Activists renew call to end BLM helicopter  roundups following 11 horse deaths

A helicopter horse roundup in central Nevada this month killed 11 horses.

Conducted by the Bureau of Land Management, the Callaghan Complex roundup took place in Lander County from July 10 to27. The goal was to capture approximately 2,000 wild horses and transport them to long-term holding facilities, never to be released back into the wild, according to the BLM.

Return to Freedom, a wild horse conservation group, reported that the cause of the fatalities included a head injury, a broken neck, a broken leg, and horses put down for “chronic” conditions. Three of the fatalities are currently undiagnosed.

Wildlife advocates are renewing their call on Congress to ban the practice and embrace humane alternatives.

One activist group, Lady Freethinker, released a petition urging BLM to “stop relying on outdated, inhumane methods that put lives at risk and fail to offer a true long-term solution.” The petition had close to 90,000 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon. 

“America’s iconic wild horses deserve better than to be forced from everything they’ve ever known, including close-knit family groups and freedom to roam, and shipped to an unknown fate,” Lady Freethinker founder Nina Jackel said in a release. “It’s time for Congress to protect these horses from merciless helicopter roundups and mandate compassionate fertility control instead.” 

Democratic U.S. Rep. Dina Titus has pushed for federal legislation to ban the use of helicopters in wild horse and burro roundups. “Nevada is home to more wild horses than any other state in our country,” Titus said in a release announcing her introduction of the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2025, which has not passed. “Tragically, these animals are subjected to taxpayer-funded helicopter roundups and removals that are all too often costly, ineffective, and inhumane.”

The Animal Welfare Institute, the American Wild Horse Conservation, and Wild Beauty Foundation have all endorsed the bill.

BLM’s horse roundups began in 1976 after the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 passed. In February, BLM approved the Callaghan Complex herd management area plan in an effort to control the wild horse population. 

BLM states that the purpose of the roundup “is to reduce the current wild horse population and growth rates, and to achieve and maintain wild horse population sizes within established AML (appropriate management Level) ranges.”