Editor’s note: The day after this story published, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, blocking planned roundups. Read more here.
Federal authorities are delaying deploying helicopters and ground teams to eliminate free-roaming horses from a 2.1-million-acre region in southern Wyoming.
After years of litigation, the Bureau of Land Management had been fast approaching a Tuesday start date for roundups aiming to permanently remove the Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin herds, plus the northwestern portion of Adobe Town Herd. That’s been postponed for six weeks, however, as horse advocates attempting to halt the operations await an opinion from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
There’d been some confusion with BLM roundups set to commence Tuesday within the Adobe Town Herd. But those operations are being limited to areas to the south and east where some horses will be allowed to remain (between 259 and 536 horses are considered the “appropriate management level” for remaining reaches of the Adobe Town Herd).
“We did confirm with the Justice Department, who put it in writing to us, that they would not go outside of [the] Rawlins portion of the Adobe Town [herd] before Aug. 25,” said Bill Eubanks, an attorney representing the American Wild Horse Campaign, Western Watersheds Project, Animal Welfare Institute and some individual plaintiffs.
Aug. 25 is the new listed start date in the BLM’s tentative horse gather schedule for the complete removal operations. Those efforts, planned to go until Oct. 23, will occur in areas occupied by the balance of the Adobe Town Herd and Salt Wells Creek Herd. Roundups to eliminate the Great Divide Basin Herd are planned for 2026, though the removal operations for all three herds could take several years and have uncertain timelines.
BLM-Wyoming officials could not be immediately reached for an interview Monday.
Taken together, the two horse gather operations soon to unfold in southern Wyoming’s checkerboard region are the largest nationwide in 2025. Just shy of 3,597 free-roaming horses are being targeted, according to the BLM’s schedule.
Rounded-up horses cannot be killed because of protections afforded by the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Initially, animals are brought to temporary holding facilities. Some are then disposed of via adoption and sales programs. Many others, however, will live out the rest of their lives on private pastureland in places like the Centennial Valley west of Laramie.
Free-roaming horses, which experts consider non-native, can wreak havoc on native species like sage grouse when left unmanaged. An overpopulated herd inflicted devastating damage on the Wind River Indian Reservation until recently, though the rangeland bounced back after large-scale roundups in 2022 and 2023.
An icon of the West, the horses have been a part of the landscape for half a millennium. Unlike other exotic mammals, like feral pigs, they’ve amassed dedicated advocates who’ve long fought for their cause.
The dispute over horses in southwest Wyoming’s checkerboard region — a 40-mile-wide region where public and private land meet at common corners — traces back to 2010. That year, the cattle and sheep-centric Rock Springs Grazing Association, which owns and leases about 1.1 million acres of private land in the checkerboard, revoked consent for horses to roam its property.
Both advocates for livestock and wild horses have sued over the issue, though the BLM emerged victorious in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming about a year ago and then proposed, and approved, its whole-herd removal plans.
Horse advocates subsequently appealed. Eubanks represented horse advocates in a dispute over the same issue in 2016, when the plaintiffs prevailed in the 10th Circuit. Seven years later, he’s posing a similar argument: that the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act only allows entire herds to be eliminated “to provide a thriving, natural ecological balance.”
“That’s the phrase in the act,” Eubanks told WyoFile. “You can’t just say, ‘Well, some private folks don’t like it, so let’s just wipe out our federally protected wildlife.’”
Although the litigated roundups are now set to start in about six weeks, Eubanks said it’s unknown when the opinion will come down from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“We just wait,” he said. “We hope it comes out each day so that we can understand next steps.”
If the cattle and sheep-centric Rock Springs Grazing Association is so interested in
Removing all the horses and replacing them with millions of cattle will destroy the rangeland and remaining wildlife. It does not make sense except for the profit margin of ranchers!
Wild horses and cowboys is how I grew up learning about the West. The image of these horses roaming free and having families of their own, is part of the fabric of our country.
I am so sorry to hear that the horses will be rounded up.
I pray to God that the judges and the court system and their families will also see what they truly represent to America. Thank you.
America is loosing due to greed and wealthy ranchers its superb bloodstock. The best of these horses should be returned – fertile – to these lands. Instead BLM are removing them, castrating the stallions (irrespective of age) and selling out the best of the others. What happens to many is another story. The tragedy is that these top quality horses will be no more for America and its public to enjoy. A few good ones may end up at a shrewd ranchers ranch to breed and sell on in years to come.
If blm charged more for grazing rights on cow/calf pairs then the pocket change they charge, cattle & sheep ranchers couldn’t afford to graze our public lands. The people should decide the grazing rates on our public lands.
