In the video above we have tried to edit down the East Pershing roundup into 5 minutes.

Even with obstructed viewing to traps and holding facilities, during the East Pershing Complex roundup we documented numerous issues including, but not limited to, the following:

• Routine use of hotshot (electric prods) to speed loading.
• Paddles turned around and horses hit and poked with the handle.
• A lot of roping including a colt that broke his knee while being roped (after escaping with his mom).
• A mare tied and dragged.
• Unflagged barbed wire and gates.
• Trailers getting stuck and needing to be towed on roads that were poorly chosen.
• Dirty trailer floors at the start of the day.
• Pregnant mares falling.
• Newborn babies.
• A baby dragged by the tail.

While WHE battles it out in the courtroom to gain an actual enforceable welfare policy, you can help. (Case 3:23-cv-00372-LRH-CLB)

You can ask Congress to set aside specific funding to create an incentive for BLM to comply with existing law (humane management of wild horses and burros) and begin the formal rulemaking process to create an enforceable welfare policy.

We made it easy: Just Click HERE

The East Pershing Complex roundup has ended early. Target for capture was 2,875 wild horses and the operation was approved to continue until the end of February. BLM abruptly stopped the operation and our observer was notified via text as she checked in to continue monitoring the operation. BLM stopped 183 shy of the goal.

That might not seem like much to some people. But that means 183 horses won’t be stampeded in the biting cold. It means that around 90 pregnant mares won’t be run. It means any newborn won’t have to face being orphaned or run at East Pershing. Every single horse matters.

This was not ended because of snow. It snowed heavier last month and many days during this operation.  BLM has flown in snow, sleet and foot deep mud in the past and during the Super Bowl, on Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July many years. This is not because funding ran out; this roundup was funded until the end of February. We do not know yet what BLM is going to say, but the reality will not be for the reasons above.

Reno, Nevada. – The roundup operation of wild horses from the East Pershing Complex of Herd Management Areas (HMA) and Herd Areas (HA) unexpectedly ended on February 9, 2024.  The largest operation set for fiscal year 2024, had been scheduled to run over two months, from December 28 to February 28.  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and its gather contractor ended the operation before reaching their target goal of 2,875 wild horses.  BLM’s “Daily Gather Reports” specify 2,698 horses were gathered, while “Gather Daily Status Reports” denotes 2,692 horses; a six horse discrepancy. Discrepancies in record keeping on BLM reports is not uncommon. When the operation concluded BLM was either 177 or 183 horses shy of its goal based on BLM’s reporting of numbers.  365 foals were reported captured by BLM.  BLM reported 26 deaths.

The operation was run out of BLM’s Winnemucca District in Nevada.  Although in a press release for the start of the wild horse gather the district said its staff and contractors would use the best available science and handling practices for wild horses in accordance with the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Policy (CAWP), our organization’s observers documented frequent failures to follow the so-called “policy.”  Horses were being chased by wranglers on horseback, often more than one, and roped.  In one instance mare and a colt were chased and driven by the helicopter toward the makeshift corral or trap, but rather than being captured the pair ran through the funnel-shaped draped material or trap wings meant to guide horses toward the trap.  Ignoring “policy” the pair were roped by multiple wranglers fatally injuring the colt.  In another roping catastrophe a horse was hog-tied and improperly dragged on the ground by an ATV with a wrangler on top of the horse.  Both incidents were aired by various media.

BLM has failed to identify any data-based foaling season for herds in the complex and relies on anecdotal data for a tribal herd far to the north to claim a blanket “foaling season” of March through June for all herds in the West. Heavily-pregnant mares and foals should not be run due to extreme dangers to both; any veterinarian would tell you to restrict any activity beyond walking your domestic mare near foaling time. Helicopter-assisted gathers are disruptive to the entire wild horse herd.  Foals and mares were chased and separated.  A tiny foal was captured after being found alone alongside the road the morning after being run by the helicopter and hopefully reunited with mare and survived.

According to BLM, all animals identified for removal will be transported to the Winnemucca Off-Range Corrals in Paradise Valley, Nevada, checked by a veterinarian and readied for its Adoption and Sale Program.  BLM has been utilizing the Winnemucca facility that was built with taxpayer funds for over a year and has never allowed the public to visit to view any horses or the conditions.  Our volunteer observer drove as far as possible down the road to the corrals until coming upon private property and no trespassing signs and could not see any horses. The area was full of standing water and slush.

No wild horses will be released back to the Complex.

We ask that you please take action. Helicopter capture season will begin again in July, in the sweltering heat and while foaling season continues. We must gain an enforceable welfare policy. It is absurd and obscene that we have had to fight BLM to get them to take any steps toward any form of enforceable policy. Please take action. We made it easy: Just Click HERE

You can read more about our long battle to gain a welfare policy, including the court cases that were necessary to simply get to where we are now (BLM internal standards) by clicking HERE.

We need your help to continue to document, expose, work toward reform with lawmakers and litigate. Our wild ones deserve to live free on the range and free from abuse.

Thank you for keeping WHE on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our treasured wild ones.