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BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program

Your generosity allows us to be a voice for these innocent animals

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

In addition to documenting the cruelty that wild horses and burros are subjected to during Bureau of Land Management (BLM) helicopter roundups, my teammates and I investigate what happens to these innocent animals after they’ve been captured.

Our Investigations Team files Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to obtain government documents that reveal the harsh reality wild horses and burros face after they are rounded up and funneled into the BLM’s overburdened holding system. Our findings consistently show that the inhumane treatment these animals suffer continues well after the helicopters are grounded.

HELP HOLD THE BLM ACCOUNTABLE

Our FOIA work helps uncover indisputable evidence of the often unreported death toll of roundup operations, as well as the cruel impacts of the BLM’s holding system. For example, late last year, we filed FOIA requests that illuminated the deaths of over 30 burros at a Utah holding facility between August and September 2022.

The records we secured revealed that six burros died from hemorrhaging during gelding, and four were euthanized. These same records showed that the majority of the burros died from a preventable blood disease that they can get when they experience extreme stress.

Tragedies like this prove that the deaths don’t stop once the helicopters do. But if it weren’t for the work of our Investigations Team, the truth about what happened to these burros may have never been made public. 

With thousands of wild horses in the BLM’s crosshairs this summer, we’ve set a goal of raising $50,000 before the start of the roundups to power our work to stand up for wild horses and burros – including funding our investigations program. Will you make a contribution to help ensure our Investigations Team has the resources we need to continue showing the American public the cruelty our wild herds suffer in BLM captivity?

HELP US REACH OUR GOAL

Just like our observers who document violations at roundups in the field, our investigations work has shed a light on some serious animal welfare concerns within the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. In the past few years, FOIA has helped us to uncover:

  • The horrific slaughter pipeline resulting from the BLM’s disastrous Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) which has landed at least 1,100 wild horses and burros in kill pens since the start of our investigation;
  • The deaths of 16 horses at the U.S. Forest Service’s Double Devil Wild Horse Corrals and the BLM’s Bruneau Wild Horse Off-Range Corrals;
  • The BLM’s use of IUD’s in wild mares despite the lack of scientific research about the efficacy and safety of these devices in wild populations;
  • And so much more.

These findings were only made possible thanks to the grassroots support of wild horse-allies like you fueling our work. With roundup season just days away, will you help us reach our $50,000 goal to continue powering our investigations program?

DONATE TODAY

Thank you for your support,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amelia Perrin
Investigations Manager
American Wild Horse Campaign

Innocent baby foals do not deserve to be treated this way

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Over the holiday weekend, one of our roundup observers witnessed firsthand the devastating and inhumane treatment by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and its contractors of an innocent baby wild horse.

During the ongoing Buffalo Hills Herd Management Area (HMA) roundup, our observer caught on video BLM contractors violently slamming the young foal to the ground. We have the footage if you’d like to see for yourself & then take action.

PROTECT WILD FOALS → ACT NOW

Reportedly, these contractors then hogtied the baby and threw the young foal to the ground once more before putting him into the back of an Off Highway Vehicle. These actions are deeply disturbing and unfortunately we know that this small foal is not — nor will he be — the only one to suffer this roundup season. During the hot summer months, vulnerable young foals are chased by low-flying helicopters and often sustain broken bones, injuries, and in some cases, die.

Meredith, our beloved foals don’t deserve this treatment. No animal does. We’re calling for an immediate halt to helicopter roundups and an investigation into the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. If you want to see these atrocities stop, please join us.

TAKE ACTION

This will not be the only foal mistreated at the hands of the BLM contractors this roundup season. During last year’s roundups, many foals were seriously injured or died due to inhumane practices and helicopter chases.

We will not stand by while the BLM actively puts foals in harm’s way. Foaling season should NOT be helicopter season. Take action now for these innocent young animals by calling for an immediate halt to roundups and an investigation into the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.

TAKE ACTION

Thank you for your help.

Suzanne Roy
Executive Director
American Wild Horse Campaign

BREAKING: House Committee Takes Important Step for Wild Horses and Burros!!

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

We’ve got BIG news.

Thanks to your support, the House Appropriations Committee just adopted language championed by AWHC calling for on-range management strategies of America’s cherished wild horses and burros. The Committee allocated $11 million in funding for humane, reversible fertility control vaccines as part of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget.

Additionally, the Committee called for several other key provisions that would help keep wild horses and burros on public lands where they belong and better safeguard the welfare of animals that are sold or adopted by federal agencies. These include:

  • Evaluating options for relocating wild horses and burros to different Herd Management Areas (HMAs) as an alternative to sending them to government holding facilities.
  • Reviewing the BLM’s Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) for any weaknesses that jeopardize the welfare of wild horses and burros placed into private care.
  • Partnering with veterans and wild horse organizations to assist in the implementation of a robust fertility control program.
  • Requiring the BLM to provide quarterly reports to Congress regarding how funds are spent and performance metrics.

