Willie

Willie was captured on January 14, 2024, by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) during its largest roundup that year in the Black Mountain Herd Management Area (HMA) in Arizona. The Cattoor Livestock Roundup Company was paid more than $371,000 to round up the Burros and transport them to a government holding facility. Cattoor has been contracted by the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service to round up Wild Horses and Burros since 1975 at the cost of tens of millions of dollars to the American taxpayer. While the company claims its methods are “humane,” many experts and witnesses of their roundups say the opposite is true. Over the years, media reports have also exposed the inhumane tactics used by Cattoor to round up Wild Horses and Burros, citing documented incidents of abuse and cruel treatment. This includes long, intense chases of these animals with helicopters during oppressive and torrid heat, often resulting in severe exhaustion and sometimes death, as well as numerous other reports of neglect and cruelty.

Willie was born in 2019. He is the youngest and the smallest of the four Wild Burros who arrived at the sanctuary on June 13, 2025. As we do not know the exact day the burros were born, we will celebrate their Re-Birth-Days on their arrival date, the day they began their new lives.

We are so glad to have Willie, Bruce, Dylan, and Sly as our official ambassadors to help educate the public about why the roundups should end, and why we should allow Wild Horses and Burros to roam wild and free on America’s Public Lands where they belong.

Willie is proudly sponsored by supporters from Nassau, New York and Mount Airy, North Carolina.

More Sponsors Welcome!

Photo credit: Alex Valverde