Unfortunately, it seems every year we need to do the same article. We know the Appropriations (spending) bill process is convoluted and filled with the games of politics (all sides).

The important thing for you to know is that the package that just passed is simply a carry over or a “repeat” from the last 5 years. No matter how it is worded, the only actual substantive difference is slightly less funding in 2024 than in 2023. 

The 2025 debate has just begun. The government operates on a fiscal year that runs from Oct 1 through the last day of September. Funding over the last several year has been piecemeal (temporary funding bills). Learn more HERE.

There are no changes in language that change practices. It is really a bad position for us to be the ones that have to tell you the hard truth while others try to make you feel “good” about something. But we will tell you. We can be thankful that no ground was lost. But no real ground was gained either.

We are getting an awful lot of comments in our inbox. We will try to address them below.:

People are sending us this list of items included in the 2024 spending package for BLM:

• Prohibition on selling horses and burros for slaughter.
• Prohibition on euthanizing healthy and unadopted wild horses and burros.
• Increased utilization of fertility control methods, with $11 million allocated for implementation.
• Establishment of measurable objectives for reducing population growth through fertility control.
• Continued support for adoptions and other program aspects, while strengthening safeguards to prevent abuse.
• Language urging the BLM to explore alternatives to helicopters and manned fixed-wing aircraft usage.

Many people are asking if this means there is an enforceable welfare policy, if S.A.F.E. passed and helicopter roundups will stop or be reduced. No, it does not.

The 2024 budget will not impact the 2014 roundup schedule already published (March 5 version HERE)

The items in the list are the same as the list for the last 6 years. Once again, there are public relations spins in the politics of advocacy calling the budget a “victory.” The budget buys all you have seen the last 6 years, again. 

The prohibition on outright sales to slaughter has been defunded every year since it was included in the Burns Amendment in 2004. This means BLM cannot sell directly to killbuyers. This does not stop title transfer that leaves sold or adopted horses vulnerable to slaughter (learn more).

BLM has always been prohibited from killing healthy adoptable horses and burros. BLM determines what that means through an internal policy, not a set of enforceable rules. (learn more)

The “11 million” designated for fertility control is the same “11 million” designated the last 6 years. It buys things like Surprise and Calico and Clan Alpine; herds left non reproductive for about the next 7 years( and perhaps much longer because the vaccine was given to mares that are over 15 and likely to die before it wears off). (learn more here)

The line that states establishing “measurable objectives” to show fertility control works will be really easy, (see item above).

Continued support for the adoption program and “strengthening protections” does not mean the Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) ends. It means BLM can add more words to the contract asking people not to sell to slaughter after title. It does not mean wild horses and burros will stop landing in kill pens.

Exploring options other than helicopter roundups does not really mean anything in practice. It does not mean helicopter roundups stop. It just means BLM should “look” at bait trapping and fertility control.

We hope this answers your questions.

The only way to gain an enforceable welfare policy is through a process called “rulemaking.” Congress has not funded that process, yet. BLM has the power to use existing funding to comply with the provision of law to humanely manage wild horses and burros. To do that, they need an enforceable welfare policy. Our litigation continues to move forward. You can also help. We made it easy: Just Click HERE

Learn more about the fight to gain enforceable welfare rules HERE. 

The Safeguard America’s Forgotten Equines Act (SAFE) would go a long way to closing U.S. borders to traffic for slaughter and stopping any future slaughter plants in the U.S. This is a domestic equine bill that would impact wild horses and burros after titler transfer. (learn more here)

Congress (and BLM and “Path Forward” type agreements) are still trying to claim “overpopulation” is the number one problem and that fertility control is management. Fertility control might be a potential tool of management if it is backed by data and careful planning that protects the ability to reproduce, genetics, etc., but it is not management. Fertility control is another form of population growth suppression. Management is a whole lot bigger than that.

BLM keeps skipping actual management planning in favor of political dances and historic agreements. When we have site-specific management planning, like BLM has for everything else, reform can actually begin. (learn more)

Our wild horses and burros desperately need an educated and active advocacy.

If you were advocating for a sick child you would not simply yell at the doctor that the illness does not exist or grab the first bottle offered by a “snake oil salesman” promising that this one elixir cures all. You would learn as much as you can and then address the issue.

As with advocacy for the things you love, time is the most precious gift. Take the time to learn all you can and become an active advocate. Our wild ones need you.

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 and free from abuse.

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