Wild Horse Roundup Nets Hundreds in Southern Oregon

LAKEVIEW, Ore. - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been rounding up wild horses east of Lakeview for a week. Using helicopters, the agency has captured nearly 450 horses out of a target of 1,500. The BLM claims the area supports six times more horses than it can sustain, threatening soil stability and sage-grouse habitats.

Gayle Hunt, founder and president of the Central Oregon Wild Horse Coalition, acknowledges that roundups are sometimes necessary but questions why preventive measures like fertility control and selective adoptions weren't implemented earlier. "Why wasn't there fertility control?" she asked. "Why wasn't there selective adoptions, you know - strategic captures, where you have opportunities to perhaps bait-trap, which is a normally far less traumatic way to catch the horse."

The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation) has suggested that ranchers are concerned about competition for grazing in the 625-square-mile herd management area. The organization threatened legal action and secured daily public access to observe the roundup activities.

According to the BLM, only about 100 horses will be returned to Beatys Butte near Adel, which is the "low end" of its management target. Hunt notes that while the future for many horses may not be wild, it isn't necessarily bleak. "They'll do a health check - you know, if there's any problems, whether injury or illness, they're going to address that," she said. "Normally they're separated by gender, sometimes by age. And then, they're put up for adoption."

Most horses will be sent to BLM adoption corrals near Burns, Oregon, or Palomino Valley near Reno, Nevada. Critics argue that there are already 50,000 horses and burros in the system and express concerns about the intentions of potential adopters.

For more information on the roundup, visit the BLM website.

Chris Thomas, Public News Service - OR

Originally posted at: Public News Service