A common question we get asked when we shine a spotlight on cruel practices and unjust policies that threaten our wild horses is:
“Why don’t you sue?”
The answer is – we are! The American Wild Horse Campaign currently has 6 active lawsuits. We consider litigation as one of our central pillars of defense against the increasing number of threats facing wild horses and burros throughout the West.
We’ve had some incredible successes – putting in place legal protections that will stand the test of time. In the case of Devil’s Garden, we’re currently suing to protect nearly 500 wild horses from potentially being sold to slaughter.
Take a moment to read below about how we’re defending wild horses and burros in the courts of law.
Thank you for looking this over and for your continued support,
American Wild Horse Campaign
P.S. – Getting the word out about our work helps us out immensely! So if you could forward this email to three friends, then we can close out this #WildHorseWednesday knowing we made a difference in the fight to defend America’s wild horses and burros!
It’s difficult to overstate the threat to wild horses and burros posed by the Cattlemen’s Association/HSUS/ASPCA, et. al., and their mass mustang roundup plan. If it goes into effect, up to 20,000 horses and burros each year for the next three years will be rounded up and removed from public lands.
Over the next ten years, the total number removed from the range could be as high as 130,000 wild horses and burros.
But thanks to dedicated supporters like you who have spoken out, signed petitions, and donated, this dangerous plan is drawing national attention and backlash:
Momentum is building, but we’re facing a major deadline to stop one cruel method that the plan allows — a brutal and outdated surgical procedure that BLM intends to use to remove the ovaries of wild mares. Many veterinarians have spoken out, but more are needed to convince Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to pull the plug on this inhumane surgery.
Mass Roundups & Surgical Sterilization Are Not The Answer
These wild herds are at risk of being destroyed forever. And this isn’t hyperbole — mass roundups would reduce wild horse populations to near-extinction levels. Surgical sterilization would destroy the mustangs’ natural behaviors, which make them truly wild and help them survive in the rugged West.
There are much better and far safer management options to maintain viable and healthy herds of wild free-roaming horses and burros on our public lands.
The National Academies of Sciences, in its 2013 Report to the BLM, made it crystal clear that roundups don’t work:
We’re Showing There Is A Better Way
Every single day, our darters are proving that humane management of wild horses in the wild is possible. And our PZP birth control programs are getting results.
In the span of five and a half months, our team of 14 volunteer darters in the Virginia Range in Nevada delivered more fertility control treatments to wild mares than the entire BLM, with its $80-million-a-year-budget, did in all of 2018.
Just last week in the Onaqui Mountains in Utah, AWHC’s darter worked with the BLM and the Wild Horses of American Foundation to dart 81 horses.
The fact is, PZP programs are getting results. We stand ready to work with the BLM to expand these programs so that wild horses and burros can live as nature intended — Wild and Free.
I have devastating news. The Humane Society of the United States, ASPCA, and Return to Freedom, who made promises to protect horses, just betrayed America’s mustangs and burros.
Today, at the behest of those organizations and the livestock industry lobbyists they allied with, the Senate Appropriations Committee funded a $35 million increase for the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. The appropriation is part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Interior Department spending bill unveiled today.
The funds are targeted for implementation of the unprecedented mass roundup, removal, and radical population suppression plan that the groups, along with the cattlemen, support.
There are no restrictions on how the BLM can spend the new money. With this nearly 50% increase in the program budget, it’s clear what the BLM will do. Thousands more wild horses will be rounded up with helicopters, ripping them from their families and homes on our public lands. Those who remain free will be subjected to brutal sterilization surgeries that will destroy their wild behaviors and threaten their very lives. The future of America’s wild free-roaming herds will be in jeopardy when populations are reduced to genetically non-viable levels.
Don’t be fooled by the deceptive promotion of the plan as “non-lethal.” The bill language prohibits slaughter for a year, but the plan makes that horrific outcome more likely as holding pens swell with tens of thousands more horses and no guarantee of funding for their safety or long-term care.
