Over the past few days, we’ve launched an unprecedented campaign to try to save America’s wild horses, including a TV ad buy in four key markets and the release of new polling showing 80% of Americans favor continuing anti-slaughter protections for wild horses.
Why the urgent push? Tomorrow, the full House Appropriations Committee is expected to vote on the new Interior Department budget — and we are told our opponents will attempt to add language to authorize the mass slaughter of America’s wild horses.
The fate of America’s wild horses may come down to your Congressperson. Will you contact he/she right now?
1) Call Your Rep at202-225-3121 and say: side with 80% of Americans — #NoHorseSlaughter, no way!
2) Click the icons below and Tweet and/or Facebook to your Representative.
We’ll keep you updated as the votes unfold. This is one of the most critical weeks we have ever had in the fight to protect wild horses and prevent what could be one of the largest mass slaughter’s of wild animals in our history.
Thank you for being with us,
Suzanne Roy
American Wild Horse Campaign
P.S. Please also consider an emergency donation to help us continue our Virginia TV ad buy.
His house and all his belongings had just been destroyed by California’s Wall Fire, but his concern was for Dane, the donkey that a dying friend gave him seven years ago.
You know the special connection we have with our animal companions. Whether a dog or a cat, a horse or a donkey, they are our family.
And so Ricky was overjoyed when he learned that firemen and our partner, NVADG, had rescued Dane. The poor donkey has suffered severe burns and smoke inhalation and will need ongoing care for several months.
Our rescue team is still on the ground in Butte County helping the animal victims of the Wall Fire that has scorched more than 6,000 acres and destroyed dozens of homes.
We’ve helped rescue, shelter and care for more than 150 animals … from dogs and cats suffering from smoke inhalation, to injured goats, horses – and yes, even donkeys.
You can help! The animal victims still need you, and your gift today can help us continue to provide them with everything they need until they can reunite with their families and return home.
You’ll help the animal victims of this devastating fire and so many other animals that are suffering and need care.
I’m thrilled that we could help Ricky find Dane.
So many times, when disasters strike and people lose so much, the reunion with their animal companions is the first glimmer of hope they feel.
It heals their broken hearts and helps set them on the road to recovery.
You can help heal more hearts with your donation today.
NO HORSE LEFT BEHIND! – 49 Mustangs Saved from Slaughter!
Yes 49…. WE DID IT!!! Thanks to everyone who stepped up we were able to save the lives of ALL 49 mustangs we were called to help.After these mustangs are rounded up, we get a courtesy phone call and we are the only chance they have to avoid being shipped directly to slaughter.
Initially we were not supposed to bring any horses back to Chilly Pepper – Miracle Mustang. But how do you look deep into the eyes of the stallions and simply walk away. CPMM is one of the few places who can take on wild stallions, and no one else was going to step up. As they stood there patiently staring at me, the decision was made.
How can you walk away from horses you CAN save, and look in the mirror? Yes, it makes things extremely difficult at times, and is much more expensive as we incur the gelding costs before we can place them, not to mention stallions can be a lot of work. However, the only alternative was to look at them and say “nope – you are too much trouble – die a horrible death”, and it was not an option as we did have the capability of saving them.
So not one horse was left behind – this time…. Unfortunately I have already been warned the phone will be ringing again in a week or two.
But right now we need to concentrate on our orphans, and getting our boys gelded. We cannot place them without them being gelded which means none of the next group of stallions have any chance to be saved.
We now have 3 babies who are on Foal Lac Powder ($149 per bag if we drive 3 hours to pick it up.) They are also on Foal Lac Pellets, ($99 per bag) and we are supplementing with Baby Goat’s milk as it is less expensive and easy to digest and has lots of fat. Add to that their hay, grain and medical care and it eats up the budget quickly.
I am really praying hard that some of the monies that were “promised” for this last rescue come through. We had some folks pledge enough money to make this possible without total devastation to our entire budget.
