Wild horse euthanasia considered

RENO -- Faced with too many wild horses on the range and in holding facilities, federal officials are considering drastic policy changes that include ending roundups and euthanizing animals.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management Deputy Director Henri Bisson said Monday there is an overpopulation of wild horses on public lands and the agency can no longer afford to care for the numbers of mustangs that have been rounded up. The number of horses adopted by the public has dropped off, leaving the BLM with more animals than it can care for, he said.

One option would be to stop all roundups -- something the agency said would lead to "ecological disaster."

"The other option is to use some combination of the (adoption program) and euthanasia, which would be really difficult to do," Bisson said.

"Our goal is supposed to be about healthy horses on healthy ranges. But we are at the point we need to have a conversation with people about pragmatically what can we do given the financial constraints of our program to meet the goals we have," he said before meeting with area horse advocates.

Bisson was in Reno to brief the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. He said there are 32,000 wild horses on the range in 10 Western states. About half of those are in Nevada.

BLM has set a target "appropriate management level" of horses at 27,000. Some 33,000 more horses are in holding facilities, where most are made available for adoption.

But those deemed too old or otherwise unadoptable are sent to long-term holding facilities to live out their lives -- some for 15 to 20 years.