BLM Announces Roundup of Wild Horses in Wyoming

The BLM aims to round up about 600 wild horses starting Aug. 15 in an area northwest of Rock Springs — to prevent what it calls “further deterioration” of the land’s health due to animal impacts.

The Wild American Horse Conservation group says the agency used incorrect data to reach that figure, incorrectly including the number of foals.

Suzanne Roy, the group’s executive director, said the poor numbers are a problem for the local ecotourism business that the horses support, thanks to a scenic Wild Horse Scenic Loop.

“We are very concerned that the BLM is playing with the numbers to remove more horses than is legally allowed,” Roy said. “And if they are allowed to continue, the herd will be so reduced that it will no longer be possible to see the horses.”

Roundups involve gathering horses into pens until they are adopted.

But Roy said there are more horses in custody than the adoption market can absorb, and that difference costs taxpayers about $70 million a year.

The roundups are an alternative population control method to sterilization. But Roy said his group advocates fertility control instead.

“Basically, it’s called immunocontraception,” Roy said, “and it’s a vaccine that creates an immune response in animals and prevents fertilization.”

Roy said the method is also reversible, which is important in the event of unexpected population die-offs.

The BLM is a multi-purpose agency charged with balancing many interests, including those of the public, grazing rights, and multiple wildlife species.

James “Micky” Fisher, senior public affairs specialist at the BLM’s Wyoming field office, said the agency is not opposed to fertility treatments, but they are more difficult to implement.

“Unfortunately, with herd management areas of this size and even larger,” Fisher said, “the sheer number of horses we have to gather to achieve the appropriate level of management, fertility treatments and darting practices, are simply insufficient.”

A larger roundup operation is currently underway in four herd management areas in central Wyoming.

Fisher said the BLM began the roundup on July 1 to gather more than 2,700 animals.