This is a long read but it’s about the alarming budget the President just released
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
This past December, Congress authorized a 25% budgetary increase for the Bureau of Land Management’s badly broken Wild Horse and Burro program. Now the Administration is asking Congress to approve an additional 15% budget increase for the program two months later, as the BLM prepares to massively accelerate the roundup and removal of tens of thousands of wild horses.
What’s At Stake
As many of you know, the Acting Director of the BLM referred to wild horses and burros as an “existential threat” to public lands and is planning to use the Bureau’s funds to round up wild horses and burros in unprecedented numbers, with as many as 20,000 at risk of being removed this year alone.
We cannot stress this enough: We are talking about the greatest threat to wild horses in decades.
It is critical to remember that the BLM is not considering reducing the number of privately owned livestock in these areas. This despite the fact that these animals vastly outnumber horses and burros on public land and cost taxpayers as much as $500 million in subsidies for the below market grazing fees that public lands ranchers pay.
For reference, there are anywhere from 700,000 to 1,000,000 cow/calf pairs on public lands compared to the 88,000 federally-protected wild horses and burros (who share this land with the livestock).
Make no mistake about it, this isn’t a coincidence either — It’s the result of intense lobbying on behalf of the livestock industry.
Bad Policy And A Broken Program
The BLM continues to impose extreme limits on wild horse population numbers on public lands throughout the West that have no basis in science and their method of calculating these limits is not transparent to the public nor wildlife researchers and experts.
Additionally, the BLM is also championing the use of inhumane and ineffective population growth suppression methods that focus on the castration of wild stallions and the risky, cruel, and invasive surgical practice known as ovariectomy, whereby a mare’s ovaries are manually severed and removed in an invasive and outdated surgical procedure.
The National Academy of Sciences warned against BLM’s use of ovariectomies on wild mares due to risk of hemorrhage and infection. Castrating stallions would cause loss of testosterone which drives the natural behaviors necessary to maintain social organization and survive in the wild.
BLM is not only charging ahead with surgical sterilization, but the budget indicates that the agency intends to use the appropriations process to amend the Wild Horse and Burro Act to explicitly authorize these surgeries.
It’s also critically important to remember that the vast majority of Americans, of all political backgrounds, are opposed to mass roundups and these surgical procedures.
Another Way to Dump Horses?
While the President’s budget does recognize that the slaughter of America’s wild horses and burros is unacceptable to Congress and the public, we have grave concerns about the request for legislative language to expand the transfer authority of wild horses and burros to tribal entities.
AWHC sees this as another way for the agency to take steps to reduce numbers of wild horses through policies that make it easier to move horses out of holding, strip them of their federal-protection and send them to destinations where their welfare will be impossible to ensure.
A Better Way
Here at AWHC, we’re proving that there is a humane and cost-effective way to keep wild horses and burros on public lands and end the roundup and warehousing of these wild animals in holding pens.
On the Virginia Range in Nevada, our team is operating the world’s largest humane management program of wild horses and burros.
By utilizing a very affordable vaccine, known as PZP, our team has treated more mares in 10 months than the BLM did last year. And each vaccine costs as little as $30 per year.
The President’s budget request is just that: a request. This means we have the chance to work with leaders in Congress to oversee the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, demand the BLM abandon the practices that are not supported by science or the American public, as well as promote effective and safe alternatives that our team has demonstrated work.
Over the last three years, working together, we’ve beat back multiple attempts to legalize the slaughter of wild horses and burros by convincing Congress that the American people will not stand for this lethal and brutally inhumane option. Together, we can meet this newest and most serious threat to the future of America’s wild herds.
Photo by Nancy Florence.
Thank you,
Suzanne Roy
Executive Director
American Wild Horse Campaign
A roundup in Nevada, a horse hero in California, and an update on our national effort to save Wyoming’s wild horses
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
BREAKING: BLM moves to round up as many as 4,000 wild horses in Wyoming
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
News & Alerts
The Bureau of Land Management just unveiled a plan that would decimate Wyoming’s wild horse population, reducing the population there by more than one-third.
The Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout would ERADICATE wild horses from the Salt Wells, Great Divide and White Mountain Herd Management Areas (HMAs) along the famed Wild Horse Scenic Loop. Additionally, the population in the remaining Adobe Town HMA would be slashed significantly.
It’s hard to overstate the irreversible damage this plan will inflict. By the numbers:
3,000+ — The number of wild horses the BLM will permanently remove from the state,
38% — The percentage of the state’s entire wild horse and burro population that would be removed under this plan,
2,500,000 — The number of acres that will be eliminated as wild horse habitat, meaning wild horses will be eradicated from this wide expanse of public land,
0 — The number of wild horses that will remain in the Great Divide Basin, White Mountain and Salt Wells Creek HMAs.
The Checkerboard wild horse population has long been a target of the powerful Rock Springs Grazing Association, whose members profit from steep taxpayer subsidies to support their privately owned cattle and sheep herds on public lands, including in these HMAs.
We cannot allow the BLM to sell out the interests of the American people and our country’s federally protected wild horses and burros to elevate the private profits of the livestock industry.
We set a goal of reaching 10,000 signatures before the end of the day: Join AWHC in calling on the BLM and this Administration to reverse this plan that could result in the removal of more than one-third of Wyoming’s wild horses.
AWHC has been involved in litigation to defend Wyoming’s wild horses since 2011. We’ve achieved a number of victories in the courts, including at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
You can learn more about the Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout and the areas affected here.
We will continue to do all we can to protect Wyoming’s cherished icons.
Thank you for getting involved,
American Wild Horse Campaign
Our photos of the month [check them out!]
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Our team put together some of the most striking photos from this past month – ones that made us smile, and others that remind us why we work so hard to protect these icons every day.
Mustangs in their winter coats on the Virginia Range in Nevada, where our fertility control program is in its tenth month with over 830 wild mares inoculated with the PZP vaccine. Learn more about our program here.
AWHC joined with the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group this month to advocate for construction of a wildlife overpass for the famed Salt River wild horses in AZ. Learn more here.
Friend of AWHC and photographer, Mary Hone captured a series of photos of a wild burro youngster living her best life out on our public lands in California. Check out the series here. (Credit: Mary Hone Fine Art).
Just captured wild horses from the Eagle Herd Management Area in Nevada arrive at BLM holding pens in good body condition, despite winter conditions and BLM claims of overpopulation and starvation. Read more here.
Wild horses have long been misrepresented as a non-native invasive species, but respected scientists are working to change that narrative. Learn more about wild horses as a native species here.
Thank you,
American Wild Horse Campaign
We need your help to save the famed Salt River wild horses
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
News & Alerts
If you thought the famed Salt River wild horses were protected, think again. In 2017, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed legislation that protects the Salt River wild horses in their historic habitat in the Tonto National Forest near Phoenix.
But now this cherished herd is threatened by new plans that could result in severe habitat loss and removals of these horses from their home along the lower Salt River.
The Issue: The U.S. Forest Service is beginning construction of a metal fence along the last four miles of the Lower Salt River, including across the river itself. The fence would trap horses on either side, blocking access to the river – a critical source of hydration — and to grazing grounds on both sides of the river.
At the same time, the Arizona Department of Agriculture is considering several proposed long-term management plans for the horses. Depending on which plan is chosen, the horses could face large-scale removals and a severe reduction in their habitat.
The Stakes: Working together with our coalition partner the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, we saved the Salt River wild horses from a mass roundup/eradication plan almost 5 years ago. Now the future of this iconic herd is again in jeopardy and their future is far from assured!
Five Things You Can Do Today:
The Salt River wild horses need your voice now! Click on the image for each step and you will be directed to a page that will guide you on how to help.
