Along with the bald eagle, the wild mustang is one of the greatest symbols of American freedom.
But charities are raising the alarm over the “appalling” treatment of thousands of loose horses being rounded up and held by the Bureau of Land Management under a population management scheme.
The nonprofit American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) estimates that hundreds of America’s wild horses are killed each year during roundups or end up sold for slaughter through the unscrupulous adoption process.
Amelia Perrin of AWHC told DailyMail.com: ‘They are arrested with helicopters and funneled to detention facilities where they languish for the rest of their lives. Horses die in roundups, they die in holdups.
Once captured, the Bureau puts the horses up for adoption, paying new owners $1,000 per horse, but AWHC says there are very few checks, meaning many of the horses end up in so-called “sacrifice pens” and are They sell to the slaughterhouse.
Charities are raising the alarm over the “appalling” treatment of thousands of free-ranging wild horses in the United States.
The nonprofit American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) estimates that hundreds of America’s wild horses are killed each year during roundups or end up sold for slaughter through the unscrupulous adoption process.
There are currently about 73,000 wild horses and burros living across the United States on vast tracts of land from Texas to Nevada and Oregon.
In 1971 they received federal protection and the Bureau of Land Management was tasked with maintaining their numbers at a sustainable level to “restore a thriving natural ecological balance.”
Each year since then, the Bureau has rounded up thousands of horses and transported them to holding facilities, where they are put up for adoption or held indefinitely.
There are currently 64,000 horses and donkeys in holding facilities across the United States at a cost of more than $100 million a year to the taxpayer.
Charities have criticized the plan, citing videos of raids showing terrified horses and foals being chased by helicopters or all-terrain vehicles.
One video, which surfaced in January, showed wild horses being tied up and dragged along the ground by contractors hired to remove the animals from public lands in Nevada.
The images, obtained by Wild Horse Education, show an animal being towed by an all-terrain vehicle. Another clip shows a helicopter nearly colliding with a herd while trying to evade it.
Perrin told DailyMail.com: “He is chasing horses, which are prey animals, with a monster in the sky, for an undisclosed number of miles.” Babies are followed in helicopters to detention centers.
‘There are many deaths that occur in the raid, legs and necks are broken, those deaths are not the only ones. The deaths don’t end when the helicopters do.
Shocking video of the raids has emerged, showing terrified horses and colts being chased by helicopters or all-terrain vehicles.
Perrin told DailyMail.com: “There are many deaths that occur in the raid, legs are broken, necks are broken, those deaths are not the only ones.”
On a recent tour of the Bureau’s facilities, the nonprofit said they saw “a dead or dying foal” abandoned in a corral.
Using freedom of information requests, the AWHC has also uncovered a pattern of deaths in detention centres.
In April, the nonprofit revealed that 267 wild horses died in 2023 at the Bureau’s largest facility in Nevada, Fallon Off-Range Corral.
Of those, 106 died in their pens of unknown causes, 23 died before reaching the facility, and 49 horses died from traumatic injuries.
On a recent tour of the facility, AWHC saw “a dead or dying baby” abandoned in a pen.
Perrin said: ‘They spend the rest of their lives separated from their families, from their freedom and locked in these dirt pens. They have no sprinklers or shade; It is shocking to see.”
There are also disease outbreaks at facilities, and AWHC reported that 23 wild horses died in just 24 days due to suspected botulism poisoning at another Nevada holding facility last year.
In Colorado in 2022, they discovered a “shocking mass casualty event” in which 145 unvaccinated wild horses died from an outbreak of the equine influenza virus.
Horses that survive are put up for adoption and potential new owners pay $1,000 per horse if they keep them for a year.
In April, the nonprofit revealed that 267 wild horses died in 2023 at the Bureau’s largest facility in Nevada, Fallon Off-Range Corral.
The problem, according to the AWHC, is that there are very few controls over who can adopt horses and where they end up.
Perrin said: ‘Thousands of horses have been funneled to the slaughterhouse and taken to Mexico to be slaughtered and sold.
“Worse than that, we found groups of people who are conspiring to adopt massive numbers of horses and get the money to then sell them to slaughter.”
The charity said many of the adopted horses end up in so-called “sacrifice pens,” where horses are sold en masse or loaded onto trucks and sent to slaughterhouses in Mexico.
AWHC has documented more than 2,100 wild horses and burros in slaughter pens since 2019.
Slaughter yards share photos of the horses, with their Bureau markings visible, on social media with captions saying that if someone doesn’t step in to buy them, “they will send them to Mexico on the next truck.”
AWHC is advocating for several changes to the Bureau’s program, including using fertility control to limit numbers while allowing horses to remain wild and eliminating financial incentives for adoption to prevent the system from being abused.
Perrin said the current system is “incredibly wasteful and cruel.”
He added: “They don’t see wild horses as an integral part of the Western landscape, they see them as livestock that must be managed.”
DailyMail.com has contacted the Bureau of Land Management for comment.