By Trina Dennis Brittain
Rawlins Times
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

RAWLINS — Protesters showed up in Rawlins to express their shock as the Bureau of Land Management Rawlins Field Office began a wild horse helicopter roundup on Tuesday, July 22, “despite a July 15 court ruling.”

According to Madhu Anderson, a spokesperson for the Wyoming Wildlife Protection Group, the protest decision was made at the last minute after advocates for the group read the BLM’s daily reports on the Adobe Town roundup deaths.

Anderson told the Rawlins Times the BLM’s daily reports from the roundup “revealed tragic losses.” 

On Sunday, July 20, a 4-year-old mare was found dead in a trailer; an 18-year-old mare died from a broken neck during transport on Monday, July 21 and a foal died from capture myopathy (stress-induced trauma).

“Despite claiming it’s no longer foaling season, the BLM captured 159 foals in the first eight days and plans to remove 1,675 horses,” Anderson said.

Distressed by these facts, concerned residents, along with the Wyoming Wildlife Protection Group, organized a peaceful protest at two different locations on Tuesday, July 22.

The protesters were at the Rawlins BLM office from 11 a.m to 1 p.m., and at the corner of Cedar Street and 4th Street in downtown Rawlins from 1:30 p.m to 3 p.m.

The BLM is currently “violating its own welfare policy by chasing foals and ignoring the welfare of horses killed during the ongoing helicopter roundup in Adobe Town,” Anderson said. “It is also using unscientific population limits to justify these unnecessary wild horse removals from there.” Anderson explained the Wyoming Wildlife Protection Group has two urgent demands: Transparency in appropriate management levels and an enforceable animal welfare policy.

The group is requesting a full disclosure of the data, methods, and science behind AMLs, including how forage is allocated among wild horses, livestock, and wildlife.

AML refers to the number of wild horses or burros allowed on a range. For example, the BLM allows only 259 wild horses on 118,000 acres of Adobe Town.

The group would also like the BLM to finalize its current Comprehensive Animal Welfare Policy by completing the formal rule-making process to establish a concrete, enforceable policy that includes a public comment period and penalties for animal welfare violations, specifically targeting those primarily responsible.

According to a July 15 Wyo-File news article, a federal court on Tuesday stopped the Bureau of Land Management from capturing thousands of wild horses, saying the agency failed to explain whether the roundup would maintain a “thriving natural ecological balance” on public land in southwest Wyoming.

The BLM aimed to eliminate or severely reduce wild horse populations in the Salt Wells Creek, Great Divide Basin, and Adobe Town herd management areas. The court’s decision suggests that the BLM may need to reevaluate its approach and provide more evidence to support its decision.