Return to Freedom Applauds Lawmakers' Support of Fertility Control to Better Manage Wild Horses

LOMPOC, Calif., May 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation on Monday applauded lawmakers for supporting the use of fertility control to manage wild horses and burros on more humanely.

Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., David Schweikert, R-Ariz., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asking for him to support reforms to wild horse and burro management with a greater focus on the implementation of fertility control by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

"We're grateful to Reps. Buchanan, Schweikert, Fitzpatrick and Ciscomani for calling for the long overdue implementation of proven, safe and humane fertility control in wild horse management," said Neda DeMayo, president of Return to Freedom (RTF), a national nonprofit wild horses and burro advocacy organization.

"The BLM's own history shows that remaining fixated only on capture-and-removal management will not succeed. To create meaningful, sustainable change, the agency must use fertility control to stabilize herd growth so that removals, which decimate family bands and herds, can be brought to an end."

Specifically, the congressmen asked Burgum to support:

• increased use of humane, reversible fertility control by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
• budget measures that "significantly reallocate" BLM wild horse funding to fertility control,
• and the upholding of congressional directives and Interior Department policy for non-lethal management.

RTF has worked closely with Buchanan for many years on the effort to pass a lasting ban on horse slaughter and the export of American horses for slaughter. In February, he and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.) reintroduced that legislation, the Save America's Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act.

The recent letter from Buchanan and his colleagues emphasizes the continued protection of wild horses and burros and fiscal responsibility.

The BLM has never spent as much as 4 percent of the wild horse budget on fertility control despite growing calls from Congress, public lands stakeholders and the public for its use.

BLM has instead tried and failed for decades to control herd populations by capture and removal. The agency estimates that there are about 73,000 wild horses and burros on the rangelands it manages. Nearly as many — 65,000 — are now warehoused in off-range government holding facilities.

"We must do better by America's wild horses and burros," DeMayo said. "There are proven, humane tools supported by the public and a broad array of rangeland stakeholders that can be used to create a conservation legacy of which all Americans can be proud."

Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF) is a pioneering wild horse advocacy organization that has worked to preserve wild horses and burros through sanctuary, education, conservation and advocacy since 1997. RTF operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at two California locations. Since 1999, RTF has modeled the use of fertility control and other solutions there that can be implemented on the range. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, BlueSky, Tik Tok and Youtube.

SOURCE Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation