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Our new TV ad

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

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.

But with a big vote in Congress expected next week — we need to accelerate our efforts. We just finished cutting our new TV ad. Will you watch it and donate immediately to help us get it on-air in Washington D.C. and target cities across the country?

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.

WATCH: The choice on wild horses

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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.

Today is a national call-in day for wild horses

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

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!

Thanks,

Suzanne Roy

#NoHorseSlaughter #UnitedWeStand

Stop this madness

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

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.

Will you contribute today to help us stop the slaughter?

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.

Please help us stop this madness now.

Have You Called Congress Yet?

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

Your Representatives in DC Will Decide Whether Thousands Will be Slaughtered

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!

 

URGENT ACTION ALERT: Stop the Mass Killing of 45,000 Wild Horses & Burros

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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!

 

BLM Summer Roundups Underway

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AWHP-LogoThe 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.

 

Triple B HMA and Silver King HMA bait/water removal, Ely, Nevada

Estimated Start: July 27, 2016

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.

Three Fingers HMA Helicopter Roundup, Vale, OR

Estimated Start: August 23, 2016

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.

Support Humane Mustang Management in Colorado! 

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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!

“Lovely and Peaceful” Killing – Help Us Stop This

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The following post comes from the American Wild Horse Preservation.

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.

We must stop this.

The agenda of public lands ranchers and the politicians who serve their interests is clear:

►  Round up 100% of America’s wild herds and remove the 40,000 wild horses and burros that the BLM considers to be “excess.” BLM Roundup

►  Slaughter the 40,000 “excess” wild horses and burros and the 44,000 already warehoused in BLM holding facilities.

BLM Holding Facility►  Sterilize every one of the 27,000 wild horses left on the range via risky and invasive surgical procedures.

BLM Sterilization

It’s a recipe for unprecedented brutality and extinction of these national icons in our lifetime. 

We will not let this happen, but we need your help to stop it.

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!

House Subcommittee Stacks the Deck for Mustang Slaughter – Take Action Now!

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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!

Tell Congress to Maintain Federal Protections of Our Wild Horses And Burros!

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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!

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Action Alert: Proposed 2017 Budget Strips Legal Protection Status of Wild Horses & Burros

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The following is an Action Alert from the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign.

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.

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UPDATE: BLM Advisory Board Meeting Signals Dark Clouds for Wild Horses & Burros

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The following update from is from AWHP, written by Suzanne Roy

logo_2The 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.