PRESS RELEASE

Immediate                                                                                          Contact:  Karen A. Sussman
September 2011                                                                                                  605-964-6866 

Dear Friend of Wild Horses:

Today, I am writing to ask for your help.  The severity and length of the economic downturn has hit charities hard and we are facing the upcoming winter without enough funding to purchase enough hay.  

For the past eleven years, we have managed up to four wild herds and have developed a superior model for managing wild horses which will be shared in Washington, D. C. this year.  We are the only privately funded group systematically studying the social behaviors of wild horses.  In fact, we may be the only group doing wild horse behavioral work anywhere in the West.

Our findings are extraordinary because two of our herds had little human intervention until we received them giving us the best baseline behavioral data in the United States.  The wild herds managed by the BLM have had excessive gathers over the past twenty years, which have destroyed family structures and altered behaviors to a point that could threaten their survival in the wild.  Our two herds hold the key to understanding natural healthy behaviors which will allow us to improve management practices on public lands.

Our organization has had many accomplishments over the past 50 years.  If it weren’t for the efforts of our first president, Wild Horse Annie, there would be no wild horses left in our country today.  In 1971, we were the force behind the passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act which stopped the slaughter of wild horses and burros on public lands so future generations could enjoy these living legacies of the West.

Our current conservation work is vital and we must preserve our four herds.  We must purchase 3,000 bales of hay which average $35/bale before November 1st.  We hope you can help our efforts so we can not only save our herds but with our ongoing studies, have the potential to save all of America’s wild horses. 

For more information about our work, please contact Karen Sussman, president at 605-964-6866 or E-mail at ispmb@lakotanetwork.com

Karen A. Sussman
President, ISPMB