By Paddy Paterson
Introduction
One thing that seems to be absent from recent discussions of horse population management is any knowledge of how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ rehoming is as a solution to numbers of wild horses. Wild horse herds double in size every 4-5 years, so obviously the offtake/harvest rate needs to match that to keep the numbers steady. To reduce numbers, even more need to be removed.
How useful is capture/rehoming in managing numbers? I will restrict my comments to National Parks and similar. As each jurisdiction manages and reports differently, this short article will be only semi-quantitative.
United States of America
The US situation is often held up as a beacon in regard to managing wild horses. In particular, people refer to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) activities and statistics. However, the BLM does not manage Forestry lands and CERTAINLY NOT NATIONAL PARKS.
US national parks are managed by the National Park Service, and management is on an individual park basis. Those few National Parks that do have mustangs keep the numbers around 150-200 horses by periodic removals and fertility treatments. Theodore Roosevelt National Park is 285 sq km and has about 150-200 horses. The horses on the outer banks (Assateague and Chincoteague Islands and neighbouring islands) are kept at about 400 head scattered across the 12,950 sq km of land.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is tasked with managing wild horses on 103,194 sq km of public not-National-Park land. As of March 2026, there are 85,466 mustangs living free on BLM-managed lands.
The US wild horses have the protection of the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971 and additionally, the US does not permit horses to be slaughtered within its borders. The BLM provides financial incentives for people to buy mustangs, and if they hold a horse for one year, they receive legal title to the horse.
Approximately 20,000 mustangs are captured each year and about 5,000 are rehomed each year. So, the BLM is able to rehome 25% of their harvested wild horses, some of which are later trucked to slaughter. The rest are shipped to holding pens, where they basically remain for the rest of their lives. Each horse living in holding costs $27,000 in care across their lifetime and there are currently (May 2026) 58,025 horses and burros being held in captivity.
(sources include https://nirvanamustangsanctuary.org/ , https://www.nps.gov/index.htm , https://www.blm.gov/ )
Welfare concerns
Mustang rehomers have identified the following issues:
- Round up – broken legs, exhausted horses, and foals being left behind
- Holding pens – 100 acres can be used to house 3,000-5,000 horses. These are cramped, dirty, disease infested and lack any sort of shelter whatsoever. Family groups are broken up and horses are then yarded with others of the same sex and age. Stallions are gelded.
- Kill pens – BLM horses are offered at auction. Kill pens are holding yards where the horses are kept until numbers are enough to make a truck to Mexico or Canada financially viable. Kill pens have many horses from all different places pass through on a monthly basis. Hence, they are breeding grounds for disease, and deaths in the kill pens are commonplace.
- Resale – Buyers may receive their financial incentive, hold the horse for 1 year, receive title and then the next day sell it for slaughter.
- Trucking to Mexico or Canada for slaughter – big mobs grouped (not tied singly) on a big truck, distance and time on the truck, lack of water and feed, lack of care.
- Photos of horses in holding yards can be found on these webpages: https://nirvanamustangsanctuary.org/ ,
https://www.nps.gov/index.htm ,
https://www.blm.gov/
New South Wales, Australia
I will restrict my comments here to Kosciuszko National Park (KNP) for the sake of brevity. KNP is 6,900 sq km of alpine and subalpine habitat in the south west of NSW and is managed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
NPWS encourages attempts to rehome or domesticate wild horses via established rehoming or rescue groups and interested individuals within the community. Since 2010, NPWS has publicly advertised and maintained a register of individuals who are interested in rehoming a Kosciuszko wild horse.
NPWS and wild horse rehoming groups have identified several issues and concerns around the rehoming and domestication process including:
- That the current trapping and removal program is constrained by the lack of public demand for rehoming or domestication or appropriate disposal options of unwanted wild horses.
- That trapped and removed horses have been illegally released back into the park and other adjoining conservation/public lands.
- That wild horses should only be made available to persons that are appropriately experienced and have appropriate property and facilities to deal with wild horses. (p. 10, NPWS 2016)
The 2016 Review of the 2008 Horse Management Plan and Wild Horse Management Program, Kosciuszko National Park reported that:
There have been 3,183 horses removed from the park since 2002-03:
- 583 (18 per cent) wild horses removed were ‘rehomed’ or domesticated
- 2,600 (82 per cent) were sent to a knackery or abattoir for humane slaughter.
