Velma Bronn Johnston (March 5, 1912 — June 27, 1977), also known as Wild Horse Annie, was an animal welfare activist. She led a campaign to stop the eradication of mustangs and free-roaming burros from public lands. She was instrumental in passing legislation to stop using aircraft and land vehicles from inhumanely capturing wild horses and burros. Personal life Velma Bronn was born in Reno, Nevada to Joseph Bronn and his wife Gertrude Clay, and grew up on Vine Street in Reno at her parents' home. In 1923 she contracted polio and was confined to a cast for six months. The cast deformed her body and face which her opponents used against her. She married Charles Johnston and they moved to Wadsworth briefly, later buying property along the Truckee River near Painted Rock exit along I80. They named it the "Double Lazy Heart Ranch". According to : ...it was supposed to be a dude ranch for children. That is not correct. The Double Lazy Heart brand was given to my brother when he bought property along the Truckee. Charlie became ill and they had a house built in Reno where they lived to the ends of their lives... Johnston also worked as a secretary for an insurance company. Fight for humane treatment of free-roaming horses Driving to work one day in 1950, Johnston was following a truck overcrowded with horses and saw blood dripping from the back. She followed it to a slaughterhouse, and upon learning they were free-roaming horses gathered from private and state lands in Nevada's Virginia Range, she took action to ensure more humane treatment of free-roaming horses when captured and transported. On her initiative and Nevada State Senator Walter Baring's actions, Nevada passed a bill that made free-roaming roundups by planes and cars illegal on state and private lands. Although the free-roaming horses on all lands in the state were under the jurisdiction of the state estray laws, federal lands, administered chiefly by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, which comprise almost 85% of the lands in Nevada, were exempt from the law due to objections from the agencies that the law would hamper attempts to remove the horses from the federal lands. As large parts of Nevada were thereby excluded from the bill, Johnston continued to fight for protection of the free-roaming horses throughout the state and across all the federal lands