Many of you are asking us to write about the “2026 Budget” and the “Victory” messages you are receiving from a number of organizations. We hope this satisfies those of you asking why we did not send out a press release on a “victory.”
We touched on the budget in our newsletter telling you that the essentially the status quo was being maintained. That is what passed and was signed, as expected.
Back in March we wrote an article laying out the budget fight. Prohibitions against outright killing or selling without limitations (slaughter) were not included as “defunded” in the Presidential Budget Request setting up the framework for the bills that would then be debated and written in both House and Senate. (The request did include defunding USDA horse meat inspection so “defunding” something was not an oversight.)
The inclusion of the traditional prohibition language is largely due to YOU. Many of you sent letters and made calls all year long. Every organization engaged, including WHE. Maintaining the prohibitions for funding to be used for those purposes is a “win.”
We do not know if we would use the definitive word “victory” to describe maintaining a prohibition against an abhorrent action that the majority of Americans reject. A move that was only made possible after a sneaky move in 2004 by Conrad Burns (R-MT). The Burns Amendment created “sales” and the loss of lifetime protection against a sales to slaughter afforded in the original law. It is a fictional talking point that the “original law” allowed sales to slaughter. Investigations and court cases even showed BLM employees were “buying or giving themselves” horses and they were selling them to slaughter in the late 90s. This is a longstanding issue with “gray areas” existing even before the Burns Amendment.
This year… this status quo is a win because no ground was lost in the budget bill.
However, we all know that prohibition is not stopping BLM. Morally, if not specifically illegal, they have amped up the Sale Program again and wild horses and burros are being sold about as “direct to kill” as it gets without technically breaking a law. Over the last few years, under cover of outrage over the Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), BLM has hit record numbers of “Sales.” The majority of sale horses and burros are not going to “homes.” They are landing in kill pens days or weeks after sale. There is no oversight… nothing… after title transfer.
Burros all went “sale.”
The “$11 million” for “humane management” is terminology that has bothered us for a very long time… because that is NOT what the “$11 million” is for. The “$11 million” is for “fertility control.”
Back in 2022, we did a response to the budget bill that was passed… again, the “new status quo.” Since 2018 BLM began “scaling up” fertility control as they broke records in the number of wild horses and burros removed from the range to get to “AML.” (What is AML?)
All of this done was done as BLM failed to formalize any actual humane standards.
The additional “$11 million” is essentially shorthand for the Path Forward (if you really read Ten Years to AML and then Path Forward itself).
Back in 2018, BLM was incorporating the “ten year to AML” strategy into their official planning documents for Congress as agreements were finalized in Path Forward. CLICK the image below to see the PowerPoint from BLM on-range chief.
If the baselines for management decisions were science-based and fair, then fertility control would then become a subject worth addressing. Until that day comes the conversation is premature and, in our opinion, only helps BLM repackage the “remove to unjustified numbers, keep populations genetically unstable” into more acceptable terms.
If we want abuse to stop we need a formalized and enforceable welfare standards.
If we want actual protection against the slaughter pipeline we need to Burns Amendment loopholes closed.
If we want real “humane on range management” we need real management plans and not simply BLM rewriting “gather plans” with new names after our court wins… so that we can stop going back to court again and again.
All of that requires hard work and is not in the “political wheelhouse” of big lobby organizations. It represents real reform. This is not simply repackaging the status quo and using confusing terms that disarm the public making them believe something has changed that has not changed.
Callaghan Complex
In fact, some really bad things made the budget.
One of these things is aiding the setting up of large roundups as BLM burns the range (creating more livestock feed and doing little to stop fires). In the article in May we wrote about the newly proposed US Wildland Fire Service (that now exists) and how it appeared funding could be used from other programs to run it as it burns, chainsaws, masticates, anything it deems “fire fuel.” Right now the BLM is burning “residual fire fuel” in an area they intend to do the largest roundup in history, the Callaghan Complex. Residual grasses are what the horses would be eating all winter after sheep and cattle we out all spring and summer eating new growth. This will set up that “emergency” where horses die on range and BLM trots out the absurdly low AML as a target number for removal. A removal of the exact horses that for decades have eaten the residual grasses and slowed fire frequency and size. This program is creating a nice smokescreen so to speak.
Humane on-range management? We think not.
The words “humane management” have been coopted to simply mean fertility control of all forms. BLM is now using more GonaCon (4-10 year efficacy on mares whose natural life span will expire for the majority before a return to fertility) after they slam populations down to AML (an example of AML is 10 horses in all of Wall Canyon in the Surprise Complex and then GonaCon). Both GonaCon and PZP (1-year formula) can be applied with a dart gun. The most common application is via helicopter capture, removals and a few released after treatment.
We hope this article satisfies all of you writing to us asking we address the budget bill.
The Appropriations battle for 2027 will begin next month after the White House proposed budget is released. BLM will also release information from the last fiscal year (spending breakdown) and the Population Statistics report. These are the documents that will be used in the next debate. (We wrote about it in the newsletter.)
For nearly a decade the “Path Forward” has been running full steam with no science-based review at all. There has been absolutely no accountability.
A very sensible thing to ask for in the 2027 budget is a review. How has the increased funding since the Path Forward was incorporated been used and has it achieved the goals stated in the first 5 years of “ten years to AML?” (Review)
As the debate begins we will write updates and action items.
Onward.
WHE is a small organization without corporate sponsors or government grants. We answer only to you and our wild ones.
Every mile we travel to cover roundups or assess a herd, every court case we bring, every win, every action we take is only possible because of your support. Thank you for standing with us as we strive for justice, mercy and freedom.
Categories: Wild Horse Education
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