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🇦🇺🐴 WHAT IS HAPPENING TO AUSTRALIA’S WILD BRUMBIES SHOULD MATTER TO ALL OF US WHO CARE ABOUT WILD HORSES.

In Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales, Australia, thousands of wild horses — known as Brumbies — have been removed or killed as the government works toward reducing the population to 3,000 horses by June 2027.

Management methods have included trapping, ground shooting and, most controversially, shooting horses from helicopters.

Australia absolutely faces legitimate questions about protecting fragile alpine wetlands, waterways and native wildlife. Wild horse populations cannot simply be ignored when ecosystems and animal welfare are at stake.

But acknowledging the need for management does not mean we have to accept every method of management.

Aerial shooting of Brumbies was stopped in New South Wales following intense controversy after a 2000 operation at Guy Fawkes River National Park. More than two decades later, aerial shooting has returned to Kosciuszko.

That should concern the international horse community.

Shooting a large, moving animal from a moving helicopter raises serious animal-welfare questions. What happens when the first shot does not immediately kill the horse? How quickly are wounded animals located? What happens to dependent foals when mares are killed? What independent oversight exists to ensure humane standards are actually being followed?

These are reasonable questions to ask.

At the National Mustang Association, we believe wild horse management should be conscious, humane, science-based and transparent.

And importantly, there are other tools available.

One example is Wildlife Protection Management's automatic darting technology, which was developed to remotely deliver fertility-control treatments to wild horses. Technologies like this have the potential to help managers control reproduction without repeatedly gathering horses or relying on lethal removal.

Yet innovative fertility-control technologies have struggled to gain widespread government adoption while agencies continue spending enormous amounts of money capturing, removing and maintaining wild horses — or, as we are seeing in Australia, killing them.

We should be asking why.

Why aren't governments investing more aggressively in technologies that could allow wild horse populations to be managed where they live?

Why aren't we putting the same resources and urgency into fertility control, research and improved delivery systems that we put into helicopters, removals and long-term holding?

In the United States, taxpayers spend millions upon millions of dollars gathering wild horses and maintaining removed animals in off-range holding. Continuing to remove horses without adequately addressing reproduction simply perpetuates an extraordinarily expensive cycle.

We can do better.

NMA has seen firsthand that wild horses can be successfully captured through carefully planned low-stress bait trapping, transitioned into domestic care, trained and placed into good homes when removal truly is necessary.

But removal shouldn't be our only tool.

🐴 Fertility control and technologies such as automatic darting to manage reproduction on the range.
🐴 Low-stress bait trapping when removal is necessary.
🐴 Training, adoption and sanctuary partnerships for removed horses.
🐴 Independent animal-welfare oversight.
🐴 Transparency and accountability from government agencies.
🐴 Continued investment in better technology and research.

The Brumby is also an important part of Australian history and culture, immortalized in stories such as The Man from Snowy River. Whatever decisions are made about their future, these horses should not simply be reduced to numbers on a population-control spreadsheet.

There is a larger conversation here that extends far beyond Australia:

How do we balance healthy ecosystems, sustainable wild horse populations and humane treatment?

NMA does not believe the answer is to abandon management.

We believe the answer is to do management better.

Wild horses deserve management that recognizes both the land and the life standing on it.

There has to be a better way — and in many cases, the technology to begin doing it already exists.

This weekend was our 5th annual sleepover and trail ride for our dear sweet Lizzi💕 she definitely knew to make the weather beautiful for the ride. It was such a great time to gather and tell stories and catch up with one another.

A great read

Well said. It’s the most important piece of horsemanship.