Eleven-year-old goes into bat for America’s wild horses

Horsetalk

By Horsetalk.co.nz on Jul 17, 2012

Mustang flag with stars, by Youth Campaign Director Robin Warren.

Robin Warren, at 11, is already a passionate advocate for America’s wild horses.
Since joining the organisation, Protect Mustangs, in June as its new youth campaign director, Warren has met with a Nevada state senator, documented wild horses on the range, was a featured speaker at the Stop the Roundups rally in California’s capitol, and gave oral comments at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) helicopter hearing, also in California.
At the hearing, Warren presented the BLM representative with her Petition to Save Wild Mustangs, asking the bureau to stop helicopter roundups.
“We want cruel helicopter roundups to stop and we want to make sure they always have access to clean water,” she said.
She started the petition three years ago under her pen name Wild Mustang Robin. She was inspired to co-author the petition after reading “Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West”, by Marguerite Henry.
She has been active in her hometown, Las Vegas, and over the internet to get signatures.
After posting the petition online at Change.org she received signatures from 50 States, DC, Puerto Rico and and more than 30 countries.
At last week’s helicopter use hearing in Sacramento, she presented 2770 signatures from her petition to Amy Dumas, the bureau representative.
“Kids don’t want to see wild horses in zoos,”  Warren said. “We want to observe them roaming on the open range with their families.”
Warren’s speech at the BLM helicopter-use hearing received a standing ovation from the audience.
“Robin speaks for the youth of America and touches people’s hearts across the nation,” says Anne Novak, executive director for Protect Mustangs. “She wants the wild horses to be protected–not harassed and torn from their families forever.”
Warren’s petition reads:

“We, the undersigned, do respectfully request that the Bureau of Land Management adhere to the same rules and regulations as the general public in regards to the humane treatment of wild horses and burros. We find it unreasonable that the Secretary of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, or any person or organization, is found to be exempt from our collective responsibility as humans to treat animals humanely. We further find it unreasonable that the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture are permitted to define “humane” as it pertains to their own areas of command. We respectfully request that the Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 be restored to its original intent, that no person or organization would be permitted to capture wild horses and burros by means of motorized vehicles, or by polluting or closing off watering holes, as these methods have been proven inhumane.”