The bipartisan support of 223 members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are backing a bill to end horse slaughter will mean little if the bill is not brought up for a vote. At least 24,188 American equines were shipped to Mexican or Canadian slaughterhouses during 2025 — a ... Read More
Return to Freedom — eNews
The number of American horses exported is on pace to reach its highest total in at least four years — a tragic reminder of why Congress must take action to remove the stain of horse slaughter.
Return to Freedom has advocated for an end to the slaughter of all American horses ... Read More
Return to Freedom and our co-plaintiffs were among those that prevailed in federal appeals court rulings in July affecting wild horse Herd Management Areas in Southwest Wyoming. The court found that the Bureau of Land Management violated the law when it decided to take away 2 million acres from wild ... Read More
America’s wild horses and burros urgently need your help!
The president’s 2026 budget proposal does not include what had become standard annual language barring the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from using our tax dollars to kill healthy wild horses and burros or sell them to slaughter.
We must ensure this critically ... Read More
This May, we celebrated Spirit, the Kiger mustang stallion who was the muse for the animators of DreamWorks’ “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” — and who has lived at Return to Freedom’s sanctuary since 2003.
Now 30, Spirit is a powerful global symbol of freedom and resilience. At his recent birthday ... Read More
Join us May 10 for a fun-filled celebration of the Opening Day of our program season and Spirit’s 30th birthday at our Lompoc, Calif., headquarters sanctuary!
See Spirit, the Kiger mustang stallion that served as the animator’s muse and model during the making of the 2002 DreamWorks Animation feature film, ... Read More
More threats loom in Washington, D.C., and this has a direct impact on America’s wild horses. We are locked in a federal court battle over the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) decision to take away 2 million acres from wild horses in Southwest Wyoming for the benefit of private ranchers.
Last August, we ... Read More
Return to Freedom is featured in The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses — an extraordinary documentary that captures the beauty, spirit, and struggle of these living legends and those who are working tirelessly in different ways to protect them and ensure they remain free for generations to come.
This documentary is a ... Read More
Return to Freedom successfully lobbied for Congress’s requirement that the Bureau of Land Management finally abides by its own Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program, a humane-handling protocol during roundups, starting in Fiscal Year 2020.
Just since Sept. 1, we’ve seen the BLM and its contractor, Cattoor Livestock, repeatedly trod over ... Read More