Wild Mustang/Burro Campaigns

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: This past December, Congress authorized a 25% budgetary increase for the Bureau of Land Management’s badly broken Wild Horse and Burro program. Now the Administration is asking Congress to approve an additional 15% budget increase for the program two months later, as the BLM prepares to massively accelerate the roundup and removal of tens of thousands of wild horses. What’s At Stake As many of you know, the Acting Director of the BLM referred to wild horses and burros as an “existential threat” to public lands and is planning to use the Bureau’s funds to round up wild horses and burros in unprecedented numbers, with as many as 20,000 at risk of being removed this year alone. We cannot stress this enough: We are talking about the greatest threat to wild horses in decades. It is critical to remember that the BLM is not considering reducing the number of privately owned livestock in these areas. This despite the fact that these animals vastly outnumber horses and burros on public land and cost taxpayers as much as $500 million in subsidies for the below market grazing fees that public lands ranchers pay. For reference, there are anywhere from 700,000 to 1,000,000 cow/calf pairs on public lands compared to the 88,000 federally-protected wild horses and burros (who share this land with the livestock). Make no mistake about it, this isn’t a coincidence either -- It’s the result of intense lobbying on behalf of the livestock industry. Bad Policy And A Broken Program The BLM continues to impose extreme limits on wild horse population numbers on public lands throughout the West that have no basis in science and their method of calculating these limits is not transparent to the public nor wildlife researchers and experts. Additionally, the BLM is also championing the use of inhumane and ineffective population growth suppression methods that focus on the castration of wild stallions and the risky, cruel, and invasive surgical practice known as ovariectomy, whereby a mare’s ovaries are manually severed and removed in an invasive and outdated surgical procedure. The National Academy of Sciences warned against BLM’s use of ovariectomies on wild mares due to risk of hemorrhage and infection. Castrating stallions would cause loss of testosterone which drives the natural behaviors necessary to maintain social organization and survive in the wild. BLM is not only charging ahead with surgical sterilization, but the budget indicates that the agency ...
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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: News & Alerts The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is preparing to move forward with a ten-year plan to reduce the wild horse population in the Swasey Herd Management Area (HMA) in Utah to just 60 horses. In order to achieve this, the BLM would authorize mass roundups in the area and greenlight dangerous chemical and surgical sterilization procedures on mares who call these public lands home. One of these methods has been deemed to be dangerous and “inadvisable” for use in wild horses by the National Academy of Sciences, and other methods haven’t even been developed yet…. let alone safety-tested. The BLM wants to reduce the Swasey mustang population to 60 horses on this 190-square-mile HMA to make room for the more than 7,000 privately-owned, taxpayer-subsidized sheep that annually graze the public lands there. The truth is: there is more than enough room for wild horses on public lands. But those facts don’t fit the narrative being promoted by the BLM and the livestock industry. Please take one minute to take action against this dangerous plan. Stand with Utah’s wild horses today! Thank you for getting involved, American Wild Horse Campaign Donate ...
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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: It’s been a busy past couple of weeks here at AWHC. We’ve had some heartwarming developments and some developments that broke our hearts -- Like the ongoing roundup occurring in Nevada’s Eagle Complex. As we write this, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is conducting a huge roundup of wild horses in and around the Eagle Complex in Nevada. This Complex, which spans the Nevada-Utah border, includes the Chokecherry, Eagle, and Mt. Elinor Herd Management Areas (HMAs). Just over 2,000 wild horses call this 750,000 acre -- or 1200-square-mile public lands area -- home, but the BLM wants to reduce their populations by 80%. When the helicopters leave, just over 400 horses, or one horse per 1,900 acres, will be left! AWHC’s observer is in the field documenting the roundup in which 1,156 wild horses have so far lost their freedom, with 13 confirmed fatalities. Last month, AWHC sent a legal letter to the BLM asking for them to postpone this roundup, citing a violation of the public’s First Amendment rights. The BLM failed to list this operation on their public schedule and only provided three days’ notice of its start date -- A major shift in the agency’s own practices and one that makes it even more difficult to get observers onsite to document these capture operations. The BLM did not reply to our letter, but they did delay the start of the roundup by 3 days. You can read our daily reports from the roundup here. Earlier this week, AWHC began a petition drive to this Administration and the Department of the Interior to call on them to reverse the disastrous decision to round up over one-third of the wild horses in Wyoming. To put things into perspective, the Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout would eliminate federally protected wild horses from an expanse of land roughly the size of the State of Connecticut (the area in question is 2,000,000 acres!). Nearly 4,000 wild horses could be round up, including the wild horses who live along the Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Viewing Loop, a significant tourist attraction (and more importantly, historic home for these iconic horses). Since launching our petition, more than 20,000 of you have signed on to our national call to action to reverse the Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout. Help us get to 25,000 signatures before the weekend is over by signing here. And if you would like to learn ...
