OPINION: Doing What’s Right for America’s Wild Horses

Two important questions for American taxpayers:

1. Are Wild Horses better of today than 20 years ago?

2. Are wildfires and deadly toxic smoke increasing as a result of billions of tax dollars spent annually?

Any informed wild horse advocate knows the answer to question #1 is a ‘NO’.

In fact, wild horses are worse-off today than at any time in the past 40-years, even as the Bureau of Land Management spends about $200-Million/year on management that is considered by most American taxpayers as costly, inhumane and inconsistent with the intentions of 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse & Burro Protection Act.

According to the recently published Bureau of Land Management (‘BLM’) wild horse census in May of 2024, there were approximately 59,000 free-roaming wild horses left in America under their management. And that was before the round-ups that came later the same year. In reality, there may now be less than 40,000 wild horses left under BLM management in all of America, with some of those already sterilized, and no longer genetically relevant. There is no doubt that settled genetic science suggests that genetic bottlenecking of American wild horses is clearly on the horizon, yet another aspect of the costly BLM wild horse mismanagement.

So with that said, we must also ask why is that the case given that over $100 million in financial donations have been provided to a handful of big wild horse nonprofits who have been claiming to have the answers to save wild horses from mismanagement over that same period of time. The glaring empirical data shows that the big-dollar nonprofits have clearly failed.

With all that time and money, why have they failed to field a successful wild horse management solution for wild horses and all stakeholders?

That is answer is clear to those people who are being objective critical thinkers.

The fancy-pants Big-Dollar nonprofits don’t have a genuine solution to save wild horses that is acceptable to all stakeholders having interests in using public lands!

Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (‘FLPMA’) aims to ensure that public lands are managed sustainably for a variety of uses, including recreation, grazing, timber and mineral production, fish and wildlife protection, and oil and gas production. All these use-demands are represented by stakeholders.

And the new big-dog barking for extensive public land-use are the solar power companies, who want to cover thousands of acres of land with solar panel arrays. These solar power companies are an even bigger threat to ranchers with grazing permits than the remaining wild horses. Solar is big-money-business and quite a bit different than arguing about the BLM’s cost to taxpayers (a net loss) with their current pathetic and inhumane management of wild horses, which is easily fixed by relocating wild horses into vacant wild-lands where they will provide cash-positive benefits to taxpayers via grass & brush wildfire fuels management. That said, the Solar power companies see many of the open-range grazing areas as ideal for solar farms.

Having a genuine, humane and cost effective solution for wild horses that is acceptable to all public-lands stakeholders is the only best path to success and is a required prerequisite for total resolution of the crises that is driving the final stages of extermination of wild horses.

So instead of supporting a genuine solution, which would require moving out of the corner they’ve painted themselves into, these Big-Dollar Orgs double-down on their false claim that sterilizing wild horses with PZP & GonaCon somehow saves wild horses, and will stop roundups. They claim sterilizing wild horses allows the horses to remain in areas where their presence is in conflict with $-billion dollar commercial enterprises such as solar development, mining, gas & oil and livestock on public lands.

Suggesting that wild horses (or any wildlife) should be kept on what are essentially commercial economic battlefields is just obtuse, especially considering there are tens of millions of acres of other vacant wild-lands that are very well-suited for wild horses, where these commercial enterprises are not feasible for many economic reasons.

Leadership that is tainted by monetary and ego-driven motives always fails, as history has shown thousands of times

Bad leadership in economic enterprises results in lost shareholder value and wealth

Bad leadership in military operations results in dead and injured soldiers and civilians

Bad leadership in politics leads to wasted tax-dollars and hardships for American citizens

It is inherent in human nature to seek approval from others. However, when this desire transforms into a driving force behind leadership or influences decision-making within an organization, or in politics, it can lead to complications. Effective leadership hinges on making principled choices rather than merely pursuing popularity.

During challenging situations or difficult decisions, disciplined leaders rely on their courage to consistently uphold ethical standards. This may involve challenging the existing norms or risking the loss of support from others. It can also require personal sacrifices and emotional, physical, and mental struggles. Nevertheless, these leaders are adept at recognizing when to establish boundaries. They stand firm in their commitment to integrity and honor. It is important to acknowledge that every leader will encounter moments when such boundaries must be set.

