Today is a historic milestone for us and the fight to save America’s wild horses
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!
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.
Update from Capitol Hill & More Wild Horse News
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
News & Alerts
The Latest from Capitol Hill: Appropriations and Wild Horses
This year Congress is considering new policy riders that are critical to the future of wild horses on public lands in the west. The House legislation includes one potentially catastrophic provision — a risky scheme to remove enough horses from the range to return populations to extinction levels for the benefit of ranchers, and one very good provision — an extension of the slaughter prohibition to wild horses on U.S. Forest Service land. Read more on the appropriations process and what’s in store for wild horses below.
Report on the Reno, Nevada Wild Horse Summit
Last month, we attended a “Wild Horse Summit” in Reno organized by the Society for Range Management and the Wildlife Society, two organizations heavily dominated by the livestock and hunting industries. The event was a follow up to the 2017 “Slaughter Summit,” held in Salt Lake City, from which pro-wild horse, anti-slaughter voices were excluded. We agreed to attend this event to represent the interest of wild horse protection and the voice of the public – which overwhelmingly supports the preservation of wild horses on our public lands – and will continue to do so in the conversations that ensue. Read more in our report on the summit below.
Virginia Range Fertility Control Program Gallops Ahead
In April, the State of Nevada reinstated our fertility control darting program for the Virginia Range wild horses. Administering the proven and humane PZP vaccine, trained volunteers have now effectively darted and documented more than 400 mares on the range in just over two months. We thank Governor Steve Sisolak, Assembly Minority Leader Jim Wheeler and leading Nevada tech company Blockchains LLC for their support of the program and their commitment to protecting the Virginia Range horses. Read more on this groundbreaking program below.
Video Highlight of the Week: About PZP
Wild horses depend on this
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
The good news: Last week, our coalition won a major victory in Nevada! After countless meetings, rallies, and protests, our organization is now tasked with implementing a humane fertility control program to save the Virginia Range wild horses in Nevada.
But now we have a big challenge ahead of us: We HAVE to make this program successful. If we do, we can replicate it with other herds around the country and begin to end the cruel policy of roundups and confinement of wild horses in pens and pastures.
We’re dispatching experts and volunteers on the Virginia Range to administer this critical program. And we’re holding a class next week to certify more program participants. But these programs take resources, from training to purchasing equipment, to sourcing the PZP fertility control vaccine, to transportation and other costs. To be successful, we need the support to execute these programs properly.
PZP and targeted birth control is the safest, most cost-effective way to manage wild horse populations on public lands. The alternative is what we spend so much time and effort fighting against: helicopter roundups, horses driven for miles until the collapse, confining entire herds in small pens for the rest of their lives, and worst – sending horses to slaughter.
Chip in now, and support the safe, humane management of wild horse populations.
We have a huge opportunity in Nevada to show that there are safe and practical ways to care for wild horse populations. It’s up to us to make it happen. Please help us support this program now, so we can celebrate its crucial and successful implementation as another milestone in our journey to keep wild horses wild.
Thank you for all your support.
AWHC Team
HUGE victory for our movement — here’s what it means:
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Thanks to your support, the horses on the Virginia Range in Nevada will continue to live safe, happy lives, free to roam on the land they call home.
In 2017, the Nevada Department of Agriculture abruptly terminated our partnership to safely and effectively manage the Virginia Range wild horses using fertility control. The program was necessary to humanely reduce population growth rates in this historic mustang population whose habitat is increasingly impacted by development.
In response, we and our local coalition partners have been working hard to restart the program. We mobilized thousands of calls and emails. Local groups held 63 vigils outside the State Capitol in Carson City.
We are proud to tell you that the grassroots pressure worked…with a big assist from the business community, especially tech company Blockchains LLC, and Nevada Assembly Minority Leader Jim Wheeler! Last Tuesday we signed a Cooperative Agreement with the state to immediately resume this critical program that will humanely manage these majestic horses using safe and proven fertility control.
This news isn’t just about one state or one range. It’s about the future of this entire movement and the freedom of wild horses everywhere.
In Nevada, we can create a model to demonstrate that there is another way to manage wild horses that doesn’t involve costly and cruel roundups.
Now, we need your help. Our volunteers and staff are in the field as I write this, implementing this lifesaving program to keep wild horses wild by providing a humane alternative to removing wild horses from their homes on the range. And we’re sustaining other programs across the country to protect wild horses. Will you donate right now to support us?