Unfortunately those funds have not yet arrived, which means our budget is nearly depleted. So until these funds are replaced, we won’t be able to save the next group. The cost of this rescue averaged about $250 (per horse) x 49, which is pretty good when you consider that covers saving them, vetting them, delivering them safely to their new homes and all fuel costs.
Unfortunately, this does not include feeding and caring for the stallions or getting them vetted. We need to buy hay asap. The horses came in pretty thin and beat up and they need extra groceries.
What makes things even harder is that Chilly Pepper – Miracle Mustang, (and all of YOU who helped save the 900+), spent thousands to save the horses at ISPMB. All the funds were supposed to be reimbursed when we went the second time, but we all know how expensive rescue is. It simply did not happen. So our funds were already depleted immeasurably.
However, that was a successful life saving rescue for over 700 horses. There are still horses left, and we offered to place more through Chilly Pepper. However, due to things beyond our control, that did not happen. So although together we helped save over 700, as many as 100+ may face a “merciful end to their lives”. This sounds horrible, and breaks my heart, but at least none of them will face slaughter like the ones we are rescuing at this time.
There is no choice of where to concentrate at this point. A quick painless end to life or a devastating trip through slaughter, where they are often butchered while still alive – the answer is clear – save as many of the Yakama ponies as we can.
Kim Clark took 25 of the mares and foals at “A Little Piece of Heaven” in Idaho. She is a huge part of our success as she is part of the team that finds homes for these horses.
Wendy & Mike Hanson at Mountain Ranch Equine Rehab took 8 to gentle and match up with “their person”. They work with troubled youth and are using some of the wild ones for therapy for some of our amazing heroes (our beloved veterans).
Kayleen and Clint, out of Oregon, took on 5 fillies and young mares to train and re-home, and we have 10 stallions and a mare at Chilly Pepper.
(We like folks to know that they are actually safe!)
Below, meet the newest orphan “My Heart in the Sky” aka SKY for short, with Rocky and no-name in the background (My niece is picking “no-name” out a very special name. lol) Sky is named after our beloved friend Les Stedronsky, may she rest in all God’s glory. We love you and we miss you so, Les!
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN! We so appreciate the love and support and I am working on Thank You’s as quickly as I can. We still need your help. So please let’s keep saving lives. Together we are making a difference!
If you want to help You can go to You Caring – to help us keep saving lives..
We need to get on the air. In the last 48 hours, thousands of you shared our web video helping to get our message out. We’re starting to be heard — we must prevent the slaughter of nearly 100,000 wild horses and burros.
The Bureau of Land Management does not have the power to overturn the ban on horse slaughter. Only Congress can do that. So we’re making it crystal clear: with their votes, Congress will be deciding to:
support science and protect these iconic animals
OR
side with the special interests and slaughter nearly 100,000 wild horses and burros
It’s the truth. And the choice Congress has to make. The initial text of the Interior Appropriations bill maintains the ban on slaughter, but we are told an amendment will be voted on next week to add BLM’s proposed language allowing slaughter. With your help, we’re going to make sure they understand exactly what’s at stake.
Right now, Washington is ablaze in controversy and partisan bickering. But behind it, too many are missing a critical story: if Congress signs off on the Bureau of Land Management’s budget request, as many as 100,000 wild horses and burros will be slaughtered.
This isn’t fear-mongering. It’s what’s at stake if we overturn the ban on horse slaughter. And if we’re going to stop it, we need to get this story out there and make sure Congress and Americans at-large understand what could happen in just a matter of weeks.
Watch our latest web video and then share it on Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #NoHorseSlaughter.
We need to turn up the volume. And fast. So please watch our video now and share it.
Thank you for being with us and America’s wild horses,
-Suzanne Roy
P.S. Please also consider a donation as we intensify our campaigning in Washington and across the country.
It’s #WildWednesdays – a unified call-in day for wild horses! Supporters all around the country are making their voices heard for wild horses, and we need you to join them!
