This is how the BLM rounded up 30 wild horses last week in Utah:
Our team captured these photos of the helicopter hazing horses, causing some to crash through barbed wire. These photos have already reached 1.4 million people on Facebook alone!
Right now, our observer is in Wyoming’s Red Desert, where the BLM is rounding up 1,400 wild horses from our public lands. At least six horses have died in the first five days of the roundup, including:
Two foals who were run to death. (“capture shock”)
One foal who was euthanized after breaking his leg
A six-year old stallion who was “injured and blinded by another stallion on a trailer”
Get your comments in today on a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) plan to round up and remove almost 200 wild horses from the North Hills Herd Management Area (HMA) in Iron County, Utah. This is an area where the agencies allow a maximum of 60 horses on 74,000 acres of land (1 horse per 1,233 acres!) while authorizing over 1,000 sheep and the equivalent of 147 cow/calf pairs to graze on the same public lands. Please click below to submit your comments to oppose the roundup and support humane management of this Utah mustang herd.
Photographs taken by AWHC photographer Steve Paige of a helicopter nearly hitting wild horses and causing them to crash through barbed wire at the BLM roundup underway this week in Utah are sparking public outrage. AWHC has called for an investigation of the obvious violations of the agency’s own animal welfare policies at the roundup, which is taking place in the Bible Springs Complex and Sulphur Mountains HMA. The photos of the mistreatment of wild horses have been seen by nearly a million people on social media and are raising public awareness about the government’s cruel treatment of these federally-protected icons. Read more on our roundup coverage and complaint to the BLM by clicking below.
AWHC has teamed up with the Animal Welfare Institute to fight the BLM’s plan to conduct cruel surgical experiments on wild mares to remove their ovaries. The barbaric experiments will put wild mares at risk of “death and extreme pain” due to a risky, invasive surgery that is “brutal and risky and clearly threatening to the welfare an safety of these mares’ lives,” according to equine veterinarian Robin Kelly. Worse, most of the mares will be pregnant, and the experiment is designed to determine how many will abort their foals after undergoing the barbaric procedure. Read more by clicking below.
The fate of America’s wild horses and burros is in the hands of Congress… again! Last year, the Senate blocked a House attempt to legalize the mass destruction of wild horses and burros in holding and on the range. This year, the House is at it again, with Fiscal Year 2019 Interior Appropriations language that would authorize the BLM to manage wild horses and burros in non-reproducing or single sex herds via surgical sterilization of these iconic animals on the range. It also directs BLM to lay the groundwork for the mass killing of horses over the age of 10 — barely middle age for a wild horse. The Senate version of this legislation does not contain the mass sterilization or killing provisions. The differences between the two bills will be reconciled in conference committee, and we need our Senators and Reps. to stand strong to ensure that the Senate version of the legislation once again prevails.
In the face of massive community opposition, the BLM has suspended plans to capture and remove approximately 50 wild horses from the beloved Fish Springs herd near Gardnerville, Nevada. Earlier this month, over 300 local citizens packed the firehouse to oppose the BLM’s roundup plan and more than 200,000 citizens have signed a petition calling on the BLM to cancel plans to remove the horses from their homes on the range. The local business community and many Nevada political leaders added their voices in support of the Fish Springs horses as well. The BLM had intended to set up bait traps this week to remove horses, but now says it will work to find “community-based management solutions that are in the best interest of both the area residents and the wild horses.” Read more about this positive development below.
The BLM’s summer roundup season is now in full swing. Signaling its intent for America’s wild herds, the agency has increased its short term holding capacity and has openings to incarcerate nearly 15,000 more wild horses and burros in these feedlot pens. The BLM is using this increased capacity to round up nearly 10,000 wild horses and burros this year. Increasingly, the BLM is using “emergency” as an excuse for these roundups, enabling the agency to skirt legal requirements for analysis and public comment. And, the BLM’s plan to conduct multiple roundups simultaneously is making it difficult for advocacy organizations to document and provide humane observers for the mass capture of mustangs and burros from their homes on our public lands.
AWHC wants to give a huge shout out the tech company Blockchains, LLC which is now the largest landowner at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, near Reno, Nevada. Blockchains is strongly committed to protecting the estimated 1,000 Virginia Range wild horses who call that area home. Recently, the company went above and beyond for the horses by immediately addressing an emergency situation threatening the lives of 70 wild horses. The horses’ water source dried up to just a trickle. Many were in poor condition as they were not leaving the site to graze, but rather were standing around waiting desperately to get even the tiniest of sips from the trickling spring.
As soon as the company learned about the situation, Blockchains immediately sprang into action, giving us access to deliver water to the horses and arranged for use of a water tank on the property. Even better, Blockchains has funded the creation of a reliable, year-round solar water source for wild horses and other wildlife in the area. Learn more and watch our video by clicking below!
In the last week, we’ve seen the attacks against wild horses escalate dramatically:
The BLM has resumed selling wild horses and burros by the truckload. The new rule allows BLM to sell up to 25 horses at a time without specific approval and will attract shady buyers and increase the chances of wild horses and burros entering the slaughter pipeline. Can you help us fight back?
The House of Representatives passed a spending bil that authorizes widespread surgical sterilization of wild horses and burros on the range using procedures for mares that are too horrific even to describe. Now it’s up to the Senate to stop this cruel plan. Can you help us mobilize grassroots support to convince the Senate to stand strong?
The BLM is galloping ahead with its plan to remove 44 horses from the Fish Springs range in Nevada against the wishes of local citizens and the business community, who cherish these wild horses on OUR public lands. Can you help us mobilize opposition to this cruel plan?
And that’s not to mention the helicopter roundups that will start in less than two weeks… thousands of wild horses will lose their families and freedom; some will lose their lives. We need to be on the ground to document this barbaric practice and hold BLM accountable. Can you fuel our observation efforts?
This is a huge moment for our advocacy work — but I’m not worried, because I know that we’ve got the best advocates in the world on our side. Thank you for all of your support.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recently weakened a policy enacted six years ago to prevent the sale of wild horses and burros for slaughter. The 2013 rule, implemented after BLM was exposed for illegally selling almost 2,000 horses to a known kill buyer, prohibited the BLM from selling more than four horses per buyer without written approval from the Assistant Director of the BLM. The new rule allows the BLM to sell up to 25 horses to one buyer at a time, with no restrictions on the number of times that someone can purchase horses.
At his confirmation hearing, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke pledged to work with, not against, local communities by “being a listening advocate instead of a deaf adversary.” But now his BLM is turning a deaf ear to the pleas of the community of Gardnerville, Nevada to preserve the Fish Springs wild horses, a locally-important and cherished herd. The BLM is steamrolling over the community by plowing ahead with plans to remove 44 horses from this small herd. Tell Secretary Zinke to live up to his promise to listen to local communities by honoring the wishes of the Gardnerville community to protect the Fish Springs wild horses.
There’s still time to comment on the BLM’s plan to conduct invasive and risky sterilization surgeries on 100 wild mares in Oregon. Two years ago, the BLM cancelled plans to conduct the experiments amidst public opposition and legal action by AWHC and The Cloud Foundation. Now the agency is at it again — this time pairing the archaic surgeries with a mass helicopter roundup that will forcibly remove 685 wild horses from their homes on our public lands in the Warm Spring Herd Management Area. We must pull out all the stops to shut down this cruel plan… again!
Six years ago, the BLM was exposed for illegally selling almost 2,000 wild horses for to a Colorado kill buyer who sold them to slaughter plants in Mexico.
In response to the scandal, the agency adopted a rule preventing the sale of more than four horses to one individual without written approval from the Assistant Director of the BLM. The rule was a safeguard against the sale of horses for slaughter.
