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mittee said Wednesday in a 451-page report recommending more emphasis on the use of contraceptives and other methods of fertility control.
• The research panel sympathized with BLM's struggle to find middle ground between horse advocates and ranchers who see the animals as unwelcome competitors for forage. It noted there's "little if any public support" for allowing harm to come to either the horses or the rangeland itself.
• The report says the current method may work in the short term, but results in continually high population growth, exacerbating the long-term problem.
• The American Wild Horse Preservation Fund, a national coalition of more than 50 advocacy groups, said the report makes a strong case for an immediate halt to the roundups.
• "This is a turning point for the decades-long fight to protect America's mustangs," said Neda DeMayo, president of the coalition's Return to Freedom.
• The National Cattlemen's Beef Association is among the livestock groups that have voiced support in the past for aggressive, increased use of fertility control but remain adamantly opposed to curtailing roundups. Horse advocates themselves are not united behind the idea of stepping up use of contraception on the range.
• "We are grateful that the National Academy of Science recommends stopping cruel roundups, but we challenge their decision to control alleged overpopulation like a domestic herd with humans deciding who survives and breeds," said Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs in San Francisco.
• The conflict has raged for decades but has intensified in recent years for cash-strapped federal land managers with skyrocketing bills for food and corrals and no room for incoming animals.
• "The business as usual practices are not going to be effective without additional resources," said Guy Palmer, a pathologist from Washington State University who chaired the research committee.
• Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said the report should serve as a wakeup call to bring changes he and others in Congress have urged for years.
• "These unsustainable practices are a waste of taxpayer money and jeopardize the health and safety of wild horses across the West," he said.
• BLM officials said they welcomed the recommendations to help in their effort to make the program more cost-effective. Spokesman Tom Gorey said the agency "needs and wants to do a better job" managing horses, but said those advocating an end to all roundups are misguided.
• "It appears that our critics want to use the report as a propaganda tool to stop gathers," which the BLM is required to do by law, Gorey said.

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