A contractor’s helicopter drives wild horses toward the trap site at the Red Desert Complex on Oct. 11, 2020. Photo: Meg Frederick

The Bureau of Land Management has captured 666 wild horses in an ongoing helicopter roundup in Wyoming’s Red Desert.

Seven horses have been put down, as of Thursday, according to the BLM’s gather report: three for limb deformities, one for club foot, and three for blindness.

The BLM plans to remove 1,035 wild horses from the Stewart Creek and Green Mountain Herd Management Areas (HMAs) as part of a longer-term plan to remove 1,800 horses from the Red Desert Complex of HMAs.

The 752,694-acre complex has a BLM-estimated wild horse population of 2,278. The agency has set a complex-wide population target, or “Appropriate Management Level,” of 480-720.

The BLM plans to treat just 52 mares with fertility control, then return them to the range with the same number of stallions.

Return to Freedom has long supported proven, safe, and humane fertility control as a key tool for stabilizing population growth and replacing roundups as the agency’s primary management method.

Take action: Send a letter urging Congress to hold the BLM’s feet to the fire on the implementation of fertility control

Other recent or ongoing helicopter roundups:

• Riddle Mountain HMA, Oregon: 140 wild horses captured, 1 killed.
• North Complex, Nevada: 323 captured, 1 killed.
• Sulphur HMA, Utah: 259 captured, 2 killed.

No horses have been treated and released during those three roundups.