Make a choice….200,000 wildhorses, using public lands legally granted to them since 1973 without fear of human interference, or 1,000,000 head of commercial cattle using their protected land to enrich already wealthy ranchers and greedy lobbyists pockets connected with BLM secured leases.
I will take 30 head of horse
We demand the end of removal of wild horses and burros that were supposed to be protected by the Wild Horse and Burro Act. One congressman. a republican of course, defied the law, and the cursed roundups to extinction began every year in the heat of summer
Stop the roundups republicans or face your removal from Congress.
I wrote my 1st letter regarding rounding-up wild horses & burros back in 1968, and the cattlemen & sheep herders are still bellyaching about these poor horses just because they’re wild! I still don’t understand & it still makes me angry! There’s over 1 million acres of land, what is the issue?! That’s a lot of land, & they’re still against the horses! The 🏇 have just as much right to that land as any owned animal or wild animal! Round up snakes or coyotes, or prairie dogs, the premise would be just as stupid & self-serving. We ALL know, anything the government is involved in, especially the BLM, gets messed up! We also know, that “adoption” means slaughter! The government cannot keep track of every horse sold & keep track of where they go – the Thoroughbred industry has such problems, so we would trust the US government?! Plus, it’s inhumane to hold these horses in pens! I pray, that this nonsense will end! Maybe, the BLM should be doged! Anyone involved in these roundups & relocations is wearing rose-colored glasses!
It is very sad what is happening with the wild horses. I don’t know how this happened but the effects will last for a real long time.
I went to an auction once where they were selling mustangs and these animals
were so wild that they were too dangerous to handle. People were so afraid of them as they were screaming and rearing up.
“They” should be handled in their element in the wild and gain trust which is a ton of repetitive work and time that not everyone will be able to dedicate to. Even if they are adopted they will need to handled many hours of the day.
They have always eaten wild food and now they will be eating grain and green grass. That will change their physiology. Will their stomachs be able to handle this? And how are the hooves going to be trimmed. In the wild they stay trimmed by their elements. How about their teeth? Remember these are wild, feral animals. “They” will need committed time and continual learning of what they truly are.
Informative article although I TOTALLY disagree with the BLM for wanting to completely eliminate these Wild Horses from their homes. You can’t tell me there isn’t enough room for 3,500 horses on OVER 2 million acres. If these horses are removed I’ll just bet livestock will take their place. It’s unfair that horses have to pay the price with their freedom/lives so ranchers can graze more livestock for personal gain. I just don’t get why people are so against these wonderful, innocent animals. There are NOT too many horses there are too many cattle!!!!
Don’t sheep do more damage than horses eating the grass down too low. What about cattle damage on public land they don’t treat the land like Buffalo.
Save the rangeland and stop the BLM from catering to the stockgrowers. If you want to save the area remove cattle.and sheep, not the horses.
My question. Does China now own this huge mass of land? America had wild Buffalo, now almost extinct. It appears human greed outweighs the hierarchical stance of wild horses ie Mustangs. What other animal species is next? America stop INPORTING people from around the globe and stop building structures noone can afford. Our children and grandchildren deserve to have land that is FREE AND CLEAR FOR our native creatures made by God. Not to be SOLD TO CHINA. Our land is precious to us who love America. So stop killing it and it’s creatures. After they are gone WE HUMANS ARE NEXT.
Why don’t you neutered the males ,spayed the females,and turn them back to the land.they aren’t hurting you.they were born there.i love the horses.its part of our make up.
I have often wondered why the groups that want the horses left free, why don’t they call on the public to show up at the round ups and protest. There would be an incredible amount of people . It would be clear that public opinion wants the horses saved. It’s shameful how many end up in the slaughter pipeline. It’s all about the money, right? Cattle and sheep are more important? Not!! Regulate them too and they all can live in peace.
Non native invasive species,remove them from the ecosystem….feral horses
Won’t some of the land in the three areas in Nevada that the BLM wants to remove the wild horses from then be used for cattle & sheep grazing? How is that any better than wild horses using the land? Also I’ve read & I can’t remember the source, that cattle & wild horses can use the same land together.
Although it is a rule that the rounded up horses can’t be slaughtered, it is well known that the horses which are sold at auction OFTEN end up in the slaughter pipeline. There isn’t enough oversight to prevent this. Where do the horses that aren’t adopted go to if not to slaughter?
It is my understanding that there are more wild horses in BLM holding pens, which are sometimes overly crowded, THAN THERE IS IN THE WILD. This is a heartbreaking situation.
