By Colette Kaluza, Welfare Team Assistant Director, Wild Horse Education

Over the past five years, a dedicated group of volunteers has done something that had never been accomplished before: they have brought together wild horse and burro advocates from across the nation, built a shared agenda, and carried that energy all the way to Congress. Through the National Wild Horse & Burro Conference they have created a space where people from different states, backgrounds, and organizations can learn from one another and move in the same direction for the horses and burros who cannot speak for themselves.

I was excited to join them at the 2026 Park City, Utah conference and to see that this collaborative work is now moving directly into Wild Horse Lobby Days in Washington, D.C. next week. Not everyone could make the trip to Utah, and many advocates will be supporting Lobby Days from home, so I am sharing my full presentation below—an updated version of my talk on the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) issue. It traces years of Wild Horse Education (WHE) litigation against abuse and our fight to secure First Amendment rights at roundups—so the public can see and document what is really happening—and traces how that work helped force the creation of CAWP while revealing its deep foundational flaws.

As a volunteer field observer and Welfare Team Assistant Director with WHE, I document helicopter roundups, holding facilities, and BLM’s claimed CAWP compliance, then connect what we see on the ground—broken promises, preventable suffering, and gaps in humane standards—to what the agency’s documents and emails reveal inside. I also outline a way forward through Congress and the appropriations process, including a specific funding and language fix advocates can use to demand enforceable, science-based welfare rules instead of hollow “policy” with no accountability; to dive deeper, readers can review The Word Game Is Over: “Humane” Without Rules, and BREAKING! BLM Emails Expose Agency Negligence Toward Wild Horses and Public Trust.

During Lobby Days, advocates will be speaking with Members of Congress about two timely issues:

• Ending or improving Sale Authority to help keep federally protected wild horses and burros out of the slaughter pipeline.
• Finalizing a Comprehensive Animal Welfare Policy (CAWP) with enforceable, science-based standards for humane treatment.

The volunteers leading this effort—Linda Greaves and her team, the National Wild Horse & Burro Conference, and Save America’s Wild Horses and Wildlife—are doing the hard, often invisible work of organizing, educating, and building relationships on Capitol Hill. Their coordinated strategy has kept this effort moving year after year, even when many people feel change is not attainable. I want to acknowledge their accomplishments, goals, and good energy, and the support of the WHE team for Lobby Days, including the CAWP appropriations path outlined in this presentation.

Advocates can choose what role to play: joining Lobby Days in person, supporting from home, sharing information, or helping push Congress toward science-based, enforceable welfare standards. With all of our combined energy—field documentation, legal work, organizing, lobbying, and public outreach—we believe that what many see as impossible can be made real, including action by Congress to direct BLM to formalize enforceable wild horse and burro welfare standards. You can join them formally on  July 22-23 from home or in person. You can also create your own appointments and advocate separately. They have more information on their website, click here. 

Below is my complete Utah presentation on the CAWP issue. It may provide you with some useful information in your own advocacy journey.

We must all use our voices to speak for our wild horses and burros that cannot speak for themselves. If we all speak up at the same moment in time, our collective voices will be hard to ignore.

You can download by clicking here.

WHE is a small organization with no corporate sponsors or big endorsements. 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.