For many of us, we do not need ghost towns or horror movies to feel scared. Reality is scary enough.

Regularly scheduled roundups may not be happening (with the exception of over 500 burros at Centennial in CA and Bullfrog in NV), but other things are continuing to slam into the world of wild horses and burros: holding facilities at Canon City in CO and Ewing in IL are closing leaving thousands of of wild horses in limbo, plans to expand livestock and mining continue to be approved and there is no transparency in a shutdown leaving questions unanswered about the fate of our wild ones and public lands.

Not everything has stopped. Our government is set to make public lands ranching a number one priority(presumably to appease the political uproar over importing more beef from Argentina as less than 3% of beef used in the American economy comes from public lands, but the big political powerhouses of the industry use public lands for grazing). Oil and gas lease sales are pushing further into critical habitat for wildlife and wild horses in Wyoming. Mining in the heart of wild horse and burro country continues to expand.

But we are not letting “the grass grow under our feet” as we wait. WHE continues to take action.

WHE are continuing to file briefings in the courts that remain open. 

We are taking the fight to protect the historic Stone Cabin and Saulsbury wild horses to the Ninth Circuit. We have just gotten on file for the next battle to protect the Pancake Complex building on our win. We are filing, very shortly, to protect the unique Carter Reservoir Mustangs. We just filed to protect the Tassi-Gold burros. 

Our team is sending a flurry of briefings as we turn the obstacle of the shutdown into an opportunity to move ahead on the legal front. 

Our wild horses and burros face many threats today.

Sometimes the truth can be the scariest of all.

But together, we can be a strong force to fight back and bring back the light.