Photo credit: American Wild Horse Conservation

A new investigation by Animals’ Angels (AA), in collaboration with American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC), is raising serious concerns about what is happening to wild horse foals inside federal holding facilities operated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Behind the fences of these facilities, wild horse foals are being born and some are dying with little public accounting of their fate.

Records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal troubling gaps in how foal births and deaths are documented and reported to the public.

According to the findings, foals are dying in BLM holding facilities, but the number of deaths is not being disclosed to the public.

Animals’ Angels obtained 2025 rendering receipts from multiple BLM off-range holding facilities that document the disposal of dead foals, deaths that do not appear in publicly available records. More information is available HERE!

At the same time, internal BLM emails obtained by American Wild Horse Conservation provide insight into how these deaths are discussed within the system. Learn more HERE!

In one message, a facility manager wrote:

“We had about 8 still born that we know of on various days if that matters.”

The findings also suggest that reporting requirements for stillborn foals may have been weakened or eliminated in recent years, further reducing transparency around foal mortality.

Animals’ Angels notes that concerns about mortality reporting are not new. A previous investigation uncovered significant discrepancies between the number of horse deaths reported by the BLM and the number of carcasses sent to rendering facilities.

Wild horses are federally protected under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, and advocates say the public has a right to know what happens to these animals once they are removed from the range and placed into government care.

“When federally protected foals are born inside government holding facilities, there must be a clear and honest accounting of how many are born and how many die,” Animals’ Angels told WAN.

The organizations are calling on the BLM to implement basic transparency measures, including:

● Public reporting of how many pregnant mares are captured during roundups

● Consistent documentation of foal births and stillborn foals

● Mortality records that can be independently verified against rendering and disposal records

“When foals are dying inside government holding facilities and no one can say how many, that is not a data gap, it is a failure of accountability. These animals belong to the American people, and their lives should never be treated as optional or invisible,” Sonja Meadows, Founder and President of Animals’ Angels, told WAN.

Support the fight for transparency: Animals’ Angels continues to investigate conditions inside federal holding facilities and push for accountability within the BLM’s wild horse program. Support their work to expose cruelty and demand transparency HERE! 

Support American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) as they work to protect and preserve America’s wild horses HERE!