Wild horses and burros roam free throughout several states in the Western part of the country under the supervision of the Bureau of Land Management. But lawmakers are saying nay to one of the agency’s methods of rounding up the animals.
BLM has been responsible for managing herds of wild horses and burros since 1971. Yet incidents of mismanagement involving rounding the herds with helicopters are sparking bipartisan outrage. A contingent of House Democratic and Republican members are pushing for legislation to ban the practice.
Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) has led the effort to pass H.R. 3656 — titled the “Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2023” — and renewed her call to commemorate National Horse Protection Day on March 1.
“On National Horse Protection Day, we call attention to the Bureau of Land Management’s disastrous wild horse and burro roundup practices that needlessly harm these icons of the West,” Titus said in a statement.
“Dozens of horses have already been killed this year due to deadly helicopter roundups in Nevada, and thousands more have been confined to overcrowded, disease-spreading holding corrals throughout the West,” said Titus, who represents the eastern Las Vegas area 1st Congressional District.
It’s an under-the-radar issue compared to pressing congressional matters like aid for Ukraine and Israel, border security, and many others. The phrase “wild horses” more likely conjures thoughts of the Rolling Stones’s 1971 song about turning around a burned-out relationship, with its signature refrain, “Wild horses Couldn’t drag me away/ Wild, wild horses/ We’ll ride them some day.” (The magazine Rolling Stone in 2021 ranked the tune 193 in its “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.)
On Capitol Hill, Titus’s bill has 19 co-sponsors — 16 Democrats and three Republicans — from a variety of states. Reps. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and David Schweikert (R-AZ) were original co-sponsors when the bill was introduced in May 2023.
Schweikert represents a district encompassing the northeastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, one of the 10 Western states with a wild horse population. He said at the time he was “proud” to support the legislation and argued it would protect the animals from the “dangerous roundups” which put the lives of horses and burros at risk.
“The Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act encourages humane and cost-effective alternatives to capture wild horses and ensure they can continue to flourish in Arizona and other western states,” Schweikert said.
The American Wild Horse Conservation has been a champion of the proposed legislation and has led the fight to ban the practice from the Bureau of Land Management. Suzanne Roy, executive director of the group, has called for the bill to be passed and “refocus” efforts by the agency to round up wild horses and burros.
“In 1971, Congress unanimously granted wild horses federal protection akin to the bald eagle,” Roy said in a statement. “Sadly, successive administrations have failed to uphold America’s promise of freedom for these iconic animals. It’s time to halt the helicopters and refocus on sustainable in-the-wild conservation.”
The Bureau of Land Management pushes back on the claim that wrangling wild horses and burros is “inhumane,” claiming it is a myth and that the practice is effective and safe.
“BLM gathers have proven to be more humane, effective, and efficient than other types of gather methods when large numbers of animals need to be removed over wide areas or rugged terrain, and they lead to lower rates of injury and mortality than comparable capture operations for native big game species,” the federal agency says on its website.
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“Helicopters start the horses moving in the right direction and then back off sometimes one-quarter to one-half mile from the animals to let them travel at their own pace; horses are moved at a more rapid pace when they need to be turned or as they reach the entrance to the capture site.”
The legislation has been assigned to the House Subcommittee on Federal Lands, under the House Natural Resources Committee, where it awaits further action.
