Today is International Animal Rights Day. A good day to focus on neglect and abuse of our wild horses and burros. Please take the time today to learn more and take our survey.

Wild Horse Education has been the leading force in the fight to gain an enforceable welfare policy for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse and burro program. Others have claimed that moniker and carefully massaged the meaning of the words as they push for expanded fertility control claiming someday, when there are fewer horses and burros, that will minimize abuse. Or they are focused solely on loopholes in the Adoption Incentive Program. That is not the same thing as gaining enforceable welfare rules on range through capture and holding. Everything must be addressed, specifically. “Wild horses and burros” are a multi-layered federal program.

When we began this fight 15 years ago, nearly 40 years after the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was passed, there was no standard at all: no standard for on range, during capture, or in holding facilities. (You can learn more about the timeline HERE)

This article is to describe the long process to gain enforceable rules and to inform you of the rulemaking process.

Scroll to bottom of article to take the survey prefaced in red text.

Our early litigation drove the creation of what BLM called a “Beta” version that was included in roundup contracts and Environmental Assessments (the paperwork BLM does to give them the authority to do a roundup). Early litigation involved numerous lawsuits that remained active for years in the courts and kept the pressure on through briefing and media coverage. After the handling policy for roundups BLM was supposed to do an off-range (facility policy) and one for on range to address things like loss of habitat and mining traffic. They finished a beta (a trial version) for capture and facilities and never did one for on range. 

BLM was supposed to do annual (public) reviews and failed. BLM was supposed to take the Beta version through the next step after their internal and would open the standards to the public, public comment and finalization of an enforceable policy. Instead, the current BLM Bureau Chief added the word “permanent,” and allowed no stakeholder engagement to improve a failing and unenforceable internal set of rules. (You can see that both the BLM internal rules for capture and handling facilities still carry the original dates of 2015/16)

We are back in court after an insanely brutal roundup this summer at the Antelope Complex during record-breaking heat index, the actual foaling and breeding season, which clearly demonstrated that any assertion BLM’s current system was even minimally functional proved an absurdity. 

The current case, the one WHE filed this year to gain an enforceable welfare standard, has survived numerous attempts in the courts by BLM to dismiss the case. We filed another round of briefs and we continue to move this critical case through the system. We do need your support to carry this crucial litigation through the system to gain enforceable policy. We also need your voice. 

Our team is working on our welfare review for 2023 (for use in the 2025 Appropriations debate beginning next month). You can read our 2022 reports HERE (for use in the 2024 Appropriations debate)

Rulemaking

The law clearly states wild horses and burros are to be managed humanely. To manage animals humanely requires rules. Policy must go through a process called “rulemaking.” What BLM calls their Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) is supposed to be a team that enforces welfare rules. BLM created a team that operates more like a safety shield for violators instead of any type of enforcement panel… and they never took the step to create enforceable rules.

Many of you are aware of the changes to existing policy for land management that have been proposed, set out for comment and are under review.

Most of you are not aware that rulemaking applies to handling practices for animals as well.

There was a rulemaking process for slaughtering livestock. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) published a Federal Register notice on Jan. 9 about proposed rulemaking that aims to strengthen regulations on the public handling of wild and exotic animals for exhibition.

Big money lobby groups usually take up the task of forcing rulemaking after on-the-ground organizations struggle to gain exposure for and litigate into the courts. 

With wild horses and burros this did not happen. Instead, the big money lobby orgs jumped in bed with livestock and made “population growth suppression” the number one goal. As they ran over any other fight those on the ground struggled to bring (that led to years of the lowest capture numbers since the Act was passed), “Ten Years to AML” became “Path Forward” after livestock signed on and was incorporated into BLM planning in 2018. We headed into historic high numbers of capture without an enforceable humane policy while critical habitat was increasingly carved up and given to extraction, energy, and livestock.

So now, we are back in court to gain the critical last step to achieve a humane handling policy. (Yes, we have other cases addressing management planning, the lack of foundational data in the program and habitat issues.) WHE steps up once more. 

You can help us by taking the survey below

Hotshot (electric prod) still being used to speed up loading by BLM in 2022

Welfare Policy Survey

The survey is NOT intended to be public comment on rules. The survey is to determine if you would participate in rulemaking and how you feel about some of the existing internal policy. (Note: this is a new survey platform and we will publish survey results at the end of the year. )

This survey is not inclusive of all aspects of a welfare policy but is intended to provide an example of some specific areas where policy needs to change and the number of people that want an open public rulemaking process for welfare standards. 

If given an opportunity to give comments on a welfare rule for wild horses and burros, would you participate? 

Yes

No

None

Should BLMs welfare policy include Air Quality Index metrics on when to suspend or cancel operations?

Yes

No

None

Should BLMs welfare policy include Heat Index metrics on when to suspend or cancel capture operations?

Yes

No

None

BLM is currently prohibited from using helicopter drive trapping during foaling season, but fails to identify site-specific foaling season at the same time as they use multiple fertility control drugs that change when foals are born (sometimes creating a large number of winter births). Should BLMs welfare policy include a provision where site-specific foaling season needs to be documented prior to approval of helicopter drive trapping?

Yes

No

None

Much of the current policy is left up to the "discretion" of BLM. Vague parameters have left open many windows where the power to determine "right and wrong" is in the same hands of the person rushing to finish a roundup or someone that really does not care. In fact, this summer we watched the exact same person responsible for oversight of safety drag a horse by the neck, twice, until she collapsed; not only did this person approve it, they participated. Should all safety parameters be clearly defined without discretion?

Yes

No

None

Should a "hard stop" be placed on temperature parameters so that personnel begin the process of cessation before, and not after, parameters are hit?

Yes

No

None

Should trailers be cleaned before each load?

Yes

No

None

Should daily capture operations be mandated to end 3 hours before sunset to make sure all sorting is done in daylight and not in the dark to reduce risk of injury?

Yes

No

None

Should traps be set a minimum of 100 ft from barbed wire?

Yes

No

None

Should all gates be clearly flagged in the drive path, not just gates near trap?

Yes

No

None

Should barbed wire in the drive path be removed?

Yes

No

None

Should hot shot use be strictly forbidden? (BLM repeatedly uses electric prods to speed up loading)

Yes

No

None

Should dragging a horse by the neck with a rope be strictly forbidden?

Yes

No

None

Should violation of policy be cause for removal of any employee or contract staff from the operation?

Yes

No

None

Do you have additional comments on the need to create an enforceable welfare rule?

1 out of 15

Please fill in the comment box below.

Thank you for participating in this survey that will be used in our engagement to create, once and for all, an enforceable welfare policy. 

Name

Email

Time's up

THANK YOU for taking the time to lend your voice!

While we work hard to stop unjustified removals, create management planning that protects herd and habitat, we must have an enforceable welfare standard. (We are in the courts and at the table working on other issues as well.)

Real reform, not just a whitewash to maintain the status quo, is long overdue. 

End-of-year funding is critical to keep our programs running into the new year. Without you, none of our work is possible.

Thank you for keeping us in the fight!

Our wild ones should live free on the range with the families they hold dear. Our wild ones should also live without abuse. WHE carries ongoing litigation to push BLM into open public process to create an enforceable welfare standard for our treasured wild ones. 

There are many ways to support the work of WHE from direct contribution, stock donations and even while you shop. More HERE.