Help Stop the Inhumane Roundups of America’s Wild Horses

The Bureau of Land Management’s (B.L.M.) cruel and unnecessary wild horse roundups take place every year — and every year, horses die as a result of this misguided program.

Unless we act, more horses will perish, more young foals will be cruelly separated from their mothers, and beloved herds that bring tourists to the West and joy to locals will be erased from the lands they have roamed for centuries.

There are currently over 60,000 wild horses and burros living in the B.L.M.’s overcrowded holding facilities. Each year, thousands more are imprisoned in these centers, pushing the number of horses in inhumane confinement to unsustainable levels.

These facilities cannot keep pace with the B.L.M.’s increasing captures and have been associated with mass, preventable deaths and widespread animal welfare violations — including inadequate vaccinations, insufficient access to hay, and chronic understaffing — according to the Animal Welfare Institute.

Every year, the B.L.M. conducts these cruel roundups of thousands of wild horses across the western states to keep their populations unnaturally low, even though America’s wild horses have been a federally protected species since 1971.

During these population control roundups, terrified horses running for their lives are often separated from their family groups. Many foals die from exhaustion, and others are injured and euthanized on-site. Of the horses that survive, some are put up for adoption, but the vast majority are kept in barren holding facilities for the rest of their lives. Tragically, others wind up sent to slaughter.

The 60,000 wild horses currently held in long-term holding sites across the country are living in crowded, squalid conditions. These wild, majestic animals have had their freedom stolen from them and exchanged for a life of confinement and misery. The addition of thousands more horses to this system will only make a terrible situation worse.

The B.L.M. claims that these roundups are necessary to protect the land from degradation and to prevent horses from suffering due to overpopulation. THIS IS A LIE. These horses are eliminated so that sheep and cattle ranchers can pay tiny fees to rent public lands to graze their livestock.

According to scientists, these roundups do nothing to limit the population growth of wild horse herds — as the birth rate among surviving horses inevitably increases when there is less competition for forage. Proven, humane alternatives for population control already exist in the form of fertility-control vaccines given to female horses.

Wild horses are being tortured and killed for no other reason than to make room for more ranchers to use public lands — and we, the taxpayers, are funding this outrage.

These horses are victims of the monopolistic power of the meat industry and the cowardice of government officials who refuse to stand up to this cruel and sadistic lobby.

Take Action Now

Thousands of horses across the west are slated to meet this tragic fate every year. Please join us in 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.