One of our favorite stories from the range is perfect for a day that celebrates love. Renowned wild horse photographer and friend of AWHC, Kimerlee Curyl tells it best:
“InWyoming, I came across this gorgeous snow-white mare, very heavy in foal. I thought she could have that baby any second, she was so large and moving slow. A commotion erupted as the stallion attempted to chase off a band of young bachelors that had approached her. The other mares in her herd kept close to her as he fought with the challenging group. He successfully won his battle, and swiftly returned to her side, positioning himself perfectly so she could rest her head on him in the warm afternoon sun.”
Photo credit: Kimerlee Curyl
Wild horses are very social and family-oriented, and the bonds between individuals are strong. This is why it’s so important to keep them wild, together with their families, where they belong.
Valentine’s Day is all about love — and we appreciate the love you have for our wild horses and burros and all you do to fight for their freedom and their families.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Meredith! May your day be filled with lots of love.
As the American Wild Horse Campaign’s Director of Government Relations, I wanted to share two very exciting wins we had on the Hill this week:
On Monday evening, Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) sent a letter to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Tracy Stone-Manning and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland calling for the suspension of the BLM’s wild horse and burro roundup plans for the 2022 fiscal year.
AND, late yesterday, Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV) introduced federal legislation that would ban the use of helicopters to round up wild horses and burros, which is often deadly and traumatic.
While there is much at stake for these cherished icons — the BLM’s 2022 plans call for the permanent removal of 19,000 wild horses and burros this year — we are grateful to have steadfast champions like Reps. Cohen and Titus in Congress calling for better treatment and management of our wild herds.
Growing awareness around the plight of our wild horses and burros is an ongoing battle — livestock ranchers and other special interests have lobbied Congress for decades to scapegoat these innocent animals so that their cattle and sheep can graze on our public lands.
Your support helps us educate members of Congress on the threats facing wild horses and burros, like how their “federally protected” status doesn’t guarantee their freedom, but rather deadly helicopter roundups and mud-ridden holding facilities, how the BLM continues to use unproven IUDs instead of scientifically proven, humane PZP vaccines, and how the BLM’s current plan could decimate America’s wild horse and burro populations.
AWHC’s congressional work is critically important to the livelihood of our wild herds. When we create partnerships with allies on the Hill, we create progress. This week’s wins for wild horses and burros are an example of just that.
It’s “Go Time”, and it’s one of our bigger endeavors. It’s time to move my WA Camp where we save most of the wild horses. I so appreciate being here and all the opportunities I have had to save lives. However, the time has come, and quite suddenly, where I need to move my “camp”.
As some of you know, I am extremely crippled and normally wear a brace and am supposed to use a cane. So I HAVE to hire folks to get everything moved and set up.
There are definitely some big challenges, and here are some of them. NO Power, or Water at this time.It could be months, but for now I have to deal with what we have, and that is none.
I need a large generator, (approx $1000), a big water tank with a stand for gravity flow, (approx $1,000-$1500) with the stand. It is imperative that I have water on hand with the sick babies and to make milk and clean up injuries.
The water tank has to hold “potable water” and every time you get it filled, there are delivery fees on top of paying for the water. WATER = LIFE!
The cost to move our nursery buildings, (my office/home/intensive care unit) and the other 2 baby barns is $2,500 – $3,000.
I NEED PHYSICAL HELP to get the panels loaded, set up and all of the other stuff transported. I needs funds to hire folks to help me get this done in the next two weeks.
Power and water will most likely be available by June, but there is a chance I will NOT have power for a year or longer, depending on the availability of transformers. Like so many other things, they are back ordered.
Baby season is weeks away IF that, and I need to complete the move to the new property before the end of the month. I was blessed to find a beautiful place in Goldendale to set up “camp”, and this is a place where we can stay for years to come. It is only 5 miles away from Goldendale Veterinary, and that is a miracle considering Doc just retired and can no longer do my Coggins etc. in Toppenish.
It is also time RIGHT NOW, to start purchasing the medications, formula, Colostrum, and all the other $1000’s of dollars of supplies we need BEFORE the babies come.
So I am asking everyone to come together and help me finish this transition!
