Jack,

Did you know that a representative in your state has a key role in deciding how the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will allocate and spend the Fiscal Year 2025 Wild Horse and Burro Program budget? As a member of the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, they will help decide what language goes into the House’s Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriations legislation.  

Last month, we were grateful when Representatives Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) submitted pro-wild horse language to this subcommittee, supported by Dina Titus (D-NV), Steve Cohen (D-TN), David Schweikert (R-AZ), and 74 other representatives. This bipartisan language would hold the BLM accountable for the implementation of robust, in-the-wild conservation through the use of humane fertility control, to ultimately reduce helicopter roundups. We need your help to make sure these crucial requests make it into the final version of the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations legislation. Can you take a moment to call on Congress to support this pro-wild horse language?

For the last two fiscal years, Congress has directed the BLM to use up to $11 million to implement fertility control initiatives in the West’s wild herds, but the vast majority of these funds remain unspent. Despite Congress' clear directive, the agency has failed to implement a robust fertility control program, instead relying on outdated, unscientific, and costly roundups and removals.

This newly submitted language would hold the BLM accountable by requiring the agency to:

• Allocate no less than 10% of the agency's budget for the implementation of humane fertility control programs in at least five additional Herd Management Areas (HMAs)
  • If the BLM fails to do this 120 days after the passage of this bill, it will incur a $100,000 fine per day until it implements acceptable fertility control programs.
• Ensure no funds are used for ovariectomy procedures
• Study humane alternatives to the use of helicopters and manned fixed-wing aircraft
• Stop cash incentive payments for adoptions
• Identify HMAs and Herd Areas that could be redesignated for relocating horses as an alternative to off-range holding
• Continue to prohibit the sale or adoption of healthy wild horses and burros that results in their destruction

These are important steps toward ensuring the humane treatment of our wild horses and burros and ending the current costly and cruel practice of rounding these animals up with helicopters and incarcerating them for life in holding pens. Will you speak up for wild horses in the appropriations process by asking Congress to support this pro-wild horse language?

Thank you for your advocacy and support, 

Team AWHC