Join Petition to Halt Devastating Wild Horse Roundup
Dear John,
The Bureau of Land Management--the federal agency that manages the vast majority of America's wild horses--is gearing up for what would likely be the largest roundup in agency history, decimating the wild horse population of Wyoming's Checkerboard region.
A staggering 3,555 wild horses would be removed--nearly half of Wyoming's wild horse population. During roundups, helicopters chase and stampede panicked horses; these brutal operations come at enormous taxpayer expense and regularly result in injuries and deaths to these federally protected icons of the West.
The Checkerboard roundup--slated to begin later this week--is occurring due to pressure from powerful livestock grazing interests that want horses removed from the landscape.
Herds in the Checkerboard are popular tourist draws: The region's Pilot Butte Wild Horses Scenic Loop is touted by the local travel and tourism board as "the best chance to see" wild horses and "proof that the American spirit still thrives here."
The BLM's eradication plan would, in fact, make it very difficult for tourists to spot any wild horses in this expansive region. The agency is aiming to reduce herds to the low end of an arbitrarily established "appropriate management level," leaving just 1,550 wild horses across over 3.4 million acres of Herd Management Areas--or one horse for every 2,217 acres of land designated for their use.