The image above from the Marietta roundup in Nevada went viral on our social media

In 5 weeks, (or 34 days, 820 hours, or 49,299 minutes); no matter how you say it, the new year is just over the horizon.

The holiday season has officially begun and with it comes the honoring of traditions.

It has become a tradition to publish a listing of most-viewed items our WHE team has worked hard to publish each year to start the long holiday weekend. We take our job as a frontline advocacy organization very seriously. That work includes creating content that keeps you informed and expands the reach of advocacy.

So far in 2024, we have reached just under half a million visitors to our website, over 1.5 million visitors to our social media. WHE featured 179 articles, 212 videos, 6 investigative reports and countless images.

These moments that translate into our reporting has touched us all of us profoundly and provided valuable information to fuel an active and effective advocacy.

Top-Viewed Countdown

10. A Hard Look at the Wimmemucca Facility

This facility was built in a flood zone and approved to take in 4000 wild horses and burros. The “off-limits” facility began taking in captives in 2022 and has only allowed one brief tour of the facility in all that time. Our investigative team found poor record keeping and high death rates at the facility. We were onsite.

9. Plans to Expand Long Canyon Mine Dropped

After work by a coalition of organizations through litigation, plans to expand a mine that failed to address water drawn down that would impact multiple species (including wild horses) and were dropped.

8. It is simple. Why is it so hard? (A look at gaining enforceable welfare standards)

The simplest thing BLM could do to begin actual reform would be to create enforceable welfare rules. Enforceable welfare rules would not only decrease deaths, illness and injury… but begin to change attitudes in the agency to show that wild horses and burros have value. Why is it so hard when the fix is cheap and easy?

7. Crash Never Reviewed by BLM

Published just this month, this article exposing how the BLM skirts any semblance of reasonable process to create any change in how they operate made the tope viewed list. When it comes to safety, something BLM continually claims is their priority, there are numerous avenues they could have taken and instead dropped the ball right at the beginning.

6. Wild Horse and Burro Conference Makes History

The third annual Saving Our Wild Horses and Wildlife conference was attended by a varied representation from citizen advocacy focused solely on wild horses and burros and organizations focused on water and endangered species protection. This group of citizens not only met to learn and contact lawmakers, they created a letter of recommendations and were given a meeting with BLM leadership. They invited WHE to speak and many of the attendees went out to the range with us. We were also invited when the recommendations were given to top BLM. During our discussion it was confirmed that BLM leadership only responds to “litigation driven” change. This was the first time a group of citizens organized their own conference, crafted recommendations and presented them to BLM.

Dangerous air quality and excessive roping during heat waves

5. BLM Gives Blue Wing “Excellent” Rating

Incredibly, the BLM Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) team gave this roundup an “excellent” rating. The roundup took place during dangerous air quality from wildfire smoke and heat index rises that contributed to horses and burros dropping dead simply during transport. During this roundup rough roping accelerated without and constraint or restrictions from BLM and resulted in a wild horse collapsing, yanked and dragged with a rope and kicked in the face.

Spartacus and Gatsby at Litchfield

4. Aftermath of a roundup (we can’t let this happen again)

A wild horse named Spartacus and his son escaped capture at previous roundups and were finally caught. They were taken in by Skydog Sanctuary and brought much needed attention to the devastation that occurred at the Surprise Complex. We found BLM removed below allowable numbers after relentless capture where only a few older mares were released after hard hitting hormonal fertility control that will last longer than their natural lifespan. The story of the Surprise complex is one every advocate should know. 

3. Our Roundup Coverage (40 days left in 2024)

A list of our roundup coverage for 2024 is included in this article. Many of you have come to rely on WHE for more than 15 years to suit up and show up and report back to the public. Every day of roundup coverage has a dedicated audience and is always a big part of the “most viewed” content we publish each year. Although much of what we publish makes people angry, most of you understand that if we did not bring you the reports the public would never know what really happens.

2. Twin Peaks (A Call For Enforceable Welfare Rules)

No single action item WHE published this year received such a large response. While BLM rushed to remove wild horses from the range they even forgot to secure a trailer door and horses spilled out. Claims that BLM “monitored” these horses are absurd: the pilot basically just said he saw them move off and that was that.

It is mind-boggling that Congress will not allocate funding to move the current standards into the realm of enforceable rules. The funding needed to do that is miniscule… but all Congress keeps doing is funding mass removals and expanding fertility control (in the form of GonaCon leaving most herds sterile for the lifetime of mares).

The number 1 viewed article was the monumental Win in Court at Pancake. Although we have had additional wins this year in the courtroom, this one is the beginning of cracking on range management. Removal plans are not management plans and, after this win, BLM will not be able to create gather plans and pass them off as required Herd Management Area Plans (HMAPs). The public voice has been cut out of basic management planning for decades and only able to participate in removal decisions. In many ways, this win begins the legal fight to keep our wild ones free on the range.

In addition to gaining important precedent on management planning, this win kicked back the gather plan for failures in analysis stopping further roundups under that ill-conceived plan.

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So far in 2024 we have published 179 articles, action items and investigations. The number of videos we have published would take over 2 hours to watch back-to-back.

This piece is just a glimpse into the experiences you, the public, came to share with our team. Your “most-viewed from WHE in 2024.”

We will work on a “WHE-year-in-review” as the year draws to a close. It has been a year of high triumphs and devastating loses. WHE has worked hard to break ground that can bring about much needed reform and is leading the way.

Our team is working vigilantly in the field and in the courtroom as many of you celebrate with family and friends over the long holiday weekend.

At WHE, we are grateful for your support that keeps us on the frontline. Without you, none of our work is possible.

This is the most critical fundraising time of the year for all nonprofits.

WHE has been offered a 10K match challenge through. the end of 2024 to keep our team in the field and in the courts! 

Help us raise the funds to unlock this critical match!