The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has asked the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to revise its standard operating procedures to make mustang gathers more humane and transparent via a report the organization submitted recently to the BLM.

The BLM manages 38,500 wild horses and burros on federal rangelands in 10 Western states. The agency removes animals from their ranges when herd sizes grow too large for range resources to accommodate. Gathers usually take place between July and September, and some wild horse advocates have argued that BLM gather procedures put animals at risk for injury or death.

In its report, HSUS recommended the BLM avoid conducting helicopter drive gathers when temperatures are above 90⁰F or below 32⁰F. To improve transparency, the organization recommended the BLM install real-time cameras on contractor helicopters, traps, corrals, and holding facilities. The cameras would allow agency personnel to observe and direct gather operations from a safe location, and provide live-streaming gather coverage for public view via the Internet. Footage could later be used to conduct post-gather evaluations of roundup operations, the HSUS report said.

To reduce the need for gathers, the report recommended that the BLM expand its use of the fertility control agent porcine zona pellucida (PZP) to manage herd population growth by inoculating 65-85% of the total mares in a herd