The Colville Business Council voted in a Jan. 8 meeting not to approve a contract to remove feral horses from the reservation, the Tribal Tribune reports.

A $478,000 proposal by Sun J Livestock to remove about 1,250 feral horses was submitted after the tribe released a request for proposals for the project in December 2018.

The same company had removed 420 feral horses from the reservation in 2015 in a similar effort.

Feral horses are said to overgraze the land, competing with livestock and wild animals, cause erosion issues and other undesirable effects. The issue is one that affects public lands in many places in the West and has even inspired research into vaccinations that render horses sterile.

“Colville Tribal Natural Resource Director Cody Desautel reported there to be between 1,600 and 2,000 wild horses on tribal lands,” the Tribune reported. “A horse herd grows on average by 25 percent annually, meaning the estimated population would increase by 400 to 500 horses annually.”

The tribe hopes to reduce the population to only between 50 and 200 “of the highest quality, most desirable animals for use by the tribal membership,” states the Colville Tribal Integrated Resource Management Plan.

The tribe offers tribal members a bounty on wild horses in the amount of $150 for mares and geldings, and $250 for studs.

CBC Member Andy Joseph Jr. thinks those numbers should be raised.

“We’re going to pay a non-tribal $383 per horse if we do the math,” Joseph said in the meeting. “If the bounty was equal or close to what we are willing to give [a contractor], we might see more people out there. You round up ten of those horses, that’s $3,000. Some people might get that in a day if you had a group that worked together. To me, I can’t really support seeing our tribe give this much money to a non-tribal operation.”

CBC Member Andrea George said tribal members have contacted her with concerns for the horses. “There are several members that do feel the wild horses on our reservation serve, if nothing else, historical and cultural purposes,” George said. “There are concerns about the removal.”

Sun J Livestock declined to comment.

A 2009 National Geographic article details a wildlife contraceptive vaccine called porcine zona pellucida (PZP), which is injected into the mares and is a humane alternative to rounding up the horses, according to the late Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick of ZooMontana, who is quoted in the article.

One concern with PZP is cited as out-of-season births once the vaccine wears off, with the article citing an instance of a mare giving birth out of season in the fall after six years of sterility.

PZP can be administered by a dart or syringe.