Over the last month, we’ve seen images of horses being rounded up, driven into barbed wire fencing, and chased by helicopters to the point of exhaustion. Foals have been literally run to death. Once healthy horses have been forced into holding pens, losing their freedom and their families forever.
So far this has been a deadly summer for America’s wild horses and burros.
It’s time for a freeze on the roundup program until a full investigation is completed.
BLM helicopters will take to the air again in September. Our tax-dollars should not be funding this abuse. Keep speaking out, and let’s stop these roundups.
Last week, Colorado State University announced that it is withdrawing from participation in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) mare sterilization research in Oregon. But the BLM is not letting the lack of academic affiliation stop it from proceeding with these barbaric experiments. Instead, the agency is just dropping CSU’s part in the study, which was to assess the harm to the horses from the study! Now the BLM will proceed without regard for or documentation of the pain and complications — including bleeding, infection and abortion — caused by performing the barbaric and risky surgery on wild mares. This is unacceptable, and we need to weigh in AGAIN to oppose the use of our tax dollars to fund these cruel experiments.
We criticize the BLM frequently for its mismanagement and mistreatment of our wild horses and burros, but when the agency is doing something right, we must acknowledge and support it. Such is the case in Colorado where the BLM is partnering with advocate TJ Holmes and a coalition of local groups to humanely manage the spectacular wild horses in the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area. Thanks to a robust fertility control program, no removals have taken place in this HMA for a number of years and no removals are planned. Now we need to weigh in to support the BLM’s proposal to prioritize bait trapping over traumatic helicopter roundups should removals be necessary in the future. Please add your name to our comments by clicking below!
The current Administration is promoting rollbacks of legal requirements for environmental review, public participation, and information disclosure that could have severe detrimental impacts on efforts to protect wild horses and burros. As always, we the people are the line that stands between these cherished animals and destruction, and we must continue to let Congress know that Americans oppose this Administration’s dangerous efforts to weaken legal protections for our wild horses and burros and the public lands they inhabit. Learn more by clicking below.
The BLM’s cruel roundup in Wyoming’s Red Desert ended last week, with the permanent removal 1,4444 horses from our public lands. Ten horses died in the roundup, including six foals, four of whom were literally run to death. Currently, the BLM is removing wild horses and burros from several public lands areas via bait trapping in Utah, Nevada and California, but the helicopters will take to the air again soon. See the latest info on the roundups and find out which herds are targeted next by clicking below.
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.
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.
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.
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!
In the last week, we’ve seen the attacks against wild horses escalate dramatically:
The BLM has resumed selling wild horses and burros by the truckload. The new rule allows BLM to sell up to 25 horses at a time without specific approval and will attract shady buyers and increase the chances of wild horses and burros entering the slaughter pipeline. Can you help us fight back?
The House of Representatives passed a spending bil that authorizes widespread surgical sterilization of wild horses and burros on the range using procedures for mares that are too horrific even to describe. Now it’s up to the Senate to stop this cruel plan. Can you help us mobilize grassroots support to convince the Senate to stand strong?
The BLM is galloping ahead with its plan to remove 44 horses from the Fish Springs range in Nevada against the wishes of local citizens and the business community, who cherish these wild horses on OUR public lands. Can you help us mobilize opposition to this cruel plan?
And that’s not to mention the helicopter roundups that will start in less than two weeks… thousands of wild horses will lose their families and freedom; some will lose their lives. We need to be on the ground to document this barbaric practice and hold BLM accountable. Can you fuel our observation efforts?
This is a huge moment for our advocacy work — but I’m not worried, because I know that we’ve got the best advocates in the world on our side. Thank you for all of your support.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recently weakened a policy enacted six years ago to prevent the sale of wild horses and burros for slaughter. The 2013 rule, implemented after BLM was exposed for illegally selling almost 2,000 horses to a known kill buyer, prohibited the BLM from selling more than four horses per buyer without written approval from the Assistant Director of the BLM. The new rule allows the BLM to sell up to 25 horses to one buyer at a time, with no restrictions on the number of times that someone can purchase horses.
