The Destructive and False Propaganda in the BLM’s Plan to Roundup the Red Desert Complex Wild Horses

The headline in the Bureau of Land Management’s August 11 Press Release announcing their plans to move forward with the roundup and removal of wild horses in the Red Desert Complex in Wyoming reads like a tabloid headline, not a professional governmental press release:

“Saving Wild Horses from Starvation, Protecting America’s Public Lands”

This sounds like an attempt to appease ranchers with livestock grazing permits who make no secret of their passionate desire to rid our public lands of wild horses. Initially, the Environmental Assessment said the roundup to remove approximately 1800 wild horses would begin in October or possibly July of next year, now they are saying October, despite the fact that the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget has not yet been approved. I contacted Wyoming BLM to find out if they had a start date yet and they do not. You can read the documents here: Red Desert Complex Final EA

I spent 4 days last week in the Red Desert Complex. I visited four of the Herd Management Areas: Green Mountain, Lost Creek, Antelope Hills and Stewart Creek. I also visited the Herd Area not managed for wild horses that is in the middle of all the HMAs – Arapahoe Creek, where the horses live and pass through to all the other Herd Management Areas – the heart of the Complex.

I spent time with many families of wild horses. The horses were in excellent condition, none of them thin let alone “starving,” and there was plenty of forage in most of the Complex. What areas looked to be in the worst shape? Where the sheep and cattle had been or currently were. Hundreds of sheep and cattle.

You would think that in a severe drought year when the BLM is supposedly so concerned about horses starving and impacts on other wildlife that they would prevent the livestock grazing permits to be used. That is their perogative. Or that the ranchers would see that putting hundreds or thousands of their privately owned sheep and cattle onto public lands in a severe drought would NOT be a good idea.

From what I could ascertain, there were apporximately the same amount of sheep and cattle in the Complex as I normally see from year to year.

The horses have survived droughts before when their numbers were even higher. Some water sources were dry, but many were not. And the horses and other wildlife were moving to different water sources as they needed to. I saw desert elk, deer, pronghorn antelope, rabbits, badgers, prairie dogs, coyotes, rabbits, birds of prey. They all share these lands. Private livestock use should not be a priority and should not jeopardise the health of the land or the lives of the animals who live on and depend upon it. Just a reminder – wild horses consume 7-10 gallons of water per day and cattle consume close to 30 – 40 gallons per day.

I have been visiting the Red Desert Complex since 2015 and this year alone have been there on six different visits of several days each. The horses are doing well, thriving. There does not need to be an “emergency” roundup to remove most of them. They are safest where they live, on the range, in their homes.

This is especially true now when the Sale Authority Program is allowing the BLM to sell off wild horses to buyers who can immediately take them to auction where they can end up in the slaughter pipeline, as this excellent article in the New York Times reveals:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/us/trump-wild-horses-legal-loophole-slaughter.html

If the BLM is concerned about drought, remove the livestock from the Red Desert Complex. Change Arapahoe Creeek back to a Herd Management Area that is managed for wild horses – and allows the horses to move freely between the Herd Management Areas, allowing them to safely find food and water, and to ensure genetic viability for the herds.

Rounding up and removing more wild horses to add to the 63,000 already in holding facilities is not the solution.

What can you do to help? Contact your Senators and Representatives and ask them to stop the roundups.

Senators: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

Representatives: https://www.house.gov/representatives

You can sign a petition to Congress here to stop the Sale Authority that enables horses to end up in the slaughter pipeline: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/count-every-horse-stop-bureau-of-land-management-wild-horse-sales-to-slaughter?