A recent estimate reveals that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees approximately 85,466 wild horses and burros on public lands, a figure nearly unchanged from 2021 despite the removal of over 63,000 animals during that period. Return to Freedom (RTF), a wild horse advocacy group, criticizes the BLM’s continued reliance on capture and removal, calling it ineffective and inhumane. They argue that the agency’s failure to implement widespread fertility control—despite congressional funding and support—has perpetuated a costly cycle of removals and overcrowded holding facilities, which currently house nearly 63,000 animals at a taxpayer expense exceeding $101 million annually.

RTF advocates for minimally intrusive, on-the-range fertility control methods as a humane and effective alternative to removals, which disrupt herd social structures and fail to stabilize populations. They warn that without immediate adoption of fertility control, the BLM’s mismanagement risks leading to mass culling if Congress becomes unwilling to fund escalating holding costs. Despite plans to remove over 14,000 more horses and burros this year, the BLM intends to treat only a fraction with fertility control, prompting calls for Congress to mandate a shift toward these non-hormonal, reversible population management strategies.