LETTERS: SOLUTION FOR WILD HORSES

To the editor:

With the best intentions, Congress passed a law in 1971 to protect America's free-roaming wild horses. Since that time, the program's implementation has been woefully mismanaged by the Bureau of Land Management, as the Southeast Missourian reported Jan. 5 ("Killing horses"). The latest findings of investigators reveal that horses are routinely adopted to individuals and corporations that send animals to slaughter in order to profit from the foreign market for horse meat.

There is a better way. The Humane Society of the United States is already undertaking successful birth-control programs for wild horses at Maryland's Assateague National Seashore and at two sites in Nevada. Some of the taxpayer money now being used for the failed adoption programs should be redirected to contraceptive programs in the field. This will replace the reproductive capacity of herds, maintaining relatively slow-growing populations and diminish the need for roundups and adoptions. The HSUS stands ready to work with the government to implement a new, humane, cost-effective and sensible plan.

WAYNE PACELLE, Vice President for Government Affairs

Humane Society of the United States

Washington, D.C.