This is the most important week in our campaign to save the famed wild horses of Onaqui in Utah.
We’ve got a lot going on – and we need your support. Whether it’s on the ground in Utah or from afar, every action you can take this week will make a difference.
Friday is our rally at the BLM office in Salt Lake City, UT. Please join us as we protest the round-up of 80% of one of the most famous wild horse herds in America, and tell the BLM that their plan of action is unacceptable.
Also on Friday, we’ll be holding a Digital Sit-in to #SaveOnaqui. Support the movement by sharing on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter with the #SaveOnaqui hashtag. More on this later.
You can help show your support for the Onaqui wild horses by purchasing our Onaqui Apparel, proceeds of which will go directly to saving the Onaqui herd.
A majority of Americans oppose rounding up wild horses and using taxpayer money to put them in holding pens for life. And while the BLM has come after so many of America’s wild herds, the Onaqui wild horses hold a special place in our nation’s hearts.
As one of the most viewed wild horse herds, they not only offer a unique opportunity for people to witness the magic of horses roaming free in the wild, they also contribute to the local community by bringing in thousands of tourists every year.
Kimerlee Curyl is a renowned fine art photographer who has been working amongst the Onaqui wild horses since 2009. She is one of many artists who has come to know the herd very well, in a place that now feels like home.
We can’t let these beautiful horses, who have roamed Utah since the 1800s, lose their families and their homes in a BLM roundup.
Kimerlee explains just how important these horses are:
“My first journey to the area was in 2009. While numerous visits have followed, I will never forget the magic and mystery of that initial trip. The Onaqui horses have called the historic Pony Express Trail in Utah home for generations. To remove them from this territory – one they once helped man traverse in the name of special interest – is a betrayal to our past, especially when access to cost-effective solutions have been offered and declined by the BLM. They are woven into the fabric of this landscape and deserve solutions to be expanded upon. They deserve to be here.”
Photographers like Kimerlee come from all over the world to visit and photograph these wild horses. But in a few short months, 80% of the herd could be gone forever.
The BLM is full steam ahead with plans to round up and capture 80% of the famous Onaqui herd in Utah. But we can’t let up.
We still need 5,318 more signatures to reach our goal before April 5, when we are delivering our petition and holding a rally outside of the BLM’s Salt Lake City office. We need your help.
There are only 486 wild horses in the Onaqui herd. If the BLM gets their way, only 120 horses will remain on over 240,000 acres.
There are humane ways to manage wild horse populations that the BLM is just not using. Instead, the agency wants to move forward with an inhumane roundup, using helicopters to chase the horses for miles. Once captured, the horses will be forced to spend the rest of their lives in holding pens and pastures, adding to the millions of dollars taxpayers are forced to spend on this ineffective and mismanaged federal program.
The Onaqui horses are irreplaceable – not just to America as a symbol of our freedom and our heritage, but to the local communities who benefit from the tourism dollars brought by wild horse admirers and photographers.
The BLM is full steam ahead with plans to round up and capture 80% of the famous Onaqui herd in Utah. But we can’t let up.
We still need 5,318 more signatures to reach our goal before April 5, when we are delivering our petition and holding a rally outside of the BLM’s Salt Lake City office. We need your help.
There are only 486 wild horses in the Onaqui herd. If the BLM gets their way, only 120 horses will remain on over 240,000 acres.
There are humane ways to manage wild horse populations that the BLM is just not using. Instead, the agency wants to move forward with an inhumane roundup, using helicopters to chase the horses for miles. Once captured, the horses will be forced to spend the rest of their lives in holding pens and pastures, adding to the millions of dollars taxpayers are forced to spend on this ineffective and mismanaged federal program.
The Onaqui horses are irreplaceable – not just to America as a symbol of our freedom and our heritage, but to the local communities who benefit from the tourism dollars brought by wild horse admirers and photographers.
On Friday, April 5, we’re holding a rally in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah at the BLM State Office to save the Onaqui wild horses. We need a huge showing to make sure the BLM hears our voices loud and clear – and we hope you’ll join us in taking a stand against the BLM’s planned roundup that could wipe out 80% of the herd.
This rally is our chance to speak up for the beloved Onaqui wild horses – one of the most famous herds in the West that draws thousands of eco-tourists to the area every year. With a great showing of support, we’ll be able to get the attention of the media and generate the national grassroots pressure on the BLM to spare this historic and unique mustang herd.
This week, we launched a campaign to save the Onaqui wild horses in Utah. To truly understand how special these horses are, you have to see them for yourself.
