BLM Urged to Send Beloved Group of Wild Horses to Sanctuary

BLM Urged to Send Beloved Group of Wild Horses to Sanctuary Where Family Can Remain Together

Carson City, Nevada – March 12, 2013 – Today, as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced plans to auction off a family of wild horses recently captured in a Herd Management Area outside of Carson City, Nevada, local community members are calling on the BLM to send the horses to a private sanctuary in California – rather than break up the family and sell off the horses individually.

Short of returning the small family of horses to the range, the local community endorses the plan which has been secured by the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation), a national coalition, to send the whole family to a 2,000-acre sanctuary in northern California dedicated to wild horses. At the sanctuary, the horses can remain together and live wild for the rest of their lives.

“In the event that the BLM refuses to return this family to the range, we call on the agency to repair the damage it has done to the community by working with us to send this family to a sanctuary where they can remain together and wild for the rest of their lives,” said Annie Jantzen, a Carson City resident who has led a large group of community members advocating for the horses.

Two days after the horses were captured on February 27, AWHC wrote to the BLM offering to purchase all of the horses in order to keep the family together at the sanctuary. The BLM expressed interest in working with AWHC, however soon reversed course and moved ahead with plans to individually sell the animals at auction.

“We are disappointed that, after initially agreeing to work with us to place this group of beloved horses in a sanctuary, the BLM is now proceeding with a silent bidding process that will make it impossible to ensure that the horses remain together,” said Deniz Bolbol, AWHC communications director. “The agency is making a bad situation worse by continuing to refuse to work with the community.”

Recently the Humane Society of the U.S (HSUS) joined the call for the release of the small family of wild horses to the range. The AWHC has outlined the BLM’s erroneous rational for removing the horses and the opportunities to work with the local community to safely return the horses to the range.

The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation) (AWHC) is a coalition of more than 50 horse advocacy, public interest, and conservation organizations dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come.