Hello and Happy Sunday to everyone!
We keep getting new people following our page and there continues to be misinformation being shared, so we thought this would be a great time for a recap on where the advocacy efforts of Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates are, what SCR 4014 is all about and what our next steps are in our Fight for the Spirit of the Badlands!
SCR 4014 is a resolution that was drafted by the legislators in North Dakota. Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the horses in the park are managed by the National Park Service (NPS), a federal agency under the Department of the Interior. The state of North Dakota CANNOT tell the federal government what to do. This resolution is a request by the state asking that the horses be allowed to stay in the park. The resolution passed the ND House & Senate UNANIMOUSLY! It was signed by the ND Secretary of State on April 17th and Governor Burgum did a ceremonial signing on April 28th. While we were in Washington DC, several congressional staffers told us that this signed resolution was a powerful tool in our advocacy toolkit. When we spoke with Governor Burgum on Friday, he told us that Senator Hoeven told him the same thing.
SCR 4014 is the state of North Dakota advocating WITH us to help save these horses.
That does NOT mean that the horses are safe ~ yet!
This effort was something that took every single one of us FOUR MONTHS to see realized! I cannot fully explain how excited our North Dakota legislators were when we all met on Friday for the ceremonial signing. THIS issue is important to North Dakota and our legislators are happy to be a part of efforts to save the TRNP wild horses.
So, what’s next?
Long term plans are to fight to get these horses protected under public law. Federal protection is what they need to prevent something like this from happening again. Since wild horses in national parks are NOT protected under the Wild Horse & Burro Act, we believe they need and deserve their own federal protection. The wild horses at Cape Lookout National Seashore are the only wild horses on NPS lands that ARE protected under public law. That just proves that not only can this be done, but the precedent has already been set.
THIS will be a long process! We will need your help and have one HUGE Call to Action coming that will be broken down in a bunch of smaller pieces for you coming this week!
Remember, I am just one person. It is the strength and unity of our combined voices that have been making a difference in the support coming in for these horses. After a week with advocates from all over the world, I can’t tell you enough how refreshing it was that they are not only taking note of what we are doing for our TRNP horses, but they believe that this herd has the best chance at being saved. We HAVE to keep the momentum going!
Immediate plans, we have are to keep banging the drum! We need our billboard on I-94 this month. Some of our followers sent us an email with some wonderful constructive thoughts on the message we need on our billboard. We have sent some new messages to the billboard company and hope to have a NEW rendering of the billboard for you soon! Please help support our billboard! This will be a GREAT way to reach some of the 800,000 people who will be travelling to TRNP this summer!
We will have some NEW Calls to Action coming soon to try to help get some national attention on the plight of our horses!
We are also working out some details for some NEW Horse Talks! I can tell you next Sunday (5/7), Christine McGowan from the Nokota Preserve in Chester Springs, PA will be doing a Horse Talk with us on the importance of the horse herd as demonstration for healthy social systems: community, family, schools, workplace and how the precision of a successful herd dynamic offers a great model for humans. Look for details coming later today or tomorrow! I just need Christine’s picture for the event graphic!
We have also reached out to TRNP Park Superintendent Angie Richman and NPS Regional Director Herbert Frost about the extremely upsetting information that was shared with us by American Wild Horse Campaign from their FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request about the use of GonaCon and the possible permanent sterilization of our horses! We are happy to let you know that Director Frost HAS responded to us, and we are in the process of setting up an in-person meeting with him! We also sent him a copy of our petition that was signed by 300 of you! If you have not signed the petition yet, please feel free to add your name! https://secure.everyaction.com/1oIlqHkuUUStdjb0KjsiXg2
There is so much more happening and so much we are working on! Things like our full-page ad went into the Minnesota Horse Expo program happening this weekend! We have follow-up calls and emails to our congressional contacts to work on. There are a couple hundred business cards from congressional staffers to add to our database! More Horse Talks with people we met this week to finalize and tell you about! We also want to have a silent auction fundraiser (hopefully) in May!
We need your help! We need help financially to help continue our fight, but we also need help to be able to DO everything we can to help save this historic herd of wild horses.
There are several ways you can make a donation listed on our website: https://chwha.org/support-chwha/
There are also a couple of ways you can volunteer with us:
Through our Giving Hearts Day website: https://app.givingheartsday.org/#/charity/1669
Let us know how you can help by following this link: https://secure.everyaction.com/6xS7i5nc70mzvKF-gTvjcA2
Remember, sharing our social media posts is a GREAT way to help support our advocacy work!
Thank you for your support and be sure to check back tomorrow for a NEW Call to Action!
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.
