BLM Initiates Mass Wild Horse Removal in Utah with Helicopter Roundups

BLM Gallops Ahead with Mass Wild Horse Removal Plan

Helicopters Descend on Remote Utah Herd Beginning Today

PRICE, Utah (July 1, 2020) … As controversialBLMacting director William Perry Pendley heads into a rocky confirmation process on Capitol Hill, the agency he heads is charging into summer with anunprecedented assaultagainst the nation’s beloved wild horses and burros.

Beginning today,BLMhelicopters will descend on remote regions of the West to stampede and capture 5,000 federally-protected wild horses and burros by September 30. The summer assault will bring the Fiscal Year 2020 wild horse and burro removal total to 12,000 -- a number not seen for two decades.

The roundups will begin in the Range Creek Herd Management Area (HMA) near Price, Utah. TheBLM’s ultimate goal is to reduce the population to a mere 75 horses while allowing hundreds of privately-owned cattle to graze thepublic landsthere. The Range Creek wild horse population is just one of 19 herds targeted for roundups this summer.

“TheBLMis doubling down on the most outdated, inhumane, and ineffective approach to wild horse management possible,” said Suzanne Roy, noting that summer roundups are particularly brutal when desert temperatures are high and tiny foals are stampeded and sometimesrun to deathby helicopters. “TheBLM’s escalating offensive against the West’s wild horses and burros is part of a calculated strategy to scapegoat these iconic animals for environmental damage caused by massive deregulation of extractive industries on our public lands.”

Pendleyfamously calledwild horses an “existential” threat to the public lands when these animals aren’t even present on 88 percent of the lands his agency manages. Prior to becoming acting director of theBLM, Pendleyspent his careerfighting to sell off public lands to private industry. AtBLM, he has stepped up efforts to undermine environmental laws like the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, which protect public lands from unrestricted oil and gas development, mining operations and livestock grazing.

Recently, Pendley’s agencydelivered to Congress a billion-dollar planto cull federally protected wild horse and burro herds by 70 percent by rounding up 80,000 mustangs and burros frompublic landsover the next five years. The report lacks both public and scientific support but is currently under consideration in the Congressional appropriations process.

AWHC haslaunched a petitionasking Congress to reject Pendley’s nomination to head theBLMand will be sending observers to witness the summerroundupsand share photos and videos of these inhumane capture operations with the public.

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TheAmerican Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign)(AWHC) is dedicated to defending America’s wild horses and burros to protect their freedom, preserve their habitat, and promote humane standards of treatment. AWHC’s mission is endorsed by a coalition of more than 60 horse advocacy, public interest, and conservation organizations.