Controversy Over Wild Horse Population Control Methods

A coalition of animal rights groups is challenging controversial horse sterilization procedures as western states face an unprecedented surge in wild horse and burro populations. The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) and other organizations argue that these methods are invasive and harmful, advocating for more humane alternatives.

Front Range Equine Rescue (FRER) has filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit contends that several experimental sterilization procedures approved for use at the Hines Corral in eastern Oregon violate federal law. These procedures involve the removal of ovaries or the cutting and burning of the Fallopian tubes of female horses with a laser.

“It is unjustifiable for the BLM to conduct such barbaric sterilization experiments with a host of known risks, including death, on captive wild horses,” FRER president Hilary Wood said in a statement. FRER suggests that BLM has more humane alternatives available, such as PZP, a noninvasive contraceptive.

Veterinarian Laureen Bartfield added, “The BLM’s plan is not just clinically ill-advised, it constitutes animal cruelty on a large scale.”

Other animal rights groups have petitioned for public access to observe the procedures. The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation) and The Cloud Foundation filed a request for access, arguing that public documentation and comment are essential for establishing a program-wide policy. BLM officials have indicated that the procedures could be implemented on an agency-wide scale if the Hines experiments prove successful.

“The public’s right to know what is happening to our nation’s federally protected wild horses on public property is vitally important, particularly since these controversial procedures could become routine practice by BLM,” said AWHC executive director Suzanne Roy.

BLM is currently struggling to manage the surge in wild horse and burro populations on federal lands. Estimates place the population of wild mares at 67,000, a development that threatens the ecological balance of federal lands. Some state officials estimate that certain herd management areas have exceeded acceptable horse populations by 600 percent.

Activists argue that the overpopulation issue is largely a red herring. “Overgrazing and overpopulation are overgeneralized in nonscientific claims by the BLM to justify removals of horses and donkeys from our public lands,” Ginger Kathrens of the Cloud Foundation told the House Subcommittee on Federal Lands in June. Others suggest that the issue is a pretext for the federal government to authorize the unrestricted sale of horses on federal lands to slaughterhouses and other unscrupulous buyers.

Originally posted by The Daily Caller.