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PZP fertility control

What $30 can mean for wild horses

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Did you know that it costs only $30 to dart a single mare with a PZP vaccine — a scientifically-proven way to reduce population growth while keeping wild horses wild? That’s the difference your $30 contribution can make for wild horses who need our support now more than ever.

By using this method, we are showing the public and our elected officials that there is a better way to manage wild populations. PZP fertility control is a humane and cost-effective alternative to subjecting wild horses and burros to brutal helicopter roundups year after year, holding them in crowded pens, and forcing them to undergo dangerous sterilization surgeries.

We operate the world’s largest humane fertility control program for wild horses on Nevada’s Virginia Range. And we’re coming up on the three-year anniversary of this groundbreaking program, which has successfully reduced fertility on the range by over 40%!  We were able to achieve this milestone because supporters like you chipped in $30 for every mare that we’ve vaccinated, Meredith.

So, we’re asking: Today, on December 30th, will you make a gift of $30 or more to fund our PZP program and help us continue our groundbreaking work into the new year?

And don’t forget → Thanks to a generous donor, every gift made now through tomorrow at midnight will be 2x MATCHED. That means your $30 gift today helps not 1, but TWO HORSES!

$30 HELPS 1 → 2 HORSES!!
$60 HELPS 2 → 4 HORSES!!
$150 HELPS 5 → 10 HORSES!!
$300 HELPS 10 → 20 HORSES!!

The success of our PZP program has been so critical in our fight to protect wild horses because lawmakers and the public are starting to see there is a humane alternative to capturing and removing these wild animals from their homes on our public lands.

Your support helps us continue to provide the cold, hard, scientific evidence that lends legitimacy to our calls for more humane management of our wild horses and burros.

This year, more than 17,000 wild horses and burros were brutally chased by helicopters and forced into holding facilities, costing these innocent animals their families, their freedom, and in some cases — their lives. We know there’s a better way, and we can continue to fight for it with your support!

Will you please donate $30 today, on December 30th, to help us keep horses in the wild where they belong? Donate now and DOUBLE your impact for wild horses and burros this holiday season!

Thank you for your support in the fight to protect America’s wild herds.

— AWHC Team

Urgent! We need Coloradans to speak up for mustangs TODAY

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

We have an important ask: Can you please take one moment to reach out to your Senators in Colorado and urge them to protect wild horses?

Currently, a letter is being circulated in the Senate that would allocate significant funding from the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro budget to humane management using safe and effective PZP fertility control. Unfortunately, your Senators have not yet joined and we need them to hear from their constituents.

Please, take one moment to contact your Senators today:

Sen. Michael F. Bennet

  • Denver Office: 303-455-7600
  • DC Office: (202) 224-5852

Sen. John W. Hickenlooper

  • Denver Office: 303-244-1628
  • DC Office: (202) 224-5941

All you have to say is, “I’m a constituent, and I’m calling to ask that you please sign onto a letter being led by Senator Cory Booker that promotes humane, cost-effective management of wild horses and burros in the wild where they belong. It calls for allocating $11 million of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program budget to fertility control. Today is the deadline to join the letter. You can contact Sen Booker’s office to join on. Thank you.”

Then, follow up with a message using the button below.

CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS >>

Thank you so much for taking quick action to help wild horses!

Thank you,

Holly Gann Bice
Director of Government Relations
American Wild Horse Campaign

TAKE ACTION: Get the Senate back on track

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

News & Alerts

You’ll remember the joy we felt just months ago when — after months of lobbying, thousands of calls and emails and ads — the U.S. House of Representatives passed a game-changing amendment requiring the BLM to spend $11 million to implement humane PZP fertility control programs as a step toward ending cruel and costly wild horse roundups.

We had high hopes that the Senate would follow suit, but it’s currently headed in the wrong direction and we need to urge an immediate course correction. The draft funding bill released by the Senate Appropriations Committee not only does not earmark funds for humane fertility control, it actually increases funding by $14.2 million for the roundup and warehousing of wild horses and burros in massive feedlot-like holding facilities.

We still have time to get things back on track: The Senate can still fund fertility control in its final bill and House leadership can negotiate in committee to keep its bipartisan wild horse protection amendment in the final bill. None of this will happen unless you reach out to your Senators and Congressperson today!

Urgent: Contact Congress TODAY

Please Contact Your Two Senators and One Representative Today:

  1. Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your two Senators and one Representative. You will likely be asked to leave a message. Simply say,

“I’m [Name] from [City/Town] and as Congress works on a final FY21 spending bill, I’m calling to ask that you please do all you can to ensure that $11 million in funding to implement PZP fertility control is retained in the final spending package. PZP is a humane way for BLM to manage wild horses and an alternative to cruel roundups. Thank you.”

  1. Personalize and send the email at this link to your Senators and Representative.

We know that there’s a better, more scientific, and more humane way to manage wild horse populations. We’ve proven it time and time again. Now we need to reach out to our federal legislators TODAY and urge them to do everything they can to ensure the humane management of our wild horses.

