Wild horses are pursued by a contractor’s helicopter during November 2016’s Owyhee roundup in Nevada. RTF file photo by Steve Paige.

The Bureau of Land Management plans to capture 1,500 wild horses and remove 1,000 of them from their home range on the Triple B Complex in eastern Nevada. The helicopter roundup is set to begin on or about January 23.

BLM also plans to treat and release 250 mares with PZP-22 fertility control vaccine and release 250 stallions it selects during the course of the roundup.

An estimated 2,766 wild horses will remain on the 1.7 million-acre Triple B complex, according to the agency. The BLM-set “Appropriate Management Level” for the complex is 472-884 horses.

Wild horses are hugely outnumbered by cattle on the Triple B complex, which includes the Triple B, Maverick Medicine and Antelope Valley Herd Management Areas and the Cherry Springs Wild Horse Territory.

Permitted livestock use is 87,406 Animal Unit Months (one AUM is defined as forage for one mature cow and her calf), with a 10-year average AUM use of 40,786.

Wild horses removed from the range will be transported to the Palomino Valley Wild Horses and Burro Adoption Center in Reno, Nevada.

Click here to read BLM’s planning documents.

Attending the roundup

Members of the public who wish to view the roundup must contact (775) 388-7078 to receive meeting locations, times and instructions. Participants must provide their own transportation, water and food. BLM recommends footwear and clothing suitable for harsh conditions and a four-wheel drive, high clearance vehicle. Public restrooms will not be available onsite.

Take action

• The Triple B roundup has been scheduled even as wild horses remain in danger of being killed by the Bureau of Land Management. The House of Representatives’ version of the Fiscal Year 2018 Interior appropriations bill would allow BLM to “euthanize” — shoot — healthy, unadopted wild horses and burros; the Senate’s version contains language preventing BLM from using tax dollars to kill healthy wild horses and burros. Leaders from the two houses are ironing out the differences between their bills in conference. Please call the members of Congress listed below and urge them to:
  • support Senate Interior appropriations bill language protecting healthy wild horses and burros from being killed;
  • support Senate Agriculture appropriations bill language preventing horse slaughter.
    • House Speaker Paul Ryan: (202) 225-3031
    • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: (202) 224-2541
    • Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, House Appropriations Committee chairman: (202) 225-5034
    • Rep. Nita Lowey, House Appropriations Committee ranking member: (202) 225-6506
    • Sen. Thad Cochran, Senate Appropriations Committee chairman: (202) 224-5054
    • Sen. Patrick Leahy, Senate Appropriations Committee vice chairman: (202) 224-4242