JACKSON - Ask Alan Shepherd what to do with wild horses and he might tell you: Let the Bureau of Land Management do its job without outside interference.

Ask Jim Magagna what to do and he might say: Plump up the adoption and sale program to reduce horse numbers.

Ask Andrea Lococo and she might say: Make sure the BLM is actually doing its job.

The three - Wyoming's wild horse and burro program leader, executive vice president of the state's stockgrowers association and the area representative with the Fund for Animals - have different ideas on what to do with horses.

But one thing is clear: If any changes are to be made, it needs to start in Congress.

"To make a big overall change to this program, it's going to take influence from the public sector," Shepherd said. "People need to voice their opinion to Congress, who has to change the law."

The law currently overseeing management of wild horses is the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act. It tells the BLM to manage horse populations so they are protected, managed and controlled, and so horses can live in areas where they did in 1971.

Shepherd said the only law generating more public outcry than the 1971 act was the Vietnam War.

"We're dealing with probably the most controversial and politically sensitive law that we have on the books," he said. "I get e-mails from people all the time asking why we are doing such cruel things to these horses … We have very sensitive people that look strictly at the animal - it's wild and it's free and it is an icon of the West. The other end of the spectrum is that they are a feral animal and don't deserve to be out there."

Shepherd said that although the law is not a "finely detailed document," it does allow the BLM's expertise in determining how many horses ranges can hold.

"If we were allowed to do the management that is as basically stated in the law, we can survive pretty easily," Shepherd said. "It's the influence of all the other users, that's where we can get into trouble."

Excess animals

Shepherd said one of the problems is what to do with excess animals that can double in population every five years.

"The law states that we can either leave horses on the range, remove them and put in adoption system, or they can be humanely euthanized," he said. But the agency can't use congressionally funded dollars to euthanize a healthy animal.

"That's where we have to find a holding place for these animals to live out their lives," he said.

Which gets to Magagna's idea. Magagna said more emphasis should be put on the adoption program, and on working with private landowners to give the horses a place to go.

And he said the law should be changed to allow the BLM to sell the horses, and allow the buyer to do what they will with horses.

Currently, adopters are screened to be sure, in part, they aren't selling the animal to slaughter.

But the screening process isn't foolproof, according to Lococo. She said for $125, the cost of adoption, many people know they can sell the animal to slaughter since Asian and European markets have demand for horse meat.

That is no way to treat these special animals, she said.

Genetic diversity

To correctly manage the animals, Lococo said no new law needs to be enacted, but rather, the BLM needs to follow the current law to make sure genetic viability of the herds are maintained.

"These areas should be managed principally for wild horses," she said. "If this means livestock should be reduced or removed then that's precisely what the BLM should be doing. Manage them at self-sustaining levels, and making sure these horses have full use of the herd areas in which they exist."

Many of the herd areas are fenced for livestock, she said.

Lococo said wild horses need to be in herds of 150 or more to ensure genetic viability, a number backed by Dr. Gus Cothran, director of the University of Kentucky's Equine Parentage Verification and Research Laboratory and considered an expert on the subject.

But Shepherd said that many of Wyoming's smaller herds share borders with other herds, and that ensures cross-fertilization between horses.

Fertility control

Another tool horse managers use is fertility control to reduce horse numbers.

Shepherd said mares are injected with a vaccine making them incapable of reproduction. "It actually is working in places they have used it," Shepherd said. "It's not designed to be a tool to completely eliminate growth but a management tool to slow it down. Instead of taking four years to double (a population), it's taking six."

Wyoming currently has about 4,800 wild horses in 16 management areas, primarily in the southwestern part of the state and outside Lander. About 800 horses are expected to be rounded up and adopted out this fall.

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@trib.com.