Whacking Wild Horses

Well, it’s official. Up to 25% of the stallions are being consider for castration after the round ups in selected wild horse Herd Management Areas.

A draft research paper prepared by BLM titled, Options for Managing a Non-Breeding Component within Self-Sustaining Herds, was presented to the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board in July of 2006 with the idea of returning a portion of stallions, now geldings, back out on to the range.

Forty-nine Herd Management Areas and four Wild Horse Territories are being considered for sterilization of wild horses as a “component of the population” to help reduce holding costs.

Here’s the list of Herd Management Areas BLM has their eye on to begin castrating wild stallions in:

California
Twin Peaks

Nevada
Antelope, Antelope Valley, Spruce-Pequop, Goshute, Blue Mountains, Kamma Mountains, Lava Beds, Seven Troughs, Nightengale Mountains, Shawave Mountains, Buffalo Hills, Granite Range, Fox-Lake Range, Black Rock East, Black Rock West, Calico Mountains, Warm Springs Canyon, Buck and Bald, Maverick-Medicine, Callaghan, Clan Alpine, Diamond, Diamond Hills North, Diamond Hills South, Fish Creek, Seven Mile, Little Fish Lake, Little Owyhee, Snowstorm Mountains, Monte Cristo, Sand Springs East, Sand Springs West, Nevada Wild Horse Range, New-Pass Ravenswood, Owyhee, Little Humboldt, Rock Creek, North Stillwater, Pilot Mountain, Stone Cabin, Saulsbury, Hot Creek, and four U.S. Forest Service Wild Horse Territories (WHT).

Utah
Sulphur Springs

WY
Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek, Divided Basin, and White Mountain.

Click Here to access the Full Draft Report.

The photo is of a wild horse removed from Sulpher Springs, Utah, one of the HMAs being considered for sterilization. The Sulpher Springs wild horses are one of the few remaining herds left in America that have proven Spanish Mustang ancestry. They are also the wild horses BLM has proposed to supplement the genetically unviable Pryor Mountain wild horses with to prevent inbreeding due to established AMLs.