The U.S. Bureau of Land Management decimated the wild horse population in the South Steens Horse Management Area in its August gather.

Prior to the roundup, the BLM estimated that 781 adult horses and 165 foals resided in the South Steens HMA. The organization planned to capture around 760 wild horses to reach the population of 159 to 304 horses that the HMA can supposedly sustain. According to the BLM website, the “post-gather population estimate would be approximately 255 horses.” Instead, it’s under 80.

“The BLM determined that additional animals would be gathered and removed from the South Steens HMA to reach low end of Appropriate Management Level,” the BLM writes in an email to Eugene Weekly. “Achieving low end of Appropriate Management Level will provide the best opportunity for the herd and the range to remain healthy.”

Wild equine advocates disagree.

Scott Beckstead, chief equine programs director at Wild Animal Sanctuary and animal law lecturer at Willamette University, says a herd needs 200 to 250 horses to be genetically viable. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, that number is closer to 110 and 130 horses — still more than the number that evaded BLM capture.

The roundup lasted seven days, from August 15 to 21, and the BLM had achieved its goal of 760 horses captured on August 20. Instead of stopping, the organization went back out and captured 45 additional horses.

“They went after every last horse that they could,” Beckstead says.

Beckstead arrived August 17 to observe the gather. He says it was the first time he’d attended one despite being a long-time wild equine advocate. Beckstead says the sight of the helicopter chasing the horses was “unpleasant,” but what was worse was witnessing the horses panic once they realized they’d been trapped. “The horses climbed all over each other,” he says, “and baby foals were getting trampled.”

During the seven-day roundup, eight horses were killed by the BLM, and one stallion was killed as a direct result of the gather.

On the first day, the BLM reported that one stallion died of a “sudden, unexpected cervical fracture.”

“That means he ran into the trap full speed, broke his neck and died,” Beckstead says.

Beckstead says horses are often euthanized due to blindness in one or both eyes, something he says wouldn’t happen to a domesticated horse. “Often these horses have been blind their entire lives,” he says. If they survived blindness in the wild, Beckstead asks, why couldn’t they survive in captivity? The BLM killed five horses due to blindness or missing eyes.

Horses are also euthanized for being underweight, Beckstead says, which is what the BLM refers to as “poor body condition.” “The Bureau will take any pretext it can find to kill horses,” Beckstead says. The BLM killed two horses due to poor body condition.

One other horse was euthanized due to a lack of teeth.

According to Beckstead, horses that die following the gather and the initial assessment are not reported by the BLM. An estimated one in nine horses die in six months following capture, he says, be it due to distress, disease or injury. “The little ones are especially vulnerable.”

On August 20, Beckstead spent the entire day at the Oregon Wild Horse Corral in Hines. He witnessed the mares unloading from a trailer, followed by a “trailer full of foals packed so tight that foals tumbled out” when the doors opened, he says. One cremello foal, a cream-colored horse with pale blue eyes, was pushed out and landed on another foal, which limped away after recovering.

The worst part of the corral, Beckstead says, was the “constant crying, calling, screaming” of horses trying to find their families. “Not enough care is taken,” Beckstead says, “to maintain the family relationships” at the corral.

Every foal brought in was reunited with its mother at the corral that day. Every foal except one. The cremello that tumbled out of the trailer was orphaned by the roundup, Beckstead says, and no one is sure where his mother ended up.

Two days later, Cyndi Davis, the founder and president of 3 Sisters Equine Refuge, called the BLM corral to ask if there were any orphaned foals in need of fostering.

“I got a phone call immediately back, and they had one orphan, and I said, ‘Great, give me a minute,’” Davis says.

The cremello foal, now named Birch, was brought into Davis’ care the same day. 

Davis describes Birch’s first days as those of recovery. He had lost weight from his attempts to evade capture, and all he wanted to do was eat and sleep, Davis says.

“We just wanted him to rest and gain his strength and let his little legs recover,” Davis says. “The easy part is getting them healthy. The hard part for us is the sheer heartbreak around what these babies have to go through.”

Davis says Birch seemed “depressed” when he first came to 3 Sisters Equine Refuge. “They woke up one day with their family bands and everything was great,” Davis says, “and the next thing you know, you’re being chased down by a devil from the sky and separated from everything you’ve known.”

Now approximately five months old, Birch has found an adoptive mother in a cremello mare named Jewel. 

“It’s like a Disney movie,” Beckstead says.

Davis agrees. “It would make a great children’s book,” she says.

According to Davis, Jewel was rescued from a kill pen by 3 Sisters Equine Refuge. When they found her, she was lactating, but there was no foal at her side. She had been separated from her baby. An orphan foal named Jasper had been grafted to Jewel for a time, and Davis described her as “a good nursing mom” for Jasper.

“With Birch, she’s even more connected to him in a way that she wasn’t with Jasper,” Davis says. “She does the things that a mother that really is protective would. She will put herself in between other horses and him.”

These days, Birch “acts just like a baby horse should,” Davis says. 

“I hate to say it was meant to be, because ultimately it would be best if Birch was still with his mother and hadn’t been so cruelly separated from her,” Davis says. “But best case scenario is these two end up with each other, both healing their broken hearts. And in a way, it kind of brings justice back: her having her baby taken from her and then just kicked to a kill pen, him having his mother taken from him, and the sheer loss between both of them.”

Davis is still in the process of officially adopting Birch, but she’s hopeful that the BLM will allow her to keep the orphaned foal now that he’s been grafted to Jewel.

“We’re hoping to be able to keep these two together for quite some time.”