Feds cutting back wild-horse roundups to cut costs; more horses are held than are free

The Bureau of Land Managment plans to reduce its roundups of wild horses because it is already keeping 40,000 and the General Accounting Office has ruled the $80 million annual cost "unsustainable," Richard Cockle of The Oregonian reports. "More wild mustangs now live in government corrals and holding compounds in the Midwest than roam free in the West's backcountry." (Oregonian photo by Doug Beghtel)

The BLM is trying to control the wild horse population by focusing its removal efforts on stallions, neutering them and injecting mares with anti-fertility drugs, "but such moves don't settle the dilemma of what to do over the long haul with a program saddle-horn-deep in wild horses, fueled by a drop in adoptions, a high birth rate and the animals' 30-year life expectancy," Cockle writes.