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ICYMI: 16 Wild Mustangs Rescued From a Notorious Colorado Kill Pen >>

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

We wanted to share some recent updates around roundups, our latest report on the Bureau of Land Management’s Adoption Incentive Program, and a heartwarming rescue of 16 wild horses! Read on to learn more and take action to help us protect our cherished wild herds. >>

Tell BLM: Stop the Cash Incentives for the Adoption Incentive Program

Photo by Kimerlee Curyl

This summer, the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) released an explosive investigative report that detailed the devastating and deadly consequences of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Adoption Incentive Program, which pays individuals $1,000 to adopt up to four wild, unhandled mustangs and burros a year.

Our latest AIP report makes it clear: Handing out cash to adopt wild animals is a dangerous and fiscally irresponsible plan. To ensure mustangs and burros are protected from slaughter, the BLM must abandon the cash component of this program — and we need your help.

Please take a moment to send a letter to the BLM and urge them to STOP the cash incentives and instead offer a veterinary voucher as an incentive to adopt mustangs and burros!

TAKE ACTION

The Rescue of the Eaton 16 Mustangs

On the same day AWHC released its report on the deadly consequences of the BLM’s Adoption Incentive Program, 16 BLM-branded mustangs showed up at a notorious kill pen in Eaton, Colorado. What happened next was a monumental effort involving group collaboration to get these horses to safety.

Read more to learn about the lengths AWHC, Evanescent Mustang Rescue, and Skydog Sanctuary went to rescue these innocent animals.

READ MORE

In Full Swing: Summer Roundup Season

Photo by Nenah Demunster for AWHC

As we write this, BLM-contracted helicopters are stampeding wild horses and burros into traps in four different Herd Management Areas (HMAs) across three western states with the goal to roundup 5,600+ animals. AWHC has field representatives on the ground to bring you the latest.

Read our reports for each of these roundups:

READ MORE

Thanks for all you continue to do to protect wild horses and burros, Meredith!

— AWHC Team

 

LEGAL UPDATE 🚨: We gave the BLM a chance, now we’re suing.

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Last month, we sent a legal petition to the Department of the Interior, giving it until June 30, 2021 to shut down the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) failed Adoption Incentive Program (AIP). Unfortunately, Meredith, the Interior Department failed to respond to our petition.

So now, in collaboration with several of our partners — Skydog Sanctuary, Evanescent Mustang Rescue, and photographer Carol Walker — we have filed suit against the BLM to put an end to the AIP. 

We have provided the Interior Department with clear evidence that the BLM violated several federal laws when creating the AIP, and that the program has resulted in a significant uptick in the number of wild horses and burros entering the slaughter pipeline. But so far the response is just an internal “review” with no halting of the program — meaning that BLM horses and burros continue to be sent to kill pens through the AIP. 

Even if just one more wild horse ends up at a kill pen as a result of this program, that is still one too many. Will you make a $25 donation to our Legal Fund today to help us have the resources for this legal battle?

DONATE

Since uncovering this slaughter pipeline, which led to a New York Times exposé earlier this year, we’ve been working nonstop to put an end to this disastrous program. We’ve worked with Senator Dianne Feinstein and 30+ other members of Congress urging the Interior Department to suspend the program and conduct a thorough investigation.

The lives of hundreds of wild horses and burros are at stake, Meredith. The Interior Department has failed to appropriately respond to our requests to end this program. So with no signs of stopping from the BLM — we’ve now taken legal action to ensure that the AIP program is terminated. 

Can you make a donation to our Legal Fund today to help us take on the Interior Department’s BLM in court and terminate their Adoption Incentive Program?

DONATE

Thank you for your support,

Suzanne Roy
Executive Director
American Wild Horse Campaign

ICYMI: Over 30 members of Congress have called on the BLM to suspend its’ AIP!

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

We wanted to make sure you heard about this exciting update:

Over the last week, 30+ members of Congress have called on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to suspend an adoption program that’s sending wild horses and burros to slaughter. 

SIGN ON NOW TO DEMAND THE BLM HALT THE AIP >>

The recent groundbreaking New York Times report — prompted by an AWHC investigation of the BLM’s Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) — has led to national awareness about the plight of wild horses and burros, and has received significant attention from legislators on Capitol Hill.

Late last week, in a letter directed to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA) called on the Interior Department to immediately suspend the BLM’s AIP and conduct a thorough investigation into the program that’s become a pipeline to slaughter for untold numbers of federally-protected wild horses and burros.

On Wednesday, U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Dina Titus, Steve Cohen, Jan Schakowsky, and Mike Quigley along with 25 of their House colleagues sent a similar letter to Secretary Haaland, asking that the AIP be suspended and calling for the passage of the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act to protect all American horses from slaughter.

Thanks to your support and the buzz surrounding the New York Times article, significant action is being taken to protect America’s wild horses and burros! But Erica, we can’t stop now. Can you sign our petition and join Congress in demanding that the BLM halt the Adoption Incentive Program that’s sending wild horses and burros to slaughter?

