Wild Horses: Adoption and Conservation Efforts in Northwest Wyoming

This week may be the last chance for people to own a wild horse from Northwest Wyoming. The McCullough Peaks wild horses roam 110,000 acres east of Cody, but even that much land has a limited carrying capacity. To manage the population, BLM managers started experimenting with a new method of birth control called darting about ten years ago, and they’ve been using it since 2001.

Fertility Control Efforts

BLM Rangeland Management Specialist, Patricia Hatle, stated, “We have started utilizing the one-year, TZT method of fertility control.” FOAL board member, Michelle Dimock, explained, “Our volunteers go along with the BLM, and we dart the mares, and we’re trying to get it to a zero population growth.”

Dimock is a member of a private group called Friends of a Legacy, or FOAL. They raise money to help pay for the contraceptive. She points out that the BLM is holding more than 50,000 wild horses across the country now. Dimock said, “It costs the taxpayer millions and millions of dollars.” She hopes the public-private partnership on the contraceptive project here will be a model for wild horse herds across the country.

Adoption Event

Adoption is the management tool used by BLM. Hatle said, “Saturday we’re going to have the McCullough Peaks Wild horse adoption.” The doors open at Northwest College Agriculture pavilion in Powell at 7:30 AM, Saturday. The bidding starts at 10:00 AM. The horses herded into the barn, and several others may be the last McCullough Peaks Mustangs to go up for auction. Why? The birth control project is working.

Dimock adopted several McCullough Peaks horses in past auctions. She and her friend Elaine are certified gentling experts. Yet, they say they are still learning from the wild ones. People who want to adopt mustangs must apply and be qualified to own a wild horse. The bidding starts at $125 per horse.

Watch the video here.

Originally posted by KULR-8.