The latest video captured by our observation team in Wyoming shows a mare trying to protect her foal while being rounded up by a helicopter and men on horseback with ropes. Later in the day, our observer photographed the exhausted foal lying lifelessly on the ground in a holding pen. By the next morning, he was dead.
Most Americans have no clue what’s happening on public lands at the hands of our government. The abuse of wild horses is taking a huge toll. Roundups are hardest on young foals, who are pushed too far and too fast in the summer heat. Half of the wild horse deaths so far in the Wyoming roundup have been foals. At least three were literally run to death.
Here’s the math: if everyone of us shares this petition with 5 friends, more than 1 million people will learn about this abuse. And if just 1 of those 5 signs our petition, we’ll double the size of our movement overnight.
Just got an urgent call from the Shipper. Normally we get a day’s notice? But NOT today. There are 3 orphaned foals sitting at the shipper’s. They have already been pulled off their moms. Moms have shipped and babies are sitting in 100+ degree heat waiting for me to get there. One of them is supposed to be very young.
Time is of the essence and I need to leave now! However, we need some help to get up there and save those babies, get Coggins etc., buy some groceries for them, and bring them home to safety.
Appreciate any help y’all can give. Matt is heading home from CA but I can’t wait to leave.
PLEASE help if you can. Thank you from all the babies, but especially the ones sitting in the pens, scared, alone and crying for their mama’s.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KEEP HELPING US SAVE MORE LIVES, YOU CAN GO TO:
These two donkeys are simply adorable and at first glance they look very happy and well cared for. They came from a hoarding situation. SYA has been able to help their owner by taking in donkeys from her as she was emotionally able to part with them over the last five years or so. There is no doubt that she loved them all dearly. The woman is in her eighties and in poor health. I am not sure of how long it’s been since she has been able to go outside as she is wheelchair bound, let alone to do anything with or for the donkeys. These two beautiful cousins had been living in a filthy barn/stall/paddock area. Their manure had not been cleaned in years. The only water they had available to them was about six inches of green, thick scummy soup, and full of rotting leaves. Their hooves look ok in this picture, but several have major flares, and one has part of a hoof wall missing. In fairness to their owner, she did have someone in to “care” for the donkeys but was obviously unable to check and see how the donkeys were faring.
As is often the case with donkeys it seems, rather than being too thin, they are very overweight. They both have fat pones on their necks and flanks. Obesity in donkeys is something we see more often than underweight animals, and is in my opinion, a form of neglect. Donkeys are NOT little horses with big ears. They are a species that has evolved very successfully over a very long period of history getting by on very little forage, of often fairly poor nutritional value, that they had to walk over miles of stony, rocky, hard ground to reach. We plop them down in rich, grassy pastures and are then surprised when they develop hoof and other health issues.
I would rather take in animals that are too thin as it is so much easier to put fat on to a donkey than to take it off. A fat donkey is not a healthy donkey. I recommend a dry lot for all donkeys for at least part of a 24 hour period. They do need to graze for their behavioral needs to be properly met, but their grazing time needs to be supervised. Please be aware that allowing a donkey to become obese is shortening their overall life span and can, and often does lead to a myriad of other health related issues.
I am very happy that we are able to take in animals like these and get them on a regulated feeding program and an exercise plan that will help them slowly lose some excess pounds. A great way to help us do this is to join our Take a Long Ear to Lunch program. This enables you to make an on-going monthly donation to SYALER. All of our money to run the rescue comes via adoption fees, merchandise sales, and donations. The grants available for donkey rescue are very specific and we do not qualify for many. Any grant writers out there who want to donate their time and expertise would be more than welcome! Your monthly gift of any amount goes right into our operating cost fund and helps with everything from buying hay, supplements, equipment, to veterinary and farrier costs. Knowing we can count on a certain amount each month is a very comforting. To become a member of the program use the following link for complete details. Take a Long Ear to Lunch!
