LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A video showing a worker kicking a wild animal during a government-funded operation in northern Nevada on July 26 has prompted three separate groups, which advocate for humane treatment of wild horses, to demand answers and for the Bureau of Land Management to review the incident and hold a meeting with workers.
American Wild Horse Conservation, a California-based group, recorded video of an incident where workers for the Bureau of Land Management captured wild horses and burros at the Blue Wing Complex, located 65 miles northeast of Reno in Pershing County.
The group, AWHC, filed a formal notice of abuse with the BLM on Tuesday, demanding accountability.
AWHC’s director of law and policy, Fernando Guerra, wrote a letter to Tracy Stone-Manning, the BLM director, and Jon Raby, Nevada’s state director expressing his concerns with how things were handled.
“Besides being appalling and disturbing, the unprofessional and violent conduct of your contractor is prohibited by all governing authorities and demonstrates the inadequacy of this contractor in performing its duties,” Guerra wrote.
Additionally, Guerra said the contractors chased the horse on horseback through extreme heat, roped it, caused it to collapse, assaulted it, and “yank[ed] the downed horse’s tail so hard that the animal’s hindquarters were lifted and subsequently slamm[ed] the defenseless and restrained horse’s head on the ground.”
Guerra called the contractors’ behavior appalling and disturbing and demonstrated a complete lack of qualifications to conduct the work.
The gathering began on July 8 and is expected to last approximately 30 days, according to BLM. The agency reported a total of 39 deaths as of July 30. The agency categorized nine of the deaths as “acute,” meaning the animal died as a direct result of the operation.
The BLM reported that 1,621 animals were gathered as of July 30, which included 1,261 wild horses and 360 wild burros. The agency planned to gather 1,373 wild horses and 365 burros because it claimed the land, estimated to be 2,283,300 acres, only has room for 333 to 555 horses and 55 to 90 burros.
“The area is also utilized by domestic livestock and numerous wildlife species,” the agency stated on its website. Critics have argued that the government is appeasing ranchers for their cattle and that the gathers are inhumane.
A contract reviewed by the 8 News Now Investigators revealed the federal government awarded a contract to “C D Warner Livestock” based in Spanish Fork, Utah, to gather the animals. The same company earned a total of $7.1 million in contracts since 2012, according to government records.
The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund called for an investigation and demanded that the BLM suspend its contract with C D Warner Livestock on Wednesday in response to the video.
“This type of behavior not only goes against the core beliefs of Americans and it is a clear violation of the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Protocol,” said Stephanie Boyles Griffin, senior program director for wildlife protection at the HSUS. “This protocol was established to ensure the protection of horses during dangerous roundup operations, and it is clear from the footage that it isn’t being followed.”
Wild Horse Education, a Nevada-based group that also advocates for better treatment of wild horses, was also monitoring the operation and captured video of helicopters flying closely above the animals. The group’s director, Laura Leigh, expressed concerns over the air quality.
“This area gets hit hard every year from wildfire smoke blowing in from California into Central Nevada,” Leigh wrote in an email to the 8 News Now Investigators. “BLM does not take into account safety of wild horses when approving the schedule or carrying out operations.”
Leigh said BLM has no enforceable welfare policy.
“That is why we have such a large disparity from district to district and state to state. What is ‘humane’ is at the discretion of BLM in charge onsite,” Leigh said. “We need Congress to fund rulemaking for a transparent, concise, and enforceable welfare policy.”
On Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the BLM told the 8 News Now Investigators that when notified about the video, the BLM reviewed it immediately.
“The BLM is currently reviewing the incident and will follow all laws and policies in place to determine a course of action and ensure that similar incidents will not occur in the future,” public affairs specialist Heather O’Hanlon wrote in an email.
The animal involved in the incident is alive, uninjured, and being monitored, according to O’Hanlon.
O’Hanlon said the BLM incident commander held a meeting for all personnel on site and reviewed the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Policy.
“Humane treatment of wild horses and burros is of utmost importance to the BLM, as outlined in the CAWP,” O’Hanlon stated. “At that meeting, the BLM Incident Commander reinforced the BLM’s commitment to humane treatment through the CAWP to ensure that the ongoing gather will protect animal welfare, while also meeting the statutory direction to remove excess wild horses and burros as required by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.”
The federal agency has veterinarians at the gathers and requires all staff and contractors associated with the gathers to complete yearly training, which addresses guidelines for weather conditions, and humane animal handling requirements, according to O’Hanlon.
Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) and Rep. Steven Cohen (D-TN) asked BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning to pause the East Pershing Complex gather operation in January after 20 deaths were reported in less than a month.
In a letter, they stated it “has further demonstrated persisting faults in BLM’s wild horse strategy.” Titus and Cohen also expressed concerns about BLM’s Tentative Wild Horse and Burro Gather and Fertility Control Schedule, which includes gathering nearly 21,000 horses compared to the nearly 7,000 scheduled for roundups in 2023.
The plan for the new fiscal year includes roundups throughout New Mexico, Nevada, Wyoming, California, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.
Some wild horse advocates have pushed for fertility control, including with the use of darts. The BLM did not list any plans to use fertility control in the current operation.
Wild horses captured during the gathering are brought to a corral where they can then be adopted or sold, according to the BLM.
Titus introduced a bill in 2022 to ban the use of helicopters. In May of 2023, the “Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act” was introduced into Congress, marking the first step of the legislative process. The following month, it was referred to the Subcommittee on Federal Lands.