From April to July, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) pauses its wild horse roundups during foaling season for wild horses.
Unfortunately, the BLM has plans to round up record numbers of wild burros beginning at the end of April.
For the next few months, the BLM intends to round up over 2,500 wild burros from five Herd Management Areas (HMAs) with a permanent removal of over 2,300. The largest roundup is scheduled to take place in the most genetically diverse burro herd, which is located in Arizona’s Black Mountain HMA where over 1,100 wild burros will be permanently removed.
The BLM plans to use helicopters to chase down the burros and force them into traps. This is a brazen departure from the past normal primary use of bait trapping when capturing burros.
While wild horses usually remain together during a helicopter roundup and follow other horses into a trap pen, wild burros are more stoic animals, known for standing their ground against the helicopters or scattering to avoid capture.
Because of burros reactions to helicopters, this type of roundup is too often more inhumane and brutal for wild burros.