The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has proposed a plan to remove nearly 600 wild horses from the HMA, a move that would drastically reduce the population to the lowest Appropriate Management Level (AML) of just 205 horses on nearly 400,000 acres of land. This unscientific population limit was set in 1997 and has remained unchanged ever since.
The current proposal has no plans to humanely manage the White Mountain wild horses with fertility control, setting the stage for yet another mass roundup in a few years. What’s worse, the BLM is basing the removal number on a 2022 census, conducted before the extremely harsh winter of 2023 which caused heavy mortality for wildlife, including wild horses, across Wyoming. Instead, the BLM is claiming that while the winter severely affected other wildlife species, it did not result in significant mortality in the White Mountain herd.
That’s why AWHC is speaking out against this proposal through our public comments. Before the BLM undergoes any roundup, it must complete an updated scientific population estimate to have an accurate population count as well as undergo a full Environmental Assessment to ensure a thriving natural ecological balance. Further, it must consider the use of humane, reversible fertility control in any further management planning.
On Monday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved a land use plan amendment to eliminate 2.1 million acres of wild horse habitat in Wyoming and slash the allowed population of wild horses in the state by one-third.
Two days later, AWHC and our coalition of conservation and animal welfare groups, academics, and wildlife photographers filed suit in federal court to stop the plan. The stakes are very high: two iconic wild horse populations in the Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin Herd Management Areas (HMA) would be completelyeradicated, and a third population in the Adobe Town HMA would be slashed in half.
If allowed to stand, this plan will take away 43% of wild horse habitat in Wyoming and deprive thousands of wild horses of their legal right to roam free on our public lands. These magnificent animals will be cruelly rounded up and confined in holding pens, some for life. Far too many will be sold into the slaughter pipeline.
This is the end of a more than decade-long battle over the future of these wild horses in an area of the Red Desert known as the Wyoming Checkerboard. It’s an area of alternating public and private land parcels one square mile in size. The Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) controls the private land in the Checkerboard, and its members graze cattle and sheep on the public lands there. In 2011, the RSGA sued the BLM to force the elimination of wild horses from this area.
Now, 13 years later, the BLM is giving the RSGA what it wants. And the agency is asking American taxpayers to pay for it! Millions of our tax dollars will be spent to clear the public lands of wild horses for commercial livestock grazing, an activity taxpayers also subsidize.
Not on our watch. As our lawsuit clearly lays out, this government-funded land grab by private grazing interests violates three federal laws. Among them: the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which mandates protection of wild horses, while livestock grazing on public lands is a discretionary activity.
For more than a decade, AWHC has been litigating against the RSGA and the BLM to hold off what would be the largest-ever eradication of federally-protected wild horses and their habitat. In this time, we:
Stopped the BLM from surgically sterilizing mares in this area.
Won lawsuits stopping the BLM from treating the public lands as private.
Defeated rancher claims that the BLM must round up horses immediately when their populations exceed management level.
Blocked the BLM from rounding up more horses than legally allowed by omitting foals from removal totals.
Now the legal battle has reached its final stage, and we’re leveraging everything we’ve got.
This is not a battle about management. There’s a better way to manage wild horses with fertility control instead of roundups. Wild horses can be managed on Checkerboard lands through landswaps that create continguos blocks of public land for habitat.
This fight is about challenging the government’s elevation of private special interests above the public interest and the law.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 — the foundational law passed unanimously by Congress to protect wild horses and burros from slaughter, harassment, or capture on the public lands they call home.
But the promise of this law that conveyed on our magnificent wild horses and burros the very same level of protection as the American bald eagle remains unfulfilled.
As I write this, over 3,100 newly-captured wild horses are standing in holding pens after being rounded up from lands across the Wyoming Checkerboard — as part of the largest roundup in U.S. history. When it’s over in February of next year, half of Wyoming’s wild horses will be gone from our public lands — forever.
That’s why, in the lead-up to the 50th anniversary of what should be a celebration of historic and lifesaving protections for our cherished wild horses and burros — we are still fighting for their future. This week, our team joined with our friends at the Animal Welfare Institute and other wild horse advocates at the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. to rally and present the signatures of 70,000 Americans who oppose the devastating Wyoming roundup.
Advocacy efforts like these are so critical in our fight to protect America’s wild horses and burros. When we come together and make our voices heard — our federal officials listen. With your help, we’re sending the message loud and clear that American taxpayers want their dollars to go toward humanely protecting our iconic wild mustangs and burros — not brutally rounding them up, separating them from their families, and robbing them of their freedom.
Your voices propelled our Government Relations team to success in securing House and Senate legislation redirecting $11 million in funding in the Fiscal Year 2022 Appropriations bill away from cruel roundups toward humane in-the-wild management of wild horses and burros.
