The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has dropped plans to surgically sterilize more than 200 wild mares at a facility in southeast Oregon.
The agency said Friday the move was made in response to litigation filed by groups that assert the procedures to be used were unnecessary and barbaric.
The BLM wanted to study three methods to determine whether they are safe, effective options for controlling the wild horse population.
Of the three methods, the advocates were most concerned about a procedure that involves removing ovaries from sedated, pregnant mares in various gestational stages.
The Bureau of Land Management's latest annual population estimate that shows about 67,000 wild horses and burros roaming public lands in 10 Western states.
The agency says that's more than double what it considers healthy for the animals and the rangeland.
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