Wild Horse Education Pushes for Enforceable Welfare Standards as Congress Finalizes FY2027 Budget Priorities

For over a decade, Wild Horse Education (WHE) has fought to make the humane treatment of wild horses and burros a matter of enforceable federal policy—not just good intentions on paper.

Through field documentation, public outreach, and litigation, WHE drove the creation of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP). Through the same channels WHE has revealed deep gaps in CAWP—the supposed framework meant to safeguard the welfare of wild horses and burros on range and during roundups, transport, holding, adoption, and sale.

Despite years of promises, those standards remain nonbinding, incomplete, and inconsistently applied, leaving animals unprotected from preventable suffering. The current recommendations have no consequence to BLM employees onsite and no ramifications on private contracts. Repetitive offenders face no restriction, no mark impeding them from being in charge at the next roundup or receiving an even larger taxpayer funded contract the following year. Even documentation requirements are ignored and continue to omit standards that were promised over a decade ago (documenting miscarriage, foaling complication deaths).

Now, as Congress prepares to finalize Fiscal Year 2027 budget priorities, WHE is pressing forward with a clear, actionable solution.

We made it really easy for you to send a letter to your lawmakers, just click here. 

The BLM employee in charge of this operation will be in charge at upcoming roundups. The contractor continues to fly. For those of you with a strong stomach, you can watch the video by clicking the image.

Pressing Congress for Humane Accountability

WHE has submitted formal non-defense programmatic funding requests and proposed bill/report language to U.S. Senators and House Representatives. These requests ask Congress to prioritize a small but powerful directive: dedicate $1,000,000 within BLM’s existing Wild Horse and Burro Program budget specifically to complete, formalize, and enforce CAWP welfare standards within one year. (It is important ti remember CAWP is a program BLM formalized. The standards within that program were never formalized.

The request is narrow and nonpartisan—designed to ensure taxpayer dollars lead to tangible improvements in animal welfare, reduce preventable deaths, and strengthen public trust in federal management.
In communications with Congressional offices, WHE emphasized that this directive would:

• Finalize and publish CAWP standards for public comment and regulatory enforcement.

• Establish science-based thresholds for heat stress and air quality during roundups and transport.

• Adopt burro-specific protections and foaling-season safeguards informed by veterinary best practices.

• Implement independent welfare assessments, transparent public reporting, and adequate training for BLM staff and contractors.

• Create real world consequences for violations.

“These are not new costs,” said WHE Founder Laura Leigh. “They are long-overdue actions that use existing program funds to finish what BLM started years ago and finally give the welfare program substance and accountability.”

Newborns are consistently separated from bands within view of observers who alert BLM to go get the babies. What happens out of sight?

A Decade of Documentation and Public Awareness

WHE has worked tirelessly to inform the public about these issues and the need for Congressional involvement.
Through investigations and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits, WHE uncovered that BLM never completed the CAWP process despite spending years and significant resources. In late 2025, WHE published ‘BREAKING! BLM Emails Expose Agency Negligence Toward Wild Horses and Public Trust’ (December 10, 2025), exposing internal documents confirming BLM adopted only a cover memo, leaving welfare standards unreviewed and unenforceable.

Throughout 2026, WHE continued building public understanding of how the Congressional appropriations process directly affects wild horse welfare. Articles such as:

• “Budget 2027: Another Mess And How To Deal With It” (March 16, 2026)

• “Don’t Forget Me (Take Action: Welfare Rules)” (February 5, 2026)

• “From the Roundup Welfare Team” (April 4, 2026)

These articles have guided readers through budget deadlines, Congressional advocacy windows, and concrete steps to act—not just react.

Dangerous air quality and excessive roping during heat waves. This is wildfire smoke blowing in from hundreds of miles away. Instead of pausing, BLM orders the contractor to push hard.

Why Now: Appropriations Deadlines and Urgency

The timing couldn’t be more critical. In FY 2026, BLM plans to capture more than 14,000 wild horses and burros across ten western states without enforceable, science-based welfare protections.
Without Congressional direction, BLM will continue relying on internal guidance that lacks public review, clear standards, and accountability.

Congress already has the authority—under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971—to require enforceable humane management. On the Act’s 55th anniversary, the opportunity is ripe to turn decades of unmet promises into real protections.

“Wild horses and burros symbolize America’s spirit of freedom and resilience,” Colette Kaluza, WHE welfare team assistant director said. “It’s time their management reflects those same values—humane, transparent, and accountable.”

Run again and again into a later in subfreezing weather during helicopter drive trapping

How Americans Can Help

As next week’s budget request deadlines approach, WHE asks every American who believes in the humane treatment of wild horses and burros to speak up:

• Contact your Senators and Representatives and express support for Wild Horse Education’s FY2027 programmatic funding request for CAWP completion. We made it really easy for you to send a letter to your lawmakers, just click here. 

• Share WHE’s articles and advocacy resources to help others understand why enforceable welfare standards matter.

Every call, letter, and share helps push Congress to care as deeply about wild horse welfare as their constituents already do.

“This is how policy becomes progress,” said every member of our welfare team. “We’ve done the research, the fieldwork, and the drafting—now we need the public’s voice to ensure Congress takes this across the finish line.”

We made it really easy for you to send a letter to your lawmakers, just click here. 

For those of you that want to do more than send the letter: 

You can call the U.S. Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121, ask to be connected to your U.S. House member and both U.S. senators. You can also go to https://www.house.gov/ and https://www.senate.gov/ to find their direct contact pages and local offices.

Tell them: I’m a constituent calling about the FY2027 Interior appropriations bill and the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program. I urge you to support a dedicated line item to complete and formalize science-based, enforceable welfare standards in BLM’s Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP), including publishing draft regulations for public comment and finalizing binding rules, for which there is no substitute or anything else currently on the table.

You can find a copy of our submission HERE.

We thank you for being an active advocate and standing up for Freedom, Mercy and Justice. 

We need your support to keep our teams engaging lawmakers, our team fighting in the court, our team ready to run the roundup schedule. 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.