The blades spin dust and dirt all around the wild horses. Barely above their manes, the operators of the screaming helicopters are corralling the mustangs and burros into a pack and driving them toward holding pens, often miles and miles away. A few animals try to break from the pack, but most move like a school of fish, even those exhibiting obvious injuries and signs of exhaustion.
Those who do make it to the metal caging are often bloodied from crashing into each other or the man-made barriers. And it’s all entirely sanctioned and funded by the U.S.
Bureau of Land Management, in an effort to move wild horses off public lands that, in some estimations, cannot sustain so many free-roaming animals. The practice seems as brutal as it does bizarre. Despite the mythologies of the West, herd management is done more by aircraft than lasso these days.
And it’s often handled by the same companies intent on making room for their own cattle to roam, a twisted insiders’ game that lets the giant mega-ranchers cash in not just on flying the helicopters that clear the area, but then again with pennies-on-the-dollar deals to allow private cattle and sheep to graze on public lands. After being brutally rounded up, many of the wild horses, seen by many as a symbol of the West’s independent nature, are off-loaded to commercial pens. If they’re really lucky, they get adopted by a well-meaning and honest farmer who can qualify for subsidies and credits to help take care of these anima.