Porter Springs Herd Management Area

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

This is Jolene and Porter.

Jolene and 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 above was taken just before a massive Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundup in 2022 that changed the lives of many of these animals forever.

Over 800 burros and 1,022 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.”

Now, the BLM is gearing up for another roundup in the Blue Wing Complex starting July 8. The agency is planning to round up nearly 1,400 mustangs and over 300 wild burros, and there’s no telling whether burros like Jolene and Porter will remain free this time.

AWHC is the last line of defense for these innocent animals. We’re the boots on the ground fighting in the field, in the courts, and on Capitol Hill to end helicopter roundups and conserve the public lands that wild burros and wild horses roam. But we can’t do it without your help. Can you please chip in to help us reach our $25,000 goal and power our work to end the cruel and costly mismanagement of our wild herds? Your support means so much to us, and to burros like Jolene and Porter.

HELP US REACH OUR GOAL

Sadly, as you may have read in our previous email, the trauma of the Blue Wing Complex herd did not end when the helicopters landed.

Our FOIA requests uncovered a total of 37 burros died in federal holding at the hands of BLM — a tragedy that never would have come to light without the vital work of AWHC’s investigations team.

We’re fighting to stop helicopter roundups and secure the humane conservation of our wild herds. But until we make that happen, we must continue to document and expose the full impacts of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, both during roundups and after them, so we can hold the agency accountable through our legislative and legal work. With summer roundups beginning on Monday, can you chip in toward our $25,000 goal to help us continue this important work in the months ahead?

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Thank you for standing up for wild horses and burros like Jolene and Porter.

– Team AWHC