Sand Wash Basin Herd Roundup is Not an Emergency
August 16, 2021
Don’t Let Bureau of Land Management’s Plans for Wild Horse Herd Sterilization in the North Lander Complex Become a Model for Extinction
February 9, 2022America’s Wild Horses Need Us the Most in 2022
In 2022 America’s Wild Horses Need Us the Most by Carol J. Walker
The Bureau of Land Management issued a press release on January 5 describing their plans to roundup at least 22,000 wild horses this fiscal year and remove 19,000 of them. With over 58,000 wild horses currently in holding facilities, this means that in 2022 we could see more wild horses in holding facilities which are a combination of feedlots and pastures, than there are left in the wild on our public lands. This juggernaut of “reaching AML” or Appropriate Management Level, which the BLM has designated at only 17,000 to 27,000 wild horses total left in 10 western states is driving the removals in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
So many of us had hoped that under the new administration and the new Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland that we could finally turn around the BLM’s drive to remove as many wild horses from our public lands as possible. With her unwillingness to meet with advocates or advocacy groups and completely ignoring emails, letters and calls from the public and even from our elected officials, our hopes for a change have been dwindling.
However, I am not going to give up. The largest roundup in history is continuing in Wyoming’s Red Desert and the new list of proposed roundups has just been published: https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/docs/2022-01/National%202022%20Tentative%20Gather%20and%20FC%20Schedule_1.4.2022_WEB.pdf
Only a portion of all the herds to be rounded up this year are listed here – more will be added as the year continues. Most of the herds that I personally have spent time with over many years have been or will be rounded up and removed down to low AML, destroying the families and lives of these precious beings.
I firmly believe that every individual and every advocacy group that has the best interests of America’s wild horses at heart and is working to keep our wild horses wild and free on our public lands has an important role to play in saving them. Not everyone agrees on methods, not everyone agrees on what is a priority or on how to go about saving them. It is perfectly fine to not be in lock step and have exactly the same views. We all have our parts to play and we all make a difference. Right now it is looking dire. But I will be looking for new opportunities for change and working in partnership with others in the new year.
People are asking me “what can I do to help?”
Here are four things you can do:
1.Write your Senators and Representatives. They are your elected officials, they need to hear from you.
2. Spread the word. Tell your friends, your local news, look for opportunities to get the word out with people you know.
3. Sign up for news and alerts with organizations that are working to save the horses.
4. Donate to legal funds when you can for legal actions to stop the worst of the Bureau of Land Management’s abuses.
Keep in mind, this is for the horses that we all care about so deeply.
24 Comments
Please stop these horrific roundups by BLM! Our precious wild horses and burros don’t deserve this……they are icons of the west and it’s all they know! The videos and pictures of these roundups are so appalling and upsetting, they are hard to watch! I believe it’s all about greed between BLM and the cattlemen and it is wrong!!!
Please let the roma free there is more than enough room for them
Please send me info I’d like to know what’s going on
The wild mustangs are iconic American symbols of freedom and strength. The public lands need the wild horses to keep the lands vitality in balance. Stop the roundups and manage the wild horses on the public lands where they belong.
Carol, thank you for remembering that advocates do not need to be in lockstep to further the needs of the Wild Ones but for their sakes we must PRESS Forward for change.
Jeanette Ortiz, I agree with your statement totally. I am going to write my senator about this & Pres. Biden too. He needs to know that Sec. Of the Interior is NOT doing her job!!! I hope & pray he cares
This is unacceptable to remove so many of our wild mustangs, these horses have a right, just like any other animal to live free and not be removed for the sake of the almighty dollar, just to be put in kill pens…. These animals have emotions and family herds, when they are removed in this manner many get injured and have to be put down or die during the roundups! these roundups need to choose less horses and do it in more of a humane manner! These animals are just like any other animal in that when you lessen the genetic pool, you are messing with the bloodlines.. and in years to come this can create more problems with illnesses and physical ailments due to inbreeding after you take away the genetic pool availability by removing so many horses… Think about the impact in the years to come instead of ‘the now’!
This crime must be stopped, wild mustangs and burro’s are conservation grazers the world needs them, the climate need them. Once gone they will be lost forever
Please have a heart and leave them where they belong. In the UK we value our wild herds and feed them if food is short or when weather is bleak.