At his confirmation hearing, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke pledged to work with, not against, local communities by “being a listening advocate instead of a deaf adversary.” But now his BLM is turning a deaf ear to the pleas of the community of Gardnerville, Nevada to preserve the Fish Springs wild horses, a locally-important and cherished herd. The BLM is steamrolling over the community by plowing ahead with plans to remove 44 horses from this small herd. Tell Secretary Zinke to live up to his promise to listen to local communities by honoring the wishes of the Gardnerville community to protect the Fish Springs wild horses.
There’s still time to comment on the BLM’s plan to conduct invasive and risky sterilization surgeries on 100 wild mares in Oregon. Two years ago, the BLM cancelled plans to conduct the experiments amidst public opposition and legal action by AWHC and The Cloud Foundation. Now the agency is at it again — this time pairing the archaic surgeries with a mass helicopter roundup that will forcibly remove 685 wild horses from their homes on our public lands in the Warm Spring Herd Management Area. We must pull out all the stops to shut down this cruel plan… again!
Six years ago, the BLM was exposed for illegally selling almost 2,000 wild horses for to a Colorado kill buyer who sold them to slaughter plants in Mexico.
In response to the scandal, the agency adopted a rule preventing the sale of more than four horses to one individual without written approval from the Assistant Director of the BLM. The rule was a safeguard against the sale of horses for slaughter.
But now, the BLM has rolled that back — and is selling wild horses by the truckload again!
The new rule allows BLM to sell up to 25 horses without special approval, and places no restriction on the number of times an individual can purchase horses.
At $25 per horse, this creates an powerful incentive for shady sales to unscrupulous buyers. The number of mustangs entering the slaughter pipeline is bound to skyrocket!
We’re mobilizing now to fight back — working with our allies on Capitol Hill, getting the word out to the national media about BLM’s latest move and exploring legal options. Can you help fuel our rapid response?
We’ll keep you updated on all of our efforts over the next few weeks. Thanks for standing with us.
Popular and beloved wild horse herds are being targeted for mass helicopter roundups and removals. Pregnant mares in Oregon are facing horrific surgeries that will cause pain, suffering and abortions of their unborn foals. Environmental laws enacted to allow the public to speak out against proposals like these are being trampled. We must fight back.
The threats against our wild horses and burros have never been steeper. The policies the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is promoting could literally spell the end for these icons on our Western public lands.
We only have a few weeks to raise the money we need to launch our campaign to fight back. We must build a firewall of protection and set legal precedents for wild horses and burros against these devastating assaults.
Breaking news: We’ve just filed ANOTHER lawsuit against the BLM. This time, we’re challenging the agency’s decision to round up and permanently remove all wild horses from the Caliente Herd Area Complex –– an area of over 900,000 acres of public land in Nevada.
Almost 50 years ago, Congress unanimously passed a federal law to protect wild horses and burros – but that hasn’t stopped the BLM from taking away 41% of their habitat since 1971.
We’ve won litigation many times in the past, and created precedent that will protect horses for generations. These kinds of lawsuits are critically important, but they take resources.
The Caliente wild horses will be rounded up and removed from their homes on the range to clear these public lands for more private livestock grazing. The horses will be thrown into feedlot pens — paid for by our tax dollars.
Meanwhile, the BLM continually scapegoats a relatively small number wild horses for the destruction and overgrazing of public lands caused by massively larger numbers of domestic cattle and sheep.
This mass removal is one more chip away at the rights of wild horses and burros – but we’re standing up to say no more.
It’s time for the BLM to stop prioritizing ranching special interests and start honoring the wishes of Americans – that our iconic mustangs are protected and humanely managed on our public lands.
Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee will vote on the spending bill that will fund the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for 2019.
If this committee joins the House in authorizing the mass sterilization of wild horses and burros, it will be the end of our wild free-roaming herds in the American West.
