This issue is significant because these animals are a major part of our heritage. Cruelty to animals is against US state and federal law. Current BLM policy and techniques involve significant amounts of abuse and adverse behavior towards the horses and the burros. It stands to reason that this tax-payer funded program is also illegal in its current form.
Unlike the helicopter-assisted gathers, bait trapping, a process that uses food and water to lure the horses and burros into corrals, allows the horses and burros to be gathered on their own terms. They do not have to run from the helicopter (which acts like a predator) and they are much calmer once captured. Since nothing is chasing them, the issue of fatal lameness in foals becomes much less common and the process as a whole is more humane.