Horses were here before cattle or sheep which were IMPORTED from other countries. Yes remove the feral animals that were imported!
Right on! @ Leslie Bauer
Why can’t they live on 2 million acres???
The wild Mustangs are beautiful, when I think
of the Wild West that’s the iconic figure.
There’s always birth control if that is part of the concern.
Please leave the Wild West Wild!
Don’t be cruel, leave them at their only known home!!!!
A few points for consideration:
1) “Some” experts consider horses nonnative … but the oldest horse fossil on earth was found in Wyoming. The early ancestors of horses became Equus, the animal we know today, right here, over a period of more than fifty million years:
https://trib.com/news/state-regional/million-year-old-fossil-horse-unearthed/article_fcb88f0b-e28e-5520-96c6-cbe182fe3562.html
Although it’s likely that horses went regionally instinct for a short span of geologic time, a team of archeologists recently discovered that horses were integrated into Native American culture and celebrated in ritual burials along the Blacks Fork River as early as 1640, a full century before the first European explorers found their way to Wyoming:
https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2023-04-28/new-research-finds-that-indigenous-people-were-using-horses-way-earlier-than-we-originally-thought
2) When it comes to wild horses “wreaking havoc” on sage grouse, the authors of the 2024 report used as the basis for this claim admit that wild horses are only present on 11% of the grouse habitat in the state of Wyoming. And in the end, the authors of the report merely suggest that the BLM should manage mustangs to achieve stable populations, set at levels to assure a widespread ecological balance. That is a point on which government officials, wildlife biologists, and horse advocates all agree. No “havoc.” No controversy:
https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.22669
3) With respect to the claims that an overpopulation of horses on the Wind River Reservation damaged landscapes and available forage, that is possible, but it’s not a fair comparison. The Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act does not apply to Native American reservations. On public lands managed by the BLM, where the federal law applies, the agency conducts routine assessments of rangeland health, and livestock stand out as the overwhelming factor contributing to overgrazed and damaged sagebrush steppes:
https://www.hcn.org/articles/federal-grazing-lands-fail-their-checkup/
Remove BLM.PUT THEM IN HOLDING PENS ALONG WITH ARTOGANT RICH CATTLE RANCHERS. WE THE PEOPLE..ever hear of it? Thomas Jefferson wrote it. Please post the place,date time when they intend to to massacre these horses away from their homes. All my friends in Monmouth and Hunterdon Cos, with largest horse population NJ will get on planes and be there for these horses. We will form human chain to stop this insanity. They will have to drive over us like in TIANIMUM SQ.CHINA.
unfeeling brutes. Im there. Tel me dates time place. On my way.Those horses are ours.We the people.
Sugie Shrews
The main issue in the Salt Wells and Divide Basin HMAs concerns the private land within the checker board land ownership pattern along both sides of the UP railway. In the checker board the wild horses DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO GRAZE ON PRIVATE LAND – that is the issue which the 10th circuit ruled in favor of the BLM and RSGA. Example, the elk feeding grounds in the Green River Basin consist of publicly owned elk inhabiting publicly owned land eating publicly purchased hay. this the correct scenario which differs radically from the HMAs. Also consider that thousands of wild horses are out placed onto private ranches where the landowners are compensated $60 to 65 per month per horse to graze for the rest of their life. So why didn’t someone work out a system to compensate the private landowners and the RSGA for hosting wild horses on their PRIVATE LAND within the HMAs???
It was a colossal mistake to setup HMAs in the checker board in the first place, HMAs which are managed under the Wild Horse and burro Act need to be about 90% Federal land and well watered. The BLM needs to review its HMAs nationwide and redesignate the most appropriate HMAs – that is, those areas which do not conflict with private land. The reason the HMAs were originally designated was because the wildhorses had historically populated the checker board for many, many years probably pre-dating the UP right of way being estabished in the 1860s.
Its fundamentally wrong for the publicly owned wild horses to be grazing on private land without compensation to the private land owners and RSGA and the courts have so agreed. Please ignore the emotional issues and consider the private property right issues fundamental to the checker board area. Ultimately, the land ownership mess can only be resolved by effecting large land trades which block up huge Federally owned HMAs with little to no private land inside the boundaries.