Chilly Pepper and the babies/wild horses NEED you now! Thank You!!
p.s. Every trip I take to haul supplies costs $50 in Diesel alone. This is a costly endeavor, but will be so much better for the horses and is definitely God’s plan.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN HELPING SAVE THESE PRECIOUS LIVES!
WIN (WILD HORSES IN NEED) is a 501c3 IRS EIN 55-0882407_
If there are ever funds left over from the cost of the rescue itself, the monies are used to feed, vet, care for and provide shelter and proper fencing for the animals once they are saved.
Thank you so much to everyone who renewed their support over the last month to help us protect America’s wild horses and burros in 2022 and the years to come. We’re grateful for your generosity and dedication to protecting our wild herds.
Every single year, thousands of America’s wild horses and burros are brutally chased by low-flying helicopters and cruelly captured. These cherished animals that once freely roamed our public lands are sent to holding facilities across the country, costing them their families, their freedom, and for some of them — their lives. Far too many are ending up in the slaughter pipeline through a BLM program that pays individuals $1,000 per animal to adopt up to four untamed wild horses or burros per year.
What happens during these roundups is equally as upsetting — wild horses and foals run for their lives, chased to pure exhaustion. Foals are left abandoned and hungry without their mothers, and panicked horses break their limbs, backs, or necks during the chase or in the trap pens.
The continuation of helicopter roundups as the primary method of population management is fiscally reckless, unscientific, and grossly inhumane. The BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program needs reform and it needs it now.
The BLM is in Year 2 of a devastating, accelerated roundup plan that aims to remove as many as 20,000 wild horses and burros per year over the next five years. In 2022, the BLM is conducting aggressive roundups that will remove 19,000 wild horses and burros from their homes on our public lands.
If we don’t speak up for America’s wild horses and burros, thousands more will be mistreated at the hands of the BLM and their contractors. Just this month, the BLM finished the largest roundup in U.S. history in the Wyoming Checkerboard, throwing nearly 4,000 formerly free-roaming wild horses into feedlot pens and leaving behind a trail of animal welfare violations. Action must be taken to drastically reform this mismanaged program.
Introducing our OFFICIAL 2022 American Wild Horse Campaign Member Card:
We have so much in store for 2022. Not only are we continuing our fight on the Hill, in the courts, and in the field — we’re also working on a number of groundbreaking new initiatives — all in the name of keeping wild horses and burros in the wild where they belong.
We’re laser-focused on the fight to preserve the freedom of our wild mustangs and burros. That means in 2022, we are … proving through our PZP program on Nevada’s Virginia Range that humane in the wild management works … expanding our investigative team to uncover abuse and hold the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) accountable … continuing our lawsuit against the BLM’s Adoption Incentive Program that’s sending horses and burros to slaughter … working with a prestigious university to make roundup violations enforceable by law … and so much more!!
Last year, we uncovered that hundreds of wild horses and burros were sent into the slaughter pipeline as a result of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Adoption Incentive Program (AIP).
After our work led to a New York Times front-page report exposing the program for its devastating failure to protect America’s wild herds, members of the public, wild horse advocates, and Congress stepped up to call for the suspension of the AIP and for large-scale, meaningful changes to the program.
Earlier this week, the BLM announced a new set of reforms to the AIP, let me be clear: These reforms do not go far enough.
Despite the recommendation from its own advisory board, the BLM failed to eliminate the cash incentive feature of the program — a critical reason why so many wild horses and burros are ending up in kill pens across the country.
Meredith: In the last 15 months, our team has identified over 500 wild horses and burros in kill pens — many of these innocent animals we’ve confirmed to be victims of the AIP.
The cash incentive payments are a critical flaw of the AIP — with the new changes the BLM announced, adopters are now receiving lump-sum payments of $1,000 per animal at the end of 12-months, and are still able to adopt up to 4 animals per year. This means that once adopters collect their money, they still have the ability to dump these innocent animals in kill pens like trash.
Today, we are so excited to share with you our next initiative in our fight to protect horses and burros — both wild and domestic — from slaughter!
Despite their federal protection, wild horses and burros continue to face the ever-present threat of brutal helicopter roundups — a tragic result of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) mismanaged Wild Horse and Burro Program. Once captured, these innocent animals are stripped of their freedom and forced into holding, many entering the slaughter pipeline.