In less than a week, a key House committee will decide whether the ban on slaughtering wild horses is removed from the 2018 budget bill. The lives of nearly 100,000 wild horses and burros are on the line.
Please make a quick, polite phone call to your Representative at 202-225-3121 right now. You can say:
“I’m (your name), calling from (your town). As your constituent, I ask Rep. (rep’s name) to reject the BLM’s 2018 budget request to slaughter thousands of America’s wild horses and burros. Please vote to maintain the current ban on slaughtering these iconic animals.”
Please make a quick call right now – it will only take a minute and it can make a big difference!
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently requested that the 2018 budget lift the ban on destroying healthy mustangs and burros. If the ban is lifted, all horses and burros in holding facilities will be killed or sold for slaughter. And most of the remaining wild horse population will be slaughtered, possibly even through aerial gunning in the wild.
Here’s the bottom line: 92,000 healthy horses will die if this ban is lifted.
It’s time to fight back against this senseless slaughter. Thousands of you have already made your voices heard. Now, we’re launching a new campaign: #NoHorseSlaughter. But we need your help to spread the word.
We’re going to take our message to every member of Congress and make sure they know what’s at stake. We can’t let the BLM undertake an unprecedented mass slaughter of our nation’s healthy wild horses and burros.
Congress is likely to decide the future of our nation’s iconic wild horse population in the next two weeks, which means these next few days will be critical. We’re going to take the fight to them — both in their districts when their on recess and back on Capitol Hill. With your help, we’re going to make sure they know that America is standing up for #NoHorseSlaughter.
Tens of thousands of innocent, federally protected wild horses and burros are in danger of being killed or sold for slaughter if Congress approves the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) 2018 budget request. The BLM is asking Congress to lift the ban on destroying healthy mustangs and burros and selling those in holding facilities for slaughter. If Congress approves this request, the mass killing of the 46,000 wild horses and burros in holding facilities and the 46,000 “excess” animals on the range would begin.
We can stop this, but only if your elected representatives in Washington, DC hear from you! Our wild horses and burros don’t have a voice, so we must speak up on their behalf to save them from a horrific fate… It only takes a minute – please take action below – today!
Update:The Bureau of Land Management responded to public outcry on Wednesday, saying that the department has no current plans to kill the horses and will continue caring for any horses that are not sold at auction. The department has not yet formally replied to the advisory board’s proposal, but will do so at its next meeting, Reuters reported.
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Please take the time to make your voice heard and stop this tragic decision. The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign has information to contact your Senators and Representatives.
On September 9, the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board voted to recommend the killing of as many as 45,000 captured wild horses and burros in government holding pens as an “emergency” measure. The agency wants to clear the holding pens so that it can round up 40,000 more wild horses and burros from their homes on the range.
The danger is imminent, but can only become reality if Congress and the Administration authorize this mass killing.
Take a Stand Today! Tell Congress and the Administration NO killing or sterilization of America’s mustangs and burros.
Our innocent and iconic wild horses and burros should not pay the ultimate price for the BLM’s continued mismanagement. Please send your emails today!
The American Wild Horse Preservation has a detailed list of the BLM summer roundups. Please visit their website to read more about each of the locations and impact on these groups of equines.
The BLM is planning to remove up to 100 “excess” wild horses from outside the Silver King HMA, and to remove 130 “excess” wild horses from in and around the Triple B HMA.
As of August 8, no horses have been captured. BLM reports that it is acclimating the horses to the bait traps before commencing capture operations.
Blawn Wash Roundup, Western Utah
Estimated Start: August 10, 2016
The BLM plans to conduct a helicopter roundup to capture and remove approximately 150 wild horses from State, private, and BLM lands in the area of the Blawn Wash Herd Area located in Beaver County. The BLM “zeroed out” this area for wild horses, after giving away the most productive habitat area to the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), and then determining that the remaining habitat area could not support horses. SITLA leases the land for livestock grazing and in 2015 sued the BLM seeking more wild horse roundups.
