This week only…Get your limited edition ‘Keep Wild Horses Wild‘ T-shirt…and support our work! We are thrilled to announce that FLOAT is featuring these T-shirts, and for the next six days, will donate $8 for every shirt sold to the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign.
SHOP today – there are lots of fun colors and styles to choose from! This is a great way to support our work to Keep Wild Horses Wild and free on the range and look fabulous! Don’t miss this opportunity!
The Bureau of Land Management’s Humboldt River Field Office is accepting public comments on a Preliminary Environmental Assessment (PEA) to manage the federally protected horses and burros in the Blue Wing Complex in Nevada. The Complex, which includes the Kamma Mountains, Seven Troughs Range, the Lava Beds, Blue Wing Mountains, and Shawave HMAs, spans 2,283,300 acres (over 3,500 square miles!). Yet the BLM has set “Appropriate” Management Levels (AMLs) of just 333 to 553 wild horses and 55 to 90 wild burros for this entire area! At the upper population limit, that’s only one horse or burro per 3,551 acres!
Photo of captured Nevada wild horses by BLM
The BLM wants to drive the wild horse and burro population down to low AML in 20 years by implementing an unprecedented plan to sterilize 30 percent of these herds using highly controversial procedures that are untested in wild free-roaming horse herds. The BLM’s plan does not disclose when and how many roundups will occur, how many wild horses and burros will be permanently removed, when and how many mares and jennies will be treated with fertility control or spayed, or when and how many stallions and jacks will be gelded.
Now is the time take a stand against this BLM proposal that will expose wild horses and burros to this dangerous experiment that is thinly disguised as a management plan. Please personalize and submit the sample letter below to demand fair treatment of wild horses and burros in Nevada!
Please visit the link below for the opportunity to submit your own letter and stand against this injustice. The comment deadline is February 10, 2017.
For all donations $25 and over, we’ll send your special someone a postcard with the beautiful image above by esteemed wild horse photographer Kimerlee Curyl.
Your support will help fund our legal, legislative and grassroots programs to protect wild horses and burros during this most dangerous time. The threat of mass roundups and slaughter is real. The new Congress and Administration will determine their fate.
Will love save our mustangs? It will, if we harness love into action, because we have the power of the people on our side!
Thank you sincerely and Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at AWHPC. We are so grateful that you are part of our herd… …together we will prevail for our cherished mustangs and burros.
After days of driving very slowly on solid ice and snow, we arrived safely after delivering the horses to their new homes. Matt and I have never seen so many wrecks. It was truly terrifying with our precious cargo on board. But our prayers were answered and we had Angels all around us.
We delivered Copper, Delilah, Precious and Abilene (shown above) safely to their new homes and headed back towards ISPMB. As you can see, by the photo below, the snow is once again a hindering factor in our work.
This photo was taken just before we arrived at ISPMB. Snow has actually drifted so high over some of the fencing that horses can simply walk out.
As we were driving, I received a message from the Sheriff that the court hearing had been cancelled. A deal had been reached between Karen Sussman and the Counties. Karen gets to keep 20 of her favorite Gila horses and the rest have been turned over to Fleet of Angels.
So the work begins. While I would much rather be back home taking care of our critters, there are 520 horses needing homes immediately!!
Folks have asked “Does that mean the horses are safe?”. In reality, the answer would be No – Not yet! Until ALL these horses land safely in new homes, there is always a risk. If there is no money to feed them or a place for them to live, then “NO”, they would not be safe. However, the whole reason we are here is to MAKE SURE they end up safe, and that takes everyone!!
This is PHASE 2. – I hate to say it but it is where the real work begins. We are on a limited amount of time and we have to keep going.
This is one of, or possibly THE largest rescues ever. There is so much riding on this. If we cannot pull together and save 810 horses, how on earth can we take care of horses if the borders are closed. This is huge folks, we must succeed. We want slaughter eliminated – then we need to come together and show that we can “git ‘er done”.