The all-volunteer team at our organization, Wild Horse Fire Brigade, has anticipated the challenges, and we understand that doing what is right may not yield immediate rewards, even though we have already tallied many significant validated achievements.

Our commitment to integrity and standing on science, empirical data and results, and what’s right for the well-being of wild horses is a long-term investment that will enhance the odds of actually saving wild horses via the implementation of our Plan.

We are not interested in the ‘lesser of two evils’ arguments to justify support for the mismanagement of wild horses using chemical sterilization or roundups and slaughter, when a far superior solution exists because we have proven our Plan with our herd of 200 naturally-living free-roaming wild horses.

What about wildfires and deadly toxic smoke, are they decreasing as a result of billions in tax-dollars spent annually?

That answer is a solid ‘NO’. Wildfires in the western states are worse than ever, and are a serious economic threat to the very security of the United States of America.

Our proven Plan called ‘Wild Horse Fire Brigade’, used wild horse-fire-grazing to cost-effectively manage grass and brush wildfire fuels in areas unsuited for livestock grazing. That grazing helped stop a 38,000-acre wind-driven wildfire before it incinerated a forest and its wildlife and a college town, Ashland, Oregon. Fact.

The Wild Horse Fire Brigade Plan also provides for the evolutionary-level genetic conservation of culturally important American wild horses. It accomplishes that while contemporaneously helping all Americans by reducing the frequency, size and intensity of catastrophic wildfire and the toxic wildfire smoke that is now killing tens of thousands of Americans prematurely every year according to UCLA’s new study titled ‘The death toll from wildfire smoke’.

In California alone according to the UCLA Study, the economic damage from the premature deaths of about 55,000 Americans over the ten-year study resulted in $435-BILLION in economic loss.

Wild horse advocates who are considering or currently making financial investments (donations) to any nonprofit claiming they are helping wild horses should act as if they are the CEO of a company and examine the resumes and track records of the people claiming to have solutions in the harsh light of their motivations… I.E. Can they show any positive results? Are the heads of these nonprofits personally profiting via a salary? Car/truck? Home mortgage payment? Scratching the backs [$] of friends? Etc.

From 2014 until 2022 when we formed our all-volunteer organization where no salaries are paid, I spent my life savings supporting our local herd of cultural-heritage horses. That’s how committed I am to saving wild horses and the cost-effective management of grass & brush wildfire fuels. You won’t find that happening at many of the other wild horse nonprofits with their leaders. In fact, many of the largest nonprofits are paying themselves handsomely out of donations.

A track record of personal enrichment, as we see at the big wild horse nonprofits via a quick study of their IRS Form 990 filings, coupled with failure, sterilizing wild horses creating genetic bottleneck and little or no empirical results using millions of dollars, while banking even more money is not a donation investment that bodes-well or favors the future of our American wild horses in any manner. Funding failure is a fools errand.

If wild horse advocates value American wild horses as much as we do at Wild Horse Fire Brigade, then we all must decide if it’s more important to be part of a publicity-driven popularity trend based upon lies and pseudo-science? Or take a little heat and do what’s really right for wild horses? Our Org has chosen the later because we live-among and stand for the wild Ones and their right to live Wild & Free, and unmolested by humans.

Just one example of a wild horse nonprofit that is harming wild horses and violating one of the founding precepts of the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse & Burro Act (no ‘harassment’), is the American Wild Horse Campaign (‘AWHC’ – rebranded as ‘Preservation’ and ‘Conservation’) who harass wild horses by chasing them around with rifles and shooting them with chemical sterilants.

We must ask ourselves, what’s worse? Chasing horses with helicopters or chasing horses with rifles and shooting them with chemical sterilants? Both are in violation of the intent of the 1971 Act.

Please support our all-volunteer nonprofit and join our team who are driven by our proven Plan, experience and groundbreaking accomplishments. Learn more at https://www.wildhorsefirebrigade.org/why-donate

Let’s all have the courage to do what’s right, not what’s popular.