But now, the BLM has rolled that back — and is selling wild horses by the truckload again!
The new rule allows BLM to sell up to 25 horses without special approval, and places no restriction on the number of times an individual can purchase horses.
At $25 per horse, this creates an powerful incentive for shady sales to unscrupulous buyers. The number of mustangs entering the slaughter pipeline is bound to skyrocket!
We’re mobilizing now to fight back — working with our allies on Capitol Hill, getting the word out to the national media about BLM’s latest move and exploring legal options. Can you help fuel our rapid response?
We’ll keep you updated on all of our efforts over the next few weeks. Thanks for standing with us.
The BLM has been rounding up horses for decades now through brutal helicopter stampedes only to stockpile them in holding facilities. For the last two years, the agency has been asking Congress for permission to kill and slaughter these federally protected icons.
So far, Congress has said no, so now the BLM is turning to the next best thing: surgical sterilization of horses, endangering individual lives and setting our wild herds on a slow walk to extinction.
Beginning this fall, the BLM plans to conduct invasive surgeries on 100 mares captured in Oregon. A veterinarian will manually twist, sever and remove the mares’ ovaries with a rod-and-chain like tool. The surgery is painful and risky, and will be done under non-sterile conditions – all reasons why the National Academy of Sciences recommended against the procedure.
Worse: most of the mares will be pregnant and the surgery will cause many to abort their unborn foals.
The BLM thinks removing mares’ ovaries and castrating stallions is the way to manage these animals on the range, even though they know it will take the wild out of wild horses by destroying their natural behaviors.
We have to make sure the American people see what is being done to wild horses with their tax dollars. Help fund our efforts today.
Popular and beloved wild horse herds are being targeted for mass helicopter roundups and removals. Pregnant mares in Oregon are facing horrific surgeries that will cause pain, suffering and abortions of their unborn foals. Environmental laws enacted to allow the public to speak out against proposals like these are being trampled. We must fight back.
The threats against our wild horses and burros have never been steeper. The policies the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is promoting could literally spell the end for these icons on our Western public lands.
We only have a few weeks to raise the money we need to launch our campaign to fight back. We must build a firewall of protection and set legal precedents for wild horses and burros against these devastating assaults.
Two years ago, public opposition and legal action by AWHC and The Cloud Foundation caused the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Oregon to cancel plans for invasive and risky sterilization experiments on wild mares. Now the agency is at it again. This time the BLM has paired the archaic surgeries with a mass helicopter roundup that will forcibly remove 685 wild horses from their homes on our public lands in the Warm Spring Herd Management Area. We must pull out all the stops to shut down this cruel plan… again!
If you have a horse in your life, then chances are you also have a relationship with at least one equine veterinarian. We need you to contact him/her. The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) – the professional association of horse vets – has circulated to its members a draft position statement on wild horse and burro management. It’s based on one-sided information provided by the BLM and endorses lethal management methods. We need caring veterinarians to correct this information. Learn how you can help below.
The Fish Springs wild horses near Gardnerville, Nevada have a worldwide following. They are an important ecotourism resource for the community and are managed humanely by a local organization at no cost to taxpayers. But now the BLM is trampling on the wishes of the community by galloping ahead with the capture and removal of at least 44 of these cherished horses. The wild horse family bands that we have all come to know and love will be shattered. The local community will be devastated. Help us stop this now.
Sophia and her baby Grayson are living peacefully on our public lands in the Fish Springs area near Gardnerville, Nevada. They have no idea that this month, the BLM will begin trapping and removing members of their herd and sending them to holding facilities. Babies like Grayson, only months old, will be taken from their moms if the BLM deems them to be “weaning age.” Mares like Sophia will be separated from their stallions. The Fish Springs wild horses families that we have all come to know and love will be shattered.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The Fish Springs horses are managed humanely with birth control through a partnership with the Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates – at no cost to taxpayers. It makes no sense to take these cherished wild horses away from the community that loves them and is managing them free of charge to the government.
