More than 1,600 wild horses rounded up in Wyoming in 2 weeks. 'Heartbreaking'

Brooke Baitinger, The Sacramento Bee on Aug 4, 2025

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A wild horse roundup that was scheduled to last for a month in Wyoming ended in only two weeks after the Bureau of Land Management removed more than 1,600 animals from the range, officials said.

The agency’s 2025 wild horse gather in the Adobe Town Herd Management Area started July 15 and was scheduled to last through Aug. 15, but concluded by Aug. 2, the agency said on its website. Adobe Town is a remote area in the Red Desert of southwest Wyoming, about a 250-mile drive west of Cheyenne.

“Chronic wild horse overpopulation in fragile ecosystems endangers overall land health, with the possibility of permanent, irrecoverable damage to important resources and impacts to other wildlife populations,” the Bureau of Land Management said on its website. “Recent infrared aerial surveys have shown wild horse populations exceed the established appropriate management level of 259 to 536 wild horses in the area.”

American Wild Horse Conservation, a nonprofit group that monitors wild horses and the roundups, first reported the roundup had ended July 31.

“In just two weeks (July 15-31), 1,677 wild horses lost their freedom — including 603 stallions, 719 mares, and 355 foals,” the group said in an Aug. 1 post on Instagram.

Technically one animal rounded up was a mule, which was “gathered and adopted after brand inspection on July 21,” the BLM said.

Seven horses died in the process, McClatchy News previously reported.

“Among them were young foals who suffered from capture myopathy and older mares who died during or shortly after transport,” the organization said in the post, adding a description of each horse’s death.

•“A 10+ year-old bay stallion euthanized due to single eye blindness

•A 4-year-old brown mare found deceased on a trailer upon arrival

•An 18-year-old sorrel mare who suffered a broken neck in transport

•A 5-year-old bay stud euthanized due to a ‘non-recoverable’ eye condition

•A 4-month-old gray filly who died from capture myopathy

•A 2-year-old roan stud euthanized due to a spinal condition

•A 4-month-old roan foal with a club foot.”

The organization questioned “BLM’s justification for killing wild horses upon capture — especially when some of the conditions cited had not prevented them from surviving on the range.”

The BLM told McClatchy News in a July 28 email that the “animals were humanely euthanized for pre-existing eye conditions that predate the gather.”

Horses are herd animals, meaning they naturally live in social groups for safety and companionship, McClatchy News reported.

“Please take a moment to join us in remembering these dynamic, spirited, storied individuals whose lives ended in the final, most traumatic moments of their freedom,” the organization said. “Each of the seven were loved by their family — and somewhere in holding, these horses are grieving their loss.”

Several people shared their grief in the comments on the post.

“Beyond heartbreaking, disturbing and horrific that this can happen,” someone said. “I weep for those beautiful wild souls captured, their freedom lost forever.”

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