There’s a long process ahead before this becomes law – if it ever does. Congress may choose to fund the government in FY 20 by passing a Continuing Resolution instead of a spending bill. And the BLM will have many hurdles to cross before accelerating the roundups and implementing inhumane management tools.
With your continued support, we will fight those who betray our wild horses and burros. We’ll fight them in court. We’ll fight them in Congress. We’ll expose the backroom deal that sold out our mustangs. We won’t rest. With your continued support, we won’t stop until our mustangs are safe.
Quick update: Yesterday, the Senate Interior Appropriations subcommitee unanimously approved the spending bill and sent it to the full committee for a vote on Thursday.
Unfortunately, the subcommitee still has not released the text of the actual bill.
We may not know until Thursday what’s in it, but we can’t rest until the votes have been cast. We need your help right now to contact key Senators in the remaining 24 hours before the hearing! Scroll down for a list of Senators and our suggested brief message.
Thursday’s decision will dictate our next steps, and we have to remain vigilant.
For real-time updates, make sure you’re following us on Facebook and Twitter.
There’s a lot at stake for wild horses and burros this week on Capitol Hill. The Senate will unveil its Fiscal Year 2020 Interior Appropriations bill at a subcommittee hearing on Tuesday and a full committee hearing on Thursday.
That means we only have a few days left to oppose funding for the dangerous cattlemen’s plan that will destroy America’s wild free-roaming herds.
If you do nothing else today, please pick up the phone now to contact your Senator at 202-224-3121 as well as the key Senators below. Tell them:
“Hello. I’m calling to ask the Senator to oppose funding in FY20 Appropriations for the cattlemen’s plan for America’s wild horses and burros. I don’t want my tax dollars spent on mass roundups that will lead to eventual slaughter or on cruel sterilization surgeries. Please don’t throw more money at a failed program that has shown no ability to reform. Thank you.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski, (202) 224-6665 or (907) 271-3735
Senator Tom Udall, (202) 224-6621 or (505) 346-6791
Senator Susan Collins, (202) 224-2523 or (207) 780-3575
Senator Lindsay Graham, (202) 224-5972 or (803) 933-0112
Senator Marco Rubio, (202) 224-3041, (305) 596-4224
Senator Patrick Leahy, (202) 224-4242 or (802) 863-2525
Senator Dianne Feinstein, (202) 224-3841 or (415) 393-0707
Senator Jeff Merkley, (202) 224-3753 or (503) 326-3386
Senator Chris VanHollen, (202) 224-4654 or (667) 212-4610
Senator Jack Reed, (202) 224-4642 or (401) 528-5200
There’s a lot at stake for wild horses and burros this week on Capitol Hill. The Senate will unveil its Fiscal Year 2020 Interior Appropriations bill at a subcommittee hearing tomorrow and a full committee hearing on Thursday.
That means this is the last day to oppose funding for the dangerous cattlemen’s plan that will destroy America’s wild free-roaming herds.
If you do nothing else today, please pick up the phone now to contact the key Senators below. Tell them:
“Hello. I’m calling to ask the Senator to oppose funding in FY20 Appropriations for the cattlemen’s plan for America’s wild horses and burros. I don’t want my tax dollars spent on mass roundups that will lead to eventual slaughter or on cruel sterilization surgeries. Please don’t throw more money at a failed program that has shown no ability to reform. Thank you.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski, (202) 224-6665 or (907) 271-3735
Senator Tom Udall, (202) 224-6621 or (505) 346-6791
Senator Susan Collins, (202) 224-2523 or (207) 780-3575
Senator Lindsay Graham, (202) 224-5972 or (803) 933-0112
Senator Marco Rubio, (202) 224-304, (305) 596-4224
Senator Patrick Leahy, (202) 224-4242 or (802) 863-2525
Senator Dianne Feinstein, (202) 224-3841 or (415) 393-0707
Senator Jeff Merkley, (202) 224-3753 or (503) 326-3386
Senator Chris VanHollen, (202) 224-4654 or (667) 212-4610
Senator Jack Reed, (202) 224-4642 or (401) 528-5200
There’s a lot at stake for wild horses in Washington this week as the Senate unveils its FY2020 Interior Appropriations bill at a subcommittee hearing tomorrow. The legislation could have huge ramifications for mustangs and burros.
The bill could include funding to implement the dangerous cattlemen’s plan for our wild horses, which includes accelerated roundups, cruel surgical sterilization, and tripling the number of horses in holding — making slaughter more likely in the long run. If the bill doesn’t prohibit the Forest Service from selling horses for slaughter, all wild horses under Forest Service jurisdiction, including California’s Devil’s Garden mustangs, will be at grave risk.
Here’s what American Wild Horse Campaign is doing to defend wild horses.
We lobby. On the Hill, our experienced legislative team is fighting every day to convince legislators to secure real and humane solutions that protect these national icons.
We lead grassroots campaigns to make sure your voices are heard. In 2017, we beat back the existential threat of mass slaughter. With your support, we’ll prevail again.
We defend in the courtroom. Our lawsuits have defeated rancher attempts to force mass roundups and BLM plans to eradicate wild horses from designated habitat. We’re currently in court simultaneously fighting the Forest Service’s slaughter plans and the BLM’s plans to perform barbaric sterilization surgeries on wild mares.
We can keep this vital work going – but only with your help. The lives of tens of thousands of mustangs and burros depend on your support.
Thank you for your steadfast support for AWHC and our beloved mustangs and burros
The BLM is accepting public comments on a Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) that will affect a small herd of wild horses living in the Four Mile Herd Management Area in southwestern Idaho, near the Oregon border for the next 10-20 years. Among the management options under consideration for wild horses in the Four Mile mustangs are surgical removal of ovaries in mares and castration of stallions, vasectomy, PZP, GonaCon, skewed sex ratios, and the creation of non-reproducing herds. Now is the time to weigh in for humane and proven management options like PZP fertility control, and rejection of dangerous methods, like surgical sterilization and sex-ratio skewing, that will destroy the horses’ wild free roaming behaviors and social organization. Please take one moment to take action below.
The BLM is well into its summer/fall roundup season, aiming to remove 3,565 federally-protected wild horses from public lands through the fall. This month has seen three roundups conducted simultaneously in three different states — including one targeting the nation’s most high profile wild horse herd. AWHC has been onsite at all three roundups and you can read our reports from the field by clicking below.
Thanks to all the members of our herd who galloped to action last week to let the Senate know that the so-called Path Forward for wild horses — being pushed by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, ASPCA, HSUS and Return to Freedom — will be a giant step back for these cherished national icons. Together we made our position known, loud and clear. Read more about the successful mini campaign below!
#WildHorseWeek continues, and so do your opportunities to get your Senator’s attention.
As you know, a dangerous proposal is being circulated for mustangs and burros, and we must ensure that the Senate stands strong on our side and does not include funding language in the Interior Appropriations Bill.
Today, we urge you to speak up on social media.
What you can do:
1. Send these automated tweets to our Senate targets using the links below.
We are hearing that offices know where we stand, we just have to keep it up. Let’s make sure they hear us loud and clear.
Thank you and post away!
– The AWHC Team
P.S. If you haven’t already, please make a call to your Senator at 202-224-3121 and tell them to OPPOSE funding for the Cattlemen’s Association/ASPCA wild horse plan and SUPPORT legislative language to prevent USFS from selling wild horses for slaughter.
It’s here: #WildHorseWeek in Washington. Today, we unify wild horse supporters around the country to make our voices heard!
Mustangs and burros on our public lands are at risk, and we must ensure that the Senate stands strong to protect them. At issue is Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 spending legislation, which must reject a dangerous plan for mass wild horse roundups and must include a prohibition to stop the Forest Service from selling wild horses for slaughter.
What we’re asking you to do today: Make the call to your Senators by calling 202-224-3121. Ask them to please reject this misguided proposal.
Suggested message:
Hi, My name is __________ and I live in [town]. I’m requesting that Senator [name] OPPOSE funding in the FY20 Interior Appropriations bill for a Cattlemen’s/ASPCA plan to round up and warehouse over 100,000 wild horses and burros over the next ten years. I’m also asking the Senator to SUPPORT language in the bill to prevent the Forest Service from selling wild horses for slaughter. Thank you for your time.
Together, we’ll make our voices heard. Please pick up your phone today!
Congress returns to work on Capitol Hill this week after the August recess. Among the issues it will tackle: a dangerous proposal that could result in the roundup of more than 100,000 wild horses and burros over the next decade — that’s more than even exist today!
We must make sure that the Senate rejects the funding request to begin implementation of this devastating proposal.
Misleadingly billed as a “path forward,” the propsal is actually a road to destruction for America’s remaining wild herds. It’s opposed by grassroots organizations and groups with boots-on-the-ground experience protecting and humanely managing wild horses and burros in the wild. It advances the interests of the cattle industry — which seeks to clear the public lands of mustangs in order to maximize subsidized livestock grazing — at the expense of the public and our wild horses and burros.
That’s why we need your voice, and we need it now.
Tomorrow, we are launching Wild Horse Week in Washington — three days of actions you can take to oppose this plan. We’ll include a message you can phone-in to your senators, a way for you to create a storm on social media, and other actions to support our collective defense for our wild horses and burros.
Right now, the Senate is considering partial funding for a plan that, if approved, could mean the beginning of the end for free-roaming horses and burros. The plan, ill-conceived and full of dangerously vague language, is hidden within the Interior budget bill and it’s on track to be negotiated in September.
What is this plan? It’s a ten year attack on wild horse populations, and nothing short of a surrender of the decades-long fight for fair treatment, humane management, and preservation of our nation’s wild horse and burro herds.
The plan is billed as a compromise between the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, other livestock lobbying groups, and the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS), the ASPCA and Return to Freedom, but there’s nothing in it for wild horses.
In fact, it calls for the roundup of 130,000 wild horses and burros over the next decade – more than exist today on the range. This will triple the number of wild horses and burros incarcerated at taxpayer expense, at a cost of close to $1 billion over the next decade, without any guarantee of long-term funding to ensure safety from slaughter for these cherished animals.
And there’s more. Herd numbers will diminish beyond minimum viable populations, gruesome sterilization experiments for wild mares will remain on the table, and herds left on public lands will be manipulated with unnatural sex ratios that will wreak havoc on social organization and dynamics.
We’ve seen the power Americans have to affect change at a national level. We must band together to demand an absolute NO to this disastrous plan.
Earlier this week, a federal court judge in California issued an order granting us the right to intervene in a lawsuit, filed by public lands ranchers, seeking the immediate round up and removal of 2,000 wild horses from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory in the Modoc National Forest.
At the same time, our attorney is in San Francisco today, participating in court-ordered negotiations with the U.S. Forest Service on a separate lawsuit, filed by AWHC and the Animal Legal Defense Fund, to stop the agency from selling Devil’s Garden horses for slaughter.
The Devil’s Garden Territory is home to one of California’s largest remaining wild horse populations. Yet under pressure from local ranching interests, the Forest Service seeks to reduce the wild horse population to 200 – 402 horses, while allowing over 3,700 cows and 2,900 sheep to graze the public lands there.
The situation that has been unfolding in Devil’s Garden — from the roundups to the proposal to sell the mustangs without limitation on slaughter — represents one of the more serious attacks on wild horses by the public lands ranching industry.
Enough is enough. We’re waging two separate legal battles to defend Devil’s Garden mustangs from this existential threat.
