Support Funding and Bill Language to Finalize BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Welfare Rules

I am writing as your constituent to urge you to support Wild Horse Education’s FY 2027 Interior & Environment programmatic funding request and related bill/report language for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP).

Right now, BLM is planning to capture approximately 14,830 wild horses and burros in FY 2026 without enforceable, science-based welfare standards in place. CAWP standards remain an internal, nonbinding framework instead of a public, regulatory safeguard for animals during on-range management, helicopter gathers, transport, holding, adoptions, and sales. This leaves pregnant mares, newborn foals, burros, and older animals vulnerable to preventable suffering, especially under extreme heat and poor air quality conditions.

I respectfully ask you to:

Support a dedicated $1,000,000 line item within BLM’s existing Wild Horse and Burro Program budget specifically to complete and formalize science-based, enforceable CAWP welfare regulations within one year, including full public notice and comment.

Support bill/report language directing BLM to:

Finalize CAWP as binding regulations covering on-range management, gathers, transport, all on- and off-range holding, adoptions, and sales.

Establish clear, science-based heat index and Air Quality Index thresholds, species-specific protections for burros, and a data-driven foaling-season framework limiting roundups, shipping, and processing during late pregnancy and neonatal periods.

Restore and modernize assessment and documentation tools, implement independent inspections, and require transparent public reporting on injuries, deaths, foals, miscarriages, and facility conditions.

Since 2015, BLM has drafted CAWP and related tools but never completed the public review and rulemaking needed to make these standards enforceable. Recent findings obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests show BLM formally adopted only a CAWP cover memorandum, leaving the underlying welfare standards unreviewed and nonbinding. As a result, “comply with CAWP” still means internal guidance rather than regulations the public can rely on.

This targeted funding and directive would:

Use existing Wild Horse and Burro Program dollars more effectively to reduce preventable injuries, deaths, and litigation costs.

Honor the humane intent of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 by finally requiring enforceable welfare protections.

Provide your office with a concrete, bipartisan achievement: ensuring that federal wild horse and burro management reflects the humane values of your constituents and the nation.

On the 55th anniversary of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, I ask you to help turn long-promised welfare reforms into real, enforceable protections by supporting Wild Horse Education’s CAWP funding request and bill/report language in FY 2027 appropriations.

Thank you