by the Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Bureau of Land Management officials in Utah plan to inject 130 wild horses with contraceptives next winter as part of effort to control the population.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the plan’s environmental assessment still needs approval before it becomes official. It would be the second time officials have used birth control on this herd, which lives in a valley southwest of Salt Lake City.

Gus Warr of the BLM in Utah says the estimated 4,300 wild horses in the state is more than double the appropriate number.

The group Protect Mustangs, which disputes the BLM’s assertion that there are too many wild horses, denounced the plan to use contraceptives and instead advocated that the herds be left alone to self-stabilize their numbers.