Nevada’s Eagle Complex

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

It’s been a busy past couple of weeks here at AWHC. We’ve had some heartwarming developments and some developments that broke our hearts — Like the ongoing roundup occurring in Nevada’s Eagle Complex.

As we write this, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is conducting a huge roundup of wild horses in and around the Eagle Complex in Nevada.

This Complex, which spans the Nevada-Utah border, includes the Chokecherry, Eagle, and Mt. Elinor Herd Management Areas (HMAs). Just over 2,000 wild horses call this 750,000 acre — or 1200-square-mile public lands area — home, but the BLM wants to reduce their populations by 80%. When the helicopters leave, just over 400 horses, or one horse per 1,900 acres, will be left!

AWHC’s observer is in the field documenting the roundup in which 1,156 wild horses have so far lost their freedom, with 13 confirmed fatalities.

Last month, AWHC sent a legal letter to the BLM asking for them to postpone this roundup, citing a violation of the public’s First Amendment rights. The BLM failed to list this operation on their public schedule and only provided three days’ notice of its start date — A major shift in the agency’s own practices and one that makes it even more difficult to get observers onsite to document these capture operations. The BLM did not reply to our letter, but they did delay the start of the roundup by 3 days.

You can read our daily reports from the roundup here.

Earlier this week, AWHC began a petition drive to this Administration and the Department of the Interior to call on them to reverse the disastrous decision to round up over one-third of the wild horses in Wyoming.

To put things into perspective, the Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout would eliminate federally protected wild horses from an expanse of land roughly the size of the State of Connecticut (the area in question is 2,000,000 acres!).

Nearly 4,000 wild horses could be round up, including the wild horses who live along the Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Viewing Loop, a significant tourist attraction (and more importantly, historic home for these iconic horses).

Since launching our petition, more than 20,000 of you have signed on to our national call to action to reverse the Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout. Help us get to 25,000 signatures before the weekend is over by signing here.

And if you would like to learn more about this plan, the private interests promoting it, and what’s at stake — You can read more here.

Something that’s important to keep in mind, however, is that there is hope — And there are generous people all throughout the country who are doing everything they can to save America’s beautiful wild horses and burros.

One of those individuals is Alicia Goetz, the founder of Freedom Reigns Equine Sanctuary and someone we are beyond proud to have as a member of AWHC’s Board of Directors.

Alicia currently runs and founded one of the largest horse sanctuaries in the entire United States. Over the past six years, Alicia has taken in unwanted horses and given them a home on a 4,000 acre property in San Benito County, California.

It wasn’t something she originally set out to do. Alicia got the idea after her daughter began horse riding and she learned about the unfortunate fate that befalls thousands of unwanted horses. So she decided to get involved and make a difference — And she has!

We wanted to thank Alicia for crossing a major milestone: She’s about to accept her 500th horse into Freedom Reigns!

Even better news: The horses coming to Alicia’s are Rocky and Rusty’s bands from the famed Fish Springs HMA in Nevada. Alicia is giving these horses a rare opportunity to stay together with their families and roam free on her beautiful 4,000-acre ranch.

Read more about Alicia and Freedom Reigns here.

Before you go, we also wanted to remind you that it’s not too late to snag one of our 2020 AWHC calendars! There are still eleven months in the year and these calendars make a great gift for the horse lover in your life.

And the best part? A portion of the proceeds go directly to supporting our work to keep America’s wild horses and burros wild as well as to power our efforts to rescue those who have lost their freedom.

Thank you,

American Wild Horse Campaign

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