30 miles east of Cedarville, CA, is the Massacre Lake Herd Management Area in Washoe County, NV. This 40,000-acre parcel of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is home to a wild horse herd that is about 160-180 head. For 25 years, this herd has been untouched and left to roam the vast acreage of their range land.

Today, the BLM is considering a plan that could devastate this herd. At the urging of a local rancher who wishes to graze his livestock on this piece of our public lands system, the BLM is in the process of creating a management plan for the Massacre Lake Herd Management Area that could require the number of wild horses to be reduced to 25-45 animals. This would entail rounding up the herd, separating mares from foals and stallions from their bands and sending these disbanded and shattered lives on to government holding facilities or adoption auctions. That plan would allow for the grazing of 140 privately-owned cow/calf pairs on that same land. Under this plan, a private rancher will benefit from land that is managed with our tax dollars, while our wild horses would be traumatized during a cruel roundup with too few horses remaining on the range to be genetically viable.

The BLM is considering public comments on this plan and TODAY, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, is the last day to weigh in. Please email the BLM field office in Surprise, CA, today and ask them to either leave the wild horses in tact or to consider “Option 4” which would leave 100-120 wild horses on the range. These are our public lands and our nation’s wild horses are part of our living history. They deserve a permanent home on the western landscape. Private interest should not come before our wildlife and natural resources.

Please be a voice for the horses today!

Email the BLM Field Office: casrpubcom@blm.gov.