What happens to wild horses and burros after they have been captured?
The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:
Helicopter roundups are dangerous and expensive operations that result in wild horses and burros being traumatized, separated from their families, injured, or in the worst case, killed. But the cruelty doesn’t end when the helicopters land.
Once captured, these innocent animals are immediately sorted and split apart from their families. Horses have very unique and complex social structures, so they often call out for their family members while being sorted – a heartbreaking sound to hear.
The animals are then trucked to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) holding facilities which are often overburdened and understaffed. Just last year, a disease outbreak killed 146 wild horses in Colorado, and a holding facility in Wyoming was closed for months due to “strangles,” a very contagious disease that was running rampant through its pens.
As of August 2023, there are 64,588 wild horses and burros in government holding facilities. According to the BLM’s OWN estimates, it costs the American taxpayer up to $48,000 over the lifetime of a wild horse or burro to keep him or her in a government holding facility.
After every roundup, AWHC files a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for updates on the captured animals after they’ve reached the holding facility. While the BLM touts a death rate of just 0.1% at roundups, our investigative team has uncovered that the death toll skyrockets during the first 30 days in holding following the roundup.
For example, last summer the BLM rounded up 1,022 wild horses and burros from the Blue Wing Complex in Nevada. At the conclusion of the roundup, the BLM reported the deaths of 14 wild horses and burros. But through our FOIA requests, we found that in the 30 days after the roundup began, an additional 38 wild horses and burros perished in the holding facilities where they had been sent.
Even more horrifying, 30 of those deaths were burros who died as a result of lipemia or hyperlipidemia, which often occurs when an animal stops eating. Our records show that an additional burro died of the same cause weeks later, bringing the total to 31 burros dying of hyperlipidemia. Based on preliminary information and veterinary research, it’s reasonable to conclude that these burros stopped eating due to the stress of the roundup operation.
As if that isn’t bad enough, the FOIA records also reveal that in the three months after the roundup, an additional 25 horses and burros died in the holding facility. Their causes of deaths ranged from complications during gelding, to colic, to spinal cord injuries and more. This brings the total deaths since the start of the roundup to approximately 77 wild horses and burros,a much larger number than the 14 animals the BLM reported as dead.
As the BLM continues its final roundups of the 2023 season, more wild horses and burros may meet the same fate. We’re counting on you to support our efforts in getting FOIA records and holding the BLM accountable for its inhumane treatment of our wild mustangs and burros. Will you help us continue our critical work to protect our wild herds?
Thank you.
AWHC Team