In 1950, Velma Johnston was a thirty-eight-year-old secretary enroute to work near Reno, Nevada, when she came upon a truck of battered wild horses that had been rounded up and were to be slaughtered for pet food. Shocked and angered by this gruesome discovery, she vowed to find a way to stop the cruel round-ups, a resolution that led to a life-long battle that would pit her against ranchers and powerful politicians—but eventually win her support and admiration around the world. This is the first biography to tell her courageous true story..

Like Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, or Temple Grandin, Velma Johnston dedicated her life to public awareness and protection of animals. Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs follows Velma from her childhood, in which she was disfigured by polio, to her dangerous vigilante-style missions to free captured horses and document round-ups, through the innovative and exhaustive grassroots campaign which earned her the nickname “Wild Horse Annie” and led to Congress passing the “Wild Horse Annie Bill,” to her friendship with renowned children’s author and horse-lover Marguerite Henry..

A powerful combination of adventure, history, and biography, Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs beautifully captures the romance and magic of wild horses and the character of the strong-willed woman who made their survival her legacy. .

""Anyone who cares about the plight of America's Mustangs has heard the name Velma Johnston, but too few know the extraordinary and heroic lengths to which she went to save these horses. In Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs, authors David Cruise and Alison Griffiths have given us a remarkable gift; a provocative, in-depth look into this amazing woman's life in a story brimming with adventure and inspiration. Not only is this a fascinating and powerful book, it is also a tremendously important one. I couldn't put it down, and when I finished reading it my faith in the power one person has to make a difference was renewed.""

--Melanie Sue Bowles, author of The Horses of Proud Spirit and Hoof Prints: Stories from Proud Spirit