The Committee also addressed concerns about wild horses and burros under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) by emphasizing the importance of implementing adequate screening procedures for adopters and purchasers of these animals. The USFS currently lacks safeguards to protect wild horses and burros it rounds up and removes from their habitats on USFS lands. This, paired with sale prices as low as $25 a horse, raises serious concerns that USFS wild horses could end up in the slaughter pipeline or face other inhumane outcomes.

We are incredibly grateful for the concrete steps Congress has taken toward reforming the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program over the past two years. This is a result of your unrelenting advocacy, and it marks important progress in the fight to protect these iconic animals. 

At the same time, the bill proposes increased overall funding for the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program — although $6 million less than what the Committee proposed last year. We must continue to press the BLM to use any additional funding to improve its program by reducing inhumane removals and addressing shortcomings in its holding system, where 60,000 wild horses and burros are confined and where disease outbreaks have claimed the lives of 159 wild horses so far this year.

This isn’t the last step in the congressional appropriations process, so stay tuned for more updates! 

— The AWHC Team

From the field ➡️ to Congress and the court

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

We’ll be the first to admit that protecting America’s wild horses and burros is no easy feat.

The weather conditions at roundup observation sites can be particularly harsh, the time spent preparing for legal battles can go into the late hours of the night, and sometimes we feel like broken records combatting the misinformation spread by the cattle industry to Congress.

But we know — how we feel in these uncomfortable moments, pales in comparison to the pain our cherished wild horses and burros feel when they are chased into traps, breaking family bands apart and costing them their freedom forever.

We’re on a mission to preserve the freedom of wild horses and burros on the public lands they call home. And that starts with oversight.

From the reporting done by our observers in the field, to sharing these findings with Congress, to enacting life changing legislation for our wild herds, and taking the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to court — we’re leading the charge for oversight and reform of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.

If you’re with us in our fight to preserve the freedom of America’s wild horses and burros, will you donate to fuel this critical work, today?

DONATE

The movement to protect these cherished animals has not happened overnight. Our team has taken a calculated approach to fight for the protection of our wild herds in the field, in the courts, and on the Hill. We will not stop until wild horses and burros have true freedom on the public lands they call home.

Between video footage taken at roundups and documentation from our observation team, we are creating progress and enacting historic change. Right now, legislation has been introduced in Congress that would effectively ban the use of helicopter roundups as a population management tactic by the BLM.

Every court battle won and every victory in Congress brings us one step closer to preserving the freedom of these innocent animals.

If you’re with us in our fight in the field, in court, and on the Hill to protect America’s wild horses and burros, will you donate to fuel our efforts today?

DONATE

Thank you,

American Wild Horse Campaign

The BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program needs oversight

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) may have grounded its helicopters for the 2022 wild horse foaling season, but thousands of burros are still stuck in the crosshairs starting next month.

We send humane observers to bear witness to these devastating roundups, and , they are reporting some recurring and upsetting themes; a significant lack of transparency from the BLM and its contractors during the operations and a concerning number of injuries and deaths.  

Today is the first email in a series where we’ll be sharing the costs and consequences of the BLM’s roundup program. Over the next few days, you’ll be hearing from us with observations from the field that highlight just why the BLM’s program urgently needs reform.

We’re using the documentation our team has accumulated to hold the BLM accountable. Will join us by calling for a Congressional oversight hearing on the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program?

TAKE ACTION

The massive roundup that ended earlier this year in Wyoming’s Checkerboard region resulted in the removal of an astounding 4,161 wild horses, making this the largest wild horse roundup in history. The toll was steep: 37 of these cherished animals lost their lives as a result of the helicopter roundup itself, while dozens more died in the holding pens in the month after the operation ended.

Our investigations, based on information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, have revealed that the BLM is dramatically under-reporting the mortality rate of helicopter roundups by excluding the deaths that occur in the holding pens days and weeks after the roundups end.

This is unacceptable. Wild horses are being chased to pure exhaustion in a run for their freedom and their lives. Far too many die after sustaining traumatic injuries such as broken limbs and necks.

Enough is enough. Congress must be presented with the reality of these roundups that we, the taxpayers, are paying for. Will you join us in calling on Congress to hold an oversight hearing on the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program? Reform of this disastrous program is needed now more than ever.

TAKE ACTION

Thanks for fighting alongside us,

Suzanne Roy
Executive Director
American Wild Horse Campaign

Tell Congress: Hold an oversight hearing on the Wild Horse and Burro Program >>

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Thank you so much to everyone who renewed their support over the last month to help us protect America’s wild horses and burros in 2022 and the years to come. We’re grateful for your generosity and dedication to protecting our wild herds.

Right now, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program badly needs critical reforms.

Every single year, thousands of America’s wild horses and burros are brutally chased by low-flying helicopters and cruelly captured. These cherished animals that once freely roamed our public lands are sent to holding facilities across the country, costing them their families, their freedom, and for some of them — their lives. Far too many are ending up in the slaughter pipeline through a BLM program that pays individuals $1,000 per animal to adopt up to four untamed wild horses or burros per year.

