One horse died during BLM wild horse roundup

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) – The Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Show came to a close on September 18th.

The purpose of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) horse drive was to get rid of excess horses, increase the horse population to 90 to 150 animals and improve their genetic health.

“We ended up with 140 horses,” said Isaac Pittman, deputy field manager at the BLM’s Grand Junction field office. Ninety-eight of those horses were sent to Cañon City, Colo. They will be sent to the Off-Range Corral, where they will be checked out by a veterinarian and prepared for the BLM’s wild horse adoption program. The remaining 42 horses will undergo reproductive treatment and be released back into the pasture.

On September 18, one mare was injured – she broke her left hind leg while escaping from a helicopter and avoiding one of the traps.

“It was a really, really tough situation for us. You know, we had such a good week, so it was tough to deal with something like that at the end,” Pittman said.

This event was also witnessed by observers of the roundup.

“I was furious, but not surprised,” said Marion Fernandez, a filmmaker from France. “This is what happens when you chase horses with helicopters.”

Due to the condition of the injury, the mare had to be euthanized. “I think we did everything we could to prevent it all week. It was a situation that we were trying to avoid that just happened because of the rough terrain there,” Pittman said.

The BLM said the horse’s condition was confirmed by an independent veterinarian through the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service. The mare was 24 years old and “had a body condition score of two and a half out of 10,” Pittman said.

Some observers believe that the mare was not in bad condition.

“For a mare with a foal who is 24 years old, she was in really good shape,” Fernandez said. “She was on the lean side, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to die.”

In light of this event, the BLM has developed plans for future management of the wild horse population.

“We may in the future do bait, bait traps where we don’t use a helicopter, it’s a smaller trap with a smaller number of animals,” Pittman said. “We hope to get to that point where we can, you know, manage the horses without having to use as many helicopters.”

Some horse advocates, however, still believe it is best to leave horses alone.

“I think it’s really pretentious to say that we as humans are the right people to deal with a disorder that we have created,” Fernandez said. “If horses are actually living in the wild, it’s because of us.

More information about the BLM Adoption Program and the Little Book Cliffs Horse Gathering can be found here.

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