‘Common sense’ legislation seeks to end traumatic helicopter roundups of wild horses
The roundups of wild horses and burros conducted by low-flying helicopters could be phased-out by this legislation.
Credit: American Wild Horse Conservation
Legislation to phase out the inhumane and controversial roundups of wild horses and burros conducted by low-flying helicopters has been reintroduced.
Reintroduced by U.S. Representatives Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Steve Cohen (D-TN), and Dina Titus (D-NV), the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2025, seeks to eliminate the use of helicopters for roundups and research alternative methods for their management.
The bill also mandates a governmental report to consider humane alternatives to controlling equine populations, with a focus on the potential job opportunities for traditional cowboys.
In the interim, the legislation is calling for the immediate installation of cameras on all helicopters used during the roundups.
"For too long, wild horses and burros have been subjected to dangerous, cruel, and costly roundups that often result in the death of the animal," said Ciscomani. "As Co-Chair of the Congressional Wild Horse Caucus, I’m proud to support this common sense, bipartisan legislation that would eliminate the use of helicopters during Bureau of Land Management roundups and encourage more humane and cost-effective alternatives to manage these iconic animals."
Behind the controversy
Roundups, conducted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), have long proved controversial, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, they are carried out at huge cost to the taxpayer: over $36 million has been spent on roundups in the past five years, with helicopter contractors receiving $6 million in the year 2022 alone.
During the roundups, fleeing wild horses and burros are herded from their home ranges over long distances, and often over rough terrain, which results in emotional trauma as well as physical injury, and even fatalities.
Once they have been trapped in pens, the animals are separated by age and gender, with families and herds broken up. Mares may be treated with fertility control, although the BLM currently spends less than 4 percent of its budget on these methods.
The majority of the captured wild horses are driven to holding facilities. According to Return to Freedom (RF), as of March 2023, over 60,000 wild horses languished in governmental warehouses.
This confinement is not only cruel and unethical, say campaigners, but uneconomical, too; it costs the U.S. taxpayer $228,000 a day to care for each captured wild horse and burro. The BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, meanwhile, costs $138 million, says RF.
Campaigners hope that the mandate for immediate camera footage on helicopters during the roundups will shine a light on the practice. “This bill is a critical step toward ending the cruel and unnecessary use of helicopters in wild horse roundups and bringing long-overdue transparency to the Bureau of Land Management’s operations through immediate implementation of onboard cameras," said Suzanne Roy, executive director of American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC). "The American public overwhelmingly supports humane, accountable management of our iconic wild herds, and this legislation delivers just that.”
Last summer, AWHC filmed a BLM contractor repeatedly kicking a wild horse in the head. The horse had collapsed from exhaustion, after a BLM roundup of over 1,700 wild horses in Nevada’s Blue Wing Complex. “The blatant cruelty on display in this video is emblematic of the suffering inflicted on wild horses and burros in government roundups funded by our tax dollars”, said Roy, after making the footage public.
Take action: Species Unite has long been campaigning to stop the inhumane round ups of America’s wild horses. Please join the 18,239 other supporters who are urging Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to stop these round-ups and work with the American Wild Horse Campaign to find sustainable solutions to save these treasured and legally protected animals. Add your name here.
Listen to podcast episodes: S1. E4: Ellie Phipps Price: Protecting America’s Wild Horses and S6. E17: Erik Molvar: The American Wild Horse Crisis
Read more: “Why America's Wild Horse Roundups Need to End Now”
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