BLM Presents Controversial Wild Horse Management Plan to Congress

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has presented Congress with a controversial new plan to manage wild horses. TheBLMclaims that wild horse populations are excessively high and has proposed four different management options. One of these plans suggests euthanizing some horses to control numbers, while another offers financial incentives for horse adoptions, alongside birth control for animals on public lands.

Controversial Management Options

"Fundamentally, all four options are highly objectionable because they involve the removal of at least 50,000 wild horses from our public lands," said Suzanne Roy with the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign).

Roy highlighted anindependent studyby the National Academy of Sciences, which indicates that theBLMhas not employed scientifically rigorous methods to estimate horse populations.

In a statement, theBLMasserts that overpopulated herds damage the landscape and are extremely costly to manage.

Originally posted by Boise State Public Radio