American Wild Horse Campaign Demands Transparency & Video Monitoring of All Aspects of Helicopter Capture Operation
WYOMING (October 22, 2021) — The American Wild Horse Campaign is demanding that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) immediately correct restrictions to public viewing of the largest federal wild horse roundup in history underway now in Wyoming.
In a letter sent today, AWHC alleged that the BLM is locating public observers in an area and at a distance that obscures the view of the capture operation and violates the public’s First Amendment right to observe this federal operation.
The group is demanding that the public observation area be located in an area that affords the public a full view of the helicopter’s chase of the horses into the trap. AWHC is also urging the BLM to require all helicopter roundup contractors to install cameras on their aircraft to create public transparency and independent oversight for the 90 percent of the capture stampede that occurs out of public view.
“BLM Wyoming is blocking meaningful observation of the massive Wyoming wild horse roundup by placing the public over a mile away from the capture site and in positions where viewing is blocked by terrain,” said Brieanah Scwhartz, AWHC Litigation and Policy Counsel who sent the letter to the BLM. “Such unnecessary restrictions violate our First Amendment rights to meaningfully observe this government operation and the BLM’s treatment of these federally protected wild mustangs.”
Since the start of operations on October 7, the group’s representatives have been placed over a mile from the trap site in positions where viewing is further blocked by terrain and prevented from viewing the wild horses nearing or entering the trap.
“My view has been completely obstructed during my time onsite to document this federal operation,” said wildlife photographer Carol Walker who is currently on-site at the operation and filing daily reports for AWHC. “I’m here to provide transparency to the public, but I’m unable to fulfill that duty because the agency is purposefully hiding the trap site—and its treatment of the mustangs—from my view.”
While the agency has stated that, “trap sites are chosen and designed to gather horses in a safe manner with our primary concerns being the safety of the public, the horses, BLM employees, and contractors,” AWHC notes that a roundup currently underway in Nevada is providing meaningful public viewing without obstruction for its field representative.
“The Wyoming BLM has failed miserably in providing me with the opportunities that the American public is entitled to have under law,” Walker continued. “These horses belong to the American people, not the BLM,” she concluded.
The AWHC has field representatives on the ground to document roundups occurring in the West. The group is concerned that the crackdown on public observation in Wyoming is related to controversy over the helicopter contractor’s conduct of recent roundups in Nevada and Colorado, including foals (horses under the age of 1) being left on the range alone after their mothers were captured.
The AWHC believes that the unnecessary restrictions violate its First Amendment right to meaningfully observe these government activities and are also arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. The group stated its preference would be to resolve this issue in a mutually agreeable manner that avoids litigation but that is wholly dependent on the BLM.
The Wyoming roundup is currently taking place in the Great Divide Basin Herd Management Area on public and private land northwest of Rock Springs. It’s part of a massive capture operation of more than 4,000 federally-protected wild horses from a 3.4 million acre land area known as the “Wyoming Checkerboard” and is expected to continue into February.
To date, 476 wild horses have been captured from their expansive natural habitat and trucked to holding facilities in Rock Springs and Wheatland, where they are confined to feedlot-style pens that provide just 700 square feet of space per horse.
The roundup will slash the size of the iconic wild horse population in this area to a density of one horse per 2,217 acres and is expected to cost taxpayers as much as $170 million over the lives of the captured horses. The intent is to clear the land of wild horses to maximize commercial livestock grazing, which taxpayers also subsidize to the tune of as much as $500 million annually.
About AWHC
The American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) is the nation's leading wild horse protection organization, with more than 700,000 supporters and followers nationwide. AWHC is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse and burros in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage. In addition to advocating for the protection and preservation of America's wild herds, AWHC implements the largest wild horse fertility control program in the world through a partnership with the State of Nevada for wild horses that live in the Virginia Range near Reno.
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