AWHC’s Call for Bold Reforms in Wild Horse Management At Bureau of Land Management's Advisory Board Meeting

Suzanne Roy, AWHC Executive Director, called on the BLM Advisory Board to adopt humane, sustainable solutions for wild horse management, emphasizing the success of AWHC’s fertility control programs, which delivered over 10,000 treatments. She urged the board to reduce reliance on roundups and reinstate grants for nonprofit fertility control initiatives.

I’m Suzanne Roy, Executive Director of American Wild Horse Conservation.

The first time I attended an advisory board meeting was in 2009. A lot has changed in our country since then, the BLM wild horse roundup program remains largely the same.

When I joined AWHC in 2012, I knew the decades-long controversy over wild horse management couldn’t be solved by simply demanding change. We had to prove it was possible.

So we invested in fertility control. In Nevada’s Virginia Range, we created the largest wild horse fertility control program in the world. In Utah’s Cedar Mountains, we partnered with the BLM and local permittees to dart nearly 50 mares this year, proving that even the wildest herds can be darted. In the Pine Nut HMA, we’re doing the same. Over the past five years, AWHC has delivered over 10,000 fertility control treatments—more than twice what the BLM accomplished in the same period.

We’ve also embraced collaboration as a path to change. In Colorado, we worked to pass legislation to create a diverse working group to develop humane on and off range solutions. And we’re looking to expand that model to other states. 

You’ll hear more from our team  on these and other issues later. 

Today, there are over 66,000 wild horses and burros in holding facilities, yet the roundups continue unabated. Right now at Fish Creek, BLM is rounding up horses that we could have prevented from being born had BLM accepted our fully funded fertility control proposal five years ago. The need to flip the management model remains as clear today as when I attended that first advisory board meeting.

AWHC urges this board to recommend bold reforms. Let’s prioritize humane, sustainable, and cost-effective methods that reflect the values of the American people. AWHC stands ready to assist in every way possible to achieve that goal.

And finally, we request you to recommend that BLM continue its grants program to non profits to continue and expand fertility control darting programs which are more cost effective than roundup based initiatives. Apparently BLM will not be making more grants available.

Thank you for your time.