Death Toll Nears 100 Wild Horses at Federal Holding Facility in Colorado

BLM Cites Equine Influenza Virus, Releases Preliminary Vet Report

Response from American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign)

Cañon City, Colorado (April 29, 2022) — In apress releaseissued late Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) claimed that a respiratory illness likely caused the deaths of at least95 captured wild horsesat the taxpayer-funded Cañon City holding corrals since Saturday. The agency is pointing toEquine Influenza Virus H3N8, a strain commonly found in wild and domestic horses.

According to theBLM, the horses most impacted by the virus were captured from the West Douglas Herd Area, five miles south of Rangely, Colo. The agency charged that the horses were likely compromised by smoke from theOil Springs wildfirethat burned most of the herd’s summer range in June, 2021. The accompanying report, issued and signed byUSDAAnimal and Plant Health Inspection Service veterinarian Dr. Albert Kane, is less definitive.

According to his site visit report which was conducted on April 26, Dr. Kane stated that the underlying reasons were still uncertain but could also include themustangs’ unvaccinated or partially vaccinated status.

According toBLM protocol, all adult horses must be vaccinated “as soon as possible” after capture citing a “race against time to build immunity by vaccination while the animals are increasingly exposed to viruses and bacteria in their new environment.” The West Douglas horses were rounded up in July/August, 2021.

As animal confinement-borne viruses continue to sweep the globe, the nation’s leading wild horse protection organization, theAmerican Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign)(AWHC) questions why these horses still had not been vaccinated, nine months later.

“Outbreaks of contagious diseases and infections are the direct result of theBLM's inhumane massroundups, as once formerly wild horses are confined with thousands of others in holding pens,” said American Wild Horse Conservation Executive Director, Suzanne Roy. “Taking horses out of the wild and into a domestic environment requires vaccinations; it appears that theBLMfell short in its care of and responsibility for these federally-protected animals.”

Dr. Kane’s veterinary report stated that before his first visit, only a single loader was being used for both feeding and removing carcasses with bleaching in between activities. Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by AWHC further show that theBLMonly requires Cañon City to be cleaned twice a year.

“The situation at Cañon City is shining a light on the unsanitary and inhumane conditions that America’s wild horses are being forced to live in after being ripped from a life free on westernpublic lands,” concluded Roy.

According to AWHC, this is the second government holding facility in recent weeks that has reported outbreaks resulting from confinement of the wild animals, proving the Cañon City tragedy is not an isolated incident.

TheBLMcurrently warehouses 59,749 wild horses and 862 wild burros in off-range holding facilities and has plans to capture and remove 19,000 more wild horses and burros from public lands this fiscal year. The agency spends 75% of itsannual operating budgeton roundups and stockpiling of horses in government facilities and less than 1% on proven effective fertility control vaccinesrecommendedby the National Academy of Sciences, which provided direction for theBLMmanagement of the West’s wild herds.

AWHC is calling on Governor Polis, First Gentleman Reis, and state and federal policymakers in Colorado to push Congress to officially halt all wild horseroundupsuntil the Cañon City investigation is officially complete and the necessary preventive measures have been implemented, ensuring no more wild horses needlessly and carelessly perish. The suspension ofroundupsis imperative as a roundup is scheduled this summer for the Piceance-East Douglas herd, outside of Meeker, Colo.

About the American Wild Horse Conservation

TheAmerican Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign)(AWHC) is the nation’s leading wild horse protection organization, with more than 700,000 supporters and followers nationwide. AWHC is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse and burros in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage.

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