BLM Wild Horse and Burro Management: Removals Ramp Up, but 'Humane Disposal' Legislation Remains on Paper
Project 2025 calls for Congress to authorize 'humane disposal' of wild horses and burros—a euphemism for large-scale killing. That legislation has not passed, but the BLM has already ramped up mass roundups and removals, with a FY2026 plan to gather 8,896 and permanently remove 8,236, at a cost exceeding $100 million per year. The Pendley-era dedicated law enforcement chain of command has not been reinstated, and Schedule F reclassification remains blocked by litigation.
Project 2025's proposals for BLM wild horse management have only partially become reality. The most extreme recommendation—asking Congress to authorize 'humane disposal' (killing) of healthy wild horses and burros—remains on paper; no such law has passed. However, the Trump administration has already accelerated mass roundups: BLM's FY2026 plan calls for gathering nearly 9,000 animals and permanently removing over 8,200, continuing a trend that has driven program costs above $100 million per year. Meanwhile, the Pendley-era order placing BLM law enforcement in a dedicated LEO chain of command was suspended early in the Biden administration and has not been reinstated—despite Project 2025's urging. The Schedule F reclassification of career civil servants, another cross-cutting lever, is currently blocked by litigation from public employee unions.
What makes this a civil-rights concern is indirect but meaningful. BLM law enforcement officers are responsible for protecting visitors, cultural resources, and federal employees on 25.6 million acres that include lands sacred to Indigenous peoples and used by rural communities. A fragmented, non-specialist chain of command raises constitutional and tactical risks. Furthermore, mass roundups of wild horses—while a separate issue—disproportionately affect tribal communities that hold cultural and spiritual ties to these herds. The DOJ Civil Rights Division's current retreat from enforcement (pattern-or-practice investigations halted, consent decrees under review) means there is less federal scrutiny of how these operations intersect with tribal rights or civil rights on public lands.
Alternatives grounded in accountability: Congress should reject any authorization for killing healthy wild horses, and instead fund non-lethal fertility control and expanded adoption programs, as proposed in H.R. 4356 (the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act), which focuses on restricting inhumane capture methods. The BLM LEO chain of command should be restored to ensure professional, independent law enforcement—reinstating the Pendley order without the earlier political conflicts. The Schedule F reclassification must remain blocked, and the DOJ Civil Rights Division should confirm jurisdiction over federal land management operations to ensure equal protection and tribal consultation are not sacrificed.
Rollback path — how this gets undone
This action has already been implemented. These are the concrete levers that could reverse it.
- Pass Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act (H.R. 4356) Congress should enact H.R. 4356 to permanently prohibit BLM from euthanizing healthy wild horses and burros, codifying the existing policy.
- Reject any congressional authorization of humane-disposal legislation Congress should vote down any bill that would permit BLM to kill healthy wild horses and burros, and instead fully fund fertility-control research and expanded adoption programs.
- Maintain suspension of Pendley LEO chain-of-command order (do not reinstate) The Biden administration's suspension of the Pendley order should remain in place; BLM law enforcement should continue to report through integrated management to preserve accountability.
- Rescind EO 14170 (Schedule F) if enacted, uphold union lawsuits Block reinstatement of Schedule F for Interior career staff, including BLM mine inspectors, to protect nonpartisan expertise from political removal.
Reversing it is step one. The forward agenda — what we build so it can’t recur — is in Answers to this entry →
Grounded in
- Program Data | Bureau of Land Management
- Wild Horse and Burro Program | Bureau of Land Management
- Project 2025 — Department of the Interior — Annotated
- From Disavowal to Delivery: The Trump Administration's Rapid Implementation of Project 2025 on Public Lands
- BLM ramped up wild horse removals. Costs soared.
- Wild Horse and Burro Management: Overview of Costs - Congress.gov
- 119th Congress: Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act
- OVERSIGHT HEARING ON BLM DISORGANIZATION
Original source — excerpted
project2025 Project 2025 ch. 17: Department of Justice (pp 560-561)"— 527 — Department of the Interior Bay in Alaska; to expand recreation across BLM’s vast, diverse, and unique land - scapes; or to manage timber and rangelands to prevent wildfires, would all journey to Grand Junction. Convention opportunities on Colorado’s western slope would abound for BLM’s disparate constituencies to congregate and meet with BLM leadership. The Western States Sheriffs’ Association, for example, whose annual gathering attracts hundreds of law enforcement officers from 17 western and plains states might have moved its event to Grand Junction. Law Enforcement Officers. In 2002, at the direction of the Secretary of the Interior in the days following the 9 /11 attack, the Inspector General (IG) for DOI made a series of department-wide recommendations regarding law enforcement. Then-Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton ordered adoption of those recom - mendations, which drew strong bipartisan support from Congress. Over the years, most were implemented. One, however, remained undone: placing all BLM law enforcement officers (LEOs), that is, its 212 Law Enforcement Rangers and 76 Special Agents, in an exclusively law enforcement chain of command. This wa…"