Summer will be winding down soon and I am looking forward to crisp, fall days already. We have a lot of fun things coming up. Our annual Benefit show will be held at Millot Green, Alstead, NH on Saturday, October 13th. A week after that I will be heading out to U.C. Davis Vet School for yet another Donkey Welfare Symposium. I am looking forward to that as it is always a wonderful chance to meet up with donkey friends I only see once a year at this event, and to learn more about how to give the best care possible to the animals we take in to the rescue. November brings Equine Affaire which is always a fun, if not exhausting gig. We are working on a couple of ideas for seminars/workshops at the rescue. We’ll keep you posted on those.
I hope to see you out and about at our upcoming events.
This is how the BLM rounded up 30 wild horses last week in Utah:
Our team captured these photos of the helicopter hazing horses, causing some to crash through barbed wire. These photos have already reached 1.4 million people on Facebook alone!
Right now, our observer is in Wyoming’s Red Desert, where the BLM is rounding up 1,400 wild horses from our public lands. At least six horses have died in the first five days of the roundup, including:
Two foals who were run to death. (“capture shock”)
One foal who was euthanized after breaking his leg
A six-year old stallion who was “injured and blinded by another stallion on a trailer”
Get your comments in today on a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) plan to round up and remove almost 200 wild horses from the North Hills Herd Management Area (HMA) in Iron County, Utah. This is an area where the agencies allow a maximum of 60 horses on 74,000 acres of land (1 horse per 1,233 acres!) while authorizing over 1,000 sheep and the equivalent of 147 cow/calf pairs to graze on the same public lands. Please click below to submit your comments to oppose the roundup and support humane management of this Utah mustang herd.
Photographs taken by AWHC photographer Steve Paige of a helicopter nearly hitting wild horses and causing them to crash through barbed wire at the BLM roundup underway this week in Utah are sparking public outrage. AWHC has called for an investigation of the obvious violations of the agency’s own animal welfare policies at the roundup, which is taking place in the Bible Springs Complex and Sulphur Mountains HMA. The photos of the mistreatment of wild horses have been seen by nearly a million people on social media and are raising public awareness about the government’s cruel treatment of these federally-protected icons. Read more on our roundup coverage and complaint to the BLM by clicking below.
AWHC has teamed up with the Animal Welfare Institute to fight the BLM’s plan to conduct cruel surgical experiments on wild mares to remove their ovaries. The barbaric experiments will put wild mares at risk of “death and extreme pain” due to a risky, invasive surgery that is “brutal and risky and clearly threatening to the welfare an safety of these mares’ lives,” according to equine veterinarian Robin Kelly. Worse, most of the mares will be pregnant, and the experiment is designed to determine how many will abort their foals after undergoing the barbaric procedure. Read more by clicking below.
The fate of America’s wild horses and burros is in the hands of Congress… again! Last year, the Senate blocked a House attempt to legalize the mass destruction of wild horses and burros in holding and on the range. This year, the House is at it again, with Fiscal Year 2019 Interior Appropriations language that would authorize the BLM to manage wild horses and burros in non-reproducing or single sex herds via surgical sterilization of these iconic animals on the range. It also directs BLM to lay the groundwork for the mass killing of horses over the age of 10 — barely middle age for a wild horse. The Senate version of this legislation does not contain the mass sterilization or killing provisions. The differences between the two bills will be reconciled in conference committee, and we need our Senators and Reps. to stand strong to ensure that the Senate version of the legislation once again prevails.
In the face of massive community opposition, the BLM has suspended plans to capture and remove approximately 50 wild horses from the beloved Fish Springs herd near Gardnerville, Nevada. Earlier this month, over 300 local citizens packed the firehouse to oppose the BLM’s roundup plan and more than 200,000 citizens have signed a petition calling on the BLM to cancel plans to remove the horses from their homes on the range. The local business community and many Nevada political leaders added their voices in support of the Fish Springs horses as well. The BLM had intended to set up bait traps this week to remove horses, but now says it will work to find “community-based management solutions that are in the best interest of both the area residents and the wild horses.” Read more about this positive development below.
The BLM’s summer roundup season is now in full swing. Signaling its intent for America’s wild herds, the agency has increased its short term holding capacity and has openings to incarcerate nearly 15,000 more wild horses and burros in these feedlot pens. The BLM is using this increased capacity to round up nearly 10,000 wild horses and burros this year. Increasingly, the BLM is using “emergency” as an excuse for these roundups, enabling the agency to skirt legal requirements for analysis and public comment. And, the BLM’s plan to conduct multiple roundups simultaneously is making it difficult for advocacy organizations to document and provide humane observers for the mass capture of mustangs and burros from their homes on our public lands.
