The Eagle roundup ended the winter schedule with 1704 captured, 24 dead. Click image for more.

Youngsters were run to collapse at Triple B

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roundup schedule runs on a fiscal year of October through the end of February. BLM has completed the fall/winter portion of the fiscal year 2020 roundup schedule and the next round is forming.

Helicopters can fly from July 1 until the last day of February, bait trapping can occur all year.

Our teams work to gather info and fight unjustified removals at the table and in the courts. We have worked for a decade to get BLM to implement strategies for preservation of our herds and the land they stand, including the use of data/temporary fertility control. When the chopper flies? our onsite teams are focused on one thing only, stopping abuse.

Wild Horse Education is the only organization in history to take BLM to task over abuse. WHE has litigated and won repeatedly against neglectful, and abusive capture methods, shutting down operations. Our litigation was the driving force behind the creation of the first humane handling policy since the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act passed in 1971. Onsite our teams use that policy to force change in the moment and have laid a foundation to take the issue back into a courtroom once more.

In addition to issues of access and humane handling sliding backwards, BLM has failed repeatedly to answer Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by WHE referencing handling issues. The last one filed (Sept 2019) BLM responded with an open ended date to respond and has provided no documents to date. It appears that BLM is simply stonewalling and litigation may be our only recourse.

In the next 30 days BLM will begin placing operations on the schedule: both summer bait trapping and helicopter operations. We expect the first round on the schedule to include Twin Peaks and have a massive sterilization component through gelding. The plan at Twin Peaks mirrors the plan used to eradicate the USFWS Sheldon herds,

Our litigation against abuse was a game changer. Not only did we push policy change to begin to stop abuse, we changed the way we can litigate everything. WHE fought both cases against abuse, and the continual secretive capture methods, hand in hand. Prior to our wins on First Amendment and against abuse the end of a roundup caused the end of a legal action, even if the issue went unresolved. At the end of a roundup a grievance was considered “moot by the courts and dismissed. Our litigation demonstrated the issues went beyond a single operation and repeated again and again undoing the “mootness doctrine” strategy of the BLM in court. Not only do issues surrounding methods of capture continue, but the underlying issues of a lack of management and prioritizing private interests.

This work is important. It’s not just showing the public what happens again and again, it is the fight to stop it from happening. We need your help to be ready.

The current health crisis has small organizations like WHE struggling. Because of the current situation we need to begin our effort to fund the run early. You can help us rise to continue the defense of our wild ones. 

A roundup begins long before a chopper flies. Wild horses always pay a very steep price.

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Help us stay in the fight today. 

If you are shopping online you can help Wild Horse Education by choosing us as your charity of choice on IGive or Amazonsmile.com 

Even though there were many places BLM could have set traps at Desatoya during the winter schedule, they repeatedly set them where there would be a probability of collision with barbed wire. BLM has begun using barbed wire fencing as a trap wing again as well. Litigation appears to be the only avenue to correct this callous behavior.