According to the report, compiled by BLM officials and a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the BLM failed to vaccinate horses in a timely manner at its facility in Cañon City, Colorado, which held more than 2,500 animals at the time of the disease outbreak in April. Many horses hadn’t been vaccinated at all, despite being held there since last summer.
The report also found that the facility was significantly understaffed.
Scott Wilson of the American Wild Horse Campaign, a group that advocates for free-roaming wild horses and burros on Western public lands, says the deaths should not be viewed as an isolated incident.
“You can’t keep piling wild horses into a broken system,” Wilson said. “Clearly, they’re safer in the wild. The BLM report kind of adds up – in my assessment – to overcrowding an inadequate system.”
The BLM also launched a broader, interagency review of the events surrounding the outbreak, which will be detailed in another report.
“This review will allow us to better understand management factors that may have contributed to this outbreak so we can better understand how to avoid another outbreak,” BLM Colorado Acting State Director Stephanie Connolly said in a statement.
The BLM holds roughly 58,000 wild horses across the West. About 64,000 are roaming free, more than half of which are in Nevada.
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