Thanks to your incredible support, we’ve unlocked a $100,000 matching gift ahead of Giving Tuesday! Your generosity has doubled the impact of your gift — ensuring we can fight even harder to protect America’s wild horses and burros in the new year.
Thanks to you, we’re one step closer to a future where wild herds roam freely, safe from cruel roundups and undue harm. Your commitment is the heart of our mission, and we’re so grateful to have you on this journey with us.
From all of us at American Wild Horse Conservation: Thank you for believing in this cause.
With gratitude and hope,
Suzanne Roy
Executive Director
American Wild Horse Conservation
P.S. Please stay tuned for more Giving Tuesday updates — we couldn’t do this without you!
At the American Wild Horse Conservation, our bold mission — and the daily work we do in pursuit of that mission — embodies the values that make America what it is.
Liberty. Justice. Hope.
Today, as we take a well-earned break to connect with family and celebrate Independence Day, let us take a moment to remember the iconic animals whose freedom remains under threat.
The spirit of the American wild horse is a reminder of the indelible principles our great nation was founded upon. For centuries, wild horses and burros have roamed freely on America’s western landscapes — serving not just as symbols of freedom, but as important contributors to their delicate ecosystems.
Unfortunately, at this very moment, wild herds across the West are being stripped of their freedom, split from their families, and ripped away from their natural habitats.
This is all thanks to brutal helicopter roundups conducted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which officially began this week. Federally funded helicopter roundup operations place extreme stress on wild mares and foals — leaving them traumatized, injured, or, worst of all, killed.
It’s simple math: The inhumane treatment by the BLM, plus a $154 million bill footed by American taxpayers, equals the inexcusable cost of freedom lost for our wild herds.
We know it doesn’t have to be this way.
That’s why the AWHC team is devoting as many resources as possible to ending these cruel helicopter roundups for good. We are on a mission to shift federal management of wild horses to more humane conservation initiatives, such as fertility control vaccines.
Today, on Independence Day, we pledge to continue our fight to deliver liberty and justice to all wild horses and their uniquely American legacy.
The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) summer roundup season begins this Monday.
This summer, government helicopters will descend on wild horses and burros in five states across the West as the BLM continues its plans to round up over 20,000 of these iconic animals from their homes this Fiscal Year (FY).
The first herd targeted is the North Lander Complex wild horses in Wyoming where over 2,700 are slated to be permanently removed from the range. This is the largest roundup planned in FY 2024. And Meredith, that’s just the beginning – thousands more of these innocent animals will also face inhumane helicopter roundups in Nevada, Utah, California, and Oregon.
AWHC is working tirelessly to end the cruel practice of helicopter roundups and prove there is a better way to manage America’s wild herds. In the meantime, it’s crucial that we hold the BLM accountable for the abuses that wild horses and burros face during these capture operations. That’s why we’re preparing to send observation teams to as many of the planned helicopter roundups as possible to document the inhumane treatment of our wild herds – and we need your help to make it happen.
Helicopter roundups often leave wild horses and burros traumatized. Young foals are separated from their mothers, horses and burros are often run to exhaustion, injuries are common, and sometimes lives are tragically lost.
These operations take place in some of the most remote corners of the West away from the public eye. That’s why AWHC has assembled and trained a team of photographers and videographers who deploy to these locations and serve as our boots on the ground, ensuring transparency and accountability during roundups.
My name is Holly, and I’m AWHC’s Director of Government Relations. My team and I work day in and day out to enact lasting protections for wild horses and burros at the congressional level. Because the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service (USFS) are federal agencies, Congress is the only governing body that is able to provide oversight, force accountability, and reform these agencies, making our work in Washington, D.C. essential. And your work advocating for a better way by contacting your federal legislators is a key part of our efforts.
So earlier this week, our team asked for your help harnessing support for three critical bills that could save the lives of our cherished wild herds. First, I wanted to say thank you — when supporters like you send messages to your elected officials, they listen. And when our team goes to Capitol Hill or state legislatures across the West to educate lawmakers on the issues wild horses and burros are facing, your calls for action help make our effort successful.
Once we get to sit down with these officials, we show them that there is a better way to manage these federally protected icons, including a focus on implementing humane fertility control vaccines to stabilize populations. And after many long hours fighting in Washington, D.C. and across the West, we’ve achieved some pretty remarkable legislative victories for our wild herds!
For the last two years, we’ve secured $11 million in BLM funding during the annual appropriations process to explore humane fertility control vaccines as an alternative to helicopter roundups. Recently, we worked on a historic bill in Colorado to support fertility control programs for the state’s herds. We’ve also advocated for passage of legislation to protect California’s wild horses from slaughter. Not only that, but we’ve garnered congressional support to reform the BLM’s Adoption Incentive Program, we’ve worked with federal legislators to address practices at the U.S. Forest Service that endanger animal welfare, and we’re supporting bills such as the SAFE Act to ban horse slaughter and the Wild Horse Protection Act of 2023 to eliminate the use of helicopters.
It’s hard to put into words just how important holidays like today are to our team at the American Wild Horse Campaign. To celebrate a national holiday specifically dedicated to protecting the animals we hold so close to our hearts means so much to our team who day in and day out carry on the fight to protect the lives and freedom of our wild herds.
So today, as we celebrate a holiday meant to inspire the masses about the plight of our dearest equines, we wanted to tell you about Cirrus — a mare whose story continues to inspire each and every one of us at AWHC.
In 2018, an AWHC field representative was on-site to report on the ongoing helicopter roundup and removal operations happening at the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in Oregon. There he saw the most extraordinary mare:
Cirrus had the likeness of a horse imprinted on her neck. As she ran, chased by helicopters, the horse moved with her. To see something so beautiful in the most devastating of circumstances… was surreal, in a way that perfectly embodied the beauty of these innocent animals and the tragedy they are plagued by.
