The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) winter roundup season lasted approximately four months. It resulted in the deaths of 71 innocent wild horses with a removal total of over 7,000 wild horses and burros from public lands allocated to them by law. This total included 1,000 foals.

Wild horse advocacy groups which monitor and document the roundups noted the capture of Thora, a beautiful 6 month old filly from the McCullough Peaks Herd Management Area in Wyoming.

Thora, with companions known as Tabasco, Trinity, and Juniper, was separated from her mother. In spite of a tremendous public outcry, the BLM carried on with the controversial roundup.

Prior to Thora’s capture, the brutal roundup schedule led to the death of a filly named Kat Ballou. She had suffered a fatal head injury after being separated from her mother and then left unattended in the capture pen.

Kat Balloou, Thora and others are just a few of the thousands of vulnerable foals who have been removed from the wild and left injured, frightened and often without any of their family band in often overly crowded holding facilities.

At times, there are only 1, 2 or 3 observers present at roundups to document the facts of these roundups. During the East Pershing complex roundup, AWHC observers documented the capture of 365 foals as well as the dangerous conditions they encountered. The physical toll on the horses, including injuries and deaths that could have been prevented, were clearly revealed in their findings.

For example, one of the preventable deaths included a foal who suffered a dislocated knee during the roundup. After being injured, the little foal was hidden from public view and euthanized.

Last month, Congress approved a 4% cut to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Wild Horse and Burro Program.

The Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) funding package approved by Congress includes:

• $141,972,000 to operate the Wild Horse and Burro Program;
• A continued prohibition against the BLM and U.S. Forest Service destroying healthy wild horses or burros or their sale to slaughter; and
• Wording which keeps in place a ban on horse slaughter in the United States (which means a total ban at the federal level is still needed to stop horses from shipping to slaughter outside of the U.S.).

Over 64,000 wild horses and burros are kept in overcrowded government pens or on leased pastures at a cost of over $109 million each year.

In spite of on-the-range management strategies, proven to be successful, the BLM intends to remove over 11,100 wild horses and burros from the range between now and September.

The number of horses to be provided with fertility control is just over 200 at this time.; even though multiple herds have been successfully managed for years and able to remain free on taxpayer funded public lands allocated to them by law with its use.

In January, the brutal shooting and killing of a wild horse from the Big Summit Wild HorseTerritory in the Ochoco National Forest was reported. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the horse was shot twice in his abdomen.

Since 2022, at least 59 wild horses and burros have tragically and violently lost their lives by humans who have shot them.

Despite reward funds to incentivize those with information to come forward, none of the perpetrators have been caught and convicted.

In 2023, two beloved Onaqui wild stallions were shot to death.

In 2022, sixteen wild horses were discovered murdered by a high-power rifle on public lands.

In July 2022, five wild burros were found shot in California.

The vile criminals who commit these crimes must be turned in and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!

What does Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) hold for America’s iconic wild horse and burro herds?

Per the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) plan, a ramped up, ongoing nightmare scenario!

Tax dollars will be used to pay for contracted helicopters in Nevada for an outrageous number (12) roundups with bait traps used three times. The BLM plans to capture over 11,600 of Nevada’s wild equines with a permanent removal of just over 11,000 of them.

A horrific blow is scheduled to Wyoming’s North Lander complex where a staggering number of over 2,760 wild horses are slated for removal.

Adding insult to injury, the BLM’s Decision Record for the North Lander complex roundup allows for the castration of up to 95% of captured stallions which will be designated to return to the range. Castration of wild stallions is not a safe (nor humane) method of population control. Many can suffer negative effects and even die from the procedure. It is also unclear how the horses’ social interactions can be impacted once survivors are returned to the wild.

A large-scale roundup is also scheduled for Wyoming’s White Mountain wild horse population near Rock Springs, WY.

Additionally, the BLM is targeting wild horses in five more states– California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah. Most of these removals will also use helicopters.

Helicopters will return to California’s Twin Peaks during August, only two years after a brutal summer roundup where sweltering temperatures took a devastating toll on newborn foals. Several of these foals died from exhaustion and shock; others literally had their hooves run off while chased relentlessly by the helicopter.

To add around 19,000 more wild horses to the over 58,000 already warehoused in holding facilities means that the number of wild horses and burros will reach close to 80,000 in confinement.

In other words, 2024 could become the time when captured wild horses and burros will equal or even exceed the number of wild horses remaining free on taxpayer funded lands allocated to them by law.

Just recently, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released an updated roundup and removal schedule for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024.
The BLM now plans to add 22 more roundups for FY 2024, which drastically increases the total number of wild horses and burros being rounded up from 8,000 to over 20,000!

In other words, the BLM has just more than doubled the number of wild horses and burros who were initially targeted for capture.

These newly updated numbers match the number of wild horses and burros rounded up during Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 — sadly, a record year for roundups.

In 2022, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began an evaluation of its holding facilities for wild horses and burros. The BLM used standards determined by its Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP).

These assessments were made public and exposed numerous animal welfare violations within the BLM’s holding facilities. The findings are clear evidence that these facilities are not safe for wild horses and burros.
Results from 17 of the 28 holding facilities thus far reveal violations including:

• Insufficient access to hay and water
• Pens without salt or mineral blocks
• Lack of shade in outdoor pens
• Failure to comply with vaccination policies
• Poorly maintained facilities
• Inadequate record-keeping practices
• Failure to follow proper biosecurity measures to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, and more.

At this time, there are over 64,000 wild horses and burros warehoused in holding facilities across the country.

The use of helicopters to roundup wild horses and burros equals danger and great financial expense and result in trauma, injuries, family bands torn apart, and even deaths.

After capture, horses and burros are immediately sorted and split apart from their families. Horses have strong bonds with complex social structures, and cry out for their family members as they are cruelly separated.

After suffering the brutality of the roundup and culling process, they are transported to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) holding facilities, most of which are overcrowded and understaffed.

In 2022, disease broke out and killed 146 wild horses at a holding facility in Colorado. In Wyoming, a holding facility was shut down for months due to “strangles,” a highly contagious disease that spread quickly throughout its pens.

As of August 2023, reports show there are 64,588 wild horses and burros in government holding facilities.

According to the BLM’s estimates, it costs the American taxpayer up to $48,000 over the lifetime of a wild horse or burro when kept in a government holding facility.

While the BLM reports low death rates, it has been shown that the rate skyrockets within the first 30 days of a roundup.

A case in point: Last summer the BLM rounded up over 1,000 wild horses and burros from Nevada’s “Blue Wing Complex”. At the end of the roundup, the BLM reported 14 deaths of wild horses and burros.

Based on documentation from FOIA requests, in the 30 days post roundup, an additional 38 wild horses and burros died at the holding facilities where they ended up.

And 30 of those deaths were burros who died as a result of lipemia or hyper-lipidemia, which often results when an animal stops eating.

Documentation also shows that an additional burro died of the same cause weeks later. It is most likely that the burros stopped eating as a result of extreme stress from the roundup.

In addition, FOIA records showed that during the three months post roundup, another 25 horses and burros died in the holding facility. Causes of deaths ranged from complications during gelding, colic, spinal cord injuries and traumas or illness.

In short, the total deaths from the beginning of the roundup was approximately 77 wild horses and burros, far more than the 14 reported dead by the BLM.

Wild horses living in North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) are facing a complete wipe out.

The National Park Service (NPS) is taking public input on a Draft Environmental Assessment for a proposed plan that basically leads to the complete elimination of this historic herd.

These wild horses are North Dakota’s only wild horse herd.

Right now, TRNP is home to about 195 wild horses. These horses have roamed this area for centuries. It is believed that they are descendants of Sitting Bull’s horses and related to the rare Nokota breed.

Even with 19,000 public comments submitted, of which the majority called on the NPS to maintain a genetically viable herd of at least 150 horses, the National Park Service rejected this request.

Instead, the NPS proposes three alternatives that could only lead to a complete elimination of this historic herd:

• Limit the herd to what would be an unsustainable and unscientific number of only 35-60 wild horses (meaning the removal of about 150 horses);
• Reduce the population of the herd to zero using a phased method; or
• Expedite the reduction of the herd to zero.

The American Wild Horse Campaign’s Investigations Team uncovered a grim reality about the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) summer 2022 roundup in the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA).

The Twin Peaks HMA, located on the California/Nevada border, covers 800,000 acres. The HMA was home to over 3,000 wild horses and burros prior to a brutal round up of 2,450 of them, which included many young, vulnerable foals who were born only a few months before.

The BLM had reported 31 deaths during the roundup, but results from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request told a different reality – 69 additional animals died at the government holding facilities during and immediately after the roundup.

Fourteen of the deaths were very young foals, chased by helicopters in high summer temperatures, and for long distances over rocky terrain. The records revealed the brutality and pain they endured. One note in the death records stated: “This foal was unfortunately found dead in one of our isolation pens…foals are foundering due to being run too far during the gather.”

Another related: “…suspect this foal’s death was from the stress of being run long distances in rough terrain and in high temperatures.” There were many more notes just like those.

During the roundup, there were several very concerning animal welfare violations. Observers on the ground documented BLM-contracted helicopters chasing far too many wild horses into a small pen, causing the pen to collapse. Two horses died and several were injured.

The roundup was conducted in extreme heat and the horses were chased long distances. AWHC brought these concerns to the onsite BLM Incident Commander and sent a formal complaint to BLM leadership. Despite this, no changes were implemented during the roundup.

The West Douglas Herd Area (HA) and Piceance-East Douglas Herd Management Area (HMA) share the same 190,000 acre region in northwest Colorado.

Currently, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allows a maximum number of just over 230 wild horses to live in the Piceance HMA. Unfortunately, the BLM set an allowed population level of 0 for the West Douglas HA, using the excuse to wipe out this herd because of the terrain and lack of summer grazing range.

The BLM entered a contract with CD Warner Livestock to conduct a helicopter roundup to remove the remaining 68-120 West Douglas wild horses beginning around September 1.

While the BLM claimed that the land can’t support wild horses, it still provides grazing permits for thousands of privately owned cattle in two grazing allotments within the very same HA.

Public records show that:

• BLM permits 631 cows from June 5 to October 31 to graze on the West Douglas/Red Rock pasture in the Twin Butte allotment, an area 100% within the wild horses’ habitat;
• BLM permits 1,158 cows from November 1st to June 12 to graze on the Winter/Spring pasture in the Twin Butte allotment, an area 100% in the wild horses’ habitat; and
• BLM permits 774 cows from the beginning of June to Oct 31 to graze on the West Creek pasture in the Twin Butte allotment, an area 34% in the wild horses’ habitat.

