LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A roundup of wild horses and burros ended Aug. 1 with a total of 42 horses dead, according to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) records.
Nine of the deaths in the Blue Wing roundup — three burros and six horses — were classified as “acute” deaths, a result of injuries that occurred during the roundup, records show. The remaining 33 deaths were “chronic” — horses and burros that were put to death because the animals couldn’t survive in the wild with pre-existing problems like blindness, lameness and previously broken legs.
The advocacy group Wild Horse Education (WHE) criticized the BLM operation, reporting that the fatality rate for Blue Wing was five times higher than another roundup conducted in Utah.
Another advocacy group based in California, American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC), released a video on July 31 that showed a wrangler kick a horse in the head. That wrangler was suspended by the contractor he worked for, according to the BLM. But the problems with Blue Wing ran much deeper, according to WHE leader Laura Leigh.
She contacted 8 News Now via email on Monday, saying, “BLM is going to get away with shifting responsibility onto the shoulder of one wrangler for their failures. Once more, the guy at the bottom of the system is going to bear the responsibility and change is, once more, avoided,” Leigh wrote.
WHE urged BLM to postpone the roundup in a July 7 news release as temperatures climbed. The roundup proceeded according to BLM plans.
The 2.2-million-acre Blue Wing Complex is 65 miles northeast of Reno in Pershing County. The roundup began on July 8 and concluded on July 31, with the shipping of horses to corrals in Fallon, Nevada, and Axtell, Utah, completed on Aug. 1. A total of 1,305 horses and 360 burros were transported.
BLM’s website provides information on the nine acute deaths during the roundup:
- July 9: 15-year-old, Gray jenny found deceased on trailer upon arrival at temporary holding.
- July 12: 2-year-old, Pinto jenny found deceased on truck upon arrival at Indian Lakes Off-Range Corrals.
- July 12: 5-year-old, Gray jenny died due to Colic.
- July 13: 5-year-old, Bay stallion humanely euthanized due to fractured left hind leg.
- July 19: 1-plus-year-old, Bay mare died due to broken neck.
- July 20: 11-year-old, Bay stallion died due to broken neck.
- July 21: 11-year-old, Bay mare found deceased on truck upon arrival at holding.
- July 21: 16-year-old, Bay mare died due to blunt force trauma caused by a horse kicking her in the head.
- July 26: 9-year-old, Brown mare died due to broken neck.
Further information on chronic deaths is available in daily reports available at the bottom of this webpage (Click on “Daily Gather Reports).
A statement on WHE’s website said, “The heat-related deaths at the beginning that could have been prevented if BLM simply postponed until after the dangerous heat event ended. The exhausted mare that collapses three times after being chased away from her baby and roped as she attempted to escape the helicopter with her tiny foal. On and on and on …”
WHE said wranglers’ conduct during the roundup wasn’t unusual at Blue Wing, and a BLM supervisor failed to stop it or discourage continued behavior.
