PETITION TARGET: Colorado House of Representatives Agriculture, Livestock & Water Committee
Broken legs, agonizing deaths, and traumatic separation of bonded families – these are some of the devastating consequences of cruel, terrifying wild horse helicopter roundups still happening in Colorado to control the population.
A new bill could help spare horses from this horrifying practice: Colorado Bill 1283 seeks to use fertility control measures, such as darting female horses with birth control medication, instead.
Currently, the Bureau of Land Management uses low-flying helicopters to drive herds of wild horses to exhaustion, chasing them mercilessly until they can be rounded up and removed from their homes and families. Swirling panic and unforgiving terrain frequently combine to cause excruciating body and face lacerations from barbed wire fencing, snapped necks, and isolated, lonely deaths.
In contrast, darting allows for natural population management without disrupting family herds and, hopefully, without causing lasting distress. It also helps to protect innocent animals from being placed in public auctions and crowded, costly holding pastures.
HB 1283 will empower the Colorado Department of Agriculture to implement this more humane, minimally-invasive method and, in doing so, allow wild horses to live without traumatic, herd-disruptive, and life-threatening helicopter round-ups.
Wild horses deserve our protection — not senseless persecution, capture, and uncertain futures.
Sign our petition urging the passage of HB 1283 to end the suffering of thousands of wild horses.
If you live in Colorado, please also contact your representative and urge them to support HB 1283.
