Take Action! Help Wild Horses & Burros
Be Informed
NMMBW encourages public awareness and seeks to involve horse people in bringing about more compassionate, practical and economically sustainable management practices.
The tens of thousands of wild horses in BLM holding facilities have a miserable life in captivity and have nowhere to go. The much publicized Madeline Pickens Sanctuary has been derailed. There is no sanctuary and there will not be a sanctuary under current BLM policies. The Pickens Sanctuary plan is now a grazing contract application. (To learn more, go to www.shakingwindranch.com) Read about the Madeline Pickens Sanctuary Proposal to the BLM and the BLM Response to Madeline Pickens.
Be informed!
Understand that the excessive BLM costs for caring for wild horses are directly a result of the BLM policy of removing wild horses from legally allocated federal lands and placing them in long term holding facilities where private entities take millions of dollars of taxpayer money and eventually, covertly, sell wild horses to slaughter!
Under a grazing contract arrangement, also known as long term holding, horses remain in the BLM system until they are too old for adoption, at age 11. When they turn 11, they are legally above adoptable age and are sold out of the system, for as little as $25.00. Most of these horses are purchased and shipped to slaughter.
Here is how the current system fails the wild horses and fails the general public:
Typically 5 year olds are shipped and stay in long term holding until they are above legal adoptable age. They are never to be seen by the public during their prime years. Many of these legally adoptable 5-10 year old horses are beautiful and gentle but the public cannot access them. They are unavailable for adoption except at a very few long term holding facilities, such as the Colorado Canon City CI facility, where these very desirable mature horses can be adopted.
Younger, less developed horses that are presented at local adoption sites pale in comparison to these mature horses.
The little known fact about long-term holding is that the horses are never free. They are separated from family groups, sorted by gender and age and always remain in the BLM system.
By educating people about the current wild horse and burro management, and offering a balanced view of wild horses, the NMMBA can help promote positive change. As more people learn the facts and speak out for positive change, BLM policies will change.
We invite you to consider the marvelous opportunity that is available in adopting a wild horse or burro or by purchasing an older, “Sale Authority” horse.
Your Action on Behalf of Wild Horses is Critical
This is an especially important time to act on behalf of wild horses.
With 33,000 horses in captivity, and BLM discussions including euthanasia; with the hoped for Madeline Pickens Plan faltered, wild horses need us to step forward, one at a time, if necessary, to insure that these noble animals have a meaningful future.
Together we can bring a new message about wild horses and create a new understanding of the power, presence and potential for growth and joy that comes from experiencing a mustang, up close and personal!
Here are things you can do:
1. Promote and encourage correct information about wild horses through photography of horses acting in kind, gentle and harmonious ways. Tell people that there is no sanctuary!
2. Join NMMBA for a visit to the Colorado Canon City facility. Firsthand learning is the best kind!
3. Donate money or feed to the New Mexico Wild Horses and Burro Adoption Network. We are an alliance of individuals, who have adopted mustangs and burros. Additional financial support from donors allows us to help additional more horses.
4. Share your personal stories and photographs of wild horses experiences with us, to post on our website.
5. Share your ideas and suggestions for violence-free training and management of wild horses.
6. Share photos of your facilities: what works and what does not.
7. Share your resources. Can you loan a stock trailer to transport and adopted horses? Do you have extra corral panels to loan/give a prospective adopter? We will post on our site any available resources that can help move another mustang or burro into a safe home.
8. Volunteer: many of us in New Mexico have our equines on full feed and that means full time, 24/7 care. A network of volunteers who can fill in for an occasional day or weekend, can make the difference that allows another person to say yes to adopting a BLM equine.
9. Share your other ideas, horse management techniques and resources with other wild equine supporters. . .
10. Adopt or purchase a BLM equine, and plan on a lifetime connection with your new partner.
11. Express your views and your concerns about wild horses in captivity and in natural habitat to your legislators and the bureau of Land Management. Be polite, be specific about your concern, and offer helpful suggestions or alternatives to improve the lives of wild equines.
12. Help us locate privately owned open space that is suitable for permanent sanctuary for wild horses. A herd is usually less than ten in number: who do you know that has land that can support 6-10 horses living in freedom?
13. Tell people that there is NO SANCTUARY for BLM horses
14. Oppose continued removal of wild horses from public lands and oppose BLM policy of giving public lands to livestock growers on long term, low cost leases.