Giving Compass' Take:

• According to Sam Bloch at The New Food Economy, an unprecedented plan to control America’s wild horse population is picking up steam. Even so, its backers don’t expect to see it in action any time soon and stronger collaborative efforts need to be made.

• What can horse conservationists and advocated do to help? 

• Here's an article on the best ways you can help animals. 

Right now, around 88,090 wild horses and burros roam freely on public rangeland in the United States. They’re managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a federal agency that has the seemingly contradictory job of protecting them from slaughter and also managing their population, which keeps the herds in check so they don’t overwhelm the land.

By the bureau’s own admission, it’s not doing a great job. Currently, the population of wild horses and burros is more than three times the amount the bureau says is sustainable on the range, which is 26,690 animals. That’s because, for decades, the bureau has managed the herds by rounding up horses and moving them to corrals, where they wait to be adopted, for uses like riding or even horse therapy. The facilities are almost full, which means there’s nowhere for those excess animals to go.

Now, it seems, there’s a solution. Last month, at the behest of an unlikely coalition of allies, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed a budget for the Department of Interior (DOI) that includes a one-time, $35-million funding boost to revamp the wild horse and burro program. The plan, which its backers call the “path forward,” calls for reducing herds by treating mares with contraceptives, and moving more unadoptable animals out of corrals and into private pastures. It also continues to ban the sale of animals for slaughter, which is surprisingly contentious.

Read the full article about horse conservation by Sam Bloch at The New Food Economy.