Thank you,
American Wild Horse Campaign
LAST CHANCE: To double your impact and help save America’s wild horses
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
News & Alerts
We’re 85% of the way to our $100,000 End of Year fundraising goal. If we raise $15,291 before midnight, ALL donations up to $100,000 will be matched!
This past year, we’ve mobilized in a way like never before on behalf of America’s wild horses and burros.
This year alone, we’ve:
- Delivered 662,000 petition signatures in support of wild horses
- Submitted 115,000 public comments on government decisions
- Filed 28 Freedom of Information Act requests
- Darted over 1,200 mares with the PZP fertility vaccine
And that’s only the beginning. AWHC has major plans for 2020 but our ability to get involved and expand our programs depends on hitting our End of Year fundraising goal.
Thank you and Happy New Year’s Eve!
American Wild Horse Campaign
We need to pick up the pace
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
News & Alerts
Earlier this month, the Congress gave the green light to accelerate roundups in the West, which could result in as many as 20,000 wild horses being removed from public lands in 2020.
This comes at a time when the Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management is describing mustangs and burros as an ‘existential threat’ to the survival of public lands…. Even though wild horses aren’t even on 88% of those lands! We know what this scapegoating of wild horses will mean if we don’t stop it.
Many of you have reached out and asked why don’t we sue to stop this? Well, the answer is we are!
90% of the suits our legal team files we win — and our ongoing litigation is one of the most important ways we’re fighting back and setting legal precedents to defend America’s wild horses and burros.
California: AWHC successfully prevented the U.S. Forest Service from significantly reducing the size of the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory in California — One of the largest in the state.
Nevada: AWHC filed suit to challenge the BLM’s decision to permanently remove all wild horses from the Caliente Herd Area in Nevada without considering any reductions to domestic livestock in the area.
Oregon: AWHC sued the BLM in order to stop proposed cruel sterilization surgeries on wild mares. The court granted our request for an injunction, causing the BLM to cancel the experiments.
Utah: AWHC successfully defended wild horses in Utah from a rancher lawsuit that sought the removal of thousands of wild horses from public lands.
Wyoming: AWHC successfully intervened and successfully petitioned the court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the State of Wyoming on behalf of in-state ranchers seeking the forcible removal of thousands of wild horses.
And these are just a handful of examples.
Thank you,
American Wild Horse Campaign
Double down on keeping wild horses and burros free
How $30 can make all the difference in the life of a wild horse
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Great news! — We’re nearly 1/3rd of the way to our $100,000 End of Year goal (which we have to hit in order for all donations to be matched).
But before we ask you to make a donation ahead of our deadline tomorrow night, we wanted to give you a glimpse of where this donation will be going.
In Nevada’s Virginia Range, AWHC operates the world’s largest humane management program for wild horses and burros. The cornerstone of this highly successful program is the remote darting of wild mares with the scientifically proven fertility vaccine known as ‘PZP’.
No need for roundups, expensive and crowded holding corrals, or risky sterilization surgeries. And do you want to know how much it costs for a single mare’s annual PZP vaccine?
$30.
Compare that to the tens of thousands of dollars the Bureau of Land Management spends on the roundup, long-term holding, and contractor fees involved in the removal of a single horse.
Let alone the $5 BILLION figure the Acting Director of the BLM is citing as the cost of a plan to round up over 100,000 horses from public lands over the next decade.
Thank you,
American Wild Horse Campaign
This is our chance to be on the right side of history
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
At the beginning of the 1970s, our country came together to prevent the extinction of America’s mustangs.
Congress recognized that wild horses were “fast disappearing” and at one point, the wild horse population in Nevada fell below 4,000 (for reference: Nevada is home to the majority of wild horses today).
Thanks to years of activism and public pressure, Congress unanimously (!) passed the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 to save these American icons.
But right now, in 2019, the future of America’s wild horses and burros is once again in jeopardy.