What happens during these roundups is equally as upsetting — wild horses and foals run for their lives, chased to pure exhaustion. Foals are left abandoned and hungry without their mothers, and panicked horses break their limbs, backs, or necks during the chase or in the trap pens.

The continuation of helicopter roundups as the primary method of population management is fiscally reckless, unscientific, and grossly inhumane. The BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program needs reform and it needs it now.

Join us in calling on Congress to hold an oversight hearing on the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.

TAKE ACTION

The BLM is in Year 2 of a devastating, accelerated roundup plan that aims to remove as many as 20,000 wild horses and burros per year over the next five years. In 2022, the BLM is conducting aggressive roundups that will remove 19,000 wild horses and burros from their homes on our public lands.

If we don’t speak up for America’s wild horses and burros, thousands more will be mistreated at the hands of the BLM and their contractors. Just this month, the BLM finished the largest roundup in U.S. history in the Wyoming Checkerboard, throwing nearly 4,000 formerly free-roaming wild horses into feedlot pens and leaving behind a trail of animal welfare violations. Action must be taken to drastically reform this mismanaged program.

Will you join us right now in calling on Congress to hold oversight hearings on the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program?

TAKE ACTION

Thanks for standing with us in the fight to protect our wild herds,

— AWHC Team

Help us save the wild horses – before it’s too late!

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Today I’m going to ask that you donate $25 to the American Wild Horse Campaign. But first, let me explain why we urgently need your support:

This summer is going to be a hard one for our cherished wild herds. Their freedom, families, and even their lives are going to be on the line.

Right now, helicopter roundups are paused until July 1 for foaling season. But shortly thereafter, one of the most beloved herds in the country will again be targeted for removal: the wild horses of the Onaqui Mountains in Utah. We have a plan in place to attempt to stop the operation from proceeding and we need your support.

In August, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to conduct brutal surgical sterilization procedures on captive wild mares from the Confusion HMA in Utah. We have already filed suit to stop them and will need the resources to continue what could be a long, drawn-out battle.

Congress has already begun its annual Appropriations process, considering funding for the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. Will it continue to throw money at the mass roundup and removal of wild horses and burros, or will it require the agency to shift focus to humane, on the range management of mustangs? The outcome depends on us. We need your assistance to help keep our team on Capitol Hill.

While there is much at stake for our wild horses and burros, there are also big opportunities to create meaningful change with a new administration, Interior Secretary, and BLM Director. But time is of the essence — we must act now.

Will you please donate $25 right now and help us save the wild horses and burros of America — before it’s too late?

Thank you,
Suzanne Roy

Executive Director
American Wild Horse Campaign

We are the last line of defense for America’s wild horses

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Earlier this month, we set an ambitious fundraising goal of $50,000 to document the BLM’s roundup season, which began in Nevada’s Triple B Complex. That was before this week’s Senate hearing on the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program – a one-sided affair for cattle industry lobbyists, and not a single advocate for preserving America’s wild horses in the wild.

Thanks to you, we hit our $50,000 goal this week. The response from supporters like you has been an incredible boost during the hardest time of the year for wild horses. But to fight back against the stacked proceedings in the Senate – at the same time as the BLM’s terrifying and cruel roundups continue in the West – we’re now raising our goal to make sure everyone, from the American people to their elected leaders on Capitol Hill, sees how inhumane and unnecessary the BLM roundups really are.

We’re doubling down to fight the threats to wild horses and burros. Will you make a donation to help reach our new $100,000 fundraising goal, so we can continue fighting for wild horses in Washington, DC and on our Western public lands?

Thanks to your support, we’ve been out at the Triple B roundup in Nevada these past few weeks — with heartbreaking photo and video evidence that will long outlast this roundup. Just over 800 horses lost their freedom at Triple B this month; 16 of them lost their lives. These include five tiny foals, one of whom was too weak to stand after withstanding a miles-long helicopter stampede and another who died of water toxicity, likely a result of the BLM’s failure to give the vulnerable baby electrolytes after an arduous run in summer heat left him stressed and dehydrated.

We’ll use this evidence for the battles ahead. This week’s Senate hearing wasn’t just about laying the groundwork for more roundups. The cattle industry lobbyists and BLM want money to surgically sterilize wild horses who remain in the wild, by castrating stallions and ripping out the ovaries of wild mares in dangerous and painful surgeries.

The cattle industry’s path forward leads to one place — mass destruction… of wild, free-roaming horses in the wild, and of those in captivity whose days will be numbered when the government funding to care for them runs out.

We’ve increased our fundraising goal because this week’s Senate hearing proved, once again, that we are the last line of defense for keeping wild horses wild on the public lands where they belong. Please make a donation to support our work today.

Thank you for everything you’re doing during this critical time for wild horses and burros. We could not do this work without you.

Thank you,

Suzanne