---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 1334"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "1334"
heading: "Private maintenance; numerical approximation; strays on private lands: removal; destruction by agents"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/1334"
units:
  - "Chapter 30 — Wild Horses and Burros: Protection, Management, and Control"
---

# §1334. Private maintenance; numerical approximation; strays on private lands: removal; destruction by agents


If wild free-roaming horses or burros stray from [public lands](/usc/16/1332.md?p=e) onto privately owned land, the [owners](/usc/16/429b–3.md?p=4) of such land may inform the nearest Federal marshall or agent of the [Secretary](/usc/16/1332.md?p=a), who shall arrange to have the animals removed. In no event shall such [wild free-roaming horses and burros](/usc/16/1332.md?p=b) be destroyed except by the agents of the [Secretary](/usc/16/1332.md?p=a). Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit a private landowner from maintaining wild free-roaming horses or burros on his [private lands](/usc/16/620e.md?p=6), or lands leased from the Government, if he does so in a manner that protects them from harassment, and if the animals were not willfully removed or enticed from the [public lands](/usc/16/1332.md?p=e). Any individuals who maintain such wild free-roaming horses or burros on their [private lands](/usc/16/620e.md?p=6) or lands leased from the Government shall notify the appropriate agent of the [Secretary](/usc/16/1332.md?p=a) and supply him with a reasonable approximation of the number of animals so maintained.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 92–195, § 4, Dec. 15, 1971, 85 Stat. 650.)