The alternative to success is too awful to imagine: more round-ups; horses confined in tiny pens for the rest of their lives, or worse, sent to slaughter; breaking apart the families that residents have come to know and love for generations.
We can show that there is a better way to steward our iconic wild horse and burro populations. Please help us to make it happen by donating now.
Thank you,
Suzanne Roy
BLM Suspends Fish Springs Wild Horse Roundup & Other News
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
News & Alerts
Tell Your Elected Officials in DC: Stand Strong for Wild Horses and Burros!
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.
BLM Suspends Plans to Round Up Fish Springs Wild Horses
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.
Summer Roundups in Full Swing
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.
Tech Company Steps Up to Help Virginia Range Wild Horses
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!
Nevada to Give Away Virginia Range Mustangs – Please Help!
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
If you contacted Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval to protect the Virginia Range wild horses – thank you.
You may have received an email response from the Governor’s office outlining “criteria” for the state’s ill-conceived plan to give away the 3,000 Virginia Range wild horses. Unfortunately, what the Governor failed to even mention is that by the state giving away the horses, the state and citizens would have NO power to stop the new owner from killing healthy horses. The state can have whatever “criteria” or “intent” it wants — but the final decisions about the horses’ fate would rest with the new OWNER. The horses would be deemed privately-owned and would be subject to all laws pertaining to domestic horses/livestock (e.g. branding laws, liability laws, etc.)
The Governor and his Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA) know that transferring ownership of these horses to a private party is not viable especially from a liability perspective. Currently, under Nevada law, the state owns the horses and is exempt from any liability of damage or injury caused by the horses. This exemption from liability would not pertain to any private owner of the horses. Thus, the transfer of the 3,000 horses to a private entity that has good intentions for the horses is not practical. AWHC strongly believes that no legitimate advocacy organization could take on this type of liability.
While what the Governor wrote sounds nice. However, the Governor and NDA are disingenuous when they asssert that this is in the interest of protecting and preserving the horses because their scheme cannot be implemented as advertised.
Lastly, we need to remind you that the only supporters of this giveaway plan is Protect the Harvest, the organization lobbying to legalize the killing of America’s wild horses and burros, and ranchers who have long pushed to kill wild horses.
Please let us know if you have questions. We stand ready, as we always have been, to resume the public/private partnership for all aspects of humane management of the Virginia Range horses.
– The AWHC Team
He Caught Her Heart and Changed Their Lives!
The following is from All About Equine Animal Rescue:
Let’s Deck the Stalls with Boughs of Plenty for 2018
12 Days Left, Legend and Jackson!
Last January, AAE learned of a call for help with 20 some horses that had been removed from the range in Nevada. These were Virginia Range wild horses that were removed by the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDOA). The NDOA manages the horses that are on state lands.
In short, the NDOA has authority to remove horses that present a clear and continuing danger to motorists after failed relocation attempts. Sadly, this group of horses had crossed the highway too many times and presented a threat to motorists. The Virginia Range Sanctuary (VRS) works tirelessly to protect and advocated for the wild horses, and when they are removed, this amazing group works diligently to place the horses in forever homes. When forever homes can’t be found, they look to other organizations to continue their work.
In January, one of our volunteers, Pam, reached out to VRS with interest in one of the horses that had been removed. At the time, we were still hoping to help the Hallelujah Horses, but winter weather and the transport situation was not cooperating. Since we hadn’t made progress in that situation, we refocused to a more local need. Before you know it, we committed to four Virginia Range Horses that became five: Onyx, Whisper, Annie, Legend and Jackson. Today, we focus on Legend and Jackson.
Daily Horse Care, especially pm shifts
We Started with 4 and Baby Made 5!!
The following is from All About Equine Animal Rescue:
Let’s Deck the Stalls with Boughs of Plenty for 2018
13 Days Left, Onyx, Whisper and Annie!
Last January, AAE learned of a call for help with 20 some horses that had been removed from the range in Nevada. These were Virginia Range wild horses that were removed by the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDOA). The NDOA manages the horses that are on state lands.
In short, the NDOA has authority to remove horses that present a clear and continuing danger to motorists after failed relocation attempts. Sadly, this group of horses had crossed the highway too many times and presented a threat to motorists. The Virginia Range Sanctuary (VRS) works tirelessly to protect and advocated for the wild horses, and when they are removed, this amazing group works diligently to place the horses in forever homes. When forever homes can’t be found, they look to other organizations to continue their work.
sitio en español
site en français
