Round-ups

• Round-ups

Sand Wash, CO, Oct. 17-18, 2008
By Carol Walker

AWHPC note: this round-up was conducted by the same contractor as the one that was exposed in our 2006 Utah report. He is one of BLM's two primary round-up contractors. His practice of setting up a trap without any holding pens and of running the horses directly into a horse trailer was denounced at the time. This new report makes it apparent BLM has ignored our concerns and continues to fail to enforce humane handling procedures.

I was there for the Sand Wash roundup "media day" and nothing out of the ordinary happened on that day, other than the terror that the horses show while being pushed and herded by a helicopter, then forcibly separated from their families.

The day after "media day", the trap was moved to a different location. There was an area that the horses were driven into, then they were driven into a smaller pen, then driven through a very narrow passage between two panels to a horse trailer. When the two wrecks seen in the photos happened, they had groups of over 15 horses that were totally panicked - they were driving them waving flags and yelling; it was far too large a group of horses to be pushed through such a small passage. Both times, horses went up and over and fell, crushed by other horses.

In the case of the second wreck, the grey mare went up, over, and fell down and was trapped partially under the trailer, while the other terrified horses ran over her head and body. The cowboys stood there doing nothing for at least 5 minutes, then it took over 15 minutes while the other horses were standing on and walking over this mare's head and body before she could get up very shakily. Then they drove her into the trailer.

After this happened, the cowboys worked much more slowly and drove the horses into the trailer in smaller groups - yes, this was very preventable and the only reason for it was carelessness and a lack of concern for the welfare of the horses.

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