Nevada Focus: Horse helicopter roundups no longer controversial

Thursday, Oct. 8, 1998 | 4:39 a.m.

The Bureau of Land Management, for one, would be ecstatic.

That's what happened last week when BLM officials held an annual hearing - required under federal law - on the historically controversial practice of using helicopters to round up wild mustangs on the open range.

"It says we're doing something right," said Jim Gianola, a BLM horse specialist in Carson City.

The federal agency in charge of managing about 43,000 wild horses in the West has suffered its share of criticism over the past year for its handling of a horse adoption program.

The Fund for Animals and the Animal Protection Institute of America sued the BLM for failing to protect wild horses from slaughter.

In response, the agency agreed to tighten controls on the program and require potential adopters to sign affidavits stating their intent not to use or sell the animals for commercial purposes.

Traditionally, the BLM's use of helicopters to round up the horses also had been a target of criticism.

Opponents said the helicopters chased the horses - up to 2,000 at a time - too far and made them run too fast, causing injuries and stress that contributed to deaths.

"It's not the issue it used to be," said Maxine Shane, public affairs director for the BLM in Reno.

"It's a testament to the controls we have in place now," she said.

Terry Woosley, in charge of wild horses and burros for the BLM in Nevada, said there hasn't been any real organized opposition to the use of helicopters for years.

"It's a combination of the ability of the pilots and their understanding of the horses behavior and the concerns," Woosley said.

"A lot of experience is what it's attributed to," he said.

A mortality rate that used to run as high as 5 percent during roundups now is down to "far less than 1 percent," Woosley said.

And about 99 percent of the fatalities actually occur after the roundup itself, while the horses are being moved through chutes and holding pens.

"You rarely hurt them when using helicopters," Jim said.

"When they get hurt is when you work them in the chute. They are scared and wild. They are definitely wild."

Criticism has waned over the past decade since the BLM stopped rounding up horses from March 1 through June 30, a period when pregnancies occur and young colts sometimes were separated from parents they couldn't keep up with during the chase.

"It used to be a concern - orphan colts - 10 or 15 years ago," Jim said.

Woosley said another effective safety measures has been lining a snow fence around the coral.

"You put that around the pens and they quit running. Before, if they could see any daylight, they would barrel into it," he said.

"A lot of that, again, comes from experience."

The BLM rounds up the horses each year in an effort to keep the population at an optimum level, in balance with the food and water supply.

About 43,000 wild horses and burros roam public lands, about 23,000 this year in Nevada. The BLM estimates the population is growing by about 24 percent a year - a reproduction rate at which a herd will double in size in three years.

Under a federal law, wild horses can be adopted for $125 per animal. Only the BLM can remove them from public lands.

Traditionally one of its sharpest critics, Dawn Lappin of the Reno-based Wild Horse Organized Assistance (WHOA) gives the BLM high marks for the evolution of its roundup practices.

"I believe the bureau is sensitive to the issues we care about - the humane treatment of animals brought in for capture," Lappin said in an interview.

"I never really had a problem with the theory of using the helicopters but I did have a problem of the horses being run too far, too fast," she said.

Her biggest beef in years past was with private contractors who abused the horses while rounding them up.

"They have done a good job of correcting the abuses," she said.

Helicopters and motor vehicles weren't allowed at all until Congress passed the Federal Land Planning and Management Act in 1976.

The provision relating to horse roundups includes a requirement that a public hearing be held on the practice each year.

"We think this is the most humane way of doing it," Woosley said.