In an effort to permanently put an end to horse slaughter, we have partnered with the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) as a sponsoring organization of the Homes for Horses Coalition!
The Homes for Horses Coalition (HHC) is a national initiative made up of more than 520 member organizations with the ultimate goal of ending horse slaughter and all other forms of equine abuse for good.
Each year, tens of thousands of American horses and burros are exported for slaughter to Mexico and Canada for human consumption in foreign markets. And as we exposed last year through our investigative work, the BLM’s Adoption Incentive Program is placing “truckloads” of our iconic wild horses and burros in imminent danger of becoming victims of the brutal industry.
The BLM’s proposed roundups are only accelerating, and as a result, an increasing number of federally protected wild mustangs and burros are expected to enter the pipeline in the coming years.
Through our new role with HHC, we’ll be joining AWI in supporting the boots-on-the-ground rescues by providing advocacy leadership and resources to strengthen the nonprofits doing heroic jobs to help horses in need.
HHC is the only network of its kind in the nation, and we couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this important effort. It’s time to end horse slaughter once and for all. Are you with us?
Stay tuned for more updates and announcements from the coalition!
The wild horses of the Onaqui Herd Management Area (HMA) just outside of Dugway, Utah are some of the most well-known and well-loved mustangs in the country. Photographers and tourists from all over the world flock to this 200,000-acre public land area to spend time with the animals they have come to know and love, including revered wild horses like Old Man, Red Lion, or, Diamond and DeeDee — a stunning mother-daughter duo.
Photo by PJ Kaszas
It’s no matter that DeeDee was born to Diamond over 7 years ago. She has remained by her mother’s side ever since, napping, grazing, and raising her own young. It’s the wild horse way and why we love them: their relationships with one another are strong, intricate, and dynamic.
So it was devastating to local advocates when the helicopters descended on the HMA in July of 2021, and threatened to rip this pair — and their unique bond — apart. They ended up being captured in the operation along with over 400 other cherished mustangs, and have been stuck in a mud-ridden holding facility since. Visitors to the corrals noted that the pair still clung together, amidst the trauma they endured.
Local advocates worked tirelessly to find a home for Diamond and DeeDee together and lucked out when AWHC Board Member and owner of Freedom Reigns Equine Sanctuary, Alicia Goetz stepped up and agreed to welcome the mares to her herd of nearly 500 rescued horses on her almost 4,000-acre sanctuary.
Photo by Kimerlee Curyl
And on Wednesday, we were onsite to welcome the special mother-daughter pair to their new life. After they cautiously came off the trailer, they took to the ground and began to roll. Photographer Kimerlee Curyl, spoke of the moment best:
“I began to get teary as I watched the caked mud and manure fall off of them as they rolled around in the new green grass of their temporary enclosure. To me, it represented the shedding of their life in holding and that terrible roundup. It was a beautiful and emotional day.”
It really was a beautiful day.
Photo by Kimerlee Curyl
After their quarantine period is up, Diamond and DeeDee will be released out to the main sanctuary to roam over thousands of acres of rolling hills.
We are grateful to the local advocates who worked so hard to keep this family together, and to Alicia for her commitment to ensuring that Diamond and DeeDee live the remainder of their lives at Freedom Reigns, the next best thing to being wild and free.
2022 is shaping up to be a busy year for our team at the American Wild Horse Campaign! We’ll be continuing our fight in the court, in the field, and on the Hill to preserve the freedom of America’s wild horses and burros.
We are on the frontlines of the fight to protect these iconic animals, but one thing is for sure: we couldn’t do it without our large herd of wild horse advocates who help to fuel our work. Grassroots supporters like you make up this incredible network and help to make our important efforts possible.
While our Government Relations team is busy setting their legislative agenda for the new year, we wanted to reach out with some advocacy resources so that you have everything you need to be the voice of our wild herds this year!
ADVOCACY ACTION KIT
Visit our Action Center to find contact information for your legislators or track wild horse legislation!
The American Wild Horse Campaign is so much more than just our staff — it’s a community of activists who put in the work, time and time again, to defend our treasured wild horses and burros.
In 2021, supporters like you helped us to:
Collect over 460,000 petition signatures to protect wild horses and burros;
Send over 338,000 messages to legislators on behalf of our wild herds;
And grow our grassroots network by more than 246,000!