Meanwhile my little monkies back at the ranch have nearly gone through all their milk and munchies again. But they are doing very well and thanks to Pete Dunham who is taking care of those kids, I can be up here in balmy South Dakota saving more lives lol.
Matt picked up 4 more horses for Chilly Pepper and is once again on the road.
Fleet of Angels adopted out my crew sorted and loaded out 10 horses yesterday. I have to say I am so grateful that Elaine and Barbara handle all the paperwork. Never have I been so glad to just be “horse-girl” lol.
Hay prices are jumping due to the severe winter and we need help in this endeavor. The expenses for a rescue like this are horrific. We need everyone to help us save these horses. Whether it is a home, financial aid, prayers, sharing the information, helping deliver horses, well the list is endless.
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS POSSIBLE! YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT ARE THE ONLY REASON IT IS HAPPENING!!
America’s horses need your help. Over 100,000 horses each year are shipped across the border and are brutally slaughtered. The threat of slaughter for America’s wild horses is real. The SAFE Act would protect America’s horses by banning horse slaughter in the U.S. and prohibiting the transport of American horses to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. It was reintroduced with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives last week. Your support is needed for this important legislation. The lives of hundreds of thousands of horses — both domestic and wild — are at stake, so please take action today!
As I steal a few moments to send out a quick update, Matt and I are on our way back to South Dakota. The good news is that we are delivering 4 horses to their new homes before we go back. We placed 2 last week and are so happy as we cannot afford to “rescue & not rehome”. lol However, we need help badly with the ongoing expenses involved in this operation and for the special needs kids who are landing at Chilly Pepper – Miracle Mustang.
We are spending about $300 per month for milk powder per baby, and we currently have six on “liquid gold”. So that is roughly $1800 just for milk, and then we are going through about 4 bags? of milk pellets at roughly $100 each bag. These kids were a bit behind so they are taking extra. Add to that the enormous amounts of hay they are consuming and their bedding and their Mare and Foal Pellets, we are easily spending thousands on just the 6 babies alone. The good news is that they are doing better and better every day.
We spent $1100+ on the last kids that came home to get them vetted and their lil hoofers done. This does not include Coggins or Health Certs etc. or to even get them home. As we are taking on several blind horses that have no where else to go, (including Frosty – the blind black stallion), we need to add additional shelter and make the pen for Shadow and the new blind kids larger than originally planned.
This is Matt’s 5th trip to SD, my 4th (as I lived there for several months) and as it is approximately 1100 miles each way, well that adds up quickly. It costs roughly $900 per trip, and that is just for fuel, motel and an oil change etc. Normally we wouldn’t drive this far over and over but this was a situation God clearly put in front of us. It is and has been exhausting, but knowing at least 270 are in (or will be lol ) in loving homes, it is worth it.
SITUATION UPDATE: Matt and I have more horses to pick up that were already in the 270 number. We are picking up for another sanctuary who agreed to take the horses and they need to go through our place for vetting and hoof care etc. We are responsible for all the preliminary care and then the sanctuary will be giving them a life long home for the rest of their lives. So we need funds for those 10 also. We also need to pick up our stallions and a couple other special needs kids. They were supposed to be picked up a long time ago, but due to the weather and an emergency pick up from CA, this is the soonest we could get back.
So we really need help so we can continue helping the horses in what ever way we are needed.
COURT DATE – The State is trying to remove the horses from ISPMB. If this happens, they have asked Fleet of Angels to be responsible for finding them safe homes and to take on all responsibility of their care.
If this happens, we will need to continue to load, sort and help these horses find a safe place to land.
If this does not happen, I have been told that the numbers would still need to be reduced, so again, we would most likely need to be on hand to help with placement of the horses who were not staying.
So either Matt and I have 3-4 more trips to secure the horses that are already in the 270 number if nothing changes, or we will be there longer if more horses need to be rounded up and sorted. In any case, we also are incurring added expenses to hire someone to stay at Chilly Pepper and take care of all the horses that are already there.
