Wild Horses and Aircrafts Don’t Mix - National Humane Education Society

Paws up! To Dina Titus for introducing Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2022, this prohibits the use of aircraft when capturing wild horses and burros.

May 23, 2022

The bill H.R. 6635: Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2022 is an amendment to Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, to stop the use of aircraft when managing the population of wild horses and burros.  Due to overpopulation of wild horses and burros in some areas, they are being captured and put up for adoption, under law by the Bureau of Land Management. The use of helicopters to capture these wild animals is leading to some grave consequences. In one instance during the horse gathering at the Pancake Complex, a young colt was being chased for miles by helicopter, and ended up injuring itself so badly that it had to be shot and killed.

When these equines are being chased, they don’t know where the loud noise is coming from, and a lot of time they are being chased on uneven rocky terrain. The use of helicopters not only frightens these animals, but they are also costly to operate, costing from $500-$800 per animal. This totals to $36.8 million in taxpayer funding since 2011, to the top three helicopter contractors of the Bureau of Land Management. The use of helicopters is not a humane or cost effective way to control the wild horse and burro population.

Want to help the wild horses and burros? Here is a link to contact your legislators.