The Wild Horse Advocates’ (WHA) goal, as a 501(c)(3), is to protect the wild horses in the Fish Springs area of the Pinenuts. The band of horses are healthy and survived the 2022 and 2023 winters in good stead. There are approximately 86 horses in this group and they have been 97% successful in maintaining the herd size through birth control darting. It takes two dart rounds two weeks apart to be effective. 

The WHA educates the residents living near the Herd. They do a lot of door knocking and hand out brochures. They also have a “Poop Patrol” that will clean up senior citizens’ yards. It’s important that residents and horses live in harmony as the BLM states that the herd should only be 11-26 horses and are very proactive in removing nuisance horses.

Their major goal is to reduce BLM roundups (removal). It only takes one call (complaint) to BLM for BLM to set traps and remove the “nuisance.” BLM recently removed Samson’s band that had 4 generations. WHA lost 21 horses that year. WHA tells residents to call WHA and they will do whatever it takes to keep the horses out of their yard. 

On one hand the BLM wants to take the horses away and then on the other hand the local district office responds to emergencies. One incident was where a mare stepped on a doggie toy, it got stuck on her foot and started to cause soft-tissue damage. The BLM came and got the mare and her fellow bandmates, took them to the prison, removed the toy and returned them to the Pinenuts.

WHA has asked the BLM to allow them to fence about 17 miles of fencing but the BLM refuses. So the WHA is limited to working with homeowners to fence their property. The downside is that if one homeowner doesn’t want to fence then this funnels all the horses to that yard and it’s ineffective. BLM has told Mary to quit asking for the fence, we’ll see how that goes.

Ms. Cioffi recommended a visit to the local museum to learn of the community’s involvement since the 1960s. WHA has a Facebook account with 70,000 followers and 1 - 1.5 million views each month. They receive donations from all over the world. They are well-funded but could always use volunteer help and talent.