Roundup brings in hundreds of wild horses

Brendan Riley

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2000 | 12:05 p.m.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - A wild horse roundup has ended in the Clan Alpine range east of here, with 233 horses being shipped to an adoption center.

Bureau of Land Management spokesman Mark Struble said today the 233 horses were among 475 caught in an effort to reduce herd sizes and help the area recover from fire damage.

The other horses that weren't taken to the adoption center in Palomino Valley were let go after being checked for diseases and, in the case of mares, being injected with a birth-control vaccine.

The vaccine, PZP, is being used as part of a research project under the supervision of major universities. The drug, which is supposed to last for two years, has been used successfully on other species such as deer.

Struble said Jim Gianola, the BLM staffer who worked with a private contractor to organize the roundup, believes there are now between 600 and 900 horses in the area, and that's considered an appropriate number.

An aerial survey will be conducted in the spring to get a better estimate on the herds in the mountain range, about 120 miles east of here.

Struble also said there were fewer young horses among those captured, and one reason may be an increase in the number of mountain lions that prey on the horses.

A lack of water since the last BLM roundup in the area, in 1993, is another factor.

Cattoor Livestock Roundup of Nephi, Utah, used helicopters to gather the horses in the isolated region, hit by wild fires last summer that burned more than 7,800 acres.

The roundup followed capture of about 2,000 wild horses last October and November from burned areas in Nevada, where summer fires destroyed a record 1.6 million acres.

Nevada is home to more than half of the estimated 43,000 wild horses and burros roaming public lands throughout the West.

Under a federal law, wild horses can be adopted for $125 per animal, although many regions are turning to auctions for selling the animals. Only the BLM can remove them from public lands.