Return to Freedom Mourns Loss of 'Irreplaceable' Friend, Board Member Robert Redford

LOMPOC, Calif., Sept. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- It was with great sadness that Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation learned of the death this morning of friend and board member Robert Redford.

"We are heartbroken. We have all lost an irreplaceable artist, activist and environmentalist," said Neda DeMayo, founder and president of Return to Freedom (RTF), a national nonprofit wild horses and burro advocacy organization. "Robert Redford was an iconic and inspiring human being forever interwoven with the beauty and majesty of the West. I feel very grateful to have known him and to have had his support."

Redford joined RTF's board of directors in 2014.

"The mustang horse is really symbolic of the American West," Redford stated. "I just felt that if I could play any kind of a role in protecting these horses so they can be who they needed to be of course I would, and that came with Return to Freedom."

RTF is a solution-focused organization. It advocates for minimally invasive management of wild horses and burros, which are caught in an ongoing battle over the use of dwindling resources on our shared public lands.

The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service have long tried and failed to manage wild horse and burro herd populations through a ceaseless cycle of capture and removal.

The agencies have done so despite the ready availability of proven, safe and humane fertility control, a tool that could stabilize herd growth. Its use is supported by divergent public lands stakeholders, the public and Congress.

"While I carry a strong passion for all horses, my tenacious support for the preservation of habitat for wildlife and the American mustangs derives from their symbolic representation of our national heritage and freedom," Redford wrote in a 2014 op-ed published in USA Today. "Any infringement on their legally protected right to live freely is an assault on America's principles."

"Now is not the time to repudiate environmental balance," he concluded, "but rather it is the time for all of us to work together – politician, advocate, rancher, scientist, and citizen. Only by doing this will the United States move forward and be a leader in environmental issues and ensure sustainability to our delicate ecosystem."

In 2016 and 2017, Redford spoke out as part of a successful effort by RTF and others to stop a push by special interests and lawmakers to euthanize tens of thousands of healthy wild horses and burros captured in government roundups.

"Americans have an unwavering bond with the descendants of the horses and burros that have helped build our country and shape our culture – a bond enshrined in The Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act...," Redford said in a press release. "After decades of investing millions of tax dollars for the protection of wild horses after their capture and removal from the range, destroying them would be the ultimate betrayal, especially when humane alternatives have long been available."

Redford later executive produced "The Mustang," a critically acclaimed 2019 film that told the story of a convict taking part in a wild horse training program. The promotional push for the film helped RTF tell the story of America's wild horses, and Redford appeared in a public service announcement about the plight of wild horses and about RTF's work.

Redford also co-executive produced "The Mustangs: America's Wild Horses." The 2020 documentary features the efforts of different groups to help wild horses in their own ways, including RTF's sanctuary.

Redford strongly supported RTF's ongoing work to pass a law ending the slaughter of thousands of American horses, domestic and wild, each year. The Save America's Forgotten Equines Act, backed by 161 bipartisan House cosponsors, that would both ban the export of American horses for slaughter and place a lasting ban on domestic horse slaughter.

"America is the home of the horse," Redford said in a press release on the subject. "People come to America to find freedom, and the horse helped us build this free nation. We are not a horse-eating culture. To kill the horse is simply un-American.

"We as a horse nation are able to implement solutions for the challenges facing our iconic wild mustangs, and provide education and sanctuaries which can support respect and a good life for all of America's horses."

Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF) is a pioneering wild horse advocacy organization that has worked to preserve wild horses and burros through sanctuary, education, conservation and advocacy since 1997. RTF operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at two California locations, caring for nearly 500 rescued wild horses and burros. Since 1999, RTF has modeled the use of fertility control and other solutions there that can be implemented on the range as an alternative to roundups. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, BlueSky, Tik Tok and Youtube. 

SOURCE Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation