District of Columbia – The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette carried a story on August 28, 2000 by Rick Weiss about an emergency BlM roundup of wild horses caused by the wildfires in the west:

The Western drought and wildfires are kindling an equine windfall for folks with a hankering to adopt some wild horses: The Bureau of Land Management is conducting an "emergency gathering" of wild horses in parts of Utah, Nevada, California and Oregon where the lack of water and grass has grown most extreme, and will be making the animals available to the public through its long-standing Adopt-a- Horse program.

The BLM has responsibility for about 50,000 wild horses roaming on public land in 10 Western states. Every year the program rounds up about 7,000 or so horses deemed to be in excess of the land's carrying capacity and trucks them to distribution centers around the country for adoption. (About 1,200 burros are also gathered and placed through the agency's Adopt-a-Burro program.)

But this year's drought has prompted the BLM to authorize the corralling of thousands of additional animals before they die of thirst -- 1,500 extra head were gathered through early August and an additional 800 were rounded up last week. As many as 4,000 extra horses might be gathered before the end of the year, said Lee Delaney, who heads the agency's wild horse and burro program.

"This is not for everyone," warns BLM spokesman Terry Lewis. "You cannot have been convicted of inhumane treatment of an animal and you must have proper facilities" for caring for the animals.

Moreover, each horse remains the property of the U.S. government for one year -- a provision meant to prevent people from taking their new adoptees directly to the glue factory "to make a fast buck," Lewis said.

Agency officials concede there was a time some years ago when a few black-hatted rogues took advantage of the program. But new systems of oversight -- including compliance visits from inspectors and special numbered neck brands to alert the nation's few horse slaughterhouses -- have essentially eliminated that problem, Delaney said. Almost all the slaughterhouses have signed enforcement agreements with the government.

Art DiGrazia, a Milwaukee-based wild horse and burro specialist with the BLM, said most people use the horses for pleasure riding after "gentling them some." Some use them in competitions or horse shows. Rodeos are not allowed, though.

"That kind of event," DiGrazia said, "exploits the wildness of the animals."

The roundups are done by BLM cowboys or hired contractors who use horseback and helicopters to gather the animals into big temporary corrals. About 600 were corralled over the weekend near Eureka, Nev., to be vaccinated, cleaned and put up for adoption.

Most go for about $125, but a few gems bring in more. Not long ago, Delaney said, a collector in Oregon paid $19,000 for a BLM horse gathered from a unique wild herd whose members display the tough hooves, full mane and other classy traits of the famed Spanish Barbs, a breed that nearly went extinct at the beginning of the 20th century.