Root
Sitting at the root of wild horses is public land management. In order to effectively engage public land issues you need to first understand the law; how it is built, engaged and enforced.
Profit driven interests understand this process very well. Advocacy for wild horses? not so much.
Profit driven interests are well organized and well funded. They present a united front that utilizes the best representatives on each branch of this path. From lobbying Congress for changes in law to engaging at the field level, profit driven interests have their voices present. The chain of information sharing, utilization of information and support is impressive.
Wild horse advocacy represents thousands of registered nonprofits, millions of people and millions of dollars available in the collective. We should be an effective force for the wild horse, but we are, sadly, not. This has been systemic in the movement since it began in the 1950's. (see biography of Velma Johnston and read it in her words. _____)
If you were having a complex discussion about politics and the law would you invite someone that thinks falling on the ground pretending to be a dead horse is appropriate engagement? No, you would not, even if that individual represents a million dollar enterprise.
Simply screaming "Stop the roundups," or "No horse removed," without appropriately presenting relevant information, appropriate in each step in process, wont create change and has not, for nearly 50 years.
These types of actions repeatedly lead to a lack of adequate representation on wild horses, long before a roundup, where it matters most. We are either intentionally left out of a discussion as a whole (the actions of one effect the entire movement) and often the movement is even unaware we have been "left out" until a roundup happens.
Roundups bring an intensity to advocacy like no other action taken in managing wild horses.
We tried to take an issue that was simple, attaining a humane handling policy, to demonstrate how the public can create a change when the system is engaged appropriately. For a few thousand dollars WHE learned process, gathered documentation and litigated from the moving dashboard of a beat up SUV. Each case won.
The root begins with engaging policy in law.
Change in policy on humane handling was created to implement the law. When policy fails to implement the law, cheap and easy litigation can be brought to stop that conduct in it's tracks. We know, we built the frame to do it.
We hope you understand that example of how appropriate actions can create changes in policy, the changes coming from the growth of inappropriate actions (all sides) threatens to destroy the wild, wild horse as we know it.
This section is important to understand as we address the consequences of how the root grows into the stem.
