Lawmakers, agency look for ways to safely round up 82,000 wild horses spread across 10 states

The federal government is corralling some of the 82,000 wild horses living on public lands in ten western states. This year the bureau, known as BLM, is tasked with slimming the herds of wild horses and burros to 20,000. To help heard the animals, the bureau uses special tools like helicopters.

Jeff Fontana has been working with the Federal Bureau of Land Management for more than 30 years—helping care for America’s wild horses. 

“Helicopters are a safe and efficient way to move a large number of animals across a landscape,” Fontana told CBS News’ Joy Benedict at the Twin Peaks Range in Lassen Couty, California. 

It is a pursuit that can last miles as the chopper descends on a group of horses and traps them in one area.  

According to Fontana, it is relatively safe for horses although injuries do occur. 

“Our track record is really good in this program injuries resulting in death from our gather activities are less than one-half of one percent,” Fontana said.

Horses can die through BLM’s helicopter gather tactics, the same way they can die from range due to degraded resources caused by overpopulation, Fontana said.

Jason Lutterman works for the Wild Horse and Burro Program which is operating 46 roundups in the west this year. He said that it is essential to keep herds the right size to ensure there is enough food and water for all.  

“Wild horses increase at 15-20% a year if we were not here to manage that growth, the herds will keep growing and eventually degrade the land enough to where they will run out of food and water,” Lutterman said. 

“Our goal is to manage healthy herds on healthy public lands. And so, the way we can do that is to make sure that there is enough resources out here for those animals to survive,” he said. 

The BLM manages 26.9 million acres of land. It was established in the 1940s to oversee and preserve federal lands and lease them for lucrative livestock grazing. But when wild mustangs started being hunted, Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971 to protect them and the land they live on.  

But using helicopters as a way to round up wild horses is controversial—with some calling it inhumane.

Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus has initiated a formal review of what the BLM is doing after she became concerned about if the horses were being rounded up humanely. 

“The charge of the government, of the BLM, is to humanely manage and there’s…