The Bureau of Land Management could remove as many as 20,000 wild horses from public lands next year. At the same time, the livestock industry and two large animal welfare groups that sold out the interests of wild horses are lobbying in favor of a plan that would bring mustang populations to near-extinction levels over the next decade.
Our passionate volunteers, skilled attorneys and lobbyists, and incredible staff are taking a monumental stand in 2020 to defend the future of wild horses and burros against this threat.
Because of you, we’re giving a fighting voice for wild horses and burros in Congress, the Courts, and states across the West.
American Wild Horse Campaign
Incredible opportunity! — All donations could be matched through the end of the year
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
We have an incredible opportunity, but it’s very time-sensitive and will require all of us working together and pitching in.
The Opportunity: A generous donor has committed to match every single donation up to $100,000 through the end of the year, but only if we meet one condition.
The Condition: We have to raise $100,000 in grassroots donations to unlock the full matching gift.
That gives us just three days to raise the funds to secure this major gift.
This year, we’ve made a lot of progress. The U.S. Forest Service is now prohibited from selling wild horses and burros for slaughter, California has enacted new horse protections, and AWHC now runs the world’s largest humane management program for mustangs — proving that there is a safe, cost-effective alternative to cruel roundups.
We also face significant challenges in 2020. Congress’ decision to fund accelerated roundups in 2020 could result in as many as 20,000 wild horses and burros being removed from public lands next year alone.
Thank you,
American Wild Horse Campaign
Meet Flurry, one of the newest additions to the Virginia Range family
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
This holiday season, we hope you’re not too saddled with work or stressful travel plans and are enjoying some quality time with friends, family and loved ones.
On the topic of family, we wanted to introduce you to one of the newest additions to the Virginia Range in Nevada: Flurry.
Flurry really loves his mom, Empress — You can find them together exploring the wide expanses of the Virginia Range side-by-side.
Flurry was born recently during one of the first snow storms of the season, and he, his mom and the rest of his herd are doing well. We’ll be keeping a close eye on them, since Flurry, Empress, and their herd are wild horses currently documented in our precedent-setting humane management program.
It’s photos and moments like these that remind us why we’re in this fight together. Empress, Flurry, and all of America’s wild horses and burros deserve to be wild and free with their families.
As we gather with our families this holiday, we want to express our heartfelt thanks to you, our loyal supporters, for all you do to make freedom a reality for wild mustangs like Flurry. Each and every day, with your support, we work to make sure that Flurry and other wild horses have a future in which they can not only survive, but also thrive.
On behalf of everyone at AWHC, we are grateful to you for being part of the AWHC family. Our very best wishes to you and your loved ones, the happiest of holidays and a healthy and joyous New Year.
With Gratitude,
Suzanne, the Board and Staff of AWHC
I’m not losing hope
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
If you’re like me, the news that Congress is going to give the Bureau of Land Management $21,000,000 to round up as many as 20,000 wild horses next year broke my heart.
My name is Deb Walker and I’m the Nevada Field Representative for AWHC. In these moments of heartbreak and hardship, it’s important we remember why we’re in this fight and why we should continue to have hope.
For me, this is personal
When I was younger, I experienced my first glimpse of wild horses in Owyhee above Elko, Nevada. My dad and I were absolutely in awe watching the horses.
When I grew older, my husband and I made a habit of visiting northern Nevada to see wild horses (from a respectable distance). Every Thanksgiving, I would gather my camera, grab a coffee, and head out to go see them.
Fast forward to when I approached retirement from the Air Force. My husband asked me where I would like to go and retire. For me, that decision was easy: I wanted to retire in northern Nevada where I could live as close to wild horses as possible.
And it’s what ultimately motivated me to work with AWHC as its Nevada Field Representative.
What I do
I think my dad, who recently passed, would certainly approve of my work. I want my two daughters and my three grandchildren to have these experiences and make the same memories with the horses like I did.
That’s why the news about Congress giving the green light to accelerate roundups next year just motivates me to work harder. As the Nevada Field Representative, I get to work with a team of incredible volunteers in the largest humane management program for wild horses in the entire world.
