Hotshot (electric prod) still being used to speed up loading by BLM. In the image above, on the face and necks of babies (2022).

The 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act clearly stated that wild horses and burros are to be managed humanely. In fact, the Act mentions the words “humane” or “humanely” seven times.

Why has it been so hard to get an enforceable welfare policy? A real policy and not a standard that is often left up to a BLM employee’s discretion and barely overseen by other BLM employees?

It took multiple court cases (brought by our members) to just get BLM to start the process. After years of multiple court challenges BLM finally created a DRAFT in 2015 they called the “Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program” or CAWP for short. They released an assessment tool that they said they would use over a few years to determine changes to the standards and how to enforce them. Then there would be public comment and finalization for an enforceable policy.

They simply stopped there (at the draft stage) and wrote “permanent” onto the draft and (sort of) claimed it was codified as policy 5 years later. The assessments from 2015-2020 were never done and there was certainly no public comment period.

“The pilot can see” should not be the only parameter BLM follows to allow capture; particularly during extreme health risks from smoke blowing in from far away fires.

It is that simple.

BLM did the bare minimum to be able to walk into the next courtroom and say “we did something.”

BLM shortchanged the wild ones and the public by failing to follow through and finish the steps of Rulemaking to create an enforceable welfare policy; they made it to the halfway juncture by creating the draft and never allowed the public to provide the information that represented current best-practices in the equine community like air quality and heat index standards as an example.

Above: Horse hit with helicopter, 2011. The first court order in history came when BLM denied this even happened. It is obscene that we are still fighting to gain an actual enforceable policy. More on the fight against abuse and a timeline of litigation HERE

All we need right now is for the Secretary of Interior to direct BLM to complete the Rulemaking process to finalize an enforceable welfare policy.

OR Congress can simply designate funding for BLM to complete Rulemaking for an enforceable welfare policy. A direct line item is the same as a Congressional directive and there would be no more excuses.

Even if your representatives do not want wild horses and burros on the range, how can they possibly keep arguing that we should not have enforceable humane handling rules?

Above: In July, during the Blue Wing Roundup, we saw rampant abuses from day one when burros began dying in extreme heat simply while being transported. During one ofd the “send all wranglers out to rope multiple horses at the same time” chaos we saw numerous times at Blue Wing, this horse was roped, yanked, kicked in the face and dragged to it’s feet. (The BLM CAWP team gave this roundup an “excellent” rating HERE)

What can you do? It is really simple. This action will directly impact abuse.

As WHE battles it out in the courtroom, again, please make a call.

 Our wild ones desperately need an enforceable welfare policy that is crafted with transparency, public participation and complies with current welfare standards for equines.

It is not too late to gain an amendment that directly addresses abuse and to stop the exploitation of abuse to serve other agendas.   

Please Call Congress (202) 224-3121.  Tell the operator who your representative is (or where you live if you do not know) and you will be connected to an aide in the office. 

Request an amendment to the funding bill for the Department of Interior to create a line item for funding for Rulemaking to formalize an enforceable welfare policy for the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program.

The word “Rulemaking” is important to use. That word will get the draft CAWP standards out for public input and finalized as enforceable. 

This action addresses abuse directly. It does not use abuse to forward any other agenda.

Please… make the call today. 

Burro deaths at Broken Arrow (Indian Lakes) rise to 13.8% in 6 weeks, go HERE.

If you want to read about 2 active lawsuits at Antelope and Triple B, go HERE

If you want an update on litigation at Stone Cabin, go HERE

We do need your support to keep our teams in field and in the courts. 

Thank you for keeping WHE running for the wild. 

There are several ways you can support WHE from gift shopping to stock donations. Learn more HERE.