Based on the nearly 40-year-old “Framework Plan” created in 1983, the Bureau of Land Management Utah plans to remove more than 750 of the 831 wild horses they claim live in the Bible Springs Complex in southwestern Utah. Of course, BLM continues to authorize livestock grazing in Blawn Wash HMA.
The BLM’s plan leaves behind just 70 wild horses in an area where the agency permits over 8x more commercial livestock grazing. BLM plans to use Gonacon, IUDs, sex ratio skewing, and sterilization on horses left on the range.
If you are SICK and TIRED of BLM’s mismanagement of wild horses, please take action today. Deadline for public comments: June 17, 2022.
Silence is complicity — it is wholly American to voice opposition when the government is wrong.
Every alert, like this one, gives us an opportunity to say: We will NOT shut up; we will continue to fight for what is right.
Please take a moment to say “No.” Please use YOUR voice now — speak up against the inhumane management of Utah’s Bible Spring Complex herd.
The magnificent stallion who taught millions the importance of being wild and free was born 27 years ago.
Today, we celebrate the indomitable spirit of Cloud. His courageous heart and wild spirit made millions fall in love with wild mustangs in Ginger Kathrens’ first documentary: Cloud, Wild Stallion of the Rockies.
This year, perhaps more than EVER, we are very aware of the dangers facing our wild horses and burros. Massive government roundups tear wild families apart; horses are injured and killed, and holding facilities have become breeding grounds for disease.
The Cloud Foundation was created by Ginger to fight for wild families like Cloud’s. It’s a difficult battle against the behemoth that is the federal government, but we won’t EVER give up.
Today, on the magnificent Cloud’s birthday, we’re asking for your help, if you can. For as little as $5/month you can join our herd as a Cloud Foundation sponsor — OR you can choose to give $10, $25, $50, or more.
Legal Action
Lawsuits are often the only way to stop the WORST BLM plans. TCF has won many suits over the years on our own and in collaboration with other groups. In 2017, we sued to stop a roundup in the Pryor Mountains, and more recently, we succeeded in halting the barbaric ovariectomy experiments planned for the Warm Springs mares in Oregon.
Lawsuits are SO expensive. We need to keep our legal fund robust in order to fight future BLM actions.
Educating members of Congress
Most legislators hear only from the BLM and livestock lobby. Congress was sold a terrible plan for mass removals, which is what is now driving the destruction of our wild herds.
We must teach our legislators that wild horses and burros are not overpopulated on public lands, but commercial livestock sure are. We are carrying the message that wild horses and burros deserve their fair share on the range, and we’re NOT giving up.
Cloud and his mother, Phoenix, shortly after he was born. Photo by Ginger Kathrens.
Careful documentation of Cloud’s herd
Ginger Kathrens has worked tirelessly for 3 decades to educate the public about wild horses. TCF takes an active interest in the management of the Pryor mustangs, and fights for them and for all our wild herds.
We fight for fair allocation of forage, humane on-range management, and protecting their wild behaviors, which means no fertility control that would affect natural hormone production.
Rescue Operations and the Freedom Family
TCF provides sanctuary for the “Freedom Family,” a rescued band of Pryor mustangs saved after the horrible 2009 helicopter roundup.
We also partner with our allies in equine rescue to save mustangs and burros in danger when we can. Rescue operations are costly, but every single life is important.
Regular news and action alerts
We work hard to ensure you have the opportunity to speak out against bad BLM plans. As Americans, we have the RIGHT and RESPONSIBILITY to participate in our government. It is one of the most important things we can do to protect our wild horses and burros.
Supporting TCF is easy. If you can’t give monthly, consider a one-time donation. Every contribution quite literally makes a difference.
The Cloud Foundation (TCF) is urging Federal legislators and Colorado State officials to convene an independent investigation into how an illness has now killed almost 150 captured wild horses at BLM’s Canyon City holding facility.
We are calling for a moratorium on ALL wild horse and burro roundups until the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) can ensure the animals’ health and safety off the range.
BLM officials claim the horse deaths are attributable to equine influenza virus H3N8. We are demanding answers as to how the virus entered the facility and ravaged one specific herd – the West Douglas horses – with such devastating effect.
“These are the American public’s wild horses; they don’t belong to the BLM,” stated Ginger Kathrens, Founder and Board President of The Cloud Foundation. “Secrecy breeds suspicion and doubt. Due to a long history of not being transparent, how can we trust the BLM to be unbiased while investigating itself?”
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has so mismanaged America’s wild burros that the hardy little animals are currently facing a genetic crisis.
Despite knowing this, BLM does nothing to address the crisis they’ve created. Instead, they continue to round up our wild burros, knowing full well they’re keeping the burro populations so low that the animals are forced to inbreed.
There isn’t a worse example of their utter FAILURE to adhere to best practices and carry out their responsibility to manage “healthy self-sustaining populations.”
The BLM wants to remove 400 of the 500 burros in this area — 80% of the population! We MUST stop this dangerous, broken cycle of roundups and stockpiling — and that starts with raising our voices to tell BLM we DO NOT support this plan.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Oregon is pushing a management plan that would take effect for 10 YEARS until 2032. NOW is your time to speak up!
The BLM’s plan to round up these horses, leaving just 75 in each HMA, is dangerous. It will threaten the long-term genetic health of these herds, increase the risk of inbreeding and the threat of physical health problems.
Taking these herds to such low levels will severely limit opportunities for the public to view and enjoy the horses in their natural environment.
