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Images above were taken by Lynn Walleen in Salt Wells just a couple of weeks ago. There are more images of heavily pregnant mares and new babies on that range.

The helicopter drive-trap roundup is set to begin July 15. The objective of this operation is a “zero out.” Salt Wells, Great Divide Basin and a large part of Adobe Town no longer being managed as Herd Management Areas (HMA) and are reverting to Herd Area (HA) status (meaning the area is designated for wild horse and burro use, but not managed). “Zero out” operations are the most aggressive type of roundup. Every single wild horse must be captured leading to long pursuits of solo animals and a lot of roping as the operation nears the end. 

See more of “Fiscal Year 2025, the end of the roundup calendar for the year”

This article has a few action items throughout. Action items will appear in red.

Newborn trampled, video click image above. Warning: disturbing content

Helicopter drive-trapping is so dangerous and publicly unacceptable during foaling season that BLM created a prohibition against it during peak foaling season. 

In typical BLM style they make a claim not substantiated by data that for every single herd in the West peak foaling season falls neatly between March 1 and June 31. As if that was not bad enough, BLM has manipulated when foaling season occurs by random use of various forms of “fertility control” that skew foaling season times and simply ignores the change they created. The image above is from the Black Mountain, Hardtrigger and Sands Basin Wild Horse (Roundup 2023) where BLM has applied a substance called “PZP” to the herd at a prior gather. The efficacy (time it takes for the vaccine to wear off) was not taken into account or monitored in any way. Peak foaling season for these herds had shifted to September… and the “experts” at BLM simply didn’t care and moved forward anyway with tragic results on the first day as a newborn foal was trampled and killed. This is NOT an isolated incident.

In a nutshell: On every single HMA where BLM has applied any fertility control over the last decade, foaling season has been manipulated without BLM tracking the impact and adjusting the dates of the prohibition of helicopter drive trapping. 

Foals get separated all the time. Foaling season is NOT the time for a helicopter. There is this bizarre notion that babies just join the next band… they don’t. In our 20 years observing and documenting roundups only a handful of times, out of hundreds of thousands of runs, will a baby run toward a herd not it’s own. In the video below you can see a baby take off, BLM just keep bringing in horses. Only after observers became rather insistent did anyone look for a baby BLM did not even know was separated. 

During the mandatory Motorized Vehicle Use Hearing each year, our team talks about the prohibition on their use during foaling season and BLMs lack of data defining foaling season (even as they manipulate the natural rhythm). BLM has never created a single responsive document. In 2022, as we began to point this out to the public, BLM simply began publishing a synopsis of testimony, but not analysis or response to comments.

BLM has not published a single responsive document to the 2025 Hearing.

We are exploring legal options as every single roundup plan (gather-EA) calls these hearings compliance with the necessity to analyze the “impact of the gather on the gathered.” If there is no analysis or response to the hearing, wouldn’t that make every “gather-EA” in the nation invalid? We will keep you posted. 

In our view, no roundup over the last decade is in compliance as BLM has NOT published any analysis document at all from these hearings and, in addition, has never had a single public comment period for the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP).

You can join us in taking action.

Sign on to a letter HERE that tells BLM to provide a response or cancel gathers where their authority has not been validated. 

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In 2010, BLM began using PZP in the Rock Springs Checkerboard (including Salt Wells) and has never gathered any data to show how that use has extended peak foaling season and adjusted the prohibition on helicopters to align. (The images above show very young foals, a few with dried umbilical stumps still visible.)

We have written extensively about the dangers to “baby feet.” If you do not want to believe us, just use a search engine like Google. Feet and leg development in the first 6 months is vital. In the first 3 months it it critical. In the first 4 weeks deficits are often deadly and not simply crippling. In the first month a baby cannot self regulate temperature and they need shelter. A baby will nurse one or two times every hour for up to four months and nursing every hour for up to 8 weeks is necessary (capture disrupts this).