We want to thank everyone again who has been part of this. Y’all are the ones who make it all possible!!!
If anyone does not receive their end of year tax receipt, please call me at 530 339 1458. For some reason there were a couple of folks whose information did not show up on their credit card donation. * Tax receipts will all be sent out by Jan 30th. Again, you guys are amazing and are so very much appreciated.
For decades, community groups have enjoyed and worked to protect the cherished wild horses that live in and around the Pine Nut Mountains Herd Management Area (HMA) in northern Nevada. But now the beloved Pine Nut horses are threatened by a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan to round up 500 of 579 of the mustangs living there!
These neighbors and the horses they love need our help today! Please weigh in against a devastating massive roundup and ask BLM to work with the local community to implement a birth control program for humane, in-the-wild management of the Pine Nut wild horses.
I am sorry it has taken so long for an update. We had no internet for 11 days, and Matt and I have been working 12 hour+ days to “prep for winter”. As we were never supposed to be in South Dakota even up until Thanksgiving, staying until two days before Christmas really put us extremely far behind.
The babies are improving greatly and enjoying the nursery! We do want to send out a special “Thank You” to Dee Gregory, who was (hopefully still is LOL) our “go to” guy who made it possible for Matt and I to safely leave our rescue. Without him, we would never have been able to “git ‘er done.”
We got an emergency call today. One of the really big trees crashed through and destroyed some of the panel fencing at our place in CA. Thankfully, although DaBubbles panicked and was running around loose, Seanna and Carl were able to lock him up safely in one of the shelters. So now Matt has to postpone his trip back to South Dakota to pick up our stallions and go pick up the remaining horses in CA.
While I was writing this, we were informed that the road between here and our place in CA is shut down as a result of the weather? So hopefully tomorrowhe can pick them up.
Again, never a dull moment or one to rest.
Meanwhile, we are busy at home feeding, working on the nursery, trying to play “catch up”, vetting, getting hoofers trimmed and trying to get more shelter set up for the additional horses that will be coming to Chilly Pepper. We now need to set up an even larger “blind playpen”, as we already have two and more coming.
We are going through hay like crazy and the babies are absolutely loving their milk. Unfortunately with six on milk powder and milk pellets it can be a real damper on the budget. But all of them are doing much better and that is what it is all about.
PHASE 1 of the ISPMB Adoption Campaign has been completed. Thanks to lots of hard work and the amazing love and support y’all have shown, the 270 horses we were allowed to adopt out have been safely loaded and transported with zero injuries.
DUE TO OUR SUCCESS the remaining horses being removed by the County have been offered a chance to avoid auction. We are very happy to have more and more folks stepping up and joining “the team” to make this happens. There are some really amazing folks joining in to ensure this mission will protect any horses the County takes from ISPMB.
We have been asked to continue managing the ground crew and we will need to head back to South Dakota so we can continue sorting and loading any horses who need placement.
This is a statement made by Elaine Nash, Fleet of Angels, who was solely responsible for creating, organizing, and managing a comprehensive national campaign to get the ISPMB horses adopted and in safe homes, at the request of SD state’s attorney, Steve Averly.
“IT’S OFFICIAL. . . .
Two SD State’s Attorneys and the SD Animal Industry Board have officially filed a motion to remove the remaining 540 (+/-) horses from ISPMB in Lantry, SD.
To prevent the auction and possible slaughter of any of the horses, Fleet of Angels has joined forces with Habitat for Horses- an equine rescue in TX, Return to Freedom- a wild horse sanctuary in CA, and numerous other animal welfare organizations who will collaborate with us to insure that every horse is fed during both the legal process and the adoption process, and they will help FOA insure that every adoptable horse is placed in a good home.
Only with the help of hundreds of people- including all of you who make up our ground crew, administrators, adopters, transporters, donors, and other providers, will we be able to protect all of the horses if they are removed from ISPMB. If the ISPMB horses are entrusted to us to place, it will be a massive, difficult, hugely expensive job, and we will need everyone’s help to be successful.
