BLM returns some mustangs to range after roundups

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has announced plans to step up the use of temporary roundups of wild horses to treat them with fertility controls before releasing them back to the range instead or permanently removing them from public lands.

The agency plans 11 of the so-called "catch, treat and release" gathers of wild horses on federal land in Nevada, Idaho and Utah in the coming year for the primary purpose of applying a fertility-control vaccine to about 890 mares.

The BLM says permanent roundups are needed because the 38,000 wild horses and burros that roam public rangelands in 10 Western states are too many for the land to sustain.