Expenditure has been in excess of $3.3 million which equates to an approximate cost of $1,116 per horse. (p. 9)
The report further noted that:
One of the main factors limiting the achievement of the plan’s objectives has been the lack of demand for ‘rehoming’ or domesticating captured horses. Less than 20% of captured horses have been domesticated. There are only limited options available for disposal of trapped wild horses. (p. 5)
In 2019 it was revealed that no feral horses had been removed from the southern half of Kosciuszko National Park since April 2016, or the northern half since August 2017. Since October 2016, trapping and rehoming was the sole control method. A graph of the removals over previous years was provided:
(source: https://invasives.org.au/media-releases/revealed-kosciuszko-feral-horse-program-in-meltdown/ )
In November 2021 it was announced that removal would begin using ground shooting, shooting in trap yards, and transporting horses to abattoirs. (source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-25/brumbies-to-be-culled-as-kosciuszko-national-park-plan-finalised/100649060 )
Also in November 2021, it was alleged that a small group of wild horses found near Lithgow “were allegedly from Kosciuszko National Park” and that “horses that couldn’t be broken in or couldn’t be sold to the knacker for whatever season were just dumped in Newnes State Forest” (source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-11/the-story-behind-lithgows-brumbies-in-newnes-state-forest/100565168 )
In March 2022 the passive trap yards set by NPWS to capture brumbies were dismantled by activists. (source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-09/brumby-horse-trap-yards-damage-to-kosciuszko-national-park/100894404 )
In June 2024, the rehoming program was suspended after it was discovered that a rehomer in Wagga had hundreds of horse carcasses on the property, and that they had only submitted fate returns for 43 of the 301 horses received between 2020 and 2023. (source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-17/horse-corpses-found-property-near-wagga-wagga-nsw/103735186 )
The November 2024 Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Capture and Rehoming Program – Statement of program intent stated that:
“Since the plan commenced (November 2021 to June 2024), an average of approximately 390 wild horses per annum have been provided to rehomers.”
It also stated that:
“Wild horses that are captured by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, but which are not wanted by rehomers, are sent to a knackery. Since the plan commenced (November 2021 to June 2024), an average of approximately 260 wild horses per annum have been provided to knackeries.” (p. 1)
The statement went on to make it very clear that the rehomers were responsible for all horse welfare issues after taking possession of the horses.
(source: https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-01/kosciuszko-national-park-wild-horse-capture-rehoming-program-statement-intent-240323.pdf)
Between 2002 and 2016 the NSW KNP park managers were able to rehome approximately 20% of captured brumbies. At that time all control stopped for five years. Between November 2021 and June 2024 approximately 60% of those captured (390 out of 600 trapped) were rehomed.
This apparently highly successful program was brought to a halt when it was discovered some were allegedly dumped in other parks and some were allegedly slaughtered.
(source: https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/kosciuszko-national-park-wild-horses-rehoming-program-investigation-report.pdf)
Victoria, Australia
Parks Victoria manages more than 4 million hectares of public land. Brumbies occur in only two National Parks within Victoria, most notably in the Alpine National Park which is contiguous with Kosciuszko NP. It is 6,460 sq km in area; alpine and subalpine in climate and vegetation.
During the period of the 2018-21 Action Plan to February 2021:
- suitable applicants offered to rehome between 38 and 51 feral horses per year (between both Alpine and Barmah national parks)
- in total 140 horses were removed/rehomed during those years.
(source: https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/projects/feral-horse-action-plan-2021 )
In December 2021, an estimated 2,700 horses were in the Alpine NP and 328 in Barmah NP.
Between January 2020 to May 2025, 2,422 feral horses were removed from Alpine and Barmah National Parks. Of these 46 were trapped and rehomed, and 2,328 were shot on the ground. Note that 46 horses over 5 years is less than 10 horses per year.
In the Alpine NP, 1,708 were shot on the ground and just 3 were rehomed. None needed to be euthanised on welfare grounds.
However, in Barmah NP, 48 were euthanised on welfare grounds and another 39 trapped horses were refused by rehomers as they did not fit their preference for age or gender. Only 43 horses were able to be rehomed. No horses removed during the control program have been sent to knackeries. (source: https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/get-into-nature/conservation-and-science/conserving-our-parks/feral-animals/feral-horses )
Conclusion
Summing up, rehoming can be a solution for small numbers of horses taken over time. Higher rehoming percentages occur when there has been a break in harvesting, so there is a pent-up demand, or where there is financial incentive to take mustered wild horses (eg intent to slaughter/sell to slaughter).
The US human population is currently 330 million so rehoming 5,000 horses a year is about 0.002%. Australia’s human population is currently 28 million. At 0.002%, Australia might be able to rehome (not re-release or slaughter) about 424 trapped horses a year, each year.
This is what we are seeing in recent years. Kosciuszko rehomed about 390 horses per year and Parks Victoria rehomed 10 horses per year over multiple years. While it may be a solution for some horses, it will not remove enough to be a complete solution.