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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: News & Alerts The Bureau of Land Management just unveiled a plan that would decimate Wyoming’s wild horse population, reducing the population there by more than one-third. The Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout would ERADICATE wild horses from the Salt Wells, Great Divide and White Mountain Herd Management Areas (HMAs) along the famed Wild Horse Scenic Loop. Additionally, the population in the remaining Adobe Town HMA would be slashed significantly. It’s hard to overstate the irreversible damage this plan will inflict. By the numbers: 3,000+ -- The number of wild horses the BLM will permanently remove from the state, 38% -- The percentage of the state’s entire wild horse and burro population that would be removed under this plan, 2,500,000 -- The number of acres that will be eliminated as wild horse habitat, meaning wild horses will be eradicated from this wide expanse of public land, 0 -- The number of wild horses that will remain in the Great Divide Basin, White Mountain and Salt Wells Creek HMAs. The Checkerboard wild horse population has long been a target of the powerful Rock Springs Grazing Association, whose members profit from steep taxpayer subsidies to support their privately owned cattle and sheep herds on public lands, including in these HMAs. We cannot allow the BLM to sell out the interests of the American people and our country’s federally protected wild horses and burros to elevate the private profits of the livestock industry. We set a goal of reaching 10,000 signatures before the end of the day: Join AWHC in calling on the BLM and this Administration to reverse this plan that could result in the removal of more than one-third of Wyoming’s wild horses. AWHC has been involved in litigation to defend Wyoming’s wild horses since 2011. We’ve achieved a number of victories in the courts, including at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. You can learn more about the Wyoming Wild Horse Wipeout and the areas affected here. We will continue to do all we can to protect Wyoming’s cherished icons. Thank you for getting involved, American Wild Horse Campaign Donate ...
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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: News & Alerts Over the holidays, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) removed four families of wild horses from Fish Springs in Nevada's Carson Valley, including the famed stallion Samson. Hundreds of thousands of you reached out and got involved in the fight to keep Samson and the captured Fish Springs horses together with the hope of returning them to the wild. While the BLM did not agree to return them to the wild, we are pleased to report that, after a coordinated and dedicated effort between a half dozen organizations working together, we were successful in keeping these cherished wild horse families intact. During the online BLM auction for the captive Fish Springs horses, AWHC coordinated with Montgomery Creek Ranch and Freedom Reigns Equine Sanctuary to secure ten wild horses from two bands led by the stallions Rocky and Rusty. Happily, these two families -- which include three generations in Rocky’s band: 19-year-old Copper, Copper’s daughter Luna and Luna’s baby Jimmy -- will now run together at Freedom Reigns' beautiful, 3,800-acre sanctuary in California. At the same time, Skydog Sanctuary successfully bid on Samson’s band -- which includes four generations of horses: Old Momma, a 26-year old veteran mare, her daughter Apple, Apple's daughter Dumplin' and her colt Sam -- and will provide them lifetime refuge at its beautiful 8,000-acre sanctuary in Oregon. A local family stepped up to accept the remaining horses. The Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates are pitching in to fund the transport of the horses to the sanctuaries as well as the gentling of the horses headed for the private ranch. Meanwhile, the work continues to keep the remaining Fish Springs horses -- and all of America’s wild horses throughout the West -- wild in their habitat on our public lands. We couldn't have done this without you, American Wild Horse Campaign Donate ...
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