Protesting the Roundups

Elissa Kline

In response to large-scale wild horse roundups conducted by the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada this week, various wild horse advocates are holding peaceful protests today around the country. The roundup will gather 2,800 horses.

Protests are planned in San Francisco, Denver and Chicago. In the Wood River Valley, a protest will be held in front of Chapter One Bookstore in Ketchum from noon to 2 p.m. today, Wednesday.

The Ketchum protest is being organized by Golde Wallingford and Cheryl Welch Thomas. Various local horse advocates will be in attendance, including some local celebrity residents.

Wild horse roundups are not a new controversy in the West. Gathers, as the practice is called by the BLM, have been conducted with planes dating back to at least the late 1930s. Today, helicopters are the most common tool used to round up the wild horses and burros on the range.

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