Letters to the editor for Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Roundups not answer to managing wild horses

In response to your April 28 article, it’s troubling that Gov. Sandoval is calling on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to spend more taxpayer money on wild horse roundups in Nevada.

The government is already spending too much of our hard-earned cash on these inhumane, ineffective and expensive roundups.

Currently, the BLM spends 70 percent of its $80 million annual wild horse and burro budget on roundups and warehousing of animals. And, because roundups don’t stop continued population growth, we taxpayers pay more and more each year. When will it end? $100 million per year? $200 million?

I agree with decision makers who believe BLM needs an improved strategy for managing wild horses ­not just in Nevada, but across the West. But more roundups isn’t the answer.

State leaders and federal wildlife managers should instead build on the success BLM has seen in areas where it’s partnered with horse advocate volunteers to manage horses with PZP birth control. Examples include the Fish Springs and Pine Nut areas here in Nevada.

Use of PZP has helped eliminate the need for helicopter roundups in herd management areas in parts of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado and enables wild horses remain free and maintain their natural wild behaviors. Yet, BLM spends only 1 percent of its wild horse budget on fertility control. The birth control approach is humane, effective and relatively inexpensive. Roundups are none of the above.

Please, Gov. Sandoval: Let’s move out of the quagmire, not further into it.

Corenna Vance

Reno