BLM also plans to use Gonacon on these mares, a fertility control which has been shown to shut down and shrivel the ovaries. In studies, only 30% of mares reversed to fertility within 10 years after 2 shots of Gonacon. The BLM shut down that study, but based on the data, it’s safe to say that Gonacon may cause permanent sterilization after just two injections.
We’re asking you to take a stand against these actions, and to tell BLM to make sure cameras are put on helicopters and trap sites at roundups. As Americans, we have a constitutional right to observe the action of our government, and we’re demanding they provide this opportunity.
We all know that the treatment of wild horses and burros during a roundup is abusive. With video documentation will we be able to change things for these beloved animals.
Sick and old wild horses and burros and foals are terrorized, injured, and killed in helicopter roundups.
They are chased in extreme heat in the summer and below freezing temperatures in winter. They are driven countless miles — no one knows for sure how many, because no one monitors the helicopters.
Heavily pregnant mares are sometimes pursued so long and hard that they miscarry their foals, sometimes on the run, due to the physical stress caused by the chase.
We know how the Bureau of Land Management uses helicopters is inhumane — and The Cloud Foundation is dedicated to changing BLM policy, to get cameras on the roundup helicopters, trap sites, and roundup holding facilities.
Just like law enforcement cameras, this would help to ensure transparency, accountability, and added protection for our wild horses and burros.
If we had a nickel for every time someone said we should sue the Bureau of Land Management, we’d never need to ask for donations again! The truth is, we WISH we could sue over everything that enrages us about the wild horse and burro program. Unfortunately, the ins and outs of wild horse/burro litigation aren’t simple.
Many of you write to us with terrific legal questions, wanting to understand. So we’re doing something we’ve NEVER done before. On Wednesday, March 30th, our legal team at Eubanks & Associates is joining us LIVE on Zoom to answer YOUR questions about wild horse litigation.
Our lawyers are some of the most successful in this arena. They’ve been on the frontlines for years, fighting relentlessly for wild horses and public lands. Their track record is nearly unparalleled.
We will be LIVE on Zoom Wednesday, March 30th at 3:00pm ET.
Register here to join us for an open discussion on the current state of affairs AND a live Q&A. If you can’t make it on the 30th, no problem. Register and we’ll send you the recording after the event.
You can submit your questions in advance on the registration form OR email them to: info@thecloudfoundation.org.
A recent High Country News article reported that PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) has just released data clearly showing that over 50 MILLION acres of BLM-managed lands fail to meet the agency’s own land health standards.
What is the “primary culprit” responsible for land deterioration?
PRIVATE LIVESTOCK.
Wild equids are outnumbered by millions of commercial cattle and sheep — there’s no way they can be faulted for all rangeland degradation.
This important truth is exactly why we hosted two free webinars (linked here) on effective advocacy featuring award-winning journalists Cynthia Smoot and Vickery Eckhoff. Vickery’s groundbreaking grazing data sheet (linked here) is a valuable asset that shows how the Bureau scapegoats wild horses for rangeland damage while failing to mention livestock at all.
NOW it’s time for Congress to get the message – and we need YOU to send it. Here is your CALL TO ACTION for today —
CLICK HERE to send a message to Congressional Leadership with the facts — livestock, not wild horses, are overgrazing our ranges.
Then, SHARE this action on all your social media platforms.
Add the hashtag #HoldAWildHorseHearing to your posts and call on your personal representatives to hold the Bureau accountable.
The first step in preparing to fight is to get informed. Please visit the GET INFORMED page of our website to learn more about the science behind the wild horse/burro issue. We need all hands on deck, armed with the FACTS, to win for the animals.
Cloud Foundation Volunteer Coordinator and founder of Mustang Mission Wild Horse Rescue, Erin Phillips, was recently featured with her wild mustang Alamo in the Effingham Herald this week.
Alamo is one of the lucky ones. While Erin, and all of us, prefer that Alamo could live out his life in the wild, we recognize how fortunate he is to have found a safe home off the range, especially as an older stallion.
Click here to read this heartwarming story of how a young woman from Georgia is taking on the fight to save wild horses.
As part of her research while she awaited Alamo’s arrival, Erin made it a mission to track down photographs of her mustang in the wild.
Her search led her to the very talented wild horse photographer, Greig Huggins, who captured Alamo in all his wild glory on the Onaqui range in Utah.
If you’re as in love with wild horses as we are, check out Greig’s work at www.utahwildhorses.com.
This week Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) sent a masterful letter to Secretary Haaland and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning, calling on them to STOP the roundups and change the course of the Bureau’s failed roundup-and-stockpile system.
Congressman Cohen is a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources (which can hold the Bureau accountable) and a member of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus.
The Caucus formerly supported the ASPCA/HSUS/Livestock Lobby’s Path Forward — so this letter is a big step in the right direction.
Please — read Congressman Cohen’s phenomenal letter here, share it on social media and tag him! Show your support for this courageous legislator who is calling for change. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #HoldAWildHorseHearing – Congressman Cohen’s Committee Members are the ones who can get it done!
Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV) is also leading a charge to stop the roundups.
A longtime ally for our cause, Congresswoman Titus was deeply affected by recent graphic video captured by Wild Horse Education which showed a wild foal being driven in a roundup until its leg literally broke under the stress.
The Congresswoman is introducing a bill to END helicopter roundups as a method of “managing” wild horses/burros.
We believe her bill should be supported, not just because of the obvious animal cruelty, but because there is ample science to demonstrate that roundups DON’T work, not to mention the massive fiscal waste of the current paradigm.
We MUST support those who support our wild horses. Share, post, tag, and let them know we applaud their efforts on behalf of America’s wild horses and burros!
