Wild Mustang/Burro Campaigns

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: Our team at American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) works day in and day out to uncover the truth about the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) wild horse and burro removal and stockpile program.  Recently, our representatives attended the Winnemucca Holding Facility in Nevada where over 2,000 wild horses are confined in holding. There, they witnessed disturbing conditions, including a notable lack of shelter and windbreaks, leaving the animals exposed to weather.  They also noted that the pens appeared too small to accommodate the number of horses they held, leading to overcrowding and competition for resources, especially water. But most shocking of all, while touring the facility our representative saw what appeared to be a severely injured, possibly dead, or dying foal lying amongst the other animals in the pen.  This is the dark reality of what awaits America’s wild horses and burros post-roundup. But sadly, this is not an isolated incident.  BLM records obtained by our Investigations Team through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that 23 horses were euthanized or died at this same facility within a 24-day window in 2023.All deaths were attributed to suspected botulism poisoning. Additionally, just last month our Investigations Team also exposed that 9% of the captured horse population died at another Nevada holding corral in Fallon, Nev.  With 64,000 of these iconic animals in BLM holding facilities across the country, exposing these conditions is vital to our mission to secure protections for wild horses and burros on and off the range.  We are determined to end this suffering, but we need supporters like you to help us move forward. If you can, please chip in to support our investigations work so we can continue to raise awareness about the unacceptable conditions of BLM holding facilities. Thank you, American Wild Horse Conservation ...

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: This week’s edition of e-news is packed with exciting updates, concerning developments, and insightful perspectives on our mission to protect America's wild horses and burros. Good News: AWHC Renews Cooperative Agreement to Continue Groundbreaking Humane Mgt Program Last month, AWHC and the Nevada Department of Agriculture signed a non-exclusive agreement to implement a humane fertility control program for the Virginia Range free-roaming horse population for the sixth year in a row. This program is the world’s largest of its kind and was the basis of a recent, peer-reviewed scientific study, affirming the viability of large-scale fertility control programs. Read the announcement. Read More AWHC in the News: New report finds success in wild horse adoption program, critics disagree The Reno Gazette Journal recently interviewed AWHC team member, Amelia Perrin, about a new report that endorses the Bureau of Land Management’s Adoption Incentive Program. AWHC blasted the report and its recommendation to increase the cash incentives that are sending droves of wild horses into the slaughter pipeline, stating it was just an “endorsement of the expansion of a fundamentally broken management system.” Read the article for more. Read More Opinion: Wild horse roundups are cruel and deadly. And the deaths don't stop when helicopters land In a recent opinion piece, AWHC’s Nevada state director, Tracy Wilson, criticizes the Bureau of Land Management's wild horse roundups as cruel and deadly. The article emphasizes the high mortality rates at holding facilities, such as the Fallon Off-Range Corral, where nearly 9% of horses died within a year, and offers humane solutions that would keep wild horses in the wild, where they belong. Read the full piece. Read the Article ...

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: You may have seen that, this week, the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) released a report praising the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) controversial Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), which pays individuals $1,000 per animal to adopt up to four wild horses and burros a year. Unfortunately, this report not only ignores the consequences of the AIP, but it calls for increasing the cash incentive payments that are sending thousands of wild horses and burros into the slaughter pipeline. Further, this report supports the status quo of roundups and removals and minimizes the importance of scientific, affordable, and publicly acceptable wild horse conservation solutions. We know the AIP has been a disaster and using this report to justify the continuation of the program would mean more beloved wild horses and burros in the slaughter pipeline. Will you take a moment to protect wild horses and burros from slaughter by calling on the BLM to abandon the cash incentives, not increase them? TAKE ACTION Since 2020, the BLM has rounded up over 50,000 wild horses and burros and adopted out a mere 15,000 through the AIP. During the same timeframe, our Investigations Team has identified over 2,100 BLM-branded wild horses and burros in kill pens. This is just a fraction of the true total since most kill pens don’t publicly advertise these animals before shipping them to slaughter. Cash incentives are not a solution for addressing the animal welfare crisis created by the BLM's roundup and removal program. It's indisputable that the continuation of the cash incentives is placing the 64,000 wild horses and burros in the BLM's holding system at risk of slaughter. We MUST speak up on behalf of these animals and stop this slaughter pipeline! Please join us in urging the BLM to end the cash incentives for the AIP. TAKE ACTION Our investigation – which resulted in a 2021 groundbreaking front-page exposé in the New York Times – identified over a dozen groups of related individuals that have been defrauding taxpayers out of thousands of dollars by adopting multiple rounds of AIP animals and then sending them to kill pens once the cash incentives clear their bank accounts. In some cases, these nefarious adopters go back just days after being awarded title to adopt their next round of animals. Unfortunately, this crisis has only gotten worse since our investigation began, as the BLM continues to round up more and more mustangs and burros every year. In fact, the influx of AIP wild horses and burros into slaughter auctions has ...

