Hello and Happy Tuesday to everyone!
We have a few updates for the week for you!
Now that Congress is back in session, we are currently working on gathering materials to start lobbying Congress for S1377 – The Theodore Roosevelt National Park Wild Horse Protection Act!
How exciting!!!!
As you know, this herd is NOT protected under The Wild and Free Roaming Wild Horses and Burro Act because these horses reside in a National Park. Since 1971, that has meant that the management of these horses has been at the discretion of park management. We also know that past management has worked to eliminate this herd. This was seen very clearly since 2022 when the park outwardly announced their plans to eliminate the wild horses that call the park home.
With your help, Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates led the fight to save these horses. The park officially abandoned their plans to eliminate the herd in April of 2024.
We told you then that this was a HUGE battle won, but the war rages on!
It didn’t take the park long to prove us right. In October of 2024 they announced plans to round up all the horses, remove some non-responders to GonaCon, and hand inject ALL the remaining mares with GonaCon – further ensuring their continued infertility and/or sterility.
Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates was the ONLY local group that DID NOT participate in the round up. In fact, we were also the ONLY ONES who advocated to STOP the roundup. Because of our consistent advocacy work, NO horses were removed from the park and only about 1/3 of the mares were hand injected with GonaCon. We also later learned through meetings with the new Superintendent Rachel Daniels and Chief of Resource Management, Blake McCann, that the park itself was not sure that the October roundup would go on up to THE DAY BEFORE the planned roundup.
WE ALMOST COMPLETELY STOPPED THE ROUNDUP!!
This just goes to show that you never really know what kind of impact you are making!
This year, we have had meetings and other conversations with Superintendent Daniels. She has promised us that she is committed to a positive path forward with regards to working with us and the management of the wild horses that call the park home.
As happy as we are to hear that, we also know that these horses not only NEED federal protection, but they DESERVE federal protection!
We are grateful to Senator Hoeven for his leadership and for partnering with us to advocate for North Dakota’s ONLY wild horse herd!
CHWHA believes that the legislation as it is written falls short of giving these horses the protection they deserve. We have spent the better part of this year writing blogs so that our followers can understand those shortcomings and also working with Senator Hoeven’s office on what we feel are much needed amendments. His office has our amended version of the legislation and talks continue with him and other members of Congress.
One thing we have all learned over the last three years is that TIMING IS EVERYTHING!
When the time is right, we will have a Call to Action for all of you.
REMEMBER: We get one shot at federal legislation for this herd. We want to make sure what passes truly protects the horses – period. We DO NOT want to fight for amendments once the legislation passes. It is best to get our amendments in the final version that is voted on.
We have A LOT of work ahead of us! We will need your continued support!
Giving Tuesday is THIS TUESDAY – December 2, 2025! We hope that you will remember Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates this holiday season!
We are working to raise money to help us successfully lobby Congress to get this legislation passed.
Our fundraising goal for this Giving Tuesday is $5,000.
We have set up a link for Giving Tuesday donations: https://secure.everyaction.com/7asDu6CfkkaLbjUYufMPcQ2 You don’t have to wait until next Tuesday to make your donation! Every donation received from now through next Tuesday will go to help us meet this fundraising goal!
Many of you also ask us often about our friends at Kuntz Nokota Ranch. Frank and his horses continue to do great! We will have an exciting update for you on what they are up to soon!
Our FINAL online merchandise auction starts SUNDAY November 30th and runs for 1 week through December 7th! You can view the items in the auction so far – AND come back Sunday to place your bids here: https://chwha.betterworld.org/auctions/2025-chwha-winter-auction You can also STILL donate items for our auction. Donations can be made by following this link: https://chwha.betterworld.org/donate-an-item or you can email us at info@chwha.org
Lastly, we still have a handful of our 2026 CHWHA calendars left! 100% of the profits from the sale of these calendars go to help support our continued advocacy work for the iconic wild horses that call Theodore Roosevelt National Park home! You can grab your calendar here: https://chasinghorses.com/products/chwha-13-month-2026-calendar
Thank you again for your continued support and have a wonderful holiday week!
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