Failed to mention is the BLM has had decades to enter into negotiations with the RSGA for land exchanges to consolidate public and private lands to protect the wild horses and their historic ranges. Section 2 of Public Law 100-409 states “Congress finds and declares that – (1) land exchanges are a very important tool for the Federal and State land managers and private landowners to consolidate Federal, State, and private holdings of land or interests in land for purposes of more efficient management and to secure important objectives including the protection of fish and wildlife habitat and aesthetic values . . .” The 1971 WFRHBA as well as the BLM refers to the horses and burros on our public lands as “wild”, therefore their historic ranges (habitats) must be protected under P.L. 100-409. BLMs plan to revert the Salt Wells Creek, Divide Basin, and a portion of the Adobe Town HMAs to HAs and manage for zero horses is blatantly biased. BLM is mandated by law to protect WH&Bs not coward down to the livestock industry.
THANK YOU!
Why can’t they leave the horses alone. All that land& they cant stay in their home? I do not understand. To move to another range yes but who makes sure that& adoption is what happens not slaughter houses in Canada for meat or zoo animal food.why can’t people leave nature alone?
I am deeply saddened that 3,500 wild horses can’t be maintained on 2 million acres. Wild horses have been there for malinia years. Yes, wild before our horses escaped. It appears horses sold hooves do less damage than clover. Last them live. They are a system of wild and free. Save America’s wild horses in the checkbook region. Please.
BLM =BETRAYERS ! LIARS ! MONSTERS ! ROUNDUP IN FOALS SEASON IT’S ANIMAL CRUELTY ! IT’S INHUMANE !! LEAVE THE HORSES ALONE ! BECAUSE OF RANCHERS !! IT’S ONLY GREEDY !!!
What about sheep & cattle? Aren’t they invasive species too?
Do not heard our iconic wild horses & burros this is beyond cruel to animals that have done so much for us…the BLM was supposed to control with fertility options this didn’t happen. It’s not the horses & burros responsibly. Why should they live a tortured life when they should remain free & beautiful & our natural landscape. Please leave them alone.
I Agree!
Whatever you do, do not kill these horses.
These uncontrolled animals, feral or not, damage the environment greatly. As a NEPA certified-years ago- professional, still a volunteer wildlife surveyor, I see the results of overgrazing by all animals on the landscape. Horses of any stripe are far and away the worst offenders.
The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation Plan has been in exsistence for over 120 years; it’s the model for the developing world.
Either establish horses as wildlife, and manage them with seasons and bag limits, or abolish the knee jerk established Wild Horse and Burro Act.
You forgot to mention that the so-called “experts” who “consider wild horses to be non-native” are bought and paid for by the cattle industry. Why else would they gloss over the true cause of the damage to the habitat, the cattle, and blame it on the wild horses? These “experts” apparently haven’t kept current on new scientific findings, either, because new dna testing has proven that wild horses are, in fact, native to our area because they have the same dna markers as the horses that originated here in America before migrating to Eurasia.
It seems also that the “experts” are overstating the damage allegedly done by wild horses because a 2% loss in the sage grouse population is actually very good odds in nature, and not really that serious, but they’ll say anything to get those pesky horses removed, won’t they? Just like those 25 ranchers in the Checkerboard area who think that they should have the right over the majority of the American population to decide that wild horses shouldn’t be allowed to live in that area any more. I wonder if you will do a follow-up article on how that area became damaged after the ranchers allowed their cattle to overgraze the area…because that’s probably why they want the wild horses gone. They probably just want the land for their cattle…don’t they?
You are correct. Horses are a native species. Cattle and sheep are the invasive ones and the ones ruining the range.
I don’t see why the horses need to be removed. Is there not enough forage? Do the sheep farmers etc need all that territory? Helecopters are dangerous, foals get hurt!!!! Elizabeth Taylor
From the article
“Free-roaming horses, which experts consider non-native, can wreak havoc on native species like sage grouse when left unmanaged. An overpopulated herd inflicted devastating damage on the Wind River Indian Reservation until recently, though the rangeland bounced back after large-scale roundups in 2022 and 2023.”
Also in areas of the west, these horses suffer and some die due to drought and lack of forage.
Those are not experts. Horses originated in the Americas and are a native species. Cattle and sheep are not. They are doing the damage.
Elizabeth: the wild horses are grazing on private land within the checker board without compensation to the landowners or RSGA – the checker board is only 50% Federal land and that is a big problem.
It’s all nonsense.
It’s not just foals that die during round ups. I read a true story about a stallion that broke one of It’s front legs running from helicopters & then went on to run with 3 legs until it collapsed. Heartbreaking. Helicopter round-ups abuse & torture wild horses 🐎. They must stop!
I love the wild mustangs as do a lot of Americans praying the 10th circuit court rules in favor of the herd, let’s enjoy them what God gave us not destroy um