Stop Hidden Foal Deaths In Wild Horse Holding Facilities

Dear Director of the Bureau of Land Management and Secretary of the Interior,

I am writing to urge immediate action to address a serious transparency failure involving wild horse foals born inside Bureau of Land Management holding facilities.

Wild free-roaming horses and burros are protected under federal law. When the federal government captures pregnant mares and places them in holding, it accepts direct responsibility for the lives that follow. That responsibility does not end at the facility gate. It includes honest public accounting for every foal born in federal custody, every stillbirth, and every death.

Recent reporting and advocacy materials have raised disturbing concerns that foals have died in BLM holding facilities without clear, consistent public documentation. If disposal and rendering records exist for foals that do not appear in accessible public reporting, that gap demands immediate correction. The public should not have to guess how many newborn animals entered these facilities, how many survived, or how many were lost.

This is not an unreasonable request. It is a basic standard of public accountability and humane oversight.

I urge you to implement the following measures without delay:

1. Publicly report how many pregnant mares are captured during each roundup and transferred into holding.
2. Require consistent facility-level documentation of every foal birth, including live births and stillborn foals.
3. Maintain mortality records for foals and mares that can be independently verified against rendering, disposal, and veterinary records.
4. Publish these records in a timely, accessible format so the public, oversight bodies, and animal welfare advocates can review them.
5. Establish a clear chain of responsibility for recordkeeping so no foal born in federal custody can disappear from the public record.

Humanity and compassion require more than broad assurances. They require facts. Foals born behind federal fences are vulnerable, dependent, and entirely under human control. When records are incomplete or inconsistent, the public cannot evaluate whether these animals received proper care or whether preventable suffering occurred.

The Bureau of Land Management and the Department of the Interior have the authority to fix this problem now. Honest tracking of pregnant mares, births, stillbirths, and deaths would not hinder management. It would strengthen public trust and create a minimum safeguard for animals whose welfare is already compromised by capture and confinement.

Every foal matters. Every death matters. And every loss in federal custody must be documented with clarity and integrity.

Please act now to create a transparent, verifiable public record for foals born in BLM holding facilities. These actions will ensure a better future for all.

Sincerely,