The Nevada Department of Agriculture today announced that it has created a new agreement with a wild horse advocacy organization to try to control the Virginia Range horse population.
NDA’s agreement is with the American Wild Horse Campaign, the group that it previously had a management agreement with until NDA abruptly severed the agreement in 2017.
NDA then tried to give away the horses a year ago but had no takers.
The agreement announced today involved the company Blockchains, the largest landowner on the Virginia Range.
AWHC’s Suzanne Roy praised the agreement.
“AWHC extends our gratitude to Governor Steve Sisolak, Minority Leader Jim Wheeler, Blockchains and NDA Director Jennifer Ott for honoring the public’s interest in protecting these horses and getting this win-win program implemented,” she said. “We are pleased to be back in the field, implementing humane solutions for population management of the cherished Virginia Range mustangs.”
AWHC will restart its darting program to control horse fertility. They will inject the PZP vaccine to horses in Blockchains’ Innovation Park.
NDA has jurisdiction over these horses because the Bureau of Land Management declared the Virginia Range, which borders east Reno, wild horse free in 1986. Because of NDA’s jurisdiction over feral-estray livestock, any horses on the Virginia Range are considered feral-estray.
NDA said it will continue to manage horses when there are public safety problems.
