Wild Mustang/Burro Campaigns

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: Our work here at American Wild Horse Conservation never stops. With 2025 just around the corner, we’re already laying the groundwork for continuing our fight for the freedom of our wild herds next year. HELP US PREPARE FOR 2025 >> With the new year comes a new administration and a new Congress. Changes in leadership can present fresh opportunities to advance the cause of wild horse conservation, but it can also bring new risks, such as reopening the door to increased roundups and slaughter of these cherished animals. In order to ensure that the progress we’ve made for wild horses and burros continues next year, we’re focusing on four key areas of our work:

1. Growing and Mobilizing Grassroots Support: Expanding our public awareness campaigns and grassroots activities is critical in order to translate the broad bipartisan public support for wild horse protection into stronger bipartisan legislative protections. We must be ready to quickly rally public opposition against any potential slaughter proposals that resurface. In 2016, we successfully mobilized our grassroots coalition to prevent the White House's attempt to lift the slaughter ban on wild horses. Due to public pressure, the Senate ultimately blocked the measure. With the growing number of horses in holding, the threat of slaughter persists, and we must be prepared to act again as the last line of defense for our wild herds.
2. Expanding our legal fund: Expanding our litigation capacity and our legal fund will be critical to continuing to defend the laws that protect wild horses and burros. Our legal team has been at the forefront of numerous court battles to defend wild equines from roundups across the country. In Wyoming, we’ve been fighting in federal court for over a decade to prevent the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from eliminating 2.1 million acres of federally designated habitat for wild horses and slashing the state’s wild horse population by one-third.
3. Expanding Legal and Humane Management Models: From our groundbreaking Land Conservancy Project to our in-the-wild fertility control programs, AWHC will continue to build solutions that serve as national models for humane conservation of our nation’s wild herds. Through the success of these programs, AWHC is working to chip away at the false narrative that wild horses are invasive or ecologically harmful.

We have a lot in store for us in 2025. Grassroots supporters like you are the foundation of the ...

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: Urgent Action Needed: Roundups Hidden From Sight This is Amelia Perrin with American Wild Horse Conservation. I'm reaching out because we need your help. Thanks to your past contributions, we've been able to document federal wild horse roundups, ensuring greater public visibility and enabling legislators and advocates to take action. Your support has played a vital role in shining a light on these operations. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced plans to capture more than 10,000 wild horses this year — but from what we've observed so far, the federal government is shielding much of this action from public view. Take Action The ongoing federal roundup conducted by the United States Forest Service in Devils Garden Wild Horse Territory in California is a prime example of this. Here are a few recently documented observations from our on-the-ground volunteers:

• - October 29: The trap site (place set up to capture wild horses) was hidden under thick tree cover, making it impossible for the public to observe.
• - November 1: No public access to view the trap site or the horses being loaded up and transported out of their habitat in the public land area.
• - November 6: Observers were placed behind the loading area, with a hill blocking crucial sightlines to the trap site and other roundup action.

Helicopter roundups are taking place in our public lands, and yet public access is being blocked. When the lives of federally protected wild horses are at stake, transparency cannot be an afterthought. Take Action We're calling on the BLM to put cameras on helicopters and wranglers, ensuring the whole operation is visible. When these roundups go dark, it's more than a lack of transparency — it's a breach of public trust. The stakes are high: to ensure wild horses are treated humanely, we need roundups that are transparent to the public eye. Click "Take Action" to take action today, to support our work and make sure we all have eyes on these operations. Together in pursuit of keeping wild horses wild, Amelia Perrin American Wild Horse Conservation ...

