Utah resident, Katherine Heigl to speak Friday at the “Wild Horse and Burro Freedom Rally”

Utah's Onaqui herd management area in February 2012. Photo: Utah Bureau of Land Management

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah. — Park City area resident, Katherine Heigl, will speak at an organized rally to be held on Friday, July 2, at 10 am on the south steps of the Utah State Capitol to raise public awareness around Utah’s famed Onaqui wild horses. At the “Wild Horse and Burro Freedom Rally,” she will be joined by advocates from the Animal Wellness Action, Center for a Humane Economy, the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, Wild Horse Photo Safaris, the Red Birds Trust, and the Cloud Foundation.

Heigl and leaders of the groups involved will speak to rally attendees, before traveling directly to the rangeland where the Onaqui wild horses live wild and free.

The event is hoping to prevent the planned roundup and fertility control of the Onaqui Herd by the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Descended from horses used by pioneers and native tribes in the late 1800’s, the Onaqui horses are known for their beauty and ability to thrive in the harsh environment of the Great Basin Desert of western Utah. They are a favorite among wild horse enthusiasts and are believed to be the most popular and photographed wild herd in the country.

These wild horses are scheduled to be rounded up by helicopter and incarcerated in private holding facilities by the federal Bureau of Land Management. According to the BLM website, the BLM “gathers and removes wild horses and burros from public lands to protect the health of the animals and the health of our nation’s public rangelands. In some locations, the BLM also uses birth control to slow the growth of wild horse herds. Absent management and natural predators, wild horse herds can double in just 4-5 years and quickly outgrow the ability of the land to support them.”

“With their historic place on the public lands of Utah, the Onaqui horses are living treasures that contribute to the beauty of the Great Basin Desert, as well as the economic vitality of nearby communities,” said Katherine Heigl. “Instead of cruel helicopter roundups, I call on the Bureau of Land Management to leave the Onaqui horses on the land, manage them humanely with fertility control, and limit livestock grazing to protect the ecosystem.”

Under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, the BLM conducts an annual population inventory to estimate the number of wild horses and burros roaming BLM-managed lands in the West. To promote healthy conditions on the range, the BLM determines what it calls the Appropriate Management Level (AML), which is the number of wild horses and burros that can thrive in balance with other public land resources and uses. Wild horses and burros that exceed AML (which is 26,785) are to be removed from the range, in accordance with the 1971 law, as amended.

The current U.S. estimated on-range wild horse and burro population (as of March 1, 2021) is 86,189 animals. In Utah, there are 4,121 wild horses and burros and the BLM’s Appropriate Management Level is 1,956. Thus, 2,165 of Utah’s horses and burros are set to be removed. In 2020, the BLM placed 6,162 U.S. removed horses and burros in private care. Also, the BLM plans to dart 120 of the Utah herd for fertility control.