Estimated cost to taxpayers for this roundup? At least $187,000 for removal. The likely lifetime cost could be from $3M to $5M to keep the horses in government holding facilities for the rest of their lives. The lifetime cost is calculated based upon the BLM’s estimation of up to $48,000 to care for one wild mustang or burro in a holding facility over its life.

*Lifetime cost estimate is based on the BLM’s own estimates of up to $48,000 to care for one wild mustang or burro in a holding facility over its lifetime.

Post roundup reports show:

The roundup concluded with 122 wild horses captured and 4 deaths.

Reasons for deaths:

The BLM euthanized a senior stallion for “lameness”; the BLM euthanized a stallion for an “infected abscess”; the BLM euthanized a wild stallion for “coming in with a broken leg”; the BLM euthanized a stallion who came in with “blindness or eye abnormality”.

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) plan for the McCullough Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA) would significantly reduce the wild horse population, destroy tightly bonded family bands, and threaten the genetic viability of the entire herd.

In their Environmental Assessment (EA), the BLM wants to reduce this already small herd down to just 140 horses. That amount is well below the genetic viability standard of horses necessary to maintain diversity. Currently, 59 of the 181 wild horses are over the age of 15 with 22 horses over the age of 20. Many of these senior horses no longer reproduce; many could even die naturally in the wild over another winter.

If this proposed action goes forward, long-time family bands will be decimated leaving the remaining horses in serious jeopardy.

The BLM’s proposed action includes bait trapping these iconic mustangs until only 140 remain. According to the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Handbook, a minimum population of about 150-200 horses is recommended to maintain an acceptable level of genetic diversity.

There has been a humane PZP fertility control program successfully managing the McCullough Peaks wild horses since 2011. It is a waste of resources to roundup and warehouse these horses, and using the controversial vaccine GonaCon on the remaining mares is unacceptable. The BLM should choose the “No Action Alternative” laid out in its EA. This would allow for the continuation of the PZP fertility control program and no unnecessary roundup(s).

The BLM is now accepting public comments on the newly released Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed removal of the wild horses from the 109,000-acre McCullough Peaks Herd Management Area (HMA) just outside of Cody, Wyoming.

Take Action Now! Tell the BLM to choose the “No Action Alternative”.

Simply put, helicopter roundups cause absolute terror for wild horses and burros. Every year, too many of these innocent and iconic equines suffer injuries and have even been killed due to this cruel roundup method.

In addition, deaths routinely occur due to broken necks and legs. At times, horses are actually “chased to death” — this is a condition referred to as capture myopathy.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Dina Titus (D-NV), David Schweikert (R-AZ), and Steve Cohen (D-TN) have taken a stand on behalf of wild horses and burros against brutal helicopter roundups. After viewing video footage of a tiny foal who suffered from a broken leg while being chased by a helicopter, they introduced the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act to end this cruelty.

You can help spare wild horses and burros from dangerous and deadly helicopter roundups by contacting your U.S. representative to cosponsor the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2023 (H.R. 3656). Locate your rep at www.house.gov.

The Senate Interior Appropriations Committee has included language in its Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) funding package which helps the management of America’s wild horses and burros.

The Senate Committee’s report emphasized that it “expects” the BLM to place “specific attention on”:

• “increasing the use of fertility control, including measurable objectives in reducing population growth with fertility controls,
• “targeting removals from the most heavily ecologically impacted and populated areas,
• “expanding long-term, off-range humane holding, and continuing adoptions while fully implementing and enforcing existing safeguards.”

The committee’s report language calls for $11 million “to be spent to continue implementation of a robust and humane fertility control strategy of reversible immunocontraceptive vaccines.”

The Senate committee approved a total of $148 million for wild horse and burro management for FY24, the same amount which Congress did for FY23.

Alternately, the U.S. House Interior Appropriations Committee approved $155 million for wild horse management in FY24.

The House Committee’s version also provides $11 million for fertility control, but it doesn’t indicate the use of the funding specifically for immediate implementation on the range.

The House version also permits the funding for use in research, including for permanent sterilization (which must be opposed).

It’s up to the Senate and House to reconcile the differences between each version.

Ideally, the House’s funding level and the Senate’s report language will prevail.

TAKE ACTION TODAY:

Call your members of Congress at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to support the House’s funding amount for wild horses and burros with the Senate’s funding language.

Since July 9th, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began helicopter roundups of Nevada’s wild horses from the Antelope Complex. Their goal is to capture 3,000 of the wild horses in their largest planned roundup this year.

Within 3 weeks, this brutal removal has claimed the lives of 21 wild horses, including young foals.
As summer continues, so will the roundups. The BLM is preparing to start additional roundups in several other states. Over the next two months, these unnecessary removals will put thousands of innocent wild horses in peril.

Beginning in August, close to 400 wild horses are slated to lose their freedom from Oregon’s Palomino Butte, Stinkingwater, and Hog Creek Herd Management Areas (HMAs).

In September, the BLM agency plans to remove over a thousand wild horses and burros in Idaho, Colorado, and California.

Helicopter roundups mean more terror, trauma, injury and even death for America’s beloved wild horses and burros. Advocates who are able to be observers of the roundups do their best to document exactly what is happening to wild horses and burros to keep the public informed and assist with fighting for more legal protection of endangered herds.

Tragic footage captured by an observer of a wild stallion who broke his leg trying to escape a BLM trap site was recently released. The stallion was chased by helicopter and wranglers who eventually roped him and he was euthanized. This horse suffered a chase for approximately 35 minutes before he was killed.

No matter how “low” a percentage rate the BLM claims for roundup death rates, NO horse (or burro) should ever endure such brutality.

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Antelope Valley Complex roundup, which began on July 9th, has left 19 horses dead in just 16 days.

At least 7 little foals have died due to the stress of running for miles in not only hot, but extreme, temperatures. As yet no one knows how many likely collapsed out on the range during the helicopter stampedes.

Observers documented mares being driven so hard that they’ve broken their necks most often from crashing into gates. Stallions have been killed too. Reports state that one died in the loading process of a broken neck, and another widely reported on is a beautiful palomino whose leg was broken after jumping from a 6′ high trap desperately attempting to regain his freedom. His final time alive ended in a three-legged, 35-minute chase from both a helicopter and wranglers on horseback before his suffering was finally ended after they roped and euthanized him.

It is believed that an accurate count of all deaths once the roundups end may never be known as the BLM eliminates foals from their death count. But observers know as much of the truth as they are able to witness and document.

For now, part of the roundups are finished; but the death toll is far from complete.

Take action today to help spare America’s wild horses and burros from the brutality and completely unnecessary roundups:

Contact your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. House Representative to urge them to support the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2023 – HR-3656 .

Get current information for the BLM daily roundup reports on the Antelope Valley Complexes: North and South.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been removing wild horse herds in Nevada from public lands allocated to them by law. And day after day, the death toll has been rising.

Since July 9th when the roundup began, 11 wild horses from the Antelope Complex have lost their lives. This number includes five foals who died from preventable issues as well as four horses who suffered from broken necks, including a mare with a foal at her side.

Observers of the roundup documented with photos and videotape a beautiful palomino stallion who suffered a painful broken leg while trying to escape the trap site by jumping the fence panels. His hind leg was entangled in the fencing and then snapped in half.

This courageous stallion somehow managed to run away on three legs, but was pushed by a helicopter toward wranglers who roped and euthanized him about 35 minutes after sustaining the traumatic and excruciating injury.

A recent report indicated that the BLM captured just over 900 horses with over 2,000 more being targeted as roundups in the Antelope Complex continue.

Wild horses and burros are an integral part of our nation’s heritage, symbolizing the spirit of freedom. The 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act provided them with protections to live freely on taxpayer funded public lands in several Western states.

Numerous amendments have gutted the Wild Horse Act, but advocates have fought for years to keep protections in place.

The White House and Congress can take action to put a stop to the suffering endured by America’s wild horses and burros. Currently, the U.S. House and Senate are in the process of markups for the Interior budget bill that impacts wild horses and burros.

Take action today and contact President Biden and your members of Congress to support policy changes that will ensure the humane, sustainable, and fiscally responsible management of America’s wild horses.

Contact your two U.S. Senators: www.senate.gov

Contact your U.S. House Rep: www.house.gov

Contact the White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Did you know that burros are one of the most resourceful animals to inhabit America’s Southwest? Unfortunately, they are too often misunderstood. Erroneous misconceptions about their impact on the environment mean that wild burros are subjected to ongoing threats like roundups and removals from Western public lands allocated to them by law.

Opponents of wild burros claim that they are an “invasive species” and are destructive to the land they occupy. But research tells a different story.

Research co-authored by Dr. Erick Lundgren and published in Science showed that wild burros provide a significant benefit to desert ecosystems. The burros not only browse and graze on the public lands, but they also dig wells that provide sources of water for nearly 60 other species of wildlife in the area!

While outlining the benefits wild burros have on their environment, this research discussed the danger of removing wild burros from the ecosystem.

For example, during the 1990s, a large number of wild burros from Nevada’s Ash Meadows Wildlife Reserve were removed with devastating consequences including:

Open springs became choked by vegetation, thereby destroying open-water habitats for endangered native fish populations. Despite efforts by land managers to imitate wild burros by manually removing the vegetation, it was documented that at least one pupfish population went extinct.

There are many other documented reasons why wild burros are a clear and necessary benefit to their environment, not a burden as those wishing to see them removed from taxpayer-funded public lands espouse.

For Fiscal Year 2023, Congress passed legislation that included important language championed by U.S. Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Dina Titus (D-NV), U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), and more than 80 other Congressional members.

With a new Appropriations cycle for Fiscal Year 2024, members of the U.S. Senate are now submitting their priorities for the FY24 appropriation language. It’s critical that wild horses and burros are strongly represented again.

With last year’s removal of more than 20,000 wild horses and burros from taxpayer-funded lands allocated to them by law, wild horses and burros need you to speak up more than ever.

Congress should be strongly encouraged to require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to do the following:

• Implement a substantial humane and reversible immunocontraceptive fertility control vaccine program to manage wild horse and burro populations in the wild which includes $11 million for these reversible fertility control vaccines;
• Strengthen and add partnerships with qualified non-profit organizations, to include military veterans and legitimate wild horse organizations;
• Research and relocate wild horses and burros to other Herd Management Areas (HMAs) to keep them on the range and out of off-range holding facilities;
• Make full use of humane alternatives to the use of helicopters for roundups; and
• Keep the ban that protects wild horses and burros from slaughter.

Congress should also be urged to defund the cash incentive offered in the BLM’s “Adoption Incentive Program.” As an alternative, veterinary vouchers are a way the BLM could reach its goal of increasing adoption rates.