Not only that, but the Congress will be unleashing unfathomable cruelty on these national icons.
This risky, archaic surgery will cause mares to bleed to death or die from infection or evisceration (intestines coming through the surgical incision), and will cause abortions in many pregnant mares.
On Tuesday, the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee will vote on the Fiscal Year 2019 Interior spending bill. The full Senate Appropriations Committee vote will take place on Thursday.
These votes could not be more important!
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee passed the devastating Stewart Amendment to authorize the permanent sterilization of entire wild horse and burro herds.
The Stewart Amendment put a target on every wild horse and burro herd in the West by authorizing the BLM to “manage any group of wild horses or burros as a non-reproducing or single sex herd, in whole or in part, through chemical or surgical sterilization.”
This will be the beginning of the end of America’s wild free-roaming herds!
We wanted you to know immediately: The House Appropriations Committee today took a devastating action to authorize the BLM to manage wild horses and burros in non-reproducing and single-sex herds by subjecting them to risky, invasive surgeries like this: link to video.
If passed by the full Congress this would spell the beginning of the end for the iconic, free-roaming mustang herds of the American West.
While this is bad news, we can stop it in the Senate. Game on!
Here’s what you can do today:
Call Your Senators at 202-224-3121. Tell them to stand with the 80 percent of Americans who want wild horses protected and humanely managed. Ask them to oppose any 2019 appropriations language that authorizes the slaughter, killing, or sterilization of these cherished federally-protected animals.
You can also let the amendment sponsor and supporters know how you feel about their vote.
Rep. Chris Stewart, amendment sponsor, 202-225-9730
Rep. Ken Calvert, Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chair, (202) 225-1986
The House Appropriations Committee just scheduled its markup hearing on the 2019 Interior Department spending bill for TOMORROW!
Late yesterday, we learned that Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT), who has long been pushing for the mass killing of our wild horses and burros, will likely introduce an amendment to promote the sterilization of our wild herds.
The BLM already wants to do this. With Congressional support, it will be hard to stop. And there’s always a chance that Rep. Stewart will slip in language to allow the BLM to kill tens of thousands of healthy horses and burros… despite the objections of 80 percent of Americans.
Proud magnificent stallions would be castrated, resulting in “reduction in or complete loss of male-type behaviors necessary for maintenance of social organization, band integrity and expression of natural behavioral repertoire,” according to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
Innocent mares will be subject to a barbaric procedure that literally rips their ovaries out with a rod-and-chain-like tool, a method so invasive that the NAS called it “inadvisable for field application” due to risk of hemorrhage and infection.
Sterilization will take the wild out of wild horses by destroying their natural behaviors…. and will endanger their lives.
This is wrong. We have to fight any amendments that permit mass killing or require the surgical sterilization of wild horses — or any legislative language that will lay the groundwork for doing so.
We wouldn’t be messaging you if it weren’t crucial to the survival of wild free-roaming horses and burros in America. Attacks on wild horses are mounting daily, but with supporters like you using your voices to defend them, we are fighting back.
Photo by Steve Paige of Triple B Mustangs in BLM Litchfield Holding Pens, May 29, 2018
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is accepting public comments on another massive helicopter roundup of Nevada mustangs — this one in the Eagle Complex on the border with Utah. The BLM allows just 145-265 wild horses to live in this 1,160-square-mile public lands area, while authorizing the annual equivalent of 4,400 cow/calf pairs to graze there. The action perpetuates the BLM’s broken cycle of roundups and removals and failure to use humane and scientifically-recommended birth control to manage wild horses and burros in the wild. Please take a stand against this waste and cruelty now by clicking below.