Since April, our team administered more than 1,200 PZP fertility treatments to wild horses — that’s almost double the number the BLM, with its $80-million-a-year program budget, did in an entire year!
Together, we’re proving that there is a more humane and cost-effective way to manage wild horse populations that does NOT require roundups or risky sterilization surgeries.
That’s why, despite this week’s disappointing news, I am hopeful about what we can accomplish together for our wild horses and burros in the New Year.
Thank you for being a part of our AWHC family,
Deb Walker
Nevada Field Representative
American Wild Horse Campaign
Two significant positive developments we wanted to share
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
As the dust settles on the Fiscal Year 2020 spending agreement reached by Congress this week, we wanted you to know that the fight is far from over and that there will be ample opportunities for us to defend wild horses and burros in the New Year.
We also want to highlight two significant positives that were included in the spending bill that are a direct result of your advocacy and leadership from key officials in Congress.
Congress attached strings to the $21 million budget increase for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program
The spending bill states that the additional funding will not be made available until 60 days after BLM submits a report to Congress detailing its plan for future wild horse management. This is a direct result of alarm bells raised by House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raul Grijalva, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Chair Deb Haaland and ten of their colleagues about increasing the agency’s budget by nearly 30% without following proper oversight channels.
While we remain disappointed that Congress awarded the BLM millions more tax dollars without strict requirements to prevent BLM from using all the funds to round up and sterilize wild horses, this new provision is a significant improvement over previous versions of the spending bill. It gives the House committee with oversight over the BLM — the Natural Resources Committee — a chance to scrutinize the plan and, potentially, take steps to rein in the BLM, before funding is authorized.
Huge thanks for this major development goes to Grijalva, Haaland, Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler, and their colleagues who formed this bipartisan effort to protect our wild horses and burros by signing a letter to request proper oversight.
Forest Service Wild Horse and Burro Slaughter Ban
Another positive development in the FY 2020 spending bill is language that prohibits the U.S. Forest Service from destroying healthy wild horses and burros and selling them for slaughter. Previously, Congress prohibited the BLM from lethal management of wild horses and burros, but the ban did not extend to the Forest Service, which manages a much smaller but still significant number of federally-protected wild horses and burros in the West.
The expanded prohibition is a direct response to the Forest Service’s threat to sell California wild horses for slaughter and a result of the leadership of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein — a long time champion of horse welfare — and U.S. Reps. Ted Lieu, Dina Titus, Grijalva, and California State Assemblymember Todd Gloria who worked with AWHC to pass legislation to improve protections for California’s horses from slaughter.
Everyone who contacted their elected officials over this past year to seek protections for our cherished wild horses and burros should take a moment to appreciate the fact that our grassroots advocacy is working. Although this work is a marathon, not a sprint, and there are disappointments along the way, we are making progress on the road to saving America’s iconic wild herds.
So, as we fire up our legislative and legal teams for the challenges ahead, we want to thank you for staying strong and committed. You are the key ingredient to our successful advocacy for our wild horses and burros, and together, we remain the last line of defense between these beloved animals and their destruction.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
The AWHC team
More Information
On BLM Funding Increase:
- Push to Accelerate Mustang Roundups Draws Fire in Congress
- Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Seeks Limits on Funding for BLM Wild Horse Roundups
- Letter from Rep. Grijalva & 11 House Colleagues to Appropriations Committee
On Forest Service selling wild horses for slaughter:
On anniversary of Wild Horse Act, Congress REJECTS bipartisan protections
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
News & Alerts
Yesterday, the House and Senate unveiled an agreement on the fiscal year 2020 spending legislation. The final bill rejects the efforts of bipartisan lawmakers to prevent federal funds from being allocated toward cruel sterilization surgeries and accelerated roundups.
The vast majority of Americans, from both parties, oppose these surgeries and roundups.
