Baby in the Bullfrog HMA

Bait trapping for wild burros is being sold as “low-stress” and “humane,” but the 2026 operations at Bullfrog, Lake Pleasant, and Black Mountain show how dangerous it is to run these programs behind closed gates with almost no public oversight.

When the public can’t see what’s happening, bad math, preventable deaths, and facility risks slip through the cracks. (We will do an update soon specifically covering wild horse bait traps and facility updates.)

Bullfrog: Orphan Foal, Bad Math, and No Eyes on the Ground

At Bullfrog in Nevada, BLM’s own numbers expose why independent documentation is essential. On paper, the agency “corrected” its totals mid-gather. Public reporting for Bullfrog showed an initial total of 518 burros gathered and 507 shipped, then an updated total of 513 gathered and 507 shipped, while the category counts for jacks, jennies, and foals also shifted.

The final Bullfrog report now claims 513 burros captured and 507 shipped, with 4 deaths. If those numbers were honest and complete, they should reconcile. They do not.

• 513 gathered

• minus 507 shipped

• minus 4 dead

• = 2 burros that are simply not accounted for in the public record.

At the same time, BLM altered the breakdown of jacks, jennies, and foals in ways that conflict with the original totals. Without independent observers, photos, and video, the public has no way to know whether these are clerical errors, animals quietly euthanized or injured, or something else entirely.

The individual stories behind those numbers are disturbing.

Among the 4 reported deaths is a “one-month-old orphaned” foal described as refusing hand feeding and euthanized. We are all fully aware of how abysmal BLM is at reporting ages correctly (was this a new baby and did BLM actually photograph the baby prior to putting it down as required by CAWP protocol?). We are not told where the foal’s mother is, whether she was injured, separated, shipped, or even identified. There is no explanation of what steps, if any, were taken to try reunification, real veterinary intervention, or placement with qualified neonatal rescue before resorting to euthanasia.

In a system with meaningful transparency, that kind of case would come with detailed documentation: photographs, vet notes, timelines, and oversight. Instead, the public gets a one-line entry on a summary sheet.

At Bullfrog, all captured burros are being shipped out of sight, into an off-range facility where public access is limited and where the animals’ condition and handling will not be visible day-to-day. Burros gathered from the Bullfrog Herd Management Area (HMA) near Beatty, Nevada, are being transported 6 hours away to Axtell, Utah.

When the only information the public receives is a short, error-riddled log, there is no functional accountability.

Above: A clear violation of the language of the CAWP welfare standard. Trailer gates are not to be used to push animals into a trailer as it can (and has) caused leg injuries. Even though this (common) violation is clearly documented there will be no consequence. This is why we need your help getting Congress to push BLM to complete the process of formalizing welfare rules. (Lake Pleasant burro roundup, temporary holding corrals)

The Lake Pleasant bait trap in Arizona is being framed as a clean operation: 105 burros gathered, 105 shipped, zero deaths reported to date. Every one of those animals is being sent to the BLM facility in Florence, Arizona.

Burros are not small horses. Studies have shown that wild burros can be immunologically naïve (susceptible) to many equine pathogens and that their risk of exposure increases after capture and relocation into crowded holding environments. Capture stress is really hard on burros and makes them even mmore vulnerable. Past outbreaks in burro facilities, including the lethal gammaherpesvirus-associated pneumonias at Axtell (over 20% died), should be flashing warning lights for any operation funneling newly captured burros into confinement—but there are still no burro-specific welfare rules governing handling, quarantine, or monitoring.

The public cannot routinely see inside Florence. No independent daily documentation, no real-time visibility into whether stress, dust, overcrowding, and handling are being managed with burro physiology in mind. When something goes wrong, the public learns about it after the fact, if at all.

But what an observer has been able to document at temporary holding (yes, there is no official observation at holding but there have been eyes onsite) is disturbing. Gates and handling aids used improperly, a baby and mom kept in a small pen for nearly 2 weeks and even a burro documented on a trailer overnight raise serious concerns as these burros ship out of sight to Axtell.

162 Wild Burros (85 Jacks, 54 Jennies, and 23 Foals). These wild horses and burros are being shipped to Palomino Valley Center north of Reno and our team is keeping watch. We will have a new update soon.

Black Mountain and Canyonlands: Shipping Straight Into Known Danger at Axtell

At Black Mountain in Arizona, numbers to date: 159 burros gathered, 119 shipped, one put down for pre-existing vehicle-strike injuries. But where they are going tells the real story.

Canyonlands has a start date of April 1. No numbers have been reported to the public yet..

Axtell off-range facility in Utah—the same facility where:

• Sinbad burros died by the dozens after the 2016 roundup in a chronic respiratory disease outbreak linked to asinine herpesviruses, with pneumonia and pulmonary fibrosis documented in necropsies.

• Canyonlands burros suffered another outbreak in 2025, with 25 burros dying in quarantine from similar gammaherpesvirus-associated pneumonia.

When a government agency knowingly ships a high-risk species into a facility with a documented mortality record, yet keeps the doors largely closed to independent observers, it is building a system where problems can repeat without public scrutiny.

“Trust Us” Is Not Oversight

Across these bait trapping operations, the pattern is the same:

• Incomplete or inconsistent numbers (as at Bullfrog).

• Minimal narrative explanation for serious welfare events (such as the orphan foal).

• Burros funneled into facilities with known disease and welfare risks (Florence, Axtell).

• On-the-ground access tightly controlled, with no open viewing of traps or daily facility life.

BLM points to its Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program, but those standards are neither burro-specific nor enforceable regulations. Without independent eyes on operations, “CAWP compliance” becomes whatever the gather contractor and local office say it is.

You can take action to support our push to obtain language changes in the 2027 budget debate to fix this ongoing problem with the lack of enforceable rules here

That is exactly why public observation and documentation—photos, video, contemporaneous notes—from roads and public lands are so crucial.

Documenting is not just about “watching” the government. It’s about creating a permanent, independent record that can expose bad math, track welfare trends, support legal action, and inform Congress when it is told everything is fine.

If you are out on public lands and find yourself in a position to document an activity (capture, loading, holding, facility) the Constitution protects your rights to do that. 

First Amendment issues have always sat at the heart of WHE. That is why we spent six years litigating to obtain daily access to roundups (that litigation changed policy) and are still fighting for transparency. If things are as “great” as BLM says they are, you would think they would want us to see everything.

Our team is very busy this weekend. However we wanted to share this update on burro captures with you as fast as we could. This is not a full report on bait trapping this spring and summer. We will have more for you soon on trapping, litigation and more.

We thank you for being an active advocate and standing up for Freedom, Mercy and Justice. 

We need your support to keep our teams engaging lawmakers, our team fighting in the court, our team ready to run the roundup schedule. Every mile we travel to cover roundups or assess a herd, every court case we bring, every win, every action we take is only possible because of your support.