The BLM plans to round up 80% of the herd and put them in holding pens for life – because they say the horses are overpopulating the area. But it’s not true and it doesn’t have to be like this. Cattle and sheep grazing consumes the majority of the resources on these public lands, and we have safe and humane solutions to control wild horse populations that the BLM has failed to implement adequately. Instead, millions of dollars in taxpayer money will go toward cruel roundups and confinement.
These horses deserve to be with their families and to roam free in the wild where they belong. This is an incredibly unique, tightly-knit society of horses. We can’t let the government destroy their herd.
These iconic wild horses need all of the teammates and fans they can get right now. Watch and share our video, and help us spread the word to save the Onaqui mustangs.
Thank you for helping save these national treasures. Let’s #SaveOnaqui.
If you want to go see wild horses, chances are you’ll find yourself just outside Salt Lake City, visiting the Onaqui wild horse herd of Utah. They’re among the most famous (and most photographed) wild horses in the country.
Now the Bureau of Land Management is about to destroy the herd and roundup more than 90% of these iconic horses.
This is a fight we have to win. Sign the petition now and demand that the BLM preserve the Onaqui wild horse herd.
This is the beginning of a multi-week campaign to stop this devastating roundup. We’ll be rallying supporters, lobbying lawmakers, and activating the local community that treasures these horses.
We have to stop this roundup:
Utah would lose an important ecotourism resource. The horses attract thousands of tourists and photographers a year. Several of these horses have become so well-known, they’ve been given names – like the beloved “Old Man,” a 28-year-old stallion enjoying his elder years with the herd.
The roundups are devastating and cruel — using helicopters to run horses, including foals (babies), for miles until they’re exhausted. Many are injured, breaking their legs and necks, crashing into fences. Some die from their injuries and from exhaustion.
Taxpayers shouldn’t spend millions on this unnecessary abuse.Proven, humane, and cost-effective management solutions already exist. In fact, the American Wild Horse Campaign has offered to work with the BLM to expand and fund a proven fertility control program to reduce population growth without removing horses from their homes on the range.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public comments on a plan for the Warm Springs Herd Management Area (HMA) in Oregon. This HMA was recently the site of a large roundup that removed 100 percent of the wild horses living there, including 100 mares who were slated to be used in an experimental surgical sterilization study. That plan was dropped after a federal judge issued a Preliminary Injunction in response to litigation by filed AWHC, The Cloud Foundation, and the Animal Welfare Institute. The BLM’s new plan is to return just 66 of the 846 horses removed from the HMA and treat all released mares with PZP fertility control. Bottom line: The BLM is releasing too few horses to maintain a healthy, genetically viable population in the Warm Springs HMA. Please take action with us below!
For the last several months, our team has been investigating how livestock interests in northern California’s Modoc National Forest took control of U.S. Forest Service policy regarding the management of federally-protected wild horses. Our reporting shows a trail of money, extremist politics and junk science leading to the current situation in which the Forest Service intends to sell federally-protected wild horses without limitation on slaughter for the first time in history. Read more about the situation and the disturbing precedent it sets for special interest takeover of public lands policy by clicking below.
When we learned in April 2018 that five Virginia Range mustangs who had been adopted to a small sanctuary in Alabama were sold to a notorious kill buyer, we sprang into action. Just days before they shipped for slaughter, we rescued them. Thanks to supporters like you — and to Chilly Pepper Mustang Rescue and Freedom Reigns Equine Sanctuary — this small family is safe. Just four years ago, these mustangs were roaming free in Nevada. When we reached them in Alabama, they were in rough shape — neglected, traumatized and very thin. Today, they’re back home in the West looking happy and healthy. Watch their story in our latest video, and then share with your friends and family!
The BLM is accepting public comments on a Herd Management Area (HMA) and roundup plan for the Fifteen Mile HMA in Wyoming. The plan calls for removing over 300 horses to reduce the population to the low “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) of 70 horses, skewing the sex ratios in favor of males, and maintaining the population number in the future with more roundups and removals.
The BLM plans to significantly reduce the existing horse population even though the agency acknowledges that the horses are healthy at their current population level of 404. Additionally, little active livestock grazing is occurring in this HMA so conflicts with ranchers are minimal. Instead of continuing the same failed approach to wild horse management, the BLM should maintain the Fifteen Mile wild horse population at a healthy number by implementing a robust fertility control program to humanely manage the population of wild horses in the wild. Tell the BLM to implement a humane and sustainable plan for the Fifteenmile horses – Take Action today!
