Protecting America's Wild Horses: A Call to Action

Photos by Krisztina Gayler & BLM

Each year, the government uses low-flying helicopters to stampede federally-protected wild horses and burros from their high desert homes into traps. The roundups traumatize, injure, and kill wild horses and shatter their tightly-knit families. Thousands are removed from their homes on the range every year to make room for taxpayer-subsidized livestock grazing on federal lands.

Some captured wild horses make their way into the slaughter pipeline. Most are warehoused for life in holding facilities. Today, as many wild horses are held captive as remain free on the range.

This treatment is far below the standard Americans expect for our national icons.

The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign) is leading the charge to stop the roundups and implement humane management programs that keep wild horses and burros wild and free on our public lands in the West. We are backed by a powerful grassroots base and top-notch legal and public affairs teams.

If anyone can change this cruel and wasteful government program, we can! But we need your help to do it. All donations, no matter the size, truly make a difference!

Model Humane Management Program: IMPLEMENTED

We are implementing community-based programs in Nevada for the humane management of wild horses to humanely control their numbers with birth control and keep them out of harm's way. These programs are establishing a model that shows such programs can work to keep wild horses and burros wild.

• We're keeping mustangs in the Virginia Range near Reno safe and out of harm's way through a program implemented with our local coalition partners through a cooperative agreement with the Nevada Department of Agriculture. It's making a difference! Our diversionary feeding and fencing projects are keeping horses out of housing developments and roadways. With an estimated 2,000 wild horses on over 200,000 acres of land, by next year, this will be the largest humane management program of its kind in the world.
• Our birth control program being implemented with the Bureau of Land Management and the community organization, Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates, is keeping a group of wild horse families safe and on the range in the Fish Springs area of Gardnerville.

Rancher Anti-Mustang Lawsuits: DISMISSED

AWHC has successfully intervened in anti-mustang lawsuits by ranchers against the BLM in Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah. So far, we have convinced federal courts to dismiss two of these lawsuits, which seek the removal of thousands of federally-protected wild horses from public lands.

Our strategic litigation program has already stopped the BLM from eradicating wild horses from a Nevada public land area and from surgically sterilizing wild free-roaming horses on the range. We have a track record of success defending wild horses and burros against rancher attacks and destructive government policies.

Cruelty of Government Wild Horse and Burro Program: EXPOSED

Although 3 out of 4 Americans support protecting wild horses on our public land, most Americans don't know what's happening to these national icons. AWHC has been on the frontlines in exposing the true cost of the federal roundup and stockpile program - the first step in securing change. In 2016, we:

• Forced the BLM to allow the public to observe all 19 days of a massive helicopter roundup that took place in Oregon in November. The agency had intended to restrict public viewing to just 3 days, but caved after receiving a letter from our attorneys.
• Exposed the previously unreported deaths of at least 86 wild horses in BLM holding pens after they were rounded up from federal lands in Wyoming last year. (Read more in the Daily Beast).
• Ensured that the national media covered the story of the BLM's illegal sale of 1,780 federally-protected wild horses for slaughter in Mexico.
• Filed eyewitness reports on key government roundups and BLM advisory board meetings.

Grassroots: MOBILIZED

The driving force behind the removal of wild horses and burros from our public lands is the livestock industry, which is a powerful lobby in Washington. Only the power of the people can defeat such wealthy special interests - that's why we've been steadily building the grassroots army of citizens willing to speak up for mustangs and burros. In 2016, we:

• Delivered over 40,000 petition signatures to BLM advisory board meetings in Oregon, Wyoming, and Nevada.
• Generated over 450,000 emails and petition signatures in favor of wild horse and burro protection.
• Increased our supporter base by over 50,000 citizens.
• Expanded our Facebook presence to 450,000.

Consumer Pressure: UNLEASHED

After working for years to change government policy by contacting our legislators, we are starting to unleash our consumer power to secure fairer and more humane treatment of wild horses and burros. We've discovered that some of the ranchers lobbying for massive wild horse roundups are suppliers of "humane" and "grass-fed" beef to Whole Foods! Our campaign to get Whole Foods to adopt Mustang Safe policies when sourcing the beef it sells is gaining momentum. It's a direct, consumer and market-driven way to let our government, livestock operators, and grocery chains like Whole Foods know that Americans want our wild horses and burros protected, not driven off our public lands to make room for taxpayer-subsidized livestock grazing.

Salt River Wild Horses: ROUNDUP HALTED

We are providing our local coalition partner, the Arizona-based Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, with strategic, political, and grassroots support in the effort to save the unique Salt River wild horses, who live in the Tonto National Forest near Phoenix, Arizona. So far, our collaborative efforts have prevented the Forest Service from rounding up these horses, and we continue to work with the SRWHMG, the Arizona Congressional delegation, the State of Arizona, and the U.S. Forest Service to secure lasting protections for these amazing horses in their historic habitat in the national forest.