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: Our most important fundraising day of the year is just three weeks away. This year, Giving Tuesday is December 3. We’ve challenged our team to raise $50,000 by November 21 to kick off a successful season of giving and inspire generous, essential donor matches that will help us achieve our advocacy goals for 2025. Can you chip in today to help us set the stage for Giving Tuesday and power our work to protect wild horses and burros? GIVE NOW There’s a lot at stake. As we look ahead at a new fiscal year with a new administration and Congress directing federal agencies, our efforts are more important than ever. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse and burro roundup and stockpile system is near its breaking point with over 66,000 animals currently languishing in federal holding facilities. In fact, as we write this, two devastating federal helicopter roundups are underway in Nevada and California targeting nearly 3,000 wild horses. Chased by helicopters over rugged terrain, these horses will endure high-stress conditions, risking injury, exhaustion, and separation from their families. Ten horses have already died.  Yet these disturbing realities do not change the BLM’s plans to round up thousands more horses and burros in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025.  Every day, our team continues to expose federal cruelties and hold the BLM accountable. Will you help power our fight to keep wild horses and burros wild? GIVE NOW Thank you, American Wild Horse Conservation ...

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: Over 7,500 wild horses from Nevada’s Antelope and Triple B Complexes need your help! Right now, the Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments on a Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) for these two complexes and the wild horses who call this area home. As part of this, the BLM wants to reduce the number of horses to the unscientific Appropriate Management Level (AML) of 899-1,678 animals across the complexes. But at the same time, the BLM allows significant livestock grazing year-round on the public lands in these complexes. TAKE ACTION These horses are an important part of Nevada’s desert landscape, especially the Antelope wild horses who possess unique genetic traits. It’s essential to conserve these iconic animals on our public lands. Speak up now for Nevada’s wild horses! When evaluating this HMAP the BLM Must:

• Reevaluate the land conditions, including the impact of livestock on the range, before any removal decision is made.
• Include new conservation methods that transparently address primary degradation factors, and promote balanced ecosystems and sustainable land use across public rangelands.
• Prioritize fertility control over roundups, aligning with legal directives, science-based strategies, and fiscal responsibility for effective wild horse management.
• Abandon the use of gelding as a population management strategy.
• Prioritize bait trap removals over cruel, costly helicopter roundups if roundups are necessary.
• Undergo updated genetic testing to ensure genetic viability for all herds who call these complexes home.

TAKE ACTION Submitting public comments is one of our more influential ways to shape policy, ensure government transparency, prevent decisions that favor private industry interests, and show public support for humane conservation for our beloved wild horses and burros. Take action now to speak up for these beloved wild horse herds! Thank you for your advocacy for our wild ones, Team AWHC ...

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: Fifty-two years ago, with the passage of the historic Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, Congress made a promise to the wild horses and burros who roam the West: the right to live free on the lands they call home, protected from capture, branding, harassment, and death. Sadly, five decades later, it is abundantly clear that the federal government has failed to live up to this promise. Right now, the federal agency tasked with managing wild horses and burros, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), spends millions of your hard-earned tax dollars to brutally round up thousands of mustangs and burros using helicopters. These roundups are inhumane and often cause injuries such as broken legs or necks, and in the worst cases, deaths. Those who survive are pushed into overburdened holding facilities where over 66,000 of these iconic animals are currently languishing in captivity. We know it doesn’t have to be this way. That’s why American Wild Horse Conservation, the nation’s leading wild horse and burro conservation organization, exists. Our mission is to uphold the promise we made to our wild herds in 1971, and thanks to the support of a growing herd of advocates, we’ve made vital strides toward our goal. POWER OUR WORK In the field, we’re setting the standard for wild horse and burro conservation. In 2023, we acquired over 3,300 acres of prime habitat in Nevada’s beautiful Carson Valley to launch our Land Conservancy Project. This pilot program is dedicated to preserving critical habitat for mustangs and burros while advancing land conservation initiatives for wild horse areas. This year, we’ve built on these efforts by securing vital water and grazing rights, enhancing water sources, and helping to restore fire-impacted areas.  This year also marked the five year anniversary of our historic humane fertility control program on Nevada’s Virginia Range. This scientifically proven conservation approach is key to our efforts in keeping wild horses free on the range while responsibly managing herd numbers. That’s why we were proud to see reversible fertility control programs succeeding in other herds this year, such as the locally managed Pine Nut Mountains program in Northern Nevada, as well as Utah’s Cedar Mountains where AWHC administered fertility control to wild mares in a remote population who were previously considered untreatable. SUPPORT OUR CONSERVATION EFFORTS In addition to our work in the field, this year ...