A peek through the tarp at temporary holding of captive wild horses

Protecting our wild horses has many, many layers. From the fight to keep them managed on the range, the fight to keep them from harm at the roundup and the fight to stop their slaughter. Each one of those battles has many battlefields. On range we need to deal with habitat loss, unfair forage allocations and the lack of any management planning. At the roundup we have to address the physical challenges of documenting, rapidly processing and addressing everything that causes stress or abuse. Slaughter has many layers that sometimes overlap with domestic horses.

At the Swasey roundup, one example, all of you raised your voices to help ease some stress for wild horses trying to get water at one water source. BLM opened panels, after public pressure. Your voice matters. That small battle mattered to the wild ones in this heat that showed all of us that water source was important to them. That is advocacy for the wild horse in that specific situation, in that specific time. It mattered.

We now have a fast “click and send” you can shoot off to your legislators: Click HERE.

The little mare in the center of the frame, you can barely see her through the panels, right before she collides. We do not want to show her in death, we want to remember her in life, and show you who we lost yesterday.

Yesterday, a mare broke her neck at the new trap site.

Our observer (who is also the only observer to document the water issue and draw attention to it)  warned BLM that configuration could lead to an accident. WHE keeps stats on everything at roundups from trap configuration to weather. WHE is the only organization to ever litigate abuse at roundups; we won every case.

But the fight to gain a humane policy was not easy. It took multiple cases, many years and a lot of road miles.

For our wild horses that face capture, it matters. 

Yes, we documented the death of the 5 year old mare. But let’s remember her in life.

Now we are working on enforcement and improvement. Our observers rush to report to you on your public horses and they create a data bank we use to engage the issue.

There are so many issues, in so many layers, that need to be addressed to help our wild ones. Big battles, little battles. It all matters. 

BLM photo of panels open to allow fast access to water the wild ones showed us was very important to them. You helped get those panels open.

During the operation BLM also set up a bait trap pen for the phase 2 that begins in August. They also set up the temporary holding corrals near that water. The combined stress was keeping wild horses off a water that the wild horses showed us was vital to them. (you can see the deactivated alert here)

The bands near temporary holding, including the mare and foal we had documented continuing to wait to get to that water source, have a bit less stress today. Your voice matters.

Your voice matters. You helped relieve some stress for some of our wild horses. It matters to them.

Never forget you have a voice. When you use it, armed with data and authentic advocacy, you can cut through the politics and social circles and help the wild ones.

That is advocacy in it’s truest form. We thank you. It matters.

The roundup continues at Swasey today and our observer is still onsite, working hard to improve anything she can in the moment and to create a data set to help us create change in the bigger policy battle against abuse.

Her report will start arriving in a couple of hours and we will get it to you as fast as possible.

But, we have a big battle ahead in the big picture. It matters.