Statement to the Advisory Board on Wild Horse Preservation

Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign), delivers a compelling statement to the Advisory Board, emphasizing the need for humane treatment of wild horses and critiquing the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) policies.

I’m Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign). Our grassroots efforts are endorsed by a national coalition of more than 60 organizations.

I’ve come today to deliver the signatures of more than 40,000 Americans on a petition protesting the BLM’s proposed roundup and removal of more than 800 wild horses from the Adobe Town, Salt Wells, and Divide Basin HMAs in southern Wyoming.

These signatures were collected in just over a month, a testament to the strong public support and growing strength of the grassroots movement demanding fairer and more humane treatment for our nation’s wild horses and burros.

I’m also here to deliver a strong message to the BLM, the Advisory Board, and other officials that the days of this agency catering to a small group of ranchers at the expense of the public—and our wild horses—are coming to an end.

National polls demonstrate that while 72% of Americans support preserving wild horses on our public lands, less than one-third of the public wants those same lands used for livestock grazing.

Yet it is the livestock industry—not the American public—that sets the agenda for the BLM.

Here in Wyoming, livestock vastly outnumber wild horses, grazing on more than 18 million acres of BLM land versus just 3.6 million acres for wild horses.

Fewer than 4,000 wild horses remain in the state at a density of 1 horse per 900 acres—hardly an overpopulation problem. In Adobe Town, Salt Wells, and Divide Basin, under 2,000 wild horses roam on a vast 2 million-acre landscape.

80% of BLM lands grazed by livestock in Wyoming have nothing to do with wild horses, so why the hyper-focus on their population numbers? It’s a coordinated effort on the part of the ranchers to divert attention away from the real problem—the widespread destruction of our public lands caused by intensive livestock grazing.

In Adobe Town, Salt Wells, and Divide Basin, the BLM has scheduled a roundup despite the fact that the wild horse populations in the three HMAs are not even above AML. Marching to the orders of the Rock Springs Grazing Association, the agency is proceeding without any analysis or opportunity for public input, in flagrant violation of both NEPA and the Wild Horse Act.

For the 40,000 citizens who signed the petition against the roundup, this is personal. They care deeply about how our public lands are managed. They care deeply about our wild horses and burros and are pained by the tragic and unnecessary deaths of 75 of them in Kansas this month.

Your board has heard directly from more than 6,000 citizens urging you to take a stand in favor of humane reform. Will you listen?

Our public lands belong to all Americans, and the voices of the American public can no longer be ignored.