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Modoc National Forest

Tell Congress to Support Humane Management of Mustangs and Burros!

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Wild horses & burros need your help. Read on to see how you can take action to protect these cherished animals!

Act Now: Tell Congress to Support Humane Management of Mustangs and Burros

As we speak, a sign-on letter is circulating in the U.S. Senate requesting that at least $11 million of Fiscal Year 2022 funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program be earmarked for humane fertility control as a step away from brutal helicopter roundups and the removal of wild horses and burros from public lands. Over 40 members of the House have signed onto a similar request. Now we need your help to get your Senators to sign on!

TAKE ACTION

In-Depth: Forest Service Plans Mass Removal for California Wild Horses

The U.S. Forest Service is planning to continue its assault on the Devil’s Garden wild horses in California. During a Motorized Vehicle Public Meeting last week, officials from the Modoc National Forest announced their intent to remove between 800-1,000 wild horses from their 285,000-acre federally-designated habitat beginning in September. 

The Forest Service will “dispose” of most of these horses by selling them — up to a truckload at a time — for $1 a piece! The plan is the result of a secret settlement between the Forest Service and ranchers who graze their privately-owned cattle on the public lands where the Devil’s Garden wild horses roam. Take a moment to read our in-depth blog on this unfolding situation and be on the lookout for a way to take action!

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OpEd: America’s Wild and Wondrous Wild Burros

It’s well past the time to hit the reset button on the management not only of wild horses, but wild burros as well. Last week, AWHC’s program specialist, Mary Koncel teamed up with an adviser to the Cloud Foundation to write an opinion piece for the Washington Examiner to raise awareness about these amazing animals of the desert southwest and inspire citizens to take action to protect them. Read more below.

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Tell the BLM Advisory Board: Protect Wild Horses and Burros

The BLM National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board will meet from June 30 – July 1. This citizen Advisory Board is supposed to represent broad stakeholder interests but its membership, which is appointed by the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture, is heavily weighted in favor of livestock interests. 

For far too long the BLM’s solution to managing wild horse and burro populations has been costly and brutal helicopter roundups that lead to slaughter for far too many of these iconic animals. Please take one moment to sign onto our letter demanding meaningful change and protection for wild horses and burros.

TAKE ACTION

Thank you for your support,

—The AWHC Team

NEWS: Wild horses could really use your help

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

News & Alerts

A Heart-Wrenching Scene at the Diamond Complex HMA

Earlier this week, our team set out to observe yet another devastating roundup, this one at the Diamond Complex in Nevada, where the BLM plans to roundup 1,225 innocent wild horses, permanently removing 1,165 of them from their home on the range. In just one day, we watched as 126 horses lost their freedom, and three lost their lives.

The scenes were both heart-wrenching, and unacceptable. At AWHC, we pride ourselves for our ability to document these roundups in order to keep the BLM accountable, but as lovers of wild horses, watching scenes like the one captured in the video below never gets easier. Nonetheless, we know how important BEING THERE, and bear witness to this heart-wrenching mistreatment of our wild horses and burros. We will never stop showing up, and doing everything in our power to keep them wild and free.

If you have a minute, please take the time to watch this video, chip in any amount you are able to afford today to our Roundup Fund, and share this with your friends. We can’t keep letting the BLM get away with this violence and need to make ourselves seen and heard.

Please note: this link contains upsetting images of violence against wild horses.

Tell the Forest Service to STOP Roundups Amid Red Flag Fire Warnings

What they’re doing right now is completely unconscionable.

Last week, we contacted you about the ongoing reckless management practices being carried out against the Devil’s Garden wild horse population in California’s Modoc National Forest. As if selling and shipping horses to whoever will buy them for just $1 — — with no oversight, or safeguards in place –isn’t bad enough, it gets worse…

Right now, in the middle of record-breaking heat and wildfires, in unhealthy air quality conditions and while under a red flag fire warning, Modoc National Forest officials are STILL using helicopters to run down and round up desperate wild horses, as they are forced to run for miles struggle to breathe in the smoky conditions.

Already, 195 horses have been rounded up since last week, and it’s only going to get worse for these imperiled horses and their foals unless we speak up RIGHT NOW and demand an end to the Forest Service’s brutal treatment of California’s wild horses. Will you join me and sign the petition demanding an immediate STOP to roundups during unsafe wildfire conditions?

This latest — and most egregious practice — joins a LONG and growing list of completely reckless management practices carried out by Modoc National Forest leadership that more than 10,000 of us have spoken up against sending letters, making calls and sharing on social media — including:

  • Selling horses for $1 apiece, with no agency-wide system to vet potential buyers and lax policies such as allowing one individual to purchase up to 24 horses a day;
  • Providing free – or heavily subsidized – transportation to private individuals who purchase large numbers of horses using in part, federal funding;
  • Allowing Modoc staff to make their own determinations on to whom to sell horses and which buyers are eligible for free transportation based on a “case by case basis.”

We can’t sit back and let this gross disregard for the welfare of our wild horses go uncontested, or continue under the radar.

Will you speak out NOW by signing this petition to demand that the Forest Service cancel the roundup due to these unsafe wildfire conditions and work instead to manage the Devil’s Garden wild horses humanely in the wild?

> SIGN THE PETITION <<<

AWHC Announces Annual Stay Wild Event on Oct. 1

In case you missed our announcement last week, we wanted to take this opportunity to express our excitement for our annual Stay Wild Event on Oct. 1! We decided to bring the wildness right to your screen with a creative twist to a virtual event that you won’t want to miss.

This year, we’ll bring talented performers, influencers, and top wild horse advocates in America into your homes for an exceptional evening of charity and entertainment. We really hope that you’ll be able to join us.

WHEN: Oct 1, 2020, Pre-Show: 4:45 PM, PDT, Main Event: 5:00 – 6:00 PM PDT

WHERE: Virtual

WHY: To raise funds for AWHC and our ongoing work to Keep Wild Horses Wild

We hope you stay safe and well this weekend and as always, thank you for your support in helping our wild horses stay free and wild!

– The AWHC Team

Ranchers call for a roundup of wild horses on our public lands. Don’t let the cattle industry win

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Earlier this week, a federal court judge in California issued an order granting us the right to intervene in a lawsuit, filed by public lands ranchers, seeking the immediate round up and removal of 2,000 wild horses from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory in the Modoc National Forest.

At the same time, our attorney is in San Francisco today, participating in court-ordered negotiations with the U.S. Forest Service on a separate lawsuit, filed by AWHC and the Animal Legal Defense Fund, to stop the agency from selling Devil’s Garden horses for slaughter.

Please, support our ongoing legal efforts to protect the Devil’s Garden wild horses in California from special interests that seek their mass removal and slaughter.

The Devil’s Garden Territory is home to one of California’s largest remaining wild horse populations. Yet under pressure from local ranching interests, the Forest Service seeks to reduce the wild horse population to 200 – 402 horses, while allowing over 3,700 cows and 2,900 sheep to graze the public lands there.

The situation that has been unfolding in Devil’s Garden — from the roundups to the proposal to sell the mustangs without limitation on slaughter — represents one of the more serious attacks on wild horses by the public lands ranching industry.

Enough is enough. We’re waging two separate legal battles to defend Devil’s Garden mustangs from this existential threat.

Please help us fund this crucial fight today. Your donation will be earmarked for the legal efforts to protect the right of the Devil’s Garden wild horses to live wild and free on our public lands.

As always, we are the last line of defense for America’s wild horses and we must keep fighting until their safety is assured.

—AWHC Team