BLM has announced a $30 million USDA investment to expand wild-horse “fertility control.” The term can mean far more than a temporary contraceptive vaccine that wears off. It can encompass invasive experiments, chemical or surgical sterilization, and other permanent reproductive interventions.

At the same time, the federal program still lacks finalized, enforceable welfare rules governing wild horses and burros through capture, handling, transport, holding, treatment, recovery, and disposition. Congress must not write a blank check for an undefined category of interventions while the basic rules needed to protect animals remain unenforceable.

Use the messages below to ask lawmakers to add two guardrails to FY 2027 appropriations: prohibit federal funding for experimentation and permanent sterilization of wild horses and burros on or captured from BLM lands, and fund a transparent rulemaking process to establish enforceable welfare standards.

There are two actions: One is the fast action, just click, add info and send. The other requires you look up the address of your representative and send an email or print and send a letter. Or you can even drop off your letter in person to a local office.

Find your lawmakers at govtrack.us and find their addresses. Send a hard copy through the mail or send an email.

You can take our quick action item by clicking HERE.

For those of you that want more:

Copy/Paste-and-send message template you can personalize and edit into your own words

Dear [Senator/Representative] [Last Name],

I am writing to ask you to protect America’s wild horses and burros in the FY 2027 appropriations process.

Congress should not allow appropriated funds to support experiments on, or permanent sterilization of, wild horses and burros captured from—or living on—Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands.

The phrase “fertility control” is routinely used as though it means one temporary, reversible vaccine. It does not. It can encompass permanent surgical sterilization, chemical sterilization, invasive reproductive procedures, gelding, sex-ratio manipulation, and other actions with very different welfare, behavioral, genetic, and ecological consequences.

This is especially urgent after the Bureau of Land Management announced a $30 million U.S. Department of Agriculture investment to “expand and accelerate” wild-horse fertility-control efforts nationwide. Funding moving through DOI, USDA, or another federal source must not become a loophole for experimentation or permanent sterilization.

I ask you to include the following prohibition in the FY 2027 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill and any other relevant appropriations measure:

“No funds made available by this Act or any other Act may be used by the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, or any Federal agency, directly or through a grant, cooperative agreement, contract, reimbursement agreement, transfer, or other arrangement, to conduct, support, authorize, or fund experimentation on, chemical sterilization of, surgical sterilization of, or other permanent sterilization procedure on any wild free-roaming horse or burro captured from, or living on, lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management.”

Congress should also address a basic failure in the current program: these activities are occurring without one single finalized, enforceable federal welfare rule governing the full lifecycle of wild horse and burro management. A program may use the word “humane,” but a label is not a welfare standard. Binding rules are needed before the federal government expands capture, handling, treatment, transport, holding, or reproductive interventions.

Please also include this dedicated funding direction in the FY 2027 appropriations bill:

“Of the funds made available for the Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program, $1,000,000 shall be available to complete and formalize science-based, enforceable welfare standards for wild horses and burros through the appropriate rulemaking and regulatory processes, including meaningful public notice and participation. Such standards shall cover on-range management; gathers; handling; transport; temporary and long-term holding; veterinary treatment and reproductive interventions; adoption and sale; and shall include measurable standards, independent veterinary input, public reporting, compliance monitoring, and consequences for violations.”

Before Congress funds an expanded category called “fertility control,” the public deserves to know exactly which products or procedures will be used, whether they are reversible, what welfare protections apply, what evidence supports them, and how the agency will be held accountable.

Please support these guardrails in FY 2027 appropriations:

• No federal funding—through DOI, USDA, or any other source—for experiments on, chemical sterilization of, surgical sterilization of, or other permanent sterilization of wild horses and burros on or captured from BLM lands.
• Dedicated funding and direction to establish science-based, enforceable welfare rules through a transparent process with meaningful public participation.

Thank you for protecting wild horses and burros and for insisting that federal policy be transparent, accountable, and grounded in enforceable safeguards.

Sincerely,
[Name]
[City, State]
[ZIP Code]

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. Sincere Gratitude. 

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Help Defend Against The Broken Promise

Fifty-five years after Congress declared wild free-roaming horses and burros “fast disappearing from the American scene,” federal agencies are still driving their numbers down on the public lands meant to protect them.

Relentless removals are aimed at herd targets roughly one-third below the numbers found when Congress acted in 1971.

And the failures do not end there. After more than five decades, wild horses and burros still lack enforceable federal welfare standards that protect them through capture, confinement, transport, and disposition. Agencies continue to remove them without ensuring they are safeguarded from the slaughter pipeline.

This 55th-anniversary shirt honors the work of Velma Bronn Johnston—Wild Horse Annie—and refuses to let the cause she ignited be erased. We are carrying the fight forward for freedom, mercy, justice, and the right of wild horses and burros to remain wild and free on their public lands.

All proceeds fuel that fight.