U.S. Bureau of Land Management estimates it will take $5 billion and 15 years to get an overpopulation of wild horses under control on federal lands across the West1

> He said that helps clear space in government holding pens, so they can accelerate roundups while scientists develop new fertility-control drugs to eventually shrink the size of the herds from 88,000 to the 27,000 he says the range can sustain. > They say it would eliminate the threat of slaughter for thousands of free-roaming horses and shrink the size of herds primarily through expanded fertility controls on the range and increased roundups in certain areas. I'm confused as to why they can't just be slaughtered if there's really too many. But then the article goes on to indicate that that the numbers might not be a problem at all: > Conservationists say more damage is caused by the cattle and sheep that graze on public lands at a ratio of 15-to-1 mustangs. Edit: Really sounds like the whole thing is a 15 year waste of time and money to enable the cattle/sheep grazers to keep earning money and damaging land.