We've heard from a lot of you expressing concerns with the wild horse round up in south Reno on Wednesday.
We talked to both sides to give you a better understanding of why this is taking place.
The Nevada Department of Agriculture says it moved 20 horses off a construction site for their safety.
They're now at a state facility.
First, work is done to see if any of the horses have an owner to be returned to. If not, they'll put them up for adoption.Â
We've heard from wild horse advocates about the concerns of the horses being slaughtered once they were picked up.
The NDA says their last adoption cycle, every horse was adopted.
They say they can't control what the owner does with their horse, but they say the slaughtering of horses in the U.S. is illegal.
The department does monitor the horse once adopted.
"If they are adopted we will microchip these horses and identify them so we know who the owner is and in the event they are lost or end up on the range again we can locate that horse and return it to the owner or take action if we need to if they were illegally returned to the range," said Dr. J.J. Goicoechea, Director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture.
The NDA says it had been working with the developer of the land and local horse groups to have horses off the construction site by the end of July.
A new agreement was made to use temporary bait feeding to relocate them by Tuesday of this week.
The advocacy group Wild Horse Connection says removal by the state was not discussed.
Advocates say they worked all weekend trying to lure the horses to a new water source away from the construction site.
The land developer did leave the gate open so the groups could try and lead the horses away.
Horse advocates say the gate was not properly closed, which may have led to the horses coming back onto property.
Some of those advocates say communication was poor from the state.
"It does not feel in the spirit of cooperation at all, and the community is upset," said Tracy Wilson, Nevada State Director, American Wild Horse Conservation. "The community cares a lot about these horses and wants to see them safely relocated out on the range. Our current ask is that the NDA relocate them to a different part of the range and not permanently remove them."
The NDA says illegal feeding is part of the reason why these horses have not left the site.
They also sent photos of fencing being cut down and are asking people to abide by the law.
"I encourage the public to not do that for the safety of the horses," Dr. Goicoechea said. "Please allow them to stay on the range where there are water sources and there is forage outside the private property."
The director says that once horses are illegally fed, they are habituated to return to the site.
This is why they say they are taking actions to remove them, and not relocate them, because construction is continuing to progress.
The NDA says due to part of the fence being opened more horses got into the site which is why they rounded up more today.
