One of most difficult wildlife politics issues concerns wild horses in the U.S.

​One of most difficult wildlife politics issues concerns wild horses in the U.S. I discuss them in detail in my chapter on charismatic wildlife in my Wildlife Politics book. Humans are so positively attached to them that the option of killing them is not politically feasible so that their numbers have grown large. They conflict with both ranchers eating the forage they want for their cattle and also other wildlife species that are negatively affected by their impact on the range so that environmentalists also oppose them. The one ideal solution for all sides is the birth control option but it is not clear how feasible this is.  An article by Jacob Bunge in the Wall Street Journal describes how volunteers are shooting darts into females He quotes a BLM official as saying that darting cannot deal with the problem that covers areas “as large as Delaware” so they are using multiple additional approaches such as “spaying, neutering, and adoptions.”  The article is available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/they-shoot-horses-with-birth-control-darts-dont-they-1472415126