TO HELP WILD HORSES & BURROS TODAY:

Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your two Senators. If asked to leave a message, you can use this wording:

I am a constituent and am calling to ask that you support language found in the FY24 Interior Appropriations bill which allocates $11 million of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program budget to PZP fertility control vaccines. These funds allow for humane and cost-effective management of America’s wild horses on the range lands allocated to them by law. I respectfully ask that you include this in your Member Request for FY24 Interior Appropriations and sign onto Senator Booker’s wild horse letter. Thank you.

On August 18, Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These agencies are legally mandated under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act to protect and preserve wild horses and burros. FRER”s lawsuit outlines violations of the Wild Horse Act with regard to the Spring Mountain Wild Horse & Burro Complex Herd Management Area (“Spring Mountain HMA”), which is located in Nevada’s Spring Mountain National Recreation Area (Spring Mountain Herd).

FRER’s lawsuit alleges that in violation of those core responsibilities, in the BLM’s May 10, 2022 Decision Record and the USFS’s August 2, 2022 Decision Notice, the interdisciplinary Proposed Action includes dangerous surgical sterilization of both male and female wild horses and burros.

The USFS/BLM’s plans to conduct experimental sterilizations on the Spring Mountain Herd are unjustified, unsupported, unnecessary, and will cause unacceptable harassment, harm, and potentially death of the very animals that the agencies are statutorily obligated to protect.

The lawsuit also states that the “USFS/BLM’s decisions to employ such population growth suppression methods as surgical sterilization are arbitrary and capricious* and in violation of federal law. Alternative, nonsurgical, less invasive, and less risky fertility control tools are available, and already have proven successful in managing wild horse populations throughout the United States.”

Plaintiff Front Range Equine Rescue seeks a declaration from the Court that the decisions to use certain population growth suppression methods that include surgical sterilizations are arbitrary and capricious* and should be set aside for violating the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) and the Wild Horse Act.

* arbitrary and capricious conduct is willful and unreasonable action without consideration or regard for the facts and circumstances.” Arbitrary and capricious is a standard for judicial review and appeal, often seen in administrative law.

FRER further seeks an injunction to prevent the USFS and BLM from moving forward with any wild horse and burro sterilization program.

Finally, FRER seeks a declaration that the USFS’s and BLM’s failures to adequately consider the environmental impacts of surgical sterilization violate the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”).

At this time, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has three roundups of wild horses and burros occurring at the same time across taxpayer public lands out West.

Never have this many roundups happened at the same time. Just like other brutal captures, these roundups have resulted in the deaths of dozens of wild horses and burros.

Right now, the U.S. Congress has before it three major pieces of legislation which would ensure more protections for America’s wild horses and burros.

First is the annual budget bill, in which more funding for humane and proven safe fertility control could be provided while also diverting funds away from brutal helicopter roundups.

Next is the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act (H.R. 6635) to ban the use of helicopters for wild horse and burro management.

And third is the SAFE Act (H.R. 3355; S. 2732) to ban horse slaughter, especially the export of America’s horses out of the country for slaughter.

These pieces of legislation would go a long way to make changes to the BLM’s inhumane “management” practices and increase protections for America’s beloved wild horses and burros.

Congress needs to hear from voters that it is critical to pass pro-horse and burro legislation. Contact your two U.S. Senators via www.senate.gov and your U.S. House Rep through www.house.gov.

On June 29, the U.S. House of Representatives Interior Appropriations Committee repeated the need for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to make use of safe, proven, and humane fertility control as a way to keep wild horses (and burros) on the range.

The Committee approved the Fiscal Year 2023 bill that allocates $156 million for the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.

Funding includes using up to $11 million to research reversible immunocontraceptive fertility control and how to provide it.

While important, in reality, $11 million is a fraction of what is needed to develop a successful fertility control program so that it can actually allow for reductions in roundups and the warehousing of wild horses and burros.

The bill also includes wording that “directs the Bureau to develop plans that ensure they can administer fertility control, conduct targeted removals from the most heavily and impacted population areas, expand long-term off-range holding and any alternatives, and increase adoptions. To better accomplish these goals, the Bureau should establish public/private partnerships, including working with veterans and wild horse organizations, to implement a robust immunocontraceptive fertility control program.”

It’s been shown that removing horses and not managing the reproduction of the horses remaining on those ranges actually increases reproduction and the use of repeated removals within five years.

In 2022, America’s wild burros are under an unprecedented assault due to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) massive roundups and subsequent warehousing of them in holding pens.

The BLM has also chosen to use helicopters instead of bait trapping. Burro roundups by helicopter are known to be traumatic for them. Burros are very stoic and often stand their ground in the face of danger. There is documented evidence of their abuse, such as helicopter skids striking a burro.

California Roundup:

About 1.7 million acres are home to the Centennial, Panamint, and Slate Range Herd Areas (HA) for about 500 wild burros. The BLM’s goal was to remove all wild burros from these herd areas.

Those already rounded up from these areas were sent to a facility where there was no shade and temperatures were reaching into the 90s.

Advocates documenting this roundup reported that while the goal was to capture 490 burros, the roundup concluded early with 181 removed. One death of a jenny (female burro) was due to a head injury, and injuries like “rope burn” on others were reported.

Utah Roundup:

Over 99,000 acres makes up the Sinbad Herd Management Area (HMA) which is home to just over 300 burros. Part of the BLM’s 14-year-old plan is to make the Appropriate Management Level (AML) for these burros very low at 50-70.

During this roundup, witnesses saw multiple violations of the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) which included reports of contractors leaving captured burros on stock trailers for hours with no visible access to water along with excessive roping, where at least one burro was knocked down.

This roundup concluded early, with just over 150 burros captured rather than the BLM’s plan to remove approximately 300. One death occurred when a 7 year old burro fell into a 5′ crevice while chased by a wrangler.

Arizona Roundup:

Arizona’s Black Mountain HMA stretches over a million acres of land and the BLM estimates 2,900 wild burros live there. The BLM planned to remove just over 1,000 of these wild burros.

From what observers (kept at a good distance) could view showed that burros were chased for long distances and appeared stressed. One burro crashed into a gate panel and another burro was distressed entering the trap and attempted to charge the wranglers. The BLM had given contractors permission to use electric cattle prods on several burros while loading them onto trailers.

Information from the BLM’s Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program Assessment report indicated the contractor’s staff treated burros in an abusive and inhumane manner, such as “aggressively hitting and jabbing the paddle into the sides and sensitive areas of burros.” In spite of the noted violations, the roundup carried on. When it ended in May, just over 1,100 burros had been captured.

Utah is home to the Sinbad herd management area (HMA ) consisting of close to 100,000 acres. It’s covered with a variety of trees and grasses with water available from springs, reservoirs and the San Rafael River.

The HMA is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This HMA is home to a burro population of just over 328 animals. However, the BLM has determined that the Appropriate Management Level (AML) for these burros should be between 50 and 70.

The BLM targeted a removal of about 300 burros with a plan to possibly release 20 jennies who would be given GonaCon, which has not been tested as a fertility control vaccination for wild burros.

The BLM’s claim for this mass removal was to prevent unnecessary degradation of the public lands. Meanwhile the BLM permits hundreds of privately-owned cow/calf pairs to graze inside and outside the HMA during each year.

The Roundup Results

The BLM’s contractor struggled to capture the 153 burros it did, which begs the question of whether the population of over 300 burros was overestimated.

Wild burros don’t respond to being chased by helicopters in the way that wild horses do. Wild burros usually freeze or scatter while wild horses tend to stay in their bands while being chased into the trap. During this roundup, about 40 burros who did not respond to the helicopter ended up being roped by the wranglers on horseback with some horrendous results.

Over the first three days, the helicopters captured large numbers of burros (over 120) including young foals and heavily pregnant jennies.

Observers saw at least two burros go down after being roped.

Tragically, a young jack died near the end of the roundup. A report on the roundup by the BLM indicated: a “7 year-old male sustained a spinal cord injury after falling into a 5-foot drainage ditch he was trying to jump during gather operations.” A BLM official arrived and shot him about 30 minutes later.

Because the contractor didn’t capture the 300+ burros targeted for removal, bait or water trapping will begin on the Sinbad HMA in late summer or fall.

This roundup used excessive and reckless roping as well as reports of captured burros on trailers for hours with no water which are violations of the BLM’s Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP).

In 2013, the National Academy of Sciences’ report on the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program stated that wild burro populations were low and fragmented. It recommended “no removals” in order to prevent inbreeding and to maintain genetic viability.

From a recent Denver Post article:

CAÑON CITY — A rising death toll of captive wild horses in fenced pens has hit 142 after federal caretakers failed to provide vaccinations in the latest breakdown of the government’s controversial holding system. This debacle has piqued concerns about humane treatment as the Bureau of Land Management ramps up roundups… (read more here)

Several weeks ago, reports were made public regarding a deadly infectious disease outbreak at the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Cañon City, Colorado facility.

It is estimated that the recently identified Equine Influenza Virus (EIV) has killed over 140 horses at the BLM holding facility since April 23.

EIV is a virus that horses are routinely vaccinated against. In fact, the vaccine is part of the BLM’s vaccine protocol for captured equines. So it begs the question as to why all of the deceased wild horses were either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated against Equine Influenza Virus especially when they were rounded up late last summer and have been in the BLM’s care ever since.

Along with the outcry from wild horse advocates, Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis has also released a statement calling for a halt to the roundup of Colorado’s Piceance herd planned for this summer while an investigation into the BLM’s Cañon City facility and the welfare of its warehoused horses is conducted.

Governor Polis stated that “ We have long advocated for the health, safety, and wellbeing of Colorado’s wild horses, and will continue to do so as we seek a humane future for our mustangs.”

This tragic situation highlights the fact that America’s wild horses are safest when managed on the public lands allocated to them by law. Cruel roundups and confinement in overcrowded pens lead to injury and even death. And these holding facilities are where the stressed horses are highly susceptible to deadly diseases like EIV. It is well known that there is humane, scientifically-proven birth control available as an option instead of costly, unnecessary roundups.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to eliminate three wild horse Herd Management Areas (HMAs) in southwest Wyoming while gutting the population of a fourth herd.

The BLM is using an agreement with ranchers as its excuse for this drastic action.

Under the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, wild horses are federally protected on our public lands. They should not be removed because of private landowner pressure.

The BLM’s plan would do the following:

• Remove just under 2 million acres from wild horse use by changing the Salt Wells and Great Divide HMAs to a status as inactive Herd Areas (HAs) which are not managed for horses;
• Manage the herd located on the over 39,000 acres White Mountain HMA as non-reproducing, which effectively zeroes it out. The BLM would consider using population management tools that are dangerous, inhumane, unproven, costly (e.g., surgical sterilization of mares), ineffective (sex-ratio skewing) or gelding stallions which have unknown consequences on herds; and
• Cut its population goal for the 478,000-acre Adobe Town HMA from approximately 610-800 wild horses down to 225-450.

