Protect Wild Horses from Brutal Helicopter Roundups
Dear John,
During a recent Bureau of Land Management roundup of wild horses in the Pancake Complex in Nevada, a colt broke his leg while being relentlessly chased by a helicopter. Footage showed the panicked young horse struggling to continue running. Eventually, after half an hour, the poor animal was euthanized. In response to the brutality of these roundups, as illustrated by this latest horrific incident, Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV) has introduced the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2022 (H.R. 6635) to prohibit the use of helicopters to round up wild horses and burros.
The BLM 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. During roundups (which the BLM euphemistically refers to as "gathers"), horses are chased by low-flying helicopters into trap pens, a chaotic operation that all too often results in injuries and fatalities. Just in the past few months, wild horses have died from broken necks after crashing into trap pen panels; others were euthanized after breaking limbs, and one mare died from a ruptured uterus.
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. 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.