Where does your member of Congress stand on protecting wild horses? If you don’t know, now’s the time to find out. And if they’re supporting mass roundups and sterilization, it’s the time to change their minds. Your Representative and Senators are back home for the August recess and will be holding town halls and taking meetings – so now’s your chance to speak up for our wild horses and burros! Learn how at the link below.
Our wild horses and burros are often the subjects of inaccurate, misleading, agenda-driven reporting. A recent example is Jason G. Goldman’s “Feral Horse, Fierce Controversy” that was published in the July issue of Alta, a magazine that promises “a celebration and examination of all things about California.” If you shopped at Whole Foods in California this summer, you will have likely seen this cover story on the magazine prominently displayed in the check-out lines. It’s a biased, sensationalized piece far below the journalistic standards that Alta says it aspires to. Read our response below.
The U.S. Forest Service is proposing rules that will significantly weaken its regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of proposed actions prior to making decisions. The Forest Service proposed rules would limit the opportunity for public input and make it easier for the agency to make decisions on proposed actions, like wild horse roundups, without analyzing the environmental impacts. Please read more and weigh in against the proposed rule change by clicking below.
Today marks the end of our Summer Roundup Campaign. Thanks to your support, we were able to exceed our fundraising goal – we’ll have what it takes to document fall and winter roundups and keep fighting to protect wild horses across the West.
Over the last few days, our field representative at the Pine Nut roundup has witnessed helicopters stampeding small numbers of horses for hours at a time to no avail. By the end of the roundup, which concluded yesterday, only 36 horses were captured in total. One beautiful black mare broke her leg and was killed as a result.
The few remaining Pine Nut wild horse families have evaded the trap, despite 90+ degree temperatures and days of relentless chasing. We’re sickened at this cruelty. We’re angry that these actions are taken at taxpayers’ expense.
Because of your generosity during this campaign, we have the funding to continue the fight. And, in the spirit of the Pine Nut mustangs still living free, that’s just what we’ll do.
We started this fundraising campaign to fuel our government relations team in educating Congress about the BLM’s inhumane practices, to support our litigation fund for roundup-related lawsuits, and to broaden our education and advocacy programs documenting how taxpayer dollars are being used and wasted.
As summer roundups continue into fall and winter, we’ll be there to hold the BLM accountable and raise our voices to keep wild horses and burros protected from undue harm and danger.
The BLM is seeking public comments on a roundup and removal plan for the wild horses that live in the Range Creek HMA in Utah. The HMA includes 55,000 acres of public and private lands, on which the BLM has set a wild horse population limit (AML) of just 75-125 wild horses. The agency seeks to remove over 200 horses and reduce the population to the low AML of 75, a density of one horse per 733 acres! The BLM’s plan also includes the implementation of fertility control, including the use of unproven IUD’s, and the skewing of wild horse sex ratios to favor of males. Please weigh in today against yet another roundup and urge the BLM instead to implement proven humane and sustainable wild horse management tools.
A massive reorganization of the BLM that involves moving its headquarters to Grand Junction, CO and transferring most of its Washington, D.C. staff out west — combined with the Administration’s installment of a lawyer who advocates for the sell-off of federal lands in the top agency post — is raising concerns about the future of our public lands and the agency tasked with managing and conserving them. The developments forbode further dysfunction within the BLM, increased control by local and corporate interests over federal public lands policy, and a growing threat to the environment and wild horses and burros. Read more below.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service announced its plan to conduct another roundup of California wild horses from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory in the Modoc National Forest. At the same time, the agency released new census numbers showing far fewer mustangs actually live in the Forest than previously claimed by the ranching interests that have waged a propaganda campaign against the horses. The ultimate goal is the removal of most of these cherished California mustangs from the public lands that comprise the Modoc Forest. Read more below.
We know how much our western-roaming mustangs mean to you and we thank you for your unwavering support in our mission to preserve wild horses on public lands.
