This video was taken during the recently concluded Calico gather by an independent observer.
It shows the Cattoor helicopter swooping down on an obviously distressed foal as the wild horse band is driven, at a run, into the holding pen.
If any other agency or individual was seen doing this, they would be charged with animal cruelty, yet the BLM can do this to wild horses that they are mandated to protect.
Two foals developed laminitis, directly related to the roundup, where they suffered for days, perhaps weeks with their hooves eventually sloughing off resulting in euthanasia by the BLM. Even with the best pain management, severe laminitis is extremely painful.
The death toll, that we know of, is up to 98 for this roundup, including over 30 foals that were aborted in the holding pens due to the stress placed on the mares by the late winter gather. That is a 5% death rate. Extremely high, even by the BLM's standards.
Contact the White House and let them know that this type of roundup treatment is not acceptable.
Ask for a moratorium on further roundups until the BLM can understand the American public wants these horses protected and managed in the wild. Tell them not to gather more than they can adopt out safely and overturn the Burns amendment that allows wild horses over ten and unadopted at three auctions to be sold to slaughter.
