Return To Freedom-Next Gen Coalition

The Bureau of Land Management plans to begin capturing and removing 2,075 wild horses and 425 b***os from Nevada rangelands starting on Sunday.

The BLM is removing the animals from the range because their numbers exceed the agency’s own population targets, called “Appropriate Management Levels.”

Instead of using helicopters, the BLM plans to use a bait-and-trap method in which wild horses and b***os are lured with water or feed into temporary enclosures made of livestock panels.

Return to Freedom’s goal is to see wild horses and b***os stay on the range, where they belong, but we are more supportive of using the bait-and-trap over helicopters. Any trapping of wild animals carries safety risks.

Unfortunately, the BLM announced no plans to treat and release wild horses or b***os with proven, safe and humane fertility control.

If implemented correctly, fertility control could replace the BLM’s decades-old practice of ceaselessly removing wild horses and b***os from the range then putting them in off-range holding facilities at ever-greater expense.

The four bait-and-trap roundups set to start this weekend are the first being conducted to attempt to control herd numbers since last fall’s government shutdown. Some have been conducted for what the agency deemed emergencies, like drought conditions.

Wild horses and b***os are often outnumbered by privately owned livestock even on Herd Management Areas designated for them.

At one place affected by these roundups, the 1.6 million-acre Triple B Complex, for example, the BLM has set a population goal of 482-821 horses while permitting up to 7,269 cow-calf pairs to graze there annually.

✅ You can help: To send messages to your members of Congress urging them to hold the BLM’s feet to the fire on the implementation of fertility control that can end roundups, tap Take Action in our bio.

Caption: A wild horse in a temporary holding pen after capture. RTF file photo.

The Bureau of Land Management captured 344 wild horses during a helicopter roundup last week in White Pine County, Nevada.

The roundup was deemed an “emergency” by the agency “due to severe drought conditions and lack of forage” on about 30,000 acres that are not managed for horses located outside the Antelope Herd Management Area and Moriah Herd Area.

During the roundup, a 1-year-old mare died after suffering a broken neck at the trap site. Five other wild horses were put down, three for low body condition scores, one for lameness and one for severe sway back, according to the BLM’s gather report.

Reported body conditions for the captured wild horses ranged from 2 (very thin) to 4 (moderately thin) on a 9-point scale.

The BLM has ceased all but emergency roundups since last fall’s government shutdown. Non-emergency roundups intended to reach the population targets and much of the BLM’s Wild Horse & B***o Program has been on hold.

The agency continues to care for and adopt out captured horses in off-range holding. Wild horses captured in last week’s roundup were sent to the Palomino Valley wild Horse and B***o center in Sparks, Nev., before being offered for adoption or sale.

A lack of roundups provides only a temporary reprieve for wild herds. Past lulls have been followed by the agency calling for increased removals once funding became available.

Each day that the BLM delays the use of fertility control shown to be proven, safe and humane perpetuates the agency’s failed management by capture and removal.

We strongly support the use of fertility control as a key tool to reduce the frequency and size of removals and replace them with minimally intrusive, on-range management.

You can help: Tap take action to send a message calling on Congress to press the BLM’s to implement fertility control that can replace capture and removal as the BLM’s primary method of managing wild horses or see returntofreedom.org/current_actions/

BLM 2020 file photo.

Want to help wild horses? You can find youth short-sleeve and adult long-sleeve T-Shirts for sale in our online store!

🧡 Sales help us feed and care for nearly 500 rescued wild horses and b***os at our nonprofit sanctuary.

👉 You can reach our shop through our bio or by going to shop.returntofreedom.org.

Among the lovely items for sale there, you’ll find:

🔹Spirit posters and toys,

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🔹greeting cards and calendars featuring beautiful images of sanctuary residents,

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🔹and much more!

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