SIGN THE PETITION

 
In coordination with our rescue partners, Evanescent Mustang Rescue, Skydog Sanctuary, and Black Hills Sanctuary, AWHC spent significant time searching for and accumulating tangible evidence to document the connection between the BLM’s AIP and the uptick in cherished wild horses and burros in slaughter auctions across the country — all leading to the New York Times exposé. 
We’re working with Senator Feinstein, Reps. Titus and Cohen, and many other members of Congress to put a halt to the AIP, pass federal legislation to help keep wild horses in the wild, and we’re fighting back against a dangerous bill that would strip away federal protections for wild horses and burros by allowing the BLM to trade away their habitats to states.

Erica, we’re doing everything we can to preserve and protect wild horse and burro herds across the U.S. Can you join us in our efforts by signing our petition and demanding that the BLM put an end to its disastrous Adoption Incentive Program?

SIGN THE PETITION

 
Thank you,
AWHC Team

A major victory for the captive Fish Springs horses

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

News & Alerts

Over the holidays, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) removed four families of wild horses from Fish Springs in Nevada’s Carson Valley, including the famed stallion Samson.

Hundreds of thousands of you reached out and got involved in the fight to keep Samson and the captured Fish Springs horses together with the hope of returning them to the wild.

While the BLM did not agree to return them to the wild, we are pleased to report that, after a coordinated and dedicated effort between a half dozen organizations working together, we were successful in keeping these cherished wild horse families intact.

During the online BLM auction for the captive Fish Springs horses, AWHC coordinated with Montgomery Creek Ranch and Freedom Reigns Equine Sanctuary to secure ten wild horses from two bands led by the stallions Rocky and Rusty.

Happily, these two families — which include three generations in Rocky’s band: 19-year-old Copper, Copper’s daughter Luna and Luna’s baby Jimmy — will now run together at Freedom Reigns’ beautiful, 3,800-acre sanctuary in California.

At the same time, Skydog Sanctuary successfully bid on Samson’s band — which includes four generations of horses: Old Momma, a 26-year old veteran mare, her daughter Apple, Apple’s daughter Dumplin’ and her colt Sam — and will provide them lifetime refuge at its beautiful 8,000-acre sanctuary in Oregon. A local family stepped up to accept the remaining horses.

The Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates are pitching in to fund the transport of the horses to the sanctuaries as well as the gentling of the horses headed for the private ranch.

Meanwhile, the work continues to keep the remaining Fish Springs horses — and all of America’s wild horses throughout the West — wild in their habitat on our public lands.

We couldn’t have done this without you,

American Wild Horse Campaign

FINAL DAY: Save mares in Oregon from cruel experimentation

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

A few weeks ago, a mare gave birth to two beautiful twin foals in Oregon – a rarity in nature, and a miracle that all three horses remain healthy and alive. This beautiful family was supposed to live together, happy and free, at Skydog Sanctuary, but the Bureau of Land Management office in Burns, Oregon had other plans.

The mother is on a list to become part of the sterilization experiment the BLM is planning to conduct conduct called “ovariectomy via colpotomy.”The procedure involves a BLM vet inserting their arm into a mare’s vagina, making an incision, and twisting/severing their ovaries to pull them out. It’s no wonder that veterinarians call it barbaric and risky. The chances of infection and death are dangerously high during and after the procedure, and because the mares are conscious the whole time, it’s extremely painful for the mares to endure.

Tomorrow is the final day to submit your comments objecting to the BLM’s cruel and inhumane sterilization practices. Act now to save the wild mares in Oregon.

Thank you,

The AWHC Team

Three actions you can take this week to help wild horses

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

News & Alerts

Act Now: Stop the Wild Horse Sellout Plan

On May 22, 2019, the House Appropriations Committee approved the 2020 Interior-Environment appropriations legislation, including language requested by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Humane Society of the United States., the ASPCA, and Return to Freedom establishing a $6 million “pilot” program for wild horse management. The funds will be used to round up and remove large numbers of wild horses from their habitats, and, according to Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT), to sterilize these free-roaming animals. The “pilot” is Phase 1 of a devastating, ten-year plan to round up and remove an astounding 130,000 wild horses and burros — more than even exist today — from their habitats.  Please join AWHC in opposing the plan and asking the Senate to reject it.

 

Use Your Voice to Stop Dangerous Sterilization Surgeries on Mares

The BLM is at it again. For the third time in as many years, the agency is planning dangerous and painful surgical sterilization experiments on wild mares in Oregon. The BLM abandoned previous attempts to conduct the controversial procedures (ovariectomy via colpotomy) in the face of multiple lawsuits, a federal injunction and widespread public outrage. The BLM is currently accepting public comments on its third attempt to implement the procedures. With your help, we stopped these cruel experiments twice before and we’ll do it again to protect innocent wild mares in Oregon from being brutalized. The deadline for public comments is June 12, so please act today! 

 

Sign the Petition to #FreeTheTwins

Something miraculous happened a few weeks ago at the BLM Hines Corrals in Oregon. A mare who was rounded up from the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in October 2018 recently gave birth… to twins! BLM employees asked Skydog Sanctuary if it would adopt the miracle mare and her twins but later blocked the adoption because the mare is slated to be used in the barbaric sterilization study mentioned above. This unique and innocent family deserves to go to Skydog Sanctuary. Please take one moment to sign the petition below!