One hundred and ninety-one wild horses died in a dried-up pond in north-central Arizona. Many of them were buried in hardened mud, apparently too weak to get out.
According to the Washington Post report, Navajo officials say the deaths are an annual issue.
The Bureau of Land Management currently oversees more than 45,000 un-adopted wild horses and burros in holding facilities, costing taxpayers more than $50 million annually. Additionally, an April 2018 report estimates 83,000 wild horses and burros are on the landscape. That total is more 300 percent above objective and has widespread detrimental impacts on native wildlife and wildlife habitat.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation maintains that unmanaged horse and burro populations negatively impact the health of both rangeland ecosystems and native wildlife habitat. RMEF has called on Congress over the years to take action to alleviate the situation for the sake of elk and other wildlife.
The Hill and a The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, Colorado also call on Congress to take action to reign in ballooning wild horse and burro populations.