Wild horse management in North America involves controversial population control methods with significant welfare implications for individual horses and family bands.
Wild horse management welfare centres on the roundup process and its aftermath. Helicopter-driven roundups cause acute stress, injury and separation of family bonds in horses that have lived freely. Captured horses may spend years in holding facilities before adoption or long-term pasture placement. Fertility control through immunocontraception (PZP vaccine) delivered by darting provides a welfare-positive alternative that avoids roundup stress while managing population growth. Advocacy for expanded PZP use and humane management alternatives is both a conservation and welfare priority for America's wild horse populations.