The BLM plans to capture 100 wild horses and return 50 horses — 25 studs and 25 mares — to the range. The BLM’s current “appropriate” management level is just 75 to 150 wild horses on 61,000 acres of public land and the estimated current population is just 202 mustangs. The BLM is claiming that the roundup is necessary because wild horses are grazing outside of the HMA in areas affected by the 2015 Soda wildfire, which burned close to 280,000 acres in Oregon and Idaho. The agency claims that the horses are interfering with restoration plans in the fire area. However, the agency’s own decision record states that only 15 wild horses from the Three Fingers HMA have roamed outside the HMA.
The agency also claims it wants to “prevent further deterioration” of rangeland resources by removing 50 wild horses while continuing to authorize the grazing of over 1,600 cattle in the two allotments that overlap and surround the HMA.
Of interest: The permittees for these grazing areas provide beef, via the Country Natural Beef coop, to Whole Foods, a company that claims to source its meat products from humane and environmentally responsible sources. Captured horses will be sent to the BLM’s Wild Horse Corrals in Oregon, where many of the mares are expected to be used in the BLM’s gruesome and controversial sterilization experiments.
The following post comes from the American Wild Horse Preservation.
We do a lot of complaining, and rightly so, because the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) wild horse and burro policies nationally are a disaster! But rays of hope exist, and we must support progress when and where it occurs. Such is the case in Colorado, where BLM is leading the way in community partnerships for humane on-the-range management programs in three herd management areas — Little Book Cliffs, Spring Creek Basin, and Sand Wash Basin.
On August 4, the BLM will hold a public hearing on the use of motorized equipment for wild horse management in the state. The BLM currently is using less traumatic bait trapping as a priority over helicopter roundups in most Colorado HMAs, and has minimized removals thanks to successful PZP fertility-control programs. Please support these model humane management programs by signing our petition in support of BLM Colorado’s work in these areas. Your signatures will be hand delivered at the meeting by Colorado wild horse advocates with a thank you card to the BLM. Don’t miss this opportunity to take positive action that encourages humane mustang management programs today!
They want to kill over 80,000 wild horses & help sterilize the rest. Help us stop them.
At a rigged oversight hearing on Capitol Hill last week, Rep. Cynthia Loomis (R-WY) called for the “lovely and peaceful” killing of all the wild horses and burros in Bureau of Land Management (BLM) holding pens because their “wild lives are over.” Nevada rancher JJ Goicoechea called for mass roundups and sterilization.
The livestock industry agenda for our national symbols of freedom is nothing short of un-American and we can stop it…with your help.
Please donate as generously as you can to support our legislative, legal and grassroots efforts to save America’s majestic mustangs and burros. We can do this, because we have the power of the people on our side!
Tomorrow, June 22, 2016 – the House Natural Resources Federal Lands Subcommittee will hold an “oversight” hearing on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse and burro program. This hearing is being driven by pro-livestock members like Wyoming’s Cynthia Loomis and will be completely stacked in favor of legalizing the slaughter of America’s wild horses and burros. Just one witness – Ginger Kathrens of The Cloud Foundation — will testify for our side, while four witnesses, including the BLM, two ranchers and the anti-wild horse Wildlife Society — will make the case for slaughtering our wild horses and burros!
Since your Representative is on this subcommittee, YOU are in a unique position to influence this dangerous development. Please ask your Representative to attend the hearing and speak up for the American public, which wants our wild horses and burros protected from cruel roundups and brutal slaughter.
This hearing will happen TOMORROW, so please act immediately!
Tomorrow morning, June 16, at 10:30 am EST, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hold a “markup” hearing on the 2017 Interior Appropriations Bill.
The bill will likely include language which allows the BLM to transfer our federally protected wild horses and burros to state, local, or other federal agencies ‘to be used as service and work animals’, which strips them of their federally protected and wild status.
Since the passing of the Burn’s “Sale Authority” amendment in 2005, what little protections exist for wild horses and burros are being traded away.
