The loss of two mares on Day 53 is discussed in this article by Cowboy State Daily but that’s not the story.
The writer sourced some of the information from the Campaign Against America’s Wild Horses, architects of the industrial-scale darting program on the Virginia Range that’s equivalent to a roundup of 500 to 1,000 wild horses every year.
The way to avoid gather-related injuries and deaths is to end wild horse reproduction, not public-lands ranching, which is the cause of the removals.
Many of the advocates concur with that approach. Some send mixed messages.
Note that the author repeated the government’s figures without checking the math: “As of Sunday, BLM officials have gathered 2,478 horses (1,044 stallions, 1,001 mares and 503 foals), with the goal of rounding up 3,500 by the end of the year, if not sooner.”
Western Horse Watchers Association 