17 More Wild Horses Dead Following Brutal Nevada Helicopter Roundup

Seventeen more wild horses are dead following another brutal helicopter roundup in Nevada — including blind horses, senior horses who broke bones, and seven horses killed when the semi-truck transporting them flipped.

Lady Freethinker stationed an observer at the Roberts Mountain Complex, a swath of about 556,500 acres of public and private lands northwest of Eureka, after learning the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would once again be using a helicopter to round up the wild horses.

The roundup ended Nov. 6, capturing 858 wild horses —including 338 stallions, 397 mares, and 123 foals — and leaving a total of 17 horses dead, according to daily gather reports.

Nine of those deaths resulted from unintentional injuries — including a 20-year-old stud who broke his leg at the trap site, a 20-year-old sorrel mare who broke her neck during shipping to the Axtell holding corrals in Utah, and seven horses killed after a semi-truck carrying them to those same corrals flipped over on the highway.

The other victims, who will never again feel the sun on their shoulders or the wind as they run free through their home range:

a 2-year-old palomino mare, reportedly killed for having clubfoot
a 9-year-old mare, reportedly killed for being blind
an 11-year-old sorrel mare, reportedly killed for being blind
a 15-year-old bay mare, reportedly killed for being blind
a 15-year-old bay mare, reportedly killed for being blind
a 15-year-old dun mare, reportedly killed for being blind
a 17-year-old palomino mare, reportedly killed for being blind
an 18-year-old sorrel stallion, reportedly killed for being blind

Although the BLM’s website noted that up to 19 mares would be treated with humane fertility-control vaccines — an alternative management tool that would allow horses to remain on the range — the daily gather reports note that none were.

This new death toll comes on the heels of 39 wild horses who died in the August 2023 Antelope Complex, whose victims included a spirited stallion who broke his leg jumping out of the corral, five wild horses who broke their necks, two who broke their legs, and 12 foals killed for reported colic, club feet, hernia, and leg deformities, according to daily gather reports.

This preventable cruelty must stop. If you haven’t already, please sign Lady Freethinker’s petition urging federal legislators to ban cruel helicopter roundups for good and so stop preventable suffering and deaths!