Well, they’re back at it again—Congress has begun work on the Department of the Interior/ BLM’s budget for the Fiscal Year 2019, which starts on October 1. And again, the House of Representatives is looking for ways to harm horses on the western range. This year, the House Subcommittee on Interior and Environment Appropriations has forwarded report language that, while avoiding a direct attempt to allow outright slaughter, instructs BLM to start the process to “immediately begin designing the regulatory framework and technical protocols for an active sterilization program.” The report language also directs BLM to “analyze” an option to kill healthy horses older than 10 years — less than half the lifespan for many wild horses! Read more about this situation and what you can do by clicking below for our latest blog!
Photo of Wyoming Checkerboard mustangs in trap at BLM 2017 roundup by Caroline Christie
This BLM is doubling down on the mass roundup and removal of wild horses from our public lands, a management practice that the National Academy of Sciences called “expensive and unproductive for the BLM and the public it serves.” In the crosshairs over the next four months: nearly 6,000 wild horses and burros, currently living peacefully on our public lands in eight Western states. Read more about the BLM’s summer/fall roundup schedule and what it means for American taxpayers and our cherished wild horses and burros by clicking below.
As early as next week, the House Appropriations Committee will consider its Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Interior Department spending bill, including funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Wild Horse and Burro Program.
The current draft of the bill protects wild horses and burros from killing and slaughter. HOWEVER, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) is likely to again introduce an amendment to strip these long-standing protections, placing as many as 100,000 wild horses and burros in holding facilities and on the range in danger of being killed or sold for slaughter.
Last year, the House approved Rep. Stewart’s lethal amendment, but the Senate rejected it. This year, with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his BLM doubling down on their request for permission to kill and slaughter our mustangs, these national icons are again in danger.
Please call your Representative today and ask him/her to weigh in with Appropriators to keep mustang and burro slaughter and killing OUT of Fiscal Year 2019 spending legislation.
As early as next week, the House Appropriations Committee will consider its Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Interior Department spending bill, including funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Wild Horse and Burro Program.
The current draft of the bill protects wild horses and burros from killing and slaughter. HOWEVER, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) is likely to again introduce an amendment to strip these long-standing protections, placing as many as 100,000 wild horses and burros in holding facilities and on the range in danger of being killed or sold for slaughter.
Last year, the House approved Rep. Stewart’s lethal amendment, but the Senate rejected it. This year, with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his BLM doubling down on their request for permission to kill and slaughter our mustangs, these national icons are again in danger.
Please call your Representative today and ask him/her to weigh in with Appropriators to keep mustang and burro slaughter and killing OUT of Fiscal Year 2019 spending legislation.
Last month, the BLM rolled out a disastrous report to Congress on wild horse and burro management that pays lip service to humane solutions while continuing to push for mass roundups, slaughter and sterilization.
Even before Congress acts, the BLM is implementing actions that will destroy numerous wild horse herds and place thousands of mustangs in jeopardy of being killed.
➔ Wyoming, where we’re challenging the BLM’s attempt to round up even more wild horses than authorized from the Wyoming Checkerboard by pretending that foals don’t count in the overall removal totals. Help us win.
➔ Nevada, where we’re fighting a disastrous BLM plan to reduce the breeding population in two eastern Nevada regions by 90% and destroy these wild free-roaming herds by castrating stallions and using an unproven vaccine called GonaCon on mares. And we’re gearing up to sue to stop the BLM from zeroing out (eliminating all wild horses from) nearly one million acres of public land while allowing subsidized cattle grazing to continue in force. Help us win.
➔ Utah, where we’ve been fighting for four years to dismiss a rancher lawsuit seeking the removal of hundreds of wild horses from our public lands. We won at the lower court; now the ranchers have appealed, and we are defending Utah mustangs at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Help us win.
➔ California, where we’re defending the Devil’s Garden wild horses from a rancher lawsuit seeking removal of more than 2,000 mustangs from U.S. Forest Service lands. Help us win.
We’ve already won important legal precedents through successful litigation. With your help, we’ll score more legal victories to protect our cherished wild horse and burro herds.
The Bureau of Land Management just released its report to Congress on future management of wild horses and burros on public lands. The BLM’s answer: mass removals, slaughter and sterilization.
