For more than two decades, Return to Freedom has implemented and demonstrated fertility control as an effective, science-based alternative to roundups. The PZP vaccine safely and reversibly manages herd growth while allowing horses to remain in their natural family bands. RTF's Wild Horse Defense Fund supports these on-range programs, policy reform, and legal advocacy to ensure America's wild horses stay protected—wild and free on the range.

Helicopter roundups are the federal government's primary method of capturing wild horses and burros from public lands. Each year, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service use low-flying helicopters to drive entire herds—mares, foals, and stallions—into temporary traps. These operations are meant to reduce herd numbers to meet Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs), population targets that often prioritize private livestock grazing over wild equines. The result: injured and terrified animals, separated families, and thousands of horses removed from the range every year.

The BLM manages roughly 27 million acres of public land for wild horses and burros, but livestock operations are allotted the vast majority of available forage and water. AMLs often allow fewer than one horse per 1,000 acres, leaving herds with minimal space and resources. When populations exceed these limits, roundups are authorized instead of implementing balanced land-use plans that consider ecological conditions, natural predation, or fertility control.