BLM Removing 300 Wild Horses from Utah Range

In the face of growing unease over the way wild horses are "warehoused" for years at taxpayer expense and sometimes sold to questionable buyers, federal officials in Utah have recently completed two roundups and are poised to initiate another near Delta.

These Utah horse gathering operations, expected to remove up to 314 animals from the range, will add to the pressure on the BLM’s long-term holding facilities but are necessary to ensure the health of these herds and the public range they inhabit, officials say. Nearly 50,000 horses and burros are now in captivity, while another 35,000 remain on Western public lands.

Wild horse advocates claim the roundups, often conducted by helicopter, are not always necessary and traumatize the animals, ultimately diverting millions in taxpayer dollars to private contractors.

Meanwhile, a federal judge temporarily shut down a Nevada roundup and will hear arguments Thursday on whether to allow it to go forward after activists presented video evidence that a BLM contractor used electric prods on horses in alleged violation of agency standards.

That court action has no bearing on the month-long delay on Utah’s Swasey roundup, which was set to commence next week west of Delta, according to the Bureau of Land Management’s Gus Warr, who supervises Utah’s wild horse and burro program. The Nephi-based wrangler that won the contract, Cattoor Livestock Roundup Co., is obligated on another Nevada horse roundup next week, so Swasey was put off until Feb. 11.

While helicopters are controversial, Warr contends using them can be the most humane way to direct horses toward holding pens.

"In my 20 years with the program I found it the best way to gather the horses. As long as you have a good pilot, they don’t have to be roped or choked down," Warr said.

But in November, activist Laura Leigh of Wild Horse Education recorded wranglers with Cattoor’s competitor administering "hot shots" to horses.

"The BLM in 40 years has failed to create a humane, enforceable standard for wild horses and burros. They need to be very clear in how their roundups and handling at their facilities are to be managed," Leigh said.

The BLM oversees 19 herd management areas, or HMAs, in Utah, which currently harbor 4,200 free-roaming horses and burros. Since November, the agency has bait-trapped 46 horses from the Chloride HMA after they wandered onto private land in search of forage and used helicopters to wrangle 171 head of the Frisco herd outside Milford.

Originally Posted By The Salt Lake Tribune