Bachelor band on range on the last day of the Adobe Town roundup, 2025

As many of you prepare for the holiday season and year-end celebrations, our team is continuing the work necessary to protect and preserve our wild horses and burros. Our workload does not slow down as pressure mounts to make vital year-end fundraising goals. Just like every other nonprofit year-end funding is critical to keep our work moving into the new year.

Inbox: I know WHE has had victories over the years that changed policy and stopped roundups. What are you doing now?

Answer: We are not making vague claims about what we are doing saying things like “we are litigating” or we are “exposing.” We take a lot of time writing specific articles to try to keep you up-to-date. Sometimes we may be in the field and updates are delayed. We have no real staff to speak of. We are a small organization that takes on a litany of tasks.

Right now…

This week there was another hearing for Devil’s Garden. We are still on target to achieve a desperately needed win to make sure that there is a Devil’s Garden herd in the future. The census was completed and the judge is allowing adoptions to begin as we enter the final stages of this case. Update HERE

After filing litigation earlier this year to gain information on the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP), we released a scathing expose. BLM has repeatedly told the public, press and lawmakers that they “carefully reviewed” welfare standards and “formalized a policy.” Nothing could be further from the truth.  This new information provides the “missing link” as we push to gain, once and for all, a real set of enforceable welfare rules in 2026. Expose HERE.

After a livestock permittee filed a lawsuit to force a roundup of wild horses in Stone Cabin/Saulsbury WHE filed a lawsuit. The permittees bid in court lost and WHE walked away with a partial win that found BLM had illegally withheld creating a Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) at Saulsbury. The court stopped short of holding them accountable to the existing HMAP for Sone Cabin. So we have taken the case up to the Ninth Circuit Court to gain the thorough review necessary to set precedent that will protect the historic Stone Cabin herd and all herds in the West. However, there is opportunity for mediation prior to moving forward. We have entered talks in good faith to see if it is necessary to move forward with litigation or if there is a way to achieve accountability to a plan and herd where Velma Johnston herself was involved in early negotiations. We are working on this, now.

Final briefs have been filed in the lawsuit against the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) that we filed in Federal District Court where we were denied the ability to speak for wild horses as a mine impacts 30% of the best habitat in the Triple B HMA (and was given a massive Golden Eagle “take” permit). This is an area where BLM has created a man-made emergency for decades and continues to make it worse by approving mining without mitigation the additional pressure. See more HERE.

Over the holidays we have to collect and sort additional information for ongoing briefing to protect the Carter Reservoir HMA (CA) and compile or field reports for briefing in the new lawsuit at the Pancake Complex. The Pancake Complex is where we won the landmark case that first proved BLM has simply created removal plans, not management plans. We have moved to the next step to create accountability to that mandate.

That is a glimpse into “what we are doing… right now.”

As the year ends we will continue to work toward a better future. 

Thank you for standing with us.

At the end of each year we also publish the tradition “look back” pieces that reflect on the past year and the past decade. The first piece is the Top Ten viewed on WHE for 2025. 

Thank you for keeping WHE running for our wild ones!

You can also take advantage of online shopping and holiday deals at iGive. Thousands of stores will give a percentage of sales to nonprofits, including WHE. If you are shopping online, register and pick your charity of choice as Wild Horse Education and help us while you shop!