The BLM has already begun the process to achieve this unprecedented plan. Last October, they spent over $1 million to capture and remove over 3,500 wild horses from southwest Wyoming over a 3-month helicopter roundup with horses injured and 37 dead as a result.

The BLM has stated it’s amending a Resource Management Plan (RMP) to be in compliance with a consent decree from 2013 which the BLM entered into with Wyoming’s Rock Springs Grazing Association.

That association had sued for the removal of all of the wild horses from the Checkerboard region covering 2 million acres. The Checkerboard is an unfenced area of alternating, one-mile square blocks of public and private land set up in the 1860s as part of negotiations with the Union Pacific railroad.

The BLM’s reason for its planned changes is that creating a barrier between public and private lands is “difficult”. The BLM needs to stop throwing up its hands and find a way to humanely manage the horses on taxpayer-funded land allocated for the wild horses by the 1971 Act.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released information that 67 wild horses at its Cañon City, CO location died from an “unknown yet highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease” which has respiratory and neurological symptoms.

The number of deaths has grown since this initial announcement.

The corrals are under quarantine while the BLM works with local, state, and federal officials to determine the cause of what killed the horses and how to manage the situation.

Horses hit hardest by this outbreak are from over 450 captured last summer from the West Douglas Herd Management Area (HMA) of Western Colorado. This area is close to the Utah border; other horses are from the Sand Wash Basin HMA in northwest Colorado.

Wild horses are traumatized during helicopter roundups as they become separated from their family bands, are placed in trucks, and are transported to often overcrowded holding corrals. Sickness is not uncommon; outbreaks of strangles are often reported resulting in quarantine situations and very ill horses.

Large corral facilities like Cañon City keep thousands of wild horses (and burros) removed from their homes on the range. Horses stand on dirt and often there are no shade structures or other protection from the elements.

It’s reported that 2,550 captured wild horses are being held at the CO facility.

Responsible horse management should include measures to limit the spread of bacterial, viral, or fungal infections which cause illness or death, and provide tighter biosecurity measures if disease breaks out.

Appropriate horse management also includes daily wellness checks along with ensuring that cleanliness, proper drainage, shelter, and insect control are maintained. Horses should be monitored for any signs of deteriorating condition, fever, loss of appetite, or other symptoms of illness. Quarantine should be readily available along with proper medical treatment.

There are many other details to a responsible disease management regime for horse owners, boarding or other barns, and the BLM’s facilities should be no different.

Large-scale holding pens are extremely difficult to properly manage. The BLM needs to rethink its plans to drastically increase the numbers of horses in its short- and long-term facilities, especially when humane on-the-range alternatives exist.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Tell Congress to demand that the BLM takes steps immediately to reduce the chances of further outbreaks of illness and death at their facilities, and include detailed plans to shift their management from ongoing “roundup-removal-warehousing” of wild horses (and burros) to better management practices on the public lands allocated to them by law.

Reach your Senators via www.senate.gov; your House Rep at www.house.gov.

From April to July, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) pauses its wild horse roundups during foaling season for wild horses.

Unfortunately, the BLM has plans to round up record numbers of wild burros beginning at the end of April.

For the next few months, the BLM intends to round up over 2,500 wild burros from five Herd Management Areas (HMAs) with a permanent removal of over 2,300. The largest roundup is scheduled to take place in the most genetically diverse burro herd, which is located in Arizona’s Black Mountain HMA where over 1,100 wild burros will be permanently removed.

The BLM plans to use helicopters to chase down the burros and force them into traps. This is a brazen departure from the past normal primary use of bait trapping when capturing burros.

While wild horses usually remain together during a helicopter roundup and follow other horses into a trap pen, wild burros are more stoic animals, known for standing their ground against the helicopters or scattering to avoid capture.

Because of burros reactions to helicopters, this type of roundup is too often more inhumane and brutal for wild burros.

The Bureau of Land Management’s March 2021 to 2022 population estimate for wild horses and burros on the public lands they manage has been reported as 86,189 and 82,384 respectively.

Before this report, the total number of wild horses and burros was said to have increased from over 37,000 in 2012 to an estimate of over 95,000 in 2020.

The BLM has a stated goal to get to an “Appropriate Management Level” (AML) of just over 26,000 total wild horses and burros over 177 “Herd Management Areas” (HMAs) in 10 Western states where they are allocated by law to roam freely.

Unfortunately the BLM’s yearly population estimates are the only range-wide figures currently available. They are very much viewed with doubt by many wild horse advocacy groups and individuals. The figures reported by the BLM appear to tie in with the plans they continue to come up with to decrease wild horse and burro populations in the wild.

What is known for certain is that over the past four fiscal years, the BLM has removed just under 44,000 wild horses and burros from their legally allocated ranges. And that just over 3,200 have been provided with fertility control.

Additionally, the BLM intends to get rid of “at least” 19,000 wild horses and burros from taxpayer funded lands in the current fiscal year. Their plan allows for providing about 2,300 with some form of fertility control.

It’s clear that the BLM wants to continue brutal roundups which are excessive and inhumane. At this time over 60,000 captured wild horses and burros live in “off-range” holding facilities, with just over 21,000 of these held in overcrowded government corrals. In 2021, the BLM spent over $72 million to warehouse horses in off-range holding facilities.

Congress has released its Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations omnibus spending bill and it includes funding for humane immunocontraceptive fertility control for the BLM’s wild horse and burro program.

Once passed, the appropriations bill will ensure that up to $11 million of the BLM’s budget must be allocated to humane immunocontraceptive fertility control treatment and research.

Unfortunately, the bill provides an increase in overall funding for roundups and removal, about $21 million more than the FY21 funding. However, this increase was still less than what was initially proposed for FY22 funding of the wild horse and burro program.

In spite of scientific evidence, America’s wild horses and burros continue to be the scapegoats for public land degradation and climate change. Meanwhile research clearly shows that commercial livestock grazing is the actual environmental threat to public lands.

The federal spending bill also calls for the creation of an interagency task force to deal with the “crisis” of growing wild horse populations. This task force will need close monitoring by wild horse advocates as it can easily be filled with pro livestock, pro special interest members.

The federal bill retains long-standing anti-slaughter provisions to prevent horse slaughter plants from operating in the U.S. and to prohibit the slaughter of federally protected wild horses and burros through the end of the fiscal year.

U.S. House Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) has called for a suspension of wild horse and burro roundups, “until appropriate range assessments have been completed, animal welfare concerns have been addressed, and a robust fertility control vaccine plan has been implemented.”

In his letter addressed to both Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Tracy Stone-Manning, Representative Cohen stated that the BLM’s Fiscal Year 2022 plan to capture 22,000 wild horses and burros and permanently remove 19,000 from the range “puts the welfare of these animals in danger and marks a huge step backward for the program.”

Cohen’s letter went on to state the following facts:

— “These removals are undoubtedly part of the BLM’s controversial plan, ‘Report to Congress: An Analysis of Achieving a Sustainable Wild Horse and Burro Program.”

— “The May 2020 removal plan is unsustainable and comes at great risk to the animals and taxpayers. It merely continues what BLM has always done—removing horses and burros and confining them in holding facilities—but at an accelerated rate.”

— And while Cohen appreciates the agency’s plan to treat 2,300 mares with fertility control this year, “the vaccine program must be much more robust in order to obtain positive results, achieve management goals, and avoid compensatory reproduction.”

Additionally, Congressman Cohen’s letter mentions that:

— New range assessments are needed to assess the carrying capacity of the land;

— Wild horses should receive a fairer allocation of resources; and

— Because of concerns about wild horse deaths during roundups, he suggested installing cameras in helicopters and at trap pens, as well as increasing the space allocated to wild horses in crowded short-term holding facilities.

Roundups and Removal to Holding Facilities:

Warehousing thousands more horses in government holding facilities when hay costs have risen 35-45% is both an irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars and cruel to the horses. The BLM has the ability to relocate captured herds to more natural and cost-effective pastureland which Congress has supported.

For the past few years, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has conducted ever-increasing helicopter roundups which cruelly capture and then remove tens of thousands of wild horses and burros from taxpayer-funded public lands. The horses are federally protected under the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act which has been gutted with amendments over several decades to lessen wild horse and burro protections.

Helicopter roundups mean that wild horses including foals are literally running for their lives, too often being chased to extreme exhaustion. Foals can end up abandoned and left hungry without their mothers when left alone on the range. Traumatized and terrified some horses suffer from broken limbs, necks, or backs during the chase or once caught in the trap pens.

This gruesome reality is not only cruel and unnecessary, but unscientific and fiscally irresponsible. Regardless of protections, wild horses by the truckload are ending up in the slaughter pipeline.

Wild horses and burros are falsely blamed for environmental degradation, which is well documented to be caused in large part by massive numbers of commercial livestock (cattle and sheep) which the BLM allows to graze on a significant portion of the land it’s charged with managing out West.

A recent wild horse roundup in an area known as the Wyoming Checkerboard ended with a host of animal welfare violations that must be thoroughly investigated and exposed. An overhaul of the Wild Horse and Burro program is long past due.

Contact your U.S. House Rep at www.house.gov and your two U.S. Senators at www.senate.gov to strongly encourage them to hold the BLM accountable for its mismanagement of wild horses and burros on taxpayer-funded public lands out West.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a plan to remove at least 19,000 wild horses and burros from taxpayer-funded public lands in Fiscal Year 2022 (which ends Sept 30). They’ve also indicated an intention to have 2,300 wild horses and burros treated with various types of population control methods.

In Fiscal Year 2021, the BLM rounded up over 13,600 wild horses and burros from public lands and used fertility control on over 1,100 of the equines. It was estimated that approximately 86,000 horses lived on BLM-managed public lands in the spring of 2021.

Removals are not only costly, but both short- and long-term holding facilities are overcrowded and a dead-end solution when on-the-range management methods are available. There are more than 58,000 captive wild horses and burros in off-range government facilities.

The BLM has numerous safe, effective, and humane ways to properly manage wild horses and burros on public lands and needs to amend its Wild Horse and Burro program to stop its “manage to extinction” policy. The 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act needs to be adhered to instead of catering (for decades) to powerful, wealthy special interests who want horses removed forever.

Over 1,000 wild horses have been captured with at least six killed as the Bureau of Land Management continues a massive helicopter roundup in southwest Wyoming.

This largest-ever roundup is planned to drag on into February 2022. It is expected that 3,500 wild horses, which is more than 40% percent of Wyoming’s wild horse population, will lose their freedom. The cost will be over $1.2 million along with tens of millions more of taxpayer dollars used for lifetime care of the horses in government holding facilities.