So, will you stand with us again in 2022 to protect the lives of America’s wild horses and burros? We’ll be in touch over the next few weeks with actions you can take to protect these cherished animals.
Introducing our OFFICIAL 2022 American Wild Horse Campaign Member Card:
We have so much in store for 2022. Not only are we continuing our fight on the Hill, in courts, and in the field — we’re also working on a number of groundbreaking new initiatives — all in the name of keeping wild horses and burros in the wild where they belong.
We’re laser-focused on the fight to preserve the freedom of our wild mustangs and burros. That means in 2022, we are … proving through our PZP program on Nevada’s Virginia Range that humane in the wild management works … expanding our investigative team to uncover abuse and hold the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) accountable … continuing our lawsuit against the BLM’s Adoption Incentive Program that’s sending horses and burros to slaughter … working with a prestigious university to make roundup violations enforceable by law … and so much more!!
The new year is upon us, and so is the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed roundup plan for the 2022 calendar year. Over the next 12 months, the BLM intends to round up 22,000 wild horses and burros — permanently removing 19,000 of these animals from their homes on our public lands.
This is Year 2 of the BLM’s plan remove 20,000 horses per year for the next five years, and it presents a real threat to the survival of America’s wild herds. But it’s not the end of their story. Far from it. Because the worse the BLM treats our cherished wild mustangs, the more support we get from Congress and the American public to change the current costly and cruel wild horse and burro management program.
Our team enters 2022 prepared for the many battles ahead — in court, on the Hill, and in the field — to protect wild horses and burros and keep them in the wild where they belong. Today, I wanted to share with you some of our biggest plans for 2022. This year, we intend to:
Spearhead a national awareness campaign and grow our Ambassador Program to educate the American public about the plight of wild horses and empower them to get involved.
Continue to demonstrate through boots-on-the-ground work that humane management of wild horses is possible. We’ll continue to deliver unprecedented results from our PZP program on Nevada’s Virginia Range and broker programs for other herds across the West.
Put science at the forefront of wild horse management — We’ll be launching a number of new and exciting science initiatives, including an academic analysis of our Virginia Range PZP program data AND we’ll be creating an economic report to highlight the missteps of the BLM’s current approach and the cost-savings of a more humane one.
Amplify our work and your voice on Capitol Hill to pass legislation that diverts funds away from roundups and toward fertility control programs and ensure that the BLM uses these funds appropriately.
Expand our Investigative Team to continue to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse in the BLM’s on-range and off-range programs.
Continue our lawsuit against the BLM over its Adoption Incentive Program that’s sending wild horses and burros into the slaughter pipeline, while gearing up for new legal battles ahead…
Meredith: We have big plans for 2022! We’re using every resource at our disposal to continue our fight on behalf of America’s wild horses and burros.Our first step? Growing our grassroots army to build the scale of the wild horse protection movement so that it is inclusive, diverse, empowered, and well-equipped to achieve our mission of protecting wild horses and burros for generations to come.
By now you may have seen the news about the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) announcement of its intent to round up at least 22,000 wild horses and burros from national public lands this year and permanently remove 19,000 of them from their homes on the range.
These formerly free-roaming animals will join the 58,000 other wild horses and burros confined in off-range government holding facilities, putting 2022 on track to become the year that the United States of America holds more wild mustangs – our national symbols of freedom – in captivity than remain free in the wild.
It’s part of the BLM’s plan to reduce wild horse populations to just 17,000 – 27,000 animals on 27 million acres of land. That’s fewer animals than were left in the West in 1971 when Congress passed a law to protect them because they were “fast disappearing.”
This is wrong on so many levels – it counters the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences, is fiscally reckless and unconscionably inhumane.
The BLM claims these devastating roundups are necessary to protect the environment. But wild horses and burros are present on just 12% of the land that the BLM manages, and they are greatly outnumbered by commercial livestock — a major cause of land degradation and a contributor to climate change. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars to round up and warehouse wild horses in captivity actually harms the environment by diverting funds away from actual programs to address land health, habitat restoration, and climate change.
I understand if you are angry at this injustice. I know I am. But I don’t want you to despair or give up. I’m not, because I see the real progress we’ve made together in the last year alone:
We worked with Congress to direct one-third of the funding earmarked for roundups to the implementation of humane fertility control instead. We combatted roundups in the Sand Wash Basin (Colorado) and Onaqui (Utah) Herd Management Areas (HMAs) — and thanks to public outcry and the support of political leaders like Governor Jared Polis, we succeeded in keeping more horses in the wild than originally intended. We also got the commitment of the BLM in both states to work to make these the last helicopter roundups that ever occur in the HMAs by ensuring the PZP fertility control programs there succeed. We joined forces with a growing chorus of prominent environmental groups to oppose the BLM’s scapegoating of wild horses while giving commercial livestock a pass. The 7 million-member Sierra Club even wrote to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland calling for the removal of all commercial livestock from wild horse and burro habitat areas! We added nearly 200,000 new supporters to our grassroots army fighting to keep wild horses wild, and our videos, photographs, and reports documenting the cruelty of the roundups were seen by millions nationwide.
The fight to save our wild horses and burros is a marathon, not a sprint, and we are making progress. In fact, we are stronger and larger than ever.
We have an impactful agenda this year to continue the fight on the Hill, in the courts, and in the field. But the backbone of the fight is you.
So please, stay positive. Stay passionate. And stay ready.
We’ll be in touch!
Suzanne Roy Executive Director American Wild Horse Campaign
Thanks to the generosity of supporters like you, we are SO excited to share that we reached our $125,000 Year-End fundraising goal and UNLOCKED the $100,000 gift from our matching donor!!
From each and every one of us at the American Wild Horse Campaign — thank you so much for your part in helping us reach this goal! Please know that your support will make such an enormous difference for America’s wild horses and burros in 2022 as we continue our fight to keep these cherished animals wild.
While we begin to tackle our 2022 agenda, we wanted to share with you the victories that AWHC supporters helped us to accomplish over the past year. Please read on for a recap of our 2021 accomplishments and a preview of what’s to come this year!
Exposed the Adoption Incentive Program
After a months-long investigation, our team uncovered a slaughter pipeline that had been created by the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Adoption Incentive Program (AIP). In partnership with The New York Times, we exposed the disastrous program in a front-page report.
Uncovering this pipeline was only the first of several milestones in this fight. Shortly after the New York Times exposé, we garnered an overwhelming amount of support from the public, and dozens of members of Congress took action on Capitol Hill to reform the failed program. At the same time, AWHC filed suit against the BLM to challenge the AIP. Recently, government attorneys informed us that the BLM will be revealing a “new” Adoption Incentive Program in early 2022. We will be watching closely to ensure that the program is meaningfully reformed by ending the cash incentives that are fueling fraud and abuse.
Made Strides on Capitol Hill
Our government relations team worked tirelessly with members of the House and Senate to pass historic legislation during the Fiscal Year 2022 Appropriations process allocating $11 million in funding toward humane wild horse and burro management.
This $11 million was reallocated away from the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) roundup funds toward implementing “a robust and humane fertility control strategy of reversible immunocontraceptive vaccines” for America’s wild horses. This breakthrough language marks the first time that Congress is requiring the BLM to implement alternatives to the cruel roundup and removal of wild horses and burros from their homes on our public lands. It’s a huge step toward responsible wild horse and burro management that will help keep these iconic animals in the wild, where they belong!
Helped Rescue Over 100 Wild Horses & Burros from Slaughter
Thanks to the help of generous supporters like you, we were able to help fund the rescues of over 100 slaughter-bound wild horses and burros this year. In collaboration with our rescue partners, we were able to identify and rescue wild horses and burros from kill pens across the country — in imminent danger of being shipped to Mexico or Canada for brutal slaughter. The vast majority of these horses and burros were sent into the slaughter pipeline through the BLM’s Adoption Incentive Program by adopters who pocketed the cash incentives then dumped “their” animals at kill pens.
Proved Humane Management Works
AWHC operates the world’s largest humane fertility control program for wild horses on Nevada’s Virginia Range — and this Spring we will celebrate the three-year anniversary of this groundbreaking program!
On the range, we use Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) immunocontraception — a scientifically-proven fertility control vaccine given to female horses through an injection via remote darting with an air rifle. The vaccine creates an immune response that prevents fertilization without impacting the horses’ hormonal systems, thus preserving their natural behaviors.