Please take action to save the Fish Springs wild horses. Here’s what you can do today:
Make the calls to Nevada officials.
Nevada State Director Mike Courtney: 775-861-6400
Senator Dean Heller: 702-388-6605 and 775-686-5770
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto: 702-388-5020 and 775-686-5750
Representative Mark Amodei: 775-686-5760.
Nevada residents can say,“As a Nevadan, I ask you to stop the BLM from removing Fish Springs horses from the range and taking these cherished mustangs away from the community that loves them. Please tell the BLM to accept the community’s proposal to humanely manage the Fish Springs horses and save taxpayers $1.5 million by leaving them on the range and controlling the population with birth control. Thank you.”
Non-Nevadans, please say:“As a taxpayer, I ask you to stop the BLM from removing Fish Springs wild horses from a community program that manages them at no cost to taxpayers. I will be much less likely to spend my tourism dollars in Nevada if the BLM is allowed to destroy this cherished wild horse herd. Thank you.”
Reach out to these elected officials through social media by clicking here.
Attend the community meeting to stand up for the horses:Thursday, July 12, 6 pm – 8 pm, Fish Springs VFD, 2249 Fish Springs Rd., Gardnerville, Nevada. We need to pack the room with citizens willing to stand up for our horses!
Sign the petition – help us hit 200,000 citizens speaking up to save the Fish Springs wild horses. Sign here.
Thank you for taking action to save the Fish Springs wild horses.
Earlier this week, we wrote you about the urgent need to speak up for the wild horses in the Onaqui HMA in Utah. Many of you had trouble with the BLM site that was accepting public comments, so now we have secured an easier and more reliable way to submit comments.
The famed Onaqui wild horses who live on our public lands near Salt Lake City, Utah need your help. In just a few months, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will begin removing these beloved horses from the range. Families will be shattered and 379 of these magnificent animals will lose their freedom forever. In honor of Independence Day, please take a stand for these iconic Utah mustangs who are protected as national symbols of freedom.
I oppose the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plan to proceed with this Proposed Action that would round up 90 percent of the Onaqui herd and permanently remove 379 horses from the range.
The EA is inadequate because it failed to consider a number of critical impacts and alternatives. The final EA must revise the Proposed Action to include managing the population with fertility control, not removals, as recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. The BLM should reduce livestock grazing pursuant to 43 C.F.R. 4710.5(a) and increase the AML for this area to accommodate current wild horse herd numbers. The original Herd Area territory should be restored to active management status, thereby increasing the size of the Onaqui HMA to the 507,681 acres originally designated by Congress.
Finally, the EA must analyze these impacts: 1) BLM’s request to Congress for authorization to kill or slaughter unadopted horses on the animals themselves; 2) Mass removal on recreational use of the HMA for wild horse viewing and photographing; 3) Costly roundup/removal/holding of horses on taxpayers vs. leaving horses on the range and reducing livestock grazing; 4) Reduced ecotourism/wild horse viewing opportunities on the local economy.
Breaking news: We’ve just filed ANOTHER lawsuit against the BLM. This time, we’re challenging the agency’s decision to round up and permanently remove all wild horses from the Caliente Herd Area Complex –– an area of over 900,000 acres of public land in Nevada.
Almost 50 years ago, Congress unanimously passed a federal law to protect wild horses and burros – but that hasn’t stopped the BLM from taking away 41% of their habitat since 1971.
We’ve won litigation many times in the past, and created precedent that will protect horses for generations. These kinds of lawsuits are critically important, but they take resources.
The Caliente wild horses will be rounded up and removed from their homes on the range to clear these public lands for more private livestock grazing. The horses will be thrown into feedlot pens — paid for by our tax dollars.
Meanwhile, the BLM continually scapegoats a relatively small number wild horses for the destruction and overgrazing of public lands caused by massively larger numbers of domestic cattle and sheep.
