Above: On the last day of the East Pershing roundup, our observer sat as the only member of the public. Steam from hot bodies rises in the cold as cloud cover rapidly drops with an incoming storm.

The East Pershing Complex roundup has ended early. Target for capture was 2,875 wild horses and the operation was approved to continue until the end of February. BLM abruptly stopped the operation and our observer was notified via text as she checked in to continue monitoring the operation. BLM stopped 183 shy of the goal.

That might not seem like much to some people. But that means 183 horses won’t be stampeded in the biting cold. It means that around 90 pregnant mares won’t be run. It means any newborn won’t have to face being orphaned or run at East Pershing. Every single horse matters.

This was not because of snow. It snowed heavier last month and many days during this operation. The halt was not due to the Super Bowl, BLM has flown in both snow and during the Super Bowl, on Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. This is not because funding ran out; this roundup was funded until the end of February. We do not know yet what BLM is going to say, but it is not for the reasons above.

A big “thank you!” to everyone that took action.

Above: Newborn

Foaling season had clearly begun in the area (as we reported earlier) and many of you took our rapid action item.

We thank all of you for being active advocates. BLM may do everything they can to deny public pressure had anything to do with the abrupt halt. We have all seen BLM push year-after-year into bad weather. Public opinion does matter, even if they won’t openly admit it. We thank all of you.

Even though BLM states that helicopter capture is prohibited when new babies and heavily pregnant mares are observed, BLM has never defined a data-based foaling season. This is one of the subjects BLM should be including in Herd Management Area Plans (HMAP). Right now, in court in one of our lawsuits, BLM is not denying that the law requires them to create HMAPs, they are simply claiming the law does not say “when.”

It has become typical for BLM to create an internal standard and then create any obstacle to enforcement or validity of the standard. BLM has failed to create enforceable welfare rules, too.

Wild Horse Education is actively litigating to push BLM over the last line to create an enforceable welfare policy. The only way the internal standards BLM uses in their Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) can become enforceable policy is through a process called “rulemaking.” It took WHE years in federal court to start the process (a draft internal standard). Now we are back in court to push a real welfare policy over the finish line. It is more than disheartening how hard BLM is fighting not to have enforceable welfare rules.

You would think that no matter how you feel about horses on the land (no removals, for removals), that a real welfare policy would be a place of agreement. It is astounding that big corporate lobby groups put the one thing big corporate livestock might agree to in a plan, population growth suppression, ignoring basic welfare and on-range equity and management planning ignored for years now. This corporate agenda needs to end.

We have not given up and neither have you. Together, we can get this done in 2024.

You can send a fast letter to your lawmakers in Congress by clicking the linked text: Roundups need to stop until BLM creates an enforceable welfare policy. Click HERE.

You can read more in an article last month in TruthDig by author Christopher Ketcham.

Learn more about the decade long legal fight to gain an enforceable welfare policy HERE. 

Above: Even though BLM knew a storm was coming in, they pushed until the storm was literally on top of the trap before calling the operation for the day.

Our founder says there are two things where BLM is actually functional: fire and weather reporting. She said that when she volunteered for BLM every single day the weather report and fire alerts were continually broadcast by district dispatch. Dispatch never failed to alert you, down to time and specific location, of when weather would hit.

BLM just ignored the storm and pushed forward regardless of safety of personnel and wild horses. The livestock grazing allotments were cleared out of any horses.

We are working on reviews of East Pershing as we do for each roundup: one a visual record that we will publish soon, the other a report that will take longer because we have to gain missing information through Freedom of Information Act requests. (You can read our report on the true cost in lives from roundups on our resource page.)

Our team is continuing to monitor in the field and is working hard on active litigation that can bring real reform to on range management and ongoing welfare issues.

We ask that you help us bring the lack of an enforceable welfare policy to the forefront in 2024. You can send a fast letter to your lawmakers in Congress by clicking the linked text: Roundups need to stop until BLM creates an enforceable welfare policy. Click HERE.

We need your help to continue to document, expose, work toward reform with lawmakers and litigate. Our wild ones deserve to live free on the range, free from abuse and you deserve a voice. 

Thank you for keeping WHE on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our treasured wild ones.