Save Wild Horses from Devastating Government Roundup

Dear John,

The Bureau of Land Management--the federal agency that manages most of America's wild horses--is proposing to dramatically reduce the number of iconic wild horses in Wyoming's "checkerboard" region and potentially eliminate a large portion of their designated habitat.

The BLM recently released its Environmental Assessment for removing wild horses in the Salt Wells Creek, Great Divide Basin, White Mountain, Adobe Town, and Little Colorado Herd Management Areas (HMAs) (DOI-BLM-WY-D040-2020-0005-EA) within this region. Under this plan, an estimated 3,555 wild horses--40 percent of the state's population--would be permanently removed from the range and funneled into an already broken and fiscally irresponsible warehousing system.

This follows upon last year's BLM proposal to remove a staggering 2.5 million acres of wild horse habitat from the checkerboard region and "zero out" the Salt Wells Creek, Great Divide Basin, and White Mountain HMAs--meaning all horses would be removed and their designated habitat eliminated. The BLM would also potentially remove all horses from the famed Wild Horse Viewing Loop area, a popular tourist attraction. The BLM agreed to consider these actions in a settlement agreement with the Rock Springs Grazing Association, a livestock industry group that manages a minority portion of the region's private land.

TAKE ACTION

What You Can Do
The BLM is accepting public comments on the Wyoming checkerboard round-up plan until Friday, April 30. Please visit eplanning.blm.gov to submit your comments to the agency. Once on the site, click on "participate now." We've included talking points below that you may wish to include in your comments.

Thank you in advance for your help and for all you do for animals!

Sincerely,

Joanna Grossman, PhD

Equine Program Manager

Talking Points

Wild horses are federally protected animals under the landmark Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The BLM is charged with preserving them on the range in their natural habitats, and protecting these animals from harassment and death.
Under the Environmental Assessment, roughly 3,555 wild horses--40 percent of Wyoming's total wild horse population--would be permanently removed from the range. This is consistent with last year's ill-conceived proposal to eliminate 2.5 million acres of habitat and zero out several Herd Management Areas.
Rounding up horses via helicopter drive trapping is inhumane. During a 2014 checkerboard roundup, several horses died after breaking their necks. Injuries and deaths occur routinely as a result of such helicopter roundups, during which horses are chased and driven to the point of extreme exhaustion.
The BLM's plan, without any scientific justification, would funnel a large number of wild horses into an already unsustainable warehousing system that costs American taxpayers an estimated $60 million each year.
The agency has failed to fully consider the negative impacts of removing wild horses from the Wild Horse Scenic Loop--a popular and significant tourism draw in the region.
Rather than permanently removing large numbers of wild horses from the range, the BLM should focus on keeping these horses in their natural habitats by implementing humane and scientifically proven fertility control methods--namely the PZP immunocontraceptive vaccine, which enjoys broad public support and has been used effectively for decades.
While the BLM will treat some horses with immunocontraceptive vaccines, the agency's plan to also insert IUDs in approximately 290 mares raises concerns since, by the BLM's own admission, these devices are untested as a form of fertility control for wild horses.
The BLM has been under pressure from certain livestock industry stakeholders to remove wild horses from the checkerboard region, which consists of alternating public and privately owned allotments. In 2016, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling on wild horse management in the region, finding that the BLM violated the law by removing wild horses on public land to satisfy private landowners who did not want the horses straying onto their property--in effect, treating public lands as if they were private.

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Photo by Andy Murch