Friends of Animals has corresponded with Kevin Washburn, leader of the Department of the Interior’s review team, to remind the transition team and the new administration that one of most pressing tasks for the next Secretary of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management Director will be to undo years of wild horse mismanagement on federal public lands.

We told him that a proposed amendment to the Appropriations Act 2021 that requires the BLM to utilize $11 million of its Wild Horse and Burro Program budget to implement PZP fertility control to manage wild horse populations will only allow BLM to sidestep its failures to properly manage wild horses under the Wild and Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 and to continue with the unfettered commercialization of Western public lands.

As the 50th anniversary of the WHBA approaches, we also included our suggestions for how the new administration can amend the legislation to build back better for wild horses. Read our letter here.