We managed to keep track of Cirrus while she was in holding, hoping to find her a forever home. However, we found that she was slated, along with a dozen other mares, to be a test subject for a surgical sterilization study — an unproven and brutal procedure with a high mortality rate.
When we found this out, we knew we had to continue fighting against these studies. So we joined forces with two of our partner organizations and filed a lawsuit to stop the barbaric surgeries from proceeding. And , we won.
Thanks to donations made to our Legal Fund and our amazing legal team, we were able to make this court win a reality.Saved from an uncertain fate, Cirrus is living out the rest of her days at AWHC’s Board President Ellie Phipps Price’s 2,000-acre sanctuary, Montgomery Creek Ranch — the next best thing to being wild and free.
More than 50 years ago, Earth Day was created as a day to put all other issues aside and focus on the protection of our beautiful planet and all of the amazing creatures who call it home.
Every single day, our team sees firsthand the threats that wild horses and burros face — whether that be the dangerous adoption incentive program, brutal helicopter roundups, or the interests of the cattle industry superseding the needs of these innocent equines.
Over the next 5 years, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to conduct mass roundups and removals of over 100,000 wild horses and burros from across the West – more of these animals than even exist today!
What has been framed as a plan for “necessary” population management is no more than a thinly veiled attempt to appease the special interests of the livestock industry — an industry that has been lobbying Congress for decades so that ranchers may graze their personal animals on public lands for cheap.
This is not a path forward, it’s a path toward ecological destruction.
So, as we celebrate Earth Day today, we can think of no better way to commemorate this special holiday than by doubling down on our commitment to ensure that our cherished wild horses and burros remain free, in the wild on the public lands they call home. Here are 3 ways you can take action to support our wild herds today:
The Biden Administration just released its proposed Fiscal Year 2023 budget for the U.S. Department of the Interior and called for $153.1 million to fund the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program. Meredith, that’s an increase of $16 million from the BLM’s approved FY22 program budget enacted earlier this month.
We’re disappointed to see the Biden Administration increase spending towards the BLM’s mismanaged programs, but compared to previous years, this increase is noticeably smaller — we’re hopeful that this marks a departure from the current mass round up and removal plan that would remove 100,000 wild horses and burros from public lands over the next five years.
So, we’re taking action. It’s time we start advocating for wild horse-friendly spending in the FY23 Appropriations bill to ensure the Biden Administration and our leaders in Congress enact a pro-horse agenda for the next year.
Congress already took historic steps this year when it passed the FY22 omnibus spending bill to ensure the BLM utilizes up to $11 million to implement a robust fertility control vaccine program for the remaining months of this year.
While there were aspects of Congress’ omnibus that were disappointing, the $11 million secured this year was the first time that Congress had directed the BLM to utilize scientifically-proven fertility control. And, that is a victory worth celebrating!
Meaningful implementation of a robust fertility control vaccine program means the BLM can’t afford to ignore the science. Our federal officials and BLM leadership will see once and for all that in-the-wild management works and means fewer removals for our wild herds.
In a little less than a month, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will unleash helicopters to begin its summer assault on wild horses and burros living on public lands in the West. In the BLM’s crosshairs: wild horse and burro herds in Utah, Colorado, and Nevada.
The largest roundup of the summer will take place in Nevada’s Shawave Mountains Herd Management Area (HMA), just 50 miles northeast of Reno. The HMA is part of the 1 million-acre Blue Wing Complex, where the BLM allows just 333 to 553 horses and 50 to 90 burros while authorizing 1,200 privately owned cattle and 2,700 sheep to graze year-round.
This is just the beginning. If the BLM has its way, as many as 18,000-20,000 wild horses and burros will lose their freedom each year… if Congress decides to fund the agency’s mass roundup plan.
Summer roundups are particularly inhumane due to sweltering desert temperatures and the presence of tiny, vulnerable foals, who are sometimes literally run to death in miles-long helicopter stampedes.
This summer, this cruelty could take place out of public view, as the BLM is already signaling that it may use COVID-19 restrictions to block the public from witnessing these brutal capture operations and documenting their terrible impacts on wild horses and burros.
AWHC is gearing up for these summer roundups, both to document them and to fight back if the BLM attempts to crack down on public observation.
At the same time, we’re working on Capitol Hill to shelve the BLM’s plan to massively scale up roundups and force the agency to prioritize humane fertility control to manage wild herds and keep them wild.
Your help is needed on all fronts! Here’s what you can do today:
Donate to our Roundup FundToday’s donation will keep our team in the field during the roundup season and give us the resources necessary to ensure our legal team can challenge any attempts to block public observation.
Ask them to put the brakes on BLM’s mass removal plans, require the use of humane fertility control as an alternative to roundups, and prohibit the conducting of helicopter roundups in the absence of public observation.
As I write this, our field representative is out on Nevada public lands documenting the roundup of the wild horses living in the Triple B Complex. Roundup documentation is crucial work to hold the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) accountable for the devastating impacts of its inhumane management program to wild horses on our public lands.
These wild herds are at risk of being destroyed forever. The BLM’s 10-year plan for the Triple B and Antelope Complexes includes removing thousands of wild horses from public lands and castrating 50 percent of the stallions who remain in the wild, destroying their natural behaviors – the very essence of their wildness.
Here’s how we’re working to stop this cruelty: Last year we filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Nevada challenging the plan. Our case is currently with the Nevada Court of Appeals.
We’re also in the field to photograph, report, and monitor the situation on the ground. Our photos, videos, and reports hold the BLM accountable by informing the public and our elected leaders about the cruelty that is happening to America’s treasured horses on our public lands.