This bipartisan measure would represent a powerful step toward ending the current costly and cruel practice of rounding these animals up with helicopters and incarcerating them in holding pens for life. Will you speak up today?

We are on the cusp of a giant breakthrough in the fight to protect our nation’s wild horses and burros. Now let’s keep the momentum going.

Thank you for taking action!

Suzanne Roy
Executive Director
American Wild Horse Campaign

 

Urgent: We have a chance to protect wild horses from roundups

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

News & Alerts

We urgently need your help today.

The abject cruelty of the BLM’s roundup program was on full display this past weekend at a roundup in the Swasey HMA in Utah when a wild mare, chased by a helicopter, crashed into the panels of a trap pen, broke her neck and was dragged away with chains. BLM claimed she died instantly, but our observer and his photographs tell a different story.

The heartless treatment of our federally-protected mustangs by the agency charged with protecting them is nothing new.But now we have the opportunity to begin to address it.

U.S Reps. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz, Dina Titus, D-Nev., Joe Neguse, D-Colo., Jan Schakowski D-Ill., and Brian Fitzpatrick R-Penn., are sponsoring an amendment that would dedicate funding to protect America’s cherished wild horses and burros. It would require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to spend at least $11 million to implement humane PZP fertility control as an alternative to cruel roundup and removal of wild horses from public lands.

It’s an effort to rein in the BLM’s cruel, costly and ineffective wild horse roundup and incarceration program and require the agency to implement humane birth control to humanely manage wild horse and burro populations in the wild.

Here is where we need your help. The Rules Committee will be deciding later today whether to allow the amendment to come to the floor for a vote later this week.

This is huge! Please drop what you are doing right now to help wild horses and burros. One call and one click WILL make a difference!

1. Call the Capitol Switchboard today to be directed to your Representative: 202) 225-3121. You can say:

“My name is [NAME] calling from [CITY] and I would like to request that Rep. [NAME] co-sponsor Amendment 6 to HB 7608. This amendment would dedicate funding to protect wild horses and burros, requiring the Bureau of Land Management to spend funds on humane fertility control. I also request that you contact the Rules Committee to ask them to advance the amendment to the floor by ruling it in order. Thank you.”

2. Follow up the call with an email by clicking here.

Thank you for helping us with this urgent request.

We’ll keep you posted on the outcome!

-The AWHC Team

 

Today is a historic milestone for us and the fight to save America’s wild horses

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Today is a major milestone for us. One year ago, we signed an agreement with the State of Nevada to launch a PZP fertility control program for the famed Virginia Range wild horse herd in Nevada. It’s now the largest humane wild horse fertility control program in the world.

Our mission was to prove that there is an effective and cost-efficient way to humanely manage wild horse populations without expensive roundups, crowded holding corrals, or dangerous sterilization surgeries.

We’re proud to announce that this program hasn’t just been a success, it has exceeded all expectations. And we wanted to give you an inside look at this historic program as we expand on this work in the months ahead.

↓ Watch The Video ↓

In our program, volunteer darters deliver the safe and effective fertility control vaccine PZP remotely to wild mares on the range. The vaccine is 97% effective in preventing pregnancy and is an excellent tool to keep wild horses in balance with their environment.

And, unlike the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) $81 million-a-year roundup program, our program is cost-effective and most importantly, keeps wild horses where they belong: in the wild.

From the get-go, there were skeptics: “How do you expect to deliver fertility control in such a large wild horse population in such a vast habitat area?”

But we didn’t back down from the challenge. Our team — including our incredible volunteers — worked hard, day-in and day-out. And tens of thousands of you supported this work along the way.

Over the course of this past year, our mostly volunteer team delivered over 1,700 fertility control treatments (primers and boosters) to more than 950 mares in the 300,000-acre Virginia Range. That number represents nearly 80% of the reproductive-age mares in this roughly 3,000-horse mustang population.

The Stunning News? Our team actually OUTPERFORMED the BLM’s own program to administer fertility control!

You can read more about the program in this Reno Gazette-Journal editorial by our Director of Field Operations, Greg Hendricks.

We didn’t do this alone. This successful effort would not be possible without our village of partners and supporters — the Nevada Department of Agriculture, political and business leaders, including Governor Steve Sisolak, Assemblyman Jim Wheeler, tech company Blockchains LLC and real estate developer Lance Gilman, to local wild horse organizations, our amazing team of dedicated volunteers, and generous supporters like you.

I hope that you feel as proud as I do of this work, our team in Nevada, and what we have all achieved together.

Even as we celebrate these accomplishments, we know that this work is far from over. The BLM and the livestock industry continue to push for a multi-billion dollar plan to round up and remove more than 100,000 wild horses from public lands in the next ten years.

We’ll continue to fight back using every resource at our disposal. And, even during these difficult times for our country, we’ll work to expand our operations in Nevada — home to more than half of the nation’s remaining wild horses — to continue to show that wild horses can be managed humanely and to ensure that America’s mustangs stay wild and free.