Summer 2014: Final Wipeout of the Historic Wild Horses of the Sheldon Wildlife Refuge

Their ancestors fought for our nation as cavalry mounts in battles through World War I, but that history means nothing to the U.S. Department of the Interior and its Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), whichintends to launch its final assaulton the wild horses and burros of the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada during the summer of 2014.

July 14-18, 2014: 70 remaining burros in Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge will be rounded up via helicopter stampede.

August 2014:The last of the approximately 420 horses in Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge will be rounded up via helicopter stampede.

Access to observe theseroundupswill be provided if citizens fill out the application. For more information on the application, click here.

Update on the Sheldon Roundup by Bonnie Kohleriter, August 11, 2014

Sheldon Cancels Contract With Slaughter Middleman

American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) has confirmed that the Sheldon Refuge – under intense pressure fromCongressand the public -- recently cancelled its contract with slaughter middleman Stan Palmer. Between 2010 and 2013, the FWS paid Palmer nearly $1 million to giveaway 507 captured Sheldon horses in Mississippi. Dozens of these horses were sold into the slaughter pipeline, hundreds more are unaccounted for and believed to have been sold for slaughter as well. This occurred despite the FWS professed commitment to placing Sheldon horses into “quality and long-term homes.” Read more about Stan Palmerhere.

The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) is now calling onCongressto continue its oversight of the FWS by ensuring that any horses and burros removed from Sheldon in the summer of 2014 be placed with legitimate adoption contractors. In addition, the FWS must not remove horses than can be placed with such contractor and adoption requirements must be tightened to mirror those of its sister agency, the Bureau of Land Management.

Veteran Calls Feds’ Treatment of Sheldon Horses “Disgraceful”

As news that Sheldon had scheduled its last assault on wild horses and burros, native Nevadan, noted Reno-area pediatrician and Vietnam veteran Patrick Colletti, M.D. released a statement characterizing as “shameful” the federal government’s treatment of the historic Sheldonmustangs.“It is a disgrace to all veterans that these horses, whose forebears suffered so much and saved so many soldiers’ lives, should be summarily removed from a lifetime home and then probably killed like so much scrap.”

Read more about Sheldon Refuge wild horse wipeout and the American Wild Horse Conservation’s fight against ithere.