Once your mustangs are gone thats it gone forever
Horses are not meat stop slaughtering than
From deeply concerned onlooker
If you are in a position to do the right thing. Round ups are not the answer. Public property is for the wild. If a rancher can not feed his/her cattle on the land they own then they should not have such a large herd. If we are serious about climate change then we all must eat much less beef anyway. Why can’t we utilize the national parks. There MUST be a better solution. Please help
Please stop hurting our horses , their what make the west , our wild west , y’all are lucky that John Wayne ain’t here
i was thrilled to see the first Native American woman to be chosen for the job of Secretary of the Interior, but now I feel absolutely and totally disappointed with lack of interest in doing anything at all to save our precious wild horse herds who are surviving on public lands. the Public Lands do not belong to the Cattlemen who want the horses gone. They want to graze on their cattle for dam hamburgers on BLM which costs them pennies. the lands belong to the wild ones not the cattlemen, this is all wrong and all must change now. The wild horses who are already exisiting and suffering in horrid weather conditions without any shelters in holding pens must be allowed back out on the ranges on the BLM lands. It is time for all to realize that nature rules and that the human species is destroying all life on this planet due to ignorance, greed, power hungry individuals, humans must awaken now, today not later. SAVE our HORSES
Kick the cliven bundies off of our public lands which is where these horses belong!
They Matter,GODBLESS ALL THOSE WHO GUVE SO MUCH TO SAVE THERE LIVES!!! IM NOT RICH BUT I WILL BE A VOICE,I GREW UP AROUND HORSES!! THEY MEAN ALOT TOO ME!!!
I totally agree with Jeanette Ortiz. We need to step up and be their voice.
Excellent alert about a most perverse and life-threatening situation! Please all of us who appreciate and care for the wonderful wild horses and burros and their legal habitats must do all that we can to prevent the current unfolding catastrophe!
Please stop the rounding up of our wild horses on land that was set aside specifically for them.
The cattlemen and the mining industry have bought and paid for the BLM , once they get rid of the horses the big game will be next till there is nothing to interfere with their greed !!
I personally think the BLM and all the agencies working with them have been misguided. They are not thinking about the preservation of our wild horses they are thinking about greed and deals metveith cattleman snd Mining companies and others its all about money not wild horses at all and it needs to stop now before it’s too late
Stop the roundups, holding neutering and killing our wildlife horses and defund agencies doing it !!!
Stop the totally cruel round ups
Stop trying lie to the American people about starving or no water
Stop the horrific motorized against the law hellcoptor use to run horses so hard the break legs
Stop leave them alone …..
Yup they-re at it again or still, I guess. I’ve written emails & commented everywhere I can. But honestly, this is worse than ever. One roundup after another after another – more horses killed for being blind or injured, when these same horses lived their whole lives just fine that way – IN THE WILD!
WHE has a video of a young (3-4 months) colt with a broken leg & a helicopter harassing him/her until he just cant run three-legged anymore. Frankly THATS a picture that someone should be publicizing! Cruel & inhumane? I’d say so.
Just read Rachel Reeves latest email & shes concerned for her White Mountain horses – that one coming up.
Sorry Carol I’ll keep bitching & complaining to these entities but its getting harder & harder..
I don’t think I’ve ever seen politicians/ BLM /Interior dept of Land Management of 2021-22 so bent on doing so much to exterminate our horses. In Nevada they want to exterminate 75% this year. 2021 Nevada has majority of democrats and management appointments by Biden team. They voted to give BLM money to “manage” wild horse population. So I guess now it’s ok for BLM to break the 1971 law protecting the wild horses who belong to all of us. Many of these representatives ran on environmental issues. They lied. Drought in Nevada has been around forever, we have droughts then we get floods. There is just no excuse good enough to do what they are doing.
Carol,
Thank you for all you do for the wild ones. You’ve been a major force behind the fight to keep these mustangs safe and free and you never tire. This madness needs to stop.
Thank you also for taking the time to write these blogs. I learn a lot from it and appreciate it. It’s time to leave you a comment here and express my gratitude.
Maria
Carol,
Thank you also for taking the time to write these blogs. I learn a lot from it and appreciate it. It’s time to leave you a comment here and express my gratitude. And mostly for all you do for the wild ones.
Maria
They are a symbol of America. How can you slaughter them. BLM is more concerned with money than protecting these beautiful wild horses and also let’s not forget about the Burro’s. When you change, destroy, remove what has been, you create a domino effect. These beautiful horses were born to be free on open land. All You involved shall reap what you sow