Removing wild horses from the range, castrating them and warehousing them in permanent holding facilities is not the “minimal feasible level” of wild horse management required under the Free-Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act (WHBA) of 1971. However these atrocities are the latest that the Bureau of Land Management is proposing to subject Utah’s wild horses in the Conger and Frisco Herd Management Areas (HMAs) to.

That’s why Friends of Animals submitted comments objecting to the misguided, inhumane proposal, which aims to permanently remove almost 500 wild horses from Conger and Frisco HMAs leaving at most 140 wild horses on 231,357 acres dedicated for the “principal, if not exclusive” use of wild horses, while allowing thousands of cattle and sheep to remain. BLM also proposes castrating up to 75 percent of the Conger Mountain stallions.

Among other things, our comments reveal why castration will cause unnecessary pain, stress and even death to the gelded horses, and why BLM’s outdated appropriate management levels are endangering the genetic viability of these herds. They also show how BLM’s preliminary Environmental Assessment violates it’s obligations under the National Environmental Protection Act by not providing data about it’s previous experience with gelding wild horses. BLM data, not analyzed for the proposed action, regarding the death of 575 wild horses at BLM facilities from 2008-2013 is troubling. Read our complete comments here: