Protect Wild Horses from Brutal Helicopter Roundups
Dear John,
The Bureau of Land Management is tasked with managing the vast majority of our nation's federally protected wild horses and burros. But for decades, the agency has relied on a broken approach that involves removing these animals from the range and shifting them into holding facilities for the rest of their lives.
To reduce the number of wild horses on the range, the BLM routinely conducts roundups (euphemistically referred to as "gathers" by the agency), which involve the use of low-flying helicopters to chase panicked horses over long distances into trap pens. These stressful operations often result in injuries and fatalities. Wild horses have died from broken necks after crashing into trap pen panels, many have been euthanized after breaking limbs, and foals have even died from extreme exhaustion after being run to death.
In response to the brutality of roundup operations, Reps. Dina Titus (D-NV), David Schweikert (R-AZ), and Steve Cohen (D-TN) have introduced the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2023 (H.R. 3656) to prohibit the use of helicopters to round up wild horses and burros.
Helicopter roundups are not only inhumane, they also place an extraordinary burden on American taxpayers. The federal government has spent tens of millions of dollars over the last decade on helicopter roundups (and hundreds of millions more to maintain wild horses in a state of permanent captivity). The BLM must abandon its business-as-usual approach to its ineffective wild horse management and focus instead on implementing humane and fiscally responsible fertility control options to keep herds on the range.