This year our program reduced the foaling rate on the Virginia Range by 44%! This achievement has been critical in demonstrating to lawmakers and the BLM that fertility control is an effective tool for reducing population growth and a viable alternative to costly and cruel helicopter roundups for the management of America’s wild herds.
Protected Nevada’s Wild Horses
Earlier this year, a resolution was introduced in the Nevada State Senate that called on Congress to fund brutal helicopter roundups of at least 40,000 of Nevada’s wild horses and burros — that’s nearly every wild horse and burro living in Nevada today!
We quickly mobilized political and environmental opposition to the resolution, SJR 3, and were successful in killing it in the Natural Resources Committee. The outcome was an important show of support by this key legislative committee for humane wild horse management and a significant defeat for the coalition of livestock operators, hunters, and commercial wildlife trappers behind the mass roundup resolution.
Amplified Our Voice
Our movement to save America’s wild horses and burros grew by leaps and bounds this year. Public outrage over the plight of these iconic animals grew, and so did the number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill demanding reform. So many of you joined the fight to preserve the freedom of our wild horses and burros on the public lands they call home, and for that, we are so grateful.
We have much progress to make in 2022, but we know we can always count on supporters like you to lobby your elected officials, support our critical legal work, and raise awareness across the country about the threats America’s wild horses and burros continue to face.
This fight is a marathon, not a sprint, and we know that we can count on you to stand with us all along the way. Together, we will make real progress for our cherished wild horses and burros in 2022.
So stay ready and stay tuned! We wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy New Year!
With Gratitude,
Suzanne Roy Executive Director American Wild Horse Campaign
We have less than 24 hours until our year-end fundraising deadline and we still have a ways to go if we want to hit our $125,000 goal.Right now we are tracking at $96,467 — $28,533 short of where we need to be to finish 2021 strong!!
BUT, we have an exciting update → Our generous donor wants to help us hit our goal and unlock their $100,000 matching gift so badly, that they’ve agreed to TRIPLE all donations that come in before midnight tonight up to $100,000.
We know we’re asking for a lot during this last week of the year. But it’s because the stakes are so high and we need the resources to keep the fight going.
At this very moment, our wild horses and burros face an existential threat: the BLM’s plan to slash wild herds across the West to the “99 percent extinction-level” that prompted Congress to protect these animals 50 years ago!
Our work in 2022 could not be more important and we need your support to make it happen. We’re just HOURS away from the opportunity to unlock $100,000 before we close the books on 2021.
The cost to vaccinate a single mare with a PZP vaccine is just $30.
But instead, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spends millions of taxpayer dollars to brutally round up our wild horses and burros by chasing them with helicopters and confining them in pens, robbing them of all that wild horses hold dear — family and freedom.
Far too many of these beloved animals are entering the slaughter pipeline through the BLM’s disastrous Adoption Incentive Program, as exposed by our investigation earlier this year.
On Nevada’s Virginia Range, where a population of state-managed wild mustangs is threatened by extreme habitat loss, we’re operating the largest PZP fertility program in the world for wild horses.
And our work there has reduced the foaling rate by 44% while allowing these animals to remain free as nature intended. This data is incredibly useful as we prove to lawmakers and the BLM that there is a better alternative to the agency’s current approach to managing our wild horse populations.
Did you know that it costs only $30 to dart a single mare with a PZP vaccine — a scientifically-proven way to reduce population growth while keeping wild horses wild? That’s the difference your $30 contribution can make for wild horses who need our support now more than ever.
By using this method, we are showing the public and our elected officials that there is a better way to manage wild populations. PZP fertility control is a humane and cost-effective alternative to subjecting wild horses and burros to brutal helicopter roundups year after year, holding them in crowded pens, and forcing them to undergo dangerous sterilization surgeries.
We operate the world’s largest humane fertility control program for wild horses on Nevada’s Virginia Range. And we’re coming up on the three-year anniversary of this groundbreaking program, which has successfully reduced fertility on the range by over 40%! We were able to achieve this milestone because supporters like you chipped in $30 for every mare that we’ve vaccinated, Meredith.
