Thirty-nine wild horses were killed during the Bureau of Land Management’s recently completed helicopter roundups on the Antelope North and Antelope South complexes in Nevada.
A total of 3,078 wild horses were captured during the roundups, which ran from July 9-Aug. 20. Of those, 3,031 horses were shipped to holding facilities.
Eleven suffered what the BLM calls “sudden / acute” deaths — including fractured necks, broken legs and colic.
Twenty died were put down due to what the agency labeled “pre-existing / chronic” conditions. Of those, eight were blind in one eye.
Two years ago, the BLM captured and removed 2,203 wild horses from the Antelope Complex during an “emergency” roundup. Eleven horses were killed.
In 2021 and again this year, the tragedy of wild horses being ripped from their home range and too-often being killed was multiplied by the BLM’s choice not to treat and release even a single mare with safe, proven and humane fertility control.
If implemented correctly and robustly, fertility control would slow (not stop) herd growth, allowing for the phasing out of inhumane roundups.
The two Herd Management Area complexes total 1.36 million acres of public land. The BLM-set population goal, or “Appropriate Management Level,” of 472-830.
By comparison, the BLM has allocated the annual equivalent of 10,411 cow-calf pairs on the Antelope complexes. The BLM has previously said that livestock grazing permittees in the Elko District have taken reduce use but provided no detail.