At least 85 wild horses at a federal facility in Colorado have died from an “unknown yet highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease”.

Source: Denver7 – The Denver Channel/Youtube

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced that the facility in Cañon City, Colorado, is in voluntary quarantine after the mass horse deaths.

“We are working with local, state, and federal officials to determine what is impacting horses in the facility and how we can respond as effectively as possible,” said Stephen Leonard, BLM Colorado Wild Horse, and Burro Program Manager.

Officials said that the cause is not known, but it seems to be highly contagious. The outbreak first began at the facility, which is home to 2,550 horses, on April 23rd. According to the statement, the horses gathered from the West Douglas area in fall 2021 are the most impacted.

Steven Hall, a spokesperson for The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, told Reuters that the deceased horses are undergoing necropsies and having their blood and tissue samples tested and analyzed.

“The main symptoms seem to be respiratory issues and chest congestion,” Hall told Reuters.

Source: ABC News/Youtube

The capture of wild horses is nothing new and something that advocates have been asking the Bureau of Land Management to end for years. The horses are rounded up and separated from their families to make room for livestock, mining, and other special interests. During these chases, horses may be shot or break their legs. The other horses will spend the rest of their lives in tiny pens and feedlots, never getting the chance to be free again. This year, they have a cruel goal of rounding up 22,000 horses. Please sign this petition to ask the officials from the Bureau of Land Management to finally agree to a meeting with wild horse advocates! 

Related Content:

• Bureau of Land Management Removes Over 600 Wild Horses from Colorado
• Wyoming’s Wild Horse Roundup Continues
• Bureau of Land Management to Remove 30,000 Wild Horses and Burros From Federal Lands Via Cruel Mass Roundups
• This Horse Rescue Group Is Fighting Back Against the BLM’s Cruel Wild Horse Sterilization Experiment
• Shocking Photos Show What the U.S. Government Is Doing to Wild Horses Because of the ‘Threat’ They Pose to Cattle

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