AWHC wants to give a huge shout out the tech company Blockchains, LLC which is now the largest landowner at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, near Reno, Nevada. Blockchains is strongly committed to protecting the estimated 1,000 Virginia Range wild horses who call that area home. Recently, the company went above and beyond for the horses by immediately addressing an emergency situation threatening the lives of 70 wild horses. The horses’ water source dried up to just a trickle. Many were in poor condition as they were not leaving the site to graze, but rather were standing around waiting desperately to get even the tiniest of sips from the trickling spring.
As soon as the company learned about the situation, Blockchains immediately sprang into action, giving us access to deliver water to the horses and arranged for use of a water tank on the property. Even better, Blockchains has funded the creation of a reliable, year-round solar water source for wild horses and other wildlife in the area. Learn more and watch our video by clicking below!
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recently weakened a policy enacted six years ago to prevent the sale of wild horses and burros for slaughter. The 2013 rule, implemented after BLM was exposed for illegally selling almost 2,000 horses to a known kill buyer, prohibited the BLM from selling more than four horses per buyer without written approval from the Assistant Director of the BLM. The new rule allows the BLM to sell up to 25 horses to one buyer at a time, with no restrictions on the number of times that someone can purchase horses.
At his confirmation hearing, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke pledged to work with, not against, local communities by “being a listening advocate instead of a deaf adversary.” But now his BLM is turning a deaf ear to the pleas of the community of Gardnerville, Nevada to preserve the Fish Springs wild horses, a locally-important and cherished herd. The BLM is steamrolling over the community by plowing ahead with plans to remove 44 horses from this small herd. Tell Secretary Zinke to live up to his promise to listen to local communities by honoring the wishes of the Gardnerville community to protect the Fish Springs wild horses.
There’s still time to comment on the BLM’s plan to conduct invasive and risky sterilization surgeries on 100 wild mares in Oregon. Two years ago, the BLM cancelled plans to conduct the experiments amidst public opposition and legal action by AWHC and The Cloud Foundation. Now the agency is at it again — this time pairing the archaic surgeries with a mass helicopter roundup that will forcibly remove 685 wild horses from their homes on our public lands in the Warm Spring Herd Management Area. We must pull out all the stops to shut down this cruel plan… again!
Six years ago, the BLM was exposed for illegally selling almost 2,000 wild horses for to a Colorado kill buyer who sold them to slaughter plants in Mexico.
In response to the scandal, the agency adopted a rule preventing the sale of more than four horses to one individual without written approval from the Assistant Director of the BLM. The rule was a safeguard against the sale of horses for slaughter.
But now, the BLM has rolled that back — and is selling wild horses by the truckload again!
The new rule allows BLM to sell up to 25 horses without special approval, and places no restriction on the number of times an individual can purchase horses.
At $25 per horse, this creates an powerful incentive for shady sales to unscrupulous buyers. The number of mustangs entering the slaughter pipeline is bound to skyrocket!
We’re mobilizing now to fight back — working with our allies on Capitol Hill, getting the word out to the national media about BLM’s latest move and exploring legal options. Can you help fuel our rapid response?
We’ll keep you updated on all of our efforts over the next few weeks. Thanks for standing with us.
The BLM has been rounding up horses for decades now through brutal helicopter stampedes only to stockpile them in holding facilities. For the last two years, the agency has been asking Congress for permission to kill and slaughter these federally protected icons.
So far, Congress has said no, so now the BLM is turning to the next best thing: surgical sterilization of horses, endangering individual lives and setting our wild herds on a slow walk to extinction.
Beginning this fall, the BLM plans to conduct invasive surgeries on 100 mares captured in Oregon. A veterinarian will manually twist, sever and remove the mares’ ovaries with a rod-and-chain like tool. The surgery is painful and risky, and will be done under non-sterile conditions – all reasons why the National Academy of Sciences recommended against the procedure.
Worse: most of the mares will be pregnant and the surgery will cause many to abort their unborn foals.
