Feral horses and burros on US public lands are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, often controversially, with significant welfare implications.
Wild horses gathered from range land and held in permanent holding facilities experience a profound welfare transition: from a life of freedom in complex social herds to indefinite confinement in holding pens. The stress of helicopter roundups causes injuries, foal deaths, and severe psychological distress. Horses held in long-term facilities for years or decades without adoption prospects experience prolonged welfare harm. Expanding fertility control programs and improving adoption infrastructure could reduce both the scale of roundups and the size of the holding population.