We’re already at work raising funds for this effort because we’ve agreed to pay the counties all they’re owed to date, plus we have to cover the cost of hay for the horses during this process in order to save them from auction. We will be counting on you to contribute to this effort, and participate in any way you can. We can do it. We must do it. We will do it!”
This proud stallion we call Zeus was photographed living wild and free five years ago in the Wyoming’s Great Divide Basin Herd Management Area. He was leading his family to water… standing guard over his mares and youngsters as they drank.
Is Zeus still free? We don’t know. But he has a right to be. One of our toughest fights yet has been for the rights of wild horses to live wild and free in this area of land known as the Wyoming Checkerboard. This year, we delivered two important legal blows to the BLM’s plans to wipe out wild horses from this area to appease powerful ranching interests.
But the fight goes on. In 2017, the BLM will attempt to change land use plans to “zero out” (eliminate all wild horses from) the Wyoming Checkerboard.
Is Zeus still free? We don’t know. But he has a right to be.
One of our toughest fights yet has been for the rights of wild horses to live wild and free in this area of land known as the Wyoming Checkerboard. This year, we delivered two important legal blows to the BLM’s plans to wipe out wild horses from this area to appease powerful ranching interests. But the fight goes on. In 2017, the BLM will attempt to change land use plans to “zero out” (eliminate all wild horses from) the Wyoming Checkerboard.
Please help stop this from happening.
Our legal team is ready to defend Wyoming’s wild horses from the BLM’s latest maneuvers to wipe them out. We’re also expanding our lobbying presence on Capitol Hill and continuing to build our grassroots army… With you help, the power of the people and the law of the land will prevail.
Zeus is a reason to give. The future of wild horses like Zeus depends on you.
Wild horses and burros are under attack every day. We are fighting for them every day, and we want to show you every day this week exactly what we are fighting for.
This valiant wild Wyoming stallion fought off five younger stallions to defend his beautiful snow-white mare, so heavily in foal she could barely move. Moments after the battle, he returned to his mare’s side and allowed her to rest her head on his back in the warm sun.
Chivalry is not dead, but these wild horses and their way of life could be if we are not successful in stopping the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from wiping out wild horses in the Wyoming Checkerboard to appease powerful ranching interests.
This year, we stopped a huge BLM helicopter roundup in this area. We scored two important legal victories that put the brakes… at least for now… on the BLM’s plan to eradicate wild horses from the Checkerboard. But the fight for the future of Wyoming’s wild herds goes on.
We call this beautiful stallion Galahad and his mare, Snow White. They are a reason to give. Their future depends on you.
In Freedom,
Suzanne Roy, Executive Director
P.S. Today, you can double your impact for wild horses like Galahad and Snow White! Your year-end donation will be matched…so please give as generously as you can. Thank you!
These innocent baby mustangs were at their mothers’ sides living wild and free in Nevada just days before these photos were taken. Now they cling together in the BLM’s holding pens near Reno after being captured in the BLM’s Owyheee roundup last month. Like shadows, or partners in a haunting dance, they stay side by side as they circle the feedlot pen, afraid and alone.
We call these youngsters Opal and Sapphire. The BLM robbed them of their freedom and their families. Now agency policy threatens their very lives.
The fate of Opal and Sapphire and 45,000 other wild horses and burros stockpiled in holding facilities literally hangs in the balance. Pressure is mounting to lift the ban on killing these horses and selling them for slaughter. The new Congress and Administration will determine whether they live or die.
We face the fight of our lives in 2017 to stop the slaughter of innocent wild horses like Opal and Sapphire. Please fight with us by making an end-of-year donation today.
Opal and Sapphire are a reason to give. Their future depends on you.
In Freedom,
Suzanne Roy, Executive Director
P.S. Remember… all end of year donations made by midnight on December 31st will be matched, so please double your impact today! Thank you!!