This mass removal is one more chip away at the rights of wild horses and burros – but we’re standing up to say no more.
It’s time for the BLM to stop prioritizing ranching special interests and start honoring the wishes of Americans – that our iconic mustangs are protected and humanely managed on our public lands.
The Fish Springs wild horses in Nevada need your help. They’re loved and cherished by the local community and by people internationally. Thousands of citizens follow the stories of the magnificent stallions Blondie, Samson, Zorro, Blue, Shorty and their bands, including the recently born colt Grayson (pictured below with his mom Sophia), as they live their lives wild and free on our public lands.
But now the Fish Springs horses are in danger. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to begin a trapping operation in July, targeting 70 of these beautiful horses for capture and as many as 45 for permanent removal from the range.
The action will shatter the families that we have come to know and love.
That’s why the agency needs to hear from YOU, the taxpayers, immediately. Please help us save the Fish Springs Wild Horses by taking the following actions:
1. Sign the petition
Your signatures will be hand delivered to the BLM and will make a strong statement about the support of Nevadans and other Americans for this beautiful and popular wild horse herd.
2. Call or email BLM Nevada State Director Mike Courtney: 775-861-6400 and mcourtney@blm.gov.
Here’s what you can say:
“I’m [name] calling from [state] to ask the BLM to leave the Fish Springs wild horses in Nevada on the range. It makes no sense to remove horses that are being successfully managed at no cost to taxpayers and warehouse them in holding facilities, costing taxpayers over $1 million. Please accept the community’s plan for the humane management of the Fish Springs wild horses.”
Thank you for taking action to save this beloved herd!
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering a plan to roundup and remove 600 wild horses from our public lands in the North Lander Complex in Wyoming. The agency is also proposing several controversial and dangerous alternatives for creating “limited-reproducing herds” that include vasectomizing and gelding stallions; adjusting sex ratios; surgically removing the ovaries of mares (“spaying”), segregating the horses into single-sex herds; and utilizing the controversial fertility control drug GonaCon in combination with one of the previously mentioned treatments. This plan, which once again reflects the BLM’s preferential treatment of privately-owned livestock, will devastate the wild horse population in the North Lander Complex.
The Senate and House Appropriations Committees have passed Fiscal Year 2019 Interior Appropriations legislation, which includes funding for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program. The Senate bill protects wild horses from mass killing, slaughter and sterilization, while the House version would authorize and funds mass sterilization of horses on the range. The full House and Senate must still vote on these bills, and then they must go to a conference committee, which will resolve differences and negotiate a final spending bill. This means that we must keep the pressure on throughout the summer and into the fall. Learn more by clicking below.
In February 2017, foals Trey and Divine were captured in a traumatic helicopter roundup in the Cedar Mountain HMA in Utah. AWHC staff members were on the ground filming, and documented Trey, a tiny colt, and his mother being relentlessly chased by the helicopter. They were ultimately separated. Their story could have ended there, but thanks to AWHC operations and legal consultant, Jenn Suarez, the story of these two little beauties has a happy ending. We could all use some good news right now, so please watch and share this heartwarming story!
Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee will vote on the spending bill that will fund the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for 2019.
If this committee joins the House in authorizing the mass sterilization of wild horses and burros, it will be the end of our wild free-roaming herds in the American West.
Not only that, but the Congress will be unleashing unfathomable cruelty on these national icons.
This risky, archaic surgery will cause mares to bleed to death or die from infection or evisceration (intestines coming through the surgical incision), and will cause abortions in many pregnant mares.
On Tuesday, the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee will vote on the Fiscal Year 2019 Interior spending bill. The full Senate Appropriations Committee vote will take place on Thursday.
These votes could not be more important!
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee passed the devastating Stewart Amendment to authorize the permanent sterilization of entire wild horse and burro herds.
The Stewart Amendment put a target on every wild horse and burro herd in the West by authorizing the BLM to “manage any group of wild horses or burros as a non-reproducing or single sex herd, in whole or in part, through chemical or surgical sterilization.”