That’s why we’re excited to share with you our news about the ebook, Tales From Big Country.
Tales From Big Country features a 13-story collection by international bestselling and award-winning authors whose works have been published in USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. From the big skies of Montana to perilous rides with the Texas Rangers, you’ll read tales of civilization in the lawless frontier, stories of Native Americans, fables of romance, horror, and everything under the sun.
With the dust barely settled after the Triple B roundup last week, we’re headed to the Pine Nut wild horse roundup in Nevada on Monday.
As I write this, tens of thousands of wild horses stand in government holding facilities, and we wait with bated breath for the BLM’s decision on whether or not it will proceed with gruesome sterilization experiments on wild mares.
With tactical lawsuits, advocacy on the Hill, implementation of humane fertility control, and documentation in the wild, we continue with crucial actions to make roundups a thing of the past. That’s why, last week, we extended our fundraising goal to $100,000 to fight these cruel stampedes.
Here are some of the actions we take to end roundups:
With field representation and filmmakers on the ground at each roundup, we’re gathering footage for educational videos to share with the public and lawmakers.
On Capitol Hill, our legal team is educating key members of Congress to combat a dangerous plan to round up and remove up to 130,000 wild horses over the next 10 years. (That’s more than exist on the range today.)
With litigation funding, we’re building specific cases for roundup-related lawsuits — like our case to save wild horses near Caliente, Nevada where BLM is planning to remove 100% of the herds.
Donate today to take action with us. Your support is key as we continue asserting to stand as the last line of defense between our wild horses and burros and the corporate livestock industry that seeks their destruction.
It’s hard to fathom the shocking reality of roundups unless you’ve witnessed one. Helicopters stampeding terrified herds across public lands in the brutal summer heat. Foals separated from their mothers, often dropping to the ground due to exhaustion. Crowded pens pulsing with masses of wild horses, trapped within.
When the Triple B wild horse roundup concluded last week, 802 horses were captured. Fourteen wild horses died.
That’s why we work hard to keep representatives in the field — present for every roundup — so we can document the stampede and keep you informed, as gut-wrenching as it truly is.
Below are images and videos we captured of the recent Triple B roundup.
This documentation demonstrates greed and cruelty, a reality in which private ranchers and commercial interests dictate what happens to your wild horses roaming your public land.
Earlier this month, we set an ambitious fundraising goal of $50,000 to document the BLM’s roundup season, which began in Nevada’s Triple B Complex. That was before this week’s Senate hearing on the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program – a one-sided affair for cattle industry lobbyists, and not a single advocate for preserving America’s wild horses in the wild.
Thanks to you, we hit our $50,000 goal this week. The response from supporters like you has been an incredible boost during the hardest time of the year for wild horses. But to fight back against the stacked proceedings in the Senate – at the same time as the BLM’s terrifying and cruel roundups continue in the West – we’re now raising our goal to make sure everyone, from the American people to their elected leaders on Capitol Hill, sees how inhumane and unnecessary the BLM roundups really are.
Thanks to your support, we’ve been out at the Triple B roundup in Nevada these past few weeks — with heartbreaking photo and video evidence that will long outlast this roundup. Just over 800 horses lost their freedom at Triple B this month; 16 of them lost their lives. These include five tiny foals, one of whom was too weak to stand after withstanding a miles-long helicopter stampede and another who died of water toxicity, likely a result of the BLM’s failure to give the vulnerable baby electrolytes after an arduous run in summer heat left him stressed and dehydrated.
We’ll use this evidence for the battles ahead. This week’s Senate hearing wasn’t just about laying the groundwork for more roundups. The cattle industry lobbyists and BLM want money to surgically sterilize wild horses who remain in the wild, by castrating stallions and ripping out the ovaries of wild mares in dangerous and painful surgeries.
The cattle industry’s path forward leads to one place — mass destruction… of wild, free-roaming horses in the wild, and of those in captivity whose days will be numbered when the government funding to care for them runs out.