The BLM thinks removing mares’ ovaries and castrating stallions is the way to manage these animals on the range, even though they know it will take the wild out of wild horses by destroying their natural behaviors.
We have to make sure the American people see what is being done to wild horses with their tax dollars. Help fund our efforts today.
Popular and beloved wild horse herds are being targeted for mass helicopter roundups and removals. Pregnant mares in Oregon are facing horrific surgeries that will cause pain, suffering and abortions of their unborn foals. Environmental laws enacted to allow the public to speak out against proposals like these are being trampled. We must fight back.
The threats against our wild horses and burros have never been steeper. The policies the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is promoting could literally spell the end for these icons on our Western public lands.
We only have a few weeks to raise the money we need to launch our campaign to fight back. We must build a firewall of protection and set legal precedents for wild horses and burros against these devastating assaults.
Two years ago, public opposition and legal action by AWHC and The Cloud Foundation caused the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Oregon to cancel plans for invasive and risky sterilization experiments on wild mares. Now the agency is at it again. This time the BLM has paired the archaic surgeries with a mass helicopter roundup that will forcibly remove 685 wild horses from their homes on our public lands in the Warm Spring Herd Management Area. We must pull out all the stops to shut down this cruel plan… again!
If you have a horse in your life, then chances are you also have a relationship with at least one equine veterinarian. We need you to contact him/her. The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) – the professional association of horse vets – has circulated to its members a draft position statement on wild horse and burro management. It’s based on one-sided information provided by the BLM and endorses lethal management methods. We need caring veterinarians to correct this information. Learn how you can help below.
The Fish Springs wild horses near Gardnerville, Nevada have a worldwide following. They are an important ecotourism resource for the community and are managed humanely by a local organization at no cost to taxpayers. But now the BLM is trampling on the wishes of the community by galloping ahead with the capture and removal of at least 44 of these cherished horses. The wild horse family bands that we have all come to know and love will be shattered. The local community will be devastated. Help us stop this now.
Although it looks like the same horses, look at the fencing and you can tell it is not the same kids. * *
Wow, This is one of the craziest rescues we have ever been on. Please remember, the Chilly Pepper “organization” consists of just myself and Matt assisting. One of the reasons why my Thank You notes are always late. :(
We are really struggling on this rescue, as there has been a great deal of loss and we are literally sitting on so many horses.
We do this because God puts it in front of us, and for the folks who can’t do it themselves, and who are always asking us to save the horses. BUT WE SIMPLY CANNOT DO IT WITHOUT YOUR HELP. We will do the work if we have the funds.
We do not have enough funds right now to keep buying this much feed and save the new kids that we were called about yesterday. There are more to be paid for, vetted and gotten to safety as I type this.
The horses would have all been moved within the next couple of days if things had gone according to our plan. However, although I don’t always understand God’s plans, I do ALWAYS TRUST that there is a reason. (Boy would I like to know what it is lol). Because our plans to have them all out of here and be back home went right out the window due to a paperwork issue.
Out of the 46 horses, there are 30+ orphaned babies who were still nursing and need milk. Luckily some of them will be transitioning over to pellets which are not quite as expensive. These kids are in rough shape, and full of parasites and just exhausted. They NEED GOOD GROCERIES to get them back to where they should be.
We have been dealing with a lot of injuries, and sadly have seen more loss of life than anyone should ever see. The heartbreak just keeps on coming. We have 4 in the “hospital pen” who are in extremely rough shape at this point and who require expensive medication and constant care.
Milk for ONE BABY is about $300 per month. We are currently going through that much EVERY SINGLE DAY – , and this is not including the additional milk pellets, grain, hay or supplements etc. There are MORE BABIES needing a commitment today, and not all of the babies here have been paid for, so the “floaters” in all reality still belong to the catcher.
It is heartbreaking and overwhelming. Everyone here is exhausted and there is no choice but to just “git ‘er done”. How do you look in their eyes and not help? This is why we are their voice and ask you for help to save their lives.
We never could have guessed we would be stuck here with so many horses to feed, and these babies need your help today. It is simply out of our control. We have not gotten “clean paperwork” so we are simply stuck. Hopefully the issue will be resolved tomorrow, but for now we have to feed everyone that has been saved. (We still have to have someone feeding and caring for the horses at home every single day we are here.)
