Wild Horse & Burro Rescue & Sanctuary Mission

This project serves to fill the essential needs for up to 20 rescued horses and burros in need, and advocates for the protection and preservation horses and burros on Native and public lands.

With a focus on the prevention of cruelty as the primary goal, WFLF strongly urges a strong and united voice for the protection of wild horses and burros from roundups, slaughter, and extinction. We also advocate for conservation measures that benefit the environment without causing harm to indigenous species, and that most certainly includes America’s wild horses and burros.

The Wild for Life Foundation’s (WFLF) Navajo Horse Rescue and Recovery Mission (NHRRM) was founded in 2013 to provide lifesaving rescue and sanctuary services for victimized wild horses and burros facing life threatening circumstances including roundups, slaughter, and other forms of cruelty.

The Wild For Life Foundation (WFLF) has been at the forefront of bringing the un-whitewashed truth to the public on the issue of horse slaughter and the protection of wild horses and burros in the wild.  In 2013, WFLF brought international attention to how the USDA and US Forest Service threaten tribal leaders with the cancellation of grazing permits if they fail to remove wild horses from public lands. (Learn more)

When the dots are connected – the horses, the ranchers, the BLM, the USDA, FWS, Forestry, and the BIA, it’s clear that the central force driving the round ups is the BLM, a government agency under the Department of Interior. And with a look into how the BLM was set up and how they are governed... the records reflect that the BLM’s administrators are primarily ranchers governing from separate offices in each state which enables them to control the policies in which they are regulated.

Wild horse removals on the Navajo Nation were reportedly halted in 2020. Roughly 3000 equines were reportedly removed in 2018. 1500 were reportedly removed in 2019, and the last number reported as removed in 2020 was 600. Independent reports indicate that more effective measures must be enacted for the protection of Navajo horses and burros from abuse, killing, roundups and slaughter.

Although the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) have full knowledge of the true heritage of America’s wild horses and burros, and the many ways that they complement the environment, the BLM and BIA continue to hide the truth and misinform the public and our lawmakers. By labeling them an invasive species, America’s indigenous wild horses and burros are denied the legal status and protection they deserve. As a result, they have been harassed, shot, rounded up, and hauled off to slaughter by the BLM and BIA. The BLM has aggressively escalated these and other insidious activities including experimental sterilization, and now the last remaining free roaming horses and burros are being driven to extinction.

America’s wild horses have been denied any genuine status or protection in the US. They have instead been labeled as “feral” and “invasive” which allows them to be legally harassed, shot, rounded up and hauled off to slaughter.

Horses and burros were previously thought to have disappeared from the continent roughly 10,000 years ago. However, a surmounting body of evidence confirms that horses never totally died out in America. Substantial evidence proves that the Equus species survived the ice age in America, and evidence of their continued presence has become too substantial to ignore.

Incontrovertible and indisputable fossil records and molecular biology evidence confirms that today’s Genus Equus (HORSES, BURROS and ZEBRAS) originated and co-evolved with the habitat of North America. Many people don’t even realize that the genus EQUUS, today’s horses and burros are GENETICALLY THE SAME as those that lived in the U.S. before their presumed extinction.

Why is this important? As a native species, wild horses and burros compliment the natural environment of North America. They are recognized by scientists all over the world for restoring rangelands, boosting biodiversity, and helping to the return of a wide variety of plants and invertebrates to the lands where they roam. Scientists and conservationists have indeed found that the re-introduction of wild equines to open lands is a positive way to restore ecosystems and wildlife.

WFLF is committed to meeting the challenge of sustaining this lifesaving project and to increasing protection for all horses and burros from the torturous agony of roundups and slaughter through permanent federal bi-partisan legislation that forbids slaughter on American soil and forever bans the export of live horses to slaughterhouses in other countries, and that safeguards wild equines from extinction, exploitation, harassment, and killing through responsible, humane and nonlethal management practices on both tribal and public lands.

We at WFLF believe that the circle of life is eternal and in realizing how we came to be where we are, we must also look ahead at where we are going. We as native people we honor our horse relatives, and we know that the American public, without a doubt is adamantly opposed to slaughtering them. Horses are as much a part of the land as we are; their future is our future.

As the remaining number of Wild Horses in the U.S. nears extinction, education and appreciation through their protection in the wild becomes tantamount to their survival as a species. America’s Wild Horses cannot be reproduced once they are gone!

In addition to raising awareness, this project helps WFLF to provide safe harbor habitats and essential provisions for the continuum of quality care and protection of rescued wild and domestic horses and burros in need, including a number of rescue horses, burros and Navajo mustangs whose lives had become at risk due to roundups and slaughter.

WFLF’s rescue and crisis assistance missions have saved hundreds of horses and burros over the years—the majority of whom would likely have gone to slaughter without the meaningful support of devoted supporters like you.

Please join us by making a difference and share this update with your friends. Your support matters and can help save lives today, tomorrow and for generations to come.

The Wild for Life Foundation’s (WFLF) Navajo Horse Rescue and Recovery Mission (NHRRM) is a lifesaving program which provides rescue and sanctuary services for wild horses and burros that have been saved from roundups, slaughter, and other forms of cruelty.