The international conference is convening global professionals and scientists to Colorado to discuss humane wildlife management, at a time when the state is determining how to improve stewardship of its historic and federally-protected wild horse herds amidst a deadly disease outbreak at a wild horse holding facility in the state.

Since mid-April, 144 wild horses have perished at the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Cañon City Corrals, where 2,400 wild horses who have been rounded up and removed from public lands are confined.

Yesterday morning, Colorado Governor Jared Polis addressed attendees at the fertility control conference, which is being held in Colorado Springs. His remarks follow his statement last Thursday calling on BLM state Acting Director Stephanie Connolly to halt Colorado’s next wild horse roundup in Piceance Basin, west of Meeker.

Polis also called for further review of the BLM’s holding corrals, including biosecurity measures and vaccination protocols, and for improvements in the management of Colorado’s wild herds.

The American Wild Horse Campaign operates the world’s largest wild horse fertility control program on a historic population of 3,000 wild horses in the greater Reno, Nevada area. The program, operated under a cooperative agreement with the Nevada Department of Agriculture, has treated over 1,700 mares (female horses) with the PZP immunocontraceptive vaccine and reduced the foaling rate by 68 percent since 2020. 

Holly Gann Bice, AWHC’s director of government relations, who spoke at the conference yesterday evening, stated the following: 

“The American Wild Horse Campaign is pleased to be a sponsor of this gathering of scientific experts from around the world to advance the research and implementation of humane immunocontraception programs for the non-lethal management of wildlife, including wild horses."

"We are especially grateful to Colorado Governor Jared Polis for his leadership in the fight to improve federal management of wild horses by urging the BLM to move away from traumatic helicopter roundups and toward humane management with birth control. The wild horse deaths at Cañon City serve as a wakeup call about the need for change. 

Our organization stands by to offer our support and in-field expertise on fertility control. We know wild horses are safest in the wild; fertility control will allow more herds to stay in the wild as opposed to being rounded up, confined, and placed at risk of dying from disease or being sent into the slaughter pipeline.”

The identified contagion of the wild horse disease outbreak is Equine Influenza Virus (EIV), a virus that is routinely vaccinated against in the equine world and is included in the BLM’s vaccine regimen for captured animals.

All 144 of the deceased wild horses originally came from the BLM West Douglas Herd Area – also in Colorado – and were either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated against EIV. The horses were rounded up in July/August of 2021 and in BLM’s care for nearly 10 months. 

The Cañon City disease outbreak and increased public attention also led U.S. Representatives Dina Titus (D-NV) and Steve Cohen (D-TN) to urge U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to investigate holding facilities and put a halt to wild horse and burro roundups. 

About the American Wild Horse Campaign

The American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) is the nation’s leading wild horse protection organization, with more than 700,000 supporters and followers nationwide. AWHC is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse and burros in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage.

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Press release by Grace Kuhns