For years now that Corolla Wild Horse Fund has been fighting to get permission to allow the heard size above the 60 that they allow to have under existing rules. Finally this week, they succeeded and HR 306 was passed! We thank Karen McCalpin for all her dedication & efforts in protecting the beautiful creatures.
By Jeff Hampton
A Congressional committee approved Wednesday the expansion of Corolla’s wild horse herd even as the latest count revealed the biggest population in the last two decades.
The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources approved legislation that would allow Corolla’s wild horse herd to be no less than 110 individuals with a target of 120 to 130, said Karen McCalpin, director of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund.
“This is a big step in the right direction,” she said.
Introduced by Rep. Walter Jones, R-NC, the bill still has to go before the full House, she said.
A local agreement supported by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service limits the herd to 60 horses. Wild horses roam parts of the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge. Federal wildlife officials do not consider the horses part of the natural wildlife. They are believed to be descended from Spanish mustangs left there more than 400 years ago.
Wild horse officials believe a larger herd improves genetic health. For at least the last five years, the herd has averaged more than 100 horses, McCalpin said. Last month, an aerial count showed the herd had ballooned to 144 horses, most recorded since the Corolla Wild Horse Fund was founded in 1989.
“There were horses we did not recognize,” McCalpin said.
Wild horses could have come down from open lands north of the Virginia line including False Cape State Park and Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, she said.
“We just don’t know yet,” she said.
In efforts to reduce the herd, wild horses have been adopted or received birth control shots.
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