Wild horses captured from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory in the Modoc National Forest near Alturas, California last fall are still in need of homes. These are the horses that the U.S. Forest Service wants to sell without limitation on slaughter, but our lawsuit has so far blocked this action. Currently 43 horses age 10 and over are for sale with limitation on slaughter, and 20 horses age 9 and under are available for adoption for $125. Meanwhile, our partner sanctuary, Montgomery Creek Ranch (MCR), has six halter trained two-yea- olds also from Devil’s Garden available for adoption. If these beautiful youngsters get adopted, MCR will be able to take in additional Devil’s Garden horses in need of homes. Learn more below.
AWHC is fighting for New Mexico’s wild horses by opposing state legislation that would put the fate of non-federally protected wild horses in the hands of the New Mexico Livestock Board, which has a documented history of anti-wild horse actions and support for horse slaughter. Although the bill has been amended to prevent the Livestock Board from killing wild horses removed from the range, it allows the board to make decisions about removal of wild horses from public and private land, a situation that would spell the end for free-roaming wild horses in New Mexico. Read more below, and if you are from New Mexico, be sure to oppose the legislation here.
In what might be considered a Valentine’s Day miracle, the House passed a spending package last night which included funding for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of the Interior, completing Congressional action to avert a government shutdown with barely a day to spare. So what does this mean for wild horses and burros? Click below for more information.
On February 7, the BLM began the roundup and removal of wild horses from the Pine Nut Herd Management Area (HMA) in Nevada. The BLM intends to round up 575 of the wild horses and burros from their home on our public lands in this area. So far 316 horses have been captured, and inclement weather has postponed the operation for the last three days. Read our field observers’ reports from the roundup below.
On February 14, 2019, AWHC submitted comments on the Navy’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a proposed project to expand the Fallon Range Training Complex in Nevada. There are 24 Herd Areas, totaling approximately 1.5 million acres, and 24 Herd Management Areas, totaling approximately 2.4 million acres that are within the project’s region of influence. AWHC has asked the Navy to further explain any management plans it has for the wild horses and burros within the zone of influence for its proposed project. Click below for more information.
YOU saved Artie!!!! Artie is with me in Shingletown and hopefully headed to NV soon.
Sadly, we are currently in a “Nursery 911”. Baby season is fast approaching, and although we have started to set up the nursery in Toppenish, we are devastatingly far behind. We need more shelter, more panels, Foal Lac Powder, Foal Lac Pellets, grain, medical supplies, shavings, hay for the babies, and the list is endless.When that phone rings, it is go time, and we won’t have time to do anything but provide critical care.
This year has been a nightmare of non-stop emergencies in the middle of another emergency. We need your help right away to get this nursery ready, and we need to fence in more space for the Devil’s Garden horses we have to “babysit” in NV.
We are praying a local rescue will step up to at least help with the Yakima foals.
For now it is Chilly Pepper – Mama Mel’s Urgent Care Nursery and the folks we work with to help place the babies. We cannot do this alone. It is way too much, and we are being called for more and more babies in NV.
Matt and I will be delivering 12 of the Devil’s Garden horses to the east coast. This was Matts gig, but we simply cannot mix newly gelded studs, with very pregnant mares. I don’t mind doing the work, but we need to raise funds for fuel, travel etc.
These are the wild horses being sold for $1 each – YES, ONE DOLLAR EACH and sold in lots of 34 horses? Hmmmm, sounds like a slaughter truck load to me.
So between delivering the kids that are being adopted in Idaho, bringing home the 11 that are still at Mama Mel’s, and getting the nursery ready in WA, we will be picking up the 12, then babysitting them until they can be transported back east, and doing our general baby season prep. SO FAR THERE IS ZERO FUNDING FOR my truck and trailer to get back East, expand the fencing, and to hire someone to take care of the ranch while we are gone.
We need more panels to put up appropriate fencing for the Devil’s Garden kids, so they can hang out at Chilly Pepper until we can safely transport them. We also need funds to feed the 12, and remember, 6 of them are heavily pregnant mares, and really enjoy their feed lol.