Right now the BLM’s goal is to zero-out two wild horse Herd Management Areas (HMAs), manage a herd on a third HMA as non-reproducing, and to have drastically reduced the population of wild horses on a fourth HMA.

Also planned in a proposed amendment to the Resource Management Plan (RMP) is to remove 2.4 million acres from wild horse use in southwest Wyoming. For horses left on the range, they want to use dangerous and inhumane management tools like surgical sterilization of wild mares and sex-ratio skewing along with unproven and inhumane gelding of stallions.

The BLM is bowing to the terms of a 2013 consent decree it entered into years ago with the Rock Springs Grazing Association. This group represents livestock ranchers in the area where the horses live (known as “Wyoming’s Checkerboard”). They have been adamantly trying to get rid of the horses and using the land for their own profiteering for years.

This entire situation is just one example of the BLM displaying a blatant bias in favor of private livestock and hunting interests over federally protected wild horses.

The round-up should be immediately stopped and existing long-term solutions implemented to keep in line with the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act. One of several alternatives would be to expand the use of proven, safe, and humane fertility control so that fewer horses are sent to overcrowded off-range holding facilities costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) wild horse roundup in Colorado’s Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area (HMA) is over. Due to public outcry, advocacy efforts, and the support from Governor Jared Polis, First Gentleman Marlon Reis, and Congressman Joe Neguse, the roundup ended early, leaving 150 other targeted wild horses keeping their freedom. Now there are more than 300 wild horses who remain in this HMA (the BLM intended to leave just 163 post roundup).

It is estimated that at least 10,000 calls and countless emails over one day provided the public pressure desperately needed to show strong support for Governor Polis’ efforts to implement more humane wild horse management practices in Colorado.

Governor Polis stated that the “public outpouring” showed “how much people care for the well-being of these iconic Colorado animals.”

But the fact remains that tragically over 470 wild horses lost their freedom, and some their lives, in this brutal helicopter roundup.

The captured horses have been sent to Canyon City’s state prison where the BLM has holding corrals. As with other government short- and long-term pens, there are numerous concerns about conditions at this facility.

The horses’ future is uncertain. They are likely to end up warehoused for years in BLM feedlots or placed into their “Adoption Incentive Program”, a faulty program where it’s been found that truckloads of horses have ended up in the slaughter pipeline.

Like roundups before, the Sand Wash Basin operation left devastated wild horse families and numerous animal welfare violations to include tiny foals left terrified and defenseless on the range without their mothers. Public outcry and the number of political leaders speaking up must increase to protect the horses!

The Wild Horse and Burro Program has plans to increase helicopter roundups to capture and remove tens of thousands of federally protected wild horses and burros from taxpayer funded public lands over the next few years.

Brutal and unnecessary roundups mean that wild horses (including foals) are literally running for their lives, chased by the helicopters until utterly exhausted. Foals are often left abandoned and hungry without their mothers, scared and alone out on the range. Panicked horses break their limbs, neck or backs during the chase or inside the trap pens as they frantically try to escape.

This nightmare reality on our public lands has gone on for decades. It’s reasons are unscientific, fiscally reckless, and grossly inhumane. And all too often America’s iconic wild horses are sent by truckloads into the slaughter pipeline as their legal protections have been gutted for years.

Blaming wild horses and burros for range degradation is shameful and a lie. The real cause of environmental degradation is largely due to the massive numbers of livestock (at least one million cattle with tens of thousands of sheep) which the BLM permits to graze on nearly all of the public land it manages out West.

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Email your Congressional representative immediately. Ask him/her to urge the House Natural Resources Committee to hold an oversight hearing as an initial step to reform the BLM’s long-time mismanagement of its Wild Horse and Burro Program.

Locate your elected official here: www.house.gov

The Bureau of Land Management plans to permanently remove over 700 of the just over 890 wild horses from Colorado’s beloved Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area herd.

BLM is conducting this “emergency” helicopter roundup because of (1) concerns about enough forage for the upcoming winter; (2) the number of wild horses exceeds the agency-set “Appropriate Management Level” of 163-363 for over an 157,700 acre Herd Management Area; and (3) because horses have gone onto property due to gates left open by the public, including ranchers.

The BLM’s intent is also to capture and release an additional 50 wild horses, approximately 25 mares treated with fertility control, and about the same number of studs.

Photos and videos taken very recently show the horses looking healthy. Recent rainfall has alleviated concerns over a lack of water.

With many other issues to deal with, there is no reason for the BLM to target smaller wild horse populations, particularly herds that are easily trackable, have very young foals, and ongoing investments in fertility control programs.

Last year, volunteers darted 300 mares in the Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area with safe, proven, and humane fertility control. This was a significant investment of time and resources to safely manage the herd on the range.

Public outcry and elected officials representing Colorado have contacted the Department of Interior (DOI) and the BLM to protest and stop this unnecessary roundup, so far to no avail.

Injuries and deaths have been increasing daily. The helicopter contractor has been relentless and grossly inhumane in chasing down and trapping these horses.

This roundup has been especially brutal and cruel. See updates on the Sand Wash Advocates Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sandwashadvocate/

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues to ignore pressure to increase its use of readily available, safe, and proven humane fertility control for wild horse herds. For at least 20 years, the use of fertility control vaccines has shown to be an effective tool for on-the-range wild horse management.

Pressure has continued on the BLM from calls by the public and many members of Congress to scale up the use of this birth control method. More delays by the BLM means the horses suffer from more inhumane and costly roundups with permanent removal from the wild at great expense to taxpayers and, even more so to the innocent horses themselves. This “fraud, waste, and abuse” program by a government agency has gone on for decades with the horses being scapegoated to even losing their lives due to poor management practices.

In 2017, Congress came close to approving the sale of wild horses to slaughter due to rising taxpayer costs and increased numbers of wild horses and burros in government holding pens. It is as important as ever to not let special interests profiting from the use of our public land resources continue to blame wild horses and burros for range degradation.

While longer-lasting vaccines are being developed, using available fertility control vaccines is a practical on the range way to manage herd growth.

It is important to educate and urge Congress to have the BLM implement safe, proven, and humane fertility control as well as public-private partnerships that increase fertility control darting and herd monitoring, along with projects to restore rangelands.

Reach your Congressional rep at www.house.gov and Senators at www.senate.gov.

The Bureau of Land Management’s roundup of the “Red Desert Complex” in Wyoming is an annihilation of five wild horse herds.

The amazing wild horses (and burros) who have lived freely on over 705,000 acres of taxpayer funded public lands in the Red Desert area in southern Wyoming are now running in fear, fighting for their very lives.

Five herds made up of more than 2,400 wild horses are being brutally chased down, separated, traumatized during a round up during the largest wild horse helicopter roundup in the program’s history.

The BLM’s goal is to remove approximately 2,400 wild horses from the Antelope Hills, Crooks Mountain, Green Mountain, Lost Creek, and Stewart Creek Herd Management Areas (HMAs). It is clear the BLM is in lockstep with the livestock industry as the decimation of these herds is in opposition to the will of the American people.

Further proof of the BLM’s “manage to extinction” policy is evident as they are permitting 20,995 privately-owned sheep and 9,753 cows to graze in this same public lands habitat while gutting the wild horse population which has lived for centuries in this area.

The BLM plan is to reduce the wild horse population to an “Appropriate” Management Level” of just 480-724 within the complex. This basically amounts to having just 1 horse per every 1,500+ acres. Three of the HMAs will have just 65 or fewer horses remaining when the roundup is over leaving herds with little to no genetic viability.

Now more than ever, we must demand an immediate moratorium on roundups along with a Congressional investigation into the BLM’s blatant and widespread animal welfare violations plus their failure to comply with Congressional directives to use fertility control as a humane alternative to brutal roundups.

Contact your elected officials in Congress through www.senate.gov and www.house.gov to reinstate full protections for wild horse and burro herds as designated in the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burros Act.

Congress recently released the Fiscal Year 2020 spending package that includes $21 million allocated for a wild horse management strategy which includes the use of proven, safe and humane fertility control.

Congressional funding would be allocated specifically for the use of long-proven fertility control vaccines such as PZP, to slow down wild horse and burro population growth.

While Congress has made a clear intention as to the use of the additional allocation funding, unfortunately, the BLM is still able to conduct research protocols that could include surgical sterilization.

Wild horse advocates and members of the public must stand firmly against any dangerous plans for untested, cruel surgical procedures on wild horses, both mares and stallions.

Language in the bill also continues a prohibition against the BLM euthanizing healthy wild horses or selling them without restriction (to slaughter). Thanks to pressure on elected officials, the bill includes the same prohibitions against the U.S. Forest Service.

The bill’s language also mandates that:

• removals must be conducted in strict compliance with BLM’s Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) which is a set of humane handling standards;
• horses are relocated from high-cost corrals to lower-cost, off-range pastures;
• and that BLM work with stakeholders to increase adoptions;

It should be noted that the additional funding will not be available to the Bureau of Land Management until 60 days after the agency submits a “comprehensive and detailed plan for an aggressive, non-lethal population control strategy” to Congress.

While this information may be a small step in a better management strategy for wild horses and burros, there are many issues far from settled to protect them on the public lands.

On May 13, the BLM announced that it intends to move ahead with cruel and unnecessary sterilization experiments on captive wild mares in Oregon. In both 2016 and 2018, the BLM tried this but after multiple lawsuits, federal injunctions and overwhelming public opposition surfaced, they backed down. This is the third time that the agency is trying to implement a controversial and dangerous surgical procedure that is being heavily promoted by a livestock industry lobbying group financed by Lucas Oil.

The BLM plans to carry out an experimental surgery called “ovariectomy via colpotomy,” in which a veterinarian cuts into a mare’s vaginal wall, places a hand and arm through the vagina in the abdominal cavity, manually (and blindly) locates the ovaries and then severs and removes them with a rod-like chain tool called an ecraseur.

Barbaric sterilization surgeries on America’s wild horses ignores both science and public opinion. The BLM is acting irresponsibly and wasting taxpayer dollars trying to pursue objectionable experiments while scientifically recommended and cost-effective PZP vaccines are easily available for humane on-the-range population management.

Other issues with the surgery include procedures done in a non-sterile environment, infection, hemorrhaging, and colic, any of which could lead to suffering horrific pain and potential death. Many of the wild mares slated for surgeries in 2016 and 2018 were pregnant with a high risk of aborting their foals.

According to the BLM’s environmental assessment, the procedure will be done on 100 mares rounded up last October and currently held in the BLM’s wild horse corrals in Hines, Oregon. Of those mares, only 28-34 would return to the range as part of the experiment, and only for the proposed three-year study duration. The others would be put up for adoption after the surgery, planned for August.

To review the plan in order to make comments, click here. Use the map to locate Burns District, Oregon to read about this project.

