The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program utilizes a National Advisory Board made up of nine members appointed by the Bureau. This Board has always been stacked with biased individuals who have sided with ranchers who use our public lands for their own livestock and personal gain. At the July 9-11, 2019 meetings in Boise, Idaho, we learned of the thinly veiled plans to annihilate America’s wild horse and burro herds following U.S. Representative Chris Stewart’s “Path Forward” document. 

Last year, the Advisory Board recommended using “all the tools in the toolbox” for wild horse and burro management, including: more extensive roundups and removals, killing misnamed as “euthanasia,” sale without limitation (slaughter), and brutal types of sterilization of wild horses and burros returned to the range. Since 80% of the American public oppose killing these iconic animals, a more disguised agenda has been presented.

In Defense of Animals attended this year’s meeting in Boise, and we were able to uncover the plan to eventually return to the “toolbox” options of previous years. America’s wild horses and burros continue to be wrongly blamed for the damage done to public lands. The true cause of the land damage is a fact the BLM and its recently appointed “Acting” Director, Casey Hammond, have made great efforts to cover up; private livestock, oil & gas operations, recreational ATV riders, and more. Individuals with private interests want our mustangs and burros destroyed and continue to make progress in that direction. 

This proposed “Path Forward” plan was devised by the #1 enemy of wild horses and burros, Chris Stewart, U.S. Rep. from Utah, to roundup and remove up to 130,000 wild horses and burros in the next ten years. The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) collaborated with special interest lobbyists like the American Cattlemen’s Association, on this catastrophic legislation. 

With ASPCA and HSUS on board (both of whom do some good work for dogs and cats, but have very little knowledge of wild horses,) Stewart’s horrific plan receives the legitimacy and unwarranted “credibility” it needs to get through Congress. The BLM Wild Horse and Burro National Advisory Board is currently tying into this plan with their meeting presentations and BLM connections.

We see right through Stewart’s evil and unsustainable plan that will eventually create a billion-dollar price tag at the expense of taxpayers, leading to a high probability that Congress will believe their only choice left is to kill the animals because of government cost. 

If you have not already done so, please take action today to oppose the BLM’s cruel and short-sighted abuse and killing of America’s wild horses and burros!