We are at a tipping point in the fight for the future of America’s wild horses and burros. The incoming Trump Administration will either support Americans’ desire to protect these national icons or send them down the slaughter pipeline. If confirmed, Trump’s nominee for Interior Secretary, U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) will play a key role in determining the fate of America’s mustangs. Unfortunately, as a State Senator from Montana, Rep. Zinke sponsored legislation to facilitate the opening of horse slaughter plants in his state, stating, “When a horse is too old to breed, too old to ride, or too expensive to feed, a horse is disposed of.” This is obviously troubling and out of step with the 80 percent of Americans who oppose horse slaughter. More encouraging is Rep. Zinke’s opposition to selling off our public lands, a position that has often been at odds with members of his own party.
Ultimately, if confirmed, Rep. Zinke will carry forth the policies of the incoming Trump Administration, which has promised to return government to the people. Right now, it’s critically important to send a strong message to President Elect Trump urging him to listen to the overwhelming majority of Americans who want our wild horses and burros protected and humanely managed on our Western public lands! Please take action and share, share, share this news!
November and December have proven to be rough months for the wild horses living in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Owyhee Complex in central Nevada. The BLM office in Washington D.C. even authorized the round up of 220 more horses than originally planned in this largest BLM roundup in two years. In total, 1,832 wild horses (704 studs, 773 mares, 355 foals) were captured within the Complex, and 1,430 of these beautiful mustangs were permanently removed from their homes on the range. At least 17 horses died in the roundup, and 402 were returned to the range.
The unreleased horses — more than 1,400 of them — were loaded onto semi trailers and trucked away from their high desert homeland to BLM’s holding pens near Reno, NV. These horses will never be free again. They — along with the nearly 46,000 other wild horses and burros warehoused in BLM holding facilites — face an uncertain fate.
AWHPC staff and prominent wild horse photographer Kimerlee Curyl were onsite at the round up last week. Check out our pictures, video and report on the roundup by clicking below.
The Virginia Range horse herd, managed by the Nevada Department of Agriculture, is believed to be the largest publicly owned horse herd currently remaining in the US. The horses are managed through the cooperative efforts of the department and various qualified non-profit horse groups. While the emphasis of this management is passive population control (fertility control,) horses do occasionally spread out into the outskirts of urban areas and onto busy highways. Those that present a clear and continuing danger to motorists, and that return to busy areas after relocation attempts, do have to be removed.
State law requires the Department to dispose of any horses that are not placed with in a proscribed time at the livestock sale. Therefore every effort is being made by all parties to get these horses placed.
L ike many people, you may be wondering what the results of this week’s election will mean for America’s wild horses and burros. There is no minimizing the dangers facing the 45,000 mustangs and burros stockpiled in government holding facilities and the estimated 67,000 who remain on the range.
Pressure is mounting for mass roundups and the killing or sale for slaughter of captured mustangs and burros. While we don’t yet know the Trump Administration’s position on this issue, clearly the stakes are very high. We’re prepared to work with the new Administration, bringing it up to speed on how the federal government has failed our wild horses and burros and the need for reform.
But, regardless of the election’s outcome at all levels of government, our strength will continue because it comes from our supporters and the American people.
Protecting wild horses and burros is a bipartisan issue. AWHPC has worked, and will continue to work, effectively with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. AWHPC supporters themselves span the political spectrum, but we are united in our love for America’s mustangs and burros and our commitment to saving them.
There will be a great deal of uncertainty in the next few months, as Trump is sworn in, cabinet nominations/political appointments are considered and a new Congress gets organized. We will monitor this process closely and develop a strategy that takes into account new threats and opportunities, and will be ready to meet them in the coming year.
In the interim, we’ll be working to ensure that any spending bills passed by this Congress maintain the prohibition on destroying healthy wild horses and burros or selling them for slaughter.
