Hello and Happy Wednesday to everyone! We hope you are enjoying your week!
As you know, on December 12, 2022, Theodore Roosevelt National Park announced their plans to eliminate the ENTIRE herd of horses from the park. The comment period for that announcement ended on January 31, 2023.
We have come such a long way since then but it is important to note that these horses are NOT safe yet! Although, the growing support this herd is getting keeps us all very hopeful!
One of our followers called Theodore Roosevelt National Park yesterday and asked how many comments they received.
TRNP Deputy Superintendent, Maureen McGee-Ballinger, told her that they received 5926 unique comments online and 182 comments were mailed in! Thank you to Sherri for sharing this information with us and THANK YOU to all of you who took the time to send in your comments!! If you remember, during the last comment period, Theodore Roosevelt National Park received 1774 comments, with 1242 being “unique”.
GREAT JOB spreading the word and helping to significantly multiply the original number of comments from April of 2022!
The park is now in the process of reviewing those comment letters and then they will, or possibly already have, started their Environmental Assessment (EA) process. They originally said that they would be back in the spring with the results of that EA.
I also had the pleasure of speaking with The Medora Foundation President, Randy Hatzenbuhler, this week. Randy has been talking to everyone from Governor Burgum to our federal senators trying to rally support for the wild horses to be able to STAY in Theodore Roosevelt National Park! He also let us know that he plans on staying focused on this issue! THANK YOU, Randy AND The Medora Foundation, for stepping into the arena with us!
Every day we get letters in the mail or emails from our followers thanking us for our advocacy work. We read ALL of them and keep every single one of them! Here are a couple that we got this week:
THANK YOU again! Little things like this remind us that the work we are doing is important to more than just us!
We have also been blessed to have so many other groups, organizations, businesses and nonprofit groups join us in our fight to save these horses we all love so much!
Yesterday, I was humbled again when I received an email from Ginger Fedak from the organization, In Defense of Animals (IDA). Ginger shared with me the work she has been doing with her organization to help raise awareness for our Theodore Roosevelt National Park wild horses! We are very grateful for their support! Ginger also shared with us IDA’s comment letter. I am waiting to see if it is ok with her if we post it on our website with the others that we have received.
Even more exciting – I get to meet Ginger in person as we will both be speaking at the 2nd Annual Save Our Wild Horses Conference in Washington DC! https://saveourwildhorses.net/2023-dc-conference.html
The support has been quite overwhelming at times, and I am so humbled by everyone who is coming together to help save our beloved wild horses.
As we have said, our Fight for the Spirit of the Badlands is NOT over! However, the arena is getting pretty full 😉 There is sooo much more happening behind the scenes! We cannot wait to share it all with you!
Please keep sharing our posts and PLEASE consider making a donation to Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates to allow us to continue to keep the pressure on! https://chwha.org/support-chwha/
Thank you again for your support!
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt
Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates is committed to advocating for a wild horse management plan and protection for these unique wild horses that call Theodore Roosevelt National Park home! We are fighting for a management plan that is guided by science especially when it comes to decisions regarding the removal of horses and the administration of birth control. Many other wild horse management plans have proven to be successful with their science-based plans. We are asking for the same for this amazing group of wild horses that call Theodore Roosevelt National Park home.