U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse and Gov. Jared Polis are calling on top-ranking federal officials to end wild horse helicopter roundups in the state.
The joint letter sent Thursday to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and state director for the Bureau of Land Management Tom Heinlein asks for an “immediate freeze on upcoming roundups.”
It comes after a monthlong roundup in the Piceance Basin of northwestern Colorado, where the federal agency’s contracted wrangling outfit has captured nearly 900 horses. Nine horses have died or been euthanized because of pre-existing conditions during the roundup, which began in early August.
The governor and congressman from Colorado said they have “grave concern” regarding the current roundup. They want the BLM to call off another roundup planned to start this month in the Sand Wash Basin herd management area, which is in northern Colorado along the border with Wyoming.
“Our wild horses provide significant benefit to the region and State of Colorado and should be treated with care,” the letter says. They called the use of buzzing, low-flying helicopters to round up horses “inhumane and unnecessary.”
“Helicopter roundups are known to cause extreme panic, exhaustion, and frequent and severe injuries to the animals,” the letter states. “Coloradans themselves have voiced deep concern over the safety and well-being of these horses, whose risks only multiply during roundups of this scale and continue long after the gathering ends.”
They asked the Department of Interior to postpone the roundups to have a more “robust stakeholder” process and to work with Colorado’s Wild Horse Advisory Committee, which was created by the legislature in 2023 and has pushed for more investment in birth control measures. Polis and Neguse also requested evidence that helicopter roundups are a more effective means of controlling the wild horse population.
More than 20 members of the legislature recently wrote a letter to BLM complaining about the roundups, calling them “inhumane and troubling.”
The letters come after a Colorado Sun report revealing that this summer’s roundups are costing about $900,000.
Both letters also referenced a New York Times investigation that found that wild horses captured by the BLM in the West have ended up at slaughterhouses in Canada. The report found that in 2025, sales of mustangs more than doubled and that buyers are using a legal loophole to sell them for slaughter.
Polis also asked the federal government in 2024 to delay a mustang roundup in the Little Book Cliffs near Palisade pending “further analysis” and that the BLM at least use a slow-paced “bait and trap” approach, rather than chasing them with a helicopter. The BLM rejected that request and the roundup happened in September 2024.
This summer, the BLM’s goal is to shrink the wild horse population in Colorado to about 600 horses from the current 1,727.
The largest number of horses will be removed from the Piceance Basin, which is nearly 200,000 acres shared by oil and gas operators and ranchers to graze cattle. The goal was to decrease the herd from 1,145 to no more than 235 horses.
The state has four herd management areas — Piceance-East Douglas, Sand Wash Basin, Little Book Cliffs and Spring Creek Basin.