Thirteen wild horses are dead – including two innocent foals who appear to have died due to stress – following the latest Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse roundup at the North Lander Complex in Wyoming. Lady Freethinker (LFT) sent an observer to document the first three days of the roundup.
Before the helicopters descended on the herd, LFT’s observer saw wild horse families peacefully relaxing and playing together. Foals nipped at each other’s ears and rolled around in the grass together. This peace was destroyed as two helicopters came thundering in and horses fled in fear for their lives.
Scott Henderson/Lady Freethinker Investigation
The victims of this brutality include 7 horses who died from injuries directly caused by the roundup. In the first fifteen days of the roundup, BLM daily gather reports show that a 4-year-old mare broke her neck while being forced into a trailer, another mare died from a brain aneurysm, three horses died from “capture myopathy” — or from stress of being captured — while struggling in a holding corral, and two young horses died after breaking their necks in a holding corral.
Several horses were also euthanized, including a foal who showed signs of having Wobbler Syndrome — a treatable condition.
The injuries and deaths in this roundup are tragically typical of the cruel helicopter roundups. Last year’s victims included an innocent stallion who suffered a mangled, bloodied leg after escaping a corral as he ran for his life for an hour – before he was shot to death. Dozens of other horses were killed by the BLM after being captured in that roundup. Some even died on a semi-truck when it turned over on a highway last year.
LFT’s observer could frequently hear the whinnies of distressed horses after they were caught, despite being half a mile away. At the temporary holding center, horses were packed in tightly, with no space to comfortably turn around, separated from their families, and clearly terrified — as pictured below. These are the conditions in which some of the horses died.
Scott Henderson/Lady Freethinker Investigation
Some notable events from the first three days of this roundup follow.
July 1st:
On the first day of the roundup, two helicopters pursued several groups of wild horses – one group which consisted of many foals. After being driven into the trap, the horses’ cries could be heard from a distance. Our observer also heard the horses kicking at the fencing in what seemed to be a desperate attempt to escape the crowded corral.
The horses were forced into trucks and trailers and transported to temporary holding – making room for more horses to be trapped. Two more herds were then targeted and trapped. The BLM took 383 horses from their natural home on this day.
LFT’s observer was forced to wait nearly 4 and half hours before being allowed to witness the horses at the temporary holding center.
July 2nd:
The horses from the previous day were packed into semi-trucks and driven out of their homes. The helicopter roundup continued, pushing frightened horses into the trap.
Our observer was told that one of the foals captured in the first day of the roundup was “euthanized.”
July 3rd:
The helicopters used by the BLM were so loud that our observer could hear them while they were barely visible on the horizon. The two helicopters continued to terrorize horses as temperatures rose with the winds, until they ran into the trap – where they cried out in apparent fear. A mare was kicked in the head by another horse inside the crowded trap.
A tiny foal managed to avoid being pushed into the trap and was instead chased down by a cowboy – who used a lasso to pull the baby horse close. The colt struggled with the rope around his neck. The colt was reportedly underweight. The BLM reportedly sent the colt to a nearby rescue to be adopted.
Exhausted colts laying on the ground at the feet of adult horses at the temporary holding center, are pictured below. We learned that the mare who had been injured inside the trap was “euthanized.”
Scott Henderson/Lady Freethinker Investigation
These three days are just a snapshot of the senseless suffering wild horses face each year in BLM helicopter roundups.
In this current roundup, 2,247 wild horses lost their freedom, their wild home, and the companionship of their herd. 418 of these horses are foals. The BLM plans to remove roughly 2,715 horses from this site in total – despite growing evidence that wild horses play an important role in their ecosystem.
Zero horses have been treated with fertility control in this gather to date.
The future is bleak for the captured horses: Crammed into trucks for hours of grueling transportation, they will be taken to a corral in Wheatland, Wyoming. They will likely be auctioned off to the highest bidder – and be permanently separated from their families.
“These horses are never coming back,” Lady Freethinker’s observer noted at the holding center where the animals were gathered before being taken from their home.
Scott Henderson/Lady Freethinker Investigation
Lady Freethinker has long advocated for fertility vaccines to be administered via darting as a humane alternative to the deadly helicopter roundups.
Wild horses deserve to roam their wild homes – free from the threats of injury, fear, and familial separation so common in cruel helicopter roundups. Please take a moment to join us in speaking out against deadly and cruel helicopter roundups by signing this petition.
SIGN: Stop Cruel Helicopter Roundups That Are Killing Wild Horses
