Wild horses in North America and Australia face welfare challenges from population management programs, drought, competition with livestock, and the stress of roundup and captivity.
Wild horse management imposes welfare costs that range from the acute trauma of helicopter roundups to the chronic stress of indefinite holding in feedlot-style facilities. Roundups drive horses at high speed, causing injury and death among vulnerable individuals. Captured horses experience the profound stress of losing their band social structure and being confined after a lifetime of freedom. Fertility control through immunocontraception vaccines — administered by dart from a vehicle — achieves population management without roundup trauma and is increasingly recognized as a more humane and cost-effective alternative to the current roundup-and-hold system.