BLM Colorado Investigating Wild Horse Deaths

The BLM is investigating the deaths of 19 wild horses at its Canon City Wild Horse Inmate Program facility.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is investigating the deaths of 19 wild horses at its Cañon City, Colo., Wild Horse Inmate Program facility. The BLM discovered dead horses in a pen on Dec. 3. Several other horses in the same pen exhibited signs of illness. The BLM is working with veterinarians including state and federal animal health authorities to investigate the cause of the illness.

Veterinarians have euthanized those horses in the most severe condition with a poor prognosis for recovery. Necropsies were performed on three of the dead horses at the facility, with additional horses and samples sent to the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

"As a precaution, we have quarantined the facility and will not ship animals out this week," said Fran Ackley, BLM Colorado Wild Horse and Bureau Program leader. "We are working with a veterinarian to determine the cause of the illness and prevent any potential spread to other wild horses at the facility."

There is no estimate of when the lab analysis will be completed. In addition to the necropsies, the BLM sent water and hay samples to a lab for testing. The horses and burros remaining at the facility are currently being fed hay from a different source as a precaution

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
305 votes · 305 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!