And don’t forget → Thanks to a generous donor, every gift made now through tomorrow at midnight will be 2x MATCHED. That means your $30 gift today helps not 1, but TWO HORSES!
The success of our PZP program has been so critical in our fight to protect wild horses because lawmakers and the public are starting to see there is a humane alternative to capturing and removing these wild animals from their homes on our public lands.
Your support helps us continue to provide the cold, hard, scientific evidence that lends legitimacy to our calls for more humane management of our wild horses and burros.
This year, more than 17,000 wild horses and burros were brutally chased by helicopters and forced into holding facilities, costing these innocent animals their families, their freedom, and in some cases — their lives. We know there’s a better way, and we can continue to fight for it with your support!
We wanted to make sure you got Suzanne’s email from earlier today. We’re using every tool at our disposal to make roundups a thing of the past.
How? Well…
Our trained volunteers go out into the field to document roundups when they occur — making note of animal welfare violations and bringing them to the attention of the public and authorities.
Our legal team is working with a prestigious university to make animal welfare violations at roundups enforceable by law.
Our government relations team is working with legislators on Capitol Hill and secured $11 million in funding in House and Senate legislation to redirect BLM funds away from helicopter roundups toward humane immunocontraceptive fertility control vaccines.
Our science division continues to fund initiatives that provethere is a more humane way to manage wild horse and burro populations and advance technology for implementing humane management programs in the West.
And, our advocacy work is constantly mobilizing supporters and action takers like yourself to speak up on behalf of these innocent animals, calling for much-needed reforms to the BLM’s Wild Horse & Burro Program.
Apologies for all the emails from our team this week — we know it can be a lot, but it’s only because there is so much on the line for wild horses and burros in 2022.
This year was a hard one for our cherished wild herds. Families were broken apart, freedom and lives were lost. Over 17,000 wild horses and burros lost their homes on our public lands. As bad as it got, it only strengthened our resolve to fight harder.
The silver lining to this tragic story is that our advocacy has helped to publicize the severity of this situation, leading to growing public outrage. We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of Americans come together and demand an end to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) costly and inhumane roundup program and Congress has joined in demanding these necessary reforms.
So, now is our moment. We must capitalize on this momentum and continue our fight to make roundups a thing of the past.
2021 was a year full of highs and lows — and we’re so grateful that through it all, you stood by our side in the fight to protect wild horses and burros.
One of our biggest accomplishments was our investigation into the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), which resulted in a front-page New York Times exposé, elevating the tragedies of the AIP to a national level.
As one of AWHC’s lead investigators into the AIP, every single day, I identify and track new BLM mustangs and burros in kill pens across the country. After months of investigation, we confirmed that the titles of the horses and burros we were rescuing matched those of animals adopted through the AIP.
Time and time again in this investigation, we’ve identified adopters who have collected the AIP cash incentives, then dumped the horses and burros they had adopted at slaughter auctions as soon as the money cleared their accounts.
Our Rescue Fund was key to this investigation as it allowed us to support our rescue partners in pulling wild horses and burros from kill pens. This not only saved these innocent animals’ lives but also gave us access to information — including titles and brand numbers — that helped us connect the dots to expose the program.
Since uncovering and exposing this slaughter pipeline, we’ve made some impressive strides! Congress has taken notice of this problem, and our Government Relations team is working with elected officials on solutions to better protect our wild horses and burros from slaughter.
After the New York Times exposé, the BLM announced a list of reforms to the Adoption Incentive Program. But, these reforms did not go far enough, so we filed a lawsuit. This week, government attorneys informed our lawyers that the BLM would be unveiling a new Adoption Incentive Program in the new year, and we will be watching closely to see if meaningful reforms are forthcoming.
Meredith: Supporters like you make these important initiatives possible — our investigative work to uncover this slaughter pipeline, our rescue fund to help save the AIP’s victims, our Government Relations work on the Hill, and even our litigation against the BLM. None of this would be possible without your help.
It’s “Go Time”, and it’s one of our bigger endeavors. It’s time to move my WA Camp where we save most of the wild horses. I so appreciate being here and all the opportunities I have had to save lives. However, the time has come, and quite suddenly, where I need to move my “camp”.
We worked with Congress to direct one-third of the funding earmarked for roundups to the implementation of humane fertility control instead.