The report reveals that the agency will push to change the law to secure “flexibility” to transfer and sell animals without limitation, meaning tens of thousands would be slaughtered.
The plan calls for Congress to “remove prohibitions” currently placed into appropriations bills that forbid the agency from mass killing and slaughter of our mustangs.
The BLM is going against the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences and more than 100 horse advocacy organizations, and the will of the American people. The agency wants to reduce wild populations to 1971 levels — when Congress protected these animals because they were “fast disappearing.”
Worse, the BLM wants to sterilize 80 percent of the wild herds… a move that is both dangerous and would take the wild out of wild horses by destroying their natural behaviors.
The Bureau of Land Management just released its report to Congress on future management of wild horses and burros on public lands. The BLM’s answer: mass removals, slaughter and sterilization.
The report reveals that the agency will push to change the law to secure “flexibility” to transfer and sell animals without limitation, meaning tens of thousands would be slaughtered.
The plan calls for Congress to “remove prohibitions” currently placed into appropriations bills that forbid the agency from mass killing and slaughter of our mustangs.
The BLM is going against the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences and more than 100 horse advocacy organizations, and the will of the American people. The agency wants to reduce wild populations to 1971 levels —when Congress protected these animals because they were “fast disappearing.”
Worse, the BLM wants to sterilize 80 percent of the wild herds… a move that is both dangerous and would take the wild out of wild horses by destroying their natural behaviors.
It’s an exciting time for the American Wild Horse Campaign.
This spring, we helped win battles to keep wild horses protected in the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2018, launched a lawsuit against the BLM to stop destructive wild horse management policies on public lands, and even saw the Secretary of the Interior publicly backtrack from his all-out push to slaughter these American icons.
But this fight is far from over… We face another battle for the lives of our mustangs this year as Congress debates spending legislation for Fiscal Year 2019.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be keeping you updated on the work we’re doing to protect wild horses and burros, and the battles we’re fighting in court, on the range, and in Congress to defend their rights to live WILD and FREE on our public lands.
Now is a crucial time for your support. We’re building the grassroots support and laying the foundation for lasting protections…. Our campaign has come so far, and we can’t afford to lose any ground.
At a hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT), who last year lobbied hard for language authorizing the mass killing of wild horses and burros, signaled a possible shift in tactics. Instead of advocating for Congress to lift the ban on mustang slaughter, they focused on non-lethal management strategies. While the Interior Department’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget still proposes language that would authorize horse slaughter, it may be that Secretary Zinke and Rep. Stewart have resigned themselves to the fact that mass slaughter of America’s wild horses and burros is wildly unpopular, especially in an election year. Whatever the reason, the shift in focus away from slaughter to non-lethal options is a significant development. Read more in an analysis by AWHC’s lobbyist by clicking below.
As a supporter of AWHC, you deserve to know where your candidates stand on the issues involving wild horses. That’s why, in addition to our work in the field, in the courts, and with the federal budget, we’re launching a new initiative: our first candidate survey. Over the next few months, we’ll be asking candidates in key states a series of questions on where they stand on protecting wild horses and burros and our public lands. We’ll then inform our supporters of the candidates’ positions on the wild horse issue, so voters can be informed before heading to the polls this fall. Click below for a preview of the survey and stay tuned for the results.
As a result of AWHC’s Cooperative Agreement with the State of Nevada for rescue of the Virginia Range horses, over 200 of these cherished mustangs have been saved from slaughter. Through a strong coalition effort, the vast majority of these horses have been placed in quality homes. However, the downside of adoption is that many adoptions fail, and mustangs routinely enter the slaughter pipeline. Such is the case with five Virginia Range horses — a senior gelding and his family — who are currently being transported back to Nevada after being rescued from the kill buyer who operates the notorious Bastrop kill pen in Louisiana. Read more by clicking below about the rescue and why we fight so hard to keep wild horses wild and free on the range, where they belong.