Out of the 46, 14 are heading to Texas, 3 mares & foals are headed to CA, 2 or 3 should be going to Wyoming and 2 are tentatively scheduled for Utah. Thankfully the other 5 mares and 2 of the yearlings are headed to southern Idaho. We have so many amazing folks willing to help place them, ONCE we have paid for all the initial costs. So again, we are not ‘hoarding”, but saving their lives and getting them to safety. The stallion and 15? orphans will be coming to Chilly Pepper until we find them a good home.
Please keep these babies safe.Step one was getting them here. But now we have to actually feed and take care of them. Thank you for taking a quick minute and sending whatever you can. These kids have been through heck. They were run for 100 +/- miles, left in the trap with no feed or water for 24-48 hours, and then they were stripped away from their families. It is heartbreaking listening to them cry for their mama’s. We need to AT LEAST be able to provide proper feed for them.
So the babies are counting on you once again. Thank you for your help!
Taking a nap after filling up their bellies.
If you want to help You can go to You Caring – to help us keep saving lives..
Sophia and her baby Grayson are living peacefully on our public lands in the Fish Springs area near Gardnerville, Nevada. They have no idea that this month, the BLM will begin trapping and removing members of their herd and sending them to holding facilities. Babies like Grayson, only months old, will be taken from their moms if the BLM deems them to be “weaning age.” Mares like Sophia will be separated from their stallions. The Fish Springs wild horses families that we have all come to know and love will be shattered.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The Fish Springs horses are managed humanely with birth control through a partnership with the Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates – at no cost to taxpayers. It makes no sense to take these cherished wild horses away from the community that loves them and is managing them free of charge to the government.
Please take action to save the Fish Springs wild horses. Here’s what you can do today:
Make the calls to Nevada officials.
Nevada State Director Mike Courtney: 775-861-6400
Senator Dean Heller: 702-388-6605 and 775-686-5770
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto: 702-388-5020 and 775-686-5750
Representative Mark Amodei: 775-686-5760.
Nevada residents can say,“As a Nevadan, I ask you to stop the BLM from removing Fish Springs horses from the range and taking these cherished mustangs away from the community that loves them. Please tell the BLM to accept the community’s proposal to humanely manage the Fish Springs horses and save taxpayers $1.5 million by leaving them on the range and controlling the population with birth control. Thank you.”
Non-Nevadans, please say:“As a taxpayer, I ask you to stop the BLM from removing Fish Springs wild horses from a community program that manages them at no cost to taxpayers. I will be much less likely to spend my tourism dollars in Nevada if the BLM is allowed to destroy this cherished wild horse herd. Thank you.”
Reach out to these elected officials through social media by clicking here.
Attend the community meeting to stand up for the horses:Thursday, July 12, 6 pm – 8 pm, Fish Springs VFD, 2249 Fish Springs Rd., Gardnerville, Nevada. We need to pack the room with citizens willing to stand up for our horses!
Sign the petition – help us hit 200,000 citizens speaking up to save the Fish Springs wild horses. Sign here.
Thank you for taking action to save the Fish Springs wild horses.
Earlier this week, we wrote you about the urgent need to speak up for the wild horses in the Onaqui HMA in Utah. Many of you had trouble with the BLM site that was accepting public comments, so now we have secured an easier and more reliable way to submit comments.
The famed Onaqui wild horses who live on our public lands near Salt Lake City, Utah need your help. In just a few months, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will begin removing these beloved horses from the range. Families will be shattered and 379 of these magnificent animals will lose their freedom forever. In honor of Independence Day, please take a stand for these iconic Utah mustangs who are protected as national symbols of freedom.
I oppose the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plan to proceed with this Proposed Action that would round up 90 percent of the Onaqui herd and permanently remove 379 horses from the range.
The EA is inadequate because it failed to consider a number of critical impacts and alternatives. The final EA must revise the Proposed Action to include managing the population with fertility control, not removals, as recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. The BLM should reduce livestock grazing pursuant to 43 C.F.R. 4710.5(a) and increase the AML for this area to accommodate current wild horse herd numbers. The original Herd Area territory should be restored to active management status, thereby increasing the size of the Onaqui HMA to the 507,681 acres originally designated by Congress.