The chipping away of protections intended by the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971 continues to open the gateway to the slaughter and the easy disposal of our iconic American mustangs and burros.
With over 45,000 captured wild horses and burros warehoused in holding facilities and over 40,000 wild horses and burros that BLM wants removed from the range, the stakes are high.
Section 110 of the BLM’s 2017 budget proposal has no mechanism for humane oversight. In addition, any amendment to Section 110 to protect the horses and burros from slaughter is not enforceable and will not prohibit their slaughter for non-commercial uses. The language leaves a broad range of interpretation and has no recourse for accountability.
If your Senator is on the Appropriations Committee, you can influence his or her response in tomorrows meeting!
Please TAKE ACTION NOW and Share with Friends in your community who love wild horses and burros!
In a stunning reversal, the President’s Proposed 2017 Budget seeks to amend the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act to allow the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to turn over captured wild horses to state agencies and strip these animals of the legal status that currently protects them from slaughter. If approved by Congress, the amendment would allow the BLM to place unlimited numbers of wild horses directly into the hands of state and local governments that have vocally lobbied for mass removals and slaughter of these iconic animals. The proposed appropriations language also calls for sterilization of wild horses and burros in the wild. This is a grave threat to our remaining wild horse and burro herds. If ever there was a time to show united and strong opposition to the BLM’s anti-wild horse and burro policies, this is it! Please take action below and share widely.
The following update from is from AWHP, written by Suzanne Roy
The BLM held its second, and final, Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meeting of 2015 on September 2nd and 3rd in Oklahoma City, OK. Of all the board meetings I have attended since 2009, this was by far the most ominous. Emboldened by years of BLM’s crisis-creating, the pro-slaughter majority on this board is now openly endorsing slaughter as a solution to the BLM’s budget woes. These members, who overwhelmingly represent livestock interests, are also aiming to reduce wild horse numbers below the already ridiculously low allowable population levels.
The BLM Wild Horse and Burro (WH&B) program, under the leadership of Dean Bolstad, a long-time BLM bureaucrat, seems only happy to comply. In fact, after the pro-slaughter board members spoke explicitly about the need to overturn Congressional ban that prevents the BLM from selling wild horses and burros for slaughter, Bolstad commented that, of the 49 board meetings he has attended since 2003, this was the best one yet.
In 2013, the National Academy of Sciences evaluated the BLM’s WH&B Program and concluded that “continuation of ‘business as usual’ practices will be expensive and unproductive for the BLM and the public it serves.” Undaunted by this warning, the BLM is continuing down the same destructive path, announcing at the meeting:
Expansion of helicopter roundup contracts to include three companies, including Sun J Livestock, which was found previously to have engaged in “unprofessional” conduct, including the electro-shocking of wild horses.
Scaling up removals under the guise of sage grouse protection.
Spending over 70% of the budget to round up and warehouse horses, while continuing to spend less than 1% on humane fertility control to manage wild horse populations on the range.
Spending millions on research, much of which is aimed at perfecting techniques to permanently sterilize wild horses on the range.
Meeting with Congress to share its self-inflicted budget woes, with the goal of overturning the ban on selling captured wild horses and burros “without limitation” that would enable kill buyers to purchase large numbers of wild horses and burros for slaughter.
In a stunning reversal, the President’s Proposed 2017 Budget seeks to amend the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act to allow the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to turn over captured wild horses to state agencies and strip these animals of the legal status that currently protects them from slaughter. If approved by Congress, the amendment would allow the BLM to place unlimited numbers of wild horses directly into the hands of state and local governments that have vocally lobbied for mass removals and slaughter of these iconic animals. The proposed appropriations language also calls for sterilization of wild horses and burros in the wild. This is a grave threat to our remaining wild horse and burro herds. If ever there was a time to show united and strong opposition to the BLM’s anti-wild horse and burro policies, this is it! Please take action below and share widely.
