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TAKE ACTION: Tell the BLM to re-evaluate its plans to round up the Little Book Cliffs wild horses!

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Colorado’s iconic Little Book Cliffs wild horses need your help.

Photo: © PhotoAdvocacy

The Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Range spans approximately 36,000 acres and is home to a beautiful herd of roughly 211 horses. But this September, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to remove 120 wild horses from this historic herd, potentially cutting the population in half.

The BLM set an unscientific appropriate management level (AML) of just 90-150 horses for Little Book Cliffs, which could threaten the genetic viability of the herd in the long term. The plan calls for further roundups over a multiyear period following the initial helicopter roundup to achieve the federal AML target and allows for the use of Intrauterine Devices (IUDs).

This herd’s population has been managed through a humane PZP fertility control program for over twenty years, the last six without roundups, until the current proposal was introduced. This planned roundup is not only cruel and a danger to the lives of hundreds of innocent horses, but it’s also completely unnecessary.

Little Book Cliffs is an opportunity to prioritize humane PZP fertility control as the new model for wild horse conservation, consistent with the intent of SB23-275 – The Colorado Wild Horse Project – which was signed into law by Governor Jared Polis at Little Book Cliffs a year ago.

There is still time to voice opposition to the roundup of the Little Book Cliffs wild horses. Please join us in speaking out against the BLM’s proposed plan by signing onto our public comments calling on the agency to reconsider its plans to round up the herd and instead focus on expanding the humane fertility control program that has already been successful!

Take Action

The Colorado Wild Horse Working Group and the $1.5m funds allocated by the state to improve wild horse conservation provide us a chance to supplement and build on local efforts, not see them swept aside by costly and inhumane federal helicopter roundups.

Please take a moment to join us in standing up for the Little Book Cliffs wild horses by signing onto our public comments urging collaboration on, and the continuation of, humane fertility control programs in this herd.

Take Action

Thank you,

Team AWHC

Congress takes fight to BLM

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

BREAKING: Wild Horse champions in Congress are speaking up and we urgently need you to join them!

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is pushing full steam ahead — for the fifth time — with a cruel, dangerous and invasive plan to surgically sterilize wild horses. They propose using a risky and outdated procedure the National Academy of Sciences called “inadvisable for field application” and veterinarians call “barbaric.”  But here’s the good news: 58 wild horse champions in Congress are fighting back and so can you.

This week, these 58 Congress members, led by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Representative Dina Titus (D-NV), submitted a bipartisan letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt opposing this terrible plan.

Will you speak up as well? Add your name and co-sign the letter to Interior Secretary Bernhardt to let him know Congress AND the public are demanding humane treatment of America’s wild horses and burros.

The surgical sterilization procedure at issue is known as “ovariectomy via colpotomy.” It involves a veterinarian manually reaching into a mare’s abdominal cavity via the vaginal canal, then blindly locating the ovaries, severing them with a rod and chain device known as an ecraseur, and pulling them out. When infrequently performed In domestic mares, the procedure requires extensive pain relief and aftercare that simply cannot be provided to wild, untamed horses.

Because it is so risky, the National Academy of Sciences advised that the procedure is “inadvisable for field application” due to the possibility of bleeding and infection. But the BLM intends to gallop ahead with the inhumane surgery anyway.

With our coalition partners, we’ve filed multiple lawsuits and secured a federal injunction that previously stopped the BLM from surgically sterilizing wild mares in Oregon, and we’re ready to stop this cruelty again.

Join 58 members of Congress in opposing dangerous and inhumane surgical sterilization of wild mares… Co-sign their letter today!

This support from Congress comes on the heels of the historic House amendment to direct $11 million of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program budget to implement humane PZP fertility control as an alternative to traumatic roundups and surgical sterilization. We are building momentum toward real change!

Thank YOU for helping to keep that momentum going!

[SIGN THE PETITION]

Thank you,

American Wild Horse Campaign