Finally, the EA must analyze these impacts: 1) BLM’s request to Congress for authorization to kill or slaughter unadopted horses on the animals themselves; 2) Mass removal on recreational use of the HMA for wild horse viewing and photographing; 3) Costly roundup/removal/holding of horses on taxpayers vs. leaving horses on the range and reducing livestock grazing; 4) Reduced ecotourism/wild horse viewing opportunities on the local economy.
ANOTHER DAY – ANOTHER URGENT 911.It sounds so dramatic, but when you are on the front lines and the only thing standing between these babies and a horrific death, or worse yet, a future as a “tripping horse“, it is ALWAYS an immediate need and the choice is life or death.
I hate to use the word DESPERATE,but this situation is just that. We had over 50 babies between the other rescue and Chilly Pepper, and we took on 35 of those babies. Unfortunately, we are still going through nearly $300 per day of milk for the ones we still have between the 2 rescues. We did get 21 placed in Idaho, so that helped tremendously.
THERE ARE MORE BABIES WE NEED TO SAVE TODAY!! Not all of the babies already here have been paid for, and I am picking up at the Shipper’s today and possibly from another catcher.
We are in ORPHAN FOAL CRISIS and these babies NEED MONEY TO SAVE THEM, VET THEM AND FEED THEM or we simply will not be able to save them.
Many of them have serious injuries, and we have already had some tragic losses. This is heartbreaking, but we will keep saving as many as we can, as long as we have the funding. So it is up to y’all, do we keep saving more? We are still in WA and they just keep coming….
So far we have spent $2,731 to get Coggins and health Certs on the 35, plus do some needed medical procedures. There are additional vet costs too.
We spent approx $3000 to save the 35 and another mare and the stallion,
We spent $700 (so far) on medical supplies we are using to treat these babies.
We spent another $900 on milk which will only last a few days as we are feeding close to $300 worth of milk each day between the remaining 30+ babies here. (That includes the babies that have not been paid for and are “floating”). (One bag of Foal Lac Powder lasts approx. 2 weeks for 1 baby).
So over $7300 just in those couple items. This does not include fuel, hay, supplements etc. the list goes on, BUT I WANTED Y’ALL TO SEE WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES!
WE SIMPLY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO SAVE THE REST OF THESE BABIES THAT ARE BEING SORTED TODAY!
IF ya’ll want their lives saved, it is up to you. Again, Matt and I will continue the 24/7 care and keep on keepin’ on, but it is going to take some serious funds. Y’all DID IT FOR THE LAST 35, so let’s DO IT AGAIN!!
PLEASE HELP RIGHT NOW!
If you want to help You can go to You Caring – to help us keep saving lives..
Breaking news: We’ve just filed ANOTHER lawsuit against the BLM. This time, we’re challenging the agency’s decision to round up and permanently remove all wild horses from the Caliente Herd Area Complex –– an area of over 900,000 acres of public land in Nevada.
Almost 50 years ago, Congress unanimously passed a federal law to protect wild horses and burros – but that hasn’t stopped the BLM from taking away 41% of their habitat since 1971.
We’ve won litigation many times in the past, and created precedent that will protect horses for generations. These kinds of lawsuits are critically important, but they take resources.
The Caliente wild horses will be rounded up and removed from their homes on the range to clear these public lands for more private livestock grazing. The horses will be thrown into feedlot pens — paid for by our tax dollars.
Meanwhile, the BLM continually scapegoats a relatively small number wild horses for the destruction and overgrazing of public lands caused by massively larger numbers of domestic cattle and sheep.
This mass removal is one more chip away at the rights of wild horses and burros – but we’re standing up to say no more.
It’s time for the BLM to stop prioritizing ranching special interests and start honoring the wishes of Americans – that our iconic mustangs are protected and humanely managed on our public lands.
The Fish Springs wild horses in Nevada need your help. They’re loved and cherished by the local community and by people internationally. Thousands of citizens follow the stories of the magnificent stallions Blondie, Samson, Zorro, Blue, Shorty and their bands, including the recently born colt Grayson (pictured below with his mom Sophia), as they live their lives wild and free on our public lands.