Artie is safe. He definitely has a long way to go though. His lil hoofers are horrible, and he needs to be gelded immediately. He is an 11 year old stallion who was much loved, spoiled rotten and knows basically nothing except that he wants his own way. He kicks and bites if asked to do something he doesn’t like or understand, but underneath it all, I believe he has heart of gold. I, of course, am madly in love with him :)
Sweetheart and Star Fire are hanging in there. Star Fire is still barely here, but we are hopeful that day by day she will improve and she will be able to have a wonderful life. Her spine is still all jacked up, so we are going day by day with lots of prayers. Back in Golconda, two more horses left for their new homes. I am so grateful to have folks who can do whatever it is that needs done!
We truly need your help to prep for baby season. The numbers have the potential to be astronomical, and we need a safe place, the right supplies and to be ready for these little ones. We have seen as many as 30 orphans from one catcher in a single day.
Last year, approximately 80,000 American horses were trucked to Canada and Mexico, where they were brutally slaughtered for human consumption in foreign countries. These horses suffer long journeys without adequate food, water or rest, to slaughter plants across the border, where they meet a terrifying end. It’s time to end this unspeakable cruelty in 2019. Support the SAFE Act to ban the slaughter of American horses by taking action today.
Two months ago, the U.S. Forest Service completed its roundup and removal of 932 horses from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory (DGWHT) in the Modoc National Forest near Alturas, CA. AWHC has teamed up with the Animal Legal Defense Fund to file suit to stop the sale for slaughter of these federally-protected horses for slaughter. We’re also sponsoring state legislation to strengthen slaughter protections for all California horses. Read the latest about the horses and our efforts to help them below.
The first roundup of 2019 is set to begin Thursday in the Pine Nut Herd Management Area (HMA) outside of Carson City, Nevada. The BLM is scheduled to remove approximately 575 wild horses from the 95,000-acre HMA. This roundup continues the BLM’s inhumane and fiscally unsound approach to wild horse management. AWHC will be onsite to document the roundup and will provide daily reports from the frontlines. Learn more about the HMA and the upcoming roundup.
We have difficult news to report. The U.S. District Court in Nevada has issued a negative ruling in our lawsuit against the Paiute Pyramid Lake Tribe, the Nevada Department of Agriculture and Cattoor Livestock Roundups. At issue is the illegal roundup of at least 300 horses in the Palomino Valley area northeast of Reno.
The judge ruled that the Tribe and the State have sovereign immunity from lawsuits and that NDA employees and tribal members acting as agents of those entities are also immune from suit. The judge did keep the Temporary Restraining Order issued on January 17 in place prohibiting the slaughter of a privately owned horse named Lady, who was caught up in the roundup, pending an evidentiary hearing to be scheduled within 14 days.
While this ruling is disappointing, it does not change the facts of this case or our commitment to seeking justice for the residents who were traumatized by the surprise raid that was conducted by members of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and Cattoor Livestock Roundups on January 4 and 5, 2019, and for the horses who lost their freedom and their lives.
These include the grey stallion pictured above, admired in Palomino Valley for so many years, who somehow eluded capture but lost his band and wandered back to the land he called home, thin, alone and forlorn. Yesterday, he was found dead. The resident who found him, and knew his family, is convinced that he died of a broken heart.
On Monday, we’ll be in court to stand up for a group of both wild and privately owned horses who were wrongfully rounded up in Palomino Valley in Nevada. The hearing will determine whether the laws of the state are upheld and whether the horses can be saved, or if, heartbreakingly, they will go to slaughter.
Residents of Nevada’s Palomino Valley lost horses and burros during a multi-day roundup coordinated by members of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe – who illegally stampeded horses with motorcycles, ATVs and on horseback off private property where they had been living for years.
Several privately owned horses and burros were taken in the process. Some were released and have wandered home, but Lady, a small bay mare who belongs to Sparks, NV resident Colleen Westlake, remains missing.
Right now, we don’t know where Lady and the other horses are. We do know that 238 of them were sold to a notorious kill buyer in New Mexico. We’re holding out hope that they haven’t already been shipped across the border to Mexico for slaughter.
Our team is working with the residents whose private property rights were violated to hold the tribe and the Nevada Department of Agriculture accountable for this illegal surprise roundup.
Please, support our team as we go to court on Monday to stand up for Lady and the rest of the horses rounded up at Palomino Valley, and for all our critical work to save wild horses in Nevada and throughout the West.
Right now, we are the voice for these horses. We are their advocates, and their lawyers. Thank you for standing with them and with us.
Late last night, we got a Temporary Restraining Order from the U.S. District Court in Nevada to prevent the slaughter of Lady, a beautiful mare who belongs to a Nevada resident. Lady was rounnded up in an illegal capture operation two weeks ago conducted on private lands by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. We believe Lady and the other horses are in a New Mexico feedlot awaiting shipment to slaughter.
