Wild Burros

Racing to Extinction: New Management Plan Will Devastate Our Wild Herds

We are presenting many concerns about the disastrous proposal titled “The Path Forward for Management of BLM’s Wild Horses & Burros” by HSUS, ASPCA, Return to Freedom and American Mustang Foundation, who have seemingly betrayed the wild horses and burros and have hopped into bed with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, among other groups representing livestock grazing interests.  The article below is written by Ginger Kathrens.



May 16, 2019

Dear Friends,






Thank you for standing with us and with our wild ones.

Ginger Kathrens
Founder and Executive Director
The Cloud Foundation





Appropriate Management Level (AML)







 Protections for herds at or near AML and/or MVP


Forage Allocation


Maintaining Healthy Rangelands







Helicopter Round-ups

The Cloud Foundation does not support helicopter round-ups in any HMA, and I don’t believe you would either, if you had the chance to observe one in person from a nearby vantage point. Helicopters harass terrified horses, driving them for miles across rough terrain. Horses injure themselvesin their panic, tiny foals fall behind. Many horses die after the fact as a direct result of the exertion, and pregnant mares can abort their foals. The bodily and psychological trauma is appalling. Their family structure is shattered, the very fabric of wild horse society is destroyed.

Round-ups are not just a financial burden to the American taxpayer, they are an unconscionable misappropriation of tax dollars. They are an intentional money funnel – directly into the pockets of government contractors and lobbyists. Follow the funds – it is cronyism at its worst. It is an industry governed by greed, not by conscience or even policy. Contractors are paid by the number of horses they can catch, which ensures they do everything in their power to drive the horses into those traps, regardless of the cost to the animals, resulting in some of the most horrific examples of animal abuse I’ve ever witnessed.

Public opinion is strongly with the wild horse advocate community on this issue. The vast majority of Americans are staunchly opposed to having their mustangs stampeded, traumatized, injured and killed. This is the reality of a helicopter round-up: dead foals and injured horses, mares spontaneously aborting, stillborn foals, and inaccurate reporting of “previous existing conditions” such as broken backs (a direct result of the roundup) resulting in euthanasia of previously healthy horses.

There is also a degree of sadism I have observed with certain individuals in these roundup crews—i.e. deriving pleasure from being cruel by hot-shotting burros in the face and genitals, hot-shotting horses when they are already moving in the desired direction, and kicking animals that are flailing on the ground. BLM must take responsibility to ensure the safety of these animals, and independent supervision with real consequences for any cruelty to the animals is imperative.

 Humane Population Suppression

BLM has historically demonstrated an unwillingness to try humane fertility control measures that are acceptable to the American people in the majority of HMAs. Advocate groups have a legitimate concern that without strict accountability mechanisms and congressional oversight, BLM will take the additional funding and spend it all on round-ups, funneling tens of thousands more horses into an already unsustainable holding system.

We cannot stress enough that the HMAs that have already successfully implemented humane measures of fertility control should be exempt from the provisions of this plan. They should be used as exemplars for how to start, organize and implement darting programs for fertility control. These programs should be initiated through the HMAs.

To ensure that BLM fulfills its duty to implement fertility control, a percentage of the additional funding must be specifically earmarked for these programs, and clear language must be included to identify the acceptable methods of humane, reversible fertility control: (Zonastat H darting, PZP 22, and GonaCon).

These programs require meaningful observation and documentation of herds over time. Genetic variability must be thoughtfully considered, giving all mares the opportunity to contribute to the gene pool, ensuring a self-sustaining, healthy herd. There must be specific consequences if the BLM fails to carry out all the necessary steps to set-up and implement successful darting programs.

Natural Predation



Forging a New Path

What is our vision of what our public lands might look like decades from now? The goal for our wild horses is the same as it should be for all wildlife populations: whenever and where possible–let nature call the shots. We would support a collaboration in which creative plans and intelligent, out-of-the box thinking is invited. Further dialogue on this very complex issue is necessary and all stakeholders should have a seat at the table.

