesman here.

Twin Peaks HMA: BLM Officially Moves to Reduce Herd Size

The BLM recently released its management plan for the wild horses and burros of the Twin Peaks HMA — Including future helicopter roundups and fertility control over the next ten years.

According to the Sierra Sun Times: “This plan calls for several approaches, including using helicopter drive trapping, bait-and-water trapping and fertility control to reduce the herd … over ten years.”

While AWHC supports using fertility control, we do not support the drastic reduction in herd sizes for wild horses and burros in this HMA.

Nearly 90% of the existing wild burro population will be removed over ten years, leaving just 72 animals on the range and destroying the genetic health of this herd.

For the Twin Peaks wild horses the plan is almost as bad: reduce the herd by 80% and release castrated stallions (geldings) onto the range, a move that will take the wild out of these wild horses by destroying their natural behaviors. AWHC has a pending case at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that will determine whether or not the BLM can release geldings onto the range before its research into the impacts of the procedure on wild horses is completed.

You can read the Sierra Sun Times article here.

AWHC is the eyes and ears on the ground and the voice for mustangs and burros in the halls of Congress and the courts of law. Donations, of any size, give our field team the resources they need to document these roundups as well as give us the resources to also intervene when possible through the courts. No donation is too small to make a difference.

Thank you — And we’ll keep you updated,

American Wild Horse Campaign

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