Comments are due by May 27. Email them to [email protected] to the attention of Spay Project Lead, Burns District BLM.

Our May 9th hearing in federal court took a positive turn in our ongoing fight to stop horses from the Devil’s Garden wild horse herd in California’s Modoc National Forest from being shipped to slaughter, and to stop the U.S. Forest Service from taking the unprecedented step of selling captured wild horses without limitations.

A federal judge ordered the two litigating groups of advocates to try reaching a settlement with the Forest Service over their plan to sell without limitations wild horses captured in a roundup last fall from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory.

In the interim, a stipulated prohibition remains in place which prevents the Forest Service from selling the remaining wild horses without restrictions.

U.S. District Judge James Donato ordered the parties to report back to him in 30 days after what he called a “breakthrough moment” during the hearing after the Forest Service’s attorney (R. Turner) said more than once that “the Forest Service will never intentionally sell its horses for slaughter for human consumption.”

Bruce Wagman, attorney for Front Range Equine Rescue et. al., stated that, “The Forest Service’s agreement at the hearing that it will not sell wild horses to slaughter validates both the legal claims we are making and the public’s rejection of any suggestion that wild horses will be sold without limitations. If the Forest Service is good to its word, we will have prevailed in this litigation. If it is not, we will keep up the fight.”

Plan for Wild Horses and Burros Launched by Large Animal Welfare Groups with Cattle Association Causes Controversy Among Wild Horse and Burro Advocates.

On April 22, a new plan for the management of wild horses and burros was announced by the following organizations:

The ASPCA stated:
“Experts from all corners have put aside their differences to unite under one effective, humane, and proactive plan to protect wild horses and burros and ensure their survival in the American West.” You can read their post here.

The HSUS also issued a statement that:
“The ASPCA®(The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®), Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation, the Humane Society of the United States, and the Humane Society Legislative Fund, in concert with rangeland management stakeholders, today announced their support for a proposal on the care of wild horses and burros on U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public rangelands. The proposal offers a humane, non-lethal path forward to sustainably manage wild horses and burros in the American West.” Click here for their statement.

Return to Freedom announced that:
“This is a proposal – a first step – intended to confront the inevitable: Bureau of Land Management roundups will continue for the foreseeable future, under the law and with the support of Congress. Unwilling to let this costly stalemate continue, members from both sides of the aisle have asked RTF and others for solutions to the increasing on- and off-range population of wild horses. Maintaining the status quo will likely result in the mass killing or slaughter of wild horses.” Read more of their statement here.

However, other wild horse and burro advocacy groups expressed strong concerns and opposition to this plan citing some pros and cons in their statements, a few of which are listed below:

From American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC):
“As the nation’s largest wild horse preservation organization, we unequivocally oppose a plan by the cattlemen’s industry and two large humane organizations for the mass roundup and removal of America’s iconic wild horses and burros from our Western public lands. This plan is an irresponsible sell out of America’s wild horses and the 80 percent of Americans who want them protected in the wild.” Read more here. 

From Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF):
“Read it and weep, unproven fertility control, increased “gathers”, etc.. Circumventing ALL other Wild Horse & Burro advocacy groups these masters of donations have decided to team up with the welfare ranchers and BLM to wipe out the last of the wild ones on their rightful land. These groups are driven by money and donations, EXCLUSIVELY, and have no regard for the future of our wild herds. They have shown their true colors and it is sickening. The propaganda is posted, below!” Read the blog post here.

From Animal Wellness Action (a group lobbying on behalf of animals):
We recognize that there must be active management to address the social concerns of ranchers and other users of our public lands. Fertility control achieves the key objectives of major players with a stake in the future of wild horses and burros; it reduces reproduction and stabilizes growth and it achieves active management through humane means.

With all of that as a sad historical backdrop for this government’s ham-handed approach to handling wild horses and burros, there now comes an unnerving, naïve, and a historical proposal from two large national animal protection organizations that have made an alliance on this matter with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). Their joint proposal advocates for mass removals of tens of thousands of America’s wild mustangs and burros from federal lands on the open range, while conducting aggressive contraception for the horses and burros who would remain on our federal lands.” Read more of their position here.

The Bureau of Land Management recently reversed its 2018 wild horse and burro sales policy change which allowed a single buyer to purchase up to 24 captured wild horses (or burros) per day — no questions asked and no waiting period. That policy had left the door wide open for kill buyers and their associates to buy up horses en masse for slaughter.

The new reversal of that policy means that BLM field offices will immediately revert to the policy set in 2014 which limits buyers to purchasing no more than four wild horses or burros every six months, unless they receive special permission.

The 2005 Burns amendment had given the BLM authority to sell captured horses over the age of 10 (and those offered for adoption 3 times but never placed) which was a serious blow to efforts to protect America’s wild horse and burros. When the sales policy changed in 2018, the BLM gave a green light for federally protected animals to be sent in large numbers for slaughter in plants across our borders.

It is hoped that ongoing advocacy efforts and the number of humane alternatives the BLM could choose to manage wild horses and burros will eventually lead to ending the sale program altogether.

Continued Advocacy Efforts Are Reaching the Public Eye

Since Front Range Equine Rescue filed a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), their continued advocacy efforts have not gone unnoticed. “This Horse Rescue Group Is Fighting Back Against the BLM’s Cruel Wild Horse Sterilization Experiment” by Estelle Rayburn writes on the recent events and proposed plans of the BLM.  While the public has voiced outrage in regard to BLM’s plans to surgically sterilize the wild mares in Oregon, the BLM expects to move forward with their plans.

However, despite the continued pursuit of the surgery, horse defenders such as Front Range Equine Rescue have continued to advocate for the wild mares, filing a lawsuit against the BLM, ” contending that the harm and suffering the animals involved in the cruel experiment would surely endure would be in violation of federal law.” Continuing to pursue these surgeries in a non-sterile environment is dangerous and “violates the BLM’s congressional mandate to care for wild horses at a minimal feasible level.”

Read the Article Here

Read About the Lawsuit Here

Nonprofit Horse Rescue Group Challenges Inhumane Experimental Surgery

WASHINGTON, DC, September 25, 2018 – Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER), a national nonprofit working to end the abuse and neglect of horses through rescue, advocacy, and education, has filed suit against the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management to stop the BLM’s experimental and invasive sterilization of wild mares. The lawsuit was filed yesterday in federal court in Washington D.C.

FRER’s suit contends the BLM’s intention to conduct surgical “experimentation” on wild mares in the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in Eastern Oregon, and then return them to the range without proper oversight, causes harm and suffering in violation of federal law. FRER’s lawsuit also says the plan represents a conflict of interest and is not in the best interests of wild horses, but rather in the BLM’s own best interest by reducing their management load without considering their mandate to properly manage the horses.

The sterilizations on wild mares proposed by the BLM was originally to be carried out in collaboration with Colorado State University, which has now withdrawn its involvement. Despite this vote of nonsupport, BLM has stated its intention to move forward, with unidentified veterinarians, to perform a dangerous procedure. BLM will be removing hundreds of horses from the Warm Springs Herd Management Area and identifying selected mares for their experiment. Veterinarians will then slice open the mare’s vagina while she is sedated, but awake and standing, and pulling her ovaries out — a risky and controversial surgical procedure even for tame mares under the best of conditions, let alone captive wild horses in a holding facility. Some of the mares will be in various stages of pregnancy. After a short recovery period, some of the sterilized mares will be returned to the range for monitoring.

“Performing unproven surgeries in a non-sterile environment violates the BLM’s congressional mandate to care for wild horses at a minimal feasible level, especially when responsible alternatives like the PZP contraceptive vaccine already exist to maintain population levels and ensure herd viability,”  said Hilary Wood, President of FRER.

Earlier this year, FRER filed formal comments opposing the “research” that will be done on these conscious, wild mares. These comments – and comments submitted by more than 20,000 members of the public – were disregarded, prompting FRER to file its suit.

“These sterilization procedures are overly invasive, and they are unlikely to have applicability for mares on public lands,” said Laureen Bartfield, DVM, who volunteers with the BLM for the administration of noninvasive birth control.

“The unvisualized removal of the ovaries, while documented in the literature, is disfavored by reputable veterinarians. The BLM’s plan is not just clinically ill-advised, it constitutes animal cruelty on a large scale.”

The plans for eventual widespread sterilization of horses on the range will also run up an estimated cost to the taxpayers in the millions.

This is not the first time the BLM has pursued surgical sterilization for wild horses. Most recently, in 2016, FRER filed suit to stop a similar program; one month later, the BLM withdrew its plans.

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BLM’s Plans to Conduct Experimental Sterilization Surgeries on Wild Horses Have Been Disrupted

Late last week Colorado State University (CSU) issued a statement withdrawing from partnering with the BLM to conduct unnecessary and dangerous sterilization research on 100 wild mares in Oregon. Part of their announcement reads:

After careful consideration of multiple factors during the 30-day public comment period for the Warm Springs, Oregon, mare spay project, Colorado State University is withdrawing our partnership on the surgical spaying of mares. The project is led by the Bureau of Land Management and USGS. The decision to withdraw was made with the support of our involved researchers.

Front Range Equine Rescue had submitted comments to the BLM in opposition to the proposed plan. Dozens of other organizations and thousands of equine advocates did the same.

As of this writing, it is unclear whether the BLM will cancel their plans or seek a new partner elsewhere.

Following is some of FRER’s media coverage raising awareness of this issue prior to CSU backing out.

• One Green Planet “BLM Plans to Perform Dangerous Experimental Sterilization Surgeries on Wild Horses”
• Lady Free Thinker “This Group Plans to Sue the BLM to Stop Cruel Surgeries on Wild Horses”
• KGNU News “BLM’s plan to sterilize wild horses draws criticism, lawsuit”

Nonprofit Plans Lawsuit to Stop Inhumane, Unsafe Surgery for “Research”

Front Range Equine Rescue, a national nonprofit working to end the abuse and neglect of horses through rescue, advocacy, and education, announced today it has filed comments to stop the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management from performing dangerous experimental sterilizations on wild horses.

The BLM plans to award a research grant to Colorado State University in Fort Collins to perform experimental sterilization surgeries on pregnant and non-pregnant mares. After capturing the approximately 800 horses living in the Warm Springs herd in southeastern Oregon, 100 mares would be selected for sterilization. After a short post-operative observation period, some mares would be returned to the herd.

FRER has filed formal comments objecting to ovariectomy via colpotomy* – a potentially life-threatening surgery with a high risk of complications including prolonged bleeding, hemorrhaging, infections and sepsis, tissue myopathy, neuropathy, and pain, in addition to premature birth and abortion in pregnant mares. FRER maintains that the harm and suffering caused by these medically irresponsible surgeries violate federal law.