But, this bipartisan effort to protect wild horses and burros was rejected in favor of a backroom deal cut by Washington D.C. lobbyists for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Humane Society of the U.S., the ASPCA, and Return to Freedom that seeks federal funding for the roundup of as many as 20,000 wild horses and burros from our public lands next year.
This week marks the 48th anniversary of the signing of the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, and the spending bill unveiled yesterday marks a sweeping and unparalleled betrayal of these beloved and iconic animals by groups that say they want to protect them.
But we’re not giving up! The words of then-President Nixon in his signing statement for the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act stand as true today as they did in 1971.
“Wild horses and burros merit man’s protection historically … as a matter of ecological right–as anyone knows who has ever stood awed at the indomitable spirit and sheer energy of a mustang running free.”
Then, as today, the American people stand firmly on the side of protecting America’s majestic public horses and the public lands they live on.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY:
- Arm yourself with the facts. The groups that are behind this devastating funding bill are using deceptive language to justify their actions. Learn the truth by clicking here.
- Support AWHC. We have numerous promising avenues to fight back in 2020, which we will pursue vigorously and with your support. Now more than ever, your support is making a difference.
Meanwhile, rest up, stay ready, stay committed and stay strong! Our wild horses and burros need you today more than ever!
Thank you,
American Wild Horse Campaign
Developing story: Congress is under renewed national pressure to protect wild horses
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
We reached out to you about a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in Congress who are taking a stand to champion language during budgetary negotiations that would help protect wild horses and burros next year.
Led by the Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, Raúl Grijalva, these lawmakers are working to prevent federal funds from going toward inhumane sterilization surgeries and accelerated mass roundups (which is being supported in a plan called the ‘Path Forward’).
Thousands of you reached out to your members of Congress (thank you!) and news of this bipartisan mustang protection effort has been carried across the nation, including in The New York Times.
Thank you for helping to shine a light on this important fight by letting your representatives know what is at stake for our wild horses and burros.
American Wild Horse Campaign
BLM to permanently remove 431 wild horses from Nevada
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is currently conducting a roundup at the Desatoya Mountain Herd Management Area located approximately 77 miles east of Fallon, Nevada.
The BLM plans on permanently removing 431 wild horses from the area with the intention of leaving just 127 in the herd (leaving one horse per 1,273 acres of public land). Our field representative was on the ground and joined local advocates in warning the BLM to properly flag ALL barbed wire fencing to prevent scared wild horses from colliding with it.
Our warnings were not heeded and terrified wild horses fleeing helicopters crashed through multiple barbed wire fences as a result.
This is just further proof that these roundups are unnecessarily cruel (and entirely unnecessary)!
AWHC’s field representatives are sometimes the only eyes, ears, and oversight on the site of roundups throughout the West. But AWHC does more than just document these roundups, our legal counsel just filed a complaint with the BLM over this recurrent problem and we intend to hold the agency accountable.
We’re also working to make roundups a thing of the past by demonstrating that there are safer, far more humane and cost-effective ways to manage wild horse populations (in fact, we’re implementing the world’s largest humane management program for wild horses right here in Nevada).
We know these photos are heartbreaking and the news of these roundups can be disheartening. But we can’t lose hope — When we lose hope, our wild horses lose their voice and their chance to live in peace in the wild.
That’s why we’re in this fight.
We will continue to speak up and fight,
American Wild Horse Campaign
Help us reunite Samson with his family and bring him home for the holidays
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
News & Alerts
With a heavy heart, we have sad news to share with you.
The Bureau of Land Management set up a trap outside the Fish Springs Herd Area near Gardnerville, Nevada to remove wild horses over the Thanksgiving holiday. Unfortunately, an entire family of wild horses lost their freedom as a result. Two treasured stallion brothers and four generations gone in a flash.
This is Samson.
Samson is a beautiful and respected stallion, known and loved by the local community — And known internationally among the tens of thousands of people who keep up with him and his fellow Fish Springs horses on Facebook.
