End-of-year fundraising is critical to all nonprofits including WHE. Through the generosity of two supporters, WHE has a $20,000. match challenge. If we can reach this critical fundraising goal we will unlock a much needed boost to keep our work running into 2025 that promises to be a challenging year where we will need to defend our wild ones on many fronts.

A glimpse into 2024:

Our team covered the largest year of roundups in the history of the program. In July alone more wild horses and burros were removed than in the entire year of 2013, 2014, 2015… if we were not in the field you would not have seen what happens. Our team covered more individual days of capture and took you with us. In addition to onsite documentation our team tracked horses into holding and kept you informed of death rates that average 12% and can rise as high as 21%. Our roundup documentation kept wild horses in the public eye and was featured in more than 200 news stories nationwide.

In 2024, our work in the courts broke open the long standing charade that roundups mean management. For decades BLM and their partners have tried to pass off removing to an unjustified number they call “AML” and then keeping the population at that level through fertility control (like the hard hitting hormonal vaccine GonaCon that causes infertility for 4-10 years and permanently after re-treatment) is “management.” Habitat restoration, preservation of critical resources for our herds, genetics and more must play a part in planning. We also demonstrated that BLM fails to provide data and any analysis of things like the impact of removal on increased wildfire risk. We do not give up if we lose a motion, we take cases all the way and have won every case at conclusion that came to conclusion in 2024.

We have also won cases against mining expansion, livestock increases and carry cases to protect a herd as the permittee sues to force removal and another to protect the last burro stronghold in the West.

Our resume includes:

• The only litigation directly against abuse drove the creation of the first welfare standards since the 1971 Act was passed. We have more work to do to make them enforceable in 2025.
• Our work in the courts opened roundups to the public on a daily basis and began the tours of some off-limits to the public facilities. Right now we are working on briefing in the ongoing battle of abuse behind those closed doors.
• Our work in the courts on First Amendment was instrumental in stopping surgical sterilization of mares.
• Working with our partners we have stopped a mine expansion when the water drawdown would threaten our herds. We stopped expansion of livestock grazing in an HMA for the first time in 50 years.
• We stopped BLM from using a small area of an emergency to hit an entire herd, stopped BLM from using helicopters in June and so much more.

In 2025 we will need to take our work to a new level and push back the decades of abuse, neglect and corruption that have become routine. Everything that is wrong is so ingrained it is going to take a lot of work to make it right. 

With your help… we will gain long overdue reform.

WHE won’t back down. 

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

A second donor has doubled our match challenge! Our 10K match has just turned into a 20K match to keep our team in the field and in the courts! We have raised just over $12,000. toward unlocking the match as of 2 pm on Giving Tuesday.

We have about 8K left to raise between now and December 4 to unlock much needed funding.

Help us raise the funds to unlock this critical match!

Our team member went up to watch the Twin Peaks Release. During the roundup our team was onsite monitoring welfare issues and caught horses falling out of trailer doors that were not secured as BLM rushed at trap.

We thought you might

Two days left to order a shirt. The short window of availability assures you will receive your shirt no later than December 23rd. We have a commitment from a generous WHE supporter to match any donations made through the Bonfire site you make during your purchase. Funds raised from the shirt sales will be matched dollar-for-dollar! Click HERE or on the image to order.