This will be the beginning of the end of America’s wild free-roaming herds!
We wanted you to know immediately: The House Appropriations Committee today took a devastating action to authorize the BLM to manage wild horses and burros in non-reproducing and single-sex herds by subjecting them to risky, invasive surgeries like this: link to video.
If passed by the full Congress this would spell the beginning of the end for the iconic, free-roaming mustang herds of the American West.
While this is bad news, we can stop it in the Senate. Game on!
Here’s what you can do today:
Call Your Senators at 202-224-3121. Tell them to stand with the 80 percent of Americans who want wild horses protected and humanely managed. Ask them to oppose any 2019 appropriations language that authorizes the slaughter, killing, or sterilization of these cherished federally-protected animals.
You can also let the amendment sponsor and supporters know how you feel about their vote.
Rep. Chris Stewart, amendment sponsor, 202-225-9730
Rep. Ken Calvert, Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chair, (202) 225-1986
The House Appropriations Committee just scheduled its markup hearing on the 2019 Interior Department spending bill for TOMORROW!
Late yesterday, we learned that Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT), who has long been pushing for the mass killing of our wild horses and burros, will likely introduce an amendment to promote the sterilization of our wild herds.
The BLM already wants to do this. With Congressional support, it will be hard to stop. And there’s always a chance that Rep. Stewart will slip in language to allow the BLM to kill tens of thousands of healthy horses and burros… despite the objections of 80 percent of Americans.
Proud magnificent stallions would be castrated, resulting in “reduction in or complete loss of male-type behaviors necessary for maintenance of social organization, band integrity and expression of natural behavioral repertoire,” according to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
Innocent mares will be subject to a barbaric procedure that literally rips their ovaries out with a rod-and-chain-like tool, a method so invasive that the NAS called it “inadvisable for field application” due to risk of hemorrhage and infection.
Sterilization will take the wild out of wild horses by destroying their natural behaviors…. and will endanger their lives.
This is wrong. We have to fight any amendments that permit mass killing or require the surgical sterilization of wild horses — or any legislative language that will lay the groundwork for doing so.
We wouldn’t be messaging you if it weren’t crucial to the survival of wild free-roaming horses and burros in America. Attacks on wild horses are mounting daily, but with supporters like you using your voices to defend them, we are fighting back.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is accepting public comments on another massive helicopter roundup of Nevada mustangs — this one in the Eagle Complex on the border with Utah. The BLM allows just 145-265 wild horses to live in this 1,160-square-mile public lands area, while authorizing the annual equivalent of 4,400 cow/calf pairs to graze there. The action perpetuates the BLM’s broken cycle of roundups and removals and failure to use humane and scientifically-recommended birth control to manage wild horses and burros in the wild. Please take a stand against this waste and cruelty now by clicking below.
Well, they’re back at it again—Congress has begun work on the Department of the Interior/ BLM’s budget for the Fiscal Year 2019, which starts on October 1. And again, the House of Representatives is looking for ways to harm horses on the western range. This year, the House Subcommittee on Interior and Environment Appropriations has forwarded report language that, while avoiding a direct attempt to allow outright slaughter, instructs BLM to start the process to “immediately begin designing the regulatory framework and technical protocols for an active sterilization program.” The report language also directs BLM to “analyze” an option to kill healthy horses older than 10 years — less than half the lifespan for many wild horses! Read more about this situation and what you can do by clicking below for our latest blog!
This BLM is doubling down on the mass roundup and removal of wild horses from our public lands, a management practice that the National Academy of Sciences called “expensive and unproductive for the BLM and the public it serves.” In the crosshairs over the next four months: nearly 6,000 wild horses and burros, currently living peacefully on our public lands in eight Western states. Read more about the BLM’s summer/fall roundup schedule and what it means for American taxpayers and our cherished wild horses and burros by clicking below.