After being caught in the trap, Samson and his family were loaded onto trailers and shipped to BLM holding pens near Reno. Soon the family could be separated by the BLM and sold off to the highest bidder.
We know Samson and his family belong together and deserve to be free. That’s why we’re organizing a national petition drive to keep them together and return them to the wild.
Samson’s family includes his brother Jet, and his mares Old Momma, her daughter Apple, Apple’s daughter Dumplin’ and Dumplin’s baby little Sam (pictured together below). Old Momma has been on the Fish Springs Range for more than 20 years and wants to go home.
They lost their freedom because one resident called the BLM to formally complain about these wild horses on his property.
The local community pressure was enormous, calling on the resident to remove the trap, which he finally did.
The very person who called in the complaint with the BLM regrets doing so and wants Samson and his family to stay together on their home range in Fish Springs.
Thank you,
American Wild Horse Campaign
P.S. — The BLM’s removal of Samson and his family shows, once again, the heartlessness of this agency’s wild horse and burro management policies. Please consider supporting our work to fight these policies and keep wild horses and burros in the wild by making a donation (every dollar makes a difference in this critical fight!)
Less than 12 hours to go — Can we count on you to give?
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
AWHC has an incredible team of staff, specialists and volunteers across the country working to keep America’s wild horses and burros wild.
The Bureau of Land Management is trying to convince Congress that mass roundups and surgical sterilization of wild horses are the only solutions to managing America’s wild horse and burro population. With the capitulation of the ASPCA, HSUS and Return to Freedom to the livestock industry agenda, we’re the last ones standing fighting for the future of wild herds.
Make no mistake: the scale of the removals proposed — a staggering 130,000 wild horses and burros over the next ten years — will result in both the destruction of wild horses and burro populations in the wild and the mass slaughter of those held in captivity.
AWHC is fighting back hard, in Congress, in the courts and in the field where we’re implementing humane management programs to prove that wild horses and burros can be managed without harming them.
Thank you,
American Wild Horse Campaign
Double your impact and help save wild horses this #GivingTuesday
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
This #GivingTuesday, all donations up to $50,000 will be matched but only until midnight.
But we’re not just asking you to rush in a donation — We’re asking you to become a member of the AWHC family and a part of our national movement to save America’s wild horses and burros.
The Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management labeled wild horses and burros as the greatest threat to public lands. He’s spreading disinformation and throwing his support behind cruel plans that could result in the wholesale slaughter of these beautiful animals in our lifetimes.
We refuse to let him get away with this. So when you make a donation to support AWHC, here’s where your money is going:
Education and Advocacy — From Nevada and Utah, to Oregon and Wyoming, sometimes the only public observer on site for roundups is one of our field representatives. But we do more than document these cruel acts. Over the past ten years, we’ve grown our grassroots base 100x in size so that we can be a powerful collective voice for protection of wild horses and burros and against their slaughter.
In The Wild Management — In northern Nevada, AWHC is implementing the world’s largest humane management program for wild horses. The cornerstone of this highly successful program is the remote darting of wild mares with the birth control vaccine PZP. We’re proving that there is a cost-effective, humane, and safe way to manage wild horses that would make roundups and slaughter a relic of the past.
Legislation — From statehouses to the U.S. Capitol, AWHC ensures that wild horses and burros have a voice in both state and federal government. We spearheaded state efforts like California’s AB 128 (which passed this year) and fought successfully in Congress to defeat language that would allow for the transfer and mass killing of wild horses.
Litigation — AWHC and our coalition partners have a strong record of successful litigation, winning over 90% of the cases we file. We’re currently involved in six major lawsuits to prevent inhumane surgical experiments on mares as well as prevent the removal of thousands of wild horses throughout the West. Over the years, we’ve put in place precedents that will stand the test of time, upholding important legal protections granted by Congress to America’s iconic mustangs and burros.
Thank you,
Suzanne Roy
Executive Director
American Wild Horse Campaign
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