Wild horses are shown in off-range holding. RTF file photo by Meg Frederick.

A total of 180 wild horses were captured during a helicopter roundup last week in Nevada.

Seven wild horses were put down for what the Bureau of Land Management classified as “pre-existing / chronic” injuries. Reported justifications were: severe arthritis in three horses, as well as “a large abscess,” blindness, tendon laxity, and a pre-existing right front fetlock injury.

What the BLM deemed an emergency roundup was conducted in an area affected by the Jakes Fire, a wildfire that burned about 82,000 acres northeast of Winnemucca, Nev., last August.

Limited forage has resulted to a decline in the condition of horses there, with body condition scores of 3-4 (thin to moderately thin) on a 9-point scale, the BLM said in a press release.

The roundup was conducted on the Little Humboldt (90% of which burned, according to the BLM) and Snowstorm Mountain (6%) Herd Management Areas.

A BLM-estimated 272 wild horses roam the combined 134,000 acre areas. Snowstorm Mountain and Little Humboldt have a combined “Appropriate Management Level” of 138-220 horses.

That means that the number of horses that BLM removed put the Herd Management Areas at about 92 wild horses, below their agency-set population target.

Fire rehabilitation is listed among the reasons the BLM can reduce the number of horses below Appropriate Management Level, according the agency’s handbook.

Non-emergency roundup intended to reach the population targets and much of the BLM’s Wild Horse & Burro Program have been on hold since last fall’s government shutdown.

The agency continues to care for and adopt out captured horses in off-range holding. Wild horses captured during last week’s roundup were sent to off-range corrals in Paradise Valley, Nev.

Paused roundups provide only a temporary reprieve for wild herds. Past lulls have been followed by agency calls for increased removals.

Every day that the BLM delays the use of proven, safe and humane fertility control perpetuates the agency’s failed management by capture and removal.

Send a message urging Congress to hold the BLM’s feet to the fire on using fertility control that can stop roundups