If FRER’s comments are disregarded, the organization plans to file suit against the BLM in federal court.

“Reputable equine veterinarians with wild horse experience object to this cruel and dangerous procedure, performed unvisualized while mares are fully conscious, because of the many serious risks during surgery or after due to complications,” said Hilary Wood, President of FRER. “There are added dangers if sterilized mares have complications after they are back in the wild. We urge the BLM to use the many available humane alternatives instead of this radical method of population control.”

The BLM has proposed permanently sterilizing wild horses several times, most recently in 2016, when it dropped its plans following a lawsuit filed by FRER and comments from more than 20,000 members of the public. In 2011, a federal court halted plans to castrate wild horses on the grounds it would be “extreme and irreversible.” In 2012, the BLM was again forced to defend similar plans in federal court, and abandoned its efforts to castrate some of Nevada’s wild horses.

* Ovariectomy via colpotomy is described by the BLM as “making an incision, approximately 1-3 centimeters long, in the anterior-dorsallateral vagina…The incision would be enlarged with blunt dissection to perforate the peritoneum and allow the surgeon’s hand to enter the abdomen.” The surgeon inserts a snare-like tool, and attempts to remove the ovaries without visualization aids, such as laparoscopy, to avoid damaging other organs or blood vessels. The procedure would be done under local anesthesia, so the mare remains awake and standing. This method of permanent sterilization, already problematic on domesticated horses in sanitary conditions such as an appropriately equipped veterinary hospital, would be performed in the field at BLM’s wild horse warehousing facilities.

Your calls, emails and other contact with Senators helped save wild horses and burros!

On June 15, we learned that the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to keep protections to stop plans for mass killing and slaughter of wild horses and burros in the Fiscal Year 2019 Interior Department budget bill.

And just as importantly, they said “NO” to allowing dangerous sterilization procedures.

A reconciliation committee will need to iron out differences between the Senate and House versions of this budget bill before the entire U.S. House and Senate vote on the overall federal budget bill for FY19.

Remember, the House of Representatives committee did not spare wild horses and burros from cruel sterilization plans.

It will be critical for wild horse and burro advocates to contact their elected officials before the final vote on the overall budget bill. It is anticipated this could happen late summer/early fall.

In the meantime, we are deeply grateful to everyone who called, emailed or met with their member(s) of Congress on this critical issue.

Will massive sterilization plans eliminate wild horses and burros from public lands as allocated to them by law?

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee has approved the Stewart Amendment in the Interior Department’s budget bill for Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19). This amendment supports sterilization for wild horses and burros using invasive, unsafe and inhumane methods (i.e., colpotomy and ovariectomy).

Any form of “spaying” a wild horse or burro is cruel, dangerous and even deadly. These animals will be highly traumatized and their health (even lives) endangered if permanent sterilization methods are allowed for their “management” by the BLM.

In 2016, advocates fought off the BLM’s attempt to use these barbaric procedures when proposed experiments were announced for wild mares in Oregon.

The only positive aspect of the current House vote is that the amendment did not call for any killing of wild horses, which is a change from last year’s approach.

The BLM has many humane management options including:

• strategies to manage the herds through expanded use of PZP, a fertility control vaccine already in use.
• improving adoptions through gentling programs.
• public-private partnerships and sanctuary.

These alternatives are safe, effective and can be further expanded upon especially with the House committee having agreed to a $15 million increase for the BLM to manage wild horses and burros.

The Senate Appropriations Committee holds the future of wild horses and burros in their hands.

Please call your Senators and politely urge them to support the humane management of wild horses and burros which does not include permanent sterilization methods for population control.

The names of your Senators and their office phone numbers are available via www.senate.gov and it is critical the final federal budget bill for FY19 does not provide for measures to have non-reproducing herds.

The Bureau of Land Management just released another disastrous plan to manage America’s treasured wild horses and burros.

Just this week the BLM released their latest agenda to destroy America’s wild horse and burro herds by decimating their populations on our Western taxpayer funded public lands. The agency failed to include the many humane and politically viable management choices requested by Congress. Instead they produced an outrageous plan which ignores massive public support for the horses, recommendations by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report which BLM itself had commissioned as well as a Unified Statement with humane and common sense recommendations supported by over 100 equine welfare and advocacy organizations.

The plan would cut wild horse and burro populations to an AML of 27,000, the number that existed in 1971 when Congress unanimously passed protections for wild horses and burros because they were “fast disappearing.” The unscientific AMLs listed are pathetically low in most Western states. For example in New Mexico, the BLM wants an AML of just 83 horses when the state has more than 14 million acres of BLM-managed public land.

The NAS report even stated the BLM’s AML levels are “not transparent to stakeholders, supported by scientific information, or amenable to adaptation with new information and environmental and social change.”

To achieve their manage-to-extinction goal, the BLM has proposed a variety of cruel, unscientific and completely unacceptable methods including:

Removing more than 50,000 wild horses and burros from the range;
The mass killing or sale for slaughter of up to 100,000 mustangs and burros, including those currently in holding facilities and those to be removed from the public lands;
Mass sterilization of wild horses and burros left on the range — an option previously rejected by the NAS due to suggested dangerous sterilization methods.
BLM’s decades long mismanagement of the Wild Horse and Burro program led to their budget problems in the first place. Yet they continue proposing more abusive plans, including mass roundups and slaughter to hide years of incompetence while catering to powerful and wealthy special interests which are against the wild horses and burros.

Legislation-wise nothing new should happen until October 2018 when the FY2019 federal budget could be voted on. In the meantime, the BLM continues to promote their “overpopulation” and “dire situation” propaganda to lawmakers. Lawmakers need to be educated now that cries of overpopulation are wrong when speaking about wild horses and burros. Livestock dominate and destroy our public lands outnumbering horses at times by 50:1. Many wild horse herds are not large enough to be considered genetically viable.

Estimates of up to 75,000 wild horses and burros on public lands are nothing compared to the millions of head of private (and corporate) livestock damaging and overgrazing our public lands.

It should be noted that wild horses and burros in holding cost about $50 million annually while livestock grazing on public lands costs taxpayers $144 million with a net loss of at least $123 million per year according to the Government Accountability Office.

Keep Dirty Politics Out of Wild Horse and Burro Lives!

In 2017, the BLM’s war against wild horses and burros escalated further with the current administration proposed “cut and kill” policy to manage wild horses and burros of the West.

With overcrowded government holding facilities and plans to decrease the BLM’s budget, opponents of wild horses increased political pressure to allow unlimited sale, mass killing and slaughter of at least 44,000 wild horses.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved this measure in its version of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposed budget bill. The U.S. Senate did not include approval in its version of the same budget bill. Both bills must be reconciled before a new FY2018 federal budget can pass.

At this time, the FY18 budget bill has been delayed numerous times for a final vote. But the current administration’s suggested budget bill for Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) would allow the destruction of wild horses.

The BLM claims its holding facilities are beyond capacity and its largest expense is to feed captive horses. Ironically it continues to remove horses (and burros) to the tune of millions of dollars in taxpayer money keeping its cycle of budget crisis going.

Winter roundups to date have resulted in dozens of injured horses with at least 13 deaths by early February. Witnesses to brutal winter roundups have documented horses in very good body condition which contradicts the BLM’s ongoing excuse of “starving on the range” as a reason for roundups.

It is up to the American public to stand up for wild horse and burro protections allocated to the horses by law. Congress needs to hear from voters that they oppose any legislation which allows unlimited sale, mass killing or slaughter of these national treasures, our icons of the West.

The BLM’s budget should focus on appropriate management on the range strategies, increased public-private partnerships, expanded safe/effective population control (PZP use) and gentling programs to help increase adoption rates and success for captured horses.

Last week’s meeting of the BLM’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board resulted in the following recommendations:

1. phase out all wild horses and burros in long-term holding facilities within 3 years;
2. achieve an on-the-range population goal of 26,715 wild horses and burros within 3 years (meaning tens of thousands would have to be killed);
3. allow international adoptions and sales (which have never been allowed). Several board members repeatedly referenced a proposal to ship 20,000+ wild horses to Russia to serve as prey for big cats. U.S. taxpayers would fund the cost to ship the horses to Russia.

If Congress allows the BLM to follow through on the board’s recommendations, the government could be killing off at least 90,000 healthy animals.

This isn’t the first time a majority of the BLM’s advisory board has made irresponsible and inhumane recommendations. We must ensure it is the last!

It is not too late to send your own written comments pertaining to the October 18-19, 2017 Advisory Board meeting.

Our tax dollars should never support the mass killing (or any inhumane killing) of America’s wild horses and burros!

The BLM needs to manage budget cuts with practical, humane solutions which include alternatives such as:

• Management on the range utilizing the millions of acres of public lands allocated to them by law;
• Reintroducing captured horses to previously zeroed out areas;
• Moratorium on further roundups and allocate funds to humane, safe population control (PZP which has a proven success rate and has been under-utilized by the BLM);
• Allocate more funds to gentling/training programs to increase adoption rates;
• Increase the number of public-private partnerships based on successful models already working.

Mail comments to the National Wild Horse and Burro Program,WO-260, Attention: Ramona DeLorme, 1340 Financial Boulevard, Reno, NV 89502-7147.

You can also email to: [email protected].
Please include “Advisory Board Comment” in the subject line of the email.

Continue to speak up for wild horses and burros to Congress.

Contact the Senate Appropriations Committee members to oppose any language in the FY2018 Interior Department’s budget bill which would allow unlimited sale, killing or slaughter of wild horses and burros.

The markup on this bill is coming anytime now (it has been postponed several times already).

Committee members can be reached via https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/about/members?inf_contact_key=0d8c756daa927097ab1844b3ca80559460643499280535dd5dfec446d917d3aa

We commend Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF) for their multi-year investigation into the BLM’s short- and long-term holding facilities.

The link below reveals details of wild horse (and burro) records which tell a chilling truth for those in captivity. In short, the numbers claimed to be in holding do not match up with those viewed and recorded, at times less than half for some locations.

Click here to review the White Paper details — pay close attention to affidavits by Debbie Coffey and R.T. Fitch of WHFF.

And be sure to download the Exhibit section where Exhibits 9 and 10 reveal the disturbing details of mortality at two facilities, including deaths due to broken necks, gelding complications, respiratory issues, strangles, and more.

America’s wild horses and burros do not belong in captivity. They can be successfully managed on the range where millions of acres have been allocated for their use by law (1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act).

The current government intends to destroy what’s left of wild horse (and burro) herds in captivity and on the range through a horrific proposal in the Interior Department FY2018 budget bill. The plan is to allow unlimited sale (to slaughter) and killing of the animals as a way to balance the BLM’s budget.

Congress needs to hear from everyone now to stop this reckless and inhumane plan.