But now the Fish Springs horses are in danger. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to begin a trapping operation in July, targeting 70 of these beautiful horses for capture and as many as 45 for permanent removal from the range.
The action will shatter the families that we have come to know and love.
That’s why the agency needs to hear from YOU, the taxpayers, immediately. Please help us save the Fish Springs Wild Horses by taking the following actions:
1. Sign the petition
Your signatures will be hand delivered to the BLM and will make a strong statement about the support of Nevadans and other Americans for this beautiful and popular wild horse herd.
2. Call or email BLM Nevada State Director Mike Courtney: 775-861-6400 and mcourtney@blm.gov.
Here’s what you can say:
“I’m [name] calling from [state] to ask the BLM to leave the Fish Springs wild horses in Nevada on the range. It makes no sense to remove horses that are being successfully managed at no cost to taxpayers and warehouse them in holding facilities, costing taxpayers over $1 million. Please accept the community’s plan for the humane management of the Fish Springs wild horses.”
Thank you for taking action to save this beloved herd!
Update on the orphans – THANK YOU everyone who donated for the first group of kids. Y’all came through and we were able to pick up all the babies yesterday. Some of them are camera shy lol…. Only showing a few here.
THE PHONE RANG YET AGAIN….. WHILE we were getting these kids settled in, we received word that one of the catchers has another 80 horses he caught yesterday.
At this time we have been put on standby to share 30 ADDITIONAL FOALS, unless the catcher allows some of the mare/foal pairs to be adopted together.
WE HAVE A PLACE FOR 30+ ORPHANS, BUT ANOTHER 20 WILL TAKE AN ADDITIONAL $4,000.
We have been working with Dannielle Dustin for a couple of years and she is amazing. All her babies are halter trained etc. before being adopted and one of her adopters is now also working with us. They can each comfortably handle 10 orphans, and we can take as many as we need to. So that is the good news.
BUT EVERY 10 ORPHANS IS approximately $2000 just for bail, & get health certs on and buy enough milk for a couple of days, SO WE NEED ANOTHER $4,000 to pay for and take on an additional 20. This doesn’t even cover transportation costs or any additional vetting.
The 2nd CATCHER has another 14 babies at his place. Both plan to ship soon, and we are told that up to 30 could be pulled off Mama and need rescued today!!.
So worst case scenario as of this minute – there could be more than 45 ADDITIONAL orphans in need of rescue. Some of these may run through the feedlot and others will be available directly from the catcher once they are stripped off their mamas.
PLEASE HELP IF YOU HAVEN’T HAD A CHANCE TO DO SO YET!
This is Pixie, one of the first 9.
If you want to help You can go to You Caring – to help us keep saving lives..
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering a plan to roundup and remove 600 wild horses from our public lands in the North Lander Complex in Wyoming. The agency is also proposing several controversial and dangerous alternatives for creating “limited-reproducing herds” that include vasectomizing and gelding stallions; adjusting sex ratios; surgically removing the ovaries of mares (“spaying”), segregating the horses into single-sex herds; and utilizing the controversial fertility control drug GonaCon in combination with one of the previously mentioned treatments. This plan, which once again reflects the BLM’s preferential treatment of privately-owned livestock, will devastate the wild horse population in the North Lander Complex.
The Senate and House Appropriations Committees have passed Fiscal Year 2019 Interior Appropriations legislation, which includes funding for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program. The Senate bill protects wild horses from mass killing, slaughter and sterilization, while the House version would authorize and funds mass sterilization of horses on the range. The full House and Senate must still vote on these bills, and then they must go to a conference committee, which will resolve differences and negotiate a final spending bill. This means that we must keep the pressure on throughout the summer and into the fall. Learn more by clicking below.
In February 2017, foals Trey and Divine were captured in a traumatic helicopter roundup in the Cedar Mountain HMA in Utah. AWHC staff members were on the ground filming, and documented Trey, a tiny colt, and his mother being relentlessly chased by the helicopter. They were ultimately separated. Their story could have ended there, but thanks to AWHC operations and legal consultant, Jenn Suarez, the story of these two little beauties has a happy ending. We could all use some good news right now, so please watch and share this heartwarming story!