SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's plan to inject 50 wild horses in western Utah with contraception drugs to help control the population is being applauded by one wild horse advocacy group but derided by another.

The Deseret News newspaper in Salt Lake City reports (http://bit.ly/1zCcWkw ) that the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign supports the plan. The group says it's a more humane method than taking horses off their ranges. But the group Protect Mustangs says the anti-fertility drug can lead to sterilization and wreak havoc on natural selection.

The BLM says there are 317 wild horses in the Onaqui Mountain area about 60 miles southwest of Tooele. That's more than double the appropriate level of 120. The agency plans to begin injecting the drugs in the horses using darts in May.

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