FY 2024 was a record shattering year for removal of wild horses and burros from our public lands. Over 70,000 wild horses are now in holding facilities. The fight ahead includes continuing the work to gain real. on range protection of herds and habitat. It has also just gained a new layer where we must protect the ones in holding from being sold without limits (slaughter) or killed outright. 

Our wild horses and burros need some protection as we move forward into the next round from broad threats that are coming that place them and their habitat in grave danger.

We need Congress to take action NOW. We need YOUR help.

Click HERE to send your letter directly to your representatives

This action item will include a second phase we will share with you soon. 

The number of items that need deep reform in the Wild Horse and Burro program are too long to list. We have a long list of things that need to change and are working in the courts to create that pathway. However, the three listed below would be vital to protect our wild ones and the work of all of advocacy from being driven backwards once more under the weight of politics.

• Protection from slaughter: The Burns Amendment of 2004 created sale without limits (slaughter) of wild horses and burros and the loss of protection against sales to slaughter after title transfer. The Amendment  MUST be addressed immediately to restore the protections the 1971 Wild Horse and Burros Act provided.
• Protection on range: An Independent Review of the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program must be conducted by the National Academy of Sciences prior to additional funding being released for removals. BLM has been operating for 11 years without any review while budgets and removals increased to historic levels. The review must be completed before any policy changes can be made. Ideally, roundups would be suspended until the review completes. To continue without one is fiscally and morally flawed.
• Protection from abuse: Funding must be designated to finalize an enforceable welfare policy. The current welfare program is not enforceable and BLM needs to complete the Rulemaking process to provide enforceability.

Congress still has the power as the last budget debates are happening to include language in the Department of Interior (DOI), Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spending bill.

A directive from the Secretary of Interior alone could gain the NAS review and Rulemaking for an enforceable welfare policy.

Only Congress can get rid of the damage done in the Burns Amendment of 2004. Congress could also designate funding to gain the NAS review and welfare policy.

Above: Wild horses coming off the range today from Triple B, and those already in crowded BLM facilities, are in critical danger of simply being killed or sent to slaughter in the next two years. 

Repealing the Burns Amendment could circumvent the need to fight (once more) the outright killing and open sales to slaughter advocacy pushed back in 2017. The Burns Amendment was what is called a “stealth rider” added to the 2004 spending bill that removed protections for wild horses and burros, began the “sales” program and title transfer of today.

The language we need someone in Congress to propose (and then Congress to pass):

To restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild free-roaming horses and burros.

SECTION 1. SALE OF WILD FREE-ROAMING HORSES AND BURROS.

(a) IN GENERAL – Section 3(d)(5) of Public Law 92-195 (16 U.S.C. 1333(d)(5)) is amended –
(1) by striking the period and inserting the following: “Provided, That no wild free-roaming horse or burro or its remains may be sold or transferred for consideration for processing into commercial products.”; and
(2) by striking subsection (e).
(b) CRIMINAL PROVISIONS.—Section (8)(a)(4) of Public Law 92-195 (16 U.S.C. 1338(a)(4)) is amended by striking “except as provided in section 3(e),”

What that language means:

Prohibit sales of BLM wild horses and burros for purposes of rendering into any commercial products (e.g., they can’t be sold for slaughter.)
Repeal the section in the Burns rider that exempts the older animals and “three strikes” animals from the protection of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. (Those protections would again be in force.)
Repeal language eliminating criminal penalties for using wild horses and burros for unlawful commercial purposes.

Capture during heat event and dangerous air quality from wildfire smoke, Blue Wing, 2024.

Our wild ones ARE being removed to get them out of the way of private profit industry expanding on our public lands from livestock to mining and “green energy.”

In 2028, BLM incorporated the “Path Forward” lobby document to increase removals to historic levels and begin to sterilize/fertility control herds. This program increased the budget and removals to historically high levels and is the ONLY BLM program that did not change from one administration to the next. This machine has run unchecked.

We must have an independent and science-based review NOW before any new policy takes shape. We cannot be expected to continue to fund this “blind.”

It has been 11 years since the last review and a new one is long overdue. It is irresponsible to continue to increase funding without an independent review as required:(PL 92-195), section §1333. subpart (a), (b)(3).

At temporary holding

The entire program has operated for over 50 years without any enforceable welfare policy.

In that time policy has been created for a plethora of public lands subjects from sage grouse to fire fuels to climate change. None of those policies have ever included things like standards for air quality or heat index during capture (or in management) of wild horses and burros. We have all seen the devastating consequences as our wild ones dropped dead during heat events on trailers and critical water supplies drying up from over allocation to mining and climate change.

We must have an enforceable welfare policy to deal with the most basic aspect of the law: manage humanely on range, during capture and in holding.

An enforceable welfare policy should be the easiest of all the aspects of the program that need reform to achieve and it is a national embarrassment that we do not already have one.

Over the last year, we have won 2 lawsuits that began to crack the decades old practice of “remove, not manage.” We have additional litigation that is moving the needle on disclosure of data, access to facilities, protecting habitat from profit driven encroachment and more. We will do everything in our power to bring this work to conclusion. Over the last few days we have set in motion battles to protect wild horses and burros west wide and your First Amendment Rights. We are expanding our preemptive strategy right now.

In the coming months we will need Congress and leadership of the BLM to take bold action to ensure that the fight ahead is based on facts, compassion and not knee-jerk gifts to industry and political bullies. 

Take Action Today!

Click HERE.

The second round of this action item will be posted next week.

Our team member is onsite at the ongoing roundup and we are working hard to move things through the courts to push badly needed reforms to protect wild horses in 5 states, public processes currently guaranteed by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and your First Amendment Rights.

WHE has a 10K match challenge through Giving Tuesday, Dec. 3.

End of year funding is critical to keep our programs running and to expand our work to meet the challenges ahead.

We are sincerely grateful for your support. 

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.