We the People remain the last line of defense between America’s mustangs and the forces that want to destroy them. In the coming year, it’s going to take all of us – united – to wage and win the fight for the future of these cherished national icons.
Last week Matt and I went to ISPMB and brought home a 3 year old and 2 yearlings. The situation is pretty complicated at this point and Karen is trying to adopt out approximately 100 horses.
Four State Vets went out and one horse was scheduled to be euthanized, and approximately 30 need to be sorted for special care.. The count was 810 horses on site, and as of now the Sheriff’s office and Counties are feeding the horses. The horses have been gaining weight steadily with all the good food.
Karen is providing a detailed plan to care for, feed and provide necessary care for the horses. Per the Court order she has until the 21st of October to provide her plan and until I believe the 11th of November to follow through. IF the county does not accept her plan, the horses could be seized and if not adopted out by December 1st they would go to “auction”, and we all know what that means. Karen feels confident that she will retain her horses but does want to make sure she downsizes.
At this time there are many horses available for adoption. Matt and I were asked to return next week to pick up more horses to be adopted out. We are working with Karen to get some good homes for some of these beautiful horses.
It is definitely not an inexpensive endeavor, but circumstances dictate helping to move as many horses as we possibly can before the bad weather hits.
Below are pictures of the horses we brought home. They also need hoof care badly.
This update is from the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign.
Photo: Courtesy/Teeatta Lippert
A year ago, public outrage saved the Salt River wild horses from roundup and eradication from the Tonto National Forest near Phoenix, Arizona. Now, community action saved a band of beloved wild horses after they were captured and removed from their home range in Alton, New Mexico. The horses faced sale at a slaughter auction before the neighborhood mobilized to save the horses and the Wild Horse Observers Association filed a lawsuit. Now the New Mexico Department of Agriculture has officially returned the horses to their home and the residents of Alto are celebrating!
The BLM Northeastern Great Basin Resource Advisory Council (RAC) is meeting in Ely, Nevada on October 6 & 7, 2016. This citizen advisory board has within its jurisdiction several of Nevada’s wild horse Herd Management Areas. Recently, this RAC sent a letter to the BLM supporting the removal of 4,000 wild horses from public lands in eastern Nevada and promoting surgical sterilization of wild herds. We must urge the RAC to recommend humane, socially acceptable solutions for wild horse management in Nevada, instead of promoting controversial, divisive and cruel management techniques that are not supported by the American people.
If you live in northeastern Nevada, please consider attending the meeting (see details below). For those who can’t attend, you can still make your voice heard by sending an email to the RAC to deliver a strong message that citizens across America want our wild horses protected on our public lands. Just personalize and send the letter at this link.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Carson City District Office in Nevada is accepting public comments on a “Landscape Project” that will directly impact the management of wild horses living in the Clan Alpine Herd Management Area (HMA), which overlaps with three livestock grazing allotments. The BLM is proposing to increase livestock grazing on the allotments while keeping the decade-old “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) the same. Worse yet, the BLM is proposing to geld stallions and skew sex ratios which will destroy natural wild horse behaviors and social organization of the Clan Alpine herd.
Bait and water trapping, which is less tramatic than the use of helicopters, is the preferred method to remove horses if necessary and to administer PZP birth control (if remote darting is not possible). However, the proposed removal of 20-30 horses annually to achieve AML is fiscally unsustainable costing $1 million to $1.5 million based on the BLM estimate to care for the removed horses in government holding facilities. The plan is a double whammy for U.S. taxpayers. First we pay for the removal and warehousing of wild horses so that ranchers can turn out more livestock on the public lands. They we pay to subsidize the below-market fees the ranchers pay to graze livestock on the public lands.
Aside from the unsustainable financial aspect of removing horses from the range, it is forever traumatic for each horse who will be robbed of his/her freedom and family. There is a better way … and we must demand that the BLM take it.
Update:The Bureau of Land Management responded to public outcry on Wednesday, saying that the department has no current plans to kill the horses and will continue caring for any horses that are not sold at auction. The department has not yet formally replied to the advisory board’s proposal, but will do so at its next meeting, Reuters reported.