Tell your elected officials (2 U.S. Senators and 1 U.S. House Rep) to vote “no” on the Interior Department’s appropriations bill for 2018 if it contains language to allow unlimited sale, slaughter and/or killing of wild horses and burros.

Reach them via the U.S. Capitol operator at 202-224-3121.

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) – A federal breeding program for wild horses whose ancestors “helped settle the West” will reduce herds’ genetic health and create a “zoo-like atmosphere,” horse-lovers claim in Federal Court.

Front Range Equine Rescue sued the Bureau of Land Management and the Interior Board of Land Appeals on Wednesday, in Federal Court, in a new twist in long-running legal battles over the management of the West’s wild horses.

In May 2014 the BLM sought to “artificially” create a mustang breeding pool in the Kiger and Riddle Mountain herd management areas, about 50 miles south of Burns, Ore., Front Range says in the complaint.

The Kiger herd area spans 62,992 acres in eastern Oregon, and its herd typically ranges from 51 to 82 wild horses. The Riddle Mountain herd has 33 to 56 wild horses.

In July and August 2015, Front Range says, the BLM rounded up all the wild and free-roaming horses in the areas.

Read the full article at courthousenews.com

Engaging in Illegal Breeding Operation

BEND, Ore., July 9, 2015 – Efforts to protect wild horses on public lands intensified as Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER), a national nonprofit working to end the abuse and neglect of horses, today appealed a federal agency decision to round up and remove wild horses from their homeland in Eastern Oregon.

FRER contends that BLM is engaging in an illegal breeding operation, and that removing these horses from their native rangeland will impact critical genetic diversity and reduce herd populations to dangerously low levels, in violation of federal law.

As early as this month, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to round up wild horses from a small population in Eastern Oregon’s Kiger and Riddle Mountain Herd Management Areas. After the BLM contractor’s low-flying helicopters round up the herds of approximately 237 horses, the majority will be removed to BLM holding facilities. Approximately 80 will be released, resulting in diminished herds with insufficient genetic diversity which threatens the horses’ survival.

In its appeal, filed with the Department of the Interior’s Board of Land Appeals, FRER says the BLM’s calculated breeding efforts irreparably damage the Kiger and Riddle Mountain herds, and violate the language and spirit of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which gave the BLM a mandate to protect the health and welfare of all wild horse herds on public lands.

The Kiger and Riddle Mountain regions are home to Kiger mustangs, a famous and unique strain thought to be partly descended from horses brought to the West by Spaniards. Horse aficionados value Kiger mustangs for their distinctive coloring and characteristics. Kiger mustangs are popular at BLM auctions, sales, and adoption events. The BLM typically returns some Kiger mustangs to the rangelands to continue their desirable traits in the breeding population. However, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act does not permit greater protections for Kiger mustangs than it does for other wild horses.

“The roundup and removal of horses from these herd management areas is a misguided attempt to create and control a narrow selective breeding stock of Kiger mustangs, while removing less genetically desirable non-Kiger mustangs from the herds,” said Hilary Wood, President of FRER. “Returning only a small number of horses to the range is far less than what the BLM’s own policies state is a healthy size for a normally reproducing herd – a move that can only harm the herds’ chances of survival.”

BLM management guidelines say that a healthy herd size to ensure genetic diversity is around 200 horses. Herd sizes for the Kiger and Riddle Mountain Herd Management Areas have been set at 51-82 and 33-56 respectively, far smaller than required to maintain genetic viability.

“Reducing the population to the very bottom threshold of the BLM’s recommended management levels, and well below what it knows is necessary for genetic diversity, will be catastrophic for this population,” said Wood. “At a time when Oregon state officials are taking action to improve genetic diversity of other wildlife, these planned BLM roundups will vastly reduce the overall wild horse population in these areas and be disastrous to herd health over time.”

A copy of the appeal is available upon request.

About Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER)

Front Range Equine Rescue, based in Larkspur, CO, is a 501c3 nonprofit working to end abuse and neglect of wild and domestic horses through rescue and education. Since 1997, FRER has assisted thousands of horses through its rescue and educational programs. Many of FRER’s rescued horses are obtained directly from livestock auctions and feed lots, and would have been shipped to slaughter without FRER’s intervention. Through its legal advocacy, FRER has effectively prevented horses from being slaughtered for human food in the U.S., and is actively involved in preventing unnecessary and unlawful roundups or removal of wild horses and burros from public lands. For more information see www.frontrangeequinerescue.org.

BLM recently issued a notice that it had reached a final decision to gather and remove wild horses from the Kiger and Riddle Mountain Herd Management Areas in Oregon. These Herd Management Areas in Oregon are home to the unique Kiger Mustang, as well as other wild horses. According to BLM’s plan, there are over 150 “excess” wild horses in those areas who must be gathered by helicopter, permanently removed from the range.

When selecting the wild horses for removal, BLM plans to exclude those horses who exemplify the desirable physical and conformation characteristics of the Kiger Mustang. BLM’s intention is to remove from public lands a large number of wild horses who do not fit the Kiger Mustang profile. This action is highly problematic because it is intentionally reducing the genetic diversity of wild horses in these herd management areas and essentially creating a breeding stock of Kiger horses, who themselves may ultimately be gathered and sold at adoption auctions from which BLM benefits. Because the herds in these areas are already small, there is a concern that gathering and removing the genetically diverse horses leaves the remaining herds vulnerable to genetic diversity degradation.

When the agency issued its proposed decision and the accompanying environmental assessment determination, Front Range Equine Rescue filed comments stating that the last genetic study on these herds was completed in 2012 and that current information was necessary to determine whether BLM’s action was jeopardizing the genetic health of these populations. FRER also noted that BLM has a statutory mandate to protect all wild horses, not just the Kiger Mustang, and that BLM is required by law to manage wild horses to preserve and protect them in their natural state; selectively removing wild horses to produce a Kiger breeding stock is not minimal management, is not protection of the wild horses, and does not comply with BLM’s obligations under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. The agency received FRER’s comments but has decided to proceed with its planned roundup and removal. Because the agency’s plan does not comply with the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, Front Range Equine Rescue has now appealed the agency’s final decision to the Interior Board of Land Appeals.

November 9, 2010 – By the Star-Tribune Staff

FRER Investigator’s Report of a Roundup in Nevada

FRER’s investigator sent us photos and reported the following, from witnessing a roundup in Nevada during September – witnessed at the holding pens:
“…here you will find the frightened, traumatized horses I had just witnessed being rounded up a few hours before. They had been transported many miles from the site to Litchfield. No vet was there to care for them.

Mustang slayings in Nevada (February 2006)

On Febuary 14, a woman trapper and her son came upon a grisly scene near Gerlach, NV. They had noticed a thrashing out in the sagebrush a few hundred yards from the road. Upon investigation, they found two wild horses in extreme agony and in their death throes. A white mare had aborted her foal, then died after thrashing in the sagebrush. A stallion struggled to get to his feet, but death also overtook him. The mare had been shot several times in the head, bleeding profusely. The small creek nearby ran red with the blood from the horses. Another mare had also been shot and was located hundreds of yards north of the other two. The small band of remaining horses risked their lives by not fleeing the scene; they stood nearby watching their family members die.

For a brief time a reward was offered for information on this crime. To date it remains unsolved. In 2006 and 2007, reports of wild horses being shot and left to die in Arizona and Utah had been reported.

Evidence of the slaughter – photos of the mare that aborted her foal and the stallion – these photos are graphic and disturbing – click here to view.

Pryors Lawsuit (2009)

Front Range Equine Rescue joined plaintiffs The Cloud Foundation and Carol Walker to bring a lawsuit due to BLM’s decision to roundup the Pryor Mountain herd in September of 2009. Attorneys Valerie Stanley & Bruce Wagman continue to work hard on this case, which seeks to raise the appropriate management level of the herd (now stands at 90-120 horses). The Forest Service currently denies wild horse use in the Custer National Forest and erected a 2 mile-long fence to block the horses from using that crucial grazing ground. The judge ruled against the plaintiffs in this case; careful consideration was given to filing an appeal. It was decided to utilize legal arguments and limited funds to a future lawsuit on behalf of this herd.

Pryors Lawsuit (2006)

Our lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service continues. The Court has ruled that our claims against the Forest Service are barred by the statute of limitations. The Forest Service issued its Forest Plan in 1987, limiting the geographic areas of lands under its jurisdiction in which it would legally recognize the right of horses to occupy. The Forest Service claimed that since suit was not brought within 6 years of 1987, these claims cannot be heard. Besides the fact that none of the plaintiff organizations were even in existence in 1987, much less affected by the ruling then, we also argued that the Forest Service failed to recognize additional areas of wild horse historical use at the passage of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act and that, since the agency has failed to act, the statute of limitations should not bar this suit. Our claims against the Forest Service can be reviewed on appeal, at the conclusion of the case.

What remains pending is the portion of our suit against the BLM. The government has submitted all the documents that were before the BLM when it made its decision. Included in this are charts showing exactly how each wild horse has been affected by PZP. The government and plaintiffs are submitting legal memorandum supporting their positions and referencing these documents. These will be filed by mid March.

To learn the facts about how the government is systematically destroying our wild horse and burro herds…we highly recommend the following reading: “Managing for Extinction” and/or Hope Ryden’s “America’s Last Wild Horses”.

“America’s Last Wild Horses”

On July 7, 2006, The Cloud Foundation and Front Range Equine Rescue filed a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service with regard to protecting America’s most famous wild horse herd (“Cloud’s herd”) in the Pryor Mountains of Montana.

Update: The U.S. Forest Service filed to be dismissed from the complaint. A judge has yet to hear this argument. The entire complaint has been held up in the (lack of) judicial process.

In spite of protests from wild horse advocates to preserve Cloud’s head – below are excerpts from a letter, dated 6/29/06, from Sandra Brooks, Field Manager, BLM:

“In order to manage for healthy horses on healthy rangelands, I have made the decision to use fertility control vaccine on all mares 11 years of age and older (24 mares in 2006) on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range (PMWHR). Seven mares 16 years of age and older have already been treated with the Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) vaccine and would continue to receive annual boosters for the remainder of their lives. Thirteen mares 12-15 years of age have also been treated and would continue to receive annual boosters throughout 2010. All mares that are 11 years of age would be added to the treatment program each year. Fertility control applications are scheduled to begin no earlier then July 10th, 2006, and may continue through September 30th, 2006.”

Update: 19 horses were captured and put up for adoption through a sealed bid process. FRER was able to adopt two of the yearling colts. Five bachelor stallions, including Cloud’s half brother, were unadopted. But through efforts by FRER and The Cloud Foundation, these 5 stallions have been adopted between the two groups and another individual in 2007.

Visit the Wild Horse Preservation Organization for more details.