Twin Peaks

Scroll to bottom for updates and action item.

Note to our supporters:

Our nation is dealing with massive issues; threats to health care, violent actions by our own citizens and natural disaster. Headlines show the threat of war. Our environment is under a political assault threatening clean water and air.

Probes into an election that faced a cyber hack from a foreign power kept much of this under the surface the last several months. Only after our National Monuments faced an assault did the issues of public land gain some needed attention in the media.

Now, almost on the eve of a vote in the Senate to kill tens of thousands of wild horses, are we finally seeing a rise in media coverage. Is it too late? maybe. However Americans love our wild horses. The Act to protect them was passed unanimously in 1971 by both Houses of Congress.

Under the assault of this political machine, that places profit margins above the very health of the air we breath, we saw the House pass a version of appropriations (government spending) that would see this horrific deed accomplished.

We had hoped those in more powerful positions would address this political machine head on. Our work has landed us death threats, literally, since 2012. In 2015 when this rose up we watched as the deeper truths were buried under nonsensical propaganda. Here, on the eve of this vote, the nonsense is still louder than the deep truths.

Over the last decade I have watched literally tens of thousands of our wild ones removed from the range with my own eyes. The horses I witnessed removed stand in a cage awaiting a death sentence. The broken frame that created removals to satisfy profit lines, not any valid equation of “healthy landscapes,” caused those horses to be removed and confined for life. This travesty runs deep and personal.

Today we continue to discuss wild horses as if they are a problem when in truth they are a minor symptom of a much larger disease. Public land management is not about managing our land to keep it healthy, but to keep it churning out dollars for private pockets. Intimidation, collusion, corruption and public relations firms run over basic facts time and again.

We are talking about killing wild horses for no other reason than politics. Politics that will not touch one massive subsidy to industry, but will shoot horses to save a few dollars? We are not addressing the landscape by killing wild horses. We could wave a magic wand and remove every wild horse from the range and our public land would still be in trouble. Yet we fail to address the real problems on our landscape again because of politics.

At Wild Horse Education our entire world is those wild horses. Our sadness and anger can not be appropriately expressed in mere words. We have stood on range and at roundups and watched the consequences of drama, politics and idiocy lead to tragedy far too often.

Please take the three actions below.

EDIT: Hearing rescheduled. We will update when info available. Video tried to explain that the tension many of you feel… is wrapped in more than meets the eye. Senate vote postponed until next week.

The Senate will have the subcommittee vote next week, 10/17. The full committee vote is scheduled for the 19th. Please make your calls today. We still have disagreements between House and Senate on multiple issues. This is the Senate vote.

Senate Update 3:30 pm ET 10/17: Due to the uncertain timing of votes on the budget resolution and expected consideration of the supplemental appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee has postponed this week’s scheduled markups on the FY18 Interior Appropriations Bill and the FY18 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill.  The Committee intends to mark up these bills next week.

If this attempt by certain members of Congress to forward the agenda to kill our wild ones fails, we must still be vigilant as the opportunity to change parameters through riders then presents itself. The political game does not end here.

With regards to “shooting wild horses” there are also multiple avenues open to address this, even if it passes the full Senate, continued debates and “rider moments” and makes the final budget for FY18. We are already preparing to address this issue if it makes the final budget.

We need you to make the following three calls (or Fax) now. Each action is specific to the House or Senate. Make each action distinct, three calls or fax. The legal definition of the word “slaughter” is commercial products. What is planned is a mass killing.

Please be mindful. Please make three different calls. DO NOT do more to confuse the Senate or House, they are not experts on the issue! Stop mixing up the SAFE Act with appropriations…. Senators are getting confused and thinking they already supported wild horses.

You can send a free FAX today; click HERE for Senate, click HERE for House. Phone numbers for your representatives can be found at, please call tomorrow: govtrack.us

Templates below:

Senate: “I do not want any federal funds used to kill healthy wild horses. I want restrictions to the BLM “sale program” to be maintained. Killing any healthy wild horse, or facilitating such actions through sales, is not acceptable. The Department of Interior budget has multiple options to save a few million dollars. Not one subsidy to livestock is addressed in the budget and the federal grazing program is out of control. The wild horses should not be shot or sent to slaughter to continue the broken grazing program. As an American I find it unacceptable, completely unacceptable.”

House: “Please support Raul Grijalva’s efforts to get a full hearing into the House subcommittee into infractions in public land management that include intimidation of federal workers, safety issues to the public and illegal activities that forward independent and private agendas. Acting Deputy Director of the BLM, John Ruhs, must be held accountable.” (please note Grjalva’s office has all of the information and has been working on this issue for years. You can tell your representative to contact Grijalva for the details).

Senate: “As an American I am asking that the Senate create a full investigation into illegal activities occurring in public land management that includes intimidation of employees by superiors, threats from private interests, creates a clear and present public safety issue and forwards personal political agenda. Acting Deputy Director of the BLM, John Ruhs, must be held accountable.” (You can tell your Senator to contact Raul Grijalva in the House for details)

Please help us, help the wild ones. Make those three actions part of your day.