Wild horse and burro management in the western US involves welfare challenges from overpopulation, roundups, and long-term holding in corrals that have drawn significant welfare scrutiny.
Wild horse and burro management welfare involves competing harms - the welfare of individual horses affected by roundups and holding versus the welfare of horses in overpopulated range where forage scarcity causes starvation, and the welfare of native wildlife and ecosystems affected by overgrazing. Helicopter roundups cause acute welfare harm through exhaustion, injuries, and the disruption of social bonds between mares and foals. Long-term holding prevents the establishment of social bonds and natural behaviors for years. Fertility control using PZP vaccine offers a welfare-superior alternative that maintains wild horses on range in social family groups, but requires sustained application across large landscape areas that presents logistical challenges at current program funding levels.