We know that we can count on you to lend your voice, as needed, to champion our wild families, who cannot speak for themselves. We encourage you to contact your representatives and senators and urge them not to support this proposal as-is.

Our hope is that through collaboration we can craft a plan that protects the future our wild herds, the health of our public lands, and holds BLM accountable for implementing humane, reversible fertility control programs moving forward.

8 replies »

  1. Please provide the above mentioned report: “To our knowledge BLM has not made an HA status report to Congress since 1995”. Thank you.


  2. Cow manure contains ~60% methane, which under non-range conditions can be harvested and converted to electricity. So why are we wasting all this potential energy on public lands, while allowing fossil fuel extraction to also produce energy (and flare off Methane from their nat gas extraction wells)?



    Cattle do tend to concentrate in riparian areas, especially modern breeds, but not so much the rangier “Corriente” types. It’s also generally part of a BLM/USFS grazing plan that cattle must be moved by luring with salt and/or driving with herders following defined intervals in specified locations. How well and how often these are monitored is another question, however.

    I do wonder how the BLM can consider wild horses “naturally self-sustaining” with all these ham-handed (with scalpels!) interventions, which in combination are the furthest from the “minimal feasible” required by law.

    Also have to push back on the argument that horse manure is somehow “better” than cow manure. Both are manures and both have good and bad qualities. The main things to consider as I see it are the larger concentrations in smaller areas of cow manure (~100lbs. /day/cow vs. ~35 lbs./day/adult horse), the great likelihood they contain commonly used vermicides and pass-through pesticides, and the truth that horses are non-ruminants, and therefore pass viable seeds which can restore damaged rangelands if they are ingesting desirable native species seeds.

    Overall though, these are side issue arguments. As I see it the core issue is whether and how our country will ensure wild horses remain as wild animals, in the wild, or if we will intentionally cause their exctinction in on-and-off range “zoos.”

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  4. All of Colorado’s remaining herds have active volunteer groups, and at least two (the smallest and largest) incorporate fertility controls.

    I find it counterproductive to posit to the BLM that a few well-known herds should be exempted from this lethal “management” proposal while others are not. We are down to around half the total herds that existed in 1971 already and this sort of triage will only further divide the advocacy, to the detriment of those we aim to protect.

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    John Hickenlooper Has a Curious Connection to a Trump Cabinet Secretary

    He often ended up aligned with David Bernhardt’s lobbying firm on fracking and supporting the oil and gas industry.
    Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s ties to the oil and gas industry run deep, especially when compared to those of other candidates in the unwieldy 2020 Democratic field.

    Now Hickenlooper is on the campaign trail, Bernhardt is running the Department of the Interior, and COGA is working with the Colorado arm of the American Petroleum Institute in its next fight: preventing the new Democratic majority in Colorado from passing a law to give local entities more power to curb fracking. Tracee Bentley, Hickenlooper’s legislative director at the time, started the American Petroleum Institute’s Colorado arm in 2015 and is working on the side of oil and gas on this effort.


    Liked by 1 person

  6. This is a very interesting and frightening post to a newcomer to this problem, but I am made to feel even more like an outsider by all the acronyms used in this post. By the end of reading it I still have no idea what a BLM is other than some anonymous government agency. If you want to grow your support groups to people not directly connected to wild horses and burros, one thinks you must do a better job explaining these initialed whatevers to the people you are trying to attract to your cause.
    Meanwhile, using helicopters to chase wild or tame animals around is inhumane, and humane population controls are impossible, in this writer’s opinion. The reintroduction of mountain lions, wolves, and carrion eaters to these areas seems to be an immediate need.
    I know we have wild herds up here in Canada, but I do not know exactly how they are managed. Are your organizations ever in contact with organizations in Canada, or Mexico (I presume Mexico has such herds too) to see how other jurisdictions manage or fail to manage their herds. I would think building international organizations would create a better voice with a much wider range of calls to action. Just a thought.


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