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Please take the time to make your voice heard and stop this tragic decision. The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign has information to contact your Senators and Representatives.
On September 9, the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board voted to recommend the killing of as many as 45,000 captured wild horses and burros in government holding pens as an “emergency” measure. The agency wants to clear the holding pens so that it can round up 40,000 more wild horses and burros from their homes on the range.
The danger is imminent, but can only become reality if Congress and the Administration authorize this mass killing.
Take a Stand Today! Tell Congress and the Administration NO killing or sterilization of America’s mustangs and burros.
Our innocent and iconic wild horses and burros should not pay the ultimate price for the BLM’s continued mismanagement. Please send your emails today!
This is a cross post from the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign.
At their meeting in Elko, Nevada Thursday and Friday, the Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board discussed what to do with nearly 45,000 wild horses they consider unadoptable.
The board’s recommendation: Euthanasia.
The Elko Daily reported that the board recommended the Bureau of Land Management follow the stipulations of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act “by offering all suitable animals in long and short term holding deemed unadoptable for sale without limitation or humane euthanasia. Those animals deemed unsuitable for sale should then be destroyed in the most humane manner possible.”
The only member voting “NO” on the Advisory Board was Ginger Kathrens of the Cloud Foundation.
They also discussed putting more pressure on the government for additional funds to do more “gathers” in order to control the population.
Ben Masters, 27, recommended an ultimate goal of using birth control methods to control the population. According to the Elko Daily, “a representative of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign said the BLM is not using the contraceptive porcine zona pellucida in a way that is managing the population. Sterilization was also called invasive and barbaric and the board was asked to abandon it in favor of funding acceptable forms of contraception.”
The advisory board also recommended a focus “on the prioritization of the sage grouse habitat when removing excess animals.” Board member Ginger Kathrens abstained on that one.
The Humane Society condemned the board’s recommendation to kill the 45,000 wild horses, saying they would not be in this position if they had been more responsible in using fertility control in the first place:
“The decision of the BLM advisory board to recommend the destruction of the 45,000 wild horses currently in holding facilities is a complete abdication of responsibility for their care. The agency would not be in this situation but for their long-term mis-management. Alternatives to this proposal have been ignored for over 20 years. The HSUS stands ready to implement these alternatives at any time.”
Over the past 20 years, the BLM has maintained round-up and removal as a primary management strategy for wild horse and burro populations on America’s western rangelands – an effort which has led to a financially unsustainable Wild Horse and Burro Program. By focusing massive efforts on removing horses and burros from the range, without treating those horses remaining on the range with any form of fertility control to limit population growth, holding facilities throughout the United States have become overburdened.
In fiscal year 2015, BLM spent $49 million maintaining these horses in off-range facilities, which constituted 46 percent of the entire budget of the agency’s wild horse and burro program. Such a large expenditure has limited the agency’s ability to properly manage wild horses on the range. The HSUS has long recommended the humane and sustainable option of implementing fertility control programs throughout the West.
After days of driving very slowly on solid ice and snow, we arrived safely after delivering the horses to their new homes. Matt and I have never seen so many wrecks. It was truly terrifying with our precious cargo on board. But our prayers were answered and we had Angels all around us.
These neighbors and the horses they love need our help today! Please weigh in against a devastating massive roundup and ask BLM to work with the local community to implement a birth control program for humane, in-the-wild management of the Pine Nut wild horses.
The Virginia Range horse herd, managed by the Nevada Department of Agriculture, is believed to be the largest publicly owned horse herd currently remaining in the US. The horses are managed through the cooperative efforts of the department and various qualified non-profit horse groups. While the emphasis of this management is passive population control (fertility control,) horses do occasionally spread out into the outskirts of urban areas and onto busy highways. Those that present a clear and continuing danger to motorists, and that return to busy areas after relocation attempts, do have to be removed.
