Wild mustangs are coming to Ohio. Specifically, to Lima at the Allen County Fairgrounds on Oct. 23 and 24.
The BLM (Bureau of Land Management, under the Department of the Interior) rounds up wild mustangs and wild burros every summer using helicopters and a few cowboys on horseback. The burros are survivors of abandoned burros from the California Gold Rush of the 1840s.
The helicopters terrorize the horses and burros, causing many injuries on the rugged terrain, and foals get separated from their mothers. Cowboys euthanize injured animals rather than let them suffer. The roundups are held during hot summer temperatures, and horses are chased for miles to get to the collection pens, where the stallions are separated from their family groups.
One beautiful Palomino stallion, named Mr. Sunshine, was captured a few years ago, broke his leg trying to jump the tall metal barred ben. The cowboys euthanized him. The horse community that had followed him for years on Facebook and with professional photographers was just heartbroken.
The captured horses are then loaded on semi-trucks and hauled to BLM holding pens, where the stallions are gelded. I don’t even want to know how that process works. These holding pens have no shelter from the brutal winds, hot sun, and bitter winter snows. Per BLM website, there are currently 65,000 horses captured in those pens. Our tax dollars buy hay to feed them.
Our wild mustangs are removed from their home range for the sole purpose of letting cattle ranchers graze their cattle on our public land. The cattle lobby is powerful in the halls of Congress. We taxpayers pay the helicopters and buy the hay to feed horses that fed themselves on their home range.
One western rescue organization, Skydog Sanctuary, has made a compelling documentary about another well-known stallion named Blue Zeus. It’s streaming (rent or purchase $5.99) on Amazon Prime called “Blue Zeus the Movie.” The horse community tracked his capture and helped rescue him. I haven’t even mentioned the slaughter pipeline.
Another important organization is American Wild Horse Conservation that takes the BLM to court for violations of the 1971 Wild Horse and Burros Act. AWHC can be found on YouTube also. Every rescue seems to believe that the BLM is capturing horses and burros for the purpose of extinction. We must stop the brutal helicopter roundups.
I am a former horse owner and a forever horse lover.
Connie Cadwallder
Bowling Green
