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“Wild horses are living things who have a right to coexist in what is a vast landscape, which is the American West. Let’s do something about this.” — Viggo Mortensen
Tell Congress: Say ‘No’ to Budget Proposals that Threaten Wild Horses
Calico Stallion- Captured Photo: Lisa Dearing
America’s wild horses and burros need your voice. On May 23, President Donald Trump released a 2018 budget proposal that includes provisions that place thousands of captured wild horses and burros at grave risk of taxpayer-funded euthanasia and of being sold to kill buyers. For more information about the budget proposals, please click here. We must urge our representatives to pursue humane, on-the-range management solutions. These include the use of safe, proven fertility control in combination with revisiting population targets based on a fair interpretation of multiple-use land management, providing incentives for ranchers who reduce livestock grazing in wild horse Herd Management Areas. and improving range stewardship.
Urgent update: Key committee votes are approaching. Please call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, ask to be connected to your legislators, then politely urge your representative and senators to:
* Support the horse slaughter defund amendment, which will continue the ban on horse slaughter;
* Oppose any budget provision that would allow the Bureau of Land Management to kill wild horses or to remove sale restrictions that would open the door for BLM to sell horses and burros to someone who would sell them for slaughter.
End Horse Slaughter, for Good
Both America’s wild and domestic horses still face the threat of slaughter just over our borders in Canada and Mexico. Although there are no horse slaughter facilities currently operating in the United States, the slaughter industry continues to try and regain its foothold on U.S. soil.
Until federal legislation is passed once and for all to ban the sale and transport of horses for the purpose of slaughter, America’s horses continue to suffer. From the farm to the battlefield, horses have been mankind’s companion in nearly every human endeavor. Now they need our help.
Stand with us: Sign our petition in support of the SAFE Act, which would ban slaughter and the transport of horses for slaughter.
Wild on the Range: Let’s Manage Horses Humanely, Where They Belong
The tools needed to provide America’s wild horses and burros with a proud, sustainable future on the range have long existed. It’s time to end an outdated, inhumane system of capturing and warehousing these national icons at a cost far too high for wild horse herds and taxpayers alike. It’s time to double down on humane solutions, spare wild horses and burros from needless suffering, and save money over the long run.
Stand with the herds: Sign our Wild on the Range petition.
Learn More About:
Wild Horse issues
Horse Slaughter
Roundups
Population Management
RTF suggested Reforms to BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program
Featured News & Advocacy
Wild Horse Rangers: Advocacy in Action
Support our work on the range and advocacy
We invite you to get involved however you can. Advocacy in Action is our next step in supporting YOU to have your own experience and use your voice to speak for wild horses, burros, wildlife and our vast wilderness areas!
Join us on the range and witness our public lands and America's wild horses and burros!
Use your voice to:
Contact your Representatives in Congress in writing and by phone. Be respectful and let them know your point of view on the issue.
Write a Letter to The Editor
Write an Opinion Editorial
We urge Congress to take a new approach committed to solutions that provide protection and preservation of wild horses and burros on their ranges:
- Redirect funds currently used for the costly and devastating capture, removal and warehousing of wild horses and burros – to – the least invasive, safe and humane, policies, and management methods available NOW.
- Allocate an equitable share of rangeland resources for wild horses and burros on our public lands particularly in designated wild horse and burro Herd managemnet Areas ( HMAs) and Herd Areas ( HAs).
- Explore compensation/ incentives for ranchers who give up their livestock grazing permits so that wild horses and burros can receive a more equitable share of the grazing resources in wild horse and burro Herd Management Areas (HMAs) and Herd Areas (HAs)
- Rescind the 2005 Sale Authority amendment, (mandates that BLM offer all captured horses over the age of 10, and any unsuccessful at being adopted after 3 tries, for sale without limitation to the highest bidder).
- Repatriate horses in holding to zeroed out Herd Management Areas that still contain viable wild horse habitat.