Yesterday we reported on a big win for Carter Reservoir, Buckhorn and Coppersmith. That roundup will be pulled off the schedule as we continue the fight for longterm protection in the underlying case. The long fight for those herds is not over. But the moment of justice is very real. Read more HERE.

There is a lot of other “wild horse and burro” advocacy work that also needs attention. 

Our teams are in field, traveling to do range assessments, on-site at active removals, on the way to new roundups. Our team is also toggling to continue the work to meet deadlines in active cases such as the Stone Cabin Appeal in the Ninth Circuit and the court case to stop further removals at Devil’s Garden. None of this work is inexpensive or easy. We are not a large organization. We do need your support to keep it all going. 

Our inbox is exploding with questions. We will do our very best to answer as many of them as we can. 

Inyo: Montgomery Pass, Mono Lake (CA/NV line)

The United States Forest Service (USFS) says that a 2024 aerial survey for the Montgomery Pass Wild Horse Territory showed the population is at least 694 wild horses. They say 624 wild horses are located outside the territory. In conjunction with BLM (that manages the area jointly with USFS), a roundup plan was approved for “off territory wild horses.” They scheduled a roundup of 450.

On day 1 of the roundup, 219 wild horses were captured (84 studs, 95 mares, 40 foals). USFS reported no deaths during the days operation. Note about death reports: Deaths that take place after 6 p.m. (or after the daily meeting) will often not be reported until the following day. In other words, a death that happens late in day 1 could be reported in the day 2 totals. 

Observers onsite said that they were more than a mile away and the way the trap was constructed offered little opportunity to assess the final push into the trap or handling during loading. There were escapes. (video provided by https://www.instagram.com/stratihov/)

They reported it was a very long day and were held for hours before being able to leave at the end of the day. It was near dark before they were cleared to leave. We are still receiving their documentation and will review footage and report more on this operation in our normal daily format moving forward. 

Operations continue today.

Captives will be sent up to the USFS Double Devil Corral in Modoc County, CA. 

Many of you are sending us questions about the two different lawsuits concerning these horses. Those cases are not ours. One case involves tribal interests where the tribe says BLM/USFS did not consult with them (as required by law) and BLM/USFS says they did. The other involves a case that centers on how this should have been done as a territory plan to address the issues that cause the horses to leave the territory in the first place. Both of those underlying claims are still active even though both bids to stop the roundup before it started were denied.

PLEASE direct further questions on these cases to the people that filed them. Legal actions contain a lot of nuance. WHE has cases of our own we are working on. We should not be answering questions on the work of others (it is not only in “bad taste” to do so, it could create unnecessary confusion). 

Callaghan Complex (NV)

There is a lot of chatter about Callaghan online. Most of it is extremely oversimplified or wrong: a real disservice to the actual fight to protect these wild horses.

Callaghan is the largest roundup currently on the schedule (2000 targeted). But it is not the largest roundup of wild horses in history. It is also not the largest target of any roundup plan.

The approved Callaghan Complex roundup plan targets about 5000 wild horses. The last roundup plan approved for Antelope/Triple B, a different area, removed over 14,000 wild horses in a 7 year period. Around 20% of all wild horses captured in the U.S. in the last 7 years came from that area under that plan. (There is a new plan there and we have an active administrative appeal.)

We did a couple of articles (and are trying to do more) to help you understand the Callaghan Complex (complex) issues:

The “Math that does not math,” covers issues with how BLM is determining “growth rate” and the extreme population drops BLM will not explain. All of that impacts how they create removal targets and, when they are wrong, how it could leave a herd destroyed.

“Long read: Callaghan explained,” addresses our court case and some of the issues. We did file a Preliminary Injunction (PI) motion attached to our underlying lawsuit. The PI asks for immediate relief and the lawsuit seeks long term change and accountability. This article explains the challenges in a large and complicated case like this one.

The court did deny the PI. BLM says there are over 5000 horses in the complex and they are removing 2000. Allowing the roundup to move forward as the underlying claim is briefed is the current order of the court (and not fully unexpected even though we believe the court should have set clear boundaries). The court stated that they believe our claims of “harm” are “speculative.” Much of that is actually rooted in the fact that BLM has simply refused to answer questions regarding how they are doing the roundup. Instead of ordering them to answer those questions, the court has essentially left the burden on our shoulders. We went into this knowing it was going to be hard simply based on the scale. If, as the roundup moves forward, BLM targets a single HMA in the Complex (as we believe they will) or if issues involving welfare or First Amendment develop, we can amend our motion with the new information and ask for reconsideration and another emergency hearing. 

The lawsuit fighting to gain longterm change and accountability remains active. Just like at Pancake, we may not stop the initial hit because of the larger number of wild horses involved, but there is a real likelihood of winning ground breaking longterm change. (At Pancake the court found that real management planning had been illegally delayed and we kicked the gather plan to the curb because BLM failed to consider the impact of removing horses on fire fuels.)

Please read the long read. 

Our team is onsite at Callaghan. Our team is continuing the legal battle for long term change. 

Saylor Creek (ID)

In just 6 days the helicopter will fly at Saylor Creek in Idaho. This is another herd where population estimates were inflated and the roundup was placed on the schedule. After doing a census before the roundup the target number was dropped by 24%. Most herds will not have a pre-roundup census and targets will continue to carry the massive potential error rate,

Lahontan (NV)

In 11 days the helicopter will begin the capture of 700 wild horses from an area 5 times the size of the Herd Management Area (HMA) that will likely impact a neighboring herd that was not even included in planning documents. They plan to leave only 7-10 in the HMA.

We have briefing due in other cases over the next few weeks.

Today we are working on the Stone Cabin case. Our team is also working on the next round of briefs at Devil’s Garden to stop additional removals and gain longterm change. We are also working on Pancake phase 2: additional litigation filed after winning the first case to hold BLM accountable to craft a real management plan and not just a gather plan with a new name (this is a really important lawsuit).

All of these cases will have far reaching implications in changing how wild horses and burros are managed and how BLM must be accountable to actual management, not removal, plans. 

The battle lines for all of these fights are set in two places.

The broad stroke comes through Congress telling BLM what they can spend money on and how they can use it. That is the Appropriations fight. One of the issues that could be directly impacted in that debate is welfare.

For over a decade Congress has simply passed funding to promote the status quo with additional funds that support a lobby effort (many of you know as Path Forward) to increase removals and fertility control. Congress has ignored all other requests.

YOU can tell them you are tired of the word game and push them to direct BLM to formalize a welfare standard to stop unnecessary suffering and death. Learn more here and take action.

The site-specific battle to protect a herd is in the planning process for each action. There are really specific places that must be engaged in order to create change on the ground for each herd. In the U.S. we can litigate our government. But the window to do it is narrow. That means you need to engage every step, fully.

Right now there are 3 open comment periods: Red Desert (WY), Eagle (NV) and Challis (ID).

RED DESERT: Sample comments and sign on letter HERE. Deadline Is July 13.

EAGLE COMPLEX: Sample comments and sign on letter HERE. Deadline is July 27.

We are working on sample comments for Challis and will have them out to you shortly. Comments are due August 8.

So as you can see, our teams are really busy from field to courtroom and engaging lawmakers. We are working really hard. So if we cannot answer an email or respond to instant messaging online, please understand why. 

As we move into the next battles, let us not forget to hold onto the win at Carter, Buckhorn and Coppersmith and the hope these cases bring for longterm change. Read more HERE.

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.