Wild Horse 'Drought Emergency' Roundup on Hold Due to Rain Amid Growing Opposition
Maybell, CO (September 1, 2021) — A controversial Bureau of Land Management (BLM) “emergency drought” roundup of nearly 800 wild horses from the Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area (HMA) in northwestern Colorado was postponed this morning due to rain. The roundup has drawn strong public opposition, with Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Public Lands, joining Colorado Governor Jared Polis and First Gentleman Marlon Reis, the Sierra Club Colorado, and the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) in calling for a halt to the roundup.
“I would respectfully ask that you postpone the scheduled roundups in order to have a more thorough and robust stakeholder and community engagement process, and work with local and state partners to craft a solution for the long-term well-being of those horses,” wrote Rep. Neguse in a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Acting BLM Director Nada Culver.
On Monday, Governor Polis also asked the BLM to “delay the roundup to explore more humane alternatives.” Also Monday, the Sierra Club Colorado weighed in against the removal of wild horses from the Sand Wash Basin, blaming livestock, not wild horses, for harming the environment there. The BLM authorizes 8,233 sheep to graze in the Sand Wash Basin area in the fall, winter, and spring while seeking to reduce the wild horse population to just 163 animals. Further, intensive sheep grazing in the early spring destroys fragile new forage growth, then the sheep are removed and the horses are blamed for damaging the range.
Beginning today, BLM-contracted helicopters are stampeding wild horses -- including tiny foals (baby horses) and well-known wild horses, including descendants of the famed wild stallion Picasso -- into traps, loading them onto trailers, and trucking them to holding pens. The BLM will then attempt to dispose of the animals by placing them into private care through the Adoption Incentive Program, which pays individuals $1,000 to adopt wild, untamed horses and has been exposed as a slaughter pipeline for “truckloads” of these federally-protected animals.
The operation is expected to cost taxpayers nearly $800,000 just to round up the horses, and another $1.3 million per year to feed and house them in captivity.
“Just 50 horses are being selected to be released back into the wild, with 733 heading to holding pens, where a tiny fraction will be chosen for adoption, while the vast majority will remain in captivity at the taxpayers’ expense. Without changing any of its land management goals, the BLM has the legal scope to release back 250 horses and stay inside the population limit that their own data tells them the land can sustain. The BLM needs to be reasonable and responsive to public concerns,” said Scott Wilson of Wilson Axpe Photography, who has visited and photographed the Sand Wash Basin horses since 2018.
“The BLM is turning a blind eye to public opinion and the pleas of Colorado political leaders by proceeding with the Sand Wash Basin roundup on bogus emergency grounds,” said Ellie Phipps Price, president of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) and member of Colorado’s legacy Phipps family. “It’s time to hold this agency accountable for the flagrant waste of Americans’ tax dollars and destruction of the magnificent wild horses that 80 percent of Americans want to protect.”
Advocates maintain that the roundup of 783 wild horses and permanent removal of 733 will decimate the state’s most iconic and high-profile herd and is out of proportion with the reality on the ground, where horses are in good body condition and abundant summer monsoon rains have replenished water resources and rejuvenated forage growth. They are asking the BLM to back a compromise plan to use more humane methods to moderately reduce the population and leave a minimum of 362 wild horses in the Sand Wash Basin, which is the high end of the BLM’s population limit, instead of reducing the population to just 163 horses. This win-win solution will address the state and public interest in protecting the Sand Wash wild horses while achieving the BLM’s land management goals.
About AWHC
The American Wild Horse Conservation (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. In addition to advocating for the protection and preservation of America's wild herds, AWHC implements the largest wild horse fertility control program in the world through a partnership with the State of Nevada for wild horses that live in the Virginia Range near Reno.
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