Tell Sally Jewell: Step in to save wild horses
Spread the word:
It’s official: Sally Jewell will be America’s next Interior Secretary. She was confirmed by the Senate on April 10, 2013.
As a conservationist and outdoor enthusiast, she brings to the Interior Department a different mindset than her predecessor Ken Salazar, a rancher whose pro-livestock policies were devastating to wild horses.
However, Jewell appears to know little about wild horses and burros. During her confirmation process, she answered just one question on the issue, posed in writing by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In her response, she pledged to work together with Senator Wyden to “pursue effective and ecologically sustainable policies” for the Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse and burro program.
Now is our chance to bring this issue to Jewell’s attention and hold her to her promise to work together toward reform.
We’re collecting signatures on an open letter that will be delivered to Sally Jewell in her first days as Interior Secretary. The goal to demonstrate that tens of thousands of Americans are fed up with the direction of the program and the toll it’s taking on wild horses, burros and American taxpayers.
Please add your name below to let Sally Jewell that we’re counting on her to step in and find a better way forward for America’s wild horses and burros and to fix this broken federal program:
Congratulations on your appointment and confirmation as the Secretary of the Department of Interior (DOI). As Interior Secretary, you face many challenges. Today we write to you as concerned citizens, advocates and lawmakers to urge you to reform the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Wild Horse and Burro Program.
For decades, the BLM has pursued an unsustainable and highly controversial approach to wild horse management. In fact, the U.S. government today maintains more wild horses in captivity than remain free in the wild. This is an untenable situation, both for America’s wild horses and for American taxpayers.
Since 2009, the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program budget has doubled as the agency escalated its unsustainable roundup-remove-and-stockpile approach to wild horse management. Meanwhile, the BLM has grossly underutilized proven, cost-effective and humane alternatives, such as fertility control, that keep wild horses on the range and avert the need for roundups and removals.
We are hopeful that your appreciation of the outdoors will lead you to embrace and appreciate the iconic wild horses and burros of the American West and share the commitment of the majority of Americans to protecting them. We are encouraged to learn of your response to Senator Ron Wyden’s question about the troubling direction of this program and your intention to work together on reform.
We, the undersigned, call on you, as a conservationist and outdoor enthusiast, to follow through on this promise by recognizing that our federally-protected wild horses and burros are national treasures to be protected and preserved for future generations.
We further request that you, as a successful businesswoman, set this program on a sustainable path by making it more humane and cost-effective. This is a solvable problem, but it requires a commitment to fixing what is not working. We stand ready to engage in a constructive dialog with you that leads to long overdue and much needed changes to the BLM’s program and a more certain future for America’s wild horses and burros.
Given the importance of wild horses to the American people, and considering the ever-tightening budget situation, we believe that this is a problem that demands your urgent attention.
Many thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,