Heavily pregnant mares should not be run. According to the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) states: “you should avoid stressing the mare as much as possible, transport your mare only if absolutely necessary, use caution when exposing your mare to other horses, (you should avoid any undue risk of injury or disease transmission by isolating broodmares from transient horse populations).” The also say: “Exercise during the last four months of the mare’s pregnancy should be light to moderate. In fact, a pastured mare will get as much exercise as she needs just grazing. Vigorous exercise is not recommended.”

A mare that gives birth days after capture is the most obvious definition of “heavily pregnant” there could be. You do not need a medical degree and a ten year study to make that determination.

The dangers of helicopter drive trapping are not limited to the damages done (forever impacting the development of foals, causing spontaneous abortions in heavily pregnant females), the dangers persist during transport and into holding facilities. 

Wild horses removed from the range do not “go to a better place.” Transport, the lack of shade and neglect basic care like receiving timely vaccinations as a wild population now faces illnesses many have never faced and rapid spread in confined spaces.

In fact, death on the range in a wild population ranges from 1-4% each year. In the first 6-months post capture, deaths can rise as high as 24% with the average death-rate hitting 12% (from all causes including injury and disease).

Capture could easily be recognized as the #1 cause of death for wild horses and burros. 

You would think creating concise and enforceable welfare rules would be a priority. It is not. Instead, we have had to go to the courts as BLM defends practices rooted in 1970s cowboy mythos. In 2015 (after 6 years in the courts, repeatedly), BLM crafted a draft policy. They simply stopped short of the completion of that process and labelled the draft “final.” We are back in the courts. Seems a bit absurd that we have to battle it out in the courts instead of BLM recognizing they need to “do better.” This should be the easiest place for BLM to begin to reform the program as this is not the place where there is a fight about why the roundup is being done, but how it is being done. See more HERE (with action item)

Bachelor Band, Kiger, 6/25. Kiger begins 7/21

Instead of looking for ways to reform the program to protect our wild ones and save money, the Presidential Budget Request puts killing tens of thousands of wild horses and burros in holding and selling them without limits (slaughter) back on the table. 

Yes, every wild horse or burro removed from the range both past and present, now faces a political landscape that sees them as a burden it needs shed regardless of the brutality; just kill them. Is it any surprise that talking about creating a welfare policy to reduce death and injury is nowhere in sight? Protect herd and habitat? Nah, just kill them and sell the land to the highest bidder (almost every single HMA sits on the list for the massive land sale in the reconciliation “Big Beautiful Bill” package)

The language of that provision was struck down earlier today (thank you to everyone that took action). But Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said he will revise his plan for selling off public lands after the Senate’s parliamentarian ruled it cannot move forward as part of the Republican tax and spending bill. (More HERE)

Since January, we have been trying to explain that the agenda of the new administration would be the same as it was in 2017 and we would be facing the loss of our public lands AND would have to fight back against killing all our wild ones in holding.

We began doing a series of articles called “alternatives.” However, even the use of that word bothers us. Alternative implies that a situation has been fully evaluated and alternatives are being looked at. Here we are facing a conclusion, a choice made of ignorance and greed. This is not really a discussion of alternatives.

So get loud. If you can only do one thing due to limited time, please take this action: 

We have created a very fast and simple letter you can send directly to your lawmakers. 

Click HERE to send a letter to your lawmakers. 

You can also call your representatives in Congress. The number for the switchboard is: (202) 224-3121. Ask to be connected to your representative. The operator will ask where you live and connect you. 

You can say:

I am calling about the Appropriations 2026 bill for the Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program. As a constituent I am calling to urge you to ensure language to prohibit funding for the purposes of killing healthy wild horses or burros or selling them without limits (slaughter) is maintained in the Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2026. 

There are many debates in the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program. Sales without protection from slaughter and killing healthy wild horses and burros is an abhorrent action that the vast majority of Americans oppose and should not be part of any bill.

As an American taxpayer and voter I urge you to ensure that the budget bill maintains this long-standing prohibition.

Kiger families seeking shade in the heat. BLM claims wild horses do not seek shade and do not have to provide shelters in facilities. Kiger begins 7/21.

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