Please help us secure the cooperation of the State of Nevada to save Lady from slaughter.
Deliver this message to the below officials:
“Please help save Lady from slaughter. Please have the Nevada Department of Agriculture immediately provide the location of the horses rounded up by the Paiute tribe two weeks ago and notify New Mexico authorities that the horses cannot be moved across the border into Mexico.”
We have just hours left before the three-day weekend so please take action now to save Lady and the other horses! Please remember to be polite and respectful – it’s the best way to save the horses.
The U.S. District Court in Wyoming just ruled in our favor and stopped the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from not counting foals in roundup removal totals, putting a stop to the tactic that the BLM employed to round up more horses than legally allowed from our public lands. This is a precedent setting win! Read more:
Residents of the rural community of Palomino Valley near Reno are devastated this week after a surprise roundup conducted by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe last weekend. Horses were driven off private land onto reservation land and captured for slaughter. The roundup left the Valley devoid of its locally cherished wild horses and ensnared several privately-owned horses in the process. Read more and support our efforts to help the residents fight back below.
Two months ago, the U.S. Forest Service completed its roundup and removal of 932 horses from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory (DGWHT) in the Modoc National Forest near Alturas, CA. AWHC has filed suit to stop the sale for slaughter of these federally-protected horses for slaughter and is sponsoring state legislation to strengthen slaughter protections for all California horses. Read the latest about the horses and our efforts to help them below.
As the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, the playing field for wild horses and burros is shifting. Meanwhile, the shutdown drags on, affecting the agencies that manage these federally-protected animals. Read on to find out the latest developments and what they mean for our wild horses and burros.
We did it! Thanks to your support in our end of year campaign we were able to reach our $100,00 goal and unlock our donor match. Your support will make an enormous difference for wild horses and burros as we plan and begin executing our 2019 program.
We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I know we can always count on you to pressure lawmakers, support our critical legal work, and raise awareness across the country about the plight of America’s magnificent wild horses and burros. We face powerful opposition by the wealthy livestock lobby. But this movement has stood up to the challenge over and over again and we’ll do it again in 2019.
As the New Year begins, I am incredibly grateful for your continued support and dedication to this cause. We’ll be in touch soon with updates.
Here’s where we stand: With just a few hours to go, we’re falling short of our our $100,000 goal.
If we don’t hit that goal by midnight, we’ll lose the chance to have those gifts MATCHED – and that means we won’t be able to fight back against all of the threats facing wild horses.
We’re down to the wire. Our end of year fundraising deadline is only 48 hours away — and we haven’t yet heard from you.
If you’ve been holding off, here are five reasons to give now:
#1 The fate of wild horses is at stake now more than ever. Just this year we’ve seen some of the worst roundups yet, and we had to fight back attempts in Congress to legalize slaughter. We’ll have to continue the fight in 2019 to defeat the powerful special interests seeking to overturn protections for wild horses and burros against slaughter and mass sterilization. Help us win on Capitol Hill.
#2 We’re the most effective advocates for wild horses and burros in the country. We were party to seven lawsuits against the federal government this year — and we’re listed as one of the 30 Great Animal Organizations Worth Your Donations. We have to keep up the fight.
#3 We must unleash a massive grassroots and PR campaign to save the most visible and visited mustang population in the West — the famed Onaqui wild horses in Utah — and defeat a BLM plan to remove 91% of the herd in the Spring 2019. Please support us today.
#4 We must defeat the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to sell federally-protected wild horses in California for $1 a piece by the truckload for slaughter, and we must help rescue, when necessary and possible, wild horses facing this horrific fate. Help us keep wild horses out of the slaughter pipeline.
Horses have always been special to me — you can see a photo of my mustang Leroy and I below. And when I saw how many threats wild horses like him are facing, from slaughter to mass capture and sterilization, I knew I had to do something. I had to be their voice.
There’s a big difference between rescue and prevention. Although rescue is important, it’s like trying to keep an empty bucket under a faucet that never stops flowing. We need to turn off the faucet — which is why AWHC focuses our work on sustainable, humane management that keeps wild horses and burros wild and free and on our public lands.
I know of no other nonprofit as efficient, dedicated, and impactful as AWHC. The team runs a lean operation, activates a powerful movement, and fights aggressively in every arena — from the range to the courtroom. I’ve become a board member because I trust that my time and money is going to go as far as it can to protect wild horses, and you can trust that too.