The Bureau of Land ManagementÑor “mismanagement,” depending on your point of viewÑhas come under heavy fire recently for a series of controversial “gathers” of wild horses. (The semantics of the BLM operations are interesting. Calling the roundups “gathers” conjures up a genteel process and presumably does not invoke troublesome images of wild horse herds, foals included, being driven across miles of range in 100-degree heat by helicopters.)

A flurry of lawsuits and tons of adverse publicity failed to stop the roundups, which so far have resulted in the deaths of some two dozen mustangs