Important advancements like these are only possible thanks to the support of donors like you.
The fight to protect these cherished icons never stops — so long as the helicopters continue to fly, our fight to end these cruel tactics will continue. We’re thankful that dedicated supporters like you are in this fight with us.
Thank you for your continued support,
Suzanne Roy Executive Director
American Wild Horse Campaign
The largest roundup in history has officially begun. The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) helicopters have descended on five Herd Management Areas (HMAs) in the Wyoming Checkerboard, and are targeting 4,000 wild horses for capture.
The roundup is SO massive that it is scheduled to continue through February of 2022. Approximately 3,555 wild horses will be permanently removed from 3.4 million acres of land. Given the mortality rate associated with roundups, at least 50 horses are expected to die as a result of the months-long helicopter stampede.
The survivors — wild animals who roam 10-20 miles a day — will be confined in feedlot pens that provide just 700 square feet of space per horse. Many will be adopted through the BLM’s cash incentive program that’s sending “truckloads” of wild horses into the slaughter pipeline, according to the New York Times. The “lucky ones” who escape this grim fate will never experience freedom or family again.
All for what? Livestock special interests have lobbied for decades for the removal of these wild horses so that their cattle can graze on our public lands. Now, the lives of thousands of Wyoming’s wild horses hang in the balance as the BLM begins this devastating roundup that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
We’re fighting back against the BLM’s efforts. That’s why we just launched our campaign, Keep WY Wyld. Earlier this week, we started a national petition in partnership with the Animal Welfare Institute to demand a halt to these roundups. Now, we’re announcing the next steps of our campaign >>
This roundup is just a precursor to the pending BLM plan to eradicate horses entirely from most of the HMAs in this area. If successful, this action would result in the loss of 52% of the state’s wild horse habitat.
We refuse to allow that to happen. So we’re using every resource at our disposal to fight for the rights of Wyoming’s wild horses. The livestock industry is well-funded and we expect them to fight back.
This past weekend, AWHC launched a major initiative, #KeepWyWyld, as part of our national effort to prevent the Bureau of Land Management from moving forward with a plan known as The Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout.
If it moves forward, irreversible damage will be done to Wyoming’s cherished wild horses and half of the state’s wild horse habitat will be gone for good.
That’s why I’m reaching out to you now. Since launching this initiative just last week, the outpouring of support has been incredible. In fact, it’s exceeding all of our expectations.
But if we’re going to succeed and save these horses, then we all need to do our part and we don’t have much time. Which is why we’ve outlined five ways you can get involved and provided an update on how we’re tracking toward our goals ahead of the April 30 deadline for public comments.
Here Are 5 Ways You Can #KeepWyomingWyld This Weekend
April 30 is the deadline to submit public comments in opposition to the Bureau of Land Management’s Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout proposal, which would result in more than 3,000 wild horses being rounded up and permanently removed from public lands.
That gives us less than ONE week to PROVE to the BLM that the American people oppose this devastating mustang eradication plan.
Wyoming’s tourism slogan is “Don’t Fence Me In,” and the state’s iconic wild horses symbolize that sentiment. In fact, the Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Loop in the Checkerboard is promoted by the state’s tourism boards as “something you and your family will never forget because Sweetwater County’s cherished wild horses are living examples of a wide-open landscape and untamed frontier spirit.”
Incredibly, the BLM’s plan would eradicate every single wild horse from the viewing loop, fencing these symbols of the wide open West in dismal feedlots!
Write to Wyoming’s tourism boards here and ask them to join our efforts to prevent the destruction of the iconic Wyoming Checkerboard mustangs.
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon has the power to oppose and potentially change the course of the Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout. In fact, his state is looking to purchase a large chunk of these lands from Occidental Petroleum and could designate the area as a recreational resource in which wild horses are protected.
Take part in AWHC’s national petition drive to demonstrate the immense public pressure in opposition to the eradication of Wyoming’s wild horses.
If we’re going to save these horses, then we need to get everyone involved, including our friends, family, and coworkers.
So many people who love wild horses aren’t aware of what’s at stake in Wyoming — And just a couple minutes of their time can make a difference.
Add a frame to your Facebook profile picture in support of Wyoming’s wild horses here
Change your Facebook cover photo and upload Instagram stories in support of the horses here
Start a Tweet storm and get people talking on Twitter about this issue here
Our legal team has been heavily involved in fighting back against attempts by the BLM and the livestock industry to round up tens of thousands of wild horses, permanently remove them from public lands, and perform dangerous sterilization surgeries on mares. We’ve been fighting the attempt to eradicate the Wyoming Checkerboard horses since 2011.
Not only have we achieved a number of important legal protections but also our legal team has scored victories in fourteen separate lawsuits filed over the last nine years!