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The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: Wild burros are faced with significant threats to their freedom and safety as a result of misguided federal policy that prioritizes cruel roundups instead of humane in-the-wild management. We focus much of our efforts on fighting for wild horses, and we are just as staunch in our commitment to advocating for our beloved burros! And what better time to double down on our burro advocacy than during Burro Awareness Month? GIVE TO HELP US ADVOCATE FOR BURROS One of the most important ways we’re fighting back for burros is on Capitol Hill. We’re advocating for several important bills that would reform the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) cruel and costly Wild Horse and Burro Program, like the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2023-2024 introduced by Representative Dina Titus (D-NV)). This important piece of legislation would ban the use of helicopters in federal wild horse and burro roundups. Thanks to our advocacy efforts, over 20,000 individuals have written to their Members of Congress asking them to cosponsor the bill. We’re also advocating for the passage of the Ejiao Act, a bill that would prohibit the transportation, sale, and purchase of donkeys or donkey hides for the purpose of producing ejiao – a gelatin made from boiling donkey skins. Experts estimate that the global demand for donkey skins is approximately 4.8 million hides per year. As a result, the donkey skin trade is decimating global donkey populations. Passing this legislation could help save untold numbers of donkeys and burros from slaughter for their skins. Our advocacy work has generated over 50,000 letters sent in support of the Ejiao Act! AWHC is leading the charge and thanks to our herd of advocates, Congress is hearing our collective calls for the humane conservation of America’s wild horses and burros! POWER OUR ADVOCACY WORK FOR BURROS Beyond our legislative efforts, we're also defending burros in court, particularly against the BLM's disastrous Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), which has resulted in droves of wild burros being funneled into the slaughter pipeline in recent years. The AIP was meant to increase the number of untrained wild horses and burros adopted out by offering financial incentives to adopters. However, less than two years after the program began, AWHC began receiving reports from rescue groups about an influx of BLM-branded wild horses and burros to known kill pens. Our team ...

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign: Wild burros are amazing animals who play important roles in the desert ecosystems they inhabit. However, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) entire approach to managing wild burros is colored by the belief that they are invasive and therefore destructive. This unscientific bias obscures the environmental benefits of wild burros and drives the BLM’s policy of maintaining unnaturally low population levels through large-scale roundups and removals from the range. Science, however, is painting a different picture of wild burros as ecosystem engineers contributing to the biodiversity of plant and animal life. Our team recently spoke with leading burro researcher and internationally recognized ecologist Erick Lundgren to discuss the findings from his studies of wild burros in the American Southwest. Click here to watch this fascinating interview with Dr. Lundgren! WATCH We must protect wild burros with humane conservation solutions, not cruel helicopter roundups. Sadly, over 1,000 of these amazing animals are scheduled to be removed from their homes on the range in BLM roundups over the next five months. We know there's a better way. That’s why we must continue to raise awareness about the plight of wild burros and the science that shows their benefits to their ecosystems. To learn more, watch this insightful interview with Dr. Lundgren! WATCH Thank you, Team AWHC ...