Birth Control for Wild Mares Promising as a Solution

"For many years humans have limited animal populations through hunting or large-scale culls." Wild horses endured wholesale kills. "But these methods are becoming less and less ethically acceptable to the public. Scientists from UC Davis, in California, are searching for alternative solutions, tackling the problem from the other end of life's procession. Rather than increase death rates, why not lower birth rates?"

"Birth control for wild mares was tested in 1992" In the first test mares had to be injected with contraceptives twice, an impractical scenario. "But after four years, a trio of researchers perfected a time release vaccine that seems to be 95% effective for at least one year with only one shot."

"The procedure is now being conducted on mares that are older than 9 years. Wild mares that are older than nine years are returned to the wild in the belief that they will not be adoptable. The new vaccine has already been tested on 200 animals in Nevada. The results will be clear after foaling season. The next efforts of the research will be to extend the effective length of time for the vaccine to two or three years. "

"This solution is not without its critics. The Commission for the Preservation of Wild Horses objected to the fertility control project because results of the experiment had not been validated. But these objection will not deter future plans of implementing the new vaccine nor continued research in this area."

Excerpts reproduced with permission
© Kelly Stewart
Dept. of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
e-mail: kjstewart@ucdavis.edu