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Horse Deaths In Wyoming Roundup Incite Advocates

Wild horses running.
www.blm.gov
Ten horses have died during BLM roundup efforts in Wyoming within a two-week period.

The Bureau of Land Management has removed 543 wild horses from public lands in Wyoming over the course of the last two weeks, with the goal of removing a total of 900 animals.

Ten horses have died during removal efforts and Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Campaign, said the deaths are a direct result of the roundup. She calls the situation an example of the inhumanity of the government’s wild horse program.

“Some of the dead horses have been old or ailing horses that were forced to run in terror, literally, at the end of the helicopter,” Roy said. “Four of the victims were little babies, baby horses just a couple of months old.”

Roy claims the roundup is unnecessary, saying the targeted heard management areas are not overpopulated with wild horses. She said the roundup is an act of turning over public lands to private interests.

“It’s being done specifically to appease a group of ranchers that graze their livestock on the public lands in this area, and they receive a lot of tax subsidies to do so,” Roy said.

Gillian Lyons, Wild Horse and Burro Program manager for the Humane Society of the U.S. said roundups are inherently stressful to the animals.

“We disagree with the Bureau of Land Management [about] using roundup and removals as a primary management strategy for wild horses, and would like to see them implement fertility control on HMA’s across the country,” Lyons said.  

The humane society is urging the BLM to finalize a comprehensive animal welfare program that has been in the works since 2011.  

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals denied an injunction request by the American Wild Horse Campaign in August, allowing the BLM to move forward with removal efforts. Roy said the American Wild Horse Campaign is committed to continuing the case in court with the ultimate goal of reuniting the horses with the land.

The roundup area is home to nearly half the state’s remaining wild horse population, according to